We set high expectations. For ourselves, for each other, for pretty much everyone in our lives. Lately we’ve been learning which ones to hold onto and which ones to hand back to God. So we made a game of it.

Rapid fire, expectation versus reality. The family vacation that’s really just a trip. Finally getting to stay up late, and being mad if you’re awake past 10:38. Forty-five minutes of scrolling for a show one of us sleeps through anyway. Cuddling all night versus the wall of pillows. The new couch that turned into a whole new living room, and the one that showed up in 27 boxes.

Then it gets real. Marriage being 100/100, not 50/50. Why friendship as an adult is so hard. Almost six years without a drink. And why 440 square feet was the happiest we’ve ever been.

Turns out the messy, ordinary version is the good stuff.

We’re not experts. We’re just awake.

New episodes Sundays.

Have something we should talk about? If something’s been rattling around in your head all week, send it to hello@bedtimebanter.com. We read every one.

bedtimebanter.com

@bedtimebanterpod

Two episodes of our story were heavy enough. This week we lightened it up and went back to the '90s, and we're pretty sure they were better.

Calling the movie theater for showtimes. Blockbuster late fees and the shame that came with them. TGIF, Topanga, and JTT. Finding your friends by the pile of bikes and drinking out of whatever hose was closest. Christa the rink rat versus Drew and his pogo stick. Starter jackets, Dunkaroos, Pizza Hut with the chandeliers, and a Surge and Jolt doubleheader. CD binders that held 750 discs, the toothpaste trick, and the songs that still take us right back. Plus the settled debate over whether Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie ever made. It is.

Then the real question: if we could go back, would we?

What business from our childhood needs to come back? Send it in. We're serious about this one.

No tears this time. Unless you miss Dunkaroos.

We're not experts. We're just awake.

New episodes Sundays.

Have something we should talk about? If something's been rattling around in your head all week, send it to hello@bedtimebanter.com. We read every one.

bedtimebanter.com

@bedtimebanterpod

Last time we left off at the wedding. This one fills in the sixteen years since.

A surprise pregnancy test we had to buy twice. A loss that almost convinced us to stop at one, and the baby girl who came after. A kindergarten class of 46 that turned us into homeschoolers overnight. Selling the house, buying a 42-foot fifth wheel neither of us knew how to tow, and hitting the road with two kids and Louie, the wiener dog. Then the phone call that brought us home in five days, and the six months we got with Christa's dad because of it. And finally, the move to the furthest corner of the map.

It's a long one, and some of it is heavy. There's also a grill that melted straight through a picnic table on New Year's Eve.

We're not experts. We're just awake.

New episodes Sundays.

Have something we should talk about? If something's been rattling around in your head all week, send it to hello@bedtimebanter.com. We read every one.

bedtimebanter.com

@bedtimebanterpod

Before we get into everything else, we figured we should tell you how we got here.

This one goes back to the beginning. How we met, what we each thought of one another, and whether those two accounts match. Dating. The proposal, which was a repeat of history. The wedding, and the endless humor behind it all.

Everything after the wedding is a whole other episode.

We're not experts. We're just awake.

New episodes Sundays.

Have something we should talk about? If something's been rattling around in your head all week, send it to hello@bedtimebanter.com. We read every one.

bedtimebanter.com

@bedtimebanterpod

This is a quick preview of what Bedtime Banter is going to be.

We're Drew and Christa. Married, in our forties, raising our family in Florida. Every week we sit down after bedtime and talk about the day, and somewhere in there we end up on whatever's going on in the world, because at this stage of life those two things don't really separate.

No script. No segments. Some nights it's parenting, some nights it's the news, most nights it's both and a few things in between.

We're not experts. We're just awake.

New episodes Sundays.

Have something we should talk about? If something's been rattling around in your head all week, send it to hello@bedtimebanter.com.

bedtimebanter.com

Instagram: @bedtimebanterpod