Extending The Shelf Life To A Longer Lasting Marriage

In the beginning, marriage is so fresh and new. I wonder if we worked more on keeping that marriage alive, instead of worrying about the nuptials (all the glitz and glory of getting married) would help make things work a little longer. If we paid a little more attention to our spouse at the end of the work day, instead of letting them just go, would we be able to stretch our marriage to a longer shelf life?
When we first get married, we really do spend alot more time working on things with our partners, but as time progresses, we tend to get very busy in bills, work, children, and basically, life in general. Where did the time go that we spent with each other? As things get into a routine, are you happy? Is your spouse happy and how do you know? I think that mostly, we know if they are happy by paying attention to what is going on with you both. Do you go out once a week and enjoy alone time together? Do you still have conversation? I think both of those things are important, as well as keeping up with each other's "outside the marriage" life.
How can we keep a marriage happy and longer lasting? Got any other ideas? I'd love to hear them if you do.

How Much Can You Afford To Give Up?

How much of yourself do you honestly give up to your significant other? When you get with someone that you truly love and care about, you give them your all. We totally surrender our hearts to them, hoping that we get the same back from them, and most the time, we do. I know that when I married my now ex, I was very happy. Things were wonderful for awhile. Yes, real life does eventually kick in and sometimes things get old. After years of being married to that one person, habits come out that you might have not known about, paying bills, daily living and both working to make ends meet happens. Children come and after awhile, marriage can get old hat. But it's what we want, right? I wanted to be married, settled and just totally comfortable in life...and I was for awhile. I was in a comfort zone, actually. But when things started getting bad, I hung in there. I kept telling myself that things would get better, that all couples go through good and bad times. Most of the time, we manage to pull ourselves back into the good, and life goes on. But what about when it gets REALLY bad? How much of yourself can you afford to give up? There are some of life's circumstances that we CAN get through, but other things we cannot afford to go along for the ride. Is going through infidelity one of those things? Can we get through our spouse's cheating? Some would say yes, and others just struggle with the answer, like I did.

Life goes on

I cried and cried so much that I soon discovered that my tears weren't helping me anymore. I tried to go on with life. I moved away(actually I was gone for about 9 0r 10 months) and started getting back into a way of life without him. I was okay for awhile. I even thought that my moving was a good thing.. Nice brick home on 3 acres of land out in the middle of nowhere. And I mean it. It took 30 minutes to just drive to the walmart or any large sized store. I missed being in the thick of things here at home where I could hop in my car and end up at the grocery store within 5 minutes. I almost quit all my housecleaning jobs and it was kind of like he chased me away. How could I allow that to happen? I was depressed when I heard songs we used to hear together, I started wondering what was going on while I was away. Now what do I do?