6 Non-Date Date Ideas

Some of the bloggers I read have date night with their husbands every single week.  How in the world do they have time or money to do this?  And of course there are tons of blogs out there that have suggestions for out of-the-box dates.  This post is not going to contain date night suggestions.  Honestly, we usually only go on 1 date ever 6-8 weeks and a sometimes we include things like going to fundraising dinners as "date night."  However, we do try to spend some intentional time together every week.   My biggest piece of advice is to simply turn off the TV. So many couples spend their evenings watching TV.  In general, this should not count as spending time together.  In almost 4 years of marriage, we've never owned a TV.  We do watch occasional movies together on the laptop and I do watch TV shows or movies in the middle of the night when I'm up feeding the baby.  Without further ado, here are 6 ideas for spending time together that are completely free and easy to do even with two little kiddos running/scooting around.

1. Play games together.  We both love games so this is an easy one for us.  Our latest craze is Boggle because each round only takes 3 minutes.  This means that we can play while our kids are awake and just take a break every 3 minutes to discipline one child or another.  We can also fit in a few quick rounds in the small window between the kid's bedtime and ours.  
2. Go for a walk.  We love to put the kids into the double stroller and go for a long (or even a short) walk.  We can talk and the children enjoy riding in the stroller.  One of favorite topics of walking conversation is about the houses around us.  We love to pick out the ones that we love, love to hate, and also talk about how we would change each house to fit our own taste. 
3. Just sit down and have a conversation.  Ok, so this one kind of has to happen somewhat organically but I love it when it does!  Turn off all the distractions.  No phones, computers, children, and especially no TV.  Talk about serious things, sad things, happy things and just plain silly things.  We used to do this all the time when we were first married but now we're a lot busier and we've used up most topics of conversation.  
4. Read a book together.  Every once in a while, we'll start reading a book together.  Since we read it at the same time, this means that we have to snuggle up close.  Fortunately, we read at approximately the same speed.  Some times we pick a longer book like Tale of Two Cities and other times it is something we can read in a few minutes like a Father Brown mystery. The plus side is that reading in bed makes me super sleepy so I always fall asleep very quickly afterwards.  In fact, Aaron will sometimes make me read something with him if I say that I'm not very tired when he is ready for bed.  Works like a charm.
5. Minister together.  This one is super important and a great way to build up both your relationship and your church.  Some things that we've done are plan an event for our church, show hospitality, intentionally stay connected with overseas missionaries, and try to minister to an unbelieving couple. 
6. Finally, watch a movie together.  Documentaries are great because we often end up talking for awhile after watching one.  If you use this one rarely, it can really be a special treat.  This is best at the end of a long week when your brain cells are completely depleted.  

These are my top 6 suggestions.  Do you have any extra things that we've been missing?