Declaration of a Happy Marriage

While cleaning my desk in our home office, I came across an interesting little item.

When a baby enters the picture, so much of your focus goes into what it takes to be good parents, that it can be easy to forget about what it takes to be good spouses.

Upon our return from our honeymoon a few years ago, my wife and I  grabbed breakfast at a greasy little diner. There, we looked back on the road trip through Vermont in the fall we had just completed to celebrate our marriage and looked to the road that lie ahead.

It was at that moment that we decided to grab hold of those fresh-off-a-wedding-and-honeymoon emotions and make a little reminder for the rest of our lives.

With that, we grabbed a napkin and scrawled down the following, and much like our forefathers jotting down the framework of our soon to be country, we created in those moments our “Declaration of a Happy Marriage”…

10/13/2010

*When it’s time to have kids, take them into our lifestyle, not create a new lifestyle for them.

*Keep eating healthy

*Be happy for what we have, but no excuses not to dream.

*Get out of ruts

*Have friends over.

*Take the time for date nights.

*Appreciate one another.

*When we fight, remember our vows.

*Do/say something kind every day.

*Help with and/or support each other’s dreams and attempts at achieving them.