Thursday nights are my favorite nights. It’s our date night. And every Friday leading up to the next Thursday is my second favorite night. It’s the night we draw out a piece of paper that has been folded in half a few times, along with many other slips just like it, all stuffed in a mason jar, and we find out what we will be doing for next weeks date night.

We only have date night once a week which allows us 52 date nights per year (I’m pretty sure we have close to 60 slips stuffed in that jar though).

Between my husband and I we wrote down on each of the slips something thoughtful, fun, romantic, lazy, and just all around random and we cannot veto any of these ideas for date night-nor can we cancel them due to weather. What you draw out is what you WILL DO! Some will be free, others pricey, and a few in a comfortable rate of not too cheap and not too pricey.

We draw out what the next date is right away because of two reasons: 1. We want to plan ahead and purchase whatever we need to right away or call and reserve a spot wherever we need to, and 2. Because the anticipation of our next date is fun! We get to talk about it all week-long.

Dating my husband has never been more fun than it has been now. Each week we are excited and never bored.  We don’t see any money being spent as money wasted but more as an investment in our marriage.

You see, right now in our season of life, we are dealing with big changes. We have 2 kids, one whom is 5 yrs old (my little girl Issy), and the other whom just turned 8 months (my little man Michael). I used to be a full-time working mom, and now I am a full-time stay at home mom. I do still work, but very few hours and mainly from home. When I do need to go in to the office, the kids come with me. So I am NEVER alone!

My husband on the other hand got promoted somewhat recently earlier in the year, so now he works as early as he needs to go in and stays as late as he needs to stay. The hours are crazy!!! But it has still been such a tremendous blessing having him become our sole financial provider. Allowing me to stay home with the kids is something I will be eternally grateful for, it is  something I never thought I would be able to do and even though it can become too much for me at times, it is something I would never regret. I’m happy being a stay at home wife and mom. But, point being, this year alone has been filled with A LOT of change.

So in the midst of this huge shift in our lives, we made it a strong point to focus on our marriage in a more intentional way, not just habitual.

The best part of this investment so far has been that our children get to see us spending quality time together. My 5-year-old is fully aware of what each day is and every Thursday she wakes me up to remind me that [tonight] I “have a date with daddy”. How precious is that?! I get to lead by example for my daughter. And I am honored that she  enjoys seeing my husband I having a close relationship.

One day it’ll be her turn to live a life full of love, and I would hope that she never stop dating her future husband. And that she never forgets that love GROWS. It doesn’t stall at the altar, and it’s not at it’s best in the beginning, during the “honeymoon phase”. Love should grow daily. It’s not to be confused with love never encountering hardships, because believe me, at times there will be some hardships but the closer you are to your spouse, the easier it’ll be to get through that hardship together.

So here are some ideas that we have written down and deposited into our date night jar. I hope you enjoy this list. It was randomly put together by myself, my husband, and a dear friend who had nothing but ideas to share. (For those that live in the Seattle area, you can definitely do all of these!)

-Click HERE to see the list of slips we have in our Date Night Jar-

And submit any extra ideas here if you have any that are not on our list!