Search Results for: blog top 10 ways to tell you have a perfect marriage

Delightful Valentine’s Day Printables

I’ve discovered that Valentine’s Day is a great way to practice writing. So has my daughter, much to her chagrin, as she works on printing Valentines neatly. Neatness is not at the top of her priority list, but I’ve emphasized that people like to receive legible love notes. Picky, picky. If you’re creating some Valentine’s Day goodies and doing some covert printing practice too, you’ll love these Valentine’s Day printables! Of course, the ultimate Valentine’s Day printable is the card itself! There are many, many free cards on the internet, and you can also print out heart shapes by the … Continue reading →

Getting Rid of Guilt

Does guilt from breaking up your child’s family make you feel like you have to overcompensate? I think this happens to both custodial and non custodial parents. We all love our children so much we can’t help be feel like we need to make it up to them that their lives are not perfect. When I first got divorced I found myself taking Hailey out to eat at her favorite places, going to movies, buying her things that she really didn’t need. All to try to make things better. My poor, poor little girl, coming from a broken home, not … Continue reading →

Part 2 of Top Tips for Communicating Effectively

Today I am continuing the tips for communicating effectively which I started yesterday. 7. Pick the right time One I mentioned the other day was about picking the right time. Not when your spouse is doing something else. We did have that conversation when Mick raised it the next day so he had heard it, and he was his usual encouraging and supportive self. Although sometimes driving on the car can work if you’re not in traffic and needing to concentrate a lot. It often works well with children and teenagers too, so long as they’re not the ones driving. … Continue reading →

How Did You Do on the Marriage Quiz?

I hope you’ve all completed the quiz; you and your spouse before checking back to see the scoring and a few of my thoughts. Questions 1-3 The favorite color, movie and song should be basic things you know about your spouse. Give yourself 3 points for each one of these you got right. No extra points if it’s your special song. Scoring for both Q4 and Q5 a. 4 b. 5 c. 3 d. 2 e. 1 You’ll notice that always doesn’t get the top points, because no matter how close you are and how well you know each other, … Continue reading →

The Advantages of a Spring Yard Sale

Yard sale, garage sale, porch sale, whatever you call it, having a sale of your not needed stuff is a great way to clear the clutter and to earn some money. While most people wait until the summer is in full speed, I am here to tell you that now is probably the best time to have your yard sale, if you want to get rid of the most stuff and get the most profit. After a long winter indoors, people are starting to emerge into the outdoors. They may be looking for something to do as they drive around … Continue reading →

Smaller Garbage Equals More Money

We have been smug. I admit it. When we look at all of the garbage that our neighbors have out, we tend to feel that we are on the right track. This is because we know that the smaller our garbage is then the less money we are spending. While the neighbors can have three or more extra large trash cans a week, we have trouble just filling up half of our can per week. Once we are past disposable diapers (we just don’t want to do cloth), we may even cut that little bit in half. There are so … Continue reading →

What the Average 12-Month-Old Should be Doing

Many of the requests that I have gotten lately for topics in this blog are guidelines as to what the normal development is of certain ages. For a long time, I have hesitated to talk about this for a few reasons. Each child develops differently, and what may seem behind could actually be perfectly normal, and babies who were born prematurely have different schedules related to age than do babies born full term. There is even a normal speech delay with bi-lingual children, who may not talk as quickly or with as much vocabulary because their brains are busy learning … Continue reading →

Are Your Pets on YouTube?

When Wayne bought me my new digital camera last Christmas, I knew it spelled trouble for Murphy, Mr. Meow and Tabby. Because not only could I take pictures without having to hassle with film anymore (which freed me to snap, snap, snap as many pics as I wanted), I could also take video. An Amateur Pet Film Maker Is Born I had such high hopes that I could capture Mr. Meow doing his maestro show on the air vent or the cats chasing each other, but so far no luck. I quickly found out what a tricky business capturing pets … Continue reading →

An Anchor Loses His Anchor

Earlier this week, Jade sent me a link to a YouTube clip of Wolf Blitzer relaying some sad news during his Situation Room broadcast about why Jack Cafferty wouldn’t be in for the Cafferty File that day. (I believe it was September 5.) Mr. Cafferty had just suffered an inconsolable loss after Carol, his wife of 35 years, had died suddenly. Mr. Blitzer then went on to talk about Mr. Cafferty’s love for his wife. Which I think can be summed up best by Jade’s subject line to me: a sweet and sad tribute. You see, Mr. Cafferty apparently loved … Continue reading →

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: A Husband’s Issue with Blame

Once upon a time I wrote an article called Flaws: Sometimes It’s the Imperfections that are the Most Endearing. Sometimes they’re not. I know I have a lot of quirks that drive Wayne bananas. I blow my nose way too loud. (I’ll admit, sometimes even more obnoxiously than usual. Depends on if I’m in the mood to torment Wayne or not.) I’m very slow. (Sometimes mentally, almost always physically. I don’t like to rush. I like to take my time gathering things, be they my thoughts, my glasses, my coat…) Wayne’s got some quirks too. His tendency to say, “Whatever” … Continue reading →