Thursday, July 14, 2016

Date Night!!!!

A couple weeks before Brooks was born, Trevor and I were table leaders for an event that Life.Church BA was hosting called From This Day Forward. It was basically a 2 day marriage coaching session. Our job was to facilitate questions at our table, share some of our stories and get everyone at our table talking. The 5 points that were covered at the event were:
1. Seek God
2. Fight Fair
3. Have Fun
4. Stay Pure
5. Never Give Up

We knew that once the baby was born we wanted to be intentional with our time together and continue to make our marriage a top priority. I was talking with a friend and she mentioned that when they had their first baby, they scheduled an at home date night each week. Once the baby fell asleep, they would have their date night. Each week they would switch who planned it. I thought this was a brilliant idea, so I pitched it to Trevor and he was totally on board. It went right along with the curriculum that we covered being table leaders at the From This Day Forward event. Our first two weeks have really gone with the theme of Seek God and Have Fun!

By the way, this is an amazing series that Life.Church uses as their marriage coaching curriculum, but it was also a series that pastor Craig preached on. It has truly changed mine and Trevor's marriage for the better! Here is a link to the series if you are interested. Honestly, it will change the way you view/treat your spouse! Trevor and I will recommend this to anyone and everyone!

On to date nights....
We wanted to start our date nights the week Brooks was born, so I asked Trevor to plan the first one and he did good!!!

First, he hung this sign on the door since we have had so many visitors to see Brooks...

For our date, Trevor planned a "Pinot's Palette" date. We went to Hobby Lobby that afternoon to pick out our canvases and paint colors and when I was putting Brooks down, Trevor got everything ready.
Trevor wanted to paint a canvas for his office in our home. With him just starting Armor Accounting, he wanted the verse that the business really stands on to be posted and accessible at all times. It's a constant reminder of why we decided to start the business and our purpose. If you haven't read about our business, you can read about it here. Also, if you are in need of an accountant, check out our website and we would be glad to talk to you about what we do and how we can help you! armoraccounting.com
I wanted to do a bible verse for Brooks' room. I had debated between quite a few verses, but decided this one was the one that spoke to me. There have been numerous occasions where I have clung to this verse. It's simple, it's to the point, and the words are powerful and uplifting!

YAYYYY for date night! I love that our relationship is a priority to us both. I love that all week leading up to Thursday, Trevor was thinking about me and planning something special for the two of us to do together. I think this small gesture each week will eliminate so many potential problems that could creep into a relationship!

My date night was this week. We decided that Thursday will be our date night, but we switched it to Wednesday this week because of how plans were falling into place. In February of 2015, Trevor and I went to Beaver Lakefront Cabins for a weekend because we wanted to write goals for our lives, individual goals and goals we had together. You can read about it here if you would like.

We wrote our goals and then, sadly, we really haven't looked at them since. We have talked about the ones that were short term goals, but we haven't really revisited them since we wrote them. So, my date night was revisiting our goals. We wanted to talk about each goal that we made just over a year ago, decide if it was still important to us, celebrate those that have been achieved and decide which ones were crucial right now. I wanted to post a couple around the house that we need daily reminders of. Some that we posted are long term goals, but there are things we can do now to help set us up for success when the time comes.
Honestly, it's really romantic talking about the future and the goals that you have as a couple. This way you are on common ground, you are working toward a common mission! How powerful is that!
I don't think I went into great detail on how we goal set in the post about our getaway, but we based how we did it on the book The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson. We had different categories and different timelines (5 year goal, 10 year goal, etc). Our categories were Financial/Business, Physical, Selfish (ones that we just want, but have no spiritual basis), Influential/Spiritual and Travel. Each should have a time stamp, so you know you have accomplished it. This book will really change your life! Goal setting was only a small part, but the book makes you want to be so intentional with how your spend your time.

Like I said before, I am loving this date night idea! I look forward to it all week. You have to make your marriage a priority. You have to be intentional with your time and the way you interact with your spouse. You can't afford not to!

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