~Appreciate Your Spouse~~Buoyancy in Marriage~Consult Your Partner~
~Dream Together Part One ~Dream Together Part Two~Empower Your Spouse~
Fun With Your Spouse
Fun and Funner – Matt’s Thoughts
“What fun it is to laugh and sing a sleighing song tonight…Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh.”
Maybe that is some people’s version of fun, but not me. I’m not a grinch. I just don’t enjoy singing sleighing songs or riding in one horse open sleighs getting snow and slush flung on me. It’s not fun for me to sing that song because in general when I sing the words to songs, I agree with the words. My sweetie, on the other hand, enjoys singing that sleighing song, while I’d rather be cleaning the gunk out from under my toenails playing a strategy game in a warm, dry place with a hot drink. If I can be found When it is time to sing sleighing songs, I do it with my best face on and I try to not talk like a martyr to Laura later. She knows it is not fun for me. I also know that most long strategy games are not fun for her. We have discovered many activities that are fun for both of us!
Couples in healthy marriages seek out ways that they can have fun together and they make it happen. If you find yourself going in different directions for fun, then get together and brainstorm for ways the two of you can have fun together.
Try new exploits: Recently, we went for a bike ride and it turned out not being great fun, but we definitely laughed about the experience. So, even though we don’t plan to ride bikes together for pleasure, that episode was a fun time spent together.
Relive pastimes: What did you do that was a blast when you were dating?
Hopefully you have some fun activities in the “old faithful” category: Flirting is fun…and following through is even more fun.
Your tight budget is not an excuse. Be creative considering what you could do for free…and have fun!
Make Time– Laura’s Thoughts
According to His Needs, Her Needs, a book Matt and I read together before we got married and have since read a second time – a man really appreciates it if his wife will be his recreational partner. That’s why, through the years, I’ve tried so hard to enjoy bike rides and those long, horrible, tedious, boring, never-ending, grueling strategy games that Matt likes so well. (I’m sorry – did I just say all that out loud?)
Thankfully, it’s not been too hard to come up with activities we can do together that we both enjoy. But why is it that sometimes it becomes too easy to spend all of our time together talking about bills and schedules and life logistics, and we forget to simply stop and have fun? As a task oriented mother and wife, I personally find it difficult to turn off the never ending “to-do” list in my head and just chill out and have down time with my husband. All work and no play makes a marriage…well, not so fun.
Relax. Be silly. Laugh. Share inside jokes. And oh yes…flirt. ;)
Make time for fun in your marriage.
How do you and your spouse have fun together?
Ladies, we know you’re reading here more often than the guys. ;) We’d love husbands to read this article as well. If you feel so inclined please send the link to your husbands, or if it’s easier, we’ve created a downloadable article for you to quickly print off and share. Healthy Marriage Tips A to Z – Fun
Just wanted you both to know I’ve been enjoying this series. Keep up the great work!
We like to take our dog for walks together. We enjoy being outside and having a chance to talk with no distractions.
My husband and I have a lot of shared hobbies and interests, but we express them in different ways… he does the gardening, I cook healthy meals; he builds and maintains our computers/electronics, I write a blog and write any professional correspondence.
We also have a shared passion for water parks!! Since our kids are not old enough to enjoy that particular activity, we are planning our first ever parents-only mini-vacation to a local waterpark so we can reconnect with each other.
I love to hear from other couples who are making a concentrated effort to keep the love alive! Marriage is such a wonderful experience, but it DOES take work… thanks for the insight!
I didn’t figure Steve wanted to learn to scrapbook or sew dresses, so I went with a girlfriend last year and took golf lessons. We went golfing together on our anniversary last week for the first time since my lessons and it was so fun! Now to learn to shoot trap….
My husband is a big hunter. I don’t enjoy getting up before dawn in the freezing cold, to go waste time in a shooting house. But, the few times I did, we had a great time. I do however enjoy cooking his venison and letting out a great whoop when he comes home with “the big one”. And I think he looks great in camo!
My husband is a very adventurous outdoors kinda guy. Over the years we have become certified SCUBA divers, we rappel and are soon going to get certified in that as well. We love going out and taking rides on our motorcycle. And I love doing those things with him, I didn’t think I would though, until I got out there and did them. I enjoy cooking and shopping and he loves to shop and is not afraid of getting in the kitchen cooking with me. And we both enjoy gardening together. We have lots of fun times together.
Your not wanting to sing sleighing songs so matches my husband! Last year Handel’s Messiah was being preformed with audience participation. You should have seen the look on my husband’s face when I asked if he was interested. It was hilarious.
Our old faithful category: hiking, photography in town or in the mountains (and no you don’t have to have a fancy camera), painting and drawing-we either pick a spot along a hike to stop and draw or set up a still life at home. We also play games just the two of us after the kids go to bed. We love Settlers of Catan, but that’s for a double date. Occasionally we’ll read the same book just so we can compare notes. That gives us something to discuss that’s different than the regular day to day to-dos.
Ever played Settlers of Catan? It is one of the “Strategy” games but you can finish a game in about an hour — we enjoy that one! For fun we — ride bikes, hike, go to bluegrass festivals, eat ice cream, wander Menards or Walmart, dream together. Mostly any time alone without the many interruptions of toddlers is a good time!
Yes! Actually Settlers is one game I can handle (every once in a while) and enjoy. We play this with our older boys and with other couples, which is a lot of fun!
After we put the kids to bed, we usually spend 15-30 minutes just sharing details about our days. We have found that it’s easier to empathize with the highs and lows of each others day when the busyness of the day is over. After we talk, we either spend time together playing Wii (we love Mario Kart and the Lego games), watching one of our shows or a movie, or working on something together. Or, we spend time apart, doing our own thing, but in the same room. Like, reading, but each reading our own book, but we’ll stop to talk about what we’re reading. We really try to stay busy until we put the kids to bed, and then we just have recharge time. It’s so much easier for us to give 100% during the productive part of our day when we get recharge time just for us in the evenings.
My hubby and I have lots of fun together, well at least we try. At least a couple times a week we do our best to get the kids down early, crawl into bed and chat about the day/week, dreams, goals, church, family, friends, and US. We love to play games when we crawl into bed. Usually with some FroYo :). We play yatzee or other dice or card games. It’s hard to get out for dates often since our kids require a sitter. But I”m glad we make time during the week for each other. We also like to read short devo/stories together about marriage or parenting. And even just to cuddle together is great! Oh, we love to flirt with each ;)
Thanks for sharing this “series” They are thought and hopefully action provoking.
Out of curiosity, what types of strategy games does he like to play? My husband is the same way.
Axis and Allies, Risk…
Settlers of Catan and Manhattan are strategy games that I can actually handle playing though, so this has been fun to discover!
We just got some new games that are strategy but also cooperative. It’s all the players vs. the game itself. We have enjoyed them because they are great 2-4 player games. They make you work on your communication skills too. (Pandemic, Forbidden Island, Castle Panic) We also play piano duets together since we both love music.