Movie Night

Ben and I are in an unusual season.  We're both spending our days at home together...sort of.  Ben completed a masters degree in May and is now spending the majority of his time (between 8-12 hours a day) studying for a licensing exam.  How's that for being vague and attempting to cloak our personal lives with some modicum of privacy?

After a morning workout and breakfast, he closes himself off in the office and studies till lunch.  He breaks for lunch and then he's back at it until supper.  I'm so impressed with his focus and diligence and I am confident that his hard work will pay off.

It's strange, being so close to him and yet not interacting with him throughout the day.  I'm doing my best to not interrupt him and respect the closed office door.  The highlight of these days (though there have only been a few so far) has been our lunchtime.  We make a simple lunch together and each outside in our backyard.  Those stolen minutes, mid-day are so very special to me right now.

And then there are the evenings.  Our evenings are suddenly more free these days as many of the chores and activities that once occupied our nocturnal hours have been relegated to my daytime hours.  We want to use this time intentionally and have been working on a wee list of fun ways to spend an evening together.  We don't want to spend a lot of money each night (though going out for dessert nightly always sounds appealing to me!) and it's tough for Ben to get really excited about anything that involves a great deal of cognitive effort (see: studying for 8-12 hours, daily!).  We've come up with several ideas:

• Preparing meals together, especially to music
• Having a game night
• Taking evening walks together (or waddles, as the case may be when one is 36 weeks pregnant)
• Reading together
• And yes, going out for dessert!

So having said all of this, what did we do last night?  Exactly none of those things.  Well, that's not true.  We did make supper together and we did take a walk, but that - for whatever reason - wasn't cutting it for us.  And so, we embarked on a journey that has always appealed to us, though it's never been quite the right time in our lives to undertake such a mission. 

Our local video store has a fantastic deal: 5 movies for 7 nights all for the low, low price of $9.  This has always peaked our interest but we have never had the luxury of watching 5 movies in a week.  But if this isn't the time in our lives, I ask you - when will that time be?  Picking 5 proved harder than expected, but we managed to settle on the following 5 titles:

The Business of Being Born

Chariots of Fire 

Ferris Bueller's Day Off - somehow Ben has never seen this!

Hotel Rwanda

To Kill A Mockingbird

 So there you have it.  That's what we'll be doing this week with our time.  If you have any ideas about other evening activities, send them my way.  How do you unwind after a long day?  I feel quite certain that after a week of moving watching we'll be ready for a new activity!