Giving Thanks with a Grateful Heart

The past few mornings Arthur and I have busted out the good ole Thanksgiving hymns during our devotional time in the morning.  The following hymn is one that has been running through my head this past week:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done,

Count your blessings, name them one by one;

Count your blessings, see what God hath done;

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

During this past year a lot has happened in each of our lives.  This year had its challenges and difficult times but also times of great joy.  In this post we are counting our blessings over the past year to remember what the Lord has done in our lives.  Hopefully it will serve as a good reminder later whenever we are "discouraged, thinking all is lost" that God can be trusted and deserves our gratitude regardless of the situation. So here are this year's blessings:

1. Marrying and getting to live and share life with my best friend
2. Hanging out with our friends a few weekends (we should get married more often for this reason)
3. Being reminded of all the family and friends we have been blessed with at our wedding and other associated events
4. People who have opened their homes for Alex to live in for several weeks at a time during her "nomad" life 
5. Sermon podcasts
6. Passing the PT board exam
7. Graduating from college and graduate school
8. No more studying
9. Jobs we love
10. Pay checks
11. God's grace and forgiveness
12. Second-hand appliances that work
13. A vehicle with A/C for Arthur's commute
14. Selling a vehicle in less than 1 day on Craig's List (Arthur- the expert used car salesman)
15. Finding a new church home and getting involved.
16. The completion of construction on the main road to work.
17. Audio books.
18. Pandora internet radio.
19. Musicals.
20. The authors, composers, artists, philanthropists, politicians, and architects who have created or given us access to many of the ideas and the beauties that mean so much to us.
21. Athletic competitions.
22. The beautiful walkways around our house.
23. Our new home and community
24. Wonderful supporting families.
25. An excellent public library system.
26. Our country.  Flawed as it is, we still have it pretty good.
27. Finding dress clothes that don't feel like a straightjacket.
28. The mother-in-law who found said dress clothes.
29. Good health.
30. The senator representing us nationally.  Though I often disagree with him, he is a good man.
31. Two day weekends.  We didn't always have those.
32. God's daily provision.

Forging New Territory

Here is the latest update on activities from our kitchen...

Last week our "Date Night" involved making potato soup and using Arthur's power juicer to whip up some pomegranate apple cranberry juice.  I have never done anything with pomegranates before.  I like things that are pomegranate flavor and my pomegranate shampoo smells delightful so I though I would give it a whirl.  Put pomegranates on the list with eggplant parmesan and boning a chicken as experiences that are good once but don't really need to be repeat due to the amount of effort involved.  Pomegranates are filled with a ton of little seeds that squirt fuchsia juice all over the place.  Luckily it didn't stain anything but it did look like a murder had been committed in our kitchen.  We poured our freshly squeezed juice into our fancy "celebrate life" glasses and toasted while settling down for a Cosby episode on Netflix-- we know how to have a good time

The next weekend we threw an impromptu dinner party as my parents and brother and sister-in-law stopped by after the K-State game.  We were going to eat out but changed our minds due to traffic.  Arthur and I were able to pick up the needed supplies and have dinner on the table and picked up our living room by the time they arrived.  We have mad skills with frozen pizza and spinach salad.  Kudos to Arthur for being a great host...tending the ovens, setting up extra setting, getting drinks ready, clearing the table, etc.

The next milestone in the kitchen was cooking pork tenderloin in the crock pot.  I have had a crock pot for about three years and I am sorry to say that this was my crock pot's maiden voyage.  I do have several crock pot recipe books and it is something I would like to utilize more now that I work and commute.  It is also one of my first forays into meats.  I do ground beef and chicken breast okay but haven't venture much beyond those safe limits.  If you cook with meat and it turns out terrible it is a little more expensive cost-wise than messing up a batch of rice or pasta.  I don't know if it was beginner's luck or just good advice from my personal cooking mentor (aka my mother who gets a lot of phone calls at 5:30pm when I am trying to figure out how to cook dinner), but the pork tenderloin went off without a hitch.  At dinner Arthur made some comment about how it must have taken some time to make the pork that day.  I had to break it to him that I dumped it in the crock pot, tossed in a sliced apple, put a few dashes of garlic powder in, and went to work for the day.  Since it was so easy he might expect it more often.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

Shepherding

One way Arthur and I have gotten involved at our church is helping with the middle school and high school youth groups as "shepherds".  This title for the position is a little intimidating.  The term shepherd denotes leading something such as sheep somewhere.  I think the term "cowboy" would be more appropriate for what we do which is more riding herd on a bunch of teenagers.  I think our actual job is to be more of a mentor at some point.

I have been working with the high school girls.  I have really been enjoying this but it makes me feel really old.  Surely it hasn't been 10 years since I was I high school girl.  It is also a tad strange to be considered in the adult age range on the spectrum now.  Although at times I have had to specify that I'm a leader and not a new student.  I also have forgotten how much girls can talk, how fast they talk, and how all can be talking at the same time and somehow still comprehend 3 separate conversations (not including the multiple texting chats they may be having on their phones at the same time.)  I'm looking forward to working with this group.

On Sunday we did a service project raking leaves for older members of the church. This was a good idea except for the weather on Sunday.  There were swirling wind gusts up to 50mph.  This makes doing anything outside a little more challenging--especially raking leaves.  I honestly have not raked many leaves in my life before.  While our yard had a lot of trees they were small, newer trees so leaves were never a problem. (This also means there wasn't any leave piles to jump in which was a downside.)  We did a few yards and then found some shelter from the wind at the church kitchen and had frozen pizza and Sonic drinks.  I am also realizing that my pizza consuming is spiking the more I hang out with high schoolers.

I (Arthur) had a blast raking leaves.  I probably did not rake more than the average amount of leaves as a child, but I was always very competitive and thorough about it.  That tradition continues on today.  I have a very nonphysical job, and while I love the mental aspect of it, I had a huge hankering for some yard work by the time Sunday rolled around.  Besides that, I feel a moral obligation to show all the young whippersnappers how a man works, so I went at it hard.  I suppose it could be argued that you shouldn't really "feel the burn" while raking leaves, but I would say that I was employing my upper body with as much exertion as I would performing the front crawl swimming; and I had that nice, satisfying burn in my shoulders afterwards that always felt rewarding after swimming.  Added bonus: I can still outwork a gaggle of teenagers five times over (they're called a gaggle, right?)

We would also like to thank anyone who invested in our lives while we were in youth groups.  I now have a much deeper appreciation for all you did and also probably what you had to put up with.  When we first met with the pastor of our church I mentioned that the time period in my life that had the greatest impact on my spiritual growth was during high school and that I had a few women who poured into us and really challenged and encouraged me.  After making that comment it was suggested that we might be a good fit to be "shepherds" since we know the value and impact it can have on a life personally.  Which lead me to raking leaves in the wind instead of taking a Sunday afternoon nap.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

Flashback: She said Yes

Alex and I are now a little over 4 months into our first year of marriage, and while our first anniversary is still months away another important milestone took place 1 year ago: the day I asked my dear Alex to become my wife.

It took some planning to actually choose the day that I would ask Alex to marry me.  I wanted to ask her father before hand but I didn't want to leave too much time between when I visited with him and when I would see Alex again.  Because of this I actually waited a couple of months later than I would have liked but finally all the pieces fell into place.  I was able to take some time off from school and work so I could go to Alex's hometown and ask for her father's blessing.

I knew I would have to propose to her fairly early once she got there.  I was bursting at the seams at the thought of asking her to marry me and I could never have kept it too myself for very long.  So our proposal story is fairly simple.  I took her on a walk around campus visiting various spots that had meaning to our relationship and then dropped to one knee in a grove of trees that offered some privacy.

I don't really think that I surprised her.  Later she would admit that she knew something was up the instant I bounded out of the house like a moose who got hold of some funny  mushrooms.  But she said yes and didn't even have to hesitate. Then we shared our first kiss.  And it was magical.


Alex's comments and a few more details:
For guys a proposal story boils down to getting a yes, getting a kiss, and ultimately getting the girl.  Other frivolous details aren't critical to those three objectives.  So my version may be a little bit longer.

Last fall semester I realized that a few girls in my class had bets placed on who the next one of us in a serious relationship would become engaged.  My name was at the top of the list.  On weekends when I would head to visit Arthur all my friends would ask if it was going to be this weekend that he popped the question.  There was one weekend when he called me during the week stating that he was excited for my visit and that he had something very special planned.  This piqued my curiosity but it turned out the surprise was that he was making grilled cheese sandwiches for our dinning pleasure that night-- I do like grilled cheese sandwiches.  Several more weeks passed and I was busy with finishing up school work.  We had our final comprehensive exam, a 4 hour test covering 3 years of material to study for.  As we were relaxing right before the exam that afternoon my friends asked me again if it was going to be this weekend.  I didn't think so but maybe.  While I was under a lot of stress that afternoon taking my test I didn't realize Arthur was meeting with my father-  I probably had the better deal.

The next morning as I drove up he bounded out his front door with more energy and excitement than I had ever seen before.  At that point I knew something was up.  We drove to campus and he pulled out a letter I had written him a few years earlier while I was in Alaska for the summer.  The letter had a map of campus with numbers corresponding to some of my favorite spots on campus-- the location of our first date, my favorite trees, a building I had several classes in, etc.  We visited all the spots and had a great time remembering some of our previous outings around campus.  Then Arthur pulled me off the sidewalk into a grove of trees I had walked by every day as a student that was basically across the street from where I had lived for 4 years.  He got down on one knee and I started smiling really big- as if I didn't know what was shortly going to follow.  He asked me to be his wife.  I responded that it would be an honor and a pleasure to marry him.  We kissed for the first time.  And we kissed again.  And a few more times after that.

That evening I was staying with my cousin who graciously offered me a place to stay whenever I visited Arthur.  We were chatting a little bit before going to bed and she asked, "So, what's new with you?" I coolly responded, "Well, Arthur asked me to marry him today and I said yes."  At that point slight pandemonium broke out.  Later, the next week I was back in class when one of my classmates noticed my ring and gave a muffled shriek during lecture.  During our break in the hallway the congratulations got a little to rambunctious and the teacher in the next classroom came out and asked us to be quiet.  A few more classmate walked up missing the first announcement and more commotion broke out causing this other instructor to come out of the classroom again and request that our teacher please control us.  I don't think Arthur realized how much chaos he would cause with a ring on my finger.  Omnia Vincit Amor.
  

It's been a quiet week...

I realized that it has been almost a week since we blogged.  We are trying our best to blog on a consistent basis.  However, to blog frequently you need something to blog about.  That as been difficult this week since it’s been a little slow around the home place.  So below is a random assortment of what we have done-- none of which had enough for an entire post.

- We finished season 1 of The Cosby Show.  Most evening over the past few weeks we have been watching an episode on YouTube.  Occasionally we will watch 2 episodes in a row or if we are really crazy we will pop some popcorn.  The fun never ends around here.

- Our average bedtime this week has been 9:22pm.  I guess so much fun wears us out quickly.  Are we really that far removed from those collegiate all-nighters?  (So Alex never pulled all-nighters but occasionally she would stay up till 11pm.) 

- It seems that we are becoming adults or at least having to do adult tasks. We changed our furnace filter for the first time and paid for registration on our cars.  What fun!

- Last night our house smelled delicious between apple crisp baking in the oven and our homemade citrus vinegar we use for cleaning the house that night.

- I went shopping for items for Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes which made me really excited.  This is probably the only Christmas shopping I enjoy. 

- We had three trick-or-treaters for Halloween.  So we had lots of Halloween leftover candy that we have been munching on all week.  Now we just need to find someone who likes Almond Joys.

That really sums it up for the highlights and activities of our week.  But frankly after the past year or so it is kind of nice to have a few weeks where no major life changes occur.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

Audiobooks

Alex and I work in two different towns over an hour apart.  Because of this we found a good middle ground in a smaller town about halfway between our two work destinations and that has allowed us to fairly evenly split commute time.  But what we do with that commute time has been a very rewarding hour each day listening to audiobooks. 

Audiobooks are great for a variety of reasons.  Obviously they fill the time that we commute every day.  There is always radio for that.  The real value of audiobooks comes from the fact that it gives Alex and I so much to talk about.  While our interests vary widely, that variety means we don’t listen to the same books.  Hence, it is always interesting hearing what the other has to say.  I, Arthur, tend to be more politically and philospically minded and hence my reading tastes have included the autobiography of Bill Clinton, a lecture series on the relationship between science and religion, and Hot, Flat, and Crowded, a book about the damage environmental apathy will have on us in the future if we don’t amend our ways. 

While Arthur is just discovering the beauty of audiobooks, Alex has listened to hundreds of the the past few years.  While driving Alex has a tendency to get drowsy and listening to audiobooks has helped her fight this and stay in engage on the road.  She is more for adventure in her choice of material.  She listens to a lot of non-fiction as well as a few select fiction series.  Just over the past few months she has  listened a book about climbing the tallest mountains in the Himilayas, a detective series in Botswana, a story of a young lady who gets fired from being a lawyer and learns to become a maid (this included a great British accent by the narrator and English words such as lue and lift), a con man galavanting around the world, accounts of the Civil War along the Mississippi River, and the story of a homeless African American boy making it as an NFL football player.  Even though Alex is driving the same stretch of interstate each day she is being transport around the globe, through different time periods, and seeing the world through the eyes of a variety of people. 

Needless to say conversations are never boring around the dinner table in the evenings.  Arthur is always interested in hearing about what Alex is hearing about, and while Alex maybe sometimes is not quite as enthused about hearing the world of politics and irreducible complexity she nods politely.  The only difficulty is deciding what to listen to when we travel together!  In this particular instance we circumvented this obstacle by blogging in the car instead. And at least today in this manner Omnia Vincit Amor.