Your Bedroom, it's not just for sleeping in......

I've posted a few times on the Master Bedroom in the past two weeks, you can find those posts here and here.

I thought about not blogging on this subject but it's something I feel pretty passionate (wink, wink) about so I'm going to do it and hope you all don't stop reading my blog. Or maybe it will become widely popular at least with men!  Ha!

Sex is a hard topic to blog about because there are so many different aspects that are involved in it. I am going to be blogging today specifically about married sex and more specifically for women who are struggling in this area. They just find it one more thing to add to their list of things to do, they are exhausted and tired of people hanging on them all day. Maybe the husband isn't meeting their need so they don't want to meet his. So many factors go into this I thought I'd just touch on a few things we can do to help get us in the mood!

Remember back when you first dated your spouse, how his touch sent tingles through your body? How you couldn't wait to hold hands, for him to hug and kiss you? You wanted to be with him all the time?

Fast forward a few years, you are married, you have jobs, children, responsibilities, bills and a home. You stop looking forward to kissing your husband and sometimes maybe you are more annoyed by it than anything. You are tired, you have had kids touching and hanging on you all day, the last thing you want is for your husband to do the same thing.
Why do we do this ladies? Maybe not all of you do but I know that a lot of women feel this way. They stop looking forward to those intimate times with their mate and start to dread them. The "Not tonight honey, I have a headache" joke isn't really a joke, is it?

Yet we still want our husband's to only have eyes for us, to help us with housework, the kids, bring us flowers and romance us.  
So what's a girl to do? How do we ignite that passion again? After talking with some friends, my husband and reading a few good articles, here are some tips that might just help heat things up in your bedroom!

First we need to understand our husband's need for sex is a need and that's his way of connecting with his wife.  It's just like a woman's need for talking and sharing to connect with her husband.  The ironic thing is that most women don't want to be intimate until they've talked and connected while the man doesn't want to talk and share until they've had sex.  Here is a great article on this if you want to read more.  So maybe instead of expecting him to talk and connect with you and then you'll think about his needs, switch it up and let his needs be met first and you can talk and snuggle afterwards!

Secondly,we need to remember that men are visual and they like to look at our naked bodies!  Crazy, I know! We need to realize that most men don't care that we don't look like a supermodel, that we have stretch marks and love handles. We too often let our own issues with our body get in the way.  Girls, it's time to pull out that lingerie, wear it, your husband will love it, he's not going to be looking at your stretchmarks or love handles, trust me and while you're at it, maybe even leave the light on! He married you, he loves you and than includes your body!!!

Thirdly, how do you feel when you wear sweatpants or pajamas all day and don't do your hair or makeup or even take a shower? At least for me, I feel kind of blah, unattractive and definitely not sexy.

When we get dressed, do our hair and makeup and maybe even put on some earrings, don't we feel good?  I'm not saying you need to dress to the nines everyday but lets dress to feel good about ourselves. Don't save your good outfits for just a night out on the town or for church on Sunday, wear what makes you feel good. When we do this we feel more confident,sexy and attractive and that helps our mindset about ourselves. Not that wearing pajamas or sweats once in a while is a bad thing, we all have those kind of days and there's nothing wrong with that!

Fourth, how often do you think, "Oh I really don't want to do this tonight."  But then you start and when you're done you think to yourself, "Wow! That was great! I'm glad I didn't say no. " We need to remember that!  Say yes more often, trust me, you'll be glad you did!  So maybe tonight you could even initiate and really throw him for a loop!!!

It seems the longer we go without having sex with our husband, the longer we're ok letting it go.  But when we start to enjoy each other more often, the desire seems to grow as well!  So shoot for 2 to 3 times a week instead of 3 times a month and see what happens!  Maybe even put it on your calendar!

Here are a few more ideas:
Weekly date nights.  You don't have to leave the house to have a date.  Turn off the tv, put away the computer, stop cleaning and play a game together, dance in the living room, watch a movie, read your old love letters/cards or notes from when you were first dating, read a book together, talk, cuddle or eat a candlelight dinner after the kids are in bed.

Flirt with your spouse again!  Slip a little love note in his lunch, briefcase or jacket.  Send him a text message, email or call him at work if you can.

When he leaves for work and you kiss, give him a kiss!  Not a little peck on the cheek or lips but a kiss that you used to give back when you were dating and hated to say goodbye for any amount of time.

Our minds are very powerful, if you sit and think about all the things your husband does that annoy you or how he didn't put his socks in the dirty laundry, you will not have good feelings towards him and being intimate with him will be the furthest thing from your mind.  Think instead of all he does do for you and what made you fall in love with him in the first place. We need to remember that we can be annoying and irritating as well,  we aren't perfect either!  Darn, that was hard to type, barely finished that last sentence. 

Here are some great books and other resources if you need help in this area!

BOOKS:
Is There Really Sex After Kids? by Jill Savage
The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
Sheet Music: Uncovering the Secrets of Sexual Intimacy in Marriage by Kevin Leman
.

MP3 DOWNLOAD OR PDF:
Igniting Passion in Your Marriage


I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on this topic as well!  Maybe you have some more great ideas to add to this, comment below!

Is Your Master Bedroom a Sanctuary or Storage Room?

I am doing a little series on the Master Bedroom over the next few weeks.  You can find the first post here.
Does your master bedroom look like the picture below?  If your bedroom has become the laundry, papers and junk catchall for your house, maybe it's time to shovel it all out and make your bedroom somewhere that you can't wait to head to at the end of the day to hang out with your husband and not just to go to sleep!

There are a few things we've done to make it feel more like a room at a bed and breakfast than a catchall room that you sleep in, that is if you can find the bed! First off, we gave the television in our room the boot! We haven't had a TV in our bedroom since 2005 and frankly, we haven't missed it at all. If we ever want to watch some Boston Legal or Netflix, we just bring the laptop into our room and voila, TV without a permanent TV!   We are able to spend time reading, snuggling and catching up on our day instead of zoning out in front of the boob tube. 

I try to keep our room personal with photographs of the two of us and not our children. I love my children but I don't know if I want them staring down at me from the wall in my bedroom, if you know what I mean! Plus, who's going to really see their cute smiling faces in our bedroom? I like to display them in the main parts of our house where everyone can see them! I display some of our wedding pictures and various other photos of just the two of us. We try to get our mug shots together every few years at the same time when we have our family picture done. I love having professional photos of us and who doesn't like having to get dolled up and pose with their man?

I try to keep the girly knick-knack stuff to a minimum in our room and instead use candles, pictures and books for decor. I love having candles around the room because they're great mood lighting and also make your room smell great too!

Mr.A keeps the clock on his nightstand and when we bought a new one, we made sure it could play cds and i-pods. Music is always nice to have around for relaxing, dancing and other bedroom activities, if you get the idea.  

Mr.A doesn't really care about the style of furniture too much. A few years ago I came across a dresser, a nightstand and I think it's some type of sewing table at a garage sale, all for $10 total! They were painted an ugly red/black combo mixed together but I knew with a little paint they'd be perfect for our bedroom. I painted, distressed and sanded them, found some fun knobs off e-bay and five years later we are still using them. For as much as I like to change things up, I still love my bedroom furniture!  So if you aren't loving your bedroom furniture, maybe you could give it a fresh coat of paint and maybe some new drawer pulls or knobs and get a whole new look for less than $100. 

We are on our third Shabby Chic bed set from Target and we use them all. Mr.A doesn't mind them and he knows that it makes me super duper happy, so that makes him happy!  If your bed needs some freshening up, maybe you could go comforter/quilt/duvet shopping together, pick something out that you both like.  After all, he has to sleep in your bed too!
I've also found that making the bed everyday makes the bed look great but also shows that you think the bedroom is just as important to keep looking good as your kitchen.

One of my favorite rooms in our home is our master bedroom. It's not something you'd find in a Pottery Barn catalog but I've definitely tried to create a sanctuary, a place where we are not tripping over toys, laundry baskets or piles of crap. A place that feels relaxing, calm, cozy and well, intimate and romantic.  After all, it's the only room in the house that is for just my husband and me. So put the laundry away, find another place for all the stuff you're storing on top the dresser, get out the vacuum or broom and give your room a good cleaning.

I'd love to hear from you, is your bedroom a sanctuary or storage room?  What do you do to make a sanctuary for the two of you?   

Stay tuned for the next post in the Master Bedroom Series, Why it's not just for sleeping!