Life as a homemaker- Nurturing loving relationships

Through this series, Life as a Homemaker, I hope to show you how homemakers (SAHM or Working Moms) can create a peaceful, loving and heavenly enviroment for the family.
I think the most important aspect of a home is creating and nurturing loving relationships with each person in your home.
Recently, Ryan and I began dating. Yes, it sounds silly, but it has made such a significant change in our personal relationship.
Here are a few things we have been doing:
-We take care of ourselves and look our best. I have a husband who would love me even if I shaved my head and stopped shaving my legs, but my whole attitude changes when I am put together and when you are dressing to catch your husband's attention, believe me he will notice!
-We have been carving out time each day to reconnect and focus on our relationship. This is very difficult for us since we work opposite work schedules. In a normal day we have an hour in the afternoon when we “switch shifts” and fill each other in on what happened that day. We were noticing that we were having more “emergency conversations” then we were having fulfilling, heart-felt conversations. (examples of emergency conversations: “Pick up milk” “Sam took a nap at noon and pooped twice today” “I need you to empty the dishwasher”) In the past week I have been staying up later to have some “us” time when Ryan gets home from work. This could look like watching a movie, reading together or making a late-night dinner together. We are trying to find a better solution that will enable me to get some rest, but for now, this is working great.
-We are going on weekly dates. Ryan and I regularly follow North Point Community Church through Podcasts on their website. I was very excited when I saw their “Great Date” Series. Ryan and I have gone on 1 “great date” so far and are anxiously awaiting the next one! (check it out: http://marriedlifeonline.com/greatdate_np.jsp)

Something I repeat to myself is “The best gift you can give your kids is a great marriage.” We all know marriage takes work, in the same way, a great marriage takes a lot of work. Ryan and I have found that these simple steps make it fun to stay connected and nurture the loving relationship we are blessed with.

There is more to come on this series, so stay tuned!