Dear Teenage Son, Today your dad and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary. It was a remarkable day since increasingly, marriages are falling apart. Tying the knot is the easy part, staying together requires intentional habits and staying in love most certainly does not happen by chance. Here are some things you may be unaware of that your dad has done well to keep us … [Read more...]
10 Inexpensive Ways to Say I Love You
It is fun to find ways to encourage your husband and many times, the little things are what add up to show your feelings for him. Remember, gifts don’t have to be costly in order to convey one’s heart. I have been so touched over the years by thoughtful gifts from friends and family—many of which were free—that were incredibly meaningful to me. So here’s a list of 10 ways to … [Read more...]
25 Tips from 25 Years of Marriage & Parenting
This year, I celebrated my 25th wedding anniversary with my high school sweetheart. We've been romancing for thirty-one years this month. We've been through a lot, particularly in parenting, finding that parenting teens and tween are the roughest years in marriage. So here are 25 tips on marriage and parenting I've learned in twenty-five years of marriage. 1. Marriage is … [Read more...]
Life With Lupus – An Unusual Love Story, Part 2
If you didn't read the first part of MarlaJan's story, make sure you read it now. Part of me hates airing out my dirty laundry like this, and I feel like I'm throwing him under the bus. My husband is a caring and loving person, and I will never find anyone that treats me better and provides for us like him. I'm not that naive, clueless wife making excuses for her absentee … [Read more...]
Life With Lupus – An Unusual Love Story, Part 1
Marriage is tough. It's a full time job. The people that tell you "Oh marriage is SO easy," are lying. Through their teeth. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being married. It comes naturally for the both of us, and we mesh. We are oh so different. Yet somehow, someway, we work. But, things come along to test the waters: it may be someone you feel just "gets" you better and says the … [Read more...]
Lessons from My Husband: A Reflection on Our First Five Years
How can I sum up our first five years of marriage? It feels like 5 minutes ago and 500 years ago all at once. 4 houses, 2 states, 3 children... I've changed; we've changed. When we got married, we were madly in love. Don't get me wrong, we're still in love, but much of the madness has faded. Now we are able to see each other and our life together through more realistic … [Read more...]
Do Daughters Increase the Risk of Divorce?
There is an interesting statistic about marriage and divorce out there that says couples who have daughters have a higher percentage of divorce rate than those with sons. As the mother of three daughters, according to this statistic, this makes me 10% more likely to get divorced. This is on top of the already high 50% divorce rate. Now, before you go spouting off at the … [Read more...]
Cold Feet
Cold Feet I realized recently that my recreational writing has come to a standstill! Allow me to remedy that with a heartwarming/footwarming story from the Grandpa Ezra files… Nana Melton used to tell me this story and I remember it every time I have an experience with cold feet. These days, for me, those feet have little digits on them, as they’re always attached to … [Read more...]
When Love and Pay Collide
When Love and Pay Collide 31-May-2012 I heard a discussion the other day about prenuptial agreements. It was just a little blurb I heard as I flipped past a radio station. It was, of course, a heated discussion, which is why I changed the channel. Earlier that same day, I read an article that made light of how children “don’t know what love is” in reference to loving … [Read more...]
Dad is from Mars, Mom is from Venus
This morning was an anxious one for our family, but I won't get into the details since it involves one of the kids and I'm not into airing the kids' personal stuff (unless of course they tick me off). Anyhow the morning began with visit to a doctor and while everything isn't perfect the diagnosis ended up being a relief. What made the rest of the day interesting was the … [Read more...]
