Simple Ways to Spend Quality Time Together

When you’ve been with your partner for most (or all) of your adult life, it’s so easy to fall into a routine. We spend more time together than ever before: we’re 300 miles away from most of our friends and family, and we finally both have a standard work schedule. But we’re both definitely guilty of spending that time together sitting on our phones, watching TV, or bickering because both of us feel the other person isn’t listening. When we were younger, we almost always had opposite school and work schedules and the time we spent together was precious. I always see cute date night ideas on Pinterest, but so many of those require money or living in a bigger metropolitan area than we do. It’s easy to feel like you have to have more money to have a good time, which isn’t true. We decided this weekend that we’re not going to do the same routine: Friday night dinner date, Saturday errand-running, Sunday cleaning. We still did those things, but found new ways to throw in some quality time together. 

Do something seasonal.

This time of year, it’s so easy to find free or cheap seasonal activities. Checking local news websites for a calendar of events is a really easy way find out what’s going on in your area, even in a small town. We decided to hunt down some pumpkins at a couple of local pumpkin patches.

We also checked out other plants while at the nursery for possible future gardening projects.

And of course I made friends with the nursery cat…

Try a DIY project you both can enjoy.

I’m thankful that I married someone who likes creative projects as much as I do. We decided to paint our pumpkins instead of carving them. It was perfect weather to sit on our back porch and decorate them while the sun set in front of us.

Our newly decorated pumpkins made great additions to our front porch fall decor. This wreath was my DIY project from last fall.

Cook a meal together.

This is pretty self-explanatory, but cooking dinner or brunch is a great way to spend time together. Not only does it cut down on your cooking time, but it’s nice to feel a sense of accomplishing something together. Dallas grilled the steak, and I roasted some fingerling potatoes and brussel sprouts.

Get creative.

While we were out running errands, we stopped at Hastings to check out a sale they were having on used and paperback books. We’ve come across these adult coloring books before, but hadn’t purchased any yet. They were included in the paperback sale, 2 for $20, so we bought a couple. Best. Purchase. Yet. We spent hours drinking wine, coloring, and listening to Abba on vinyl. It was the most relaxing experience. This is definitely going to be a regular stress-relieving activity.

One of the books has a story that goes along with the pictures about a girl trying to fall asleep. We’ve decided that since it’s probably going to take us years to finish coloring the entire book, that maybe this will be something we can read to our future children.

Go outside.

Sunday morning we woke up to more beautiful fall weather and decided to take a short drive to a “lake” that I pass on my way to work each morning. I say “lake” because it’s more like a over-sized duck pond on the side of the highway. But it has a cute little trail and a park, so we decided to take Mollie for a walk.

Being outside together forces us to get away from all the distractions in our house, hold hands, and talk about the beautiful weather, how cute our dog is, and how we want to spend the rest of the day. It left us feeling refreshed and ready to take on the week.

Making the effort to get out of our routine and spend time together being active, creative, and silly has honestly made this the best weekend we’ve had in awhile.