Looking after a marriage is upkeep and the occasional repair. It is also two people enjoying each other's company. Let’s eat candy.
Half an hour and the candy is already in the kitchen.
What you need
Candy, in as many kinds as you can find. The bigger the haul, the harder the test.
Two mugs
A pen and the back of an envelope for the score
The plan
Tip the candy onto the kitchen table. One of you leaves the room while the other picks nine pieces in secret and hides them in a mug. Then swap. Repeats are allowed. The same candy twice in one round is the best trick in the game.
Sort your nine into three to taste, three to feel and three to smell. Put the rest of the candy away and sit across from each other with the mugs out of sight.
Round one is taste. One of you closes their eyes. The other unwraps a piece and hands it over. Eat it and name it. A point for every right answer. Three pieces, then swap.
Round two is touch. Eyes shut again, and the unwrapped piece goes in an open palm. Fingers only, no sniffing. Three pieces each.
Round three is smell. Hold each unwrapped piece under the other one's nose. Anything chocolate gets broken in half first, so the smell from the middle does the work. Three pieces each.
Add up the score, out of nine. The loser has to confess to the kids tomorrow that they ate all of their candy. A tie means you confess together. Clear the wrappers and sit back down for the questions.
The conversation
One. Which one fooled you with your eyes shut? What did you think it was?
Two. What is one thing you would like the two of us to do in the next month, just because it would be fun?
Three. When did you last feel carefree? What has been weighing on you since then?
Add this date to your calendar
It lands on Wednesday night. Move it to whichever night works, then invite your partner so it is on both calendars.
Think of one couple who keeps saying they never get a night to themselves. Send them the first date this newsletter ever sent: dinner on the living room floor by candlelight, with nothing to cook.