Funny marriage advice Today Nathan and I have been married for twelve years. Twelve. I have been thinking about our marriage and how to describe what it is like for others. Here are my favorite quotes and funny marriage advice. I often laugh at these, because they are hilariously accurate at times.  Marriage lets you annoy one special person for the rest of your life. I can’t even begin to tell you how true this is! We’ve both turned learning what annoys the other one and doing it into an art form. It’s almost like a competition at times for us. Remember roadtrips when you were a kid and your…

Love Languages What are love languages and why are they important? I first learned about this when I went to see a counselor with Nathan in the much earlier days of our marriage.  The reason that understanding love languages and identifying which work for both you and your partner is that this is the key to a successful marriage. It isn’t just about a date night here and there. This is a way to really understand each other!  Knowing your love language can literally save a marriage. Without this knowledge, it is easy to miss when your partner is being loving and caring. This leads to negative thoughts, resentment, and…

As many of you know, I’ve been married to my husband, Nathan, for ten years. It’ll be eleven this fall, which isn’t very far away. Time flies! One of the most important aspects of staying married that long is date nights. I love them because it is time specifically set aside for us to hang out together and keep the connection alive.  Nathan loves date nights because he gets to take me out. Usually it is a nice dinner and possibly some shopping added in. I wrote a post called Date Your Spouse where I talked about the importance of date nights, even after getting married.  Lately though, all of…

What do you think of when you hear the words ‘Stay At Home Wife’? You automatically think cleaning. A woman who stays at home and cleans all day, right? Yep. Me too, sadly. That really isn’t what it is all about. It took a conversation with a stranger recently to remind me of that. I am so much more than that. On the 4th of July I went to work with my husband. Nathan works in a restaurant, and there is a beautiful outdoor patio that is nestled along a river, and it is one of my favorite places to go and watch fireworks on the 4th of July. Because…

How do you have a fair fight with your spouse? By following the fair fighting rules! I mean, nobody wants to have a fight with their spouse, but we all know they are going to happen. It is just not possible to share our lives with someone and not fight. The key is doing it in a productive way, where there is a happy resolution for both parties. Where both parties are heard and understood. Here are the rules: No Zapping. No name calling, snide remarks, putdowns, or negative facial expressions. I feel like I will always need divine intervention when it comes to my facial expressions. But it really…

I went on a date with my husband last night and it really got me thinking about our date nights and why they are important. It’s the thing that keeps us together. I was going through my daily memories on Facebook not long ago and I found a picture of me with Nathan. He had posted it and tagged me in it. The caption was, we’ve had such a busy week and conflicting schedules that our date night is a trip to the grocery store. Since then, I’ve come to enjoy those trips because it is time together. It honestly made me appreciate something that simple and mundane. It also…