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Friday, March 17, 2017

Purposeful Time Together




Happy Friday Lovelies!

Oh and what a beautiful Friday it is! Well at least down here in Texas. Today I decided to send out a short note of encouragement. I received an email this morning from basically my all time favorite blogger Lisa Jacobson over at Club31Women (http://club31women.com/), the purpose was also a little note of encouragement (something I'd encourage all of you to sign up for!) and I will be honest it really hit home for me. If you remember, my last post was on the point of being still and little yourself let God take over. But her little "Note from Lisa" today reminded me that we also need to be putting some effort into encouraging loving time with our spouse and families. "...A small, simple routine...A powerful, memorable, connecting time." Basically, find a way find a time whether in the morning or afternoon or evening depending on your schedule to just connect with your family. Her special time was coffee in the morning. And that is probably one of the best ideas (if you don't like coffee insert your favorite drink here lol). In other words, strive to find a way to have a special time whether it is an hour, two hours, or even thirty minutes to just connect. I think the most important thing she said was this, "...only positive communication is allowed." Make sure when you are setting aside this much need and very important time you aren't using it as a way to iron out issues. It should be a time to just enjoy each others company and catch up with each others lives (especially if you have kids). This is actually something that has been weighing on me a lot lately since we made our big move. I have been wanting to find a way to set up a routine (not a forced one obviously) that just gets us together in the mornings or evenings but not around the TV. I can think of two ways I want to try to start implementing this. The first is in the morning. Now I am a lazy bum in the mornings. I literally sleep as long as possible before I have to get up and leave for work. I am just not a morning person. I would like to be though! So I think I will take a page out of her book and try to see if I can drag my lazy self out of bed early to enjoy morning coffee with my husband. Another idea I have been leaning towards is in the evenings. I am an avid reader so I thought maybe I could start implementing "reading time." We can pick a book and I'll read some and then maybe just sink into some quality connecting time and conversation. There are so many different things you could do! We had originally tried to start a tradition at my favorite coffee shop. Every Sunday we would go and it was phenomenal time spent talking about anything and everything under the sun. It's like we were dating again. Unfortunately that got kicked to the curb when money got a little to tight but I am hoping we can turn it back into a tradition again at some point. I digress. Point is there are a multitude of ways to find to spend time just encouraging and loving one another. I think the key ingredient is truly to agree that it will be a time of positivity. Turn on some soft music in the background and talk, take the dogs on a walk, go to the grocery store together! Even though we live with people that doesn't necessarily mean we are connecting with them. Spending intentional time together to talk and connect is honestly the difference between just being in the same house with someone and having a relationship with them! So I want to challenge you to try to find time this coming week to make intentional time to spend together. Purposeful, encouraging, loving time together. Whether it is over coffee in the morning, or sitting on the porch swing watching the sunset. Let the dishes be, leave the laundry for another hour trust me it will all be there when you get back. Big shout out to Lisa Jacobson for inspiring this entire post and helping me remember that purposeful time together is completely different than default time cause you live in the same house.

Have some good ideas of purposeful time together? Leave a comment below or email me at maryannapartlow@gmail.com. Don't forget to like the facebook page! and Hop on over to Club31Women and check out her blog! Until next time! 

Have a Blessed Weekend,
~Maryanna 

2 comments:

  1. Hi Anna,

    I like the idea of reading together because it reminds me of all the reading my mom did with me when I was a kid (and still does when we're driving to church). Although my husband reads the newspaper or magazines, he doesn't enjoy reading much else and does really like the topics I do. I kind of force read to him on long drives and he humors me - LOL. However, I found a free audiobook Great Expectations that I downloaded to listen to on the treadmill. With a little coaxing, I got him to listen to it too while he is on the treadmill. Now each day that we listen, we discuss what we heard and speculate on what is happening (sometimes we can barely decipher the old English) and what we think will happen next. It has really been nice to have something to spur happy discussions, similar to when we both used to watch sitcoms together. We can't find any these days that we both like, but Charles Dickens came to the rescue! ☺️

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    1. How fitting that and old classic like Charles Dickens would come to the rescue! Reading is a great way to get a conversation started because there are so many things to speculate about and it is so much fun seeing who may be right. One of my personal favorites is Les Miserable. There is so much strong symbolism involved! My husband has never read it so we are going to make that our first book of choice to read together! I am so excited to read it again!!! Best of luck with the old English in dickens it really is work to read some of those older books. But they are so wonderfully good! Since your husband isn't into reading all that much but likes the newspaper you could always use that to your advantage. Reading the paper with him and talking about what is going on in the world can be a wonderful way to spend time together as well!

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