Where Does the Time Go?

With the limitless daily demands of life in the 21st century, finding a few quiet moments with your spouse can become increasingly difficult.  Even all of the time-saving gadgets we have invented to increase our productivity and free time, seem to push us in the opposite direction.  We seem to be spending more and more time with everyone and everything else on earth besides our spouses.  Let’s look at the 5 biggest time-sucks.

1. Electronic gadgets.  Blackberries, iPhones, mp3 players, Play-Stations, personal video players and plasma television.  You get the idea.  Texting, gaming, watching tv and constantly looking at email are devouring our quality time, and our quality of life.

2.  Your job.  Do you take more phone calls each day from your boss than from your spouse?  I’m reminded of The Devil Wears Prada, and the idea that your major life relationship is with the person who calls you the most each day.

3.  Household upkeep.  Dishes, laundry, mowing the lawn, caulking the tub and wading through a cluttered garage.  None of these things are fun and most eat up at least one day of our highly precious weekend.

4.  The internet.  Social network addictions, watching YouTube, downloading files for the items listed in #1, and online gaming.  I might say the internet is the biggest time-suck of all (except for time spent reading this blog of course).

5.  Worrying.  The economy, health care, the scratch on the new car,  upcoming holiday stress, and swine flu.  Worrying takes up large parts of each day and can affect our overall health and wellbeing  in a negative way.

So turn off your iPhone and computer, set reasonable boundaries with your boss, hire a personal or household assistant, and realize that while you can do your best to plan things, you can’t stop life and change from happening.  Remember what you loved to do together before electronic gadgets, work, and home repairs took over your life.

Do you have excellent, awesome, and useful ideas for freeing up time?  Let us know in the comments.

A Boomerang is Love

Balance between give and take is often easy in the beginning of marriages. As are most things, in the beginning. It made us happy to go out of our way to make sure that our spouse had everything they desired, but as we grow through the years we get comfortable and can often take advantage of the giving of our spouses. When certain things become routine, like cooking and cleaning, they become expected and thus overlooked as giving. Now, food and clean homes are necessities and someone needs to do it, just don’t get in a rut and expect the other one in your relationship to continue doing those things if something isn’t given in return. I don’t mean, “Gee honey, that meal was great, thanks.”  I’m talking about reciprocating in some way that is giving the other person something specific that they need too. Give and take can get a lot more complicated than chore duties of course.

Cougars are in Style

Women over 40 are the new style icons. Gone are the days when the young glittery babes of the runways and tabloid magazines dictate what is fashionable and attractive. Expressing one’s own individuality and magnificence requires confidence that younger women have yet to possess.Women need to honor their lines and sun freckles as beauty marks; their right to be who they want to be. It’s not about looking young anymore, it’s about looking good.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends of The Daily Marriage!

We look forward to hearing the story about your wife chasing the turkey-eating dog around the house, or your husband’s over-exuberant touchdown celebration injury.

Joking aside, The Daily Marriage writers would like to give thanks for friends near and far, and to their husbands who have worked hard and sacrificed a lot this year.

Where is Holly’s Husband?

We would love to thank Holly, who gave us our first blog submission today!

From Holly:

“So, I went to make tea, and on top of the gas range is a huge container, filled to the brim with a turkey sitting in brine water.  Now granted, I am very happy to see early preparations for Thanksgiving dinner, but why is a huge pot of water sitting on the stove????

Why not on the counter, where if I have to move it, I won’t spill it into the stove.

I just don’t get it…along with the iced drink sitting next to the computer with a big puddle under it.”

We hope you figure out your mysterious kitchen occurrence, and the whereabouts of your husband soon.