If you find yourself stuck in a vicious cycle in your marriage, getting an outside perspective can help. Problems don’t usually arise suddenly. It’s more likely that things have slowly and subtly become bad. We tend to ignore issues until we find ourselves in a miserable situation. Marriage is difficult at times, but brushing things…
Sometimes making people happy is easy. The other night I brought Kyle home a cookie that I grabbed while I was out with a couple friends. He was thrilled. More thrilled than I expected. It was easy. He was happy. But it got me thinking . . . is giving as sweet if it doesn’t…
Sometimes the smallest things can cause the biggest problems. They tend to add up and spark bickering between spouses. Last week I walked into our bedroom and saw Scott looking all frustrated. “What?” I asked him. He pointed to the scale. He told me I had left it out again right in the middle of…
When we imagine of romance and love, we usually conjure up images of walks along the beach, candle lit dinners, or cuddling by the fireplace. I’ve experienced zero of these scenarios in recent history. We don’t have time for any of that right now. Our lives are more busy than ever, and there is no…
What would it take for you to realize you’re in the middle of another pointless argument? In our five years together so far, Kyle and I have had hundreds (thousands?) of stupid arguments. We’ve argued about everything from why he took the good GameCube controller to why my taste in furniture is so “girly.” When…
I married my best friend. No really, I did. And I hope you did too. But when I think of “best friends,” I picture being in middle school again, and having that best friend that I spent all of my time with. We had inside jokes, we we spend all of our weekends hanging out, and…
This week we celebrate the one year anniversary of Nitty Gritty Love! Over the past year we’ve published 154 blog posts—here are our ten most popular posts: 1. 3 Reasons to Stop Asking Couples When They’ll Have Babies 2. 10 Powerful Marriage Quotes 3. 5 Ways to Build Up Your Husband 4. A Letter to…
Dear Husbands, I’ve heard from your wife—she needs your attention. She tells me she’s lonely. She feels isolated and ignored. Her life is wrapped around children, work, and/or household chores. She used to feel in love with life, and in love with you, but now she feels worthless and uninteresting. She feels like she’s forgotten…
“Honey, I have a headache.” The easiest excuse to grab out of the bag, right? But what if you really do have a headache? What if you suffer from chronic migraines? What if all you want to do is lie in a dark room and wait for the pain to go away? For about a…
I recently found a journal entry from my seven-year-old self. It read, “I feel bad for my brother and I’m surprised!” That’s pretty much my personality in a nutshell. I’ve always been, well, empathetically challenged. Even as a wife, it’s something I struggle with. Especially when Kyle’s upset over small(er) things—like researching and picking out…