Search Results for: blog end of the year relationship changes

January Check In: New Year’s Resolutions in Marriage

It’s time to check in and see how you are doing on your New Year’s resolutions. Did you make any resolutions in the area of your marriage? If you didn’t, I strongly encourage you to do so. Call them resolutions, goals or whatever you like…all of us could take steps to improve our marriages. In fact, this is my challenge for me and you the reader. Think of one thing you can do in the upcoming month to make your marriage better. Is there something that you know drives your spouse crazy that you could stop doing? Is there something … Continue reading →

Relationship Dynamics

There are some interesting dynamics that happen in a family when children enter their teen years. Sometimes as a parent it can be difficult to accept those changes but they are really just a part of our children beginning to grow up. For instance, when my daughter was younger she was a daddy’s girl. If she could pick between me and her father, she would have chosen him hands down. I think she actually had him wrapped around her little finger. When she began to enter her preteen years it started to shift a bit. By the time she turned … Continue reading →

End of the Year Relationship Changes

It is the end of 2010, but celebrities keep making relationship changes. Some are breaking up, some are getting together, but they are all making news: Breaking Up Sebastian Bach and Maria Bierk The former Skid Row singer and his wife of 18 years have decided to divorce due to irreconcilable differences. Maria was formerly the subject of the VH1 show “I Married Sebastian Bach.” They have three children (son Paris, 21, son London, 14, and daughter Sebastiana, 3). John Mellencamp and Elaine Irwin The Mellencamps have also decided to separate after 18 years of marriage. The singer and former … Continue reading →

Pregnancy and Relationships: Introduction

There are milestones in a person’s life that dramatically impact her relationships with the people around her: learning to drive and gaining independence, going off to college, getting married, and having children are just a few. Her first pregnancy, the prelude to parenthood, has the potential to inspire, alienate, divide and strengthen the relationships in her life. How she copes with these changes can affect the bond between her and her child, her spouse, her parents, her in-laws and her friends. In the spirit of Christmas and family-togetherness, over the next few days, we’ll be discussing how pregnancy impacts each … Continue reading →

The Marriage Blog Week in Review for September 17-23

After a bit of a hiatus, the Marriage Blog Week in Review is back! Karri and I will be taking turns posting it. As you might have surmised, this is my week to do it. So without further ado, here’s what we covered on: Monday, September 17 Karri pondered the connection (or lack thereof as the case may be) between husbands and household chores. I detailed how Wayne and I celebrated our 12th anniversary and how happy Wii be. Tuesday, September 18 I shared my single fantasy, the reality of which I’m sort of living and there isn’t much fantastic … Continue reading →

Friendly Persuasion (1956)

“Friendly Persuasion” stars Gary Cooper as Jess Birdwell, father of a Quaker family. He and his wife Eliza (Dorothy McGuire) have raised their children to adhere to all the Quaker beliefs – in fact, Eliza is a Quaker minister. They behave with decorum, they don’t fight, drink, or smoke, and they seek the Lord in everything they do. They are living a peaceful life until the outside world threatens everything they hold dear. The year is 1862, and the Civil War is drawing close to their Indiana home. Many men in the community have taken up arms to defend their … Continue reading →

Expect to Start All Over Every School Year

I couldn’t think of exactly how to title this blog–what I want to write about is how for a single parent, we often have to start all over each school year (even if our child doesn’t change schools) with making sure that the school sends records to both parents, that our child’s teacher understands the family situation, and advocating for and explaining our single family status. This doesn’t have to be stressful or anxiety-provoking (although it sometimes is), but we do have to be diligent and prepared to dig in and make sure the school gets it right. I find … Continue reading →

The Marriage Blog Week in Review June 16 – June 22

How can it be Saturday already? This week has flown by and we’ve tried to pack a lot into this week. June’s nearly done and that puts us over the halfway mark of the year. July starts in just a little over a week and we’ll be starting our ramp up to the end of the year. We’re also going to take a good look at the lucky day coming: July 7, 2007 (7-7-7). You know, next year we get an 8-8-8 – wonder what that symbolizes! In the meanwhile, let’s take a look at our week in review: Saturday, … Continue reading →

Moms: Your Child’s Behavior Problems May Be Caused By Your Partner Changes

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have completed a study which found that when a child is exposed to multiple transitions in his or her mother’s live-in partners, aggressive behaviors are the result. Primarily in white children, the study determined that when a child fourteen or younger had endured more than two changes in mom’s romantic relationships the troubling behaviors increased. The correlation was not found when mothers kept their dating partners outside the home, living separately. Yet if there were at least three different live-in relationships, which would include marriages or cohabitating lovers, it seemed to trigger significant behavioral difficulties … Continue reading →

Have a Mentally Healthy New Year!

Another year has come, bringing new hope and endless possibilities. What will you achieve this year? New Year is the typical time of that solemn process of Making Resolutions. We decide to stop smoking, or lose weight, or do that course, or relate better to our teenage children. These are all great ideas, but we often don’t keep them. February often finds us lighting up again, munching into cookies, not enrolled in that course, and arguing pointlessly with our children. So why do resolutions so often fail? Many times it is because we are not really mentally ready for change. … Continue reading →