40 Unforgettable Dates with Your Mate: Creative Ways to Meet the Love Needs of Husbands and Wives

This is a great book. I have been married for 10 years this May (2009) and have three, almost four, children with my husband. I have loaned this book to many different friends and have actually ended up giving it many times as a present. Our marriage has had the normal bumps in the road, but we do our best to stay close and handle those bumps in a way where each spouse feels love and acceptance. What does this has to do with the book. Well, in my humble opinion the best part of the book is that is gets you talking to each other. And these talks help you to know, to love, and to understand each other more. Thus, getting through everyday problems and the not-so-everyday problems in a loving, healthy way. The book is broken into two halves. Each half is for one spouse to read giving date ideas to meet specific needs of the other spouse. Both halves have five sections, one section per need. For instance, the needs met for the wife are friendship, encouragement and affirmation, spiritual intimacy, emotional intimacy and oommunication, and unconditional love and acceptance. The needs met for the husband are spiritual intamacy, encouragement and affirmation, friendship, sexual intimacy, and unconditional love and acceptance. Each section provides multiple date ideas, preparation steps, tips, and then discussion questions geared to meeting that specific need. I personally believe that the discussion questions are the highlight of the book. The date ideas are nice and can be creative, but while out on a date it is almost impossible to not talk about work or kids. The questions allow you to get to know each other better. Take turns answering the question. Or just let one spouse answer while the other spouse listens. Either way, time passes too quickly and before you know it, it is time to go home. But this time when you go home, you should feel closer to each other. Have a better understanding of each other. The intimacy should be there. Sometimes, after the kids are in bed we'll snuggle on the couch with the book and go through some questions. Some of the questions are: - What is the best compliment I could give you? - What are a few things that refresh you the most? - How can we set the right atomosphere in our marriage so that both of us feel safe sharing secrets and feelings with each other? - What do you think prevents couples from becoming or staying best friends? - Are you (the wife) satisified with how I (the husband) make decisions for our family? Why or Why not? What can I do better? - When do you feel the most distant from me? Does that feeling cause you to want to draw closer, move further away, or stay where you are until the feeling goes away?

I got this for a wedding gift recently for my friend. Sometimes I'm looking for something creative to do with/for my husband and our Simply Romantic Nights has good ideas. I thought this book might have even more.

This book has some of the most unique ideas for spending quality time with your mate. It has all the dates organized into categories based on how much time you have, how much money you want to spend, etc. Then at the end of each date there are questions and focus excerises to bridge a communication gap.