Maintaining Balance

I am struggling with trying to figure out how to maintain balance in my life as I get prepared to start working again. It is important to me to take time every day to spend with each of my children and to pay attention to my loving husband. I am fearful that once I go back to work I will have trouble maintaining balance in all these aspects of my life and continuing to help around the house as much as I have been lately. As I am preparing myself to go back into the workforce, we are also waiting to hear back on a job that my husband has interviewed for, to be able to make the best decision that we can about what schedules will go together the best.

So as I contemplate all the choices and hurdles in front of me I have been brainstorming and trying to think of different ways to make sure that my husband and I are prepared to take time for ourselves. Some people have suggested that a couple should have date night once a week, or at minimum once every two weeks. In our experience, we have managed to have a date night once every 3-4 months since we had our son almost 4 years ago and we have managed to go one real vacation and one visit to a out of town friend's home. So this year I am determined to get to go on more dates with my husband to make sure that we can stay connected and reconnect a little bit as well as go on a family vacation.

I am in the process of making us a date bucket. We will each write down some things we would like to do together, such as go bowling, go to a movie, go to dinner, etc. At the beginning of each month we will choose a slip of paper out of the bucket and then we will make sure to take the time to do the chosen activity before the end of the month. We have agreed to take turns making arrangements for the kids for our special night so that we are sharing the responsibility of making some time for us.

As far as the kids go, we are doing our best to take the kids out at least once a month to do something special geared towards children. This month we are going to go to Tanglewood Mall in Roanoke for the "Tons of Fun" event as a family and are going to have fun letting the kids play and ride carnival rides. We are also planning on taking them on a family vacation this year. So far we have picked out the weekend and are in the process of finalizing the plans for that trip.

How do you maintain a healthy balance at home with your spouse and kids?