This past week I had the pleasure of hearing Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, Co-Founder and CEO of Apartment Therapy, speak at the Alt Design Summit in Salt Lake City. He said something that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. After teaching elementary students for 7 years, he found that his most successful students came from homes that were well cared for.

I have to believe this same principal applies to relationships as well. I think that one could argue that successful relationships likely reside in homes that are well cared for. Think about it – how many fights are caused because someone didn’t hang up a shirt or put away the dishes. Just last week, Vitaliy and I almost got in a quarrel over a missing notebook.

I’m writing this today to hold us accountable. We still have a lot of boxes to unpack and things to organize. Basically, we need some order in our new home. To make an investment in our relationship, we are committing to getting our place unpacked, organized and cleaned up.

I’m not saying that having a clean home defines a good relationship, but I am saying that it can definitely help a relationship. Creating a bit of order on the outside can help gain some order on the inside.

What do you think?

One of my favorite things to do is go out to breakfast. The quietness of the morning paired with the sweet pleasures of anything dipped in syrup, leave me in a state of pure happiness.

McDonald’s isn’t our go to spot for such happenings, but on this particular day it was for which I am thankful. It’s moments like this that inspire me. They leave me to dream of growing old with the one I love. Still making time to sit across from one another on a Saturday morning to enjoy syrup, and each other.

It’s Friday! Woo-hoo! I won’t keep you long. I just want to introduce you to our last category for the blog: Relationships.

In my first post, I wrote, “We are on a mission to not only stay committed to one another, but to stay in love. This blog is dedicated to that mission. We hope it will keep our relationship accountable and we hope it will inspire yours.”

There is a world filled with people saying that if your relationship is difficult, it probably wasn’t meant to be. We want to say something different. We’d like to tell people that commitment isn’t old school. And that love isn’t easy, but it’s worth the fight.

Vitaliy and I aren’t claiming to be relationship experts. We simply want to share our lives in hopes that someone out there will resonate with it and join in the mission.

I’ll end with this. Vitaliy and I have had a rough week as husband and wife. For whatever reason, we’ve been bickering more than usual. That whole pizza story I told you about yesterday, we barely made it to the table to enjoy it. I guess there were too many cooks in the kitchen! Last night, I almost went to bed angry with him, which will inevitably result in me waking up unhappy too. But then I walked into the bathroom and found this waiting for me.

It was a small gesture. An “I’m sorry” written with toothpaste. It wasn’t very evident but I got the message and readily accepted.

Is it possible you missed a secret message recently? Or, perhaps you’re the one needing to leave one behind.