When a husband works a lot.

For the past 9 years my husband has worked a pretty demanding work schedule. He is in sales, is paid on commission and loves his career. There are times where he has worked 100 hour weeks, but the norm is around 60. Currently he is taking 2 days off a week...Wednesdays which is my day "off" from being at home, that day is used presently for me to go visit with my mom who is 2 hours away...and he mostly has Sundays off. Mostly meaning that some Sundays he has to make phone calls.

What have I done to make this work for us?
1) keeping open lines of communication is a must.
2) we have time each night, about an hour to talk and catch up with each other
3) flexibility and compromise
4) our homeschooling came about because of his schedule...if the kids were in school they would never see him...but this way we are able to meet up with him for a few hours a couple times a week for lunch.
5) being honest when things are too much.
6) at home date nights
7) out of home date nights
8) a once yearly 4 day vacation..just us two. Ok..it is also his business convention but we get to go to cool places for free and have time to just be Us.
9) Outside activities with friends for the kids and me...once a month I like to go out with friends..get coffee, catch live music, independent films..things like that.

Some people have told me early on in this journey that I should have him change careers, and HE has said to me that if I ever wanted him to, he would. Fact is though...the man is awesome at what he does, he thrives, and I could never ask him to give that up.

The real key though is to keep excellent communication, and to continue to develop ones self...not just be at home with kids and waiting waiting waiting for him to come home...that potentially leads to a bad bout of depression.