Blog Posts by YourTango.com

It's that time of year again ...Pregnancy can zap energy. After all, growing a human takes a lot of work, even if you're just sitting on the couch. Simply walking from the bathroom to the kitchen can completely take the wind out of you. Here are some practical tips to help you stay at the top of your game during the holidays:

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1. Slice your to-do list in half. The cookies don't have to be made from scratch and the napkins don't need folding in the shape of reindeer.

2. Catch your breath between errands ... literally. In-between jumping from store to store, close your eyes and rest in the car for a couple of minutes.

3. Eat small meals. Throughout the day, nibble protein to keep your blood sugar even. This will also keep you from gorging on a big holiday dinner, causing heartburn.

4. Set activity boundaries. Only accept those invitations that are most important to you, and give yourself permission to turn the rest down.

5. Leave parties early. Don't worry about

The couple that learns how to shop together stays together.Planning on venturing out with your partner on Black Friday to make a dent in your holiday shopping? Congratulations: you're braver than me. Shopping with your significant other can be a difficult task even in the best of times; holiday shopping under pressure - with frantic shoppers shoving you aside to nab the last $2 countertop appliance - can be a recipe for a relationship disaster. Have you seen Walmart at midnight on Black Friday? It's enough to drive even the most loving, centered couple to the brink of bitter, nasty bickering.

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If you're still up to the challenge, try these tips to make the day manageable, productive...maybe even romantic.

1. Get on the same page. Before you even step foot out the door, have a meeting of the minds; agree on the objectives of your Black Friday excursion. Decide exactly what you're shopping for and why you're shopping for it. Is this a leisurely shopping trip so

Believe it or not, there is a silver lining.Being grateful for your past relationships, even the most painful ones, is the key to opening yourself up to the possibility of a better relationship experience. The question is: How can we bring ourselves to be grateful for something that caused us pain, humiliation and/or abuse? And what is there to be grateful for anyway?

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Every relationship happens for a reason - to help us grow. Thus, we have two options: either we can choose to understand the lesson that we we're supposed to learn and cherish the wisdom that we acquired from the situation, or we can remain in the land of victimhood and accumulate emotional baggage while attracting the same type of relationships over and over again.

Remember yourself 20 years ago. What's different about you now? All the negative and painful experiences that you had left their mark on you. If you chose to learn from them, they made you stronger and more independent; but most importantly,

I once had a conversation with a man in Vermont. We met at a business conference and decided to get drinks afterward. He worked for a partnering organization, lived and worked nearby, and-oh yeah-happened to be married. Still, I quickly fell in love.

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When the news arrived last Friday that the beloved General David Petraeus had cheated on his wife of 37 years with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, I almost ignored it as a non-event. The headlines and nightly news went wild, and SNL crafted a humorous joke about the title of his book, All In. I think you get it. Even before my own feelings developed for a married man, I had always been fascinated by the idea of marriage, monogamy, and affairs. In a different world, I would perhaps be shocked myself. But having lived it, I think the answer to why this happens is much simpler than we wish to believe.

To start this conversation, I have to address a few myths about the

How a homophobic comment by a public figure can have a far-reaching and devastating effect.It seems like a million years ago that I was an introverted, closeted lesbian, forced to spend every day in a suffocating classroom, in a rural farm community. Looking at me now, you would probably never know that I came from a primarily white, protestant, homophobic town in Southeast Michigan. Now, I confidently wear a James Dean-esque haircut and boxer briefs, but, just six years ago, I was struggling to come out in a high school where it was commonplace for prominent gay figures to be slandered.

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There's an exact moment that I will never forget. Sitting in my senior practical law class, I meekly attempted to justify to my peers the idea of gay marriage. My teacher, an incredible, liberal man, who seemed just as out of place in that school as I did, sided with me, but a young man sitting three rows behind me blurted out, "Gays. Disgusting. Why should they be able to get married?" I lowered my eyes and