People ask us all the time what the secret is. Twenty-six years married, eight kids, and we're still each other's favorite person to talk to at the end of the day.

They expect some big answer. Date nights every Friday. Annual vacations alone. A marriage counselor on speed dial.

The real answer is way smaller than that. It's five minutes.

THE HABIT

Every night — no matter how chaotic the day was, no matter how tired we are — we sit down together for five minutes and ask each other two questions:

1. What was the best part of your day?
2. What's one thing I can do for you tomorrow?

That's it. Five minutes. Sometimes it's on the couch. Sometimes it's in bed, half asleep, with one of us already snoring by question two. Some nights a kid interrupts and we have to start over. We do it anyway.

WHY IT WORKS

Marriage doesn't usually fall apart in one big explosion. It drifts. You become roommates running a household — schedules, bills, kids' homework, who's picking up whom. You can go weeks without actually seeing each other.

These two questions cut through all of that. The first one says: your day mattered to me, tell me about it. The second one says: I'm still on your team, how can I show up for you?

Five minutes of that every day adds up to something no anniversary trip can replace.

HOW TO START TONIGHT

Don't overthink it. Don't wait for the perfect moment. Tonight, when the house finally gets quiet, sit next to your spouse and ask: "What was the best part of your day?"

Then listen. Actually listen — not the waiting-to-talk kind. The real kind.

Then ask the second question. And tomorrow, do the one thing they asked for.

That's the whole habit. Five minutes. Twenty-six years and counting.

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