Seems weird to wish everyone a happy quarantine/lockdown, but these are the times we live in right now! It seems everyone is affected one way or another from the COVID-19 global pandemic. Some people are affected financially with job loss or revenue. Some people are affected with loss of loved ones or even just the loss of a social life. Some people are missing out on important milestones and celebrated events like weddings and even prom.

This post contains affiliate links to Amazon. Which means Freshly Married can make a small commission on items you buy through these links. People have been asking how I am doing since I have been absent from posting much on the Freshly Married website and social media. And to answer everyone, I am doing GREAT! Some days are anxiety-ridden and November to mid-December we’re pretty tiring ( #sleepregression ). But we have been just enjoying life altogether regardless.

**This post contains affiliate links. This means, if you make a purchase through any of these links, we’ll receive a small portion of your purchase at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Freshly Married! Have you ever thought about creativity in your relationship? Hearing that might have some of you thinking, “Uh-oh… I’m not artsy or crafty whatsoever! How is this going to apply to me?

**This post contains affiliate links. This means, if you make a purchase through any of these links, we’ll receive a small portion of your purchase at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Freshly Married! The idea of sharing your hopes and dreams as individuals and as a couple is so meaningful to a relationship! There are so many positives it brings to your life because it’s a very hopeful concept.

***This article contains affiliate links so if you purchase, I make a small percentage of that. How many times do we eat dinner together at home in front of the television, without saying much to each other? We are pretty good at having conversations, but I can’t count how many times we’ve still done this. :) It’s easy to do when we just have the two of us, and we just want to escape from the tasks and stress of the day.

Every birthday, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and wedding anniversary, I find myself googling thoughtful gift ideas that I can buy or make for my spouse. The same thing happens when I want to get a “just because” gift for him, or create a special date night for us. Add these up and we’ve got AT LEAST 5 times throughout the year searching for gift ideas. Over the past few years, I have been keeping track of some awesome finds that interest me or my spouse, and I think most spouses would love too.

Date boxes have been a new thing the past few years, and I think are recently gaining more traction for couples, especially those with busy lives. Last year my husband and I experimented with date boxes to see what they are all about, and to see if they would give us added fun in our marriage :) I wrote an article on how date boxes work, so if you’re not familiar with the concept, check that out.

I like to think my DIY skills and creativity bless our marriage for the better :) If we’re talking about it bringing joy to my marriage, it sure does because I fully enjoy doing little thoughtful surprises/projects like this one I did for hubby this week. We have this thing called “ultimate couch bed” that we like to do periodically throughout the year. Particularly when there are some movie marathons of tv show binge watching or someone is sick and we know we will be on the couch all weekend :) It’s where we rearrange our couch sectional pieces in the living room to form one giant couch right in front of the TV.

I’ve written a lot about date nights: giving ideas, stressing how important it is, but that it doesn’t have to be epic. Well since “date night” isn’t as simple as you think, I’ve got more to say about it, of course! I’ve been watching cooking shows lately, and have heard the term “elevate” be used a lot. It’s described as like adding an extra element or level to your dish that gives it a kick to stand out from the typical version of that dish.

I’m almost half way through this project to live a more joyful marriage! It’s been such a good exercise for me to do each week because sometimes I have to think a little harder about the joys in life and in marriage. And that has helped me see things deeper in our relationship. There have been a few things in our marriage this week that has brought me joy! :) But one main thing that I have found joy in this week was in our ultimate cereal date night on Friday!

My husband and I tried out different date boxes to give you an idea of what each one offers! This blog post is sharing our experiences with the “Crated With Love” date box company, giving you better insight into what their boxes are like. If you are unfamiliar with date boxes in general, read this previous blog post explaining everything about them - what they are, as well as the pros and cons.

My husband and I tried out different date boxes to give you an idea of what each one offers! This blog post is sharing our experiences with the “Date Night In” date box company, giving you better insight into what their boxes are like. If you are unfamiliar with date boxes in general, read this previous blog post explaining everything about them - what they are, as well as the pros and cons.

My husband and I tried out different date boxes to give you an idea of what each one offers! This blog post is sharing our experiences with the “Datelivery” date box company, giving you better insight into what their boxes are like. If you are unfamiliar with date boxes in general, read this previous blog post explaining everything about them - what they are, as well as the pros and cons.

My husband and I tried out different date boxes to give you an idea of what each one offers! This blog post is sharing our experiences with the “Unbox Love” date box company, giving you better insight into what their boxes are like. If you are unfamiliar with date boxes in general, read this previous blog post explaining everything about them - what they are, as well as the pros and cons.

Date boxes are planned and created date nights that are focused on creating an entertaining and connecting date for you and your spouse! If you’re unfamiliar with date boxes, I’ll give you the rundown on the basics of what they are, the pros and cons, as well as the varieties out there you can choose from! Date boxes are mostly focused on indoor dates, which are great for winter, or for spending time together after the kids are in bed so you don’t have to pay for a babysitter.

We’ve all been there You’re on a much-needed date night out, away from work, home, and the kids (if you have them). Whatever the activity you’re doing, there is time for conversations to happen and somehow the conversation ends up being any or all of the following scenarios: Talking too much business stuff - the kids’ schedules, work stress, etc. Not knowing what to talk about, especially if you think you know everything about each other already Bringing up issues that start an argument I think we’ve all found ourselves in one of these situations on our date nights before.

THE SPECIAL OCCASION PRESSURES The night before Valentine’s Day, we were talking about our holiday plans and my husband voiced to me that he has spent hours over the past few weeks trying to figure out a special activity for us to do for Valentine’s Day that wasn’t something we had already done or that feels “same ole, same ole” like going to the movies. We even have a STRONG bucket list of so many more date night activities to try, but sometimes those ideas don’t work well with the season or other facts.

I love playing with sparklers in the summer! They are a fun burst of energy and warmth, and have totally “sparked” a comparison for me to marriage! Some couples at various points in their marriage, lose those fun, romantic sparks. Sadly, some of these couples wait around for the sparks to come back again on their own, which rarely happens. I think they wait around because it seems like a daunting task, right?

I LOVE PLAYING GAMES!!! They are just my jam. I get so excited when we get together with friends or family who want to play games because we don’t get to play those 3+ player games at home! Over the past four years together, we have managed to find some two-player games to play at home, but we get bored of them real quick. Since every couple needs to have some games to turn to, especially in the winter time, I figured I would make one big list for us all!

[sc name=“soundcloud” id=“287187167” ] On a weekend, recently, I was looking at the Instagram stories in my feed and one came up that bothered me. Someone snapped (I guess that’s a word now) their entire date night on both Instagram and Snapchat. I don’t have Snapchat, but I know this because the captions on Instagram were encouraging followers to also go over there to watch other parts from their date.

Everyone knows that I’m a big promoter of date night. Especially with my giveaways. I just believe that it’s important to have time together alone with your spouse. :) But I don’t want to give anyone the idea that your time together has to be epic enough to be given the “date night” title. Date night shouldn’t feel pressured. All quality time is important! And in some life circumstances, we have to take what we can get, right?

***GIVEAWAY CLOSED*** Many of our summer nights lately have consisted of take-out dinner. Somehow it’s mostly Mexican food, too, which means Cafe Rio :) We like going to the restaurant itself occasionally but sometimes we are just too pooped from the day, and just want to eat it at home while we watch Monk :) Know what I’m saying?! There’s been a big question apparently of what the masses prefer: their new Spicy Green Chile Pork, or their classic Sweet Pork.

***Giveaway closed.*** Winner listed at the bottom of the post *This post contains affiliate links. This week my focus is on the importance of recording the memories in marriage! I talk about how important it is to journal the little details here, with 10 ideas for how you can do that! I also wrote here about how important it is to update your family photos often AND make sure to hang them up in your house!

*This post contains affiliate links. Our time is very valuable as married couples, individuals, and parents. Weekends seem to be dispersed between your own events and obligations, family events, or just plain staying home on a Saturday night relaxing! If you got kids, throw in their games and activities, too. So when it comes to date night, it’s rare for some of us to find time for double dates, let alone our own dates!

I’m excited to share this idea with you guys because I think it’s a fun, EASY way to switch things up when it comes to your sex life! For whatever reason, we all experience a hiatus of sexual intimacy at times. Sometimes it’s because there are natural life transitions happening like having a baby, and other times you’re just needing a nudge to get back there. This game can be that nudge for your marriage!

To the couples who haven’t gone on a date in awhile: GO ON A DATE! I know I say this a lot, and I don’t want to come off as annoying, judge-y or insensitive when I write this post. Life can be tough and in those tough times, we tend to put this incredibly important relationship of ours on the back-burner. It also happens when life is busy. For whatever the reason, these situations start to take precedence over something that is so essential to a relationship.

A year ago I talked about some new things I learned about grocery budgeting, especially how my budget was comparing to the national averages. As I remembered that post, I realized my grocery budgeting has changed a bit in the past year, haha. Why? Because LIFE has changed in the past year! Life changes MAKE YOUR BUDGETS FLUCTUATE I was making more meals back in the spring of 2015. Come summer time things got CRAZY again.

I had a good luck charm apparently for this St. Patricks Day because I “won” some amazing seats to the Jazz game that night! I say “won” because an old friend couldn’t use them so they did a little drawing for people interested and I got them :) What’s better than a fun date night to an NBA game? A FREE ONE, haha. It was double-y awesome because Trevor and I had never been to a game together yet.

My husband and I have both mentioned in posts how much we enjoy giving and receiving love notes from each other. I really think there’s an awesome power that comes with love notes. Having a physical copy of how your spouse feels about you is something you can refer to in years to come, which makes it more special. Trevor and I used to write more to each other while we were dating, and I think it’s because we lived an hour away from each other.

This Valentine’s Day is going to be a little more low-key for us and we like it that way right now. :) However, low-key doesn’t mean we aren’t doing anything new or special! Because we want to continue keeping our marriage fresh, right?! We plan to do that by going back to our 90’s childhood and play on our Nintendo 64!! Trevor has been playing Super Smash Brothers on the 64 with some of his friends and he realized how much he truly missed playing it!

For this giveaway, I asked you to tell us how you keep your marriage fresh, along with reposting a freshly married quote from our insta. I truly loved reading the responses from those who participated! A response that was similar among multiple entries was that they try to keep each other a priority among new situations like having babies. Other responses were back to the simple basics: making dinner together, having weekly date nights, dancing in the kitchen, and other quality time activities :) I just really liked hearing these responses because not only do they inspire my own marriage, but those who saw your posts were also inspired!

Do you guys know Stuart Edge? My husband and I just recently found his uplifting videos on youtube and every time I watch them I think, “How cool is it that he can just give away money in really neat ways and make people happy?! I wish I could do that!” Well I’m definitely not made of money but I genuinely love doing nice things for people, especially if it truly does help them in some way.

**This post contains affiliate links. This means, if you make a purchase through any of these links, we’ll receive a small portion of your purchase at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Freshly Married! For the past four or five months on our dates we have been trying to better focus our conversations on ourselves, rather than work, school, and other business. Trevor would think of questions or look up some to ask each other and it was fun.

*This post contains affiliate links. On our first date, Trevor and I started talking about some things we like to do, and we found most of them we had in common (of course!) Since he had recently come home from serving an Latter-Day Saint mission, I started suggesting some of the movies he should watch and music to listen to that came out while he was gone. It started as that, and then somehow it turned into things that we were possibly going to do together… :) So being the list people that we are, Trevor pulled out his phone and created a google doc, listing these things to do.

I’m suuuuuper excited to announce that I am now a PREP trained facilitator! PREP stands for Preventative Relationship Enhancement Program. This accredited program is taught internationally to anyone wanting to strengthen their marital relationship! I have been training so I can teach this curricula to large audiences in the community, and I am happy to announce my first one! I will be partnered with three co-facilitators to teach a slightly condensed version of the program.

I like doing surprise/spur-of-the-moment dates. Especially when they are much needed. I have had some medical concerns (or you could call them annoyances!) for several months now. (I’m not pregnant, don’t worry, haha.) I’ll have slumps of days when almost any food sounds good to eat, but then I’ll have annoying streaks when I don’t want to eat anything; sometimes it gets to the point of just thinking of my favorite foods makes me want to gag.

We’ve mentioned our ideals on dating in marriage before, but we’ll mention it again: One of our expectations going into our marriage, was committing to have a date night each week. In looking back at our first year, I don’t think we missed a week. I know it’s so much easier for newlyweds to continue to date, and make time for dates, but that’s not an excuse to lack! No matter what stage of marriage you are in, I hope you ask each other out on fun dates still.

On Saturday, Trevor and I were doing dishes together, and we had a funny conversation about something. I don’t remember all of the words that were said, but I think it was about how I almost pulled a “your face” joke on him. I know, I act like a twelve-year-old sometimes because I say “your face is a _____ “(fill in the blank), whenever the opportunity arises, haha. Well this opportunity, he knew it was coming after he created the perfect set up, so he said it before I could say it.

The past three weeks, Trevor and I have felt like we’ve been bums, couch potatoes, or whatever you call it. I am just finishing a cold I have had for the past 3 weeks, so I haven’t had much energy to workout, or do extra things beyond the necessary chores. I’ve mostly been tired, while Trevor has also been tired from some adjustments in his new job. While he loves it, his brain can be on overload sometimes.

Let’s be honest here. Every now and then, date nights can get a little routine doing the same things we usually do. This happens with us newlyweds too, believe it or not! So new ideas for date nights are good to have on those nights we feel like being spontaneous, or just wanting to do something different. Well, this is an idea that you can do any day of the week, in any season.

Every Day is Valentine’s Day Somehow I really enjoy this holiday. I used to give little cheesy valentines to my friends and family, but I have since upgraded to legit 5x7 Cards that are decked out with cutesy embellishments and hand-written words of love. I also love seeing baked goods decorated in pinks and reds, with jimmy sprinkles all over! And furthermore, I love decorating baked goods myself– heart shapes and everything!

This was how our year of 2013 was well-spent. [caption id=“attachment_1860” align=“aligncenter” width=“550”] 67 dates. 348 days spent together. 1863 laughs. 32 special songs shared. 1.7 million kisses. (give or take a few) And 1 especially blissful day, when we became eternal best friends.[/caption] Happy New Year everyone! We are so excited to begin this new year together, but 2013 was a wonderful year! When I think back on all that we did, I can’t help but feel undeniably happy.

Well folks, we have drawn a name out of the hat, with a winner to announce for our Boast and Brag Giveaway! Thank you so much for everyone who entered with your wonderful comments! We love hearing all of the great things that your spouses are doing to strengthen your marriage. It not only strengthens our marriage in in reading them, but I’m sure it does the same for the readers, as well.

Life is busy. There seems to be a never-ending list of stuff to fill our time with: work, school, errands, meal preparation, eating, sleeping, cleaning, exercise, church responsibilities, hobbies, appointments, social activities… You get the point :) Life can easily suffocate our schedules with endless commitments without leaving time for the ones we love most. To avoid this, my wife and I have set a goal to have an official date night at least once a week.

In the first three weeks of being married, I learned: The difference between wants and needs. Showing your love can sometimes be more important than saying it. Selfishness will never prosper in a partnership. Cuddling can fix sooooo many things!

Well, more like, the best friends before we met our spouses. Saturday was Trevor’s (before me) best friend’s wedding. It was a beautiful, yet hot, day full of love and happiness for them. It was a long-awaited day for them, especially since we both started dating within a week of each other, and were engaged about the same time. It was so hard for those boys! They were so in love with us and they just kept waiting until we fully came around!

My husband asks me out on a date every week. I KNOW RIGHT?! He really is the cutest husband. We had our partial date tonight in the park, having a picnic together. We grabbed the cute woven basket my cute mother-in-law gave us, and packed it full of buns, bananas, and BBQ chicken. It was lovely just sitting on the lush, green, grass, just eating, talking, and laughing. Trevor makes me giggle so much.