A Fortnight in Chicago

I was so hoping I would not fall into my old blogging habits and post more regularly, but it seems old habits are hard to kick. Of course it's easier when you're forced to give up habits because the ritzy community you just moved to doesn't have a decent coffee shop and the half-decent shop DOESN'T OWN A HIGHCHAIR. Sigh. Java Jacks- I long for your sweet baristas, your eclectic regulars, and yes, even your way too hot coffee and overcooked scones.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, onto the good stuff. Thomas' first week of class is done, although due to weird scheduling, his Wednesday class has not yet met. He only has classes on Wednesday and Thursday leaving the rest of the time to read, read, read, eat, hug Eden, and read some more. I believe the count for pages he has to read this week is 1000+ ! Wednesday is Warfare in the Ancient Near East from 7:15 (am!!)- 12. Thursday is Chapel @ 11, formation group 12-1:30, Old Testament Theology 1:30-6, and Systematic Theology III 6:30-9:30. There is a possibility he will be adding a 1 hour ceramics class to make his schedule full time. As you can tell, his Thursdays are really busy, and this last Thursday was his birthday! Thanks so much for all the well wishers, it meant a lot. I sent him off to his formation group with Banana chocolate chip cake to share- a little worried that he would be embarrassed, feeling as though it was his first day of kindergarten because I was sending him off with goodies for the class. To soften the blow of not getting to do anything together on his birthday I also made him Guinness Milk Chocolate Ice Cream the night before. YUM. Thomas came home very excited and is having a lot of fun recounting class discussions and readings.

Last night we got a babysitter (yes, when you're passing out crazy parent awards remember the time we got a babysitter after living in a place for 2 weeks and meeting said babysitter only twice) and met old Wheaton friends at a Tapas restaurant to celebrate Thomas' 29 years with a bit more style. The food was delicious and the slow pace of eating tapas was really fun.

Sunday morning we visited the Evangelical Free Church. Last Sunday we visited the Church of the Redeemer. We have met a lot of community through both churches and have been received with warm, genuine smiles (and good nurseries). It's a strange business finding a new church, please pray for guidance as we look for our new spiritual home! On our way to church last Sunday, we bumped into a very sweet couple from the apartment building opposite ours. During a brief parking lot conversation, we found out Blaise (husband) started at Trinity's Seminary in August. Upon arriving at the church they were there too! We've touched base a few times and it seems that we have made our first official friends, and they're 20 yards away! If it wasn't for said 1000+ pages of reading we'd be watching a movie right now :).

We have also met our downstairs neighbors. In a great show of southern hospitality we made lemon curd filled cupcakes and delivered them in order to make our introductions. One apartment contains two female trinity students who are also avid babysitters and will most likely become our go to childcare in the future. The other apartment contains the Russians: Vlad (dad), Demetri (son), and Vlad's mom. Demetri was so pleased with his cupcake that a few days later he showed up at our door with his father and a bowl of beliashi (Russian meat pies) that he had asked his grandmother to make for us. Other than the obvious reasons this pleased us (yum) it was so sweet because the trinity girls previously told us they had never met their neighbors in the 1.5 years in this builiding. Score one for southern hospitality! I had to out check out the book Memories from a Russian Kitchen to remember what they were called, which also meant I got to explore the library. It ROCKS. I will post more about that later, but just leave you with the fact that there is a fire pit in the middle of the non-fiction lounge area.

Thanks for reading through such a long post. Hopefully they will become shorter but more frequent!