Project 52

Posted by  | Tuesday, October 12, 2010  at 12:00 AM  
The one word that comes to mind when I think about ministering to my husband is intentionality! You have to be intentional about doing it.

It doesn't always come easy! Things don't always go as planned. Sometimes there are times where you wish you were the one being ministered to. It sometimes takes pure intention!

Last April, I stumbled upon an idea on a blog that I instantly fell in love with! It had a "Julie & Julia" twist of doing something for an entire year but instead of doing it every day, you do it once a week. So the title of "Project 52" was created. The project is something I thought would be great to do in our home because like this "Simply Modern Mom" (the creator of the project), it is something that easily gets neglected with the busyness of life!


Project 52: Date Nights logo


Project 52 is all about creating date nights in your marriage! Nights to get to know your spouse better, create memories, learn and try new things, be creative and have some fun. We are at the 6 year marriage mark and although we are more in love today than the day we met, we definitely neglect consistent date nights. We use many excuses and don't even realize it--kids, we don’t want to pay for a babysitter every week, too busy, finances don't allow multiple or big date nights out, plan other things on the calendar, put others before ourselves, and the excuses go on.

I was determined to be intentional and change the way we had intimate time together as a couple. And so when I saw this, I had a "ah-ha" moment of this is something we should do that would be fun, different, and create special time each week for just the two of us. Each week I plan a date night usually around a theme.

On the first week (we are now on week 24), I sent Andy a gift basket to his work (You can read about that here) to introduce him to the idea with the following:

Project 52
The following criteria was created for our weekly date night--
1. Date nights will typically be home-based fun and will cost less than $5 or fall into categories already established in the general budget
2. We can't do the same thing twice in one month
3. Date nights can be planned by either person
4. No children allowed (if applicable)
5. Must create a date like atmosphere. No frumpy clothes or pajamas unless otherwise stated that they are acceptable for the particular evening activities. Make it a special event. Mind the details. But most of all, keep it simple.
6. Date nights cannot be cancelled unless an emergency inhibits the night from occurring. Nights can be switched if needed.

Simply Modern Mom and her husband signed on to the project together and split planning the date nights. I decided to make it something I would do to minister to my husband and I would plan the weekly dates. Andy does plan one every so often and loves showing me how much he loves this as well. Each week, I try (I have missed a few) to blog about it and link our date nights up to Simply Modern Mom! Other couples link their date nights too and it is a great way to get ideas for future date nights!

What has "Project 52" done for our marriage? WOW! I can't even begin to tell you how much we love this night and look forward to it every week! It has created a whole new level of intimacy, a new level on the way we communicate, a new level of enjoying one another's company.

You can read the majority of our date nights on our family blog, http://www.apkweber.blogspot.com/. The direct link for the "Project 52" date nights can be found here. Be sure to scroll back to the oldest post first to read them in order.

Here's a little view of "Weber Style Project 52 Date Nights":

2 comments:

A + J said...

This is just what we need. I'm super excited about this and plan to implement it on our date this week (thanks to the free babysitting offered by my sister who is in town this weekend :)

I read through the Simply Modern Mom website quickly so I may have missed it but wondered if you found a list of ideas or do you just have to sort through her date posts? Are you coming up with the ideas on your blog on your own?

Was the basket your idea?

I also stumbled across a series of 6 dates called The Great Date Experiment which looks neat too!

Jackie

Pam said...

Jackie,

Reading your comment made me remember that I forgot to say that we have date night at home every week (with the exception of this past week) after the kids go down to bed. We usually start at 8:30 until finished. So we never hire a babysitter for those of you wondering (and yes, sometimes this means we get interrupted because of night terrors, etc. with 2 little ones!) But I am so excited that you have a sitter for your date night this week! WooHoo!!

There is a list on her site...somewhere! I will see if I can locate it again. I typically now just look through and find ones I like if I don't have an idea of my own. The ideas on my blog have probably been 50/50...others I have read and my own. We love watching movies, so I try to keep doing those but always with a twist and not close together.

The basket was my idea. Since Andy had never heard of this, I wanted to introduce him to the idea and show him how much he means to me all at the same time. I think it really meant so much more when I delivered it to his work. The envelope system is my idea as well. I print out what we will be doing every week and have the "date night" in the envelope (in the basket) ready for hubby to read when he comes home from work on Wednesdays. HE LOVES THIS! Sometimes the first thing he does is grab the envelope!

Thanks for your comments and questions! Happy dating!

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