Last week, I had written about the challenges that I was having in regards to figuring out the timing of an outside date night with my husband. After realizing that there will always be something that has the potential to get in the way of me “dating” my husband, I decided to focus on my priorities in life. For me, the three top relationships in my life are 1.God 2.My husband and 3.My kids (in that order). Hopefully, if I keep my priorities straight, my kids will leave home one day and my husband will not. Smile. So, why is it that every month without fail my family manages to have a special outside family date but I hadn’t been on an outside date night with my husband since December?!
Thankfully, that changed as of Saturday night. I realized that we need to schedule our date night for the first – second at the latest – week of the month – or it’s not going to happen with the “busyness” of life. We hired a babysitter and went out for dinner and a movie. Usually, we don’t see movies together for a babysitter date (because it ends up being a $75+ movie – not including dinner -when you factor in babysitting costs!), but we made an exception this time. We had a movie gift card from Christmas and we both needed some “brain candy” – that’s what we call fun movies that take your mind off of everything for a couple of hours. We went to see Madea Goes to Jail. It was hilarious. No, it wasn’t an “Oscar-worthy” film but it made us laugh and get caught up in someone else’s “life” for a bit. In one of the subplots, Keshia Knight Pulliam plays a prostitute with a tortured past in the movie. That’s not funny, but it was funny how a couple of people in the movie theater loudly stated “Oh no, Rudy’s a prostitute. Rudy can’t be a prostitute!” (Keshia Knight Pulliam “grew up” on television as the youngest daughter on the Cosby show.) Since all of the various stories in the film were neatly tied up at the end, my husband and I left the theater laughing and talking about the characters futures (as if they were real people!). After, we walked (it was a beautiful night) to Ollie’s Chinese restaurant near Columbia and had a great dinner. (We were going to get Thai, but someone damaged our car earlier in the day, so our travel plans changed.)
After our date night, my husband and I remembered that it really is important that we take that time for ourselves. We’re committed to making these “no kids” dates happen at least once a month. (We have weekly in-home date nights after the kids are in bed.) I’m telling you this so that you can hold me accountable. Each month, I’ll be sharing a short blurb about my outside date night for the month. If you haven’t read anything by the middle of the month, please do me a favor and ask my why. Thanks!