It's all coming back to me now.

Since our schedules have been so extremely unpredictable and conflicting lately, we took advantage of a few hours we knew we'd have together last night. Steve doesn't usually get Saturday evenings off from work, but someone traded shifts with him, so we were able to enjoy a full day together without worrying about rushing home to get Steve to work on time!

So, Steve called his sister and made arrangements for Riley and I called my parents and made arrangements for Cameron and viola! (it's not usually that easy- trust me)We somehow magically made a "date night" opportunity appear! I really don't know how long it's been since the last time Steve and I spent a few hours alone together for the sole purpose of remembering how much we love each other. Since this occasion was rare and precious to us, we decided to make it memorable by going out for some of

THIS:



A little of THAT:


And topped it off with 5 episodes of THIS:


We got to sleep early enough to get 8 hours of Zzzz's in before we had to be at church today, and to top it all off...babysitting is COVERED through the morning!!

The only reason I took pictures of our date night was because I knew we were going to make it blog worthy...and it was!

It's so amazing how just a few hours spent alone without our offspring can put EVERYTHING back into perspective. I was able to remember how good of friends we are!

Earlier in the day, my mom told me she ran into someone I knew in high school. The girl asked if I was "still with Steve", when my mom told her I was and that we have two kids together, my old classmate told my mom that she remembered how completely obsessed I was with Steve back in my later years of high school. When my mom told me this, I was immediately reminded of the days I COULDN'T WAIT for the bell to ring, so I could RUSH over to my favorite teacher's classroom where she'd let me call Steve in between classes! I spent lots of class time writing notes to him and writing out timelines of how our life would be together when we'd eventually get married!

Tonight, I thought about those times. Even though our timeline looks a lot different than the one I drew in high school, I still love this man as much as I did back then and now since we've made a family, I love him even more. Tonight I realized that I really need to make more of an effort to see past the struggle of each day and love my husband regardless of the stressful circumstances life tosses at us.

In our new series at Journey, Ed talks about marriage. one thing he said this week really resonated with me in a sweet way. The point was that God is more interested in that we "Love the one we marry, than that we marry the one we love". As I made sense of this statement, I thought about how self centered our society is. Back in "the day" a woman was appointed a husband, and was expected to marry and love him. Though I'm glad times have changed and that I was able to pick my own partner for life, I still think there is importance in making sure that I'm putting MORE of my energy and heart into LOVING Steve, than making sure he's loving me the right way. So often I get caught up in selfish feelings of making sure Steve's putting me first, and caring for me in a way that I feel I should be cared for...when in really, I need to be way MORE focused on how I'm loving him! If we genuinely focused on loving our spouses instead of "navel gazing" I'm confident that we'd in turn receive more love from each other. It just makes sense!

Putting that learning into practice last night was so refreshing, and although our time alone is quickly coming to an end, I am already anticipating being reunited with our boys who we haven't seen since yesterday afternoon. The other 2 human beings that I need to focus on pouring more love into.

I'll definitely be referring back to this post in just a few hours when the week begins again, and things get hectic!