Develop a closer relationship with my mother-in-law

My MIL retired back in January and she just got high-speed internet (finally)! So now she can actually email me! And she does sometimes! That’s a little bit of progress and I’m happy about that.

She called last night while I was watching a show I like a lot. I feel bad telling people if they call me during a show, so I stayed on the phone. But I didn’t turn off the TV. So I kept getting distracted while we talked…. now I feel bad because that was pretty rude of me.

Dammit, I don’t know how to achieve this goal!

My MIL and I get along well, but I wouldn’t call us close. We email each other every few weeks or so. We only talk on the phone if she’s calling my husband and I happen to pick up. Sometimes we’ll chat for awhile, but sometimes she just asks to speak to him.

I want us to be closer. I think it would be nice if we emailed on at least a weekly basis and also spoke on the phone (briefly, at least) each week or every couple of weeks. I talk to my mom at least every couple of days, so I don’t think it’s a stretch to talk with my MIL every week or two.

I’m not sure how to go about getting this started. I will feel strange calling her out of the blue, just to chat. I’m sure she’d wonder why I was calling too. I might have to wait for my husband to call home and hijack the call, at least until it starts to feel normal for us to talk regularly.