Creative Date Ideas Revisited

I originally shared these ideas back in 2009 after my husband and I attended a marriage retreat.  We've been a few times over the years and will be attending again next month.  Any excuse to visit Camp Au Sable is a good one.  It's been a long time since we've been away together for a weekend, and even longer since we've been to Camp Au Sable together.  We are very much looking forward to it.  In the meantime, these ideas truly stand the test of time.  I don't know about you, but we could stand to review this list, as more often than not we end up at the grocery store on our evenings out.  There are definitely more interesting ideas than that listed here!

Ideas for Creative Dates

• Pick up a book of local walks and choose one where you have never been before.
• Take a day course together and learn to do something new like make stained glass, fix car engines, paint watercolor, make baskets, cook a cultural meal, etc.
• Go out to eat changing restaurants for each course.
• Meet in the park with a packed lunch. Pretend you've never met before, and spend time getting to know each other while you feed the ducks.
• Go to a place where there are street performers, and enjoy the show.
• Try a new type of restaurant that you never before have explored like Thai, Cantonese, Tuscany, Vegetarian, Polish, etc.
• Share a spa day together.
• Visit a card shop. Read the funny cards together. Choose one that you would like to give to the other person, and either share it there or buy them and take them home.
• Charter a boat for an hour or two. Take a picnic lunch and a book of poetry or a humorous book about marriage.
• Take a blanket to the top of a hill. Lie on your backs and view the night sky. Bring along a book of constellations so that you can try to locate them. Take a thermos of hot cocoa or soup to share together. You might even see some shooting stars!
• Learn to ice-skate together, try go-karting, or buy a kite and fly it together.
• Find a free concert to attend or special evening at the museum.
• Visit a cathedral together and ask for the children's guide to the building. They often give a lot of unusual facts about the building and interesting details to look for. Stay for evensong for a peaceful and ethereal experience. Enjoy a meal in the cathedral cafe', or a nearby restaurant.
• Go out for dessert and coffee. Take your time, and enjoy the experience savoring your treat and your conversation with each other.

Ideas for Evenings Indoors

• Choose a menu together and cook a meal for two at home. Try cooking an Indian meal and serve it wearing an improvised sari, or a Japanese meal, to eat sitting on floor cushions around a low table. Find some music to suit the culture and enjoy the evening. If cooking's too much for you order takout. You could even watch a relevant film or play regional music to add to the mood.
• Compile a list of videos you'd both like to see together so you know which ones to rent when you have the opportunity. Don't forget the popcorn!
• Play your favorite childhood board games.
• Surf the Internet together for ideas for your next outing or holiday.
• Find or buy some crayons and drawing paper and have a go at drawing each other's portrait.
• Buy some child's modeling clay and try to sculpt a model of each other's head.
• Find a piece of old furniture that needs refinishing and remodel it together, or finish an unfinished piece of wood furniture giving it your personal touch. Sign and date your creation.
• Share five special memories you each have about your relationship and five special hopes or plans for the future.
• Borrow a book about massage from the library and learn how to give each other a massage with fragrant aromatherapy oils.
• Find a modern Bible and read the Song of Solomon to each other. You may be surprised at what you find!
• Make a scrapbook of memorabilia of your fun times together. Jot notes of ideas for more fun times together in a notebook so that you're never short of new ways to have fun.
• Make something nice to drink like lemonade or hot cocoa, depending on the season, and curl up with old photo albums or family films.

With a little time and thought you can begin to put some of the fun of dating back into your marriage.  Try these ideas out for size:

• Think about the things you did together for fun before you were married.
• Think about the things that you always wanted to do but never had the time or the opportunity to try.
• Write a list of 10 places you'd like to go or things you'd like to do on a date together. Swap lists with each other and see what you've each written. Take turns choosing a date idea from you spouse's list. Keep adding new ideas to the list.
• Do all you can to make the dating occasion enjoyable, even if it is not the sort of thing you'd normally do. Focus on your spouse's enjoyment and find little ways to add delight and surprises to the experience, such as secretly buying him or her a special souvenir that they said they liked, or finding a new place to eat lunch, or meeting them with a bunch of flowers.
• At the end of each date, make sure you know when and where the next date will be. Looking forward to something is half the fun!
• Have a list of fun things to do at home too for those times when you don't feel like going out or when you cannot get a babysitter.

Family Traditions

We have the most amazing Women's Ministries team within our region.  Our church camp is phenomenal, and the most wonderful programs take place there.  This past weekend Harmony and I got to visit Camp Au Sable for our first ever Mother Daughter Retreat.  They put on an amazing program.  The Women's Ministries ladies really have a talent for making everyone feel special.

As we walked up to the main building for registration we were greeted by a fun row of colorful pinwheels and a ladybug light lined roof adorned with those fun party banners with the little pointed flags.  We entered the lobby to a 1950's diner setting where we signed in, made fun, polka-dot themed name tags, crafted a picture frame, and entered our names into drawings for the opportunity to win prizes.

Upon entering the main auditorium we found ourselves in the audience of the set of a 1950's home complete with beautiful turquoise-blue kitchen appliances, old school black and white checker board flooring, and the type of sewing machine my grandmother used to use.  We chose our matching aprons and posed for a picture.  The stage had been set for the weekend very effectively.



As things unfolded we learned about the value of being a woman in today's family.  The mother and daughter speakers did a wonderful job of teaching about tradition and how the Jews celebrate various things throughout the year.  Their personal experiences were insightful and refreshing, and they did a wonderful job appealing to the vast age range of participants.  We were in the company of daughters, granddaughters, mothers, sisters, and grandmothers.  It was a beautiful mix of women and future women.

The big topic of discussion was tradition, and this is a subject dear to my hear.  I long for tradition and so regret that I've not done a better job of instilling the importance of tradition within my children.  Guess it's time to work on the next generation.  We are carrying on some traditions of old and creating some new ones within our family.  Since we get to participate in a round two of parenting, there's no better time for us to learn from the past.

Current Traditions in Our Family -

Special Birthday Meals and Dessert
One on One Lunch Out with Mom on Birthday - Kid's Choice
First Day of School Photo Shoot
Annual 4-H Fair Dollar Day
New Year's Eve Indian Fry Bread Tacos with Friends
Christmas Eve Music Service with Mom and Looking at Lights
A Whole Month Break from School for December
Sledding and Hot Cocoa in the Winter
Lighting Candles for Sabbath in the Winter Months
Christmas Dinner with Mom
Nacho Bar, Taco Soup, and Tres Leche Cake with the Family for Christmas
Make Ornaments for the Grandkids
Read Stories at Bedtime


Traditions I'd Like to Add -

Annual Family Campout at Our House
Annual Family Vacation
Jesus Tree
Tamales Christmas Eve
Thankful Tree or Thankful Box at Thanksgiving
Special Plate for Birthday Meals
Celebrate Baptism or Baby Dedication Day
Decorating a Tree for Wildlife in the Winter
Last Day of School Pictures
Visit a Tree Farm for Christmas
Attend a Local Fall Festival
Friday Night Supper - same each week
Family Night - popcorn and a movie or game
Annual Photo Book - view on New Year's Eve
Make Resurrection Cookies for Easter

Some of the benefits of family traditions include fostering a stronger family connection, providing a feeling of security to the children, fostering a sense of belonging, imparting and reinforcing values, and helping children to become happy and generous adults.

Road Trip Therapy

There is nothing, I mean NOTHING, like a road trip with a good friend.  I am feeling blessed in so many ways.  The Lord has been teaching me abundantly lately, and for the most part I have been receiving the lessons with open and willing arms.  It is so freeing when we just go with the flow and do not force life into our own skewed idea of the way things are supposed to be.

That being said, I am learning to let go.  Let go of my ideals.  Let go of my agenda.  Let go of my expectations.  Let go, and be free.  What is more fitting than a road trip with no real agenda?  Part of it is planned, loosely.  As a Seventh Day Adventist woman that resides in Michigan I am richly blessed to have an amazing church camp.  This weekend marks the first of three weekends this month that Camp Au Sable will host Women's Ministries.  It is an amazing opportunity to feed your soul.  Women, Adventist and not, gather from all over Michigan and beyond to fellowship together.  We eat, we laugh, we cry, we worship, we learn, we connect, and we grow.  There is so much beauty at Camp Au Sable, in the natural surroundings as well as the people.

So, the Women's Ministries Weekend is the planned part.  Well, loosely.  Normally I am packed and ready to go by now, but alas that is not the case for me with this journey.  I just determined when check-in is last night, and I've no real clue what the real topic of the weekend is, or what the seminars are, or what the schedule is, or what the special plans are, or what I want to do in my spare time.  I mean nothing.  I just made my packing list last night.  Last night!  Our washing machine is broken and will not be fixed until next week, so I still have to go out and do laundry.  This is SO not me!  But, I am okay with it and just going with the flow.  It is almost surreal.  It's like I'm looking in from the outside wondering who it is that I am.  In years past I would be so stressed in this circumstance.  Not now.  It is what it is, right?  It will all work out.  It always does.  No biggie!

So, the super unplanned part begins when we leave Camp Au Sable for our return journey home.  Guess what?  Not going home!  WOO-HOO!!!  This mamma needs a break, and my best gal pal and I are taking one.  You have no clue, or maybe you do, just how much I am looking forward to a full 24 hours to do just as I please.  See, we extended our weekend through Monday evening.  Yippee!  What do we plan to do?  I am really not sure, and that is uber cool!  Will we leisurely browse through a used book store?  Will we eat lunch while gazing out at Lake Huron, will we lounge around at a hotel as long as possible, will we find a cool cottage somewhere, will we, will we, will we?  I have no clue, and it is SO beautiful.

My time has been consumed with illness, school lessons, house cleaning, errand running, bill paying, cooking, and the slew of other things that have landed in my lap.  Responsibility has reigned, so I have spent ZERO time planning for my much anticipated extended weekend of freedom.  How refreshing!

A quote worth pondering:

God is looking for imperfect men and women 

who have learned to walk in moment-by-moment dependence on the Holy Spirit. 

Christians who have come to terms with their inadequacies, fears, and failures. 

Believers who have become discontent with ‘surviving’ 

and have taken the time to investigate everything God has to offer in this life.

- Charles Stanley

May your weekend be richly blessed, 
your soul wonderfully fed, 
and your spirit lifted high.

Preparing for VBS

Well, I'm off to Camp Au Sale again for another fun filled weekend of education and connection. This will be my second year as VBS Coordinator for our church. This year's theme is Bible Mystery Investigation. That's about all I know about it right now.

This will be my first time attending the VBS weekend, and I am looking forward to the experience. It is my understanding that many ideas are exchanged there, and I will head home with the curriculum and some tools to get me started.

I really need to get on the ball. Our VBS program is slotted for the last week in July. I am sure many of you know that three months fly by in the normal course of life, let alone when you have a pressing deadline. Before you know it we will be in the thick of things with the kids.

What I am most interested in is learning how to effectively promote our VBS program. We are a very urban church, but our congregation is aging. We do not have many youth in our church, so we really need to reach out to the community. The youth seem to really be becoming a focus of mine. Where are we without them? They are essential, and we could use more.

Do any of you have experience in this department? Is there anything you can share about bringing more families into the church? What about marketing your VBS program to the community in a fun and inviting way? I'd love to learn from your experience.

Marriage Commitment Weekend

My husband and I are heading out for a weekend marriage commitment weekend. This is an annual affair held at our church camp in Grayling, Michigan. It is absolutely gorgeous. There is a large lake that has a boardwalk, a chapel in the woods, a fort, an observatory, horses, and many more fun and beautiful things.

Last year was the first weekend we attended, and we both liked it very much. So much so that we decided to go back this year. It is a little emotional, a little romantic, a little challenging, a little peaceful, a little spiritual, and a little healing. All in all it is a very worthwhile venture.

Anyway, since we will be out of town for the weekend, and we are leaving earlier than I planned, I will not have time for posting or Entrecard dropping for a few days. Next week will bring many new adventures as I return home. The boys and I are stepping out in a new direction academically. So, I am sure there will be much to share.

Everyone have a Happy Sabbath, enjoy your weekend, your time with family, and your time with God.

Getting a Handle on Things

Well, I cannot recommend a To Do List highly enough to remove a sense of burden from your shoulders and clear your head. However, if your list is as insane as mine, the feeling will come and go until more items get crossed off; ACCOMPLISHED! Fortunately, I have managed to cross some things off, and I will have opportunity to cross off more throughout the week. I am now in manageable, bite-sized chunks. Don't get me wrong, it is still overwhelming at times, but the list does help immensely.

Nothing eases my mind and soul more than doing things for other people. Tomorrow, my best friend of 27 years will be coming to pick me up for an extended visit. I will be going to her house for the remainder of the week with my husband to join me on Friday evening.

My friend's husband is out of town for work, and tomorrow is her birthday. I will be making her a lovely dinner with her children while she takes a relaxing bath. As a homeschooling mom to SIX children all 15 years and under she rarely gets such a treat. Tomorrow afternoon and evening is going to be ALL about her. It will be a lot of fun!

By Friday her husband will have returned, and they will head out with their oldest daughter and some other teens from the church youth group, Pathfinders, for Teen Snow Outing at Camp Au Sable. Pat and I will stay with the remaining five children for the weekend. It should be a lot of fun. We are back by popular demand! This will be our second year doing this per the request of the children. What an honor to be requested!