Date Night!

About those date nights… We need special time with our hubby’s. We need time away from the usual hustle and bustle of our busy lives. We need time just to talk – just us. We need time in this busy fast-paced culture that we live in to be together, to connect and to be close!

BUT

Do we really need to spend money on restaurants every week putting more pressure on our family’s finances?

Do we really need to risk our children’s well-being by hiring baby sitters to look after them so we can go out?

There seems to be tremendous pressure on couples to do this to make sure that their marriage “gets what it needs”… perhaps you have felt this pressure?

Hubby and I used to go out for dinner every week but over the last couple of years we have instead decided to have our date nights at home. We now enjoy wonderful evenings at home each week. This really works for us! I can honestly say it is so much richer, more peaceful and special than going out ever was. Sure, there are more dishes – but we do them together and have wonderful conversations along the way!

As the evening approaches, we have some good time with our children as usual and put them to bed around 8pm. We usually eat all together at the family table but on date night we just have a snack while the little ones have their supper. I plan a simple meal for the children on that night – something like cous cous and vegtables. After the children are in bed, we finish cleaning up, chat and prepare our meal. I do most of the preparing and hubby does most of the chatting! Its a great chance for me to catch up on how things are for him at work and how he is feeling about things.

We set the table with candles and put on soft music. We love to listen to Christian love songs like Serene and Pearl’s “This is Our Road”. Sometimes our oldest daughter sets the table for us and makes little gifts to put next to our plates. She loves to do this and really makes it special. We put a beautiful tablecloth over the maps and worksheets under the plastic tablecloth 🙂

For the actual meal, I try to keep rolls or bread from whatever bread we have made in the previous couple of days so that we have bread rolls with our starter. We make a starter of a delicious salad or something with pesto. I pop some butternut or gem squash and peas into the steamer to go with the meat (lamb chops or such) which I have seasoned and placed into the crocpot at lunchtime. They are soft and tender and fill the house with a wonderful aroma. Other weeks we have vegetable lasagne or a fondue.

We eat our starters while the main course finishes cooking. We have some sparkling grape juice at hand and it feels just like our very own special restaurant! We linger over each course and do lots of catching up with each other – all in the peace and serenity of our blessed home! Sometimes we do this.

I try to have a little dessert in the freezer (we usually don’t eat dessert so this is specially for date nights) – Cheesecake freezes well and you can slice it into tiny squares and defrost two at a time – which easily makes dessert for the month!

We sit in the lounge together between courses if waiting for food to be ready and sometimes we even fit in a bit of dancing! 🙂 It works wonders and we feel so relaxed and close afterwards!

Just remember to keep an eye on those candles!!

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love [is] better than wine.” Song of Solomon 1 v 2