How Much Does Your Man Pay Attention?

I wrote late last year about creating Love Maps in your mind, to track the small details about your partner that are important.
The Daily Mail has reported how millions of men don’t know the most basic of details about their partner - including dress size and even eye colour.

2,000 men in the UK [...]

Mystery Date Box Idea!

This great, inspirational dating idea was submitted by Kirsty, one of our users over at $30 Date Night - I thought we should share it with you here!
“Combine all your favourite date ideas and put them in a box! My partner and I have created the ‘Mystery Date Box’ - Each fortnight we pull [...]

Is Music Unhealthy for Your Relationship?

The Boston Public Health Commission has proposed a new initiative to categorize music into “healthy for your relationship” and “unhealthy for your relationship”. The campaign will arrive in the form of a badge - kind of like the health department’s tick of approval on healthy foods - and is aimed at teenagers, encouraging them to [...]

How to Survive the Festive Season Together

Love it or hate it, there’s no escaping the festive season. And it’s approaching fast!
For some, it’s dreams of a white Christmas in front of yule logs, singing carols and trimming the tree… a lot of the time though, the stress of the holidays can result in heated arguments, crappy presents and trying to mesh [...]

Are You and Your Sweetie Speaking the Same Love Language?

It turns out, Denis and I are not speaking the same Love Language… in fact, our Love Languages are so different that Denis might as well talk to me in Klingon for all the good it does to get through, and likewise right back at him.
The Love Language theory was developed by a lovely [...]

When Musical Tastes Collide

I went to see Britney Spears last night! I love her, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Den didn’t come, of course. Britney is definitely not his thing. But, bless him, he’s tolerating it right now as I play her entire back catalogue through his precious Bose speakers and into the apartment.

And sometimes, [...]

Elizabeth Gilbert Talks Soulmates

I was sitting down to lunch the other day and I flipped on the TV to find Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the beautiful book Eat, Pray, Love, was on Oprah.
I’d been looking for some source of inspiration all week after feeling a little stuck and Elizabeth was a breath of lovely, fresh air for [...]

The Secret to Hugh Jackman’s Happy Marriage

Well, we were thrilled to see this headline in The Age newspaper today: “The Secret to Hugh Jackman’s Happy Marriage”

The Age reports:
“Hugh Jackman has a happy marriage because he has date nights.
The X-Men Origins: Wolverine star - who has been married to Deborra-Lee Furness since 1996 - has revealed he and his wife always make [...]

Pleased to Meet You!

After our marriage in March, I started to go about the process of changing my name. It was a decision I made (with some very strong encouragement from Denis) and am still very happy with. I like the idea of being on Team Merkas, of me and my children all having the same unified family [...]

How to Make a Love Map

In our spring clean-up this week (more on that later), I unearthed a file of papers from when Den and I did our pre-marriage education weekend earlier this year. In Australia, these weekends are generally a prerequisite for marrying in any given church – though after being pleasantly surprised by the genuinely great information we [...]