dinner at eight :: italian style

{Dinner at Eight is a special project I am doing with my friend Andi this year - planning date nights at home for our husbands every other week, putting the kids to bed early and being intentional about our marriages! Read more dinner at eight posts HERE!}

You guys this week has been so crazy! Lots of late nights with me out teaching and Chris working late and so the thought of planning a really purposeful date night was, I am not going to lie - totally overwhelming. I procrastinated and on Tuesday when I realized that we would really only have one sliver of an evening to spend some time together as a couple I decided to go easy and casual and hit up Trader Joes for our Italian Style feast!

Miraculously it all came together so easily. When Chris came in the door a bit late I don't think he was expecting a date night and seemed so pleasantly surprised to see the table all set up. White paper and candles and some pretty flowers was all I used. I poured him a glass of wine and went through the menu: a simple antipasto platter with cheeses, olives, bruchetta spread, salami, caprese skewers, bread with oil and vinegar, artichoke ravioli with chicken sausage and vodka cream sauce and canoli for dessert. He seemed so impressed and the nice thing about it was all I really had to do was open everything up, skewer the tomatoes and cheese, boil some water for the ravioli and dinner was served. Chris put on some Dave Brubeck which was perfect and although we did have quite a few interruptions from the little ones we still had such a wonderful date night in.

I was talking about Dinner at Eight this afternoon with a friend during preschool pickup and realized just how amazing these intentional nights have become for our marriage. In the past few months Chris and I have literally only gone out once for our anniversary - otherwise these date nights at home have been it. I am not going to lie it is insanely hard to find a sitter for us during this season. We have tried like fifteen times in a row and been unsuccessful - it's actually fairly comical. I think the fact that we have so many young kids and really busy extended families we just don't get out much. But I will say that because we do these dates at home we have truly felt so blessed through our intentional times together anyway it's been amazing.

Chris and I talked about this project a lot during dinner and about how it sort of even feels like we are at a restaurant sometimes. And how it has been so helpful to to be doing the dates alongside Andi and Erik. Knowing that they have just as busy a schedule as us and are still finding time to focus on their relationship helps so much! Chris even suggested that I started challenging some of you guys to these date nights because they have been so fun for us. Would it help you guys to know that you have a bit of accountability in the dating department? Seems so funny but really if we aren't taking responsibility for our marriages who will right?

All in all it was truly another huge success and I felt so refreshed and energized to finish out the rest of a busy week after reconnecting with my sweetie pie!

ps. I realized in writing this that I owe you guys a life update post because yes you did read that right - Chris got a new job!!! More on that soon I promise! xo

don't forget to check out Andi's date night too this time she has a two parter!