Making Evenings Work for You

What are your evenings like? Ours go like this: 3:10pm: pick up A from from 4:45pm:I get home; someone walks the dog 5:30pm: hopefully have dinner ready, depending on how much I've planned out 6:00pm: dishes and playing with the kiddos 6:30pm: Bathtime 7:00pm: Storytime 7:30pm: Kids (hopefully) asleep! 7:45pm: curl up on the couch, watch TV or read a book. Hubby goes downstairs, watches old episodes of Top Gear or works in his shop.

There's not much "wrong" with this schedule until we hit about 7:45/8 at night. Then suddenly we become couch potatoes - and separate couch potatoes at that! No fun Scrabble games, or interesting conversation....just a boring old couple too tired to do much else.

Last night I was angry going to bed, because I realized that in addition to sitting all day long at my desk job, I basically sat all evening long, and went to bed with a sore back and neck. I've never thought of myself as a couch potato until I had a child, and now I'm the queen potato!

So, today I have compiled a list of things that hubby and I could be doing in the evenings. Some are projects that we can work on together, while others are personal goals of ours that we should be attempting to achieve.

• Using our indoor bike trainer (hubby)
• Doing yoga (Me)
• Creating a family budget
• Planning for our 2014 garden!
• Work on organizational tasks
• Meal planning

What do your evenings look like? Any tips for ways to reconnect as a couple?