I am wife to a magnificent man and mother to five wonderful children. Three of my children were born in the Northwest and two were born thousands of miles away in Liberia, West Africa. Birthplace is no matter, all of my children were born in my heart. This is our journey.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Date night


We love date night. They don't happen very often though it is more often then when the kids were younger. We have made a point this year to increase the frequency from our anniversary and birthdays to once every month or so. I know a lot of people say you should do it once per week but that just isn't practical for us right now.

Yesterday was a very challenging day for both Steve and I on many fronts. By five o'clock we had both had it. We were tired, frustrated with circumstances we have no control over and both needed some time out.

Steve had an idea. The kids were happy and were going to watch two shows they have been waiting for. Each an hour long. We made an easy dinner of nachos for everyone and let the kids picnic in the family room. We took our dinner and went upstairs to the office and watched the news and channel surfed for a bit. I suggested that in a bit we go for a swim. Steve was game so we changed and came downstairs. The kids looked at us like we were a bit off our rockers, going swimming without them? We told them they could finish watching their shows and we would be in the pool if they needed us and out we went. We each took jousting floatables that we have and reclined on them. Hands intertwined we floated for about 45 minutes or so. Sometimes chatting, sometimes enjoying the silence with the gurgle of the pool filter in the background that when our eyes were closed sounded like a small waterfall. At one point I asked why we hadn't thought of this before. Steve laughed and said he has no idea. Around bedtime we came in and ushered the kids off to bed. I was so relaxed that I went to sleep much earlier than normal. I'm pretty sure we started something new and I think I just felt my brain take a breather.

2 comments:

samantha said...

Ok why haven't we thought of this. I will have to keep this in mind once our kids get a little older!! What a nice night and even better that it was FREE!

Julie said...

Brilliant! I have got to get a pool. :)