Date Night

My husband just surprised me. His insistence that we hold to our date night tonight has put a huge smile on my face today. I was willing to make a sacrifice and help out a friend. He flatly refused to not go on a date with me tonight. His words to me on the phone just now were "If I don't stand up for us then who will?" Talk about priorities! I am humbled to be put in my place and glad to be married to such an awesome man who knows what is what.

Sometimes I complain that his hours are longer than I would like. Dinner together as a family has turned into an exception rather than the rule and I hate that. We are often overbooked. We both feel stretched thin. I need date night just as much as he does. But when things come up (fever with Baby Girl, a movie night I agreed to for Middle Boy and his friends) I figure- eh, we can skip a date night here and there. Can't we? Then a statement comes to mind that has been repeated over the years. Can we afford to not do this thing? It has multiple applications, but it always refers to priorities. Can we afford that plane ticket to see your brother get married? Can we afford not to? No. Can we really call or email every day while we are apart? Can we afford not to? No. We can't. And we can't skip date night when we are both burned out after a busy week and need to stop the noise inside our heads.

Investing in ourselves, like Martha would say, it's a good thing.

My two year old would not eat her toast just now and somehow it escalated into a storm off to her room and she is yelling through the door at me "YOU'RE NOT MY FRIEND!" Sheesh! I think I do need that date more than I realized. Now I wonder if he would count a trip to the grocery store together as a date?

*update! A promise of painted nails and Baby Girl and I are friends again-whew!*