5 Tips for a Happy Marriage

Are there any blogs you visit and consistently find yourself laughing? Hollow Tree Ventures is a perfect example of a site where you will enjoy the writing and are guaranteed to leave with a smile on your face. The talent behind the blog is Robyn, the multi-talented mother of five kids. I am so grateful she accepted my invitation to bring her humor here today. Robyn gives the best advice on how to stay happily married. After you read this, go visit Robyn on her blog, follow her on Twitter, like her Facebook page, and of course, stalk her at Studio30 Plus.

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If there’s one thing I’m great at, prior divorce notwithstanding, 
it’s being married.

I know a lot of people say marriage requires a lot of work, but
 I’m not one of them.  Maintenance, maybe, but “work” makes 
it sound like an endless stream of constant drudgery, when in fact
 research suggests that a solid marriage is actually only 5% drudgery
 and 80% awesomeness, with a 15% margin of error to allow for how I 
feel about it when I’m PMSing.

So, as a long-awaited public service, I’ve collected my top
 Maintenance Tips For A Happy Marriage.  Follow these five guidelines,
and chances are at least 50/50 (or some other fraction) that your 
relationship will never require any of that pesky “work.”

1. Marry the right person

This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s astonishing how many people 
skip this step.

2. Communication

It’s all too easy to lose touch with our loved ones, especially if 
they’re not on Twitter for some reason or if the kids are making so
much noise you can’t hear yourself think.  If you’re feeling distant
 from your spouse, even after checking their latest Facebook status
 updates, I encourage you to address the issue right away.

For example, my husband and I were sitting on the couch one day, 
each silently absorbed in our Smart Phone screens.  Suddenly my phone
 beeped, letting me know he’d added a photo to Facebook, which was
 news to me even though he was only about two inches from my hip.


Me: I don’t like it very much that my phone knows more
about you than I do.


Gerry: Like what? What does your phone know?


Me: It knows… what you’re doing on your phone.

Then he laughed at me.  But the important thing was that I let him
 know I felt we were drifting apart, and, if someone happened to be 
watching through the window, it would have appeared that we were 
engaged in a pleasant conversation.  That’s half the battle.

3. Body Language and Thoughtful Gestures

On the subject of communication, let’s face it – sometimes it can
be easy to get your feelings hurt if you listen to the actual words
 that someone says.  Or you might go through a dry spell where it seems 
like ages since your spouse last paid you a compliment.

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