The Rut, and 30 Ways to get Out of it.

Nothing kills mine and my husbands happy-marriage-vibes quicker than dull, unimaginative, non-creative, doing-the-same-thing-over-and-over-again ROUTINE!

Shocking, I know. And I know that there is much to be said about the positive effect routine has on ones life, but let me take a moment and shine a little light on why it is also a ruthless murderer, seeking to devour happiness!

Routine, by definition means a sequence of actions regularly followed.

EG:

Weekdays: You get up, go to work, work for 10 hours, come home, make dinner, eat dinner, watch a show, take a shower, and go to bed.

Weekends: Get up, get dressed, go to church, come home, piddle around, go to parents house for dinner, come home, and go to bed.

Day, after day, after day, after day.

Nothing spontaneous, nothing out of the ordinary. Just doing the same thing week after week until you go crazy! Our solution? Run away to a different state for 6 months, and hope we can shake out of it! (note: This is an extreme measure and must be thought through seriously and executed with precision. Not for the faint of heart.)

So now that we are 4 months back in our home, as you can imagine it didn’t take us very long to fall back into our old routine. Yay. This time we saw it coming and have decided to put a stop to it before it becomes too big. Our new solution? Make a list of things we can do as a family in the evenings and on the weekends so we don’t mindlessly veg out and miss our life completely.

Evenings and Weekend’s Bucket List

1. Play a board or card game.
2. Tidy up the house. Many hands make lite work.
3. Do the dishes together as soon as dinner is over.
4. Give the baby a bath together.
5. Go for a walk.
6. Take a hike.
7. Go to work with the husband whenever able to do so.
8. Go to Bear Lake.
9. Go to Yellow stone and actually go through it this time!
10. Go to Jackson Hole.
11. Do yard work.
12. Go to a concert in the park.
13. Read aloud from the Bible.
14. Have a picnic style lunch or dinner. Bonus! Add candles and make it a romantic night out!
15. Do a little home improvement.
16. Go to the Splash Pad.
17. Play a game of charades.
18. Just cuddle.
19. Talk about future plans.
20. Build fence.
21. Play with our sweet baby.
22. Take candid pictures!
23. Have friends over.
24. Plan the family vacation for next year.
25. Have an *occasional* movie night, but don’t let it be your go-to for fun.
26. Play outside in the yard.
27. Take family pictures.
28. Visit family.
29. Take a second to pray together as a family.
30. Clean out the cars.

I know not everything on here is what you would call fun, but trust me, it is a better idea than you just sitting in front of a screen while life happens around you and you miss it completely.

XOXO

The Thomsen Family