The Time Crunch

The holidays are always difficult in terms of things that need to be finished and the amount of time that we actually have to finish those tasks.  This fact--along with my devotion to NaNoWriMo and recent travels that Katelyn and I have undertaken--has contributed in a major way to the drop-off in posting activity here at "The Groom's Take".

Even though Katelyn and I work in two very different fields--she as an architectural intern at a local residential firm, me as an adjunct instructor at a private university--our jobs both come "to a head" around the holidays.  She's trying to finish drawings and details so that they can be sent out to a work site before the office closes down until after the New Year.  In the past few weeks, I was preparing my students for the submission of their end-of-semester work and then evaluating their overall semester performance to turn in their final grades.  In the midst of all that, I had to travel to Bangor to read end-of-semester portfolios from other teacher's students as well.

These "holiday circumstances" aside, however, the fact that Katelyn and I work in entirely-unrelated fields creates some difficulty in terms of time management for the relationship.

My New Family

Judging from the title, I'm sure many of you would expect this post to be about the Cooper Family, who I will be grateful to have as in-laws once Katelyn and I are married next October.  However, many of the members of Katelyn's family live far from Maine, and while I will see them on holidays and other important dates, there is a more readily-apparent addition to my family unit now that I have been living with Katelyn in Blue Hill for the past month and a half: her cats, Teagan and Gabriel.

From Our Kitchen to Yours: Moreau Family Crèpes

Now, I may not be as famous as Julia Child and I'm certainly not as popular as Julie Powell and her blog about working through Child's cookbook, and there's no real chance that I'll be able to parlay this blog into a feature-length movie where I'm portrayed by Amy Adams (that'd be somethin'), but I do have a family recipe to share.  Growing up in a Franco-American family (my mom's side), my grandmother (or Mèmère, as we called her) Normande Moreau used to make home-made crèpes for me almost every day of the week.  It certainly didn't help me keep a slim figure growing up, but I will always remember those days in her kitchen/dining room, waiting for a plate of crèpes and syrup.

Since I moved in with Katelyn shortly after getting engaged, I have been trying to be an equal contributor since she has the "bread-winning" job and I'm doing a job that, while it helps me build my résumé, does not provide the kind of income I would like.  One of my contributions has come in the form of introducing Katelyn to these crèpes, which have now replaced pancakes on her list of favorite breakfast-y foods.  Join us in our kitchen for the evening as we make "Moreau Family Crèpes" together.

House-Groom-to-Be

There is one major aspect of my relationship with Katelyn that is a concern to me as things are right now, and that is the fact that I do not make anywhere near as much money as Katelyn does through my work.  As a person who went through high school and college always working and always having enough money to take care of things, this is a new position for me to be in, and it is a somewhat embarrassing position to be in as Katelyn's fiancé and supposed provider.  I wonder how people feel when they look at this relationship from the outside, because from a traditional standpoint (and a gender-biased standpoint), the man is supposed to be the main provider for his family.  I know that Katelyn's family loves and accepts me, but I still fear sometimes that an outsider might view my current relationship with Katelyn as parasitic because while I contribute love and happiness, I am unable to contribute financially.

This is what it means to be a House-Groom-to-Be.