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.

The day before I came down with a nasty influenza I announced my video course: “How to Navigate Your Differences.” I also said that to celebrate I was going to do an awesome giveaway prize, and then… well the flu. Haha. And then it was my birthday so here we are now! I just want to say that I have been so excited about this video course, because it’s so applicable for ALL marriages, no matter what stage you are in, or how deep your problems are!

The Wife Life Workshop was held on Saturday afternoon, January 20, 2018, at the Miller Conference Center in Sandy, Utah. More than 40 wives came together to be uplifted and enriched in the many hats they wear as a wife! I wanted to give a little glimpse into what these workshops are like! Every workshop will cover different topics, and is a new experience! Here’s what took place at this one :)

The learning curve I think one of the biggest learning curves of newlyweds is decision-making. Of course, you had to make decisions before when you were dating and engaged, but it can be different because the stakes are different. And I think when a person is so smitten with someone, they are more likely to bend to the other person, haha. The biggest difference when it comes to decision making in marriage is that you now have so many things you’re making decisions about, all involving and affecting the other person.

Most people don’t know the underlying reason for Freshly Married being here. It’s because relationship education is important! And yet so many people have either never heard of it before, are intimidated by it, scared of it, or assume it means you have relationship problems you need help with. WELL NEWSFLASH, WE ALL HAVE PROBLEMS! haha. But really. Because I believe passionately that relationship education is a helpful tool for all relationships, not just marriage, I want to explain what relationship education is while addressing some misunderstandings so that you can feel more comfortable with seeking help.

If you’ve been following along this past year, every week I’ve been writing a blog post each week specifically about a joy that I have found in my marriage that week. Well, that project is now done with, and I don’t know if I’ve ever been as consistent with a project like this before, especially one that is every week for a whole year! You can read here why I started this project in the first place.

This is going to be the last blog post I write about what new joys I have found in my marriage week to week. Next week’s joy will be sharing my overall thoughts of this project, so look forward to that! The joy I found in my marriage this week is how we are goal-oriented and encourage growth in each other. One of the ways that we did this is through sharing goals with each other for the new year.

We have been feeling some joy this past week and I’m not quite sure how to sum it up into one word, but I think it could be summarized into patience and clarity. Patience usually is not a joyous word, haha, but it is when you have achieved patience, right? Well this weekend we got a new car! It’s one I’ve been eyeing for awhile now and even test-drove it over a year ago.

I have about 4 more of these blog posts left of this #ajoyfulmarriage project, and I realized I haven’t shared about a major aspect of our marriage that brings us so much joy! It’s one that initially, I felt sad I hadn’t mentioned yet, but realized that this time of year brings it out even more, so it worked out saving it until now :) Our spirituality brings us me so much joy in our marriage, and I’m pretty sure my husband feels joy from it too.

Something I believe both my husband and I find joy in for our marriage, is going out to eat — enjoying quality-made meals and trying new foods. I know it sounds funny but this is something we care about! I mean, it’s something you do 3+ times a day, so it matters, right?! He loves getting the chance to eat food that I don’t know how to cook well, and I love the opportunity for someone skilled to make us dinner, haha.

A quality in our marriage that brings me joy is our ability to count our blessings. We are good at that. And I don’t mean that in the literal counting sense, as if we are keeping track and pouting if we didn’t have as many as we did last month, lol. I just meant that in a way that we can find a positive spin to situations, or find things to be thankful for, even amidst times of trials.

We are all well aware that while the holiday season can be a wonderful time of year spent with loved ones, it can also bring with it some stress. Just a few examples: spending hours trying to make your house look festive; thinking of the perfect gifts for family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers, then having to go get those gifts and wrap them, while trying to not spend a fortune; making special food for the celebrations; and feeling pressure to make special memories.

Our church offers a Sunday school class on the topic of marriage and family, and the lesson yesterday reminded me of something in our marriage that brings us joy: the value we see in each other. I wanted to share this interesting object lesson the teacher used and why I loved it! One of the teachers held up a gold dollar coin and said that it represented us being “one” in our marriage.

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.

A characteristic about the both of us that brings me joy in our marriage is that we both are practical thinkers. This may seem like a boring trait to find joy in but if you are a person who struggles with anxiety and worries over little things, it could cause more anxiety to be with someone who constantly makes irrational decisions on a whim, haha. Since we both can relate to those worrisome feelings, I feel like we can rely on each other in a comforting way.

I was recently reading an old interview with actress Jennifer Garner in Vanity Fair on her marriage to Ben Affleck. As you probably know, they split up after ten years of marriage, sadly. It’s something that I can tell she really wanted to work out, especially already having a previous divorce under her belt. She said some very mature and admirable things about their marriage and their divorce, but her overall statement made my heart break with confusion.

It’s getting harder to be vulnerable week to week sharing details about our marriage, but I committed to this project at the beginning of the year, and I know it’s helping me train my outlook on marriage for the better! There are only about 10 more weeks left of this project and it’s so interesting seeing things progress. I’m definitely a fan of personal exercises or campaigns that challenge you for a period of time in a way that strengthens and improves yourself as an individual.

A Joy that I found in my marriage this week is a joy I have felt before, but since it happened a few times this week, I think it’s been on my mind more. It’s sort of embarrassing to share, but I snore sometimes when I sleep, haha. I’m blaming it on all my sinus issues though! I had sinus surgery about 3 weeks ago, and though I have been doing so much better than we expected, I still have a little bit of inflammation here and there.

A divorce is an event that affects so many people and for years to come. It’s something very common, yet it’s very scary to talk about for many people. It’s a topic I’ve been wanting to tackle for awhile, but contains so many aspects to cover. I’ve always been curious about how children, adolescents, and adult children have been affected by their parents’ divorce. So I’ve enlisted the help of some amazing women who are kind enough to share their experiences with you, to give you better insight into this particular family situation.

If you didn’t catch part 1 reading some great insight and advice from both Brooke and Kristin, you should go read that! I asked them to share what their parents’ divorce was like on them at age 13, and how they navigate the effects of that divorce currently, now that they are married themselves. This Spotlight Part 2 perspective is getting some insight from two women who were adults and married or almost married when their parents got a divorce.