Your family, My family, Our family

This weekend we packed up our bags and headed back to our hometown in Indiana to celebrate Blake's birthday and my brother's birthday. It was a great weekend filled with celebration, good food, and quality time with our families. However, every time we head back home it reminds me of how marriage how marriage changes things.

Our time has to be split equally between both families, and sometimes that can cause big problems. We have to make a game plan before we ever leave Clarksville. We decide where we're staying and on what nights, what we're going to do during the days, and how to keep things equal. And the weekend never seems to be long enough. On a typical trip back home, we get into town around 9 pm on Friday night and have to leave by 4 pm on Sunday afternoon. It always seems to be a whirlwind weekend.

For the most part, we have navigated this pretty well. Occasionally, one of us gets a little bit mad and we whine about how we never get to see our family and blah blah blah. But we always make it a priority to be as fair to each family as possible. We don't want either of us or our families to feel short-changed.

But this is all new to us and to our families. I remember when I was in college, and I would come home on the weekends. Those trips home were always so relaxing and refreshing. Majority of my friend had either moved out of town or were away at college, so I just spent time with my family. I didn't have to worry about splitting time or making sure I saw everyone enough. I loved coming home.

I still love coming home, but it is just different. It is still relaxing to get away from things, but at times, it's a bit stressful too. The most relaxing part of coming home was that I didn't have to think about things. There was no work to be done, no deadlines, I didn't have to worry about who I was going to go to dinner with, or who I was hanging out with and on which night. I just packed up my bags and headed off to do NOTHING. It's just not like that any more. We have to put thought into our weekends. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just different.

The great part about it is that this is not a bad problem to have. I mean we both love spending time with each other's families, and we have families who want to be with us too. Tragic, huh?