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Ugh, Mom and Dad, no PDA!
Nick: Call it a “sixth sense,” but I can tell when my kids’ eyes are on Jen and me. I can practically hear their eyes rolling whenever we touch each other.
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How We Saved Our Failing Marriage
Paul: We just celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary and we’ve never been happier. But it wasn’t always that way. Around year 7 of our marriage, we began to struggle. And we did what so many married couples do – ignored the warning signs telling ourselves things were not that bad. We swept issues between us under the rug and after another 5 years of sweeping there was no more room under the rug! We were just roommates co-existing in the same household each playing our respective roles.
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Our Ketchup Story
Janine: I used to read into everything Ken said – well almost everything. If he made a simple comment, I often took it as a personal criticism, even though he didn’t intend it to be. We still talk about the day, years ago, when he said, “Gee, we’re almost out of ketchup.”
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Keeping Up with the Jones’s
Jen: As we approach the craziness of a new school year with our kiddos, I am struck once again by how tempting it is to compete with other parents in comparing kid activities. Even when they were in pre-school, I can remember having conversations about where my kids were developmentally and what their achievements were. I can remember how much angst I felt when I thought someone else’s child was achieving more than mine simply because I hadn’t signed them up for enough extra activities. I found myself doubting that we were doing enough to help our children reach their full potential.
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3 Tips to Make Your Marriage Thrive
Photo Credit: Estee Janssens We hope this summer found you thriving, with plenty of time in the sun to relax and catch up with family and friends. As these carefree days come to an end, we have some tips to help you continue to thrive. Fall gets busy —
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Dancing in the Kitchen
Janine: This weekend we celebrated our 29th Wedding Anniversary! Yay! Ken was on call for work, so we couldn’t go far, and we didn’t want to try to go out for a nice meal, for fear that it might be interrupted. Here’s what we DID do.
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3 Ways to Affair-Proof Your Marriage
Adapted from: 3 Defenses Against Affairs, by William McKenna People are not getting married in large numbers and why would they? Statistics show that about half of all marriages end in divorce. Television shows and movies often depict marriage in a negative light while leading viewers to celebrate when a character has an affair like it is inevitable and desirable. While no two marriages are exactly alike, there are some very basic and proven ways to “affair-proof” your marriage.
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Taking Your Marriage on Vacation
Photo by Wilson Sánchez Nine years into marriage, we were planning to leave town to visit family after Mark worked a half day. Mel packed up the kids and the car, and Mark just needed to throw in his suitcase. Mark was delayed several hours at work. By the time we met up, we were both irritated and highly stressed and just
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Tone of Voice – Revisited
This post originally appeared one year ago, but has been re-posted for those who may have missed it the first time around. Something that we’ve become increasingly aware of in our marriage is how our tone of voice so significantly affects our communication – for better or for worse! It is remarkable how something so seemingly small can make such a huge impact on whether our communication is healthy, productive, and enriching or debilitating, disheartening, and provocative. Believe it or not, tone of voice is huge. WE would go as far as to say tone of voice is at the root of most of the small hurts we experience in…
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Anger, Over the Top
Photo Credit: Birgit Lengert We all know anger when we see it — a clenched fist, a raised voice, a sullen look. Anger can quickly surface and is readily expressed, but often it is a cover up for underlying feelings:
