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Speaking In Code
Michelle: When our daughter was four, she got out of the car, walked in the house and promptly asked me what a HUHA was. I wasn’t sure what she meant so I asked her where she had heard it. She said that someone cut them off in traffic and that her daddy yelled out the word. I mumbled something about it meaning a bad driver although I had figured out that it was Head Up His/Her As$. Chris: As Taryn got older, we went from spelling out S-A-N-T-A, to non-verbal cues like head nods towards an item or saying something like, “I bet Santa could bring something like this.” As…
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Competition vs Unity in Marriage
Are you in competition with your spouse or do you see yourselves as a unified team? Although we don’t consciously think about being in competition with our spouse, our individual interests can sometimes fester into competition. Even little things like who’s turn it is to unload the dishwasher can become a source of irritation. When we compete with each other to get our own way, we both end up getting less and feeling hurt or unloved. When I prioritize “me” over “we,” we clash. Making decisions focused on “we” instead of “me” brings unity AND actually makes both of us happier. If we both give up some control to come…
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Post-Holidays – Blues or Bliss?🎄📦
The holidays have come and gone. As we’re taking down lights and packing away decorations, we thought we’d take a little time to reflect on how our different attitudes in the post-holiday season impact our relationship.
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A Clean Slate
A new year is here. A fresh start. A clean slate. Whatever bad things may have happened in 2022 are behind us and we are free to dream about the possibilities of 2023. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could start over TODAY with a clean slate in our marriage?
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Have New Year’s Resolutions Become Cliche?
Millions of people make New Year’s resolutions. Some make the same resolution year after year. It doesn’t take statistics to show we are not great at keeping them. Have New Year’s resolutions become cliche? Or are we making the wrong resolutions, or the right resolutions but for the wrong reasons?
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We Are More Than a Single Story
Michelle: Recently for work, we watched a TED talk titled, “The Danger of a Single Story”. The presenter, a Nigerian author, shared that she left Nigeria as a 19-year-old, to attend a university in the United States. Her roommate knew, before they met, her age and where she was from. When they met for the first time, her surprised roommate asked her where she learned to speak English so well. She responded, “Well, English is the official language of Nigeria.” Her roommate also asked her if she had any recordings of the tribal music that they listen to. The author shared that she tremendously disappointed her roommate when she produced a tape of Mariah Carey. Her roommate had…
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Holiday Traditions
‘Tis the holiday season, full of hope, joy, and expectation. For many of us, it’s the perfect time of year to have expectations clash with reality and make little grinches of all of us. No! There must be a way to see Christmas is coming. With Jen in her kerchief and Nick in his cap, we soon settle down for a short jaunt into… holiday traditions.
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The Empty Nest Revisited
With the holidays right around the corner, our empty nest is about to be repopulated as all of our kids come home for Christmas. While we love having them here, it can cause tension and stress when they forget they are adults and fall back into their familiar patterns as siblings and kids. How do we deal with this so that we can keep the peace in the nest and make merry memories together?
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3 Tips to Reduce Holiday Stress
Like it or not, the Holidays are upon us. Jack-o-Lanterns may still be on the porches, but Christmas will be here before we know it. Here are 3 practical tips to reduce Holiday stress and find Joy as the Countdown to Christmas continues.
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Advice From My Future Self
Stop… for just a minute or two. Think of yourself 20 years older than you are now. What advice would the “future you” give you? If “you” could do it all over again, what would “you” have done differently? A Different Angle Ken: Perspective is everything. I know there are a lot of things I’d do differently if I could go back in time. But what about my current life… what wisdom from the future could help me see things differently now? One of my challenges is worrying about the future: where will we be, what will we be doing, when will we retire? I think One thing my future…
