Dating My Spouse & The February 14 Day Challenge

“If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.” -Mother Theresa

“Love is friendship that has caught fire.” -Ann Landers

Dating My Spouse: Planning a Year of Date Nights

I love my husband.

And like many couples, we have had a difficult time planning date nights this past year because of our chaotic schedules.

Yes, there were a few occasions in the past year where we planned a small getaway or a date night. But, the date nights didn’t show up on our calendars very often. They were usually scheduled at random when we realized we had a day off together.

Reading over that, it sounds terrible to me that we didn’t put more emphasis on our quality time together this past year. Cringe!

My husband and I both value our marriage and the commitment that we’ve made before God, our family, and friends. In order for our relationship to continue to grow and flourish, we need to put in quality time and effort into it.

Thanks to watching Jordan Page’s vlog post on planning out their family’s entire year, we decided to follow suit. We sat down this past month with our calendars and planned out our year, including our date nights. Yes, date nights for a whole year!

Initially, it does sound a little crazy to actually plan date nights for a whole year. Schedules change all the time, including ours. BUT, we realized that if our date nights are on the calendar, we will value that time and make the effort to keep it in our schedules.

Our goal for this year is to plan two date nights a month.

When we initially agreed on two date nights a month, I thought it would be so easy to plan, no problem. And then as I looked at our calendar for each month, I realized just how crazy our work and family schedules can be.

Just to give you an idea of the craziness, usually when my husband is working, I’m at home with our son, and when I’m working, my husband is at home with our son.

There’s usually only a few hours within each day to where we see each other or are able to catch up. And sometimes that is nonexistent if my husband gets called in to work early, has to stay late, or there are other obligations for the day, like doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping, errands, etc.

We don’t want our work schedules to get in the way of spending quality time together, and so we realized that putting these date nights on the calendar for two days a month is really needed in order for our marriage to thrive and grow.

Looking back at the month of January, I shutter realizing we didn’t have a single date night. This month flew by, and we did have some quality family time together, but the date nights were not on our schedule.

So, fittingly enough, we are starting our date nights in the month of love: February. And our goal is to continue these two date nights a month throughout 2017.

I’m looking forward to this opportunity, and I’m thankful for Jordan Page’s vlog post about this great date night-planning idea! You can check out her vlog post here.

14 Days of Remembering to Love

This next month, I’m going to remember to love my husband by taking on the “14 Days of Remembering to Love” challenge.

Marriagelaboratory.com has provided a unique way to share love with your spouse during the month of February by creating a list of “Love Prompts” that you can respond to about your relationship.

I’m hoping these “Love Prompts” will bring about some quality conversation between my husband and myself and also show him how much I appreciate who he is and what he does for our family.

If you’re interested in joining me for this 14-day challenge, I’d love to hear about it in the comment section below!

Thanks for reading and stopping by the Fish Full Life blog.

Thanks, Rachael Schirano photography for our wedding day photos.