Many couples, including the two of us, like to celebrate and reaffirm their love and commitment for one another by renewing their marriage vows, either privately or publicly, and by saying "I do" again.

Whether you renew your vows on your anniversary, on the anniversary of the day you met, or on a holiday like Valentine's Day, make sure you keep the event simple.

If you are considering having your marriage vows renewed, read our article to learn about the legalities of renewing your marriage vows, why people want to renew their marriage vows, what we recommend you do, and what we recommend you don't do. For example, we don't think you should make your renewal of vows look like a second wedding and we don't think you should ask for gifts!

Are you still trying to decide what to give your spouse for Valentine's Day? The best gift you can give is a more sensitive, loving, dependable, considerate, intimate, kind, and positive you!

In other words, look at behaviors you have that are hurting your spouse and your marriage. Then decide to stop doing them. Change doesn't come easy for many of us. Replacing a bad habit or behavior with a positive behavior is easier than just stopping the bad habit. You can do this!

Bob has managed this past week to keep the house at a temperature that I can live with. It's been great to not have to go outside to cool down! I agreed to having the electric blanket back on our bed so he isn't cold at night. We didn't bother to hook up my side of the blanket to the controls ...

According to an article in The New York Times, research is showing that marriages are happier and divorce rates are lower in marriages where the husbands are taking on more housework and the wives are working outside the home.

"And the blurring of traditional gender roles appears to have a positive effect. Lynn Prince Cooke, a sociology professor at the University of Kent in England, has found that American couples who share employment and housework responsibilities are less likely to divorce compared with couples where the man is the sole breadwinner."

We think this increase in marital stability should be considered good news. However, it doesn't appear to be positive news for those who continue to claim that a woman's place is in the home, or for women who have difficulty giving up their gatekeeping role at home, or for men who have an expectation that they should be the only one bringing home the bacon.

There are probably a lot of different reasons why the changing roles in marriage are helping to lower the divorce rates. Fewer financial problems and better communication were two factors that made our marriage stronger when Bob was a stay-at-home dad.

Tara Parker-Pope noted "The rate peaked at 23 divorces per 1,000 couples in the late 1970s, but has since dropped to fewer than 17 divorces per 1,000 couples. Today, the statistics show that typically, the more economic independence and education a woman gains, the more likely she is to stay married. And in states where fewer wives have paid jobs, divorce rates tend to be higher, according to a 2009 report from the Center for American Progress."

Since financial pressures are one of the main causes of divorce, the decisions you two make regarding employment scenarios needs to be based on what makes sense for both of you. Realize too, that through the years, circumstances will probably change and your decisions will need to be reevaluated.

Andrea Thompson, in an article for LiveScience on "What type of Cheating is Worst?", reported that "Men tend to be more bothered by sexual infidelity, while most women are bothered more by emotional infidelity ... The problem with the prevailing idea was that while men were more likely than women to rate sexual infidelity as worse than the emotional kind in studies, there was still a small subset of men who put emotional infidelity at the top of the list, said Kenneth Levy, a psychologist at Penn State."

I don't see where it makes any difference. For many individuals, cheating is cheating. If your spouse cheated you probably want to know why your spouse cheated and if your marriage will survive.

When a person makes the selfish decision to be unfaithful, I don't think much thought is given as to which kind of affair will most bother his/her spouse.