*You will get the most out of this post if you read Love Languages Part 1: Understanding* We’re talking about this best-selling book, “The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman! (affiliate link) So hopefully you have taken the assessments to know what your spouse’s love languages are, as well as your own. And hopefully you have discussed it with your spouse as well. (If you haven’t taken it yet, no worries, still important to know all this!

*This post contains affiliate links. I am a huge believer in love languages! Gary Chapman is most well-known for this idea in his book: “The Five Love Languages.” There are other interpretations when it comes to understanding how people feel loved but this seems to hit it on the head for me! I honestly could say I have a testimony on how important this concept is to marriages because I utilize it repeatedly in my marriage and in other relationships!

The day I was proposed to, the day I gave Trevor his wedding ring, and the day I got married to him were all days that showed me the meaning of a wedding ring. However, there was something else that happened this week where I realized the importance of a wedding ring again. And guess how it happened? While watching an episode of “Duck Dynasty” with my dad! hahaha. I’ll explain.

I wanted to help you understand why I always sign my posts with ‘Keepin’ marriage fresh," and stress how cool this idea is to marriages. A while ago I was looking at the definitions of “fresh” and “freshening,” and “freshen.” I really loved some of the definitions Webster’s dictionary provided. These are the definitions that I found for FRESH, and FRESHEN, and I’m going to tell you how I interrupt and apply this to marriages.

**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.

If you are like me, you are at the point in your marriage where the idea of having children weighs more heavily on your mind. Whatever the reason for it, getting to this point has been an interesting journey, at least it has been for me! When we first got married the idea of starting a family was a simple goal for us: “Not for five years.” However as months and months have passed since then, I can tell you now that it’s actually not that simple, haha.

Story time When we were living in an apartment still, there was a new family that moved in below us; a wife, husband, and a few kids. Since they moved in, almost every day we heard them yelling. The parents would yell at each other, the parents yelled at the kids, and the kids yelled at the parents. I absolutely hated it; I cringed every time. Yes, I cringed because it is annoying, but mainly because it shows that they are were not loving each other and instead were hurting each other.

Three years ago yesterday, Trevor asked me to be his wife! That was obviously a big moment for us, just as it is for any relationship. However, there were other things leading up to that moment that were also big in our relationship. Story Time Two weeks before he proposed I had finally decided I was ready and wanted to move to be closer to him in Provo. This was a big deal for me because exactly a year prior to that I did the same thing– move to Provo to be closer to a boy I was ready to marry.

HUG MORE. KISS MORE. HUG MORE. KISS MORE. ETC. ETC.

In the previous post, “Lock Your Love,” I shared this awesome gate found in St. George where you can symbolically protect your love by attaching a padlock to a gate or a bridge. Go read that post because it’s a neat idea! I thought more about how this idea reflects marriage and found some great symbolism I wanted to share. Locked strongly into place My thoughts lingered on the lock itself, in that it’s nearly effortless to lock into place.

*This post contains affiliate links. I used to go to Dixie State University (it was Dixie State College when I went), so I lived down in good ole St. George, Utah! I loved it there so much. I could go on forever about why I love St. George but that would take all day! So I’m just going to share this one majorly awesome thing that came from living down there.

[sc name=“soundcloud” id=“281723250” ] So many people right now are thinking about how they can better themselves for the new year. I am doing that right now, too! But one area people tend to forget to make a resolution for is in their relationships. Do I need to mention how awesome and important that is to do in your MARRIAGE?! I have to admit that I didn’t do that before beginning a serious relationship with Trevor.

I did choose to send out Christmas cards again this year and man was it easier than my first attempt last year! This year I did a double-sided card so we could have a picture of us and a quick “happy holidays” message, but also have a back where we shared a picture from something special we did this year: we threw a Back to the Future party because I’m obsessed with BTTF!

I just read an article about a national study that found 73% of Americans have given advice to a friend or family member about their relationships. Source is at the bottom because I don’t want to bore you like a class lecture. However, I do want to address this important role of being a confidant to others on their relationships, because these people can be a very influential lifeline to your marriage success, whether it’s positive or negative.

As we all know, there are different kinds of marital experiences! A few that I have received better insight into this year are marriages that have a spouse serving in the armed forces, police work, firefighters, or EMT’s. Because of their job description and the sacrifice they make to help protect us, they face different challenges in their marriages than other couples might face. Since I do not have first-hand experience in this area, I asked someone who has absolute experience in this to help us understand better.

When I watch TV shows that portray a husband and wife relationship, I get annoyed sometimes with how they act towards each other. Examples of this: Wives nagging their husbands and saying they don’t do anything for them ever. Husbands complaining and saying comments like, “this is torture” when helping their wife plan a party or something only she is really interested in doing. They say sarcastic things under their breath at each other.

Have you ever had a hard time buying a gift for your spouse while keeping it a surprise? I personally have a problem with it just solely on the fact that I just can’t wait for them to enjoy what I got them! Well for this post I’m talking about keeping it a secret financially. If you are like us and have openly shared finances, you probably struggle with getting gifts without your spouse knowing.

Isn’t it hard sometimes to be thankful in the midst of your trials? It’s not easy trying to see the positive in every situation. That’s why I felt like this new decor in our kitchen would be a helpful reminder to us that there is always something to be thankful, no matter what we experienced in the day! It helped even more to have pictures up representing things we are thankful for too.