Laura's Strengthening Marriage Blog

One affectionate couple found themselves being shoved into the kitchen pantry by their grossed-out children who didn’t want to see their parents kissing! (That’s a separate issue to tackle, if your children have a negative response to your PDA!)

This was the beginning of this couple’s regular romantic rendevous in their “Kissing Closet.” (Click here for their story.)

What a fabulously fun idea for couples!

Do You Have a Kissing Closet?

The kissing closet is a great idea for any couple to add a bit of fun and flirtatiousness (is that a word?) to their relationship. Do you have a “kissing closet?” Continue reading “The Kissing Closet” »

We are thrilled to announce that The Anniversary Inn is now offering our StrengtheningMarriage.com fans a fabulous discount at all their Anniversary Inn locations in Salt Lake City, Utah, Logan, Utah and Boise, Idaho!

You can now enjoy a 25% off discount on any romantic, luxurious Anniversary Inn suite (any night, any location, Sappire level suites excluded)! Check out all fun themed suites by Clicking Here! Continue reading “StrengtheningMarriage.com Discount at The Anniversary Inn” »

by Mark Chamberlain, Ph.D.

Psychologist and clinical director of the Addiction Resource Center for Healing (ARCH), author of the book Love You, Hate the Porn, and blog of the same name.

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The amazing thing about pornography is how it can keep arousal fresh when it would otherwise stagnate; keep excitement electric when it would neutralize; keep us awake when we’d otherwise sleep.

Marnia Robinson and Gary Wilson probe porn’s secret recipe for keeping the high going. Key ingredient: the convincing illusion of so many willing participants eager to have sex with little old “moi”—the viewer. (This is where the the brain’s illogical, gullible, pleasure-driven Responder screams, “This is real!”)

A Real-life One-and-Only

What could be better than that dreamy vision; that fantastic mirage?

How about a real life “one-and-only”?

Last Valentine’s day, I was quite attuned to my wife of twenty-two years. Jenny and I went to grab lunch together, which consisted mostly of me waiting in the car with our two little chatterbugs while she ran into Target to grab heart-shaped treats for our fourth grader’s class.

Why did my heart skip a beat when I saw that it really was her in the blue sweats walking out the door of the store? Why did we have so much fun shoveling down twenty bucks worth of Thai food in under ten minutes? Why did I feel just a little giddy when I asked her to be my valentine and she smiled? Continue reading “One Real but Wrinkled Wife or a Harem of Airbrushed Virtual Goddesses?” »

Congratulations to Chris and Shelby for winning this year’s Valentine’s Giveaway with their couple photo entry (random drawing)!

Over 100 new couples photos have been added to our Couples Photos page for our recent 2011 romantic getaway drawing to The Anniversary Inn. Check out the new photos and locate your picture (if you sent one in). There are so many great new photos!

Anniversary Inn Discount

We are thrilled to be able to offer a fabulous 25% off discount to all of our readers so that you too can stay in the luxurious and romantic Anniversary Inn! Check out all fun suites by Clicking Here!

To reserve your romantic getaway you can either call (1-800-324-4152) to reserve your suite and ask for the “StrengtheningMarriage.com” discount or make your reservation online then call to have the “StrengtheningMarriage.com” discount added to your account.

The Anniversary Inns are located in Salt Lake City and Logan, Utah and Boise, Idaho.

Continue reading “2011 Couples Photos Winner & Anniversary Inn Discount” »

2/23/11 UPDATE — All Couples Photos for the annual Anniversary Inn giveaway have been posted on the Couples Photos Page. Congratulations to Chris and Shelby for winning the random drawing. We had over 100 entries this year! Thank you to everyone for sharing your fabulous photos!

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We’re excited to announce our annual Valentine’s Giveaway to the romantic Anniversary Inn. Just send us your favorite photo of you and your spouse for a chance to win a FREE one-night getaway to the delicious Anniversary Inn of your choice, in the suite of your choice! (Valued up to $289!)

Contest Details

To enter the drawing, send us your favorite husband/wife photo by Tuesday, February 15th, 2011. Even if you’ve sent us a photo before we’d love to see your new favorite photos. All new entrants will be added into this drawing.

All photos will be posted on our Couples Photos page. So, send us your uncropped, 300 dpi/high res photo with your first and last names, and how many years you’ve been married. You can see all the fabulous couples photos we’ve previously received here. Continue reading “Valentine’s Giveaway to the Anniversary Inn with Your Couple Photo” »

50 Reasons to Make Love

1. To relieve stress.
2. To improve emotional intimacy.
3. To boost your immune system.
4. To burn calories.
5. To improve heart health.
6. To build self esteem.
7. To decrease pain.
8. To improve sleep.
9. To help reduce prostate cancer risk.
10. To strengthen pelvic floor muscles.
11. To increase blood flow in the body.
12. To reduce cravings and fatigue.
13. To connect emotionally, physically and spiritually as husband and wife.
14. To fight aging.
15. To awaken your sexual senses.
16. To say, “I love you” in your spouse’s love language.
17. To experience pure pleasure.
18. To just have fun together, and be more playful.
19. To fulfill each other’s universal need for touch.
20. To reduce vulnerability to temptation. Continue reading “50 Reasons to Make Love” »

Had to share this darling picture that some friends took when visiting the USS Midway museum in Southern California. You all remember the famous picture “The Kiss” taken in Times Square at the end of World War II. Well apparently they’ve made a huge statue of it (located at the USS Midway museum).

My friends decided to recreate the experience (look closely at the bottom of the huge statue)! Too cute! This is definitely “The Kiss!” I encourage you all to go recreate The Kiss with your honey…even if it’s just in the middle of the living room! : )

Continue reading “Recreating “The Kiss”” »

by Mark Chamberlain, Ph.D.

Psychologist and Author of Confronting Pornography, and founder of the new blog (and upcoming book) Love You, Hate the Porn

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Want Porn Out? Let Wife In!

reprinted from “Love You, Hate the Porn” Blog

Here’s how it went in the wild West: the Sheriff faced down the outlaw: “There ain’t room in this town for the both of us.” Always, by the end of the movie, only one of them would remain. Most often, of course, it was the good guy.

Most of our wives feel the same way about porn. “There ain’t room in your life for the both of us.”

Shuddering at the thought of losing our wives, too many of us take the wrong approach to this problem. We hide from our wives the fact that porn’s still in town. We try to avoid porn and are quite ashamed that we’re not doing a perfect job of that. So, tragically, we avoid our wives.

Continue reading “Want Porn Out? Let Wife In!” »

Date night is simply one of the best things couples can do for their marriage. It nourishes the relationship mentally, emotionally, socially and even sexually (…if you’re lucky!).

Couples generally do the best they can when it comes to having a date night, so I really hate to be too hard on them about it. But it may be time to step it up a notch. Consider these four rules for raising the bar on date night: Continue reading “Raising the Bar on Date Night” »

THE BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF MARRIAGE

There is something transformative about marriage. Even the anticipation of getting married changes people’s behavior. Men, in particular (Waite & Gallagher, 2001, p. 54; Nock, 2005, pp. 20-21), are less likely to drink or take drugs or engage in risky behavior in the year before they get married. In that sense, marriage has been called the great domesticator (Rauch, 2004, p. 20) or the great civilizing institution (Rauch, 2004, p. 7). Once married, spouses are more likely to save money, give to charity, be involved with extended family, and in organized religion (Nock, 1998, pp.7; 14; 60; 108).

Both cross-sectional and particularly, longitudinal studies indicate that married people—both men and women—live longer and are physically healthier than those who are not married. Continue reading “The Beneficial Effects of Marriage” »