30 Married Dates: Scrabble

As anyone who is married with children knows that getting time alone is hard. Not only is finding the time hard but the cost of child care and the cost of living makes going on dates can be extremely expensive. 30 Married Dates is an ongoing account of a married couple with two kids who still enjoy dating each other. Follow along as my husband and I take time for ourselves, once a month with only $30 bucks to spend. 

Who says dating after marriage has to end?

I sent TP this image in an email, inviting him to our September date.

You see, my husband is a poet. I mean, a really great poet. A nationally recognized poet. The kind of poet that gets stopped at local banks by fans, kind of poet. The kind of poet that even writes about the beauties of his wife. 

But do you know what my husband is not? He is not a very good Scrabble player. 

But me? Well, lets just say I can hold my own. In fact, he wrote a poem about me and described me as "the baddest Scrabble player around"- How is that for recgonition?

Despite his inability to really do much damage in Scrabble, he likes to play and mainly make up words that have no possibility of existence. But we play anyway and have a great time doing it. 

This time we enjoyed the company of each other, the quiet of our home, and a pretty impressive board-with made up words provided by my poet.

Total cost of date: $ 0.00  (Game was gifted to us and we didn't have any drinks) 

-M

30 Married Dates: Peach Crostata

 As anyone who is married with children knows that getting time alone is hard. Not only is finding the time hard, but the cost of child care and the cost of living, going on dates can be extremely expensive. 30 Married Dates is an ongoing account of a married couple with two kids who still enjoy dating each other. Follow along as my husband and I take time out for ourselves, once a month with only $30 bucks to spend. 
Who says dating after marriage has to end? Not us! 

I decided to spontaneously surprise my husband with a date night yesterday. I was rushing out of the house to a local farm stand for a few odds and ends to complete dinner. 

As I’m driving down the road towards the stand that isn’t located far from a grocery store, I decided that we really needed a date night. I know, I know. Some people think date nights have to be out of the home with the children gone. They do require that the children be gone (after all, you can’t focus on each other when there is a crazy toddler running around and a fussy baby) but they don’t have to be out of the home. If all dates had to be outside the home...well, we’d never have a date.

So on my way to the stand I decided that I was going to swing by the grocery store to pick up a few things for a dessert date night. I have a few ripened peaches in my fridge and while I was searching the internet for recipes I came across this one. Perfect. I went to the store to pick up pie crust, vanilla ice cream, and peach preserves (something I added in addition to the recipe). Oh, I can’t forget that I purchased a cute ‘Thinking of you’ card. 

When I got home, before I unloaded the car, I wrote a cute little message in the card, asking TP if he’d go on a date with me.

“Where?”- he asked as I held the baby so he could read the card.

“In the living room”

He laughed and said, “I heard that’s a nice place.”

“Mmmhm”

So while he was out rehearsing for a poetry show I did the usual. Played with Bean, fed the baby, and finally put them both to sleep. I then cleaned the apartment and set out to make the recipe.

It was so simple.

We had ours with ice cream and whipped cream as we sat in front of the TV and watched a movie.

Total cost of the date: $10.79

I think we both appreciated this break from our normal and look forward to next month.

-M