Friday, March 10, 2006

Totally unrelated to fitness, but...

I didn't want to put this on my regular blog, but I need some input from my friends.

What do and your spouse do when you get home at night? How do you spend your weekends with each other?

(Not including, um...sex.)

What does a typical week night or weekend look like for you? I know we all have kind of crazy schedules: Mark works a lot on weekends, David's at school, taking care of our kids. But...

Where this is coming from: sometimes (not always, but sometimes) Jason and I are too tired from working hard all day to do anything but stare at the History Channel all evening. I'm just wondering what other couples do, realistically, to make their time together quality time.

Other issues involved:

-We work in the same office in a high stress environment. When I say, "How was your day?"...well, I already know, and the day was probably frustrating. Talking about our days just takes work home with us and makes us irritated.

-He doesn't have a lot of outside interests for us to talk about. Other than work, which takes a huge chunk of his time and energy, he likes football and gardening. I have done my best to be interested in those things, but when football season is over and gardening season hasn't begun, the guy just doesn't do a lot.

Thanks for helping me out, y'all.

8 comments:

McMom said...

Just visiting here today! But have you guys explored all there is to see in the beautiful NW! We lived in Ellensburg for the first 8 yrs. of our marriage and before kids came along we tried to get away and went to see stuff. Even if it was just nature. Roslyn , Cle Elum and Leavenworth are neat, but they may still have snow. We loved Winthrop too, that is NE of you, but there is probably snow there too. Ther is a lot to see around the Puget Sound! Right now our weekends are filled with kids. We have a date night on Fri or Sat night. Sometimes we don't talk much though, we just enjoy being together away from everything else. We have been married 17 yrs. in Sept.

aola said...

Let's see, a typical week night for us....one that has both of us in the house..

We eat supper at 5:30 or 6:00, then we put on a pot of coffee (drinking a cup of coffee together is something we feel is ours)We like to try out different flavored coffees in the evening. Then we watch Providence at 6:00. This usually involves me sitting in front of Mark in the floor while he plays with my hair or rubs my shoulders (some petting time :)After Providence I (usually) clean up the kitchen and Mark goes to the office for a while or vice versa (because of our estore we have to check emails every couple of hours).
Most of the time we have our own stuff to do. Sometimes we watch a movie together. There is not a lot of conversation. We discuss what we have planned for the next day or talk about something that happened during the day. We're like you guys we are always together unless he is out on an install or live sound job.
Having kids around keeps us entertained, too. A lot of the evenings that Mark isn't working he goes back to spend quality time with Em in her room while I read or blog.
Then at 10:00 we watch Ellen,then get the kids in bed.
Day is done.

Thursday night we go shopping together.
Friday night we go out to eat.

I love routine. Some people think it is boring but it makes me feel grounded and safe.

Kristen said...

I like routine, too. :)

Sandra said...

We just chill. Most of the time it's watching a movie or something on t.v.
I used to think that it had to be something more than that. I was under the impression that we should have long meaningfull conversations and that our alone time should be some superific perfect alone time like the movies depict.
I've come to realize that just being with one another is enough. We do throw in dance lessons when David is not in school or go bowling or out to dinner. We really like cooking together too. We both love the outdoors so when it isn't raining, we love to go bike riding or on picnics. The outdoor activities always include Erin.
I used to feel guilty that we watched t.v. so much but David loves to watch movies so it's become part of life. We used to read to each other before bed, but now that he is in school we don't do that anymore.
What if you two tried something that was new to both of you. Dance lessons are really fun. David didn't want to go, but once we started, he loved it and even suggested we go again.

Jeanne said...

I will write more, but my first thought is that very soon the weather will be warming up and you two will be able to have some more outside recreation.

Kristen said...

Very true. We walk and explore the neighborhoods around us A TON when we're not cooped up. And we play basketball, too. I got a new soccer ball for Christmas, so I'm hoping I can convince him to kick the ball around with me when it's nicer outside.

You know, Sandy, you may be on to something there...maybe I'm just expecting too much.

Kristen said...

I just remembered that growing up, my family (especially my dad and brother) watched a lot of TV. Family times were spent around the TV. That bothered me so much growing up; I wanted family interaction, you know? Maybe that is part of this.

But in spite of that, we are a really close-knit family. Somehow we found time to be a family and develop good relationships in spite of the TV times...

Thanks for your responses and for listening, ladies.

R said...

I think we probalby all feel this way sometimes.

Our normal nights look something like this -- 6:00 I get home. Nate's making a fire or playing with Sally outside. While I start dinner, he comes in the kitchen and tells me about his day -- Nate doesn't talk a lot at work, or actually, to much of anybody but me, so he has a lot of talking to do by the time he sees me. I hear about what he heard on the radio to crazy clients to the new thing he tried with cherry wood. After dinner, we lounge in front of the tv and play, then we workout together. We've tried working out in the mornings together, but I'm not nice, so we do all of our strength workouts in the evening. Usually, we separate for an hour or two after we workout. He goes downstairs to play his guitar, and I go upstairs to write. Pretty uneventful, really.

As the light comes back, we usually take a walk after work, and we always walk on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I probably like that time more than Nate -- walking is a little slow for him, but we can go back to running in a few more months.