Dollar Store Date

I'm back today with a recap of Wednesday's date. While I was trying to decide on dinner I found some coupons for Arby's. One of the coupons was a "dinner for 2 for $8.99". Perfect! This needed to be a cheap date. Afterwards we would play a little shopping game at Dollar Tree where everything is $1. So I set about making the Dollar Store Shopping Cards and envelopes for the money. Here's what I came up with.





I gave each of us $3.25 for the Dollar Store and $5.00 for dinner. Hubby didn't think we could eat at Arby's for $5.00 each, so I proved him wrong. He didn't leave hungry!



After Arby's we headed to Dollar Tree for our shopping spree. We had 15 minutes to purchase 3 items. It was fun but hard to think quickly and find an item. Once we finished shopping we headed home and gave each other the gifts with an explanation of why we picked it. So much fun!




Who to give credit to for the date? I've seen this date listed on several sites. I based mine off of this one from 1000 Date Ideas

Besides the Dollar Store Shopping Card (shown above), I created an envelope.

You can pick up both in this download:
Dollar Store Shopping Card and Envelope
*Printables were created with the kit Fruit of the Spirit: Joy from Designs by Snowlady.

Ten Days of Love: Day 4

Day 4 has arrived. Last night we had a chance to cuddle in bed and read a chapter of a book together. We haven't done this for a few months. Right now we are reading Men are Like Waffles Women are Like Spaghetti from Bill and Pam Farrel. So far it is a very interesting book. We read chapter 2 about communication.

Anyways today I am planning dinner and date night. I'll bring you all the details tomorrow but it does include a cheap date.

Feb 7th-14th is National Marriage Week. I hope you are able to spend some quality time with your spouse!

Ten Days of Love: Day 3

Today is Day 3 of our love-fest. I gave Hubby some chocolates to go along with his card and coupon. I made a topper for the bag of candy to dress it up a little.


*Printable made with the kit He Loves Me from Designs by Snowlady.

Click on the preview or here to download. Just print, fold in half, and staple to your bag. The topper is 4x6 inches in size.

Ten Days of Love: Day 2

It's day 2 of our "Ten Days of Love". Today, along with a card and coupon, I gave Hubby a box. Inside the box I put strips of paper with things that I love about him or us. For the box I used an empty tissue box and covered it in scrapbook paper.



I created a page for the strips and typed up a sentence on each one. All of them started with "I love..." They included things like "I love when you hold my hand." or "I love when we cuddle together." Some of them were sexual and some were not. This was a way for me to tell Hubby what I love for him to do.

Here's a blank page for you to download and put your own messages on.



Click on the preview or click here.

Enjoy your spouse!

Ten Days of Love

Hubby and I are starting our "Ten Days of Love" today. I have a card, love coupon, and a gesture of my love for him for each day. I created envelopes to stick the cards/coupons in and clipped them with clothespins to some twine. The twine is strung underneath our bedroom window. For the clothespins, I glued some scraps of paper to them to pretty them up. It was pretty simple to do. Here are some pics.




Today's gesture was making him breakfast. I usually don't make breakfast on Sunday as we are in a rush to get to church.

We are also following along with One Flesh Marriage's 10 Day Challenge. Check it out here.

Love Boat Date

On Day 3 of the Christmas Countdown, I decided to "play" Love Boat. You remember that old sitcom from the late 70s/early 80s. And that theme song! You just can't get it out of your mind. Anyways, my invite used part of the song lyrics and told him to join me later for a trip on the Love Boat. Here's my invite:



Later in the day, I gave him an Itinerary Card so he knew a little bit about what to expect and kept him wondering what would be happening later.



Before hand I decorated the bedroom windows with white lights and put wrapping paper on the windows (we don't have curtains up yet from our remodel).



For the photo shoot, I hung a beach towel on the closet door. We set the camera on the tripod and self-timer.



For the show, well that was private. You can use your imagination. ;)

I made dessert up ahead of time. I layered chocolate pudding, crushed oreo cookies, and cool whip together in some crystal glasses. I put cherries in Hubby's but not mine. Easy dessert to make and tastes yummy! (The empty glasses were for drinks.)



Hubby and I enjoyed our trip on the Love Boat. This would be great for Valentine's Day. I've recreated the invite and made a blank Itinerary Card for you to fill in with your activities.




Download Love Boat Cards Here

More Cards & Freebies

I was digging around in my stuff and found a stack of cards I'd made awhile ago. Two of them were Valentine's Day cards. Woohoo! So here are a few more cards that I'm giving to Hubby as we celebrate the "Ten Days of Love".



The flamingo card is digital so I have that as a freebie for you.


*Flock of Flamingos from Designs by Snowlady was used to make the flamingo card.
Download Flamingo Card Here.

I found these sayings on Pinterest and LOVED them! I created my own from them. I think I'll frame it for Hubby.
Original Sayings from Snickerdoodle Designs and Patriot Ledger



Here's my take on it:

Download You Are Here.

Valentine's Day - Cards & Freebies

I have been working on Valentine Day cards for Hubby. I plan on giving him one a day during our "Ten Days of Love". Here are a few of them.



The "I heart U" is made from paper, the rocket card is a hybrid of digi and paper, and the owl card is digi. I have the owl card front and the rocket pieces as a free download for you. Just click below to download.


*Owl card created with Serenity from Designs by Snowlady.

Download Owl Card



Download Rocket Card

I hope your Valentine's Day plans are coming along!

Valentine's Day - Love Coupons Freebie

I am starting to work on Valentine's Day projects. I plan on doing a "Ten Days of Love" for Hubby which will start February 5th and go through the 14th. One of things he will get each day is a Love Coupon. The coupons will be for things like "eat at a restaurant of your choice (no complaining from me)", "a back scratch", "one free massage", "one free dessert of your choice", and some couple time coupons. I gave him some coupons at Christmas and he loved them. Here are the coupons I'm using.


*Coupons created using Fruit of the Spirit: Love from Designs by Snowlady and are for PERSONAL USE ONLY.

You can make your coupons good for whatever your hubby will enjoy. Click on the picture above or HERE to download the coupons. I've included a sheet plus the individual coupons. I hope your hubby enjoys them as much as mine does!

Valentine's Day

It's time to start thinking about what to do for Valentine's Day. I have been browsing Pinterest and have several ideas on my Valentine's Board. Now to "pin" down what exactly I'm going to do for Hubby. Stay tuned for ideas!

E-Cards and YouTube

I know that sometimes our days get busy and it seems the week is over before you know it. Well there went another week without a date night. If that is happening to you, remember there are other ways to connect. During December I sent hubby some e-cards and songs from YouTube. They are quick and easy to do. With the e-cards, they send it out. You just have to pick the card. If you have a favorite song, look it up on YouTube, find a version you like, and send it to your spouse's email account.

Here are some free e-card sites:
123 Greetings
River Songs
Greeting Cards
E-Greetings

Let your spouse know you are thinking of them - even when your week is crazy and busy.

Do Something Your Spouse Loves

I am not a video game player. When I was younger I loved playing our Atari and arcade games. But now, not so much. Maybe it's the choice of games in the house. Well I decided Date Night would be about the hubby, and we would play X-Box together. So after dinner we sat down to play Call of Duty. I have never played this game before and was at a definite disadvantage. I couldn't quite get the movements down on the controller. Atari had a joystick and a button. Now their are buttons and more buttons that all do different things. Hubby was kind and let me kill him a few times. Of course sometimes he was just standing there and I couldn't shoot him! Hubby thought I was joking about playing X-Box as I've always said no before. I think he enjoyed the time spent doing something he enjoys doing.




So get out there and do something your spouse loves. It may not be your thing, but they will appreciate the effort you are making!

Snow Shower

For each day leading up to Christmas, I gave the hubby a 4x6 card. Some of them were for things to do, some were love quotes, some were links to songs or e-cards. On Day 22, I went out to his truck before he went to work and left him a snow shower and the card said, "I love you 'snow' much!" I should have cut more snowflakes but oh well. He enjoyed it and was quite surprised. For Valentine's Day I'm going to shower his truck with hearts.



There are many sites out their with snowflake patterns. Here are a few:

Snowflake Patterns
Snowflake Patterns
Snowflake Patterns
Snowflake Patterns

Have fun "showering" your spouse with a little love!

College Date Night

Dan and I both attended Purdue University. One weekend we were looking for something cheap to do. My RA had rented the movie The Accidental Tourist. She offered it up to us to watch. We found this to be one of the strangest movies we had ever watched.



Ever since college, we bring up that movie title all of the time. We couldn't remember what the movie was about just that it was strange! I found the movie on Netflix streaming, so I decided it was time to go back to college for Date Night. I created an invitation and left it on his pillow.



The plans:

*wear our Purdue shirts
*drop the kids off at Youth Group
*pick up Hardee's on the way home (Hardee's was right across from our dorm in college.)
*watch The Accidental Tourist while eating dinner
*eat ice cream sandwiches for dessert (My RA always had these for snacks during floor meetings. She would always have an extra for Dan. )

I made the ice cream sandwiches myself using homemade chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream.

Directions: Make your favorite type of cookie. Let cool. Set ice cream out to soften a bit. Slice the ice cream into slabs - about a half inch to an inch thick. To cut the ice cream in circles I used a small diameter glass. (Find something that is about the same size as the cookies.) Wrap individually in Saran wrap and freeze.



I was trying to make this a surprise, but the ice cream was melting. I had to get help from Dan and the boys to get the sandwiches made, wrapped, and in the freezer before we had an ice cream pond.

We had a great time reliving some college moments. The movie made a little more sense this time around but was still strange.



*Layouts created with Be Happy from Scraps by Andrea

Think of a time awhile back in your lives that you can recreate today. Reliving the memories makes for a great Date Night!

Have fun dating your spouse!

10 Day Challenge Starts Feb. 5

The blog "One Flesh Marriage" will be doing a 10 Day Challenge starting February 5th. The challenge . . . have sex with your spouse for 10 days. Check it out here.

Dessert For Sale

Hubby surprised me one night with a flyer on my pillow. He had planned a date night! Anyways here's the flyer (His was filled in with a time and place). You can click on the preview or here for a copy.


*I recreated hubby's flyer to make it printable for you.

I was supposed to choose a dessert from the ones listed and give it to him. I chose brownies. Chocolate - YUM! We were going to meet Saturday night in the backyard. I say "were". Well it was raining! He had planned to have dessert outside and look at the stars. He even printed a copy of the constellations for us to find. How sweet! So we stayed inside and tried to eat the brownies. The kids ended up eating the brownies. They tasted funny to us (old oil I think), but teenagers will eat anything! Things just weren't going right, and hubby was trying so hard. We ended up eating some chocolate pudding.

Well even when dates don't go as planned, there are the memories of spending time together.




Layouts created with Fruit of the Spirit-Love from Designs by Snowlady.

Breakfast Picnic

After spending some date nights going to dinner, I thought it was time for us to branch out. I planned a Breakfast Picnic at our nearby park. I created an invite to give my hubby and placed it in the bathroom window. We were remodeling our bathroom and knew he'd find it there. (Printable invite at the end of the post.)



I made plans in my head thinking we would eat at the park, enjoy the playground, take a walk, etc. Well when you live with teenagers something always comes up. This time it was a car wash. We had to drop one son off at the local car dealer at 8:30. No problem I thought. That only puts us a starting a little later than planned. Well 8:30 turned into 9:00 and don't forget to pick him up at 11:00. Ugh! So we do what we can do - make the best of it.

The menu included coffee cake, fruit salad, and drinks (OJ for me and plenty of Diet Coke for him). I had purchased a cheap table cloth because you just never know about park picnic tables. I had also purchased bubbles for us to play with. After we ate and tried to blow a few bubbles, other people were arriving at the park. We decided to pack up the stuff and take a walk. We did stop at some teeter totters to play before we had to head out and get back to the chores of the day.





All layouts created with Serenity from Designs by Snowlady.

Here's a printable invite for you. This is for personal use only. Just print and fill in the information. Enjoy your date time!

This Blog

Dan and I have been married for over 20 years. We have 2 teenage boys, and we both work. Yes life is pretty busy. Dan and I always wanted to put family before us as a couple. We weren't those parents that left their kids with grandparents or babysitters to go out to dinner or go away for the weekend. Almost everything we did over the past 14 years have included the kids. In May 2011, I was reading a couple's devotional by myself and I felt the nudging of God. Usually it's not a nudge. Usually I wait to act until God hits me over the head. I don't always notice the subtle hints. Anyways, I felt God nudging me back into a relationship with my husband. So I started searching around on the net for sites and books and found some very helpful resources. One of the things we've added into our marriage is DATE NIGHT! Date night for us means couple time - usually not family time. We have managed a few dates over the past few months and look forward to many more over the next year. I've started this blog to share our date ideas and give others some ideas and reassurances that it is okay to still date after you are married.