THANKSGIVING CHALLENGE

2015

READY FOR A CHALLENGE? TRY THIS ONE!

1. Each spouse grab a piece of paper. Starting tonight, write down one thing that you are thankful for about your spouse.

2. Do this every night until Thanksgiving Day.

3. Be thoughtful with what you write, BUT don’t cheat! You can not write down anything twice.

4. On Thanksgiving Day, roll up your paper and wrap it in a ribbon, flower, or something else meaningful. Then, take 10min out of your day, sit with each other and exchange or read to each other.

5. Enjoy and be present in this moment with each other. Remember that this day is not all about food and being with family, but about being grateful for the things that are easily overlooked or taken for granted.

Read some of our testimonies from the 2014 Thanksgiving Challenge!

“My husband and I exchanged ours this morning before the kids got up. It was so heartwarming and emotional. It feels so good to know that he really does notice and appreciates things I do for him.”    Michelle H.

“We exchanged our “Thanksgiving Challenge” this morning and it was fantastic to know what we don’t say to each other everyday. I love this woman.”  Matthew H.

“It was the best when I saw my husband and how he couldn’t go on reading it without holding back a tear. I loved his reaction. Thanks for the idea.”  Marisa G.

“We exchanged our list this morning and we had a few of the same things. We are so thankful for each other.”   Samantha D.

“My husband and I shared ours via email since he is deployed…I have been smiling all day!! God sure did bless me with a great man.”   Jazzy L.

“I did this for my husband and gave it to him yesterday morning before our day got crazy. He had a big smile while he read the list.”  Stephanie G.

Leave your testimonies below from your Thanksgiving Challenge!

Also, don’t forget to read the 5 Ways to Re-Build Broken Trust!

Mark and Laquilla Lane

Husband and Wife for Life Founders

5 Ways to Re-Build Broken Trust

       Trust, love, respect, communication and God are five important parts to your marriage that help build the foundation of a successful union. As we looked back on our years of marriage, we experienced that if both spouses have a sincere relationship with God……trust, love, respect and communication will ALL fall into place. For that is what God gives to us for trusting, believing and living for Him. 

But, when one of these vital parts are compromised, the marriage can become weak and begin to shake. Knowing how to re-build trust, re-love, re-gain respect, re-evaluate and change our communication, and know how to pray are the keys to lead us to the success that we all hope for in our relationship. We are going to tell you how to achieve all of these. In this article we are going to show you ways on how to re-build the trust in your marriage. Whatever your situation is, take one or all of these ways and apply them to your relationship. Share your results in the comment section below.

       1.Take responsibility for your mistake. Don’t shift the blame. Shifting the blame discredits your truth and creates a bigger barrier of mistrust.

       2. Give your spouse an opportunity to change. As long as they are changing, credit their progress and never bring up their mistake out of spite.

       3. Even if it may hurt, be completely honest with your spouse about the mistake. Answer all the what’s, when’s, where’s and how’s sincerely and truthfully. This is how the healing starts.

       4. Prove your words, with your actions. Your words are only as good as the actions you put behind it.

       5. Forgive. The true process of trusting again begins when forgiveness has taken place.

Our next article, 10 Ways to Successfully Communicate with Your Spouse, will show you easy ways to help encourage positive communication with your spouse so you can enjoy your conversations together.

Mark and Laquilla Lane

Husband and Wife for Life, Founders

25 Budget-Friendly Date Night Ideas

One of the most important factors in the success of a marriage is the level of effort that is put into it.  We get so busy with our everyday affairs, that we sometimes miss the opportunity to spend quality time with our spouse.  Spending time with your spouse does not have to require a lot of money, or securing a babysitter.  Dating each other should not have ended when you walked down the aisle, in holy matrimony. 

 That actually should have been the beginning, of many more romantic dates to come.  Keeping things fresh in your marriage, doesn’t have to be a budget killer. We’ve comprised a list of 25 budget-friendly date ideas, for you and your spouse to explore. We want you to continue to enjoy each other’s company, without throwing your finances completely out of whack.
Check out the list below, and allow yourself to think out the box, and keep the fire in your marriage burning strong.

 25 Inexpensive Date Night Ideas

1. Rent movies from the library. Your local library is a great resource, in that they have tons of movies available for you to check out completely FREE! This even includes new releases!

2. Have a private book club date night. Select a book to read together, and hold an intimate book club meeting for the two of you, after you’re both done with it.

3. Take $20 and head over to your local arcade, and just play video games and laugh all night long.

Click here to check out the other 22 date night ideas.

America’s #1 Money Couple, Talaat and Tai McNeely are Financial Educators that are on a mission to get couples on the same page financially, and to experience the joys of financial freedom. Their website, HisandHerMoney.com has been featured in numerous publications around the world.

Ignite your Spark!

Intimacy is an vital part the longevity of a healthy marriage. Kissing, holding hands, hugging, touching and sexual intercourse are all positive ways of expressing love for each other. These sacred times with just you and your spouse will intensify the bond you share and ignite the sparks of romance and passion. Not only should intimacy be exciting, but it needs to be enjoyable as well. We’ve partnered with SASMAR, who is the leading provider in excellent personal lubricants. From warming to flavored lubricants, they can help make the sexual experience with your spouse more pleasurable and creative.

Being creative in the bedroom and sharing your intimacy ideas will help you learn more about your spouses needs and desires, and also help your communication become more open and honest. What a way to increase the connection with your spouse! Take control over your bedrooms spontaneity and watch a change happen in your relationship. Get a special 10% off using Coupon Code: love-sasmar and get your SASMAR products here: SASMAR Personal Lubricants.

Watch their reviews and don’t forget to leave yours!

Laquilla L.

Manufactured in France without sugar, oils or parabens… SASMAR personal lubricants help to enhance intimacy and pleasure, once you try them you’ll never use anything else!

FDA cleared and loved in more than 60 countries!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of SASMAR®. The opinions and text are all mine.

Money Tips and More

with Tai and Talaat!

www.HisandHerMoney.com

Money is one of the number one reasons why marriages fall apart. It can be difficult to get both spouses on the same page financially. What happens when a saver marries a spender? Well…that’s our story. Let us formally introduce ourselves; we are Talaat and Tai McNeely founders of HisandHerMoney.com. Before our marriage ever began, we found ourselves in quite a difficult situation.
We were total opposites when it came to how we handled our finances. Talaat was a natural spender who was deep in debt with a bad terrible credit score. Conversely, Tai was a natural saver who had no debt whatsoever and coupled that feat with an outstanding credit score. We were faced with many questions prior to us getting married.

 
•    Do we let our credit scores dictate if we are compatible for marriage?
•    How will our previous money habits play a role in our marriage?
•    Do we merge our finances together?
•    How can we work together to become better at life and win with money?
•    Is there any hope for our future?
•    What does it feel like when one spouse has zero debt to now having $30,000 in debt?
•    Am I a loser because I have now made my debt problems my future spouse’s problems?
•    Can I change or is my past really who I am?
•    Should I have a secret account just in case our money situation gets worse?
•    How will we purchase a home? Do we put it in both of our names and risk having a low interest rate due to the lower credit score?
•    Do I have to take full responsibility for our finances simply because I’m better at it?
•    When do we start to expand our family?
•    Will we have to rely on two incomes to run our home?
•    What will our lives look like 5 years from now?

You can read more about our story here:
By the grace of God we made it through a difficult time in our relationship and we have been married for 9 years! This has not been a cake walk, but it has been rewarding. We came together as a TEAM and became totally debt free! We are on a mission to save marriages and teach them how to work together and win with money.
We will share money tips and articles here on HusbandandWifeforLife.com to help you gain control over your finances. What would you do if money was not an option? What goals and dreams do you aspire to achieve? What is holding you back? Is it possibly money, or maybe a job that you have to work at, to pay bills that you don’t want to pay?
We’ve been in debt, lots of debt…………. TWICE! We started our marriage off weighed down with various types of debt including car loans, signature bank loans, payday loans, credit card debt to name a few. To date we have totally eliminated every ounce of consumer debt and are DEBT FREE! We are now on a mission to totally eliminate our home mortgage! There was nothing easy or magical about the process. It took a great deal of hard work and dedication.  It was hard work…because in our eyes it was a huge amount of debt, that was going to take time and perseverance to make it through.
It took a great deal of dedication because of the fact that ALL of the debt that we began our marriage with came from ONE spouse. We put in a ton of work together to climb out the pit of debt and get ourselves on solid footing financially. It is our goal to show you how we did it and encourage you to realize that you can do it too.

Talaat and Tai McNeely

hisandhermoneyblog@gmail.com
www.HisandHerMoney.com

Conquer your Busy Life!

With life’s challenges and everyday busy routines, finding ways to make your day a little less extreme is helpful and it takes some of that stress away. With grocery runs, audition calls, extra curricular classes, meetings, after-hour work hours and more, Mark and I are very busy parents and business owners. We are constantly on the go.  When we do make it home its time to relax and get ready for the next day. One way we keep the children busy while driving here and there is with our SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick.

Our family is very media driven and we heavily rely on our tablets, phones, and computers. With the SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick, we able to download, upload and transfer music, media and text files to up to three our device all through a wireless connection! So, our children can be in our back seat watching the same movie, on their separate devices, transmitted from our SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick. They are completely engaged, while we can take a moment to clear our mind and concentrate while headed to our next destination. It is a moment well needed.

On our recent road trip to California, we were in the car for 20 hours. With the breath taking views, there was A LOT of site seeing and pictures taken. The SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick allowed us to download our photos and videos right away! It gave us flexibility.  We were able to delete the downloaded photos and videos off our camera and free up our storage space to take a lot of new amazing photos. We came home with hundreds of memories of our trip. Priceless.

Conquer your busy life and try SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick for your family. They have a special 30% off coupon you can use to buy your first one!

Laquilla

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of SanDisk . The opinions and text are all mine.

Comments submitted may be displayed on other websites owned by the sponsoring brand.

Trying to Conceive Just Became Easier!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhdLPlooXrs

Are you and your spouse trying to have a baby? Has months or years gone by without a positive test? We have come across a product that will help you conceive easier, faster and naturally! Our family experienced a year and a half of frustration trying to have our third child. It came right after the quick passing of our 35 week old still born baby. With the stress in both of our personal lives and hormonal changes of my physical body, every month also came with the failure of not conceiving again.

Within this time came a lot of disconnect between each other. Communication was slim to none and what was said, wasn’t being heard the way the other thought it should have been. Money troubles and debt began to occur, with the ongoing pregnancy tests and doctor visits. To many of you, it may even be fertility treatments, which can cost thousands of dollars.

After we were able to conceive, we learned that the process made our marriage stronger and it helps us realize how much communication was important and how to be sensitive to each other feelings. Also, to put each other first when trying to understand each other and how the other perceives life’s situations.

If your road to conception is going longer than you ever imagined, try Conceive Plus®. Make your process faster, easier, natural and stress free. And, you’ll join the thousands of couples who did just that!

Conceive Plus® Facebook: @ConceivePlus

Conceive Plus® Pinterest: @ConceivePlus

Enjoy Reading the Reviews here!

Laquilla L.

If you have just started trying or have been trying for a while, Conceive Plus® fertility lubricant can help increase your chances of getting pregnant naturally! Now available from selected online retailers from just $14.99.

SASMAR Conceive Plus® sponsored this blog post. The opinions and text are all mine.

4 Ways to Know That You are Truly

Enjoying your Spouse

As responsibilities increase and the demands of your time seem to be never ending, life slowly becomes routine and sometimes a little less desirable. It’s easy during this time, to forget about the small things God has placed around you and the people that He gave you. Especially in your marriage, life can get so busy that you tend to neglect the most important part of your relationship, your spouse. You NEED your spouse to complete every area  in your marriage. It takes two to have a successful marriage. So, don’t let life get so busy, that you forget to enjoy the person God placed in your life. Here is 4 ways to truly know if you are enjoying your spouse:

1. When your spouse walks in the room, the entire atmosphere changes. The energy is magnifying. Including the smile on your face, everything inside of you radiates.

2. You are always looking for the next opportunity to be alone with them.

3. In public places you like to be sure they are noticed and you jump to the chance to introduce them to someone as your “husband” or “wife”.

4. When your spouse comes to you and wants to talk, everything else becomes less important.

If you are not experiencing the incredible qualities about your spouse, its time to re-prioritize, and say “NO” to some of the demands of your time so your spouse feels important and needed in the marriage. Your spouse is most important when it comes to the success of the marriage.

THANKSGIVING DAY CHALLENGE!! 

     Each spouse grab a piece of paper. Starting tonight, write down one thing that you are thankful for about your spouse. Do this every night until Thanksgiving Day. Be thoughtful with what you write. You can not write down anything twice. On Thanksgiving Day, roll up your paper and wrap it in a ribbon, flower, or something else meaningful. Then, take 10min out of your day, sit with each other and exchange or read to each other. Enjoy and be present in this moment with each other. Remember that this day is not all about food and being with family, but about being grateful for the things that are easily overlooked or taken for granted.