It's Cheaper Than Therapy

Date Stick Jars

Still coming down off Valentine's Day, let's talk about date night.  With your spouse.  Sounds awesome, right?  This has been a struggle for me for years, not going to lie.  It's either because we can't find the time or (usually) the money.

Two years ago, the issue was just making it happen.  I made sure we had a date night scheduled for the last Saturday of every month.  Literally.  I wrote it on the calendar for the whole year.  Now we were doing better about actually dating, but I felt like we always went out to eat.  Which is fine.  But a little boring.  And sometimes expensive (If you have no self-control when it comes to your bar tab.  Which, we don't.).

So now we move to last year.  My goal was to have a little more variety in our date nights.  I had seen a "date sticks" idea on Pinterest (this is not a 50 shades thing).  The premise behind it was you could pick a date stick and have some spontaneity in what you were doing that night.  Now, we don't personally like the random pick, so we look at them all and pick one out that we like.  That might be cheating a little bit.  Meh.

Sometimes I feel bad that we don't go out more.  But honestly, we do a lot of stuff together as a family and I feel like many of those adventures are dates too.  If we go on a hike, we will hold hands at some point.  Or we are at the park and the kids will run off and we will be able to talk.  A couple of weeks ago we hit a brewery on the way home from a hike and history explore.  The kids played Battleship and we had a flight together. Sounds like a date to me. Get it where you can.

And we have lots of double date time.  We do things with other families and the kids go and play and we get to hang out with the grown ups.  I think that counts as date time too.

But yeah, I get it.  We're supposed to have alone time.

Chinese food and kung-fu

There are lots of date ideas on Pinterest.  Some of them I liked, some I didn't.  Go buy some large popsicle sticks at AC Moore, get a red fine point Sharpie and starting writing ideas on your sticks. Throw them in a jar and have at it!  We have 2 jars:  "Staying in" and "Going Out".  Going out of course always equals more expensive.

But you know, it's not about spending money.  You know what my favorite date night this year has been?  We got chinese food and watched kung fu. In bed.  It rocked.  And don't get all dirty on me. We were not naked. And contrary to popular belief, everyone was NOT kung fu fighting.

So here, in no particular order, are our date sticks.  Please feel free to steal them, alter them or add to them!

Staying In
Watch the first movie you ever saw together
Read aloud to each other
Exchange foot rubs
Football and fried chicken
Mexican night
Take out and Scrabble
Watch a documentary together and discuss
Make calzones and play a board game
Have a candlelight night
Make your own massage oil.  Exchange back rubs.
Blankets on the back porch and watch a movie
Roast marshmallows over a fire
Make a bucket list together and make your own sundaes
Homemade pizza and Italian movie
Make mulled wine
Plan our next trip together
Make a puzzle and eat pizza
Nachos and a boy movie
Learn a new hobby together
Build a fort together
Camp outside together
Make milkshakes and watch home movies
Fancy popcorn and a chick flick
Look out our wedding album
Play a childhood game
Make dessert together
Play video games together
Dinner and a movie - with a theme
Search online for dream home
Have a picnic outside under the stars
Make fancy coffee and go for a walk
Video record the story of how you met and fell in love
Fondue and wine night
Play cards
Paint together on canvas
Make a playlist of 10 songs from when you were first dating
Pick out cheese, sausage and wine and then share
Write out 10-15 memories each.  Then read them out loud to each other.
Make foreign food and plan your top 10 trips you want to take.
Chopped challenge - recipe or ingredient
Make a collage of favorite pictures - digital or otherwise
Make something you've never made before in the kitchen together
Ice cream night!  Buy small containers of favorite (each of us).  Talk about ice cream memories from your childhood.


Going Out
Drive in date (http://www.goochlanddriveintheater.com)
Drive out of town to stargaze together (maybe you can do this where you live, we will see nothing!)
Go antiquing
Window shopping for the house.  Replan a room
Laser tag
Go zip-lining
Go to a hockey game
Grab a pint at an Irish pub
Go to a museum
Play darts
Go bowling
Do a wine tasting
Play paint ball
Drive go carts
Go rock climbing at a gym
Do a beer tasting (we have no problem doing this one!)
Go to the shooting range

So what I am working on now is variety and not feeling guilty when I spend time with my husband (this is such a ridiculous emotion I refuse to discuss it further).  I put dating my hubs on my goal list this year so I would remember it was top priority.  There are plenty of things on the list that don't cost as much, although we are going to try to have some of the outings monthly as well.  And really, it's cheaper than therapy.

Happy Dating!
K