<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" I haven&amp;#039;t had a lot of time to myself lately. With Rex in Germany for two weeks, and subsequent 14 hour work days, I haven&amp;#039;t had a ton of time with him either. Lack of sleep and time together is a recipe of disaster in our house. (Giving up Diet Coke has not helped matters much.) Good thing I have a great support system in place. On Friday a friend called and said she&amp;#039;d be in town for a work function. Her daughter would be away at Girl Scout Camp, so she&amp;#039;d only have her son. &amp;quot;Do you want to get together for dinner?&amp;quot; she suggested. &amp;quot;I have a better idea,&amp;quot; I chimed in. &amp;quot;Since you&amp;#039;ll have two extra spaces in your back seat, how about we meet for lunch and then you take my children home for a sleepover?&amp;quot; After a quick check-in with her husband, she agreed enthusiastically - the idea being I would take her kids a different weekend. I can&amp;#039;t tell you how amazing having even 20 hours alone has been. Rex and I went to dinner, slept in, took a long walk around our neighborhood and even, uggggg, discussed the ongoing budget issues. We did a lot of hand holding, a lot of talking, and, God forbid, laughing. I adore my children. I&amp;#039;d have another if I could. But I also cherish my marriage. It&amp;#039;s not perfect, but it&amp;#039;s an incredible source of stability and safety. With some time alone, we realized we also need to work the fun factor. Our goal? Every Saturday night together - even if it means babysitting trades and going for walks to Target. It doesn&amp;#039;t have to be fancy - but it has to be together. A few nights ago, as we sat at the dinner table with yet another boring meal of burgers and veggies, Rex looked at me and said, &amp;quot;I love how you&amp;#039;re wearing tank tops these days. It&amp;#039;s fun looking at the &amp;#039;girls&amp;#039; all perky and high.&amp;quot; He then proceeded to take a pea and lobby it toward my chest. I&amp;#039;ll be damned if he didn&amp;#039;t make a perfect basket, lobbying that round green ball into a 36DD center shot. I shrieked - not only because it was funny and so uncharacteristic of Rex - but it was damn cold. I&amp;#039;m not saying &amp;quot;boob basketball&amp;quot; is the only way to get some much needed chuckles back into our routine, but it&amp;#039;s a start. What about you? If you have kids, do you find getting away from the strain of diapering, &amp;quot;stop it&amp;#039;s!&amp;quot; and Elmo soundtracks has helped your marriage? If you don&amp;#039;t have a lot of extras for babysitting, are you willing to set up a trade? What are you doing just for you and your spouse? * Photo from Allposters.com "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/relationships/a3164/a-chance-to-be-kids-without/>