Habit Making – Page 2 – Melissa Schlies

Three Simple Routines to Grow Your Marriage

In a season in our marriage where life felt like it was closing in, Tony and I decided to take up tennis. He pulled his old racquet out of the closet. We picked up a pink handled one for me at the local sporting goods store. We bought a few canisters of tennis balls, then off we went to the local park. When he sent the ball back my way, I hit it and we both watched as it went flying up into the air, and over the large chainlink fence that surrounded the court. It was either late spring [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2021-07-11T13:29:14+00:00July 12th, 2021|Categories: Balance, discipline, Habit Making, Marriage, Relationships, Routines|Comments Off

Creating Routines With Your Spouse Step 3: Start Small

If you’ve never finished a 5K, it’s not a good idea to sign up to run a marathon. If you don’t know how to boil water or roast a chicken, you shouldn’t volunteer to make Thanksgiving dinner. And if you and your spouse have never traveled together, you probably shouldn’t sign up to do the Amazing Race. Only in marriage, we do this type of thing all the time. We buy fixer uppers without knowing the first thing about laying tile or putting up sheetrock. We look at each other on New Year’s and say we’re going to work out [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2021-07-05T03:28:00+00:00July 5th, 2021|Categories: Adulting, Change, discipline, Habit Making, Health, Marriage, Routines|2 Comments

Creating Routines As A Couple Step 2: Reevaluate

If you’ve ever been rear-ended in a car accident, chances are your neck was forced in one direction, and then quickly pulled back toward the other. This is known as whiplash. The term is defined as, “An abrupt snapping motion or change of direction resembling the lash of a whip,” (hence the name). Often it refers to this injury one incurs after a car accident. But after this past year, it also feels appropriate to life both in, and after, a pandemic. One year ago, our whole lives changed on a dime. Now, they’re changing again. Those of us who [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2021-06-28T00:11:54+00:00June 28th, 2021|Categories: Adulting, Balance, Change, Habit Making, Health, Marriage, Practice, Relationships, Routines, Social Distancing|Comments Off

Creating Routines With Your Spouse Step One: Name What Matters

Five years ago, I completed P90X3. Words, I never thought I’d be able to say, let alone write. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the program, it is an intense at-home workout regimen that has you using muscles you never thought you had. It also requires you to workout six days a week for ninety days straight. As someone who spent most of her life without a weekly workout routine at all, this accomplishment still feels like nothing short of a miracle. The fact that I was able to commit to such a physically demanding daily routine is [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2021-06-14T00:30:00+00:00June 14th, 2021|Categories: Habit Making, Marriage, Preparation, Purpose, Relationships, Routines, Success|Comments Off

Five Reasons To (re)Build Routines in Your Marriage

Sometimes, life gets away from us. Work gets busy. Loved ones get sick. We face physical or mental illness. Worldwide pandemics happen. And in the thick of it all, it can be easy to lose sight of each other. Weeks go by and you realize you can’t remember the last time you had a conversation with your spouse that wasn’t a run down of “need to know” type things. You don’t know how long it’s been since you had a date and actually looked in each other’s eyes for longer than five minutes. Maybe, you’ve hurt one another and it’s [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2021-06-07T11:09:55+00:00June 7th, 2021|Categories: discipline, Habit Making, Health, Marriage, Relationships, Routines|Comments Off

The Real Secret To Our Marriage (repost)

As we're talking about building routines in marriage this month, I'd thought I'd re-share this post on what makes the foundation of our relationship strong--our beliefs. Naming our beliefs and values are one of the first steps in building healthy routines in marriage. Do you remember, in high school, wishing you had the answer key to a hard exam? Even though you knew cheating was wrong, there was a part of you that wished for an easier way. For me, it was always my chemistry exams—which is ironic as here we are talking about a different kind of chemistry. That [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2021-05-27T20:10:17+00:00May 31st, 2021|Categories: Faith, Friendship, Habit Making, Marriage, Relationships, Routines, Uncategorized|Comments Off

When Building Routines Means Building Trust

Last week, Tony and I had one of our late night conversations. The ones where we say in the dark, what we didn’t say in the light to each other that day. Things hard to speak out loud, and even more difficult to hear. Yet ones needed to be said. As I shared in April, we’ve been in a time of change these past few months. Our schedules have become very different from what they’ve been since the pandemic began. And as restrictions in our state continue to lift, our daily and weekly routines will continue to shift. This is [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2021-05-24T00:55:07+00:00May 24th, 2021|Categories: Adulting, discipline, Habit Making, Health, Marriage, Practice, Routines|Comments Off

Five of Our Favorite Meal Planning Tips

About three weeks into our marriage, Tony and I had a serious conversation about how our life together would go. It was about food. And it happened when a lot of these types of discussions occur; not when we were refreshed and happy, but when we were both tired and hungry. We’d just gotten home from work. I did not have the will to cook. He was willing to cook but didn’t know what we should make. And, for what was probably the second time that week, I suggested takeout. That is when Tony decided to draw a line in the [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2021-05-16T19:43:59+00:00May 17th, 2021|Categories: Balance, Habit Making, Health, Marriage, Practice, Routines, Self Care|2 Comments

The Routines Women Struggle With Most

Yesterday was Mother’s Day here in the US. This means, last week, I was out looking for cards to send to some special women in my life who are known to a few as, “Mom.” And at the store, there was an entire aisle full of pink and flowery cards to choose from. Some were simply stated. While others thanked mothers for all the ways they’ve sacrificed for the sake of their children. Giving of yourself for the sake of others is beautiful. Though I’m not a mom myself, I can appreciate the incredible things parents do for their children. [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2021-05-09T16:24:18+00:00May 10th, 2021|Categories: Adulting, Balance, Body Image, Habit Making, Health, Loneliness, Practice, Routines, Self Care|Comments Off

Reminder: One Size Doesn’t Fit All

For some reason, growing up, my closest friends were always night owls. They never wanted to go to sleep before midnight. When we had sleepovers, as teenagers, it was great. Until the morning, when I was wide awake in my sleeping bag, staring at the ceiling, sometimes waiting hours for them to wake up. I have always been a morning person. I am my best in the morning. I’m the most rested. My brain is clear. And, as a writer, I find the words flow more easily before lunchtime. But this last part, took me a while to figure out. [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2021-05-02T22:00:03+00:00May 3rd, 2021|Categories: discipline, Freedom, Habit Making, Practice, Routines|Comments Off

Three Simple Routines to Grow Your Marriage

Creating Routines With Your Spouse Step 3: Start Small

Creating Routines With Your Spouse Step One: Name What Matters

Five Reasons To (re)Build Routines in Your Marriage

The Real Secret To Our Marriage (repost)

When Building Routines Means Building Trust

Five of Our Favorite Meal Planning Tips

The Routines Women Struggle With Most

Reminder: One Size Doesn’t Fit All

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