Committed to Dating My Husband

With two little ones (2 1/2 years and 6 months old) consuming our time and energy, my husband and I have not had a lot of time for us. We'll be married 8 years this fall and we do not want another year to pass consisting of such small amounts of quality time. His job as a fire fighter keeps him away from home a lot and my work as a teacher has me exhausted before my feet ever hit our doorstep. Then we take into account that our evenings consist of making dinner, baths, bedtime, prepping for the next day etc. By the end of it all we're dragging ourselves into bed, falling asleep almost immediately. Romantic I know.

One of my goals this year is to work on some of my relationships. One of those is dedicating more time to my husband and I. We have a great marriage, but with a little more effort and together-time, it could be that much more amazing. Thus our Dating Commitment was formed.

He and I decided to plan for at least one date night a month. We choose our date, mark it on the calender IN PEN, and then decide where we'll go. I've begun collecting a lot of ideas for local dates and we're looking forward to making the most of this time together.

We recently went on our first date of the year. It was super low key and perfect.

We began by heading out midmorning to the local farmers market. We enjoyed browsing various venders and some delious, fresh ground specialty coffees.

We tasted the sweet treats made by Mrs. Joy. She is the winner of this past year's Food Network Christmas Cookie Challenge. Her chocolate chip cookies are some of the absolute best I've ever had. Seriously. I know cookies.

We then browsed a local antique store where we found some inspiration for our future home. 

For instance, this table...

We took part of the afternoon to enjoy an uninterrupted meal.

We finished the afternoon by running a couple of errands. It was so nice to have conversations that didn't revolve around unexplained messes and dirty diapers. We got to talk about our future, our dreams, and hold hands. Normally our hands are holding children, bags, etc. All in all, I honestly would not want to go back to the days before we had kids for anything. However, I did enjoy this first of many dates with my husband. It's so important to take the time to focus on one another...to remember why you fell in love in the first place. You owe it to one and other.

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