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Are You The Same As You Were Before Marriage?

I only caught Part 2 of the Oprah “Why Men Cheat” controversy, but it’s sparking yet another blog. But instead of discussing why men cheat or how to affair-proof marriage, this time I’m going to talk about something else that was brought up as part of all this: behaving differently once married versus how you behaved prior to marriage. Behaviors During the show, Oprah defended M. Gary Neuman’s assessment that it made sense the husbands strayed because they weren’t getting something from their wives. Not that she was wagging her finger and saying, “Shame on you, you neglectful wives.” Quite … Continue reading →

3 Things to Work on in Your Marriage

Marriage can be difficult at times. Sometimes it is just the daily toll of activities, stress and other items that cause keeping your marriage healthy to get pushed to the back burner. Other times it is crises that cause your marriage relationship to become strained. It is important to remember to consistently work on your marriage and your family life. It is important to work together in all aspects of your marriage life. There are several different areas that you should work on as a couple. Spirituality is one area that you can focus on as a couple. Praying together … Continue reading →

New Year’s Resolution: Your Marriage

Your marriage is a very important thing. You should constantly be working to maintain and improve this relationship. When you are juggling the stress of your job, your children and church callings, it can be too easy to put your marital relationship on the back burner. It is vital that you take the time each day to strengthen your relationship with each other. Here are four habits that you can bring you closer in the new year. 1) You can work with your spouse to grow together spiritually. You can have couple prayer, study the scriptures together and attend the … Continue reading →

How to Learn More About Your Spouse

Even though Wayne and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary last month, have been together over 20 years total, and know each other about as well as we can, we don’t know everything. Surprisingly, we’re still learning new things about each other. For Example… Take this past weekend. Last week in “The Things He Does For Love: Ghost Hunting Classes” I wrote how Wayne agreed to attend a ghost hunting class with me. It was something I wanted to do, but something that would take up our together time during a weekend Wayne was home. Ghosts fascinate me. (Or, I … Continue reading →

Children Lead the Way to Marriage Strife

If you’re just married and you’re planning a wonderful life together, here are few tips about what to expect when you have your first child together. The birth of a child is a wondrous thing and it will have a profound effect on you and your spouse. But the stresses and changes that occur due to the birth of a child can often lead to the first major blow up in the marriage. Why? So why does the birth of a child (this fantastic, wondrous event) because so much stress on a couple? In large part, it’s because Mom now … Continue reading →

Is Your Marriage on the Back Burner?

The back burner is a term often used with regard to soap operas for characters that do not play a pivotal role in a current storyline. We may see them, but we don’t spend a lot of time with them. They drift into and out of the canvas of the current storyline with relatively little impact. When your marriage is on the backburner is can be because you are devoting so much time, energy and emotion into your children, family, career or some combination of the above that you unconsciously detach yourself from your spouse. The Parent Trap The parent … Continue reading →

Me Focused

A marriage needs to be nurtured.  It requires sacrifice, giving and selflessness.  But it can’t always be “other focused.” You see, if all of your efforts go into pleasing your spouse, its going to cause burnout or possibly bitterness.  This means that just as important as it is to take care of your spouse and your marriage, you need to take care of yourself. A failure to take care of yourself physically, emotionally and spiritually won’t make you a better marriage partner.  You are more likely to struggle with fatigue, depression, irritability and lots of other not-so-pleasant qualities that can … Continue reading →

Holidays and Fitness

With the holidays just around the corner, it is more important than ever to be extra diligent regarding your fitness routine. It is so easy to overeat and slack off during this time of the year. With all of the scrumptious foods and chaos that the holidays entail we find it too easy to overeat and not find time to exercise. Cooking, baking, shopping and holiday gatherings take up a great deal of our time that some people tend to put exercise on the back burner. It is a busy time and important to spend time with the people that … Continue reading →

Being the Mom I Never Had to My Mom

I have Families.com reader Skaytes, who left a comment on my article “Big Changes in a Little Marriage”, to thank for inspiring me during my daily caregiving duties. She had been in a similar position with her mom that I now find myself in. She said it was the best thing she’d ever done. She also gave me the following advice: Be sure to not only show your love but tell her how much you love her as often as you can. Enjoy the time you have with her as we never know how long the Good Lord will give … Continue reading →

Schedule Play

As single parents, many of us have a tendency to schedule everything–we keep calendars and lists to make sure we get everyone to soccer practice, piano lessons, make those work meetings, and ensure that we don’t run out of milk and bread. But, one of the things that can get shoved to the back burner is a little play. It might help to schedule in play time–both with our child or children and for ourselves–just as we would schedule in all those other things we do to keep our families thriving. I know it might seem a little square and … Continue reading →