Errand Days

I call this "Evidence of Thursday Errands". 

It's not actual art, but it's kind of like art to us. 

Our errand days often lay the foundation for inspiration in our marriage and provide opportunities for us to paint this life that we love so much.

Thursdays are in essence, J's Saturdays. Being his first day off after his 4 day work week, they are also our currently designated errand day. 

He schedules haircuts, we get groceries, get the oil changed, set appointments, and anything else we can think of on Thursdays.

And, we do everything in our power to do them all together. 

Why?

Well, the short version of it is in our early days of marriage running errands took the place of actual dates. Not being able to afford nights out on the town taught us how to be creative about spending time together.

And as the years have passed this habit has kept; partly out of necessity and partly because we have noticed how this ritual seems to benefit our relationship.

Over the years, we have learned that I am big picture and he is all about details. Never is this more evident than on errand day. I have the general idea and the creative input needed for making our home function, say for meal planning...

And he makes sure we don't leave the store and leave behind crucial ingredients.

Yes, this happens a lot when I go to the store on my own, even with a list. 

That's the necessity part.

But the benefit part... Well, that's where magic happens.

This week was a perfect example. 

After my guy's visit to the barber, we decided we needed to grab a bite to eat. What was supposed to be a quick meal turned into an hour-long discussion. Jason noticed something was off about my attitude and started probing. We were able to address some creative struggles I have been facing and come up with a plan that will help. 

We try really hard to schedule errands on days that allow for flexibility to be built into our schedule. This takes the desire to rush out of play and allows for quality time such as this to occur.

After our chat, we tackled the rest of the items on our list...together. 

As small as it may seem, having the opportunity to take on a task like groceries side by side gives us the chance to talk, hang out and make decisions with each other's input. 

Over the years we have found that tackling the small things together on a regular basis is great training for overcoming the big things together as well. 

All that time we have put into negotiating over what kind of toilet paper to buy and making sure we have everything we need for the week ahead has actually factored in to how we maneuver more important topics and how we consider each other's input on matters that well, matter. 

So here we are almost 22 years into marriage and still rearranging our schedule every week to make sure we can get groceries together. 

And here we are 22 years later and the best of friends who look forward to our time together, even if it is just spent doing the mundane. 

If you are careful not to disregard it, you may find the mundane can often be the breeding ground for the things that really matter in life.