Routine: 8 A.M.

On weekdays, 8am means work! Lunchboxes are loaded because we don't eat out much anymore. Laptops fire up when we work from home. Early morning conference calls are conducted on our mobile phones because no one goes to work that early just for a meeting. Cars are warmed up for the short trips to work. A typical American workday is in full swing.

I work only about 6 minutes drive from home. The short distance was one consideration for living in this part of town. At work, my responsibilities span anywhere from writing web services and scripts, to responding to support and admin tickets, to managing licensing and a hybrid environment of disparate services, to managing the technical aspects of projects and product releases, and facilitating the movement of business data/reporting. For the next 8-10 hours, I wear the geek hat.

She works 15 minutes drive up the interstate, supporting a team of web developers as an admin, updating websites and other resources for child sponsorship, processing contracts, and facilitating meetings or events. That both our jobs are flexible is one perk, but the benefits and stability are definitely welcome. We are aware of the difficulty finding work these days, so we don't take what we have for granted.

An hour before the workday starts, we have breakfast and devotionals as we have done since our wedding day. It's pretty common now that breakfast is the only meal we can count on eating together because of various other evening obligations. We tried doing lunch once a month together but it didn't quite work out. Six o'clock brings us back home for much needed unwinding. Ours is still a very simple life indeed.

Routine: 5 A.M.

Three hours after I wake up, the world around me begins to stir from their sleep. You hear more cars leaving the apartment complex or cruising on the nearby street, and chatter beyond the neighbors' walls. The relative peace of early morning begins to evaporate. My wife awakes about an hour later and goes about her workout and preparations for the day.

At 5AM, I study for a couple of hours whatever topic is of interest that month. This month, for example, has been all about Apache HTTP Server on odd days of the week, and French (language) on even days. Although I'll continue studying French until April or May, the next few months will also touch on jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch, and the topic of responsive web design. The question is how much I can learn in a month (or thereabouts) about something specific, and the goal is to learn enough to be able to apply the knowledge in my current environment. This is how I am able to keep abreast on so many topics throughout the year.

Routine: 2 A.M.

Since I only need about 4-5 hours of sleep per day, I have plenty of wake hours to spare. So that I don't waste the time, it helps to have some routine that I swing into daily.  I'm usually wide awake around 2am, without an alarm clock, ready to get rolling. Except for vehicles driving on the nearby street and the occassional dog barking, those early morning hours are remarkably peaceful and productive. The next 3 hours are spent programming or studying something related to software development. On weekdays, I work on LeafCompass.com. On weekends, I focus on personal projects, including a new version of a financial app and a management application for my business.

I've found this 2am - 5am time slot consistently productive such that anything requiring a clear mind and serious focus should be done then. I can usually also cross off a few others tasks: I might look through our finances (online banking and investment portfolios) and respond to messages (emails and social networking messages) from the previous day.

This Year's Devotional

As we have done (almost) everyday since we got married, we do devotionals in the morning during breakfast. This year, we will be engrossed in "The One Year Love Language Minute Devotional" by Gary Chapman. A week into it so far, we like how this devotional is reminding us of things we ought to continually do as a married couple, little things that we had began to neglect.

I personally am not big on the whole "love language" movement that is prevalent in the church today, but I do see its value: that couples ought to learn to communicate love to each other. I think that although people might have a few ways they prefer to communicate or express love, you can learn other ways as well. So I do not see the point of being hedged into one "language" other than having it be the first step towards a diversity of expression. As you may guess, I do not feel like I have a specific love language, which is quite frustrating for my wife to contend with. Yes, I have done the love language test twice and wound up with two different designations (touch and acts of service).

In agreeing to do this devotional however, my goal is to learn enough about how my wife communicates and how I should communicate for her to feel loved. It may be through one of these languages or other ways that are uniquely hers. Maybe I'll find out I have a language too, although I maintain that any one works for me, as long as I recognize the intent and effort to express love through it. It's really all about effective communication in a marriage.

The Year That Was 2012

Is it me, or did 2012 zip by way too fast? Here on its last day, we think back to what were the highlights of the year. First of all, we are utterly grateful to our God for having seen us through another year without any hiccups. Our union has grown stronger in spite of flares here and there, as is common in any marriage. Reflecting on the concluding year, the theme seems to have been "settle": we finally got a lot of things right or in place and grew comfortable in our roles as married people.

There were no major events in our lives this year, but a few of note:

• We both maintained our current employment. We continue to be thankful for the benefits and flexibility the jobs offer us, and that they finance our livelihood comfortably.
• SHE run a 5K marathon for the first time -- the Turkey Trot, with her friends.
• We started attending a married couples' Bible study every other week, where we fellowship over soup and wine. It is awesome to learn from others that have been married a little longer than us.
• HE acheived his 10-year employment milestone at his current job, and is eligible to take a 5-week sabattical anytime. Maybe some travel is in order.
• SHE continued to work with high school girls from church as a leader of a weekly Bible study group.
• We hosted numerous friends for dinner almost every month (the Meyers, the Weeks, the Danjumas, the Sears, the Clarks, the Sterns, our friends Kelly+Seth, a baby shower for the Summers, the Kitikats, the Baileys). I mentioned our hosting tradition in previous posts.
• We also hosted our second Christmas Brunch and Hangout on Christmas day. Basically, we prepare a hearty brunch for family and friends at our house and hang out later for games, movies, hikes, or hot-tubbing, among other things. It's a tradition we intend to maintain going forward.
• We've continued to do our cooking experiments. This year we did some Russian and Australian/New Zealand dishes, and quite a few African foods. I still need to learn to make kebabs properly to totally disconnect my dependence on that Ghanian lady that I buy African food from a lot.
• We went camping in Wyoming for a week with our friends the Schiefs and the Weeks. Aside from the unfortunate event while white-water rafting, it was good times being away for a little while.
• HIS cousin Venex visited from Uganda. After 14 years without seeing each other, it was good to catch up in person and get updated about the situation back in Uganda.
• Our newest niece Emma was born! We hosted her baby shower back in August.
• For three weeks, we did not need to buy juice: we had a lot of fresh-pressed apple cider from the Totems farm, where we had gone to help prepare it one weekend.
• We celebrated our anniverssary in Estes Park, Colorado. We intend to celebrate our anniversaries in a different state each year (or so we think for now).
• We worked out to the tune of "Insanity", "P90X", and other BeachBody.com DVDs. SHE has been more religious about exercise than HE.
• HE started working a big project (leafcompass.com) through his business, alongside completion of several other small projects. This year, it's become clear that his small business is viable and worth developing into a self-employment venture.
• HE officially became a drummer, able to play whole church services. He still plays bass guitar at their home church. She still has not picked up guitar.
• We officially dove into the world of financial investments, staking half of our emergency fund into municiple bonds. There is interest to do mutual funds and even riskier stocks.
• We ramped up our plans to complete our house in Uganda, currently ready for a painting and furnishing phase. We'll have two residences -- in the US and in Uganda as needed (where his family is).
• We visited our mentors the Hunters in Kentucky. We intend this to be an annual trek, if possible. They ooze wisdom and insight, and we appreciate that they can share their lives with us.
• We started our monthly date nights. Yes, we dress up and go have a fancy meal somewhere exotic. Highly recommended for all couples, to take a break once in a while and go enjoy yourselves. The idea of lunch dates every couple of weeks didn't quite catch on.
• SHE visited Las Vegas for a bridal shower, and then Washigton state for the wedding of her friends. Lots of travel this year.
• HER friends Shannette and Victoria visited us. Speaking of visitors, we need to find a better air mattress that can hold its own the whole weekend. We've returned air mattresses three times this year.
• The Waldo Canyon fire affected us too: we self-evacuated when most of our neighbors were given evacuation orders and the smoke was too thick around our apartment complex. We were out for 3 days, but we did not lose any property.
• Losses that affected us profoundly: one of his groomsmen lost his wife, and another lost their unborn child. This hit too close to home, the saddest moments of the year.

 We live very simple lives and are thankful for each day His mercies are renewed for us. With much vigor and expectation, we look forward to 2013.