The biggest thing most new parents don’t talk about is their marriage. It’s such a hush hush thing, because let’s be honest, nobody wants to put their dirty laundry on display, but having kids is tough on a relationship. Relationships and marriage ALWAYS take work, but after having kids it takes EVEN MORE WORK. Before Matt and I had Hudson, we’d spend our time in three separate places: At work, enjoying our hobbies and friends separately and then together hanging out or on dates. Once we had Hudson, we had to choose between taking that independent time for ourselves or spending time together, and sadly once we put Hudson to bed, on a lot of nights we end up retreating to enjoy the things we love – for me it’s the gym, or editing photos/ videos and for Matt it’s watching documentaries, listening to podcasts or reading. It’s so hard to keep our time together in check, and to make sure that we’re getting at least some time to catch up about our day, chat about Hudson and talk about plans. My love language is words of affirmation, so sometimes I feel filled up if Matt and I exchange some affectionate words, but Matt’s love language is Quality Time, so he really enjoys it if we spend at least a solid hour together making dinner, eating dinner together, or going on dates where we focus solely on each other and are not on our phones or being interrupted. It sounds silly, but in this line of work that is SO much easier said than done – my manager lives in on the west coast, as do a lot of my clients, so I am usually answering e-mails and working until well past 5PM on most days. BUT, I’ve recently been trying my best to spend evenings (even if only for that one solid hour) sitting down, sharing a meal, and chatting about our day. One of our favorite dinners that is so easy to create and that feels so fancy is a wine & cheese night. Because of Hudson, we can’t really leave our home after hours, so we try to bring date night, and a taste of some of our local favorites into our house! 
Matt’s more of a foodie than I am (to be honest!) but we both appreciate delicious local and fresh food, so whenever we set up a little date night we usually pick up local ingredients as much as we can! Our bread is all baked in Long Beach from one of our favorite coffee shops, Blacksmith Breads, and all of the cheese is from Craigs Creamery, a new brand founded by eight family-run dairy farms in Upstate New York that just became available in select Northeast retailers. This local gem is New York State grown and certified, which verifies its products are produced locally and responsibly, just how we like them! The best part? Each day fresh milk is picked up from the family farms and delivered directly to the creamery, which is located less than 20 miles from where the cows are milked. We picked up the delicious cheeses (which are all-natural and hormone free!) at Stop & Shop when we grabbed grapes, bread and the rest of our little feast! If you want to have a wine and cheese night, you can pick up Craigs Creamery products at select Giant Landover, Stop & Shop and ShopRite stores in NY, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland! It’s great to get a sitter once in a while, but it’s SUCH an expense to pay for a night out, and to cover a sitter too, so we find it’s so much more accessible to date each other in a more simplistic way in our own home. It’s fun to come up with new meal ideas, or themes for our meals! Let me know some of your favorite ways to stay connected in the comments! 
Thank you to Craigs Creamery for sponsoring this post – as always, all opinions are my own!