Mini Date: Celebrating all the little things that you love about him.

As the saying goes, "It's the LITTLE things that make life BIG." We have been working on celebrating  the everyday and making time to say thank you for all the little things we do for each other. Tonight was a celebration of all things little. The good night kisses, the back rubs, the times he empties the dishwasher, or when he picks up coffee for me as a surprise. 

I invited Mr. R. on the date with a mini invitation.

We enjoyed a mini meal (complete with mini burger, mini tater tots, and mini Cokes)

We wrote each other thank you notes for all the little things we do for each other.

Side note: It's so easy to say "you never do anything for me!", but when I sat down to write his note I could easily recall 10 things he did just this week! If you are ever feeling under-appreciated or disgruntled give the thank you note a try, you'd be surprised at how much others really do for you.

We played mini golf.

I love how the wii makes date night activities so convenient and easy to plan.

And we settled in to watch our favorite mini horse (on Parks and Recreation).
It's available on Netflix streaming (for free!) if you are interested.

Can I bottle this?

Baby hugs and puppy kisses should be bottled and sold. They can cure a multitude of illnesses, the bad day blues, and extreme tiredness. Thursday I came home from work BEAT UP. My stomach hurt, I had a headache, all I wanted to do was collapse on my sofa and call it a night. 

And then this little girl with her big eyes, dimples, and contagious laugh comes bounding up to me. And within seconds I feel better, I have energy, and a tickle fight has begun. We then moved on to books and tea time and stories and before I knew it, the clock said 7:30 and it was time for baths and bed. True love really cures all wounds. 

A date with my girl.

Wednesday afternoon Pip had a follow up appointment with the pediatrician. I left work early, drove home like a maniac, and barely made it on time. She HATES the pediatrician and when I say HATE I mean red faced screaming and crying from the moment Dr. B. walks in the room and the crying continues until we are safely buckled in the car and driving away. 

Since I was home early, Miss Rita was on her way home, and Mr. R. was still working I decided Pip and I had time for a day date. We headed to Michaels where we wandered the aisles  looking for fall decor and new scrapbook stickers. Next we hit up YOBE. Miss Pip LOVES frozen yogurt. She wolfed down the strawberry flavor and our kiwi and sliced strawberry toppings. 

I know Pip won't remember these little dates when she is older, but I love that I am setting a precedent. I am so looking forward to afternoon dates to the park to feed the ducks, or swing on the swings, or puppy walks along the trails in our nearby park. I loved having her to myself for a few hours outside of the house and away from work/chores. These pictures only showcase a tiny bit of how much I loved this time with my girl, totally made my Wednesday. 

Why I date my husband

A real life friend who also read my blog asked me why I spend so much time planning dates for my husband. My quick response was because I love him and I love spending time with him. But after a few days of mulling over our conversation I realized that's not the whole story.

I date my husband because I want to save our marriage. Mr. R. and I are at the point in our marriage where things are not easy. We have demanding jobs, active social lives, volunteer commitments, and Piper to take care of. We have been married for six years and dated each other for another 4 before marriage. Our married life can get rather mundane at times. This year we also found out a few of our married friends were choosing to separate or divorce. And that scared me. 

I don't want to wake up one morning and realize I don't know the man I married. I also don't want to wake up and realize I am bored with him or bored with my marriage. If you know me well you have probably heard the horrid tale of our first year of marriage. Mr. R. and I were both in grad school, working opposite schedules, and dirt poor. We fought over everything... money, sex, groceries, dinner, school, you name it, we fought about it. I remember calling my Mom numerous times a week begging her for advice or money for a divorce lawyer. My Mom was the one who first suggested a date night. She said we needed to sit down and share a meal together. Even if we didn't talk being the in same space would provide some of the intimacy we were lacking. 

A few weeks later, when we both felt our marriage couldn't possibly get any worse we did just that. We cooked dinner in our tiny apartment kitchen and we ate. And miraculously we started talking. We talked about our jobs, our days, grad school stresses and our families. We then started to have date night once a week, sometimes a meal eaten at our kitchen table, sometimes an episode of How I Met Your Mother watched on our couch, and sometimes out at a real restaurant. Our married life improved. And by our actual 1st year anniversary we celebrated surviving our 1st year of married life. We ate dinner at the Olive Garden and promised to keep date night alive weekly. Date night and adopting our two dogs saved our marriage.

Fast forward 5 years later and date night is still alive and kicking. If we are being honest I will say we dropped the ball with weekly date nights this past year. Sometimes exhaustion and work took over and we pushed date night aside. Our marriage didn't crumble or spiral out of control because of a few missed dates, but I will say the intimacy suffered. The nitpicking arguments came back. 

This year I am taking time to reconnect with my husband, my daughter, and myself. I make sure to exercise everyday (for my on health and sanity), to plan an activity with my daughter twice a week, and to spend one on one time with my husband. 

If you read my blog you know that I am pretty liberal with the term date night.  I think anything you and your spouse do out of the normal daily routine can be a date. That means me slipping into my little black dress for a candlelit dinner at our dining room table can be a date. Or a trip to the beach on a Monday night can be a date. Or even something as simple as hot chocolate on the couch with the TV off and the baby in bed... yes, that is a date too.

If I look at today's calendar I see a new lesson to teach, two meetings to attend, a pediatrician appointment for Pip, and date night. Date night is sometimes the highlight of my day. Date night sometimes makes the week go by faster. Date night is sometimes the ONLY time I actually get to talk with my husband. I hope you will continue reading this blog and that we can pass on the date night torch to you. I am telling you, it will rock your world.

Labor Day Pictures

Sleeping in, pancakes made by Mr. R., new sneakers, playing house, Piper's very own grand prix in our living room, a showing of the Muppet movie, homemade enchiladas for dinner, and everyone in bed by 9:30PM... 

And the cherry on top of our three day weekend sundae is that Pip slept through the night and today starts my four day work week. 

I long for salt air in my hair...

 Mr. R. and I had a day date at the beach. It was amazing.We swam, we tanned, we walked, and we swam some more. Salt air and sunshine makes everything better.

Getting My Craft On

Some weekends are reserved for adventures, others are reserved for cleaning, and some weekends give you an extra day off (thank you Labor Day!), and I have time to craft. 

I busted out the felt, my expensive scissors, and the hot glue gun. And I went to pinterest in search of adorable felt headbands. Two youtube tutorials and a few burnt fingers later I made six new headbands! I think the yellow one is my favorite. Stay tuned I have a few more tutorials to try out. I see an orange dahlia and a cameo silhouette headband in my future.