When Kris posed this question, I had absolutely no answer. At that time, I was working full time making lunches, in the middle of an amazing courtship, and balancing time with my siblings, phone calls with my bestie, and all the other essentials of life (like reading, checking Facebook, etc.). I couldn’t imagine going from my crazy busy life to being home all day - by myself - for eight hours, every day. (We both believed that it was Kris’s place to provide for our family, and mine to keep the house, so getting a job on the side wasn’t one of our options).
I asked my married sisters what they had done during those early years of marriage and they didn’t remember. But both of them had gotten pregnant right off the bat, so those early months were full of morning sickness and preparing for a new baby.
So, Kris and I got married. Two days after getting back from our honeymoon, I waved goodbye to my new husband as he drove to work, then looked around our house. It was a mess - we had opened all our wedding gifts, so the living room was piled high in wrapping paper, boxes, and the gifts. The first couple of weeks of married life were super busy, filled with cleaning, unpacking, organizing, and writing thank you notes. I’ve gone through waves in my married life - having so much to do I don’t think I can complete it in the eight hours Kris is away, and having nothing to do and watching the clock, hoping it would move faster.
I don’t like having nothing to do (who does for very long?), so I’ve compiled a list of ideas of things for a newly married girl to do, just in case any of you find yourselves in the same happy situation I am in! ;-)
-Unpack, settle in. When first married, you’ll have an incredible amount of stuff - not just all the belongings you brought from your last house, but all the wedding gifts, plus wedding decorations. Figuring out where everything will go, unpacking and organizing will definitely take some time!
-Clean the house. Especially if your guy had been living there before you got married. He’s probably done the basic jobs, but I’m talking about deep cleaning - everything from the basement to the attic.
-Write wedding thank yous. I wrote right around 100 thank you notes in the two months after our wedding. Those seriously took a ton of time!
-Decorate. Or, if you’re like me, search Pinterest and try to learn how to decorate. Start simple - don’t try a major $3,000 room makeover. Use what you have, make a list of what you need, try shopping second hand and look for good deals. This will take time, but will be much more meaningful than if you had just purchased everything at Target.
-Paint a room. Don’t forget to check out the discount paints at Home Depot to save some $$
-Learn to cook. Ask your husband what are his favorites and start with those. Work your way through baking, different cooking techniques and different cuisines. Experiment with fancy plating and presentation.
-Pick up a hobby (quilting, refurbishing furniture, dance, an instrument, drawing, fashion). Try learning something that you enjoy and can bless others with or possibly make money with (music lessons, quilts, selling refurbished furniture, etc.)
-Read. But don’t just stick to one type of book - branch out and and read different genres. Try to stay away from novels and go with historical accounts, how-to, inspirational, or spiritual books.
-Learn stuff (natural health, prenatal and child care, etc.). Soak up as much knowledge as you can while you have the time!
-Teach piano (or whatever skill you have)
-Find a good Bible study to attend
-Workout. Incredibly healthy for you, any future kids, and blesses your husband. ;-)
-Write - stories, letters, a blog, a journal. Express yourself in words, even if no one else will ever read them
-Start a garden. If you have the space, grow a vegetable garden and save money on veggies and fruits during the summer. Or a herb garden (even if you live in an apartment, you can have a window herb garden!) or flowers, or even a rock or fairy garden
-Baby-sit - your nieces and nephews, younger siblings, cousins, etc. We did have a rule when we were first married that we wouldn’t take kids overnight, but have since stretched that a bit. :-) I love kids and always have so much fun with them when they’re over. It’s also wonderful being able to help out their busy mothers by watching their kids for the day (or weekend.)
-Ask your hubby what you can do to help him - packing for a trip, preparing for whatever it is you plan to do that evening (grilling meat, working out, going out, etc.), cleaning something for him, etc.
The majority of these things are things that I have been able to do in the last eight months of marriage and I have been loving it! Do you have any other suggestions that I could add to this list? Put them in the comments! :-)
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