Handling life changes!

Oh life, you have such a fabulous way of throwing a curve ball! Just when hubby and I were settling in to our "married" routine, we got thrown a curve ball! A, I now work an hour away on a night shift (completely opposite his), with complete unpredictability, curve ball! We have had to do (and still are) a lot of adjusting! We thought we worked opposite schedules before?! Oh man! We really took that for granted! Now, we are lucky to see each other a few minutes in the middle of the night and a few early in the morning along with maybe two VERY short conversations during the day/night. Again, maybe being the operative word here! So we spoke about how we would adjust and how we would handle it and this is just the changes we have made!

-Communication. In the beginning we were both attempting to stick to our "normal" schedules and that just was not working for me, but I did not want to say anything. That was until, I had a melt down. It is SO much easier to just say what the heck you need to say in the first place and not let it snowball!
-Date night. Man I thought it was important before. SUPER important now! We have our normal weekend nights together, but we decided we needed to do more. Each month, one of us is planning a date for the other, not revolving around errands and what not!
-Pick and choose. We do this more carefully now as our time together is next to none! Sometimes you need to put yourself and your relationship first!
-Pick up the slack.   I am unable to do as much as I was doing, so hubby has been trying to help pick up the slack when he can.
-The Notebook. Because we are unable to always communicate like we do, we have a little notebook. We use it to write about our days, how we are feeling, and just what is going on. It is fun to come home almost nightly with a new note and I know hubby loves coming home to see his notes, too!
-Time Management. So we have made changes here as well. Now, hubby will go to the gym early on a Saturday while I am still sleeping, and by the time he gets home, I am getting ready to start my day. The errands we used to do separate, we now do together (food shopping).  We also are trying to cook together more. This helps with us spending time together and it also helps me free up the time i would normally spend cooking to now do something for myself.
Hubby now skips cardio at the gym on weekends and we do it together, and I think it has been one of the best changes. 
The little things. We have both been trying to find different and cute ways to let the other know we miss them or are thinking about them. We also try to be so grateful and mindful of the time we get together. We also try to not bicker about the little things. 

I am by no means saying this is what you need to do, nor am I saying we are perfect at these things! But for now, we are working at these changes and making it work for our marriage!

How have you handled big changes in your relationships??  

Xxoo-Christina