One of my (Alex) favorite activities that I haven't done much of over the past year is running. This evening I took off on a quick, short run and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The following were my thoughts over my twenty minute run-- please realize that while running thoughts are rarely logical or sequential.
- Late summer evenings are noisy. I could hardly hear myself think due to all the noise-- crickets, locus, cicadas. After while it was like a bad case of ringing in my ears.
- Two caterpillars crossed the road in front of me. One was very furry and dark black. Supposedly according to the Farmers' Almanac this is predicting a cold, snowy winter. The next caterpillar was black but with tinges of orange which I suppose means a mix of mild and stormy weather. I wonder if any one has done studies on how reliable caterpillars are in weather prediction.
- For several minutes I had a song stuck from kids camp stuck in my head. It is fast and upbeat and is a good running song. The downside is it only about 6 lines and probably less than 15 seconds starts to finish. When a song is that short you can play it over and over and over, thus it became even noisier in my head with this song playing, plus the insects, plus the sound of my feet on the road as well as my lungs gasping for breathe-- so much for a peaceful, quiet run.
- I think it is called "earworms" when you get a song stuck in your head--earworms just sound gross. Check it out on Wikipedia. Earworms
- It smelled like August tonight-- freshly cut grass, someone grilling, and ripening tomatoes.
- Even though it was evening it was still hot-- just under triple digits. The nice thing about the road I was running on was trees on both sides creating shade-- we did not have such luxuries during cross country practice in high school on those hot dusty afternoons.
- One side of the road I was on abuts the side of the cemetery. I also really enjoy running in cemeteries but that's another story. Arthur and I have discussed before whether property values are higher or lower near cemeteries. It is almost like living near a park and the neighbors would be fairly quiet.
Arthur runs with me sometimes and I am sure that his thoughts are much more orderly and he probably gets tired of my outbursts about earworms and property values but he still listens to me go on. Or maybe he has to since it is difficult to get ignore someone rambling on next to you. He also doesn't like to talk while running so I get to monopolize the conversation with random thoughts of a runner. Omnia Vincit Amor.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
Making a House a Home
We've just recently passed the first "monthaversary" of our marriage, and looking back on it, we can track ways our marriage has grown and developed in a variety of areas: how we relate to each other, how we spend our time, and just the natural progress of making this huge life change more and more normal. In today's post, we would like to share with you one of the more physical manifestations of our progress: home decorating.
Some disclosure here: this is a difficult one for me (Arthur). Home decor and style are just two things that I don't in any sense understand. I do like to think that I can think of efficiency (this is how I make a living), but colors, contrast, everything else is just a mystery. To me, for there to be any logical consistency to these things, these individual variables should be able to have a numerical value assigned to them, loaded appropriately into a matrix, and using proper manipulation derive what individual elements should be placed where.
Sadly, dear reader, this is not the case. My ideas for how to arrange a house are so wacky (apparently), that my lovely Alex hardly knows whether or not to treat these suggestions as serious ones or not. Hence, we do not have our kitchen utinsels hanging from pegboards (it works great in a shop), we still have cabinet doors on our cabinets (still adding a step in getting anything out), we do not store our pots or pans on the stove top (why not just store them were you're going to use them? To be fair, Alex does sometimes use the extra work space, but still.), and that's just the kitchen!
To further illustrate the point, before Alex and I were married and I was living here alone, we had a bridal shower. My skills and a home decorator were considered so poor, I was explicitly told not to put anything away, and I lived with a pile of stuff in the middle of the living room floor until Alex could visit and could start finding places for everything.
But the greatest flurry of activity came the weekend Alex's parents came to help out. Alex's mother apparently lives and breathes decorating. Alex and I were flummoxed by all the stuff we had to place, but she stepped in and apparently could just see how to pull everything together.
What ensued could best be described as a tornado rampaging through your house, except instead of chaos it happened to place everything neatly and what I can only assume is its proper place. Alex's father and I used this time to assemble a bookshelf and a clothes rack, so we were, perhaps mercifully, left out of the wake of this storm.
When the in-laws departed, I was stunned. First, there was the result. Alex and her mom did a great job, but what really shocked me was the energy displayed in that flurry of activity. I stayed mostly clear of their activities, but the little that I was present just completely wore me out. I'm a fairly strong and decently active young man, and this, um, slightly older woman just completely outdid me. Alex enjoys distance running, and once took me on a seven mile run. What that run did to me physically, Alex's mom did mentally.
Anyway, all this to say that a month into marriage I think we can say that we finally have our home mostly set up.
Some disclosure here: this is a difficult one for me (Arthur). Home decor and style are just two things that I don't in any sense understand. I do like to think that I can think of efficiency (this is how I make a living), but colors, contrast, everything else is just a mystery. To me, for there to be any logical consistency to these things, these individual variables should be able to have a numerical value assigned to them, loaded appropriately into a matrix, and using proper manipulation derive what individual elements should be placed where.
Sadly, dear reader, this is not the case. My ideas for how to arrange a house are so wacky (apparently), that my lovely Alex hardly knows whether or not to treat these suggestions as serious ones or not. Hence, we do not have our kitchen utinsels hanging from pegboards (it works great in a shop), we still have cabinet doors on our cabinets (still adding a step in getting anything out), we do not store our pots or pans on the stove top (why not just store them were you're going to use them? To be fair, Alex does sometimes use the extra work space, but still.), and that's just the kitchen!
To further illustrate the point, before Alex and I were married and I was living here alone, we had a bridal shower. My skills and a home decorator were considered so poor, I was explicitly told not to put anything away, and I lived with a pile of stuff in the middle of the living room floor until Alex could visit and could start finding places for everything.
But the greatest flurry of activity came the weekend Alex's parents came to help out. Alex's mother apparently lives and breathes decorating. Alex and I were flummoxed by all the stuff we had to place, but she stepped in and apparently could just see how to pull everything together.
What ensued could best be described as a tornado rampaging through your house, except instead of chaos it happened to place everything neatly and what I can only assume is its proper place. Alex's father and I used this time to assemble a bookshelf and a clothes rack, so we were, perhaps mercifully, left out of the wake of this storm.
When the in-laws departed, I was stunned. First, there was the result. Alex and her mom did a great job, but what really shocked me was the energy displayed in that flurry of activity. I stayed mostly clear of their activities, but the little that I was present just completely wore me out. I'm a fairly strong and decently active young man, and this, um, slightly older woman just completely outdid me. Alex enjoys distance running, and once took me on a seven mile run. What that run did to me physically, Alex's mom did mentally.
Anyway, all this to say that a month into marriage I think we can say that we finally have our home mostly set up.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Adventures with eggplant
This week I ventured into completely unknown territory. I cooked.
Even beyond cooking, I cooked with vegetables. As astounding as that
is, I cooked something with eggplant. I, on some crazy notion, decided
to make Eggplant Parmesan. Lately we have been overrun with fresh
produce. It seems that everyone thinks we need their extra vegetables
whether it is zucchini from a birthday party, sweet corn from work, green
beans from a church lady, or cucumbers from Sunday School class. This
would be a delightful circumstance if you liked vegetables or knew how
to cook with vegetables-- I fall into neither category, however I hate
to be wasteful so I can't let these vegetables go to waste. The ironic
part is that we only had one eggplant so I had to go buy two more to
have enough for the recipe. Also, on my commute lately I have been
listening to the book Julie and Julia which is about a gal who blogs about her experience cooking through all the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. (It seems like every time I watch this movie or read the book I end up cooking and blogging about it as well Conquering the Kitchen)
This may have provided just enough inspiration for me to try 1 new
recipe, but not over 500. The evening I was slated to make this dish, I
got out of work early which was nice to have some extra time and drove
home in eager anticipation. I started in peeling the eggplants. I was
frankly quite surprised by what is inside an eggplant. I'm not sure
what I was expecting- possible a yolk or something or it to be hollow.
It was neither. After slicing it I had to sweat the eggplant, by this
time I was probably perspiring as well. Next was breading the slices
and toasting them in the oven. And then I finally got to put it all
together, cover it with a ton of cheese, and finally bake it.
Surprisingly it turned out to be pretty tasty, which is good since we
have a whole 9x13 pan of it which is quite a bit for 2 people. It
basically tastes like lasagna. Next time I will just make lasagna because it probably takes less time. All told this took almost two
hours which seems like an eternity for someone who usually just cooks
everything in less than 15 minutes. But it was a success, so I might as
well stop while I am head with cooking using vegetables. Omnia Vincit
Amor.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Honeymoon Memories
It was a hot, July afternoon. The temperature was around 105 degrees and we found ourselves on a three hour canoe trip racing across the lake one last time, trying to beat our best time. When we finished, we were sweaty, sandy, hot, tired, thirsty, and sunburned. This may sound like a brutal workout but actually it was just part of our honeymoon.
As brand new grads and just starting our jobs we decided to stay local for our honeymoon and will hopefully travel somewhere later in the year. It was nice to hang out around our new home and get settled in a bit. We took some fun day trips around the area too. One day we decided to take in a movie and saw Man of Steel. It was an interesting crowd at the afternoon matinee-- four older guys and us. I (Alex) was not overly impressed with the movie. I haven't really gotten into super heroes but have always thought the Superman story line was interesting. While this is not meant to be a movie review, most of the flick involved fighting scenes between Superman and General Zard. Since they both have great power they would throw each other through the earth, into buildings, shoot things at one another, etc. This goes on for quite a while with no end in sight until they commence hand-to-hand combat. At that point Superman simply breaks his neck. First of all, why didn't throwing someone through a building break his neck? Second of all, with all the high-tech special effects the big finale is a wrestling match. Anyway, it was fun to go to a movie together, and maybe more fun to make fun of it together afterwards.
The next day we found ourselves canoeing at the lake. Alex spent a summer in Alaska were she spent a lot of time canoeing or instruction canoe classes so she was pretty excited. Arthur hadn't been in a canoe much before. It has been said that you can find out a lot about a couple's relationship if you have them canoe together. Canoeing takes teamwork, communication, one leader and another follower, and some conflict resolution. I (Alex) had my hesitations about this endeavor when Arthur about steered us into the dock as we took off. It was also a fairly windy day and sometimes wind and canoes aren't a good match in a large body of water. That aside, we were off. We packed a lunch in our cooler so enjoyed dinning among the cattails with the dragonflies. We saw some blue herons and even a few bald eagles out. We then spent some time exploring the inlets and coves and just paddling around. As the afternoon went on our strokes became more insync and smooth. It was a pretty good upper body workout as well. Eventually we ran out of drinking water and brownies to snack on and Arthur was begin to develop a sunburn since his dear wife struggles with applying sunscreen, we called it a day and headed to Sonic for Happy Hour. What is better after a long, hot afternoon than a cherry limeade? It was such a fun way to spend time together on the water enjoying God's creation. Better yet we survived the relationship test and no marital counseling was needed afterwards, although aloe vera lotion was. Probably the highlight was as we were bring the canoe up to the beach to dock with a cross wind at the end of our trip one of the swimmers made the comment, "Wow, that was flawless. Have you been canoeing for awhile?" Well yes, my husband has mad canoe skills after just three hours!
The next day started with us rolling out of bed at 5:30am. We were headed for an early morning hike at Konza Prairie. Once again it was a beautiful morning and not many people were out yet. The morning was cool and we saw more wildlife- a deer, turkeys, frogs, and lots of birds. We took the short look trail since we wanted to be back before it got too hot. (On past dates we have gone on much longer treks, but this was when we were younger and crazy). Through our dating years we went to Konza several times so it was fun to relive some of those memories. As we hiked it hit me that those trails were a lot like marriage. There were some large hills to climb, some rocky patches, parts that consisted of just trudging ahead, but then there were some stunning views from the top of those hills and little delights along the way such as watching a deer in the early morning. Most of all, those miles were more enjoyable because we were walking them side by side. Omnia Vincit Amor (even hikes at the crack of dawn and canoeing in triple digits.)
As brand new grads and just starting our jobs we decided to stay local for our honeymoon and will hopefully travel somewhere later in the year. It was nice to hang out around our new home and get settled in a bit. We took some fun day trips around the area too. One day we decided to take in a movie and saw Man of Steel. It was an interesting crowd at the afternoon matinee-- four older guys and us. I (Alex) was not overly impressed with the movie. I haven't really gotten into super heroes but have always thought the Superman story line was interesting. While this is not meant to be a movie review, most of the flick involved fighting scenes between Superman and General Zard. Since they both have great power they would throw each other through the earth, into buildings, shoot things at one another, etc. This goes on for quite a while with no end in sight until they commence hand-to-hand combat. At that point Superman simply breaks his neck. First of all, why didn't throwing someone through a building break his neck? Second of all, with all the high-tech special effects the big finale is a wrestling match. Anyway, it was fun to go to a movie together, and maybe more fun to make fun of it together afterwards.
The next day we found ourselves canoeing at the lake. Alex spent a summer in Alaska were she spent a lot of time canoeing or instruction canoe classes so she was pretty excited. Arthur hadn't been in a canoe much before. It has been said that you can find out a lot about a couple's relationship if you have them canoe together. Canoeing takes teamwork, communication, one leader and another follower, and some conflict resolution. I (Alex) had my hesitations about this endeavor when Arthur about steered us into the dock as we took off. It was also a fairly windy day and sometimes wind and canoes aren't a good match in a large body of water. That aside, we were off. We packed a lunch in our cooler so enjoyed dinning among the cattails with the dragonflies. We saw some blue herons and even a few bald eagles out. We then spent some time exploring the inlets and coves and just paddling around. As the afternoon went on our strokes became more insync and smooth. It was a pretty good upper body workout as well. Eventually we ran out of drinking water and brownies to snack on and Arthur was begin to develop a sunburn since his dear wife struggles with applying sunscreen, we called it a day and headed to Sonic for Happy Hour. What is better after a long, hot afternoon than a cherry limeade? It was such a fun way to spend time together on the water enjoying God's creation. Better yet we survived the relationship test and no marital counseling was needed afterwards, although aloe vera lotion was. Probably the highlight was as we were bring the canoe up to the beach to dock with a cross wind at the end of our trip one of the swimmers made the comment, "Wow, that was flawless. Have you been canoeing for awhile?" Well yes, my husband has mad canoe skills after just three hours!
The next day started with us rolling out of bed at 5:30am. We were headed for an early morning hike at Konza Prairie. Once again it was a beautiful morning and not many people were out yet. The morning was cool and we saw more wildlife- a deer, turkeys, frogs, and lots of birds. We took the short look trail since we wanted to be back before it got too hot. (On past dates we have gone on much longer treks, but this was when we were younger and crazy). Through our dating years we went to Konza several times so it was fun to relive some of those memories. As we hiked it hit me that those trails were a lot like marriage. There were some large hills to climb, some rocky patches, parts that consisted of just trudging ahead, but then there were some stunning views from the top of those hills and little delights along the way such as watching a deer in the early morning. Most of all, those miles were more enjoyable because we were walking them side by side. Omnia Vincit Amor (even hikes at the crack of dawn and canoeing in triple digits.)
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Getting Rid of the Bible Baptists
Living in a new town brings newness to every aspect of life. The places you frequent, the places you shop, the people you live next to, it all changes. So one thing Alex and I have been doing the past few weeks has been looking at churches.
I, Arthur, am a little more, shall we say, adventurous when it comes to church visiting. Spending my entire life in the prototypical Baptist/Nondenominational fold of churches, I have enjoyed seeing how different denominations worship God, and it has been a very enlightening experience.
I started living in the place we now share about a month before Alex and I got married, and one of the first churches I went to when Alex wasn't here was an Episcopal church. I don't know how many of you have had the experience, but I would highly recommend it. The service is based highly around ritual, so much so that it would be difficult to follow without a friendly Episcopalian walking you through it. Fortunately, my experience has been that Episcopalians are quite friendly and no less than three asked me if I needed any help following on.
The next weekend I (Alex) was in town on Sunday and was talked into attending a Presbyterian service. I am somewhat unadventurous when it comes to searching for churches. I grew up attending a simple country Baptist church. We arrived at the church 10 minutes before the service was slated to start and there were three cars in the parking lot. After roaming the church for a few minutes we finally saw someone who realized we were visitors and lead us to where the service was held. Now it was probably pretty easy to tell we were visitors since the rest of the attendees all get senior citizen discounts so we din't blend in so well. We also didn't blend in so well when Arthur, with his full and hard-to-miss voice, chimed in with the wrong words to the Lord's Prayer (this gang of Presbies are debtors, not trespassers). I was also taken aback when they sang the Doxology to a melody that sounded more like a show tune. You just can't mess with the Doxology.
One thing that I think shocked both of us was just how welcoming and inviting every church was. We both are coming from a college town where everyone is just kind of transitioning, with college students being around for a short time and even for the time they are a part of the community going home for breaks and other events. People would come and go from church services so often that it simply is too much for a member of a church in that setting to know if someone is new or if they have been attending for multiple years, and so people just tended to leave you alone.
Here, my goodness! Everyone knows everyone, and if you're not part of the known everyone then everyone wants to make you part of their everyone. It has been such a welcoming atmosphere, it truly has made this a gratifying process. Its too bad that we need to settle on a single congregation, and that could be hard considering we've got a baptist lady wanting to give us fresh produce from her garden!
What I, Arthur, have really taken away from this process has is a deep appreciation for strengths of all types of worship. Growing up as I have, a common criticism I have heard about the more ritual based churches is the 'canned' worship; that its too difficult to be sincere when you're reading something off a page. However, I think we can all appreciate how we do things in ritual for a memorial day service, or how in the most meaningful of occasions we default to a tradition. Ritual when practiced rightly can instill a sense of the holiness of the God we worship, it can connect us to previous generations who worshiped in much the same way, and it can move our focus away from ourselves and how edified we are by what's going on and towards God; and when our focus is thus rightly aligned, we cannot help but be edified.
That it not to say that this method is in any way superior to how I grew up going to church. If I were to draw a distinction, I would say it is between coming to God as an individual versus corporately. It is important to have a personal connection to God and our worship should achieve this. It is also important to come before God as part of a collective body that comprises the bride of Christ, and our worship should achieve this too. However that it best achieved for a certain body of believers, they should recognize the legitimacy of the worship of others looking to serve, and in this, once again, love will conquer all. Omnia vincit amor!
I, Arthur, am a little more, shall we say, adventurous when it comes to church visiting. Spending my entire life in the prototypical Baptist/Nondenominational fold of churches, I have enjoyed seeing how different denominations worship God, and it has been a very enlightening experience.
I started living in the place we now share about a month before Alex and I got married, and one of the first churches I went to when Alex wasn't here was an Episcopal church. I don't know how many of you have had the experience, but I would highly recommend it. The service is based highly around ritual, so much so that it would be difficult to follow without a friendly Episcopalian walking you through it. Fortunately, my experience has been that Episcopalians are quite friendly and no less than three asked me if I needed any help following on.
The next weekend I (Alex) was in town on Sunday and was talked into attending a Presbyterian service. I am somewhat unadventurous when it comes to searching for churches. I grew up attending a simple country Baptist church. We arrived at the church 10 minutes before the service was slated to start and there were three cars in the parking lot. After roaming the church for a few minutes we finally saw someone who realized we were visitors and lead us to where the service was held. Now it was probably pretty easy to tell we were visitors since the rest of the attendees all get senior citizen discounts so we din't blend in so well. We also didn't blend in so well when Arthur, with his full and hard-to-miss voice, chimed in with the wrong words to the Lord's Prayer (this gang of Presbies are debtors, not trespassers). I was also taken aback when they sang the Doxology to a melody that sounded more like a show tune. You just can't mess with the Doxology.
One thing that I think shocked both of us was just how welcoming and inviting every church was. We both are coming from a college town where everyone is just kind of transitioning, with college students being around for a short time and even for the time they are a part of the community going home for breaks and other events. People would come and go from church services so often that it simply is too much for a member of a church in that setting to know if someone is new or if they have been attending for multiple years, and so people just tended to leave you alone.
Here, my goodness! Everyone knows everyone, and if you're not part of the known everyone then everyone wants to make you part of their everyone. It has been such a welcoming atmosphere, it truly has made this a gratifying process. Its too bad that we need to settle on a single congregation, and that could be hard considering we've got a baptist lady wanting to give us fresh produce from her garden!
What I, Arthur, have really taken away from this process has is a deep appreciation for strengths of all types of worship. Growing up as I have, a common criticism I have heard about the more ritual based churches is the 'canned' worship; that its too difficult to be sincere when you're reading something off a page. However, I think we can all appreciate how we do things in ritual for a memorial day service, or how in the most meaningful of occasions we default to a tradition. Ritual when practiced rightly can instill a sense of the holiness of the God we worship, it can connect us to previous generations who worshiped in much the same way, and it can move our focus away from ourselves and how edified we are by what's going on and towards God; and when our focus is thus rightly aligned, we cannot help but be edified.
That it not to say that this method is in any way superior to how I grew up going to church. If I were to draw a distinction, I would say it is between coming to God as an individual versus corporately. It is important to have a personal connection to God and our worship should achieve this. It is also important to come before God as part of a collective body that comprises the bride of Christ, and our worship should achieve this too. However that it best achieved for a certain body of believers, they should recognize the legitimacy of the worship of others looking to serve, and in this, once again, love will conquer all. Omnia vincit amor!
Friday, August 2, 2013
Welcome
Hello all, and welcome to our blog! We are a husband/wife team living in the midwest just starting our lives together, and with any new exciting journey or adventure comes the corresponding blog.
I suppose the first place to start in any such endeavor would be with an introduction of the main players. For naming purposes, I, the male component of this relationship, will call myself Arthur, and while there is much that I choose not to share with the world, in naming myself as I have, I tell you much about what I aspire to be. Arthur the legend is a man full of bravery, selflessness, and nobility. Everything in his domain is ruled justly; peace reigns the land. While I have no kingdom,I have been given a very specific sphere of influence in a small circle of friends, in my occupation, and in my home, and I ache to "rule" this domain by the same principles.
I, Alex, am the wife on this team. My "name" doesn't have any deep philosophical meaning behind it. Rather, it is the name I used in another blog telling of the adventures of the previous chapter (now I am somewhat older and actually a professional) in my life. http://julesandalex.blogspot.com/ Also Alex is a lot easier to spell than Guinevere.
We have been married four weeks and are having a blast! We create an interesting dynamic, with many laughs, dreams, and happiness. We don't want to gloss over our imperfections, but life truly has been much sweeter sharing it together, and we hope that our lives, and to some extent, this blog, will be a blessing to all we interact with.
We arrived at Omnia Vincit Amor as a name for several reasons. For those of you who know us personally (sorry internet, not quite ready to give you a pass to all that information yet), you will immediately recognize the pun inherent because of our last name. But more importantly, the concept of love conquering all is an important one to us in how we relate to each other and in how we relate to our God.
It has been something of a unanimous sentiment expressed by married people we most respect that life works best when our love for each other guides us more than our own personal tastes. In fact, I would say that love overcoming, dare I say, conquering, the desires of self have been a theme most relevant in the harmony of our marriage.
It plays itself out everyday. I, Arthur, have absolutely no idea what the function of a throw pillow. It seems like a superfluous piece of something that we'd be just as happy without, but this is not a sentiment shared with my dear Alex. Thus, every morning I find myself neatly placing the pillows we did not use to sleep back on a bed designed for sleeping. Omnia vincit amore.
My (Alex) battle's front line has been in the kitchen. I have never been a fan of cooking (just refer to my previous blog for multiple examples of this) but since getting married I have spent a lot of time at the kitchen sink or the stove. The original agreement was that Arthur would be our chef. However, due to working later and a commute, I have taken on preparing dinner. One night I spent two hours making dinner, doing the dishes, and whipping up two dozen bierocks to have on hand for lunches. I was beat but if it means keeping my husband well fed and happy- after all the way to a man's heart is through his stomach- then it is my privilege to serve him in this way for the time being. Omnia vincit amore.
Anyway, that's a quick look into our lives and what we're about. We hope that you'll be checking in with us, and that in some way we can be a blessing to your life. Until next time, God bless!
I suppose the first place to start in any such endeavor would be with an introduction of the main players. For naming purposes, I, the male component of this relationship, will call myself Arthur, and while there is much that I choose not to share with the world, in naming myself as I have, I tell you much about what I aspire to be. Arthur the legend is a man full of bravery, selflessness, and nobility. Everything in his domain is ruled justly; peace reigns the land. While I have no kingdom,I have been given a very specific sphere of influence in a small circle of friends, in my occupation, and in my home, and I ache to "rule" this domain by the same principles.
I, Alex, am the wife on this team. My "name" doesn't have any deep philosophical meaning behind it. Rather, it is the name I used in another blog telling of the adventures of the previous chapter (now I am somewhat older and actually a professional) in my life. http://julesandalex.blogspot.com/ Also Alex is a lot easier to spell than Guinevere.
We have been married four weeks and are having a blast! We create an interesting dynamic, with many laughs, dreams, and happiness. We don't want to gloss over our imperfections, but life truly has been much sweeter sharing it together, and we hope that our lives, and to some extent, this blog, will be a blessing to all we interact with.
We arrived at Omnia Vincit Amor as a name for several reasons. For those of you who know us personally (sorry internet, not quite ready to give you a pass to all that information yet), you will immediately recognize the pun inherent because of our last name. But more importantly, the concept of love conquering all is an important one to us in how we relate to each other and in how we relate to our God.
It plays itself out everyday. I, Arthur, have absolutely no idea what the function of a throw pillow. It seems like a superfluous piece of something that we'd be just as happy without, but this is not a sentiment shared with my dear Alex. Thus, every morning I find myself neatly placing the pillows we did not use to sleep back on a bed designed for sleeping. Omnia vincit amore.
My (Alex) battle's front line has been in the kitchen. I have never been a fan of cooking (just refer to my previous blog for multiple examples of this) but since getting married I have spent a lot of time at the kitchen sink or the stove. The original agreement was that Arthur would be our chef. However, due to working later and a commute, I have taken on preparing dinner. One night I spent two hours making dinner, doing the dishes, and whipping up two dozen bierocks to have on hand for lunches. I was beat but if it means keeping my husband well fed and happy- after all the way to a man's heart is through his stomach- then it is my privilege to serve him in this way for the time being. Omnia vincit amore.
Anyway, that's a quick look into our lives and what we're about. We hope that you'll be checking in with us, and that in some way we can be a blessing to your life. Until next time, God bless!
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