Search Results for: blog do you know what are you looking for in a spouse

Beware of Settling

Do you have to settle for something that you don’t really want, all because you want to save money? Of course not. There is a difference between making do and living with something you hate. I’ve always told my husband that unless something was an absolute necessity, I would often choose to do without rather than deal with something that I didn’t like. For example, I would be happy to look at a half empty living room instead of filling it with Aunt Ida’s putrid green couch. At the same time, if the washing machine broke down, I really won’t … Continue reading →

Free Admission for Military Families

Looking for something to do with your spouse or the kids this summer? Well, thanks to a new program, military families get complimentary admission to more than 2,000 art, science and history museums from now through labor day! The new program, called “Blue Star Museums,” includes free entrance at museums in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa. To be eligible for free admission, you must be active duty, National Guard, Reserve military personnel or a family member. The Blue Star Museums program is brought to us through Blue Star Families, the National Endowment … Continue reading →

How to Spare Your Child the Pain of Divorce

Norwegian researchers believe they know how to prevent the pains of divorce from being inflicted on innocent children. According to a new study entitled “Equality in the Home,” parents who share housework duties are 50 percent more likely to get divorced than couples where the woman does most of the chores. In other words, the more housework the man does, the higher the divorce rate. A part of me died typing that sentence. The rest of me is trying to swallow the vomit that’s pooled in my mouth. Basically, the study is saying that if you are a stressed out … Continue reading →

Someone To Be Proud Of

Sometimes I tell my husband I’m proud of him. I do it when he’s accomplished something really cool, like finishing grad school or laying down hardwood floor in our house. Other times I tell him when I feel that warm ache in my chest when looking at him. He’s a great person, the best in my opinion, and I am so proud of him. It feels a little strange to say sometimes, because it’s not the sort of thing we’re used to saying to our spouses. We expect to hear it from our parents, or tell it to our kids: … Continue reading →

What Makes a Marriage Work?

With so many marriages ending in divorce, it can leave you to wonder, “What makes a marriage work?” Now I am by no means an expert but I will very soon be celebrating 21 years of marriage, so hopefully I can provide at least some encouragement. Let me start off by saying this. I will never tell someone, “I have been happily married for 20 years.” That would be a lie. While there definitely has been more happiness than not, mixed in have been times where I wondered if we would make it. To pretend otherwise doesn’t really do any … Continue reading →

Finding New Clues In Census Records

With the 1940 United States Census freshly indexed and available online, you may be wondering how you can use Census data to make progress in your family history research. Of course you can look for the names of some of your family members in the 1940 Census (as well as prior Census records). Don’t stop there, though. Some of the questions might give you information that you can use to find even more facts for your family tree in other places. The questions that are asked on each Census vary slightly, so some of these hints may not be applicable … Continue reading →

Lessons Learned

My ex husband and I met in high school. I had dated a lot, but being so young, I wasn’t particularly concerned about whether or not they were marriage material; I was too young to get married anyway. I had been warned to make good dating choices, but I was young and inexperienced, so like most teenagers, I didn’t realize the importance of those decisions quite yet. About a year after graduation we decided to get married. Neither of us really knew what we wanted in a spouse, it just seemed like the right thing so we got married and … Continue reading →

Getting Collection Calls for Someone Else. What Do You Do?

It is hard enough when collection agencies call your home or your workplace on a debt that you owe, but what happens when they are calling for someone else and holding you responsible? Here is what you need to know and what you need to do. When collection agencies are looking for someone else, there are two types of collection calls that you may be faced with. The phishing call in which the caller is looking for information on that person, such as a neighbor, and the intimidation call in which the person on the phone is making threats or … Continue reading →

Blundering into Fights — And Getting Back Out

Do you ever sometimes feel like you’ve somehow stumbled into a fight and are not sure how it happened? When we go looking to pick fights we know what we’re up to, but sometimes it seems like all of a sudden we’re fighting with someone and we’re not exactly sure how it happened. This can happen between any two people but it’s certainly common in a marriage, just given that married couples are two people who spend so much time together. The silver lining of picked fights is that, although when we go looking to start one we’re not exactly … Continue reading →

Improving Intimacy

I felt challenged recently to write this blog. The web content company that I work for has some new assignments for me, lifestyle articles. I am used to writing about the law, so this was a great opportunity to write about something different. When my editor was describing the content, she said, “Think Cosmopolitan.” Okay, I haven’t picked up one of those magazines in ages…probably a good 20 years. Thankfully I was able to opt out of certain topics that would make me uncomfortable but we had an interesting “discussion” via Skype on whether that magazine really holds any water. … Continue reading →