better marriage happier wife

The past six months has been one of the harder seasons on our marriage, that season being the Marathon. To be clear, I wanted him to run it, I wanted him to train for it, and I wanted so much for him to not get injured and be able to complete it. That being said, despite his most valiant efforts, it was rough on me, on us. The silver lining is that post-marathon has been a deluge of quality time, very deliberate time spent together that’s neither cooking nor cleaning up in the post-bedtime evenings, and our very own weekend away. Slow down, Nell. TWO NIGHTS AND TWO DAYS AWAY FROM OUR KIDS!? We haven’t been collectively away from them (and I’ve only had two instances away from the baby, ever, at 17 months) ever. We hadn’t been to our family’s country home (the Lodge) without a child or three in over two years. My generous parents and sister covered the babysitting, the middle of the night awakenings, the church festival, the swim lesson, the mass attendance, the crying fits, the tantrums, and the food thrown on the floor. All while we basked in the complete stillness of the country. And slept almost the whole entire time. But when we weren’t sleeping, we got to talk. Deep talk. The kinds of conversations you simply can’t have over a fatigued evening, a hurried bedtime, a messy house. And I realized these past two post-marathon weeks I’ve felt like a queen in my…