Yes, today’s show is for adults, but still rated very G.  

Why?  Because staying in the adult-world after having a baby is really important to your identity as an adult, and your identity with your spouse.  

And those adult identities are also very important to the development of your kiddos as they grow up.  

Yep, I’m hinting at what happens in the room where your (adult) bed is…and how to be sure you still have a space and place that is just “yours” - just you and your spouse’s.  

Of course, to get to that room, mindset and space, some things have to also happen outside of that room like…
Compassion - it helps with the passion, 

Connection - it helps with the “ahem” connection

Attention - it helps with paying attention - like staying awake and mentally there, not elsewhere.

Enjoy using what you re-remember because it’s fun and helps to keep you married well and forever,...

Remember back when you had the energy to be romantic?  Remember when someone brought your roses - just for fun, not to try to smooth over a rough night or conversation?

Romance and parenting can feel like oil and water  - they might co-exist but they don’t mix.  Many couples begin to believe that the need for sleep and just keeping the household going is the best it’s going to get…for the next maybe 18 years.  

Oh my!  That’s a long time! 

So, enjoy today’s show as we talk about 4 aspects and actions you can do each day to keep your relationship blossoming into beauty - even on the thorny days!

Inspiration:

*Your relationship, your connection with your spouse is more important than whether or not you are right.

*Do you know a little something you can do for your spouse that might seem insignificant to you but really meaningful to them?

*Soft is like gentle. With gentleness, we know that we are strong. Gentle...

Inspiration from this Episode

“Read their signals and adapt your interaction to them. As you do, they are going to relax, and they’re going to move forward.”

“But talking is also more than words because it’s communicating our desires.”

“It moves us to choose our thoughts and our emotions for the good of ourselves and for others.”

100 | Us & Kids: Top 10 Tips for You

Intro 

On today’s show, we are looking through pulling together the last seven podcasts where we listed 10 tips and integrated those top tips from each of those podcasts into the top three podcasts out of the last 100. 

We are taking old material that we talked about in other podcast episodes and repurposing them so that they integrate a little bit more for you, your marriage, and your family. I hope that you enjoy this too because I found it fun to do.

What You’ll Learn in Today’s Episode

• Enjoying vacation time for...

Inspiration from this Episode 

“Those nice things help us know that we’re being trusted and they soften the fear of really connecting.” 

“We have to turn those chemical connections on again over and over throughout the course of our marriage.” 

“Spend time with each other talking about, how can we make our intimate life a bit better?”

099 | Us & Kids: 10 Tips for Intimacy

Intro  

On today’s show, we are doing our last one of our 10 tips in our series. This is podcast 99 moving into podcast 100 and I wanted to think about what I haven’t covered much and I realized I haven't directly talked about intimacy. Intimacy comes not just from having bodies close to each other but also comes from what happens before those bodies ever get close. 

So as we talk about intimacy, I'm talking less about close bodies and more about what happens before then which makes that time of close bodies...

Inspiration from this Episode

“Then they can bring our actions and our words and our attitudes all in line to help us achieve our goals.”

“We had to work to compare those values because they influence our desires in our vision for a marriage and a family.”

“We just had to shave some rough edges off in order to create shared values that we honored.”

076 | Us & Kids: Best Marriage Ever

Intro 

In today’s show, we are focusing on building up the skills we need for helping our marriages and our families regardless of the messiness of life. Today we are going to talk about DNA and we are looking at DNA within your relationships, your marriage, and your family because that too is always going to be unique just to you and so we can’t make a course or a program that is going to be one size fits all.

This week we are diving into the D strand specifically and while the D strand could stand for a lot of different things, we...

Inspiration from this Episode

“And what's supposed to have been built in its place while they dissipate is really good emotional bonding.”

“By using really good listening skills, along with saying what they knew was going on emotionally, they bonded and connected in even better and stronger ways."

“They wanted their compassion and care and empathy to be able to help them through the rough spots.”

039 | Us & Kids: D is for Divorce

Intro 

On today’s show we are talking about the D seed of divorce. When does this snarly seed get planted - and how can we weed it out before it overtakes our thoughts, reactions and relationships. The Divorce seed does not need to stay. Take a few minutes to learn how to pull it out and keep your marriage steady, strong and safe.

This is exactly the reason why I developed Us and Kids and the DNA for Fun communications course. The seeds are planted, often in those first few years of parenting, and...

Inspiration from this Episode

“It's blocking you from getting other people's warm fuzzies and saying that those things from those people are genuine.”

“Your fear that they will disappear sort of like the people that helped you in the past limits you from really attaching nicely.”

“They have something to tell you about your past and they could also tell you something about the future.”

034 | Us & Kids: Velcro and Marriage: Cleaning Up Marriage Love

Intro 

On today’s show, we're going to talk about Velcro and about staying connected. So I have a question. Do you think your home life can just naturally get better without any outside support? I know that you keep on trying this thing and then that thing and there are two steps forward and there's one step back.

Each time we know you're trying to improve the connections with your kiddos and your spouse and often it can just feel like a moving target. I hope that for the...

Inspiration from this Episode

“What I do advocate is that you work a plan and work a budget.”

“We talked about where there was going to be time for us.”

“It keeps integrity between us so we can ask about each other’s day.”

022 | Us & Kids: Keeping Your Relationship Rug Clean

Intro 

On today’s show, we are carrying on from last week’s episode about cleaning up under your rug. Rugs...keep our feet warm, collect crud from our shoes, make a room look pretty. How do we keep our relationship so that it is warm, doesn’t become overwhelmed with crud and even looks and feels pretty? 

Like an entryway rug, our relationship gets daily use and can easily get beat up and looking pretty ratty. But, with some attention to daily details, your relationships can stay strong, steady and even pretty. Join us for great ways to keep track of memories, stay positive and keep the crud of everyday living from...

Inspiration from this Episode

“What do we want the end of the conversation to look like?”

“We didn’t rush into things often.”

“I'm going to continue to help my children to be calm.”

010 | Us & Kids: Apologize

Intro 

On today’s show, we're discussing something that's important in any relationship—how to apologize. Sometimes things can get messy and we need to learn the right way and time to apologize to one another. When we run into difficult situations in our marriage and while parenting, there are a few things we can do to help get to a resolution. 

A lot of the time we need to evaluate what we want to get out of a conversation before we know how to approach it. When kids are brought into the mix, it can be hard to understand how to properly handle a situation while using it as a learning experience. 

What You’ll Learn in Today’s Episode

• Defining the desire for our...

Inspiration from this Episode

“We need to practice being close to each other.”

“You just had to make a decision and go.”

“It’s not easy to make a win, especially when you’re busy.”

005 | Us & Kids: Happy Anniversary

Intro 

On today’s show, we are talking about ANNIVERSARIES and all the ways we celebrate them. I’ve been a marriage and family therapist for many many years. Anniversaries matter to so many people around us, our family, our friends, our kids. 

As the years go by and we celebrate bigger and greater accomplishments, we also need to take the time to look back and see where we’ve been. Go over all of those wins you’ve had with your spouse, and remember those times that might have been a little bit more trying. 

What You’ll Learn in Today’s Episode

• How to celebrate the wins no matter how small.
• Taking responsibility for your part when...