Date night. Now that's a word that I haven't used in a while. Sadly, but true.
Last night John and I had our first date night in months.
I'm sure many of you can relate, but when we look at our busy schedules and our budgets, unfortunately date night is one of the first things to go.
Our family has an even crazier schedule to work around with my job taking up 2-3 nights per week, John having a leadership meeting one night a week, and the church plant we are blessed to be a part of falling on Sunday evenings.
That leaves us exactly 2 open evenings a week.
Tuesday & Saturday.
Saturdays as you all know are usually booked months in advance with birthday parties and special events, and my hubby works until 2 pm on Saturdays as well, so by the time he gets home at 3 pm half the day is gone.
I'm not saying all this to vent or look for sympathy, it's a reality of the season of our life right now, and we make it work.
We make it work by truly making every moment count of the time we do get together as a family.
But still, even with doing our best to make the most of the time we get, we realize that putting off our own little date night long enough and sometimes we can start to feel like we are just two good friends on the same team getting through each week.
Romance, uh.. what was that again?
So I say this because we are so guilty.
Date night is tough.
It costs money.
Who would watch ALL 3 kids?
Who can we trust?
We already ask family for all the super important babysitting needs, so asking them "just for a date night" seems like a burden.
At least that's all the excuses we use.
So we have tried to have date nights in after the kids go to bed, and to be honest, I'm that awesome date that falls asleep 10 min into watching James Bond. Woohoo!
So this week something crazy happened.
I got a text from a girl that I used to coach on the varsity high school gymnastics team.
Side note, this is a girl I absolutely ADORE and always have.
Text read:
Hey Heather! For some reason I was thinking about you and your kiddos and I know how busy you are so I just wanted to let you know if you ever are in need of a date night and need a babysitter.. I'm totally available! :)
Are you kidding me?!
I think I froze or gasped or tapped my phone a few times to make sure this was a real text.
Our conversation went on and she explained that God totally put me on her heart to contact me, and she almost ignored it, but then she felt a big old push so she decided to just go ahead and throw it out there.
I honestly wanted to cry. Happy tears.
Yes, we were desperate for a date night.
So I cleared my work schedule and we booked her for a few days later.
I seriously could not believe it.
I felt so blessed in that moment.
God truly knows our every need and He provides my friends.
"And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:19
I just kept thanking her for taking that awkward jump and texting me, because God used her in that moment. She was an answer to prayer.
♥
So we left on our date night last night and restaurant hopped! It was such a blast. Went somewhere for a drink and appetizer, then another place for an entrée and then the last place for dessert. We talked and laughed like we were dating. I'm sure no one would have known we left the 3 kids under 5 at home. lol!
And I was blown away that even my insanely clingy 9 month old did fabulous and all three were asleep by 9 pm. So we were out at ease knowing all was well.
We didn't even snap pics and post them to Instagram this time. We just enjoyed the rare, precious time we got together to be alone.
Date night. It's a necessity my friends.
I truly feel like convincing ourselves that date nights are not important is one of the biggest lies that the enemy can get us to believe.
They are important.
With 50% of marriages falling apart these days, we have to FIGHT to be on the 50% that do stay together, and when I say together, I mean together ENJOYING each other.
Good marriages don't just happen.
Date night is a simple, yet amazing way to fill up your marriage so that you are ready to tackle life together.
Now we have seen the fruit of it and we told our girl that she will be booked every week for eternity. haha. Totally joking, but we are definitely going to try to make date night a more regular part of our schedule.
Once, maybe twice a month would be our goal.
Mommies and daddies.. if you don't have someone that can swap kids with you, or family to watch your kiddos, start praying for this person.
God is all about strengthening marriages, and I'm telling ya, He will hear those prayers.
Maybe you are an auntie or a friend of someone with little ones.
Maybe you have someone on your heart that you know could really use a date night.
Ask them.
I can assure you it will knock their socks off when you offer.
God is good.
So good.
♥
It's 5:25 am. I'm trying something new.
I'm awake before my house.
Despite a night with an 8 month old that still has no interest in sleeping through the night, I knew that today something was going to change.
I'm drinking my warm cup of black coffee in my anthropology mug and savoring every sip more than usual.
I prayed for my day.
I prayed for some of you.
I just read Proverbs 4.
I even had a far too peppy song jump into my head at 5:05 as I rolled myself out of bed into the darkness.
"Rise and shine.. and give God the glory, glory!"
Maybe you remember that jingle.
I then felt like the Lord said, "write."
So here I am. With an hour before the kids rise, tapping away. Smiling.
I don't have any idea what exactly I'm supposed to be writing on today, but I can tell you all a little bit about how I've been feeling lately and some of my friends know this, but I like to coin it the scrambled egg syndrome.
My life seems to be this mix of so many different blessings with work, family, church, friendships, and I often feel that I never come out sunny side up. I just go through each day trying my best to enjoy the moments, but truly feeling like everything is so scrambled together that I have moments where I just want to sit down and say, what on earth am I doing here?! What is my purpose for this day!? I feel like I'm not doing anything to my best ability.
Last week I was so scrambled that I drove my kids to school on Friday telling them all about Good Friday, to arrive to a playground that was a ghost town. It should have occurred to me that there was no school on Good Friday.
Scrambled.
I then blame shift a lot to my "mommy brain."
My closest family and friends can tell when this scrambled egg syndrome is setting in because I get so stressed over the smallest of things. My plate is so full, but honestly, most everything on my plate has been placed there with full intent by Him. I cannot manage it all on my own. I was never intended to.
Yesterday it came as plain as can be to me. The fix for this scrambled egg syndrome is learning to tithe with my time.
Tithe with my time.
Tithe with my time.
"My son, pay attention to what I say,
Listen closely to my words.
Do not let them out of your sight.
Keep them within your heart.
For they are life to those who find them
and health to a man's whole body."
Proverbs 4:20-22
As I read these words this morning I wanted to fall to my knees.
God is so good my friends.
I know in my days of scrambled eggs I need the word, but sometimes I forget just how important it is. For me, although I love doing the bible-in-a-year app, I need more. I need the time to sit and dive into Proverbs and truly read and let my heart settle on these words.
I need to truly give a portion of my day to my Lord and if that means getting up before my house, so be it. No more excuses.
These words are health to my body.
I feel like this idea of tithing my time is truly so key. God has blessed me with so much and I want to truly show him with the most precious commodity how thankful I am.
As a wife, mommy of 3, and business owner I can assure you my most precious commodity is my time. Therefore, this is what I will tithe.
Some days it might be 30 minutes, other days it might be an hour and a half. I don't honestly know.
And I'm sure there are going to be days that I fail, and I already know the outcome.
Scrambled.
I am not a morning person, but guess what, I'm going to try this whole morning thing out. Because I hear there is something magical about this time.
"The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter til the full light of day." Proverbs 4:18
Pray for me? Please?
Time to go start the laundry and it's only 6:09 am.
Ahhh... I think I can get used to this.
I'll give you all a follow up soon...
♥
Here's my 8 month old that still enjoys waking up all night.
I will someday miss this right?
That's what I keep telling myself.
XO.
