alone time

paul and i just celebrated our two year wedding anniversary in june. it occurred to us that despite the fact that two years have passed since our wedding day, we hardly have had any time alone. we can count the number of weekends we've spent alone - without guests, family, or travelling to some event - on our 10 fingers. this summer is a prime example of our hectic lives. between the weekends of june 21 and august 2 (those dates being inclusive), we only had ONE WEEKEND DAY free to do whatever we wanted. it's crazy!

my mom commented that since our wedding, we've never actually had a "honeymoon phase" of our relationship. we were sick on our honeymoon (okay... so we had a pretty good time even though half the time we were laying in bed from aches and pains), we arrived home from our cruise to what could have been a family tragedy, and from then on we just proceeded to walk down this chaotically scheduled lifestyle for the next two years. so my mom is concerned for us. so concerned, in fact, that she's forbidden us to use vacation time to go visit family in california. FORBIDDEN.

i love my mom.

but she's absolutely right. i feel like our relationship is suffering with the lack of down time. we're always on the go, that we don't have time to digest the events in our lives anymore - which is a really important thing to do right now, given the changes we've had in the last 10 months!

i think when i think about our weekend commitments, my thoughts automatically turn to my in-laws. but i think that's not really the point. i think we give in too easily, and put ourselves on the backburner too often. it's time for us to take care of ourselves and start nurturing our relationship too.

i just hope it won't lead to some kind of a family fall-out...