Happy Valentine's Day! Yes, a few days early but a little extra love never did any harm.
This week, a guide to Alphabet Dating and a yummy treat; plus a the first look at an exciting new feature coming to 'Scribed by Abi'!
Enjoy!
*Alphabet Dating*
Why do it?
I came across the idea of Alphabet Dating a few years ago.
In the lead up to the birth of our son, we talked a lot about what life would be like once he arrived. Would we still have time for us? What did we want to protect? How could we still be a couple, as well as parents?
I began to look into things we could do as a family but also, just by ourselves.
We knew time and money would be tight, so I had to get creative! After a quick Google, I had found lots of ideas for planning Alphabet Dates. I drew up a chart and we committed to doing something together each week!
Surprise, surprise, our baby arrived and all plans of having a 'mummy and daddy' night went out the window! We didn't even manage a date once a month! We were in our little newborn bubble; congratulating ourselves on our perfect son, and generally riding high on hormones and coffee! In the early days, we didn't even miss 'us' time,
That came later...
All of a sudden, our baby became a toddler and we found ourselves playing totally different roles! We were both working, our son started Nursery and we increasingly had time on our hands and no ideas what to do with it. Stuck in a rut, tired and feeling adrift; we realised that we had spent so long looking after our boy, that we'd forgotten to look after each other.
Life takes over sometimes and any new, stressful situation causes tensions and issues in every relationship. According to a study completed in 2013 (www.theindependant.co.uk), the two most important factors in a successful relationship are: communication and knowing your partner. When times get tough for whatever reason, it's so important to keep these things alive!
Hopefully, something like Alphabet Dating can give you a way to do just that! Draw up the chart together and start talking again; get to know each other and find out who you are now.
Remember, you were lovers before parents, friends before stress burst in and partners before money worries corrupted.
You chose to be together, take time to celebrate why.
*Do it*
So, what's it all about?
Basically, it does what it says on the tin! Pick a letter, find an activity to match and away you go!
The hardest part was finding activities for everything; some letters take a lot of thinking and some are damn near impossible!
So, here are ideas for each letter to get you started and a few links to find out more...
You need: a large piece of card, pen (I like the metallic 'Sharpie' pens)
1/ square out a 5x5 grid and split the last box into 2
2/draw in the lines with a thick pen
3 add in an as many activities as you for each letter
4/have fun!
A: art gallery, Air BnB, Afternoon Tea
B: bath, bowling, boat trip, bike ride, bar crawl, BBQ
C: coffee, concert, comedy, climbing, cruise, Chinese
D: den building, double date, dancing
E: explore new places, Escape room
F: feed the ducks, farm trip, fort building, ferry trip, fish and chips on the beach
G: Goat island, geocaching, games night, glamping, go-karting
H: hotel stay, hike, horse-riding
I: ice-cream trip, ice-skating
J: Jump, jigsaw, jacuzzi
K: Kelly Tarltons, kite-surfing, kayaks
L: listen to music, listen to a podcast, learn something new, lazy day, lunch
M: mini golf, mini break, movie night, Muriwai beach, massage, markets
N: night market, nature walk, night in, night on
O: open air pool, orienteering, off-roading, obstacle course
P: Phia beach, pony trek, paintballing, paddle boarding, picnic, pub
Q: Queenstown, quiz night
R: rowing, roller-skating, restaurant
S: spa, snorkle, snowboarding, stargaze, sandcastle, scavenger hunt
T: theatre, tent, treat yourselves, treasure hunt, tattoo
U: unusual food
V: volcano walks, vineyard, visit somewhere new
W: woodhill bike track, wine-tasting, water sports, wildlife park
X: x-marks the spot
Y: yoga, yachting,
Z: zoo, zip-line
Have some ideas to contribute? Share your Alphabet Dating stories with us!
...Happy Dating!
A little Valentine Treat
My mum makes the most delicious melt-in-your-mouth shortbread and she's kindly let me share the recipe with you this week (be warned, it's measured in ounces).
Cut them into heart shapes and you have a yummy gift!
p.s. I tried to replace the sugar with honey...it didn't work! If anyone knows a good no-sugar shortbread, let me know!
You need:
4 oz butter
2 oz caster sugar
4 oz plain flour
2 oz cornflour
Method:
1/ cream the butter and sugar
2/ add the flours and mix
3/ tip the dough out and knead but only very lightly
4/ when it's all combined, pop it into a lined cake tin and mark your portions or roll out gently and cut your preferred shape
5/ chill in the fridge for half an hour
6/ bake at 170 degrees for about 20 minutes
Yum!!
Something exciting this way comes!
Make sure you are following 'Scribed by Abi' to be the first to find out the exciting new feature for our Scribed community!
A little hint before I go:
Make sure you check in on Sunday at one of our hang outs:
Thanks for reading!
As usual, get in touch with comments or anything you would like to see from Scribed.
Have a great week!