Enjoy Date Night @ Home!

By Fawn Weaver on Thursday, November 17, 2011

A couple days ago, a fellow blogger posed a simple question on our community board, “When was the last time you went on a date with your husband?”  For several people, it had been over a month.  Mainly, because babysitters are expensive and getting out of the house can sometimes be easier said than done.

Coming to the rescue…one of my favorite marriage sites on the web.  I’m honored to have them guest blogging for us today.  Introducing…

My name is Erika and I’m here from The Dating Divas. Happy Wives Club has asked me to guest blog today and I thought I’d share with you one of my favorite date ideas. That’s what we do at The Dating Divas. Our goal is to strengthen marriages one date at a time. The Divas also like to give you some quick and easy romance ideas, a creative date once a week, intimate moments, anniversary and gift ideas and so much more. Check out this idea to get you started with a weekly date night.

I’m like you; my husband’s schedule is busy and he’s often gone on the weekends, money is tight, and we have two little munchkins (one being a newborn.) With all of that going on, date night often ends up being at home after the kids are in bed. So why not have date night on Wednesday? Wonderful Wednesday! No rule that Date Night has to be on the weekend.

So the kids are in bed and you don’t want to stay up TOO late with work the next day, so what should we do for date night? The DATE WHEEL! I put together a Date Wheel that you just have to spin to pick what you are going to do.

You just print, cut it out, and stick on the date options and you are ready to go! The options are interchangeable (stick them on with Velcro or tape or magnets) so you can change them out depending on your mood or availability. I even left a few blank so you could create your own ideas to use as well!

Oh and a word to the wise, I laminated mine. This way I can reuse again and again without printing a new one. I can also use a vis vis or dry erase marker to write on the blank option cards. Thanks to the fabulous Aileen, of Lil Buckaroo Designs, for creating this printable date wheel. You can DOWNLOAD for FREE the Date Wheel with instructions of how to put it together to use for your next date!

Sticking with the inexpensive and easy theme, I sent my husband a text earlier in the day informing him that date night was happening TONIGHT!

Once the kids were in bed, I pulled out the Date Wheel and explained to him how it worked. We added a few more of our own ideas and then I let him spin.

This was perfect for us because half our battle on date night is deciding what to do. Neither of us wants to decide and we’ll usually just end up in front of the TV.

But all of these ideas are EASY at home dates and don’t take any prep work. We had so much fun playing games and are looking forward to next week.

Sometimes the best dates are the simple and inexpensive ones. Wednesdays may be my new favorite night!

Thanks to Fawn and Happy Wives Club for letting me be here today!

Erika, thank YOU for sharing this great tip with us.  We greatly appreciate you stopping by and kicking off the discussion today.

Does anyone else have a great stay-at-home date suggestion?  What do you think about Erika’s date night tip?  I loved it!  What about you?  Please leave your comments here and we’ll continue the conversation well into the night.

Until tomorrow…make it a great day!

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Fawn Weaver

Founder at Happy Wives Club
Fawn Weaver is the USA Today® and New York Times® bestselling author of Happy Wives Club: One Woman's Worldwide Search for the Secrets of a Great Marriage, adopting the same name as the Club she founded in 2010. The Happy Wives Club community has grown to include more than 900,000 women in over 110 countries around the world. When she’s not blogging or working on her next project, she's happily doting over her husband of nearly eleven years, Keith.

 

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  • http://gwendolyngage.blogspot.com/ Gwendolyn Gage

    These are great ideas! I need all the help all I can get in this area of my life, since I avoid the TV like the plague! LOL! Thanks for sharing!

  • http://www.happywivesclub.com Fawn Weaver

    Gwen, I totally get it. I don't watch TV either. Probably a couple times a month. I love date night — just had one last night :) .

  • Meeks

    This is such a cool idea! My husband and I also have two little ones at home–one running around, and the other barely learning to turn over. Going out for date night has been an irregular occurrence since our second was born and I definitely long for that alone time. We have movie nights in house and we both love playing games so we will have to start doing that more often. As a matter of fact, I think someone is going to get beat in rummy tonight and its not going to be me! Good day HWC!

  • Fawn Weaver

    Good day Meeks! Thanks for stopping by and dropping a comment off. We were having a challenge with our comments section this morning so I'm happy to see it's working again. Yeah!! Make sure to come back and let us know how you date @ home goes tonight :) .

  • Angie M.

    Regarding the date wheel, I would love some ideas of some fun and inexpensive things to do at home.

  • Fawn Weaver

    Angie, try going over to TheDatingDivas.com for more great "at home" date ideas. They have so many great ones! Really! Thanks for stopping by :) .

  • http://www.lemondroppie.com Ginny Marie

    I never thought of playing a game with my husband! I'll be sure to check out more ideas on the Dating Diva. (I might need to invest in a Scrabble game!)

  • http://theblogfrog.com/1505794 Vicki

    Hi Ladies,
    32 yrs. ago when my husband and I got married, we were poor as church mice. So, we found creative ways to entertain ourselves. For example, we bought balsa wood and started designing our dream home. It was really fun. The project was just one of our ideas. We also loved assembling jigsaw puzzles. Periodically, we’d pull out our wedding photos (or other photos) and flip through them. Our big dates out of the apartment consisted of things like going to the airport to watch people come and go (trying to guess where they were going), walking around the neighborhood, etc. Nowadays, we go on a photo shoot together (taking pictures of God’s creation). We also enjoy simply having a conversation!

  • Fawn Weaver

    @Ginny- Me too! I love scrabble but I've never played it with my husband. Seems like a good idea to have some games in a chest somewhere.

    @Vicki- I love this! Keith and I are so laid back and we are pretty frugal so I love your stories. The only question I have is what in the world is balsa wood? I'm assuming it's something you use for model homes and you didn't actually start building your dream home :) .

    Thank you both for stopping by!

  • http://marinecorpsnomads.com Heather @ Marine Corps Nomads

    The date wheel is such a fun idea. We actually prefer date night at home as it's more relaxing for us. Honestly, for us, it's just about being together.

  • Fawn Weaver

    @Heather- We feel the exact same way. Tonight felt like date night because it was just him and me and hours of downtime. We laughed, as we usually do, and just enjoyed our alone time. It was a great night.

  • http://thedatingdivas.com Erika

    Thanks for letting me guest blog, and I"m LOVING all the ideas you are all sharing for date nights at home. It is so important to date your spouse, even if it has to be inexpensively – which for us it does! :)

  • Fawn Weaver

    Thanks again, Erika! I've been talking about The Dating Divas all week…all over the blogging community. I want more people to see your site because you gals really have the best dating ideas. I just love them! Keep up the awesome work you're doing to strengthen marriages.

  • http://ritasunderland.com RitaSunderland

    Such a cute post about dating … not about the first one .. those days are gone and now we need to find the way to keep our fire of love in a new way )

  • Fawn Weaver

    Rita, It's so great that we no longer have to experience those awkward first dates. We are able to date our best friend for the rest of our lives. How cool is that? Thanks for stopping by!