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"In the wake of this crazy economy, Rex and I have decided to tighten our financial belts. While some people might get depressed at the thought of giving up daily 7-11 snack runs, I am actually elated. I&amp;#039;m hoping with less money spent on junk my belt notch will get tighter. I am hoping that diminished driving means less dough spent on gas. And God forbid Rex and I spend Sundays at home rather than run from one event to the next like corporate event planners. &amp;quot;Rex, you take the compact to grab lunch. I&amp;#039;ll take the SUV to church. We&amp;#039;ll meet up at the in-laws but not before you drop off the set of speakers to Tom on your way there. Unless there&amp;#039;s traffic, which means you&amp;#039;ll be on the other freeway so get your haircut instead. I&amp;#039;ll see you in nine hours!&amp;quot; With every down there is an up, and the same goes with sex. (Pun intended) With less chaos Rex and I can take a deep breath and enjoy all the blessings we&amp;#039;ve been given. (As well as worked our fannies off for.) Yesterday, Stink wasn&amp;#039;t feeling well. We were supposed to go to a pumpkin carving party about an hour from our house. Just as we were about to get dressed and plow ahead with our plans (I hate to flake on people) the little neighbor girl came by. She wanted to play Barbies. Stink was in his undies while Pip had shorts but no top. No worries \u2013 the Barbies didn&amp;#039;t seem to mind. It just didn&amp;#039;t make sense to rush everyone out of the house. While the kids played on the TV room rug, smushing chips all over my fresh vacuum job, Rex and I sat outside with our own bowl of chips \u2013 not to mention the chips on our shoulders. These included, but weren&amp;#039;t limited to: \u2022 Rex attached to his computer \u2022 Me Ebaying instead of chatting with Rex at night \u2022 Rex putting errands over family time \u2022 Me putting cleaning over sitting down with him at the end of the day \u2022 Not enough sex either due to illness, exhaustion or simply not valuing it enough &amp;quot;Valuing it enough&amp;quot;, more than anything else on the list, was what was missing from our lives. Why were we valuing other people, money and time over the most important things in our lives: Each other and the kids? We made a pact, then and there, to embrace the richness of life, despite the ailing economy. Then we made mad passionate love on the hammock. Yeah right! There were kids a few feet away from us! But we thought about it. And then we fell asleep early that night. But we woke up refreshed. And guess why I&amp;#039;m writing this column at 11am on a Monday? Because tonight, the only thing I want to write to my husband is &amp;quot;Take me&amp;quot;. Perhaps I&amp;#039;ll send it in an email. Lord knows he&amp;#039;ll probably be on the computer. (We made a pact, but his old technical habits aren&amp;#039;t going to die easily.) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/relationships/a2361/the-value-of-each-other/>