Date Night

I follow several blogs online.  Some are about cooking, some about miniature building, and some are about gardening.  The other day I came across a posting for a blog named Not Without Salt, a cooking blog that has some great recipes on it. This particular post talked about something called Eaton Mess, an English dessert that the author took some liberty with. Many of the recipes I read of hers are great and often look wonderful.  I try to replicate some, but often my attempts don’t look as appetizing as hers.  Perhaps as she is an art major, there is a level of artistic skill that I just don’t possess.

The other day she was talking about a date night she spends with her husband.  They have young children and when the children are in bed, they turn their attention to each other and concentrate on their adult world.  I somewhat envy her not because of her young children or her young marriage, but because she has time to enjoy with her husband.  It seems as if I am always doing something outside the home.  I realize that much of these obligations are things that I have taken on myself and I only have me to blame for my lack of time, but I envy the time she talks about where she can spend quality time with her mate.

My husband and I do try to enjoy each other’s company and have done a pretty good job through the 28 years we have been married.  We don’t set up a specific date night, but often one of us will express the need for one realizing we haven’t done one in a while.  We usually leave weekend nights to watch movies on our DVD player, or have a fire in the fire pit, and enjoy a glass of wine at the same time.  I know those evenings don’t result in “sparkling conversation” as my stepfather was fond of saying, but it’s the togetherness that we share.  Our son is grown and flown so we don’t have to worry about him going to bed or worry about when he is coming home (trust me, there is always worry going on about him – well at least on my end), so it’s just the two of us.  But I think we have made the best of our marriage and our partnership through some pretty rough patches in our lives. I agree that it is important to have a date night with your significant other to rekindle the attraction you first felt for each other no matter the path each of you has taken.  It seems like time together away from the world is a piece of the formula that couples are looking for when aiming for a long marriage.