The Two-Minute Marriage Project

My husband and I celebrated 15 years of marriage in June. In that fifteen years, we have lived in five homes in three states, had three children, seen my husband graduate with two advanced degrees, acquired a dog, gained and lost weight and then gained it again, and held down more jobs than I can count.

We’ve gone from this:

To this (the most recent photo of us together—camping last week):

Oh, and we both turned 40 this summer, too. Which means we might have a little more grey in our hair than we did when we were 25. In fact, we’ve recently been watching a lot of old family movies from when we were first married and I can’t even believe how YOUNG we look. We were babies. (For the record, I still feel like I’m about 26.)

Fifteen years. It hasn’t all been a walk in the park, either. Sometimes, being married doesn’t feel much like the fairy tale so many girls hope for. It’s more like a lot of work you didn’t know it would be and half the time you feel like you’re just roommates who say hello if you happen to bump into one another in all of your comings and goings with work and school and kids and church and everything else.

So how do you keep the romance alive when life keeps getting in the way?

Enter a great new book by Heidi Poelman: The Two-Minute Marriage Project: Simple Secrets for Staying in Love.

What I loved most about this book was the “two-minute” part. We are crazy busy over here at Overstuffed, and it’s sometimes impossible to find time to grab a date together, especially when either one of us is in rehearsals every day. The ideas in this book are simple to do and literally take only two minutes. The idea is to remember that love is something that you have to do.

Other important themes in the book include

• The power of loving words
• The importance of perspective
• Little deeds that make a big difference
• Learning how to handle conflict

In many cases, the things I read weren’t necessarily new information, but they were always an important reminder to put my marriage at a high priority in my life.

This summer, my husband and I have been diligent about finding time together. We’ve mostly done that by going on an evening walk together with the dog. It’s nice to have those 30 minutes or so to connect and talk about our day, our children, and what’s been on our minds that day. We’ve also tried to make it a higher priority to go on a date, even if that date means folding an insurmountable pile of laundry while we watch our favorite TV show on Netflix.

Making sure we grab these little moments makes a big difference in our marriage. A simple text or small act of service goes a long way!

Take the two-minute challenge in your own marriage! To buy the book, click here: The Two-Minute Marriage Project.