dinner at eight :: husband's favorites

This weeks date came on the heels of Chris being gone all last weekend. Yes you read that right it was 3 kids + 2 days + 1 Mommy...needless to say we were planning to have our date night on Monday, but I was way too tired. So we decided Tuesday would be perfect. Only thing Chris came home Tuesday and had like one of the hardest days of his life. Oh how our date was so threatened once again to be ruined. But Andi and I had decided this week was husband's favorites which ended up being such perfect timing considering how my sweetie was feeling.

I had prepared all of the things Chris had asked for and so instead of sulking and cancelling our date again we went for it and truly had a wonderful evening!

 When I asked Chris what he would like me to prepare for dinner I knew it would be yummy and include a chocolate shake. He requested a BBQ burger, salad, oven baked potato chips and of course a shake. A total indulgent treat night I was excited about the menu too!

I set out the card table in front of the fire again, this time used one of my favorite vintage table clothes and some simple candles for the decoration. I also made a silly little "your my favorite" flag to decorate his burger...I got a little smile for that. :)

 and as a super fun special surprise I made Irish Cream chocolate shakes for dessert. Oh.my.gosh. so yum! You must try if you are into an occasional special cocktail.

6oz of Bailey's
2oz Vodka
Ice cream
Chocolate Syrup

blended to a creamy delicious treat! {serves two}

 And it was as if God just knew that we were going to need that evening of intentional time together to sort through some hard things on our plate and find a space to connect rather than be at each others throats because of stress and exhaustion. The kids were once again pretty curious about our date night but did a good job of going to bed and giving us some peace and quiet. Since I had spent some time focusing on preparing my heart for a night truly devoted to some of Chris's favorites I was already in the mindset that whatever he would like to do or talk about I needed to indulge him. So many times when we have a few minutes to ourselves I jump ahead and want to share my thoughts and feelings but during this date instead I loved listening to my husbands heart, hearing about some of the things he hopes for and desires. He even got a chance to show me some things he is working on with music and to end our date we watched the first episode of Human Planet - a series not yet available in the states but created by the same force that brought us Planet Earth. Chris is beyond excited about this new series and I loved watching it with him!

It was a great night despite the hard things further confirming in my mind that this project is all about pouring into our spouses intentional time to connect and bless one another. So often after a hard day we would normally vedge out online or in front of the television so it was a deep blessing to instead sit in front of a roaring fire, eating yummy food and listening to all that God wants to do in our lives.

AND on a completely adorable note, Chris also wrote me a song this past week..you can listen to it HERE. He is such an amazing man I am so very blessed to be married to him!

don't forget to go check out Andi's date with her sweetie too - Andi has the most beautiful heart and her evening looks like it was pretty perfect!

more info about the project here