The Love List – 1st Blogiversary Edition (It’s our Blog Birthday Bash!)

Dear Lovely ModernMarried Readers,

One year ago this week with a very humble post using wordpress’ default title “Hello World” we launched on this great blogging adventure. I love birthdays and anniversaries – I feel like they are our own personal, private holidays.

For this week’s post celebrating our 1^st Blogaversary I wanted to not only take a trip down memory lane, but also share with of our new readers (Hi! Welcome!) and our old friends (thanks for sticking with me!) some of my personal favorite blog posts, quotes and pins.

I have lots of faves so we will just focus on 5 this week.

Here goes:

Favorite Blog Posts

• How to Re-Define Marriage – because if you read only one post on my site, I would want it to be this one.
• The Daily Check In and Why It Matters – because if one question could save your marriage, wouldn’t you ask it? Every day?
• Dream Deeper, Love Bigger: A Modern Married Guide to Life – no, it’s not just for the cute picture of The Hubs in the headline! This one was a paradigm shift in my own head. Dream deeper. Not bigger. It’s still bouncing around in my head as I ponder what life is like when I focus on soul satisfaction instead of external gain.
• How to Create a Marriage that Feels Like a Honeymoon – yes I wrote it last week. Instant Classic. (In my own mind of course, where else?)
• To be Happy at Home is the Ultimate Result of All Ambition – an oldie but goodie from back in February, because it’s one of my anchors whenever I make a decision – if being happy at home is what matters most, why am I doing X? and will it contribute to that?

Favorite Guest Posts

Have Your Forgotten Your Marriage? 4 Ways to Remember the Love – Was it because my Hubby wrote it? Or was it because of the gratuitous picture of Channing Tatum? You decide. 😉

Turn On Your Passion: How to Keep Saying Oh Yes! after saying I Do.- Because we all need to remember the passion and kindle it on a daily basis. We don’t need to have sex every day, but we need to connect, touch and flirt for that sexual connection to stay healthy and happy. Also, I might have an Internet crush on Ande Lyons. She is just the sweetest, making sure we all keep the heat turned on in our marriages and all.

What a Divorce Lawyer Knows About a Happy Marriage: 5 Ways to Prevent Divorce – to this day, one of the most popular posts on my site. And what an honor to host the brilliant and straightforward Kimberly Graham. Seriously, when was the last time you met a straightforward lawyer?

The Top 6 Money Arguments for Couples – How to Move Forward as a Team – Because we all need to understand money better and Mindy talks about money in ways I can understand – and implement. Thank you Mindy!

And finally a very special Guest Post, super close to my heart (no, not The Hubs *or* Channing Tatum).

Alisa Bowman from Project Happily Ever After was the very first Guest Post we ever hosted. She is also someone I love and admire. And I feel oodles of pride and happiness to have had the opportunity to share her wise words here on “What Happily Married People Know.”

Favorite Pins

 

First (and only) Couple Interview– He Brings the Fun. She Brings the Awesome – An Interview with Hoombah.com Founders CJ & Tammy Renzi – Because they are so awesome; I am still trying to figure out who could follow them. You will be the first to know! (By the way, they wrote a book – check it out here.)

My personal reflections on my first year as a blogger is that I have been overwhelmed with the generosity, wisdom, and kindness I have encountered in the world. Superstar Marriage Bloggers Fawn Weaver and Alisa Bowman have given me advice, hosted me in their electronic homes and paved the way for newbies like me to find a home-away-from-home online.

Kind readers like you have sent me notes and Facebook comments sharing your lives, your deepest loves and sometimes heartbreaks. You have cheered me on and kept me going week after week, always excited to find something to share because I know “someone out there is reading and it might make a difference to them today.” Thank you from the tips of my toes to the typing of my fingers!

I have made new friends, CJ & Tammy Renzi and Ande Lyons – I am looking at you. And old friends like Kimberly Graham (my favorite soulful divorce lawyer) have said yes when I asked, “would you write a guest post?”

And a very special thank you to my Podcasting co-host CJ Blaquera, who was instrumental in the lift-off of this very blog and is not only a brilliant coach, but a treasured friend.

My hubby – the true star of anything I write and definitely the hunkiest half of Modern in my Married, has done groceries, picked up dry cleaning and all around supported me beyond the scope of my imagination with this dream of writing and sharing and demonstrating that healthy, happy, marriage is possible, and here is how we do it. As the Editor of this blog, he consistently saves me from my addiction to run on sentences and my aversion to the oxford comma. He also makes sure that what makes sense in-my-head also makes sense on-screen. He already had my devotion and my very best set of googlie-eyes. All I can say is, he inspires and is part of everything I write and we wouldn’t be celebrating anything if it wasn’t for his love, generosity and wicked way with a semi-colon.

THANK YOU ALL FOR AN AMAZING YEAR!

If you enjoyed this post, please Like it! Pin It! or Tweet it! Our community of love and creativity grows thanks to inspired hearts likes yours. Now go love and be loved. XO