My husband and I moved to a new state in the lower 48 about 2 months ago. We've been really stressed, not only with the move and with the fact that neither of us has a job yet, but also because we're staying with relatives. It's ok, my family is wonderful, but...there's no privacy here. There are five adults including us, and one toddler (ours). Plus two dogs and a cat. My husband and I have been spending more and more time apart, so much that sometimes I feel like we only really talk to each other about once a week. We've been arguing a lot lately, too, and have realized that it's not really about us, it's about all the other stress and craziness that's going on.
We're both pretty extroverted...until we're not. Then we need alone time to recharge. However, neither of us has been getting enough alone time lately so when we do have a few minutes without external obligations (ranging from taking care of our kid to helping out around the house to job hunting) we've chosen to spend it alone rather than with each other.
Our one outlet has been that we joined a biking group. It's not exactly time we spend alone with each other, but it's nice to get out and socialize, and we do manage to set some time apart for us to reconnect and talk with just each other. At the very least, we have time for just the two of us on the way to meet the group and on the way home. However, I don't feel like this is enough time as a couple. About an hour a week to talk and hang out, just us? (I'm not including, erm, sexy times in this. That's a different category.)
So now that you've got the background, here's my question: what kinds of things can we do together that don't require spending any money (and I do mean any, since we're still job hunting) and which won't involve the family? Keep in mind that things like the kitchen are communal, and my family expects that whoever's home will be eating dinner together. So they'd consider it weird if we cooked a separate dinner and went off somewhere to eat alone together.
Also to keep in mind: due to one family member having Alzheimer's we can't really (or don't want to?) depend on much childcare from the other family members, who are busy with the Alzheimer's patient, so we're mostly restricted to nap time and after bedtime.
We did come up with the idea of doing each other's hobbies (reading and gaming), but the book he was going to read is packed away and my computer isn't good enough to play the video games. *facepalm* (We don't have a different computer I could use for that, and obviously no money to upgrade my machine either. The book could be unpacked or obtained from the library, but it feels lame to have only one person follow through on this idea.) I had talked to one of my sibs about obtaining a game HusbandX and I could play together, and the sibling said sure but said sibling is also flaky and hasn't followed through.
What other suggestions do you have?