DOUBLE DATE DAY

We had a schedule change that allowed Tim and I to head out for a short date on Thursday morning. We'd already used up our "couple time" budget for the month, but I still had two Starbucks gift cards I'd earned at the start of my Pampered Chef business. So that's where we headed! It was nice to spend an hour just chatting about life and enjoying hot drinks.

Later on in the day I mentioned some movie passes we'd been given more than a year ago and suggested we go watch a late show. Midnight. That's what time we left the theater. Wowzers! Let's just say I don't bounce back from late nights out like I used to and had to take a nap on Friday. It was fun, though, and I'm glad we went.

Thinking about our double date day this morning brings a few things to mind.

First, I'm not a very spontaneous person. I really like making plans and sticking to them. There are obvious benefits to my personality, but I'm trying to choose present over perfect more often and that requires some spontaneity. It's not easy for me and there's usually fallout (like exhaustion the next day), but more often than not the pros outweigh the cons.

Second, I'm thankful we can regularly set aside money for time together now and have kids that are old enough to be left home alone. People always say dates are something you should budget for, but evidently those people have never had an income without any wiggle room beyond essential bills. We've been married nearly twenty years and this is the first time we've consistently budgeted for dates. If you can't afford to pay for dates with your spouse, you can still find ways to enjoy time alone for free or just choose to be content in a dateless season of life. But don't ever feel like you're failing at finances or marriage simply because you can't budget any of your paycheck for dates. Seriously. Don't.

On the flip side, if you have money for more than the essentials in your life, consider blessing other couples with gift cards that will allow them to have some free dates. Whether you have cash to spare or not, you can also offer to watch a couples' kids for free. Babysitting rates are absolutely insane and keep so many couples from enjoying some time alone. Trading babysitting and date nights with another family is a solution we've used at times, but sometimes it's nice to enjoy a date without having to put an extra commitment on your calendar in order to repay the babysitting swap.

Finally, marriage has ups and downs. I know that's not exactly a newsflash, but I also know it can be discouraging to see the fun other couples are having together (or appear to be having) when your own marriage is in a rough season. Tim and I really enjoy each other right now and getting two dates in one day was so awesome, but there have been seasons when going on a date wouldn't have made our list of top ten things to do on any given day. Some of those seasons were brief, others were long. My challenge to you is to enjoy the comfortable seasons, not give up through the hard ones, and never compare what you know to be true in your marriage with the limited view you have of another couple's marriage.

And now back to the original purpose of this post. Two free dates in one day? Jackpot!!