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Marriage and Happiness – is it possible?

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While divorce is nothing new in this country, when I read about long-term marriages coming to an end, ala the Gore’s, the Schwarzenegger’s, and the Edward’s, I start to wonder if it is even possible to stay married forever anymore. I hear a lot about the “old days’, but I have a lot of grandparents due to multiple re-marriages. My great-grandparents remained together, but one spouse died long before the other. So maybe those that stay married forever over a real long time period are the anomalies. Maybe now that we live longer and more women are able to support … Continue reading →

Father’s Day, 2008

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It’s that special time of year again when dads look forward to all the unique and wonderful gifts that they will receive. Everything from ties to power tools is on the menu. One of the best gifts I ever received was a 12-string guitar. I used to joke with my wife all the time about getting one for my anniversary present. My wife and son went in on this together and purchased it online. I tried to think back to what I used to give my dad for Father’s Day. Nothing really stands out in my mind. Today we mostly … Continue reading →

Father’s Day, Date Nights & Other Fun Events

What a great weekend we had here at home. My apologies for not writing a focused on Father’s Day article today as I intended. But starting late yesterday, my husband and I both shut down our computers and headed off to spend the next 24 hours focused on the family as a part of Father’s Day. Sometimes you need to make a conscious decision to shut off the responsibilities and the rest of the world and just be together as a family. Date Night Our daughter’s gymnastics school hosts a parent’s night out once a month. It’s a four-hour event … Continue reading →

Marriage: The Grandfather Clause

My grandfather will be 94 years old next month. He is a kind, wonderful, interesting man with much knowledge to share and I always enjoy talking to him. Actually, I get more out of listening to him. He offers wisdom, insight, and advice on myriad topics, and it’s always good, solid, information, because it’s generally something he’s learned, observed, or experienced in his many years. His advice on marriage is something that will always stick with me. It is in fact good advice in regard to any personal relationship. Aside from the obvious –love- there is another trait that is … Continue reading →

Is Marriage ‘the’ Key to a Better Society?

If you were to take the complexity of the problems in our world today, it would take days and days to tackle the breakdown of poverty, the ‘growing’ underclass and the lack of cohesiveness in our society today. I’ve even seen papers written about the fact that the breakdown of our person-to-person relations is in direct proportion to our growing technologies. It began, in essence, with the industrial revolution as we abandoned small town ties and the bonds created by sharing traditions and needs with rural communities. The transition from rural to urban diminished those ties and the transition from … Continue reading →

Love Letters to Your Grandparents

In movies and novels, we always see widows paging through love letters from ages past. These letters become treasures to hold onto in their later years. As a genealogist, I love the copies (of the copies) of my great-great-grandfather’s letters to his wife-to-be and, in later years, to his wife. While I appreciate the speed and immediacy that comes with technology – if my husband were away at war, for instance, I would vastly prefer the relatively instantaneous communication of email versus the regular post office – handwritten letters take more time and require more thought, thus creating lasting family … Continue reading →

Family & Marriage: Grandparents Day

Today is Grandparent’s Day, a day that we pay honor to the parents of our parents and those that mean so much to us. When my daughter heard that was what today was, she great very excited and wanted to make a card and get presents for each of her grandmothers. I listened to her exciting chatter and my husband and I both had to smile. Of the two of us, he has two grandparents still living – his grandmother on his father’s side and his grandfather on his mother’s side. His grandfather celebrates his 96th birthday this November. My … Continue reading →

Monday’s Hit & Misses: Gifts that Miss

Gentlemen, please pay attention. As you well know, there are frequent opportunities throughout the year for you to give your wife gifts. Gifts are considered tokens of affection and they demonstrate your thoughtfulness as well as what you think and feel for your wife. With that in mind, here is a list of gifts that you should never give your wife: No Christmas Sweaters – Seriously, these are cute gifts from parents or grandparents, but never from a spouse No Huge, Oversized Coats – Despite the fact that wherever you live might be cold, wives generally prefer looks to functionality … Continue reading →

A History of Marriage & Family

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Yesterday I posted a discussion and my opinions on the Senate Vote and Marriage. I got a lot of responses to the blog that were thoughtful and filled with passionate conviction. Truth be told, subjects like marriage, family and more are deeply personal and they elicit from even the most uninterested I the subject a passionate viewpoint. The Demise of Family Values Interestingly enough, the worry about the changing family and the demise of the family unit is hardly a new concern. While challenges such as gay marriage may not have confronted American families in the late 1800s, the worries … Continue reading →

What Lessons Did I Teach

What has divorce taught our children about love? I worry about what my divorce has taught Hailey about love and marriage. Unfortunately, most of the people she knows have been divorced, at least once. What does this teach our kids? When I was growing up all of my friends parents were married, my grandparents, aunts and uncles, were all married, to their original spouses. The only divorced person I knew was my mother. It’s the opposite for Hailey, she knows hardly anyone with an intact family. There are a few here and there but it seems they are the exception … Continue reading →