Sometimes my husband travels for work, often for weeks at a time. Sometimes these travel “surges” take him to shipyards close to home, sometimes not. If he is nearby, he makes an attempt to come home every weekend, but since he works well into Saturday afternoon, he often arrives late. Since he leaves for the return trip to work early on Sunday evening, we usually have ~26 hours together as a couple and as a family. Have you ever tried to cram an entire week into just over one day? No? Imagine this scenario:
Saturday activities
1) Husband arrival & greeting
2) Dinner out
3) Family time/couple time: We often watch a movie during this time, or we share and discuss reading material from the week. Once in awhile, my husband and I will go on a date. Usually, I do laundry so I won’t have to use Sunday afternoon for that task. My husband consistently donates three loads of dirty clothes to that cause. Why doesn’t he do his own laundry during the week, you ask? It is actually more economical for him to bring it home and pool it with our clothes.
Sunday activities
1) Morning chores, etc.
2) Dress, shower, breakfast, etc.
3) Church
4) Sunday School
5) Lunch out: Oftentimes, we will meet friends for lunch or we will join other families from our church at a local restaurant. Generally, we try to enjoy a large meal so that we can skip dinner.
6) Family time/Project time: These hours are usually filled with activities like small appliance repair, lawn care, home improvement work, auto maintenance, etc. Sometimes we attend events as a family. For example, this past weekend, we all went to the opera. Sometimes, we attend my daughter’s handbell concerts. No matter what we do, however, this time slot always ends with my husband packing to leave.
7) Departure & goodbyes
And I thought the Navy was challenging.
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