to be home

Being married changes a lot of things. (Duh.) Not only does life itself look quite different, but I also see a lot of things in a different way. Exhibit A: a quiet evening at home.

As a single person, I certainly appreciated time spent at home, no particular activities on the calendar, an enjoyable few hours to myself to spend as I chose. I would perhaps eat some of my favorite snack foods, or watch a movie (or, more likely, a slew of Third Rock from the Sun episodes... not that I'm geeky enough to own the entire series on DVD.... ahem), or enjoy a good book, or aimlessly surf the web. You would probably find me in comfy clothes, wearing my favorite slippers, and - if it was wintertime - huddled up under a couple of blankets, due to my last apartment's lack of insulation. (One of the less-appealing quirks of historical homes, I will admit.) But, although these evenings were enjoyable, I don't think I relished them in quite the same way that I do now.

This fall our schedules were particularly cantankerous; Aaron tended to be busy with coaching until dinnertime or later, while I tended to be free in the late afternoon and tied up with a variety of commitments in the evening. Translation? We saw very little of each other. We would leave in the morning, occasionally see each other briefly around dinnertime, and then at night crash into bed, exhausted, with a quick exchange of "oh, you live here, too?" In the last month or so, our schedules have still been as busy as ever, but they have at least been more similar, and the change has been palpable. There is a certainly simplicity to time at home together, nothing in particular to do, nowhere we have to be, no commitments vying for our time. Even if we are both heading our separate ways in the evening, such as tonight, those couple of hours we might share in between school and our other commitments are truly the highlight of the day.

I have no other grand conclusion to draw - only the simple observation that time at home with my husband is one of my favorite things in the world.