GPS to a Joyful Marriage

While shopping at the grocery store this past weekend, Rick grabbed numerous bags of candy for Trick or Treaters on Halloween.  I looked at the candy in the cart and said, “Hmmm.  It seems you only bought candy that you can eat.” He looked at me and replied, “Of course!” “Maybe I want some,” I quietly whined. His look displayed shear panic as he responded, “But you hate me after you’ve eaten too much sugar!” “Ha ha ha ha ha!” I cackled (much like the Wicked Witch of the West), but then I immediately winced at his abrupt candor regarding my sugar issues. Almost two years ago, I changed my eating habits and have had phenomenal improvements in my health.  While fasting from sugar for a forty day period, I discovered that I had no depression during that time.  I have struggled with bouts of depression all of my adult life.  I always chalked it up to PMS or life’s circumstances.  In spite of PMS and the same circumstances, that deep pit of despair I would fall into neve

I feel as though I spend way too much time seeking help.  I listen to music and advertisements for a half-hour on the phone waiting to talk to a real person, only to repeat this frustrating annoyance two days later because the initial person I talked to never did their job in fixing the problem.  I call the bank to correct an error I dealt with a week before but it had never been processed.  I continually have to repeat my case to large companies because the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing. I wait for a worker three days in a row who either doesn’t show up or calls with some excuse for his delay.  He only did half of his job when he finally came and walked out with an expensive part that we had paid for.  (He claims he doesn’t have it even though we noticed it was gone five minutes after he left.)  What is going on in this world?  No one wants to be responsible.  Very few are committed to doing the best job they can.  We live in a world where customer servic

Before I start with this week’s blogpost, I want to answer a question from last week’s post.  I had asked where the rule came from that said “The toilet seat must be kept down.”  I went to a rehearsal last week and some of the guys were discussing just this topic, and so I asked my question to them.  Lo and behold, I found an answer.  Without hesitation, one of the guys immediately chimed in, “It comes from a wife who says that since she is the one who cleans the toilet – I will keep the toilet seat down or she will shoot me.”  And there you have it!  (Why have I never thought of that after all these years of marriage??) Now on to this week's blogpost: The past few weeks of my life have been a roller coaster ride bigger than I’ve experienced in a very long time.  My emotions have gone from one extreme to the next and circumstances have ranged from miserable to unbelievably amazing.  You would think that by now I should be able to transition a lot easier from mountain t

I spoke at a women’s event last week, and I mentioned how we need to deal with the little things of marriage or take the chance that they may turn into insurmountable problems that lead to divorce.  The little things are the beginning of divorce - like toilet seats and toothpaste tubes – when not resolved. As I watched all the women shaking their heads “yes”, I told them that sounds like a great title for my next book, “Divorce Begins with the Toilet.”  (Hmm.  MY husband didn’t find this nearly as humorous as I did.) Every new bride is forced into reality the first time she bottoms out in the toilet, half-asleep, in the middle of the night.  Her husband neglected to put the seat down.  Thus begins the decay of happily-ever-after as she ponders, “If he really loved me he’d remember to put the toilet seat down!”  Most men don’t have a clue why this is such an issue for us ladies.  My practical husband says, “Can’t you look first?” In defense of men I have to ask, what writte