April Date Day

For awhile now, I have been a regular reader of a blog (thank you Ray Ray for sharing it with me!) that has inspired me to not only be a help-mate and encourager to Handsome Hubby, but to be his buddy. This blog includes "playing together" as one of the 10 Things That Have Made All the Difference in their marriage. After reading their list a few months back, I was convicted in that HH and I don't really "play" together, and I later found out that he also thought buddy-ship was missing in our relationship. Sure, we would go on dinner-and-a-movie dates, we would go on group outings, but we didn't make much time "playing" together, just the two of us. We made an agreement to try and apply this in our lives more frequently. But, how do we do this?! We needed to be intentional.

One of the women in my small group suggested a "date cup." HH and I each wrote down a few ideas of things we would really see ourselves enjoying doing together and placed them in a bowl. One piece of paper is drawn at the beginning of each month, and that is our date day for the month. This can certainly be done more frequently, but because of his crazy school and soon-to-be residency schedule, we decided it not to push it! :) Once the hubster has his schedule, we actually plan a date.

Thus far, this has worked really well for us in being intentional about spending "buddy" time together. In March, our date day was to the nearby zoo and today was our April date day horseback ridding at the military fort. It was awesome! And what's more, we are having fun being active and spending the day together. We always enjoy each other's company, but this has become a real treat!

Although we haven't but into place all of the 10 Things that are listed on the other blog, I would also recommend Tuesday Questions. It has been instrumental in how Handsome Hubby and I communicate our needs and stresses with one another.

Below are some pictures from our outing today. Enjoy! :)

Handsome Hubby waiting with his helmet before our trail ride.

Me. The weather was beautiful!

Greeting to know the horses before the ride.

Meeting Lightning before our ride. So excited!

Velvet...the view from on top.

Lightning (left) and Velvet (the black one just behind Lightning) after our ride. 

Lightning on the right. Great horse! Except he was always trying to eat leaves off the trees on the trail. He was pretty insistent too!