Jen Russum

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Date Night

Micah and I spent some time on our anniversary last month assessing our first year of marriage and making some goals for this coming year {I highly recommend doing this by the way – this discussion is a great yearly tradition!}. One of our goals was to get more consistent about date nights. Up until now we haven’t been very committed to going on “dates.” It’s just the two of us, we have had a decent amount of free time this year to hang out with each other, and everywhere we go seems like a little date because Arizona is still so new to us. Even a trip to a store we’ve never been to or a drive around a cute neighborhood can feel like a date as we explore our new city. However, there will come a time when we have kids, our schedules will be crazier, maybe money will be tighter, our town will seem familiar and perhaps dull to us, and we will have to be intentional about date night. Before we find ourselves in our mid-thirties with a few kids desperately needing one-on-one time with each other, we figured we should make date night a consistent part of our schedule. Enter our new date night plan…

To be honest, once a week is too much for us. I feel like we would make that commitment and then fail at it constantly, especially once the school semester is in full swing each fall and spring. Plus then you have to decide if group events or double dates count as date night or if you need a separate date night on top of that and by that time things are just way too complicated.
So here is our plan. We each plan one date a month. Micah plans a date between the 1st and 15th of every month, and then I plan a date between the 16th and the end of the month. This seems really reasonable for us. That way we don’t have the pressure of squeezing in date night every week. We know who is in charge of planning the next date. If we do a double date one weekend with some friends, we can do our own date night the following week.
We love the plan. And last night was our first night to implement it. The date doesn’t have to be big, fancy, or expensive. In fact, it can be free. It can be during the day or evening. There are no rules except that the one in charge plans it ahead of time and it involves carved out quality time with just the two of us.
Here is a glimpse into date night #1. Micah planned it and I told him at the end I think it was my favorite date since we’ve been married (minus the honeymoon of course!).
Our night consisted of: delish, inexpensive Mexican food at Julio’s Too in Old Town, a walk around Chaparral Lake at sunset where we talked about Micah’s job and our house situation for this coming year, and finally ice cream at Sugar Bowl, the old-fashioned ice cream parlor in Scottsdale. I had a mocha milkshake and it was amazing!
Our evening was delightful! Micah opened the truck door for me all night long. We got to talk about life and pray together. And we had chips & salsa and ice cream – my favorite food staples in the world. Our cost? About $20 total. Like, I said… best date ever. I am looking forward to many more years of our new date night tradition…
{Headed out to dinner after a day at the pool. I want to pretend that our pose was a
mockery prom pose for fun, but it’s not. We are just awkward in adult life.}

{at the park}

 {Micah took this one!}

{Camelback mountain at sunset}


{perfect ending}

Comments

  1. Oh how I miss those Arizona sunsets! Date night, great idea! The routine is important, especially if you choose to someday have children. Happy marriage!

  3. I love the idea of both of you planning a date night! I already talked to my hubby about the idea and he loved it! 🙂

    P.S. We took a random trip to Scottsdale on Friday… wish I had your phone #!

  5. So fun! Those photos at the park are beautiful.

    We used to go on "date night" every single Friday. We always went to the same restaurant.. they knew us there. And we almost always went to the movies. We're just boring like that 🙂

    Now that we have the baby we don't get to do it as often, but I'd love to be able to do it once a month and I think that's reasonable.

    BTW, we go to The Village up in Flower Mound 🙂