Married Life Month 1

Ok, so it's been more like a month and a half. And it's been a blast! It's so fun establishing a home together...especially the relational part of the home. It's so amazing coming home to each other every day, and tell each other all about the minutest details of our days, knowing the other person is interested and sympathetic. It's so amazing to experience the reality that through marriage God is making us know each other more deeply than any other human on earth, and that because of that we know the best of any other human on earth how to best encourage each other to glorify God in all that we say and do, and we know the best of any other human on earth how to make each other smile. :) 

The more homemake-y kind of stuff has been a source of great excitement and very rewarding for me. For the first week or two we were living out of boxes with no decorations on our surfaces as I learned how to make the daily tasks of cooking, cleaning and errand running NOT take up every waking moment of my day. Cooking at least one meal a day for two is challenging, but I must say one of the most rewarding moments in any given 24 hour period is when I hear my husband say about a dish I've made, "Wow babe, this is excellent." Not that I get the "excellent" adjective from his mouth every day...that comes more like once a week. Usually the adjective is "good." :)

So I was so pleased and proud of my first home-cooked meal that I took a picture of it before we sat down to eat. The first dinner menu of the Tyler home? Hayley's Spaghetti Casserole (a dish I made up when I was still living with my parents that I still need to come up with a clever name for), caprese salad and garlic french bread. I'm happy to say that the first dinner got the adjective "excellent."

 

Another fun picture-worthy meal we've had was a recipe my sister gave me: taco bowls. Oh so fun. I think the recipe was made to feed four...but just the two of us ate all eight taco bowls in one sitting, I'm ashamed to say. :) Oh, they were good.

For our one month anniversary, we decided to celebrate by eating the top of our wedding cake, rather than keeping the thing in the freezer for a whole year. We got inspired to invite Heather & Matt and Harrison & Vichka over for a celebration of marriage at which we would eat the cake and toast the night away using our crystal bride & groom champagne flutes that my great aunt has given each couple upon their engagement. We made sure that both other couples brought their champagne flutes and we provided chocolate fondue with angel food cake, blueberries, strawberries and bananas for dipping, the top of our wedding cake, a flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce, martinelli's and sparkling blueberry juice. This was my first occasion to entertain in my own little apartment, so I had such fun lighting the place up with candles, preparing all the eats, and arranging the table. 

The lovely couples at the party:

The table looked so beautiful when the flutes were filled with the sparkling drinks:

The toasting:

Each couple got to take a turn slicing a piece of cake together and feeding each other just as the bride and groom do at their wedding reception. Some of us were nice, others were not so nice...

All of that to say, these have got to be the best days of my life!