with Angella Dykstra
I'm a mom of three, a professional accountant, and an amateur photographer and writer. I am not a marriage expert. But my husband and I take "Til death do us part" seriously, and here I'll be sharing how we keep our marriage strong while we both do that insane work-life juggle.
Check out my Work It, Mom! profile and my blog, Dutch Blitz.
I stumbled across a post over at Divine Caroline titled, “What’s the Best Age to Say “I Do”?”
When my husband and I got married, I was twenty-five and he was twenty-three. Yes, I “robbed the cradle” or whatever the kids nowadays call it. The funniest part is that because I skipped a grade, when I was in twelfth grade…he was in ninth grade.
EW.
I come from a family background that (could probably get me a guest spot on Oprah, and) is a little bit complicated. My Dad has been married four (!) times and had children with the first three of his wives. I have eight (!) siblings, only one of whom shares the same mother with me. That sister is two years younger than I am.
The first (older) set of my Dad’s kids grew up across the country but we’ve had our chances to connect over the years. The youngest set of siblings I am especially close to as I moved in with my Dad when the first of their babies was but a toddler and my Step Mom was pregnant with the second one.
I read a post over at Yahoo! Shine where she talked about the bodily functions of her spouse and how it grossed her out.
I totally get that. Farting and burping and other forms of bodily functions are gross, disgusting and absolutely abhorrent.
They are also a little bit funny.
Don’t judge me because I have the sense of humor equivalent to that of a twelve-year-old boy. Growing up, my family found all sorts of amusement in regaling each other with burps and farts.
Nearly ten years into our marriage we are always looking for ways to keep things new, fresh and awesome. Marriage is great and fantastic and amazing but it can easily fall into a routine and that thing that the kids nowadays call a rut.
While scouring the Internet for relationship articles I came across this one at MSN.com titled, “The Naked Truth.”
No, the plan is not to hang out whilst naked. While my husband would have no issues with that scenario, my three children just might be scarred for life.
The article threw out the suggestion of creating new email accounts that are only used for the purpose of flirting with your spouse. No talk of household items, or chores, or child-rearing issues. The new accounts are ALL ABOUT THE FLIRTING.
I read an article over on Shine titled, “How do you say, “I love you?” The premise of the article is about finding ways to express love to your significant other beyond merely stating those three little words.
Many moons ago I posted about figuring out what your spouses “Love Language” is. There is a thirty-second quiz you can take to determine if you feel loved by receiving gifts, hearing kind words, etc.
Sometimes marriage isn’t easy.
Sometimes you mention that you “feel bloated” and your husband confirms that, indeed, you look bloated.
Sometimes you get tired of seeing him place his dirty dishes on top of the dishwasher (instead of inside the dishwasher).
Sometimes he gets tired of the amount of clothes that you pile on that chair in your room (instead of either hanging them up or putting them in the laundry basket).
I came across a post over at Yahoo Shine titled “5 Things You Don’t Need To Have In Common.” Here are the five points with my (Painfully boring) commentary beneath them.
1. Different Music Tastes
As I sit here typing this my husband has his headphones on and is listening to some band I (and you) have never heard of. We do have a lot of common interests in music but I will never understand the obsession that he had with techno music when he was a high school basketball star. Due to that obsession of his (and a fairly sheltered childhood) he has little to no awareness of the music created in the eighties and nineties. I mourn for him daily.
My husband and I have three small children and while they are wonderful and amazing in all of their mind-blowing awesomeness, they can put a little damper of the romance. It’s kind of hard to be all sexy and seductive when you are wiping bums and yelling at the kids to STOP FIGHTING ALREADY.
My husband and I have been huge proponents of regular Date Nights in order to (keep our sanity, and) have time to reconnect. Sometimes having a night out is not in the cards (or the budget), but there are other ways to keep your relationship from drowning in the current of Life With Kids.
This article from CNN lists a number of ideas, and we practice many of them into our daily lives.
