A Date away from To Do's

          We're still figuring out this whole "married dating" thing. Before we got married we were so confident that we would keep pursuing eachother after the knot was tied and that we would never ever put anything above our relationship.

          Funny how easy it is to know it all when you really know nothing at all...

 Turns out Life is Busy. I hate that word because it is thrown around so much and often I feel like it is worn as a badge. I am busy so I must be doing something right. God forbid I have a day with nothing scheduled, with no 'to do' list.

   And yet I find myself, at the end of the day, falling on the sofa next to Hank and lamenting how busy life has become and how hard it is to make time for eachother- for the romantic. It really shouldn't feel busy. Those of you with kids are sighing and shaking your heads, thinking "If they only knew what they have coming." You're right- I don't know. But this season feels busy. And we are still learning how to make time for the spontaneous, for laughter, for relaxation, for a good long conversation, and for Jesus Time. While I am SO thankful we both have good jobs, work seems to take up so much time.

        So this past weekend I planned a date for Hank and me. I recently found an awesome website called Houston on the Cheap. Oh my goodness. If you live in Houston or plan to come to Houston anytime soon- you need to look here. She constantly updates the site with Groupon, Living Social, Daily Deals as well as promotional events that are happening at places around Houston. She even has internet deals!

      Last week Hank and I got free Chik-Fil A sandwiches on Thursday morning and this past weekend I planned my trip to HEB in order to get the free reusable grocery bags they were giving away for Earth Day! Can you tell I LOVE Free stuff? Who doesn't right!?

      So, as I was saying, I planned a date to Discovery Green- a super cool park downtown, to an international grocery store called "Phoenicia", to dinner at a middle eastern restaurant where we had a coupon for $20 worth of food for $10, and then to watch the coolest show at Miller Outdoor Theatre. Everything but the groceries and the food was free!

Enjoying a gorgeous day in downtown Houston

Hank and I being us at Discovery Green Park

     It was so wonderful to get out and spend some time soaking in the culture of this part of Texas, spending time together, and watching Hank get just as excited as I got over the foods at Phoenicia. Seriously, who knew it was so fun to shop for cheese!?

    Life can be super busy sometimes and sometimes I choose to be busy when I should take a little down time. On Sunday, Hank was gone all day flight instructing so I headed to a local park and just read the Word until I was finished. And I didn't fight distractions but let the Lord show me his beauty in the birds and lizards and rambunctious kids playing on the playground. Sure I had a huge list of things that needed to be done. Had I stayed home, I would have stayed busy all day and been royally grumpy by the time Hank got home. But I felt the Spirit nudge me outdoors to enjoy a bit of the gorgeous weather we have had lately and he met me there despite the long list of to-dos I was ignoring.

     So even if Life is Busy, we are learning to make space for eachother and every once in a while we make time to not pay attention to time for a while. To forget the clock and the agenda and just be together and be with our Maker.

Next week Hank is planning the date and I can't wait to see what he has up his sleeve!