For example, most weekends my husband and I have an at-home date night. We get into comfy clothes, put the kids to bed early (they usually watch a movie together in one of their bedrooms on my laptop), and make a simple but yummy supper. We could just call this a regular Saturday night (we do it almost every week), but we always, always, always call it Date Night. Naming it makes it infinitely more special and it is one of my most cherished relational traditions. We watch a movie and usually wind up going to be early (a true treat as a parent), and I love it!

I just arrived home from a week in Rome, so I have recently enjoyed big and little adventures galore!

I should blog about little adventures sometime soon. I never really think about this rule as much as the bedtime, 3x a week is a habit…but it’s one of my favourites!

@Cynthia – thanks for your comment! Turning errands into an adventure is like the ultimate win – you’ve taken something that could be tedious and totally upgraded the experience.

The key thing for me is putting it in the schedule – so I’m committed and it doesn’t just get lost or forgotten. So this is a good reinforcement for the Plan on Friday rule.

I also like how this rule can be combined with Move by 3pm and 3 Times a Week is a Habit. For example, I will bolster my budding running habit by finding a new place to run. And on another day I will drive to a different part of town for a different place to walk.

And finally, I think it’s probably really helpful to build a personal inventory of these adventures (maybe some from the 100 Dreams List?) so that you get your creative juices flowing and come up with a wide variety of things. Now that I’m retired I want to flex my adventure and creativity muscles!

@Katie – Will share! (and sorry this comment took a while to get approved – the problem wasn’t on your end…). Little adventures like take-out and coffee shops can be great but there can be different ones too. Like walking/biking in a different place (exploring a new neighborhood), even meeting someone new…

Next week is TBC, my work schedule is full on but I have less teaching so I’m not so fixed in terms of location. So maybe I’ll go and work in the nice museum cafe for a few hours and see one of the free exhibits.

Thanks! Those are all good ideas, I will try to think of something along those lines for next week. I’m sure my kids would love to get ice cream one day after school 🙂

@CZ – you and your kids could have adventures together after school. We’re really just talking once a week doing something a little different. Go to a different playground. Another week maybe a kid-friendly museum has evening hours one day. You could try a new ice cream place, or go watch a sport you don’t usually or…lots of options. The upside of this rule is that if your goal is one little adventure a week you start looking for adventures, and so when you see something that could be a weekday evening adventure, you take note of it.