All of us have things that are special to us that we keep and treasure. When it comes to relationships, how do you know if he or she is a keeper? What I mean is someone you’d want to be with forever, that you’d never want to be parted from. One of the key ingredients in any relationship is care and concern for the other person. It is being willing to go out of your way to do something special for that other person. That’s what love is all about, caring about the other person’s needs more than your own. … Continue reading →

Romance is something every marriage needs. I’m sure we’d all like to be romanced. It makes us feel good. But what exactly is romance? Ask a hundred people and you might come up with a hundred different answers. To some people it is flowers and candlelit dinners and wine. To your neighbor or best friend romance might mean something quite different. Even to your spouse romance might be something different. Do you even know what your spouse finds romantic? If you don’t then it’s time you found out. You need to do more communication. Run a few suggestions by them. … Continue reading →

During one of our nostalgia nights we also looked over both children’s baby books. It’s easy to forget little things that happen, so it was fun to reminisce about the cute and funny things they said and some of the antics they got up to. What was interesting when we went through baby books, we found some names of people we received gifts and cards from were names we couldn’t place. The same happened with some of the slides, we found there were people that we used to know but we simply couldn’t remember who they were. It seems we … Continue reading →

After the heavy topics of the last few days I thought I’d opt for something lighter today. What about taking a step back into the past? Hold a nostalgia night or several. It could be good for your marriage. Recently Mick was talking about soothing that happened when we were younger, which is what ca gave me the idea. We decided to hold a series of nostalgia nights. Starting with our wedding photos, we followed the course of our life together via the photo albums right up to the wedding of our son. Our wedding photos didn’t take all that … Continue reading →

Romance to many of us, might mean gifts of flowers or jewelry or declarations of undying love. It might be special celebrations and candlelit dinners. And yes, there are times when every marriage could do with a little dose of those romantic moments. But what about the real romance of being married? The real romance can just be the joy of curling up next to the same person each night and knowing that they’re going to be right there when you wake up in the morning, every morning. It can be having that special someone to share important news and … Continue reading →

Last weekend in Sydney one man was in the right place looking for romance, or was he? The man among 250 women was Daniel Scarparolo, who was attending the Romance Writers of Australia Conference. From Perth this young man is writing a romance novel – his first. In a time when some publishers have gone to the wall or merged and sales are reputedly down, romance novels are flourishing. In USA sales of romance fiction were $1.37 billion in 2008. In England and Australia sales are also high. This is despite a gloomy economy. What is the big attraction? Is … Continue reading →

Still a few days to go and I have absolutely had it with Valentine’s Day and all the hype. Hasn’t it all got out of hand that Valentine’s Day is now such a major production? Everywhere you look are advertisements for buying lingerie and chocolates and jewelry and, and, and… the list goes on. But the ones that really annoy me most are the catalogues that keep arriving in multiples in our letter box suggesting men show their love by buying their wives or sweethearts a diamond ring. Well, I know one thing Mick won’t be buying me for Valentine’s … Continue reading →

Romance– just the mere word is enough to send some guys running for cover. Others, like the young man last night who got down on bended knee in the sand with a little box and asked his girlfriend to marry him, know how to be romantic. Incidentally she said yes. It’s something that’s happened before on our beaches in summer and it is romantic. As for the words romantic movie, some men wouldn’t be caught within a hundred yards of a movie theater showing a romantic movie. I’m glad my husband isn’t like this. His favorite movie is Casablanca. Another … Continue reading →

Two things I read today stuck me and they both came from different sources. One was from the novel The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. Sparks is one of my favorite writers because he writes about love, abiding, forever love, not love that is here today and gone tomorrow as in many of the current Hollywood movies. This book is no exception. The line I reponded to as true was, ‘she was struck by the simple truth that sometimes the most ordinary things could be made extraordinary, simply by doing them with the right people.’ Certainly this is true both … Continue reading →

For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, till death us do part. Sound familiar? They should. They’re the words I’m sure most of us heard in our wedding ceremony. I was thinking about them while listening to a song on a CD Mick gave me for Christmas. Now I know I’m showing my age by admitting this but the CD was Kenny Rogers. I can just about how some of you younger ones groan at this point but please don’t stop reading. The song that particularly caught my ear was Through the Years, because … Continue reading →