My husband retired just as we became empty nesters. Now we're together nearly 24/7, and it's been a strange adjustment.

The author and her husband are spending a lot of time together after retiring and becoming empty nesters.

Courtesy of Susan Teresa When my husband and I became empty nesters, he retired, too.

We used to have busy, individual lives, but now we are always together.

It took a lot of adjustment and honest conversations, but we're learning to navigate our new normal.

My husband and I have been married for 26 years, together for 32.

That's more than half my life.

I thought we'd experienced just about every version of our life together.

Then we became empty nesters .

And then my husband retired.

We're now together 24/7 with nowhere else we need to be, and I realized that all these years, I'd never spent this much time with him.

Since the day he brought home his office belongings , I've caught myself thinking more than once, " Oh, you're still here? Our home feels different now Without school schedules or workdays organizing our lives, we have more unstructured time than we know what to do with.

We navigate quiet hallways lined with unoccupied bedrooms.

We now split the responsibility for coddling our cat, who suffers from separation anxiety.

We announce, "We're back," to the furniture and the cat, forgetting we left the house otherwise empty.