Home Sweet Simple Home

Calendars, family time, dates and Babysitters!?!!

There's just something about those first few days of January  . . . . a whole year stretching out in front of you . . . . calendar dates just waiting to be filled up. Yikes! I have found that all too quickly my calendar fills up and my time with my family diminishes. As a youth pastor, I am gone 3-4 nites of the week and I have to say it's getting hard on me and on my family. I remember being younger and wanting my weekly calendar filled up- I wanted to know I was important enough to have something "going on" every day. Nowadays, [insert sigh] I just want to be home with my family. So one thing my husband and I have started doing is scheduling dates and family time. We put it down on the calendar and do our best to stick to it.

I hate the thought of scheduling it but I hate the thought of missing time with my family even more than that!

Our date nites are pretty low key. Around here it can cost more for a babysitter than dinner and a movie (and movies are expensive!). It seems my lively crew of 3 is too much for any one teen to babysit and now requires the services of 2. Something about tag-teaming them. Anyway, I just can't follow all the rules for babysitters (extra $ if they must cook supper, $ extra if they must give baths, extra $ if we are late coming home . . . .)

Mostly we rely on family. We are very blessed and very thankful to have our families live close by and that they are willing to take care of our children.

Truth be told, we have found we really enjoy stay-at-home date nites. We rent 2 movies- one for us and one for the kiddos. First off we enjoy a fun supper together like pizza or tacos or sometimes even (gasp!) take-out. Then the dds put on their jammies, grab their pillows and favorite blankets and crawl into mom and dad's bed to watch a fun cartoon or something. Mom and Dad then are downstairs watching a fun movie together (hopefully on the couch without anyone or any toy between us). The girls love the specialness of watching TV in our big bed and we enjoy sharing a couple of couch cushions and a bowl of ice cream in peace. Now we do have a ds (age 1 1/2 yrs) and he can't usually make up his mind if he wants to pester his sisters or his parents . . . . so he pretty much just runs all over, checking on everyone, stealing a couple of cuddles, demanding a snack and playing.

And yep, we actually prefer the at-home dates- kids and all.