Rockford and I have been married for nine years. We’ve been together for much longer than that, and we’ve known each other since dinosaurs ruled the earth seventh grade.

And you know something? I still like him. Quite a lot. Which is why I thought, “Hey! That’s a great idea!” when I saw the Project 52: Date Nights idea at Simple Modern Mom.

The premise is simple, in concept: one date every week for a full year. You pick a night and a time, set whatever restrictions you’d like and each of you take turns — a month at a time — planning the dates. The standard rules on the contract (yes! there’s a contract!) state that you should Look Nice. Which around here, I take to mean Don’t Wear Your Pajamas.

So again, pretty straightforward concept. Spend Time Together. Will it be so simple in execution? We’ll see. Because I signed up to do it. I should say we signed up to do it. Rockford is so entirely on board that he planned our first date:

1/52

Kids in bed.

Chocolate-covered strawberries.

Music.

A few hands of gin.

Even though I lost (429-278), it was so nice to turn off the distractions and spend some time together.

We’re going to try to go out for a date once a month, but most of our date nights will be at home, after the kids have gone to bed. In addition to the No PJs rule, we’ve decided that we can only do one movie night a month. So. Do you have any great ideas for inexpensive, at-home dates?