Summer Wrapup

Somehow summer has snuck by us.  All of a sudden it is September is here.  While our lives aren't greatly affected by school starting again, except the fact that we have to slow down to drive through the school parking lots to get home, it seems like all kinds of activities are gearing up to start again. 

 First of all there is football.  It will take a few hours each week to enjoy watching or listening to the Wildcats play ball.  It also means that we will have to watch Peyton Manning highlight videos each week and Sunday afternoons aren't a good time to discuss things with Arthur if his full attention is needed. 

Church activities are also rolling again.  We had the kick off to our Wednesday night activities this week.  There was a cookout and a few of the church members shared about different grilling methods and samples were included.  For dessert each family made bar cookies.  Arthur compared it to the stations of the Cross or taking communion.  We picked up the cake mix in one corner, joined another line to receive some cooking oil from the worship leader, picked up two eggs from the pastor and his wife, and stirred it all together to take home and bake as a family. 

We recently changed our Internet provider and are now able to stream video with greater ease.  This has resulted in two of our favorite activities of this week.  We are watching What's in the Bible which is a kids show that goes through the Bible book by book.  My first experience with this program was while I was teaching  first and second grade Sunday School about 1 and 2 Chronicles and Kings.  My knowledge on the different kings of Israel following David is pretty shaky but these videos did a great job explaining it.  We have watched the first few episodes and are only getting into Exodus.  After a singing pirate in charge of presenting church history talked about how the different books of the Bible were selected to be canonized and why others were left out, Arthur turned towards me and commented how it took him several hours of research to understand a concept that a pirate explained in a 2 minute segment.  We are comparing this program to Systematic Theology for kids and are thoroughly enjoying it ourselves.

This leads into our other new favorite pastime.  Phil Vischer, the voice of Bob the Tomato from Veggie Tales, writes and performs most of the characters for What's in the Bible.  Arthur looked up his website and found that he has a weekly podcast about current events, both secular and in the Christian community.  We enjoy listening to new perspective on events and idea as well as here a group dialogue about some of the issues of the day.  Arthur even stayed up a little too late one night listening and was pretty tired the next day.  It's hard to get him to bed if there is thought provoking discussion. 

Another new project for Arthur has been tracking what he eats and his exercise to work towards his goal of becoming lean and mean over the next few months.  He has done a great job logging his food and evaluating his nutritional intake.  We then spend about an hour each night walking or biking.  I think we have both enjoyed spending that time together as well as working towards a common goal.  Arthur is also beginning to take some nutritional advice from his wife who has a major in nutrition instead of from the other engineers he works with.  This has also lead to some new recipes as well as an occasional trip to Sonic for shakes if there is wiggle room for that day. 

One of the common themes in all we have done in the recent weeks has been either doing something new or learning new things.  It is hard to explain how excited we get about the opportunity to learn something new together.  There just doesn't seem to be enough time to do and learn everything we want such as photography, cooking, martial arts, Greek and Hebrew, camping, traveling to Europe, etc.  I guess it is a good thing that we both sign up "till death do us part" so we will hopefully have plenty of time to do all these things as a couple.  I'm sure it won't be boring.  Omnia Vincit Amor.