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A first entry about the married life - since everybody's asking. Then again, do I really know how married life is? It's been only 6 months! (...of blessings!!!). A lot of people I meet comment on how lucky I am to have a professional chef in the home. I wholeheartedly agree, and then reflect on how obviously I lack in expertise as compared to the skills he brings to the literal table! Still, I have found my place in the Meghawache kitchen. Nidal experiments with whatever is available, and voila, he creates a masterpiece. I decide to experiment, I spend about ten minutes sifting through recipes and another ten minutes dragging ingredients out of storage, I waste about two hours in prep and clean-up, after which he comes in and lets out an exasperated sigh while he finishes my clean-up, and then he "fixes" my experiment. Fortunately to the benefit of my ego, he has been fixing my experiments less and less, and so some days I promote myself from sous-chef to chef. I suppose that with experimenting and improvising, I have learned a lot in how to respond to advice from Nidal or being corrected by God. In the kitchen, improvisation has been a lengthy learning process. Never had I deviated from recipes, and so with my blinders on I often just recreated what others had already perfected. I'd never been alerted to the fact that I CAN create something new or improved, until Nidal showed up with every possibility either in his memory or imagination. The same rings true with my "way" of going about the rest of life. Often I have been so stuck in doing things "my way", or "the way things have always been done", or even "the way of the world" as society and culture advises lives to be lived, that I have dismissed a better or more efficient "way" by suggestion of my new husband or by a whisper of direction from God. The great thing is that NONE OF US KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING. We're all living our lives for the very first time. It's totally okay to improvise, to receive advice and reach out for more knowledge, and to allow mistakes and imperfections to teach us (but not to allow mistakes to dictate our worth)! On a side note, it is thrilling for me to see spouses join forces in pursuing a healthy lifestyle together, as I know there is an extra heaping serving of accountability. I am always impressed when I see a husband joining in on the pursuit of good nutrition, as from what I have seen, often it is the wife encouraging healthy habits (although, from personal experience, we aren't always successful at maintaining them!). Even more impressive is a man who cooks - and cooks healthy food to nourish his family! I've certainly been blessed by God in that realm, since I found my match in Nidal. All the blessings in the world on your health journey! May you always be excited to experiment with new healthy foods.