I mentioned date nights yesterday as our way of checking in and avoiding “marital drift.” Check out some of our favorite date night ideas and share your favorites, too!

Dinner: We love a good meal. In fact, we love enjoying any meal together. When it’s just the two of us, we can chat and take our time without being in a rush. Bonus points for being able to dress up!

Live entertainment: Concerts, theater, comedy–a live performance is always a good time! We have even been to see shows we knew nothing about, just because they are live. They pretty much never disappoint.

Dessert date: Sometimes we skip dinner and go straight for the good stuff! Other times, we do a dessert date at home after we’ve put our son to bed. Either way, you can’t go wrong with dessert!

Post-bedtime at-home date: Dessert isn’t the only way this works. Sitter not available? Do “dinner time” as a family then cook a fancy meal together to share. Out of town with your kid in a single hotel room? Sometimes you just make date night work. (Here we are in the “other room” during a hotel stay. Yep, you do what you gotta do.)

Sporting events: It’s no secret we love Aggie football, but that’s not all. We enjoy horse races, basketball games (in small doses), baseball (college or minor league) games, etc as well.

Other options I love but Mr. Gray isn’t crazy about: Think old school birthday party activities–bowling, roller skating, ice skating, putt putt, and the like. 

Do you make date night a priority? What’s your favorite thing to do? 

I’m writing Marriage Matters as part of the #write31days challenge. Are you in? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to check your posts out!

Today was one of those days–I had all sorts of plans, then life happened.

It’s a good reminder that if we let life happen and aren’t intentional in our marriage, the good stuff can get away from us. Even on days when things aren’t going the way I planned, I check in with Mr. Gray to say hi and I love you at least a couple times. We haven’t even seen each other since before daylight this morning (and we probably won’t until after dark this evening), but we have had little check-in moments.

It’s sort of like when you’re playing in the waves at the beach and you start to drift. Every now and then you have to look up to see where your stuff is on the shore–to get a handle on where you’ve gone before you’ve moved too far in the current. That’s how we handle even our busiest days–little check-ins to say hello and let the other know we’re thinking of them.

On a grander scheme, that’s where date nights, quick trips (even a just night away), and vacations come into play. These are your check in points. They’re the point where you stop and become intentional about checking the priority of your marriage. Schedule these. Put them on your calendar–as far in advance as you have to to make sure they happen. Make them non-negotiable. This is one of the most valuable things you can do for your marriage. Spend time alone together. Double dates are fun, but they don’t take the place of date night. Family dates? Same thing!

Not sure how to pull it off on the cheap? Trade off with another family. Watch their kids one week and they’ll watch yours the next. Then your kiddos will begin to look forward to date night as well. (Locals, we’re still looking to get back into this rotation after the move; we’d love to trade kids with you!)

I’m writing Marriage Matters as part of the #write31days challenge. Are you in? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to check your posts out!

This weekend, I had the privilege of coordinating a wedding. I love when people ask me to be involved in their wedding in any capacity. I love weddings!

As they said their vows, one in particular stood out, “I am choosing to spend the rest of my life with you.” Did you catch that? It’s a choice. Every single married day of our lives, we make a choice. Do we wake up and be present in our marriage, fight for our marriage, be on the same team as our spouse, or do we give up, give in, and check out?

In our house, when we have a bad day, we still choose to spend the rest of our lives with each other. When the dishes aren’t done or supper doesn’t taste great, we still choose to spend the rest of our lives together. Regardless of the circumstances, it’s a choice we make each and every day. We choose each other, our marriage, our family.

I’m writing Marriage Matters as part of the #write31days challenge. Are you in? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to check your posts out!

Saturday is the perfect day for rolling down the windows, cruisin’ some back roads, and blasting your music.

Music always brings back memories for us, so I put together some of my favorites that remind me of my sweet husband–you know, songs from our wedding, sweet love songs, and the like. 

What do your Saturdays look like? 

I’m writing Marriage Matters as part of the #write31days challenge. Are you in? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to check your posts out!

Yesterday I came across a post from a friend that really hit the nail on the head.

I hadn’t heard anything about the issue with Jennifer Lawrence and her nude photos, and I had to check Google Images to see who Jennifer Lawrence even is, but the comments my friend Bethany makes are dead on: Porn is Not the Inevitable. (Go read, I’ll wait… glad you’re back!)

Ladies, do not buy into this lie. This is not what God desires for us in our dating relationships or in our marriages.

I’m writing Marriage Matters as part of the #write31days challenge. Are you in? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to check your posts out!

I love all that God designed marriage to be. I love being married. I love working on my marriage (even when the issue at hand is my fault). I love having someone on my team, always.

I said recently that marriage is the best medicine. I meant it. Marriage was designed for us to be one with our spouse.

God knew that our spouse would bring us the most earthly comfort due to the bond we have with them that we don’t have with anyone else.

When I remember that Mr. Gray and I are on the same team, that he is for me, that our end goals are the same, my attitude in our marriage is better. I don’t jump to conclusions, make assumptions, or overreact. When I lose sight of our one-ness, my tendencies are not great.

I encourage you today, no matter where you are in your marriage, to connect to that feeling of being one you felt on your wedding day with your spouse. Maybe your marriage isn’t in a great place. How can I pray for you? Leave a note in the comments, and I’ll be praying! 

I’m writing Marriage Matters as part of the #write31days challenge. Are you in? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to check your posts out!

Once upon a time, I was going to conduct a fun interview with Mr. Gray. Instead, we spent last night watching Blacklist.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is veg out together, watch a little Netflix, and take the evening off. It’s good for the soul.

Maybe that interview will happen some other time.

I’m writing Marriage Matters as part of the #write31days challenge. Are you in? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to check your posts out!
 

Sometimes I feel like a bit of an over-sharer. You know, like yesterday when I posted super-awkward selfies in an effort to choose which glasses I should keep.

Of course, this little cutie had to join in, too!

But I digress. The point is, I can be an over-sharer. My husband, who is not a sharer, really, sort of gets dragged into being a sharer by default around here. I appreciate that. He knows writing is good for me–for my heart and mind. So I write. And share. And he supports me in every way. I balance sharing and not sharing, but mostly I write (and if you happen to see me in person, I talk).

That’s one of my favorite parts of marriage–balancing. We balance each other out quite well. He’s mac to my cheese. We work perfectly together; a God-ordained fit! 

Are you a sharer?
(Also, which glasses would you pick?)

I’m writing Marriage Matters as part of the #write31days challenge. Are you in? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to check your posts out! 

One of my love languages is the written word. I love notes, texts, letters–anything that my husband takes the time to write for me is a treasured keepsake.

In an effort to better communicate with each other, Mr. Gray and I have come up with a few ideas that help make writing to each other more easily accessible.

The first is a journal we share. We write notes, thoughts, thank you’s, prayers, etc to each other and leave it on the other’s nightstand. It’s been a great way to keep track of what we write and look back on past notes.

Another way we communicate quickly through written word is with dry erase markers on our bathroom mirror (my favorite is when he leaves me a weather report!).  Even on our tiny mirror in the camp house, this works great! I put lots of dry erase markers in Mr. Gray’s stocking last year so we would have a variety of colors to use. I almost always snap a photo so I have them after we erase!

Another quick and easy use of written word is texting. I know a lot of people don’t think texting is a very sincere form of communication, but it helps us stay in touch or send little love notes throughout our busy days. (Add an element of extra fun with secret codes and special meanings for the emojis.)

I’m so grateful that Mr. Gray works hard to speak to me in my love languages (of course I’m complicated and have several). It makes a huge difference in our marriage and time together. I treasure the words he writes for me.

What’s your love language? Do you write to your spouse? 

I’m writing Marriage Matters as part of the #write31days challenge. Are you in? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to check your posts out!

My husband does so much that is selfless. He works hard each day then comes home to join us on whatever adventures we have for the evening. Each weekend he jumps right in with my hair-brained ideas.

On tap this weekend, the chicken flying contest, and subsequent coop-making after our chicken (that we thought was a rooster) laid an egg!

Yeah, so flashback to Easter: my hair-brained idea was to purchase chickens to take chick pics with. Done. Our lone survivor went to live with Ella Bella for a while. Then he was returned to us a few weeks ago. We decided to keep him around until the chicken flying contest.

Saturday afternoon, when we went to load the chicken up and head to town, we found an egg. The thing laid and egg! The rooster that’s not really a rooster.

So, he got an upgraded home yesterday evening because, of course, I couldn’t let him go on living happily like he was now that he laid an egg. Thank goodness for my sweet husband and all his patience.

We used some scraps we had around and created a little coop. We’ll see how it works out (so far, the cats are really enjoying it).

I’m writing Marriage Matters as part of the #write31days challenge. Are you in? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to check your posts out!