5 Winter Date Ideas

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post.

As I shared a few weeks ago in my date night at home post, Sinisa and I do not get out to have date night very often. It seems like ever since we had kids we are lucky if we go on one or two dates a year. We are really working on changing this and have been trying to go on day dates while our boys are at school. Since I work from home and he gets one weekday off a week, it seems to work best for us at the moment. I wanted to share 5 winter date ideas for those of you looking to plan something special for Valentine’s Day or any other day you and your significant other can get away and spend some quality time together.

Go ice skating – Whether you find an outside rink or an indoor one, ice skating is a popular winter activity that could make for a fun date night. Just think about how romantic it would be holding hands as you skate around the rink together. Or that’s the dream at least. I’d probably spend most of the date on my butt since I haven’t ice skated since grade school :)

Go see a play – Movie dates have become the norm lately so shake it up a bit by going to see a live play instead. Whether it’s a community play or a show on Broadway, there are a number of options to pick from.

Volunteer together – Volunteering isn’t the most romantic date but it’s a great way to spend time together. Whether the two of you help at a soup kitchen, nursing home or food pantry, there is nothing better than being able to give back to others and it just may teach you a bit more about the character of the person you are on a date with.

Paint at an art studio – If you or your significant other like to paint check out your local art studio for classes. Many studios offer date night options where you can pay to come and paint and they’ll provide the space and materials needed for you to create something. Check ahead but many allow you to bring snacks and drinks as well!

Go out to eat at a B.Y.O.B Restaurant- What I like about BYOB restaurants is that you can save a great deal on alcohol by bringing your own. (Please drink responsibly and don’t drink and drive.) Sinisa and I recently tried out a Thai restaurant and it was a nice break from the typical restaurants we normally go to.

For our date we chose to bring canned wine with us because it is portable and easily fit into my purse. Unlike bottled wine, with canned wine you don’t have to worry about carrying around fragile wine glasses to drink out of or re-corking the wine. Backpack Wine is packaged in recyclable cans that are ready for any occasion, from the ski slopes to your favorite brunch spot. Their wines are sourced from great vineyards and they offer two varieties of canned wine, Cheek Rose™ and Snappy White™ (rose and white wine).

Backpack Wine offers a unique combo of great-tasting, quality wine in a fresh new way so you can skip the cork and bring the pack! Where would you take your Backpack wine?

Looking for more date ideas? I have a list of 50 here!

My main goals for 2010

I am very excited to start this new year. I’m looking forward to my best year ever! (ok, I keep hearing that from everyone but it’s true!) I’m a very goal-oriented person so I always keep a goal list that I update a few times a year. Kind of like my bucket list , I guess. Since I have hundreds of goals on that list I decided to focus on a select number of them in 2010.

Goal #1- Read the whole Bible in 90 days. To find out more about this program you can go here or here. This challenge is listed first because it starts today. I am very excited to do this but am also nervous because it is a big task. I’ve never read the Bible all the way through, let alone in 90 days. I think it is an achievable goal this year because of two main things: 1) I’m doing it with other moms who will hold me accountable and 2) it’s only about 12 pages a day! Wow. Reading the Bible had always seemed like such a huge task and I would have guessed it would take 30-40 pages a day to read it in just 90 days, but 12? That’s easy. Ok, well maybe not easy, but manageable with two kids and a career. (Update: My sister just read the first day’s reading as I was typing this post and it took her less than 20 minutes…)

Goal #2- Save half of our income. This will probably be the hardest goal that I have set for myself. I have always been a “shopaholic” who can’t resist a good “deal” (check out my dad’s blog post about me) but I have decided that is going to change this year. Part of why we moved in with my dad was to save for a house and in the past six months we have only saved about $500. In my defense we did have to fix our two cars, but in reality we had an extra income these past few months so those repairs should have come from that. I am still working on a budget and hoping there is some spending money but if not I will just have to learn to live with less.

Goal #3- Keep my house “company ready” (though really it needs to get to that point before I can keep it there). It doesn’t have to be spotless but it would be nice to know that if someone happened to stop by my home I wouldn’t be embarrassed to let them in the door. And it would be even better if they could look in my closets, cupboards, etc and they would be organized, too. The first step towards this goal is to finish unpacking from our August move. Our two car garage is so filled with boxes that only one car can barely fit in. Eventually I would like to have a weekly cleaning list, too.

Goal #4- Work on my relationships. With Sinisa I would like to make couple time a priority since it’s rare we are both home without the boys being awake. With my mom I would like to work on communication. With my friends I would like to focus on seeing them once a week whether it’s at playdates or mom’s nights.

Goal #5- Become a “better” blogger. This includes blogging more often than I have in the past (I am aiming for 3-5 times a week), building relationships with other bloggers, reading and commenting on other blogs, and looking into how I can improve the look of my blog.

Goal #6- Do something for myself daily. This “something” could be as little as taking a nice, hot relaxing shower to getting a pedicure to scrapbooking. Just a daily thing to remind myself that I am special :)

What are your goals for 2010?