How To Connect with Ultra-Busy Lives

Berty and I lead very busy lives. It’s exciting, ever-changing, and we love (almost) every minute of it! We both thrive off accepting a new challenges and it keeps us on our toes.

Berty is a wedding and commercial photographer year-round. Summertime is the peak of wedding season, so he has his calendar booked nearly every weekend. I am a full-time nanny and work part time (…so full and a half time?) at an ESL school in Seattle. We have very different fields of work and our jobs take up a huge portion of our day. We are left coming home exhausted!

 

So how the heck do we make time to connect with one another?? We have been married about two months so we wanted to start healthy relationship habits early on in our marriage.

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One thing we have been liking to do recently is go on morning walks. Once a week, Berty and I will have a free morning so we get up early to walk, visit, and catch up on each other’s lives. We live close to Seward Park in Seattle, so we tend to go that direction. We also own a book called Seattle Townscape Walks which have tons of trails around the city! I’ve picked the ones closest to our apartment and enjoy reading about all the things we can do and see along the way.

It has also been easy to get Berty to go on walks because of Pokemon Go! I get to exercise, he catches monsters, we get to visit with one another….win/win/win. Thanks Nintendo!

Recurring topics of our discussions are future travel plans, moving into our new place in September, our families meeting for the first time in Indonesia, and finances. It’s nice to talk about these things while walking because it doesn’t feel like a serious sit down meeting. I learned in my camp counselor days that doing an activity with a kid instead of just sitting face-to-face will help them open up and feel more comfortable. But I really think this works for everyone, not just campers! It’s easy to open up to each other when we do activities together, especially on morning walks!

 

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Other things we do to connect:

1. Go grocery shopping together

Not glamorous, but it’s nice to work together to figure out what we want to eat that week. It also inspires us to cook together, and we like to try new foods! I like writing a list and seeing how fast we can cross it off!

2. Looooong car rides

We seem to be doing this a lot. Whether it be with friends or by ourselves, Berty and I find that we drive somewhere practically every weekend! Fun fact: we received a really cool deck of cards for our wedding that have a relationship questions on each card. Some questions are funny and some are serious. We enjoy going through the deck and learning new things about each other every time we get in the car. It’s a fun way to connect and bring up questions that neither of us would think of!

On the topic of relationship questions, I recently discovered a darling blogger, Chelsea, who made a super fun list of questions to ask your honey. 😉

3. Visit friends regularly together:

We live for Bachelor Mondays because that means we get to see our friends! It really could be any show that brings us together – we seem to talk with each other 75% of the time anyways. It’s really inspiring to meet up with others couples and support one another in our relationships.

4. Call each other during the work day:

I text Berty way too often on a regular day. I’ll tag him in funny things I see on FB or Instagram. I also call or text to let him know when I’m leaving work or headed somewhere. Sharing the small details helps us connect even when we are separated the whole day. And sending a quick “hello, I love you!” is so easy but still sooo powerful!

 

 

How do YOU connect with your “person”? I would love to hear what works for you, so we can spread the wealth of healthy relationship building! Comment below and tell me all about  it. 🙂

 

Love,

The Mandagies

1 Comment

  1. Love this! Josh and I have had to tackle the issue of OPPOSITE schedules. When he works night shifts and I live like a normal day-experiencing person, we sometimes never see each other unless we create intentional space.

    We also really love morning walks and are lucky to live next to Lion’s Park in Cheyenne. It’s got a gorgeous like right smack in the middle that always shows off the sunrises; we just love it! On days when Josh works, he sleeps till 4pm, so the dinnertime window is our biggest opportunity. And by big I mean…2 hours max.

    We cook dinner together, eat without distractions (ahem, Netflix), maybe play a card game. It’s so important to connect.

    Love you and thinking of you both!