Shel Harrington > Blog > Marriage
Destruction That’s Good for Marriage

Competition between spouses can be fun, energizing and healthy for the marriage. Keeping score to determine who won at golf, racquetball, scrabble, or a favorite video game makes absolute sense. Keeping score in other areas of marriage does not. But isn’t that just what we do? I’ve taken out the trash the last three times!...

5 Links to Laughter

If you’re going to laugh your way to a longer, healthier marriage, you need to know how – and where – to get your laugh on. Here are five options that you might not have been aware of! 1. Laughing groups. Chances are your favorite hobby has a laughing group. I checked out the meetup...

Laugh for longer marriage
Laugh Your Way to a Longer Marriage

Laugh, and the world laughs with you. More importantly, your spouse laughs with you. Just the words giggle, chuckle and chortle probably make you smile. Take it bigger with mirthful glee or bubbling laughter. Or over the top with a loud guffaw. Whether small, medium or large, laughter is good stuff! Making your spouse laugh...

9 Kitchen Habits that Cook Up Trouble in Your Marriage

I have already warned you how what happens in the bathroom – those little annoying habits that crop up – can harm a marriage. But annoying your spouse in the kitchen could be even more dangerous – there’s knives there! It’s often the little things that cause the biggest spats. Here are nine of those...

Is Your Marriage Like the Tree of 40 Fruits?

“Absolutely beautiful!” was the first thought I had when I saw the Tree of 40 Fruits. Then I read the behind-the-scenes story of how it came to be and listened to artist and professor Sam Van Aken, from Syracuse University,         sum up his art-to-reality project. An actual tree that bears 40 fruits. How can that...

Random Acts of Toilet Paper

Having recently established that certain bathroom habits can be harmful to marriage, I left some people feeling that the bathroom was downright hazardous. But it’s not the bathroom itself, it’s the bathroom behavior we need to look at (not literally). Toilet seat left up? Bad behavior. Cracking your spouse up  with your artistic toilet paper...

10 Bathroom Habits That Can Harm Your Marriage

Do we live in Michigan or Rhode Island? Will we home school or send our kids to public or private school? Will we buy a house or rent a condo? Those are all big issues in marriage that could spark  heated discussion if spouses have differing opinions. But when a decision is made, there’s a...

Love Story Corrected After 44 Years – Love DOES Mean Having to Say You’re Sorry

After the recent post referencing Tom Cruise’s famous movie line “You complete me,” I heard from many of you who thought there was another Hollywood line that should be on the “Relationship Drivel” list: Love means never having to say your sorry. I agree – but I’m not the only one who does. Even the...

5 More Simple Ways to Keep Your Marriage Strong

Ladies’ Home Journal Magazine was onto something when they touted the importance of “The Little Meaningful Things Happily Married Couples Do.” Admittedly, as soon as I got the magazine I raced past what other couples were doing and checked to see if Steve and I were in the mix. But after I happily scoped out...

Marriage, Ladies’ Home Journal, and the Simple Things That Matter

In January, Ladies’ Home Journal Magazine (LHJ) asked what little things “you and your spouse do for each other” that make the marriage special. My husband and I had fun putting together our list to send in, reminding each other of little things the other had done that made us smile. When we heard back...

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