Every day we have a choice about how we spend our time. The majority of it is spent sleeping and working. So what about those remaining hours?
I’ll admit, the Husband and I have a tendency towards laziness. We love our down-time on the weekends and look forward to hanging out together in our makeshift-movie-theater-basement probably more than we should. I’m not sure if it’s because we work so hard during the week and need this time to relax or if it’s just that we love movies {or maybe a little bit of both}.
We’ve been struggling lately to prioritize things like working out and having people over—these are both things we LOVE to do, but when we get out of the habit, it’s easier to give ourselves the excuse that we are just too tired to do anything but veg out.
We haven’t quite figured out the magic method of getting ourselves out of these ruts. Sometimes it’s just a matter of willing ourselves to do something different, to not be lazy, to make a “better” choice about our time. Last night was kinda like that. We’d had a big weekend and didn’t get a lot of relational connecting time with one another. By Sunday night I think we would have both liked to fall onto the couch and zone out.
We finished dinner, cleaned up and after I switched out a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer, I found him sitting on the couch, waiting for me. And we just talked. He asked about my week coming up. We talked about projects at work, our schedules for the week, our hopes and priorities for better use of our time and even some other more personal/relational stuff. I’d come to the couch expecting a little screen time—my default it seems—but our together-talk-time was so much better.
How do you spend your free time? What are your defaults {good or bad} and what do you wish you could do differently?
Photo credit: © Lawcain | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
When I first read your post I thought of my husband and me. We are big tv/movie watchers. However, about a month ago we joined a club. Now right after work we workout and then come home and make dinner. It has cut down and almost eliminated our weekday couch time. You know what? We don’t even miss it, feel better and have more energy!
Ha! You’re right! That’s what we need to do. We are already members of the local recreation center and it’s super close by, but we can hardly bring ourselves to work out indoors when the weather has been so perfect lately. Sadly, that hasn’t meant any out door workouts either.
I love this suggestion and hope to make it a reality soon!
Many nights we do wind up in the basement in front of the tube but like you we have tried to balance that out. Our fitness goals have helped as we spend time in the basement working out together or going to the Y as a family. right now we are in the basement. David is reading a book about grace while I blog : ) we chat as we go. I love my evenings with him!!!
It’s so nice to just BE together after a long day. I’d like to do more reading, too, and we could definitely do that together on the couch. Sadly, it’s not always my first choice. Maybe I just need to find a really good page-turner!