Communicating In Marriage

"If you were stuck on a deserted island, what three things would you bring with you?"  We've probably all heard this question at least a handful of times and jokingly replied with something obvious like, "a boat".  The truth is, most people aren't going to find themselves lost on an island in the middle of no where.  But if you consider the question in a slightly different light, it becomes much more relatable: "If you had to choose one person to spend the rest of your life with, who would it be?"  Hopefully, you'd choose your spouse!

This post is sponsored by Crated With Love.  All thoughts and opinions are 100% mine.  This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.  Thank you for your support!

This month, I had the chance to do another at-home date night with my husband, put together by Crated With Love, a monthly date night subscription box.  A couple of months ago, I shared about how to stay connected with your spouse after having kids.  Now that we are almost four months in with baby #3, we are feeling that it is even more important that we have this time set aside for us to reconnect.  The theme of the box was Tropical Escape and each of the activities we did explored the concept of communication.  Communication is one of those things we all know is necessary to have in a relationship, but good communication is often a skill that has to be learned.

Our first activity was a game where we had to "gather resources" for our time on the island, similar to Settlers of Catan (but a much simpler version).  We had to work together to make decisions that would maximize our resources within a certain number of moves and then mark them off on our paper.  It was a good exercise in working through possible solutions and problem solving.

Next, we created a mosaic out of "sea glass" by taking turns placing the colored stones on a piece of paper.  There was no right or wrong way to do it and while my husband sometimes put pieces in a different place than I would have, we still ended up with a fun little project.  Interestingly enough, we didn't talk much during this portion of our date.  We just glued our pieces on and enjoyed each other's company.

Afterwards, we played another game where one of us had to pretend we couldn't speak and could only communicate through actions (charades) and the other person could only use one word at a time to describe what was on our playing cards.  Knowing the answers where deserted island/jungle themed made it so it wasn't overly difficult to guess the answer, but it was fun to see what the other person came up with to describe the word on their card and it had us laughing with each other.

The last portion of our date was to take some water beads, put them in a container and make one promise to each other of something we were going to try and do for the other person every day over the next week.  The water beads were meant to remind us of our promise and as silly as it sounds, we actually still have them in their container on the ledge by the sink and it makes me smile each time I see it.

Just like in our imaginary escape from the island where we had to communicate with each other as we moved through the different activities, the same thing goes for our marriages.

As with our first Crated With Love box a few months ago, parts of the activity put us a little out of our comfort zone, but ultimately we found that we enjoyed it.  Date night doesn't have to be extravagant or expensive, but having it planned out really helps it to be a little more meaningful.  I've loved having our date night in a box arrive in our mailbox, knowing that everything we need to have a fun time is included.

If you think that a date night subscription box might be just what you need in your relationship, I highly recommend checking out Crated With Love.  Their subscription boxes are super affordable and in most cases, cost less than going out!  The Story Mode box is $19.99/month and their Diamond Membership subscription is only $26.99/month, with an even bigger discount if you sign up for 6- or 12-month memberships.  They've also given me an exclusive code for you to receive 50% off the first month of a Diamond subscription!  Just use the code: SUNSHINEANDMUNCHKINS at checkout to take advantage of this awesome discount.

What do you do to keep communication strong in your relationship?