How Date Night Might Effect Your Marriage

Most couples know their marriages are happier when they make time to have fun. But often it’s the fun that’s first to fall by the wayside as demands pile up, especially in a trying economy when couples often work long hours or hold down more than one job.

Now research from the University of Denver supports the idea that finding moments to be together free of financial, family or other stresses — just to have fun together — is not an indulgence.

“The more you invest in fun and friendship and being there for your partner, the happier the relationship will get over time,” says Howard Markman, a psychologist who co-directs the university’s Center for Marital and Family Studies.

“The correlation between fun and marital happiness is high, and significant.”

For men, the connection is even more important, the researchers say. They found that men are more likely than women to call their spouse their best friend.

Markman and co-director Scott Stanley in 1996 began a long-term study of 306 Denver-area couples. The yet-unpublished study is based on a fun and friendship scale the pair developed, with statements such as “We regularly have great conversations where we just talk as good friends,” and “My partner really listens to me when I have something important to say.” They analyzed questionnaires from a subset of the sample — 197 couples in their second year of marriage.

One of the reasons couples have trouble is that they have different takes on fun and bonding, Parrott says. “Intimacy and friendship for a man is built on shared activity, but for women, shared activity is a backdrop for a great conversation. What she wants on date night is a time of intimacy and friendship. He’s disappointed because she’ll never go to a game or golfing, and it’s during shared activities that his spirit is most likely to open up.”

Thomas Bradbury, who co-directs the Marriage and Family Development Laboratory and Relationship Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles, believes having fun together can become a self-fulfilling prophecy for couples: “People in happy relationships generate these activities, and as they generate these activities, it keeps their relationship strong and healthy and fresh.”

Source: ABC News ” Married Couples Who Play Together Stay Together”

How To Keep An Affair Away By Using Feng Shui

If you aren’t familiar with feng shui it the aim of feng shui is to create a living and working environment in harmony with nature and the flow of energy. Proper practice of feng shui is meant to maintain good health, wealth, relationships, creativity and other parts of life. Feng shui is a very old and amazing practice. It can be used for ever single aspect of life.

Ward Off Commitment Phobics
If you habitually hook up with lovers who fear commitment, clear your Love Gua of fragile ornaments and unstable furniture. Place two handsome pottery bowls side-by-side on a sturdy shelf or table. Leave the bowls empty until you’ve met your love match. Fill the pots with matching plants once you’ve met your soul mate. (It won’t be long now!)

Stop Being a Lone Wolf
Are you having trouble finding a mate? Check your Love Gua for artwork and photographs depicting lone images. Signal your desire for romance by displaying a beautiful image of a romantic couple in this space. A single chair can also ward off love. Replace it with an attractive love seat that is covered with sensual fabric. Above all, check that your bed has enough space on either side for a person to comfortably enter and exit.

Discourage Unwanted Company
If you’ve been the victim of an extracurricular love affair, take steps to prevent this from ever happening again. Make sure that your Love Gua and bedroom are clear of images that are triangular in shape. This includes diamonds, sunbursts, and pyramids. Position the bed flat against the wall. If you must place the bed on a diagonal slant, place a tall plant in the empty space behind the headboard. Otherwise, you will be drawing further unwelcome energy into the bedroom. Above all, avoid triangular headboards like the plague!

Spice Things Up
If your relationship is as comfortable as an old shoe, boredom can ensue. Spice things up a little by keeping both your Love Gua and bedroom spacious and airy. Ideally, your furnishings should not take up more than half the total space of these areas. Relocate big, cumbersome pieces to other parts of your home. Position scented candles in front of a bedroom mirror and light them each night. The leaping flames and fragrant aroma will add zest to your love life. A string of fairy lights can also help.

Source: AOL Feng Shui

Eco-nize Your Halloween Fun

It’s that time of year again. Time to pull out the orange and black decorations to showcase our Halloween spirit. What better way to have fun with the family then do make the decoration together. Since this year we are in a green mind set why not set out to find some great Halloween ideas that can be re-used, reduced, and recycled.

Egg Carton Bats

Materials:
Egg carton • Black Paint • Googly Eyes • Yarn (any color) • String • Scissors • Glue • Paint Brush

Directions:

1. Separate three cups from an egg carton using scissors.
2. Cut out part of the bottoms of each end cup to look like bat wings.
3. Paint all three cups black including the underside and let dry.
4. Glue two googly eyes and yarn for a mouth on the middle cup.
5. Thread a string through the top of the middle cup to hang.

Toilet Tissue Roll Bat

Materials:
Empty Toilet Tissue Roll • Black Paint • Black and White Construction Paper • Scissors • Glue • Black and Red Marker

Directions:
1. Paint toilet tissue roll black and let dry.
2. Trace two bat wings and two triangle shaped ears on the black paper and cut out.
3. Cut two small triangle shaped fangs, a small circle for a nose and two circles for the eyes from the white paper.
4. Glue on construction paper pieces to the toilet tissue roll.

Why not make some cookies from scratch. Simple sugar cookies are great Halloween treat for parties or family fun. Continue Reading

Zach Bonner Little Red Wagon Foundation

It all started during Hurricane Charlie. Zach Bonner, then just 6 years old, took his little red wagon door to door in his neighborhood to collect clean water for the victims. After four months, Zach had collected 27 truck loads of supplies.

“Some boys like football or baseball, Zach likes doing charity work,” his mom says. He liked it so much by the time hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit, Zach’s family needed to set up a foundation because of the amount of monetary donations he was taking in. They named it Little Red Wagon Foundation, after the moniker he received around town during Charlie.

His latest mission doesn’t include the wagon, just his feet, and a 1,225-mile journey of the “My House to the White House” project. This is the last walk he is doing to raise money and awareness for the 1.3 million homeless kids in the United States. The money is going to setting up apartments for them. “It’s really hard not to help. Once you’ve met them and heard their stories, it’s hard not to want to help,” Zach, now 11, tells us.

Source: CNN.com

Monday Already?

Happy Monday Everyone. It is the start of another week. I know how stressful and taxing Monday’s can be so here are some great videos and pictures to get you through the day!