I live for my weekends when I get to hang out with my sweet baby boy all day and Joe gets home from work early. Three days of quality time just isn't enough for this mom/wife, especially because quality time is my love language, so I decided that this month's goal needed to involve being more intentional about the time that I do have to spend with my little family throughout the week.
Last Monday, I started another semester of school, so in addition to my full time job and this blog, I now have nine credits worth of homework and night/online classes taking up my time. Some days I feel like I never see my husband or my baby, even though I save my blog responsibilities for weekends when Joe is at work and Bensen is napping. Thursdays are the worst because I go to work first thing in the morning, sometimes before Bensen wakes up, head straight to class from there, and am not home until after Bensen has gone to bed. I live for my weekends when I get to hang out with my sweet baby boy all day and Joe gets home from work early. Three days of quality time just isn’t enough for this mom/wife, especially because quality time is my love language, so I decided that this month’s goal needed to involve being more intentional about the time that I do have to spend with my little family throughout the week.
My nights consist of picking Bensen up from my parent’s house, making dinner for myself, going on a walk, feeding the baby and putting him to bed, tidying up the house and homework. I feel like there is always something to be done and I could go and go all night and still not be done by morning. Because I know I need quality time with Joe on a regular basis, I told him that by 10:00 every night, my laptop will be put away, my phone will be down, I will be done cleaning the house and I will put my homework away so that I can spend time with him before bed. If I can get my necessary to do list completed by 9:30 so that we have extra time together, that’s even better.
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Joe usually gets home right after I’ve put Bensen to bed and I’ve usually just sat down to work on homework or started cleaning up an area of the house. I read an article recently that suggested wrapping up whatever you’re working on a few minutes before you know that your spouse will be home so that you can welcome them home and make them feel happy to be there. Howie knows about what time Joe usually gets home and he waits in the window until he see hims pull in, then runs to the garage door and greets Joe enthusiastically the minute that he walks in the door. I need to take a page out of his book and greet Joe with similar enthusiasm.
We have a lot of time together on the weekends and this year we have worked really hard to make date night a priority, even after Bensen came along. Once a week, we go on a date and once a month we try to go on a date baby free. Date night isn’t as convenient with a baby, but it’s even more important to have that time together as a married couple now that he’s here. When we bring Bensen along, we’re always sure to have some just us time after he goes to bed. I always look forward to date night!
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How do you make time together a priority with you have a lot of other responsibilities on your plate?
