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A couple sitting together looking at a bridge.

5 Tips For Making Date Night A Reality

By Quality Time7 Comments

A regular date night always sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? In theory, it seems easy enough to follow through on. But while some couples are great at making it a priority, others struggle to make it happen. There are just too many things that can get in the way. Maybe it’s your season of life, or your jobs, or your finances. You’ll always be able to come up with reasons why a date night just isn’t in the cards this month.

But here’s the only reason you need for why it should be: your relationship is worth it.

Your relationship deserves, and benefits from, intentional time together. And we want to help make it easier for you. Here are 5 tips for making date night a reality.

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September 16, 2020
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A couple walking on the traintracks.

10 Tips For A More Balanced Relationship

By Connection, Quality Time, Relationship Basics7 Comments

We all know that one couple that seems to do everything together. You know the one. They share every leisure activity, and rarely, if ever, does one partner make plans that don’t involve the other. Maybe you see this in your best friend’s relationship, maybe in a relative’s relationship, or maybe in your own!

Maintaining a sense of emotional closeness with your partner is important; it is one of the major pillars of a healthy intimate relationship. That being said, you can have too much of a good thing.

Here are some tips for achieving a healthy balance of “I” and “We”:

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September 2, 2020
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A couple smiling and staring into each others eyes.

How to Fill Your Free Time (Without a Fight)

By Quality TimeNo Comments

When the world slowed down for a few months, many of us got a taste of what it was like to have more free time, albeit free time stuck at home. We learned how to bake new treats (banana bread? sourdough?), organized every drawer and cabinet, and maybe even took on some home improvement projects. But by now, we’re all itching to do the things we postponed or longed for during our days at home. On top of that anticipation, it’s also summer, which usually brings long weekends, vacations, and lots of get-togethers. What were previously “normal” decisions might now be met with a new sense of unease or anxiousness about being with and around others. Combine these factors with the urge to make up for the adventures we would’ve had this spring, and you have a situation that could lead to some heated discussions with your partner about where and how you’ll spend your precious free time.

Suffice it to say, this summer brings some new challenges for your relationship.

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July 8, 2020
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A couple hugging at a lake at sunset.

Navigating the Pandemic as Newlyweds

By Connection, Quality Time15 Comments

I was talking to a friend last week, sharing stories about our weekend. She and her husband had celebrated their first anniversary as a married couple, in true quarantine style, with homemade pasta and a bottle of chilled wine that had been left on their front porch by a dear friend. She made a comment that struck me as interesting – “Our first year of marriage was certainly not what I imagined.”

In that first year, they both had major changes with their careers, bought a home together, and most unplanned of all: weathered 3 months (and counting) of a global pandemic. While many of those events were welcome and brought joy to their relationship, she delved deeper in her reflection that it was more the amount of change, challenge, and cooperation between the two of them that she didn’t anticipate. She, like many newlyweds, thought that the first year would be a breeze, a blissful journey together living life. I can relate. I myself just celebrated nine months married to my husband – also qualifying us as newlyweds navigating a different first chapter of marriage than we envisioned.

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June 10, 2020
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A couple hugging in the middle of a city street.

Things to Take With You From Quarantine

By Quality Time, Relationship Basics8 Comments

Our exact timelines will vary, but we’ve all been in this for a while now. Quarantine, lockdown, shelter-in-place, or whatever you want to call the new normal we’ve been living. Depending on where you live, you could be pivoting towards opening up and going back to something resembling life “before.” For some of us, life will continue to unfold in restricted, socially-distant reality. We hope that over the last weeks and months, you’ve been able use some of your time at home to invest in your relationship. As you prepare to step back into the hustle and bustle of life, we encourage you to reflect on the things you want to take with you and carry on from this time. Yes, we know there are probably many things you’d like to leave behind, but there has been some good that has come out of staying home and slowing down your pace of life.

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May 13, 2020
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A couple placing baked goods in the oven.

10 Tweaks to Help You Thrive as a Couple

By Quality Time12 Comments

In the midst of so much of our lives changing every day, it can be very tempting to throw your routine out the window. The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic can easily make anyone want to crawl into bed, snuggled up in your partner’s arms, to watch Netflix and lounge the day away. This might be a welcomed escape right now, but may become less tempting as the days go on.

You and your partner are in this for the long haul, and while we don’t know how long that actually is, we do know that you shouldn’t let the lifestyle you’ve cultivated together slip away. We encourage you to control what you can, which is how you spend your days. Even though you can’t do the exact things you could a month ago, you can still control the feeling and spirit of your lifestyle. And as a bonus, you get many more hours in the day with your partner, uninterrupted by activities that normally compete for that treasured time together.

Swap the “normal” things you’re not currently able to do and with something you can enjoy while social distancing — or quarantining or self-isolating together — or whatever stage of this you’re in. We hope this helps you keep some control and sense of normalcy.

Here are 10 social distancing-friendly swaps you can try. We encourage you to modify these or come up with our own!

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April 1, 2020
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A couple eating breakfast on the floor.

Making Lemonade

By Quality Time12 Comments

Is all of this uncertainty starting to wear on you? With your normal routines upended, are you feeling tense and a bit out of sorts? If so, you’re not alone. We feel it too!
 
We know there are worse things than spending all of your time at home with your partner and your kids. But if you’re experiencing some cabin fever, we’re here to help you turn this lemon-filled situation into some delicious lemonade (homemade, of course).
 
At Prepare/Enrich, our lemonade is precious time with our loved ones. Time we’d normally fill up with the everyday commitments that pull us in all different directions is now valuable time together.

How might you make the most out of this extra time together? Here are some ideas.

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March 25, 2020
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