Community

During the summer preaching series at our church we are reviewing Galatians, specifically Chapter 1 last week. Because of the discussion of unity, the liturgy included Psalm 133.

Pslam 133

When Brothers Dwell in Unit

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

133:1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
3 It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.

Our family is so BLESSED by the house group out of our church that I was overwhelmed with emotion when this Psalm was read. Good. Pleasant. Precious oil.  Our church's house groups are referred to as Missional Orders and are set up based on location of members. There's a nice number of us here in Highwood. Instead of following a Bible study, we meet to help each other mature in Christ and discern how we can bring God's kingdom into our community. I know that can sound lofty, but God is at work in tangible ways in these people, this group, and the community. It's humbling to witness to say the least.

We of course have made a lot of friends through Trinity, as expected, but it's taken me by surprise how close I've become to our church community. My Trinity friends are so similar to me- mostly families with young children, husbands studying all the time, our futures seem so similar (in regards to our husbands careers). It's not surprising I expected to find support through this group. And I do.
By contrast, our Missional Order contains a mix of single and married people, some students, some not, secular jobs, church jobs, Eden is the only kid. When joining the group I wondered how our family would fit into this group that meets for a later dinner on a week night in houses that aren't child proofed. Wow- God really had a lot to show me about the unity found in his people.

Thomas left for Israel yesterday. He has arrived safely in Jerusalem, and as I am preparing to go to sleep, he is just getting up to start his first full day of exploration. While he is across the world and our family is 1000 miles south of Chicago, I can completely rest in the knowledge that I have the support of a group of people that love our family, know our needs, love as Christ loved, and serve sacrificially.

Oh, and of course we have a lot of fun.

 

Last week I brought dessert to house group. It was a good excuse to get a new toy (which if you're curious works wonderfully and tastes even better).

For Affogato Ice Cream Cake.

Basically a chocolate and vanilla ice cream cake with a chocolate wafer and chocolate chip crust and chocolate top layer served with espresso poured on top.

It was awesome. The recipe is found here: Chocolate Cakes.

Now I just need a good excuse to get this and then I can enjoy homemade lattes :).

The pure wishes of a child :)

Today Eden and I talked a lot about Israel. Thomas will be flying there next Thursday and I wanted her to understand a bit about where he was going. We got out a world map and looked at where we live, where Texas is, and then where Israel is. We discussed that this is where Jesus was born. Next she wanted to look up a picture of Jesus. After discussing that we have no real pictures, Thomas found an image that would probably be fairly accurate to appease her curiosity.
Several hours later at the dinner table Eden started pretending that she was an airplane. She explained it held lots of people and could fly her to Texas and fly Daddy to where Jesus was born.
Then she looked up at me and exclaimed "Mommy! I want to see Jesus!"
I'm so happy you do baby girl, and I often pray hard that you have that passion for a very long time.


Oh and here's a cute picture, because, why not?

Fathers Day 2011

Happy Fathers Day to a WONDERFUL guy :). Thomas works so hard and still always has tons of time for me and Eden. I can't even comprehend the responsibility he has right now: deciding his Fall schedule (which sets the course for his future PhD and career because he has to choose which ancient language to specialize), finding and applying to PhD programs, learning French, not un-learning Hebrew, researching everything there is to know about the site he leaves for in Israel in a week, creating Sunday school curriculum. These decisions will affect the future of our family in a big way, where we'll live in 1 year and also in 5 years, what kind of career he might have, etc, but they are decisions he ultimately has to make on his own. WOW. I just have to decide what's for dinner and I struggle :). He does it all with strength and still supports the community around him whenever there's a need. He even cooked dinner twice last week. Oh, and let's not forget he's quite handsome :). That doesn't really effect his fathering, but it's still true. Eden is blessed to have a father with family as such a high priority, who is patient with her, and makes her butterfly wings when she asks.

Happy Fathers Day!

2011

Fathers Day

2010

Fathers Day

2009

Cupcake Tasting Part II

As mentioned in the last post, I threw a Chicago Cupcake Tasting for my 29th birthday. After collecting cupcakes from 8 Chicago bakeries I invited a group of gals (I think about a dozen came) to sample them and vote for their favorite bakery.

Here's the spread:

Sprinkles: Strawberry, Cinnamon Sugar, Chocolate Marshmallow (hiding in the background), Vanilla, Dark Chocolate with Sprinkles

Crumbs: Grasshopper



Crumbs: Cosmo, Baba Booey, Green Tea, Chocolate Covered Strawberry, Raspberry Swirl, Cappucino

More Cupcakes: Margarita, Vanilla Raspberry, Amaretto Coconut, Chocolate Champagne, White Russian













Cupcakes: Breakfast Cupcake, Salted Caramel, Death by Chocolate, S'mores

Molly's Cupcakes: Lemon Meringue, The Ron Bennington, Cookie Monster, Blueberry Cheesecake

Phoebe's Cupcakes: Sangria, Peanut Butter Fudge

Bleeding Heart Bakery: Veruca Salt, Lemon Lavendaer, Oaxacan Hot Chocolate, Blueberry Basil, Strawberry Shortcake

Swirlz: Mango Passionfruit, Vanilla, Twixie, Red Velvet

Sugar Bliss: Chocolate Peppermint, Strawberry Dream, Chocolate Caramel

We cut each cupcake in fourths. Everyone was given a note card and asked to jot down their favorite three bakeries.

It was the first opportunity I'd had to have my two worlds collide- Trinity and Life (School) on The Vine (Church), at least in my home. It was nice that some already knew each other :). Lots of fun was had.

In the end, we decorated a shiny plaque for the winner: Phoebe's Cupcakes!

It was fun, and I think I might do it next year when I turn 29 again.

Chicago Cucpake Tasting Part 1

It seemed ludicrous that I had lived in Chicago for almost 1.5 years without visiting ANY cupcake shops. That was all remedied for my birthday this year. Thomas gave me the day off so I could snag a friend and head into the city to collect cupcakes from EIGHT cupcake bakeries. This of course ended in the planning of a party to eat the cupcakes. Seriously, who wants to hate cupcakes by eating so many in one day? This task required friends. For now we'll just focus on the hunt. I will list more about the flavors when I talk about the cupcake tasting party in a later post.




Bakery #1: Bleeding Heart Bakery
We started at the most northern stop, in Rosco Village. This is a local, sustainable, punk rock bakery, which happily had punk rock customers. Tattoed up, listening to blaring punk music, eating cupcakes, at 10am. There was awesome people watching to be had.

They sold a lot more than cupcakes, but it wasn't hard to stick to our mission because their cupcakes looked fantastic.

There's my friend Eileen who I took on the crazy adventure- so glad to have her along :).

We ordered humongous scones for breakfast. I had a ginger scone (it had the largest chunks of candied ginger I've ever eaten whole and was not for the faint of heart. I couldn't pass up the chocolate covered bacon. YES. It was delicious.

Bakery #2:  Phoebe's Cupcakes
A very different aesthetic from Bleeding Heart, Phoebe's was sort of cottage chic in the Lakeview neighborhood. Their art was very intriguing to me, it seemed a bit more edgy than the rest of their shop.

 

We, of course, told everyone what we were doing (it helped me feel better about snapping a million photos). This guy was totally into it and gave us 2 free cupcakes.

One had bacon :). It might me an odd trend, but I'm loving it.

 Bakery #3:  Molly's Cupcakes
Next we headed slightly south into Lincoln Park. This one made me want to do my homework before our trip (oooohhh the bad puns!). There was obviously some solid reasoning behind the name and decor of Molly's Cupcakes and I thought it was the cutest on our tour.

The place was decked out with vintage school house ephemera and memorabilia that highlighted the cool things Mrs. Molly did with her students. Some of the cupcakes were named after her friends and favorite things.

 

There was also a sprinkle station :).

 


Bakery #4: Swirlz Cupcakes
Swirlz was also in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Their buttercream cupcakes were really cute and their staff was super sweet.

The Twixie cupcakes looked familiar, but way more decadent.

Bakery #5:  Sprinkles

After a quick lunch at Kim and Scott's Pretzel Cafe we headed into the heart of the city to checkout the most popular bakery, Sprinkles. 

Wow, did people ever love their Sprinkles. If you saw a group of 5+ teenie boppers carrying designer bags headed down the sidewalk you knew exactly where you were going. It was a bit crazy in there.

I sort of felt like they were going to start screaming and throwing themselves on the cupcakes like they were the Jonas Brothers (or whatever bad is popular now, I know I'm 5 years too late for that comment).

Bakery #6:  More Cupcakes
This was a very nice contrast to Sprinkles, and it was just across the street (they were both on Millineum Mile). It was TINY. And crowded. But it was also relatively quiet.

And REALLY luxurious.

Bakery #7:  Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique
We hopped on the L and headed about 1 mile south for our last two visits. Oh Sugar Bliss, you had many hard acts to follow and it might be for that reason that you were so unimpressive in the sea of bakeries, but nonetheless there are no memories or observations to share. This was honestly a very vanilla little shop. I'm sure if I lived in the neighborhood I'd be happy they were there.

Bakery #8:  Crumbs
Crumbs was not a necessary stop because I was spoiled and received a dozen assorted crumbs cupcake the day before our tour via mail from the awesome Anna and Ryan. But I have ordered their cupcakes as presents in the past (they have great variety and do mail order),wanted to visit them in person, and we were a mere few blocks away.

 These guys were really excited about the cupcake tasting as well, though they didn't offer us free cupcakes :).

Check back for the party post!

Sleepy Eden

Here's the latest installment of sleeping Eden pictures. The first three rows are the same pictures I posted last time, but the rest have never before been posted. I think I've only missed a few nights. Enjoy!