Saturday, August 1, 2009

Free Time

CC has had some time doing the worst shift (for us at least, not necessarily on the job) these last few weeks. I was in Grad school for the first few weeks of this shift change, which was nice because we could still be on the same sleeping schedule. Right now, as a teacher, I'm still on summer break for 2 more weeks. But, with CC being gone most of the day (especially when he works a 16 hour shift in one day), I've been searching for ways to make the day go by faster and to not concentrate on the fact that I'm all by myself! We have a wonderful group of friends from our church that have been very supportive of our family, and especially me! Just this weekend, I got asked to go to dinner by our dear friends, even though my husband wasn't with me! It was so great to have that feeling. I'm so thankful that I'm still included in get togethers even though CC isn't there. We do so much as a couple (even though the girls and boys usually split up into different rooms and we do separate things) that I was afraid no one would invite me for get togethers. Luckily, so far so good. I feel very included, and a lot of people continue to check on me and how things are going.

But, I don't like a lot of monotonous things. So, I'm just curious as to what everyone does to keep them occupied while their husbands are working those wonderful opposite shifts. I of course know about the chores and try to get as much stuff done as possible that needs to be done before he's home, but what about the free time? Have you taken on any hobbies? I also know several of you have kids, so that changes things a little bit, but what did you do before you had a family?

I'm looking for some new ideas so that I'm not sitting on my rear end on the internet all night! :) (Not that I don't love reading all of your blogs!)

3 comments:

  1. I think you are totally on the right track. The key, I think, is figuring out how to function by yourself sometimes even though you'd rather be a couple all the time. With this carear, that's, unfortunately, not always possible.

    I use the time for, as you said, chores, taking walks with my dog, pampering myself with a bath, reading (sometimes combined with the bath) and home improvement projects. I still do some moping and some wasting time watching TV or on the Internet, but I am trying to be better about entertaining myself. I just wrote a post somewhat about this topic at my blog!

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  2. My husband is still in the Academy, so he is currently home regularly in the evenings and on the weekends, but I am preparing for the future of crazy schedules and such. In the meantime, I am starting to paint again! I found a used easel on craigslist, got a great deal on some canvases, and have pulled my brushes and paints out of storage.

    It's really neat to just put on some music and paint. For me, the hours fly by when I'm plugged into some tunes and have a brush in my hand. Our house has paintings of mine in every room. And when a painting can take 25 hours to complete... you can really eat up some of those hours of "alone time". :) Happy painting!!

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  3. Wifey, that's awesome!

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