Fall Update

Hopefully this won't be my only update this fall, but Fall semester has started! It's certainly a new start in many ways. The end of my undergrad schoolwork is nearly in sight, living farther from campus means I'm packing lunches and spending most of the day there, and being married is certainly different from being single. The fun parts for me are wifely duties - working on thriftiness, frugality and sustainability, and developing my relationship with my husband.

I'm having so much fun in the kitchen, it's ridiculous. I have noble aspirations for other housekeeping things like cleaning and organizing, but I get frustrated or overwhelmed by those more easily. Z and I have been extremely blessed to have generous family members and access to farmer's markets and the excess harvest from neighborhood gardens, so we've had a wonderful abundance of fresh fruits and veggies lately. Some we have to use quickly and others we're freezing to use when veggies get more expensive at the store. Either way, a lot of it is food that I haven't cooked with much before (and often I don't have all the ingredients that various recipes suggest), so there's lots of room for creativity. One recipe I quickly fell in love with was for zucchini muffins. Pinterest - the online clipboard website - has been a great tool for me when cooking. I can collect recipe ideas, link to helpful sites, and find graphics to learn what food is in season when or what substitutes I can use in baking. We bought a bread maker at a garage sale and I've been playing with that as well (I would love to switch to homemade bread, if the loaves would last longer than 2 days before they're gone!).

Getting to know my spouse better has been the happiest thing in my life. I value his happiness, which means that I need to take care of myself, and that I need to actively love him. Love really is a verb, not just a sentiment or feeling. He is better inspiration and motivation than anything I had before. We have so much fun together, and together, our lives feel more meaningful. I could go on, but being married to Z certainly is changing my life for the better.

Bottom line is that God is certainly working with us and blessing our marriage. Life is pretty awesome right now.