52 Dates

So we are trying a new challenge this year. I know so many people who are doing the 365 photo challenge. Well, rather than a picture a day, Tone and I are aspiring toward a date a week. 52 in all...at home.

Yee-up. At home dates. An hour set aside each week to spend together doing something purposeful just so that we are making sure we are enjoying each other in the business of life.

It has to be cheap, simple, and purposeful.

You can't do the same thing in one month.

We rotate who's in charge each week.

No children allowed if possible.

Try to make it special. Don't be frumpy and in jammies.

So what can you do at home? Well, I came up with a list of things that I would like to share with you. I hope to post some of these dates and let you know how it is going from time to time. Here are 52 to start you off. I bet you can come up with your own should you decide to play along with us. If you come up with new ones, let me know! For many I included the website where you can get more info.

At Home Date Night Ideas:

1. Paint/sketch a picture of each other
2. Play “Would You Rather Game” http://www.simplymodernmom.com/2010/03/project-52-would-you-rather/
3. Write down and discuss your Bucket Lists
4. Read something in common. Make café coffee and sit down and discuss as if you were in a café book club.
5. Do a puzzle together.
6. “Spa” night with massage and lotions
7. Draw a picture of each other’s brain. Outline the categories/areas that you think fill it.
8. Buy a blueprint magazine. Flip through and discuss perfect floor plans.
9. Play a card game
10. Play a board game
11. “Play First Words” game http://www.simplymodernmom.com/2010/01/project-52-first-words-game/
12. Make paper airplanes. Have a competition. Use this website for starters: http://www.paperairplanes.co.uk/
13. Set up a “photo booth” and take pictures of the two of us.
14. Watch family home videos
15. Make mixed drinks – try new “recipes”
16. Turn the story of how you met into a children’s book for the kids
17. Look through wedding photos
18. Magazine collage – words about the other person
19. Have a fondue night
20. Play twister together
21. Read your old love notes
22. Play Guitar Hero or other video game
23. Read aloud a funny short story
24. Bubble bath for two
25. Have an indoor picnic
26. Do a crossword puzzle together
27. Ice cream sundae night go crazy with toppings
28. Make smores on the grill
29. Have a theme night. You must dress, eat dinner, and watch a movie with the same theme. Think ‘Western’ and dress like a cowgirl, eat bar-b-que, and watch Tombstone. Think ‘French’ and put on a black and white top, make French onion soup, and watch Amelie. It could be anything!
30. Light the tiki torches, and sit outside under the stars or better yet, a blanket on the grass
31. Make a holiday decoration
32. Make a list of goals you want to accomplish in 1, 5, 10, and 25 years
33. Miniature golf in a living room obstacle course
34. Plan an upcoming vacation (real or imaginary)
35. Dance. Try new steps. Rent a ball or swing dance DVD tutorial.
36. Make homemade ice cream: http://www.hotdateideas.com/date-ideas/homemade-ice-cream
37. Read an article or chapter in a book on improving your marriage and do the exercises or assignments included in the article.
38. Play cribbage
39. Sort old CD’s and reminisce about what you used to listen to.
40. Bike ride or walk the neighborhood and discuss all the neighbors houses and yards
41. Complete a DIY project around the house (small or large)
42. Listen to an old radio show by Orson Wells or John Houseman telling classic stories: Use this link for downloads for the ipod: http://www.hotdateideas.com/date-ideas/classic-radio-broadcast
43. Play the 43 kisses game. http://www.hotdateideas.com/date-ideas/43-kisses Cut up the slips and throw in a hat. Take turns pulling them out.
44. Buy a paint by numbers board and paint it together.
45. Pick a kind of food you’ve never had before and shop for ingredients and make it together
46. Make “puppy chow” mix or something like it, put it in cute baggies and distribute to the neighbors http://www.chex.com/recipes/RecipeView.aspx?RecipeId=45860&CategoryId=447
47. TiVo a fitness workout and do it together.
48. Write each other a “thank you” note. Be specific about what they are doing that you love. Read it to each other.
49. Set up an indoor campout in your living room. Light the fire, use sleeping bags. Maybe even include the tent.
50. Gourmet popcorn and a movie.
51. Pedicure night – The man too!
52. Make each other valentines kiddie style with glue, construction paper, markers, etc.

Here is a site for even more ideas: http://www.simplymodernmom.com/2009/12/project-52-date-nights/

So what did we do the first night? Well, that was last Tuesday before he went back to training and I left for Papaw's for a week. We made a special dinner, set a fancy table (kids too) and gave everyone their valentines. Yes, it was a week early, but we all weren't going to be together for Valentines so we did it early. I gave Tone a packet with this idea in it and this list with some of the games already printed out. Then the kids went to bed, and we got into our liquor stash, made some mixed drinks and played "guess the chocolate". I bought chocolates, and like Forest says, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gunna get." We shared some laughs when Tone bit into a particularly nasty one. It was simple, we enjoyed the evening, and we can't wait for next time.

"Stuck like Glue" - Sugarland

MMMM better...MMMM better...
Absolutely no one that knows me better
No one that can make me feel sooo goooood
How did we stay so long together?
When everybody, everybody said we never would
And just when I, I start to think they're right
That love has died...

[Chorus:]
There you go making my heart beat again,
Heart beat again,
Heart beat again
There you go making me feel like a kid
Won't you do it and do it one time?
There you go pulling me right back in,
Right back in,
Right back in
And I know-oo I'm never letting this go-ooo

I'm stuck on you
Whutooo whutooo
Stuck like glue
You and me baby we're stuck like glue
Whutooo whutooo
Stuck like glue
You and me baby we're stuck like glue

Some days I don't feel like trying
Some days you know I wanna just give up
When it doesn't matter who's right, fight about it all night
Had enough
You give me that look
"I'm sorry baby let's make up"
You do that thing that makes me laugh
And just like that...

[Chorus:]
There you go making my heart beat again,
Heart beat again,
Heart beat again
There you go making me feel like a kid
Won't you do it and do it one time
There you go pulling me right back in,
Right back in,
Right back in
And I know-oo I'm never letting this go-ooo

I'm stuck on you
Whutooo whutooo
Stuck like glue
You and me baby we're stuck like glue
Whutooo whutooo
Stuck like glue
You and me baby were stuck like glue

It may be cheesy - but true!