'Live Simply Love' Blog Review

Again, welcome to our blog! I am so excited to be able to share some great information with you! To get this rolling, I wanted to let you know that there are other blogs available if you want more or different advice. 

BUT, I have some good news and some bad news:

The good news is there are a ton of websites, resources and information available to you if you desire to Google it.

The bad news is I had a hard time finding a real blog by a real person that offered advice to newlywed couples. 

Sure, there are many blogs by psychologists and accredited people. Unfortunately, they seem either boring, poorly formatted or so covered in ads that you couldn’t find anything useful.

Because of this, I am recommending  http://www.livesimplylove.com/

Live Simply Love is a blog of a newly married women and what she has experienced and done through her marriage. I really enjoy this blog because of a few simple reasons:

1. Great Content

A lot of legitimate advice is embedded throughout this entire blog!  It would take pages to list everything she so beautifully illustrates and exemplifies. One of the biggest themes I encountered through most every post was how playful and simple she kept everything. Needless to say, Live Simply Love is a perfect title for this blog as her and her husband seem to be constantly striving towards simplicity.

I thought this information was very helpful since “spouses may find it more difficult to engage in positive relationship functioning at times when their energy and resources are being divided” (Neff & Broady, 2011). Though resolving conflicts and conflict management are huge topics throughout her blog, she also talks about what her and her husband do together. The importance of not letting stress influence your relationship negatively is shown throughout their conflict resolution as well as their weekly date nights.

2. Easy going nature of the writer

She is very honest, friendly, fun and makes it easy to read. She explains everything with clarity and backs it up with personal experience. While reading, I felt like a good friend to whom she is sharing her life and adventures with.  

3. Reader involvement

"What I Love Wednesdays":  For these posts she tells the readers to describe to her one thing they love about their spouse, and include a crazy, cute, zany…etc picture of the two of them together.

 "Make-up Mondays": Where each a reader submits his/her story of their marital conflict, how they resolved it, and what they learned from it. I thought these stories were especially interesting because it shows what other couples are also going through and provides more sources and insight to other people’s relationships. Maybe you aren’t so different from everyone else? Or maybe you’re laughing and nodding your head agreeing with their post? Either way, it’s a win-win!

4. Simply laid out and easy to navigate

If you scroll down and look on the right side there is a ‘Topics’ section that covers every topic in the blog. Since there are so many posts already on this blog I fond this especially helpful in finding topics to read about that actually interested me.

I feel that everything in this blog is applicable to newlyweds and married couples. It’s fun, enjoyable, interactive, and easy to use- not to mention trustworthy and educational. I would highly suggest following this blog and getting in on some of the action.

If you like Live Simply Love you can also follow them on facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/LiveSimplyLove

-Kaylee

Neff, L. A., & Broady, E. F. (2011). Stress resilience in early marriage: Can practice make perfect? . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(5), 1050-1067.