Date Night In - Guest Post

I am so excited about today's post! As noted below, Christy is on a break from blogging, and I've missed hearing about her projects. I asked her if she'd like to share them over here, and here's the first one. I seriously think Christy has done more things on my crafty to-do list than I have. This project would be perfect for Father's Day, I think - enjoy!
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Hi! I am Christy from the Zimms Zoo. Lenetta has very kindly allowed me to guest post over here once in awhile because I am not currently blogging regularly at mine (life kinda got in the way). I am very excited to do this. Lenetta always has some great info on eating healthy, cleaning naturally and my personal favorite (the reason I stumbled upon her blog) links to fabulous handmade projects.

With Father's Day coming up, I thought that I would share with you a project that I just made for my husband: a date calendar.

A friend of mine said she had seen a calendar that you could buy that had pre-planned dates on it. However after she started looking at them, the dates were very expensive. I don't know about you, but with 6 kids and a great-grandma living with us, I don't have a lot of extra time or resources for those kind of dates. This got the wheels in my head turning. Why couldn't I make something like this, but with cheaper or free dates?

I started searching the internet to see what I could come up with. The first place I landed was Love, Actually. She has fantastic ideas on dates at home and dates out. I browsed the website, but still some of them required a babysitter. This isn't always easy for us. Then my friend suggested Dating Divas. Another wonderful site full of date ideas. Between these 2 I was able to get several good ideas that I could modify to use.

But then I hit the jack-pot with Project 52! Hosted by Simply Modern Mom, it is a commitment to date your husband at least once a week; most of these dates should be at home, and without the kids (meaning after their bedtime for us). I think the angels were singing when I found this one. It was exactly what I was looking for! Cheap or free, could work with our crazy schedule, and lots of inspiration. What was not to like? She even had a weekly linky party with other people's ideas right there for me to see.

That did it! I was going to make this calendar with pre-planned date nights and themes and have it professionally printed (I know I said I was cheap, but I wanted it to look really nice) so that he could hang it in his office and be reminded of when the date nights were coming. Just a little sidenote: Be sure and see how long it takes to get it printed. I used Sam's, which is like Costco for some of you, and I thought it was printed in-house. Wrong! His birthday was yesterday and it won't be arriving for another 2 weeks. Bummer!

I also made a Date Night Idea tin, with simple ideas that we could do if we found some un-expected time. After browsing all those ideas, I started coming up with some on my own. I tried to put at least 12 more in there so we could do at least another one a month. But I know I will be adding to this as the year goes on and things pop into my mind.

Here are some pre-planned date night ideas that I came up with and some that I borrowed (and modified) to get you going:

1. Fondue night- different fondue dips and things to dip in them.
2. Drive-in movie night- taking the laptop outside and setting up our canopy to use as a stall.
3. Light drawing- you need to check out the post to see all the details
4. Bookstore date- does involve leaving the house. Just hanging out at the bookstore, browsing books, and having something from the cafe.

Date Night idea can:
1. Scrabble and strawberries (chocolate-dipped!)
2. Would you rather....- This came from Simply Modern Mom.
3. Who can make the best story or sentence out of magnetic words. Someone gave us a HUGE set of magnetic words for the kids. Give each of us a handful, set the timer, and see who wins.
4. Chopped- This as an idea I saw on Project 52, based on the TV show. Looks like fun!
5. Massages~Need I say more?
6. Photo Booth- Gather a handful of props and snap away! I found this link for mustaches that I thought looked like fun too.

I hope this inspires you to start dating your husband again. Don't let the busy-ness of life crowd in and make you forget why you married him in the first place. Our husbands have a very stressful responsibility of providing for the family and we have the stressful job (which is also a privilege) of raising that family. So take some time and laugh together!
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Christy, thank you SO MUCH for this post and all these ideas! (I haven't seen the show Chopped but after reading that post, I want to!) What a fabulous way to keep some fun in your relationship - I love it!

Anybody else have any good ideas for Father's Day, or seen anything you'd like to do? Between you and me and the fencepost, Hubs already got most of his gift - a chimney starter for the charcoal grill he got for Christmas. I gave it to him early so he could get to using it. I also have a little bug catching kit and butterfly net squirreled away that I bought on clearance last year... it's more for Goose, but since bugs aren't my favorite thing, he'll be the one searching with her, I think.

Thanks again, Christy - can't wait to have you back!

This post will be submitted to Frugal Fridays at Life As Mom, and also to Amy's Finer Things, because really, what is finer than dating the man you love?!?