Happy Thursday! I hope everyone is having a great week so far!  We’ve had a couple of sick days over here, but lots of sunshine to make up for it, so we can’t complain too much, I guess!

I’m hopping in today to share our January Date Night In Box!  This month’s theme was “Foundation of Love” and I’m pretty sure it was one of my favorite boxes we’ve done to date.  [You can see all of our dates with Date Night in Box here.]

One of my goals this year is to be intentional about finding ways to connect with Hubs and making sure that we make our marriage a priority.  It’s so important, but can be so easy to let slide when life gets busy.  And this box was really well timed to help us get off on the right foundation this year.  (Pun not directly intended…but I also don’t know a better way to say it.)

We received this Date Night In Box for review.  All opinions and experiences are mine alone. This post contains affiliate links.  That means that I will earn a commission if you click through and make purchases through those links. Please see disclosure for more information.

Foundation of Love with Date Night In Boxes

This month, instead of our regular Date Night In Box, we chose to do the Date Night in Box – Faith version.  It’s just like the regular Date Nights In, but with an additional discussion guide that is faith based.

What’s Inside this Month’s Date Night In Box?

I knew as soon as I opened this box up, we were in for a fun time!  Craft sticks and bendy straws…basically my love language.  (Well, actually that – and baked goods, lattes, and quality time.  Probably words of affirmation, too, but it’s been a while since I’ve read about love languages, so…)

I snapped a photo before diving in!  I mean, does this scream out fun or what?

This month’s box included:

• Date Night discussion guide (with talking points, Spotify playlist, suggested menu, and date instructions)
• Date Night Faith guide – a supplemental discussion guide that is faith based to help strengthen your relationship.
  • We actually review this separately and added it to our devotions later.
• Toothpicks
• Tape Measure
• Tape
• Flexible Straws
• Peel & Stick Craft Sticks (which I had never seen before and will now be adding to our craft cabinet!)
• Jelly Beans
• Building Blocks hard candy
• Ink Pen
• Votive Candle

Our Date

Because we like to bend the rules a little bit, we opted to do our Date Night in Box during nap time last Sunday – as a Date Day, if you will.  (See how we spread out our last box for a whole month here.) Our calendar has been packed lately, and I knew that I wanted to do this when we had time to really focus on it, rather than at night when we are more tired.

So we added it into our Sunday afternoon.  The boys should have been napping, but Little, who is sometimes trying to cut his nap – decided to just stay upstairs for some quiet time while Hubs and I did our date.

Since it was after lunch, we skipped the suggested menu by Marina – although it was TASTY this month – lots of yummy recipes including a pomegranate seed guacamole, deconstructed chicken tacos, and churro muffins (which we are making this weekend).

Table Talk

The first thing we did was to go over the “table talk” part of the date guide.  This section always has really great conversation starters that help set the tone for the date, but also to get you and your spouse talking about something other than calendars, to-do lists, and kids.  (Because I know we aren’t the only ones that default to that most of the time.)

My favorite questions from this month’s box were:

“When we have a tough topic, it works out best when we approach it with _______________.”

“We feel most in sync when we stop and take the time to ______________.”

“We value our relationship above __________________.”

It’s no secret that communication is important, but I thought these questions were really helpful at getting us to examine HOW we like to communicate, which really matters since everyone prefers to communicate differently.

Team Work Makes the Dream Work

For the activity part of the date, we were asked to use the craft sticks to write down things that make a solid foundation for our marriage – anything.  Character traits, shared experiences, faith, etc. And then use those sticks to build a structure around our candle.

Since our time was limited, we made a list of these things, but didn’t build the structure for our candle.

Next was a series of building challenges using the supplies we were given in our box.

For the first challenge, we were to build a platform, or foundation, out of the toothpicks and jelly beans.  (Full disclosure, I didn’t read the date guide prior and assumed that the Jelly Beans were the snack.  Since Hubs isn’t a candy person, I had already snacked on a few prior to this challenge – so we were down a few…

But, we made it work.  Who knew that it was so tough to get toothpicks into Jelly Beans?  We had to take turns on this.

Once we had our box securely on our platform, we had to build a tower that would hold a Jelly Bean from the bendy straws and tape.

It was really fun to work together to think of the best way to build these things and how to keep them secure so they wouldn’t fall.  The goal was to build the tower as tall as we could, but by this point, Little heard us working on our tower and had started asking how much longer until his quiet time was over so he could come play with us.

We still got it built though – and while it might not have been the tallest of all, I think it was still pretty tall – and most importantly, it held on top of the box and the Jelly Bean stayed in place.

Takeaways from This Month’s Date Night in Box

Of course, this box like always, was a lot of fun.  One of my favorite things about Date Night in Boxes is that they always send great activities and ideas that we wouldn’t usually think of for Date Night at home.  They get us talking, laughing, and working together as a team.

After the challenges, our date night guide posed the question, “if the jelly bean is a symbol for important decisions or moments…are you putting it on at the very last moment, or do you consider it from the start…”

And that’s something that we really all have to answer about our marriage.  What is our goal?  What’s the end game?  And are we actively working together to build our lives and our relationship in a way that supports that?

Finally, while it wasn’t the most romantic thing ever to remind Little how much longer he had of quiet time every so often during our date, it made me realize how important it is for us to date our spouses – even in front of our kids.

To tell our kids when we are going out on date night.  Or even when we are choosing to spend some time together while they have quiet time.  Our kids benefit from our marriage being solid and they need to know that it’s something that we prioritize. 

Even though he wanted to come downstairs and play, Little got to see Mama and Daddy enjoying one another’s company and working together.  And when his quiet time was over, he happily joined us – commenting on our straw tower, snacking on some leftover candy, and having some fun while the littlest finished up his nap….because the baby is not trying to cut naps.

Another Great Date Thanks to Date Night in Boxes

It’s no secret that I really like getting our Date Night in Box each month.  It’s something that we look forward to and always enjoy – whether we do everything at once, spread the activities out, or skip some parts altogether.

These boxes encourage us to prioritize our marriage and quality time together and I am so thankful for that.

If you’re on the fence about getting your own Date Night in Box, now is a GREAT time to jump in.  They are offering 20% off all plans with the code BEMINE

Grab your box here today!  You won’t regret it – promise!

*Coupon code is also good for Kids Night in Boxes, too!  Check those out here, if you want a fun Valentine’s surprise for your kids!

I’d love to answer your questions!

Finally, I’d love to answer any questions that you have about Date Night in Boxes or Date Night in Boxes – faith version.  I know it is really easy to feel skeptical about buying  subscription box for dates, because this was me too, before we tried Date Night In, so I hear you.  So, if you have questions before you buy, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments, or email!

I’m always happy to chat!