Making Date Nights a Priority...Again!

You think that as our kids get older date nights would become more frequent, but to be honest  we don't and at times it hasn't been that easy. We have been extremely fortunate to always have one of our daughters watch their younger sibs, but ever since Sierra left for college, and ever since school began for Lexie, causing her to become the most busiest teen ever, date nights have not been too common around here  Having our girls five years apart has been a huge blessing because we always have a babysitter, but sometimes it doesn't happen as much as we'd like. And when Jon comes home around 6:30 from work all the kids want to do is hover all over him, and tell him all about their day...and so do I.

Thing is I'm too selfless, and once again I haven't put my foot down enough to let Jon know that we seriously need a time out. Regardless of what our kids ages are we should always have a date night, and unfortunately we've resorted back to our old ways of not having as many as we'd like. Just because we have two kids who are self sufficient to take care of a five year old doesn't mean that we're always going to have a date night. And just because our kids are teens, and tweens doesn't mean it gets any easier. Things just get more busy, and we tend to spend more time with our kids.

For example there were tennis matches almost every single Friday, and of course I'd like Lexie to have her own time in going our with her girlfriends skating, and when there is a youth activity in our church she definitely wants to attend to those as well. There's also been times where we've sacrificed our own date night so she can babysit other peoples kids so that she can make a little extra money on the side. We don't mind, and it's good for Lexie to experience taking care of others peoples children. 

 Time with our kids is fleeting so I want to take advantage of my time with them, but when a brother from our church advised us to go on more date nights, and explained to us why they're so important we knew that we had to make time for ourselves. So why haven't we listened to that counsel as much? It's so easy to forget, and because our kids grow older, and our lives get busy it's really easy to say, "we'll go out next weekend." 

So the other night Jon and I made a condition on how, and what we can do on a date night even if it only lasts a couple of hours! We've decided that our date nights don't have to be extravagant, and even when Jon's off on a weekday we can have a mini day date for those three hours that Noah is at school. We don't have to spend any money when we go out. We don't always have to have a fancy dinner, at some fancy restaurant. We don't always have to go to the city to see a Broadway show, concert or even a movie. 

What we can do is just leave the house for a few hours and walk the streets of the small boroughs that we have around our neck of the woods. We can always drive into the city, pack a picnic basket and have lunch at one of the parks. If we want to splurge just a bit we can take the train into the city, and walk around Rittenhouse and do a bit of window shopping, and have some shake shack.  

There are so many things to do in our neck of the woods, and even going for a drive further north to go leaf peeping, and see the beauty of fall is good enough for me. 

With our anniversary and Jon's birthday coming up we are definitely going to find something fun to do that won't break our bank account, but then again it's nice to splurge just a bit on those special occasions. But on our normal day, or date nights going for a walk down the bike trail taking in the smell of fall in the crisp air cuddling with my best friend is satisfying enough for me! 

Now, it's friday night so go out with your better half, and have some fun! 

Me, we'll be trick or treating with this little guy, and his sisters at the high school! 

So our date night will have to wait until tomorrow. :-)

Happy Weekend!