How a weekend with my Husband is like going to the dentist...

I've been going to the same dentist since I was a kid. There are some years I do very well and go to see her twice a year like I am supposed to. And then there are other years, well, let's just say I don't make it at all. The years I go in twice it's always great. The receptionist greats me by name, has my file already pulled, everything is up to date and she asks about my family. The cleaning isn't bad at all from my dentist and rarely does she find anything that needs to be fixed. I'm in and out in less than 30 minutes with no pain at all. The appointments where I haven't been to see her in a couple years are not so smooth. I walk in to find a receptionist I have never seen before and she looks at me and asks "name?". I give her my name, she rifles through her papers and hands me a clipboard full of paperwork. "It's been a while since you've been here, you need to fill these out and hand me your insurance card." So I take the papers back and fill in all the information they should already know about me and my family since I have been coming there for years, and hand it back to her. She doesn't ask about my family and hardly looks like she cares. My dentist greets me with "How are you? It's been a while. How old is your child now?" I of course have to tell her I now have 2 children, and he's 3. Yes, it has been a while. We get each other up to date on our families and then she starts to work. These are the appointments I don't look forward to - lots of plaque to scrape off which makes me cringe. I feel like my whole mouth is swollen by the time I leave there.....and it's not within 30 minutes. A weekend with my husband can be categorized one of these ways. The longer it has been since we've taken time to spend together, the more our time would resemble my once every 3 year dentist appointment. We could sit across the table from one another and have to get reacquainted. Sure, I don't have to tell him his kids names - or that he now has 2, but it would take a lot of effort on our parts to get to know each other again. It would be painful at first. Thankfully our weekends have never reached that point, because we don't let them. We don't have a weekend every six months like my dentist appointments, but we do try to do date nights fairly often. We try to connect in small ways throughout the week by simple phone calls or notes or just an "I love you." I am thankful that at the end of our weekend my husband turned to me in the car on the way home and said "I'm so glad that after 16 years together we can still reconnect like this. It's like no time has gone by". My worst fear is that I am going to look across the table at him while he does some annoying habit for the millionth time and I say to myself "Why did I marry you?" Or worse, that he says that to himself about me. Couples make every effort for their children; take them to school, ball games, gymnastics, swimming. We make appointments with their teachers and doctors. We even make appointments for ourselves to get our hair done and yes, even go to the dentist. Why do our marriages get pushed to the back burner? Just as much effort needs to be made for our marriages if not more so. Because when the children are gone, all we have is each other. Don't let another day go by without making an appointment with your spouse. If it's been a while the first appointment may be awkward and a little uncomfortable, but if you keep those appointments on a regular basis with your spouse, you will notice an incredible difference in your smile.