Hello November! It's appropriate to catch up on November today since it felt like Winter again. Oh those lovely two weeks of spring- they have given me enough hope to make it until May *I think*.

More than anything else over the last few months of silence, I feel particularly bad about not sharing any pictures of Eden's 3rd birthday party with family. Sorry grandparents!! In my defense I was newly pregnant (I get morning sickness early around 3 weeks), beginning to plan for simultaneous trips to Texas and Israel, Christmas shopping early for those trips, and married to a student approaching the end of a semester. Oh. And my DSLR camera broke. AGAIN. 5 minutes before the party. I didn't want to look at the quality of the iPhone pictures for a while. My camera was returned to me from the repair shop a mere two weeks ago- so brace yourself for months of lower quality photos!

Eden asked for a Nutcracker party. She became obsessed with the story after we gave her a beautiful picture book for Christmas in 2010. The guest list was a bit awkward as she has one girl friend and was very insistent that everyone coming would come prepared to dance and not act like soldiers or the mouse king. After much deliberation about how to include the boys I took the easy road out and invited all her adult girl friends instead. Admittedly I've since felt a bit guilty about leaving the poor boys out of such fun.

 
We decorated with a variety of dollar store snowflakes (and some beautiful large paper ones for the window sent from my mom!),  candy (from the land of sweets of course), and nutcrackers borrowed from a friend's collection.

 Eden got to pick out a nutcracker ornament for the Christmas tree and we used it as the cake topper.

 We served hot cocoa with toppings.

 And decorated a blank nutcracker for the birthday girl.

Eden's adult girl friends are a group of wonderful women who we meet with weekly for dinner and prayer as part of our Missional Order- a group of people from our church who all live in Highwood (boys come too :) ).  Eden really loves them all dearly and they surprised me with awesome dedication to making her birthday special. On their own they decided to make and wear tutus to surprise Eden. So we spent a night watching The Fall and crafting. It needs to be pointed out that there was no sneaking into the party and putting tutus on discreetly- these women proudly wore their tutus from their cars, down our street, and into our home. Eden was so excited!!

So we drank cocoa and painted.

And ate yummy cake.

And danced while watching an excerpt from a British ballet company's performance of The Nutcracker. 

 Here Eden is the next morning after her prized Nutcracker had dried:

On her birthday Thomas and I gave her a dollhouse. We had a lot of fun collaborating on a handmade kitchen for her first birthday, so we worked together again to put together a dollhouse kit.

Eden got to pick her favorite papers at Paper Source a month before without knowing that they would become the interior wallpaper. It was interesting figuring out how to use her picks!

Prepare yourselves for a few more bad pics of November, a lot from December, and a possible Israel trip post soon!

Grandparents!

My parents were able to come and visit recently, which was super awesome! There was some great Chicago weather for their trip and we packed a lot of fun into their 2.5 days here.

My dad had ever been to Chicago so our first objective was to spend some time in the city. We went to Giordano's in Hyde Park for lunch on their first full day. I will not be teasing you with pictures of delicious deep dish, but instead show you some luscious lips :). Eden has been really rocking the facial expressions the last few days!

After stuffing ourselves with pizza we headed to the Museum of Science and Industry. Having never been I didn't quite know what to expect and was surprised at the wide array of large exhibits. We hit up the circus first, then a submarine around which an entire building was constructed to house the exhibit, followed by cloned or genetically altered chickies (I was keeping up with a 3 year old and reading signs was trumped by staring at the cute fury things hatching from eggs), and then the elaborate miniature trains that meandered through open plains and small towns ending up scooting between skyscrapers. Here are the lovely conductor grandparents:

Eden was scared by the weather exhibit so we headed to the ToyMaker where she got to watch a factory set up make her toy- so cool! There was a children's museum-like explorer center with water games and big blocks, an elaborate miniature castle, Farmville with tractors and cows to climb, and a real airplane. Eden was so excited to see what the inside of a plane was and had us all sit down, buckle up, and fly to Israel- and of course do it all again so we wouldn't be stuck in Israel!

The next day we packed a picnic and headed to Wagner Farm which is our favorite "local" free activity, in a suburb about 15 minutes south of ours. It is an old family farm turned park district. They have tons of live animals and maintained vegetable gardens as well as some indoor activities.

Here is Eden checking out the new chickens:

And the cows:

And playing some of the indoor games:

(Pregnant belly alert!!)

Pie and grandpa are both awesome :)

We also played at the tree house in our local mall and walked to the beach near our house. About that time we got a call from Thomas that his tests were over!! He still has two comprehensive exams left to complete in May, but these were the hardest ones and we are both so glad they are over. And not just over, but Thomas feels very positive about his results. So we took him out for dinner to celebrate.

After a nice breakfast at our favorite little diner- the grandparents left, with Eden begging for a trip to Texas at their heals!


We dearly miss all of our family and covet these brief visits. We will be seeing more of everyone on our trip to Texas in May and are looking forward to drawing out a few more visitors with the promise of a  cute baby just around the corner.

Cabin Fever and Toddler Activities

Thank goodness today was gorgeous and warm!! It actually got to 61. I have been suffering from some major cabin fever. Eden played outside at school and after lunch we played at the park across the street from our house for an hour. It was a bit muddy with some 30 mph winds- but who noticed!? Our sleepy little park was crawling with kids. Since it's a toddler park, most kids are usually really close to Eden's age- SO FUN.

The weather definitely *made* the day, but it was pretty perfect otherwise as well. My insomnia is much better, and although not totally gone, I am getting enough consistent sleep that my tremors have returned to normal and I am not tired during the day. Huge answer to prayer!! This has allowed me to return to my schedule of getting up early, hitting the treadmill, getting ready for the day, and fitting in a quiet time. Eden went to school today, and I celebrated getting up early and working out, by not doing anything! I was a total couch (chair) potato- no dishes or laundry, just some time to plan out a few projects and catch up on blogs. Thomas went with me to pick Eden up from school- a rare treat- and joined us for a lunch of soup at our favorite North Shore coffee shop.
After lunch Eden and I hit up Paper Source and found little chicks. Perfect for a fun activity (pics below). Then home for some fun magnet board play and an hour at the park with 2 cute new friends. I celebrated again at quiet time and did NOTHING. When Eden got up we made a home for our chickies. She played with that until we headed over to a good friend's house for our Tuesday night dinner with our Missional Order from church. At bedtime, Eden sang Jesus loves Mommy this I know... SO SWEET :). My evening is ending with blogging and the latest episode of Project Runway All Stars- anyone else addicted to PR??

Back to the cabin fever, Pinterest has been awesome in helping me stretch myself and have fun activities available to keep Eden (and myself) from going crazy indoors the last couple weeks.


First there were the aqua beads. This is a great sensory activity. I do not recommend this for any kids likely to put them in their mouth. I can't see how they would be much of a choking hazzard as they are slippery like jello, but you never know, and they are marble sized. However, they are non-toxic, re-hydratable (no special storage or care required), and super super fun.

I hid little plastic dinosaurs in the bottom and Eden loved digging for them.
 

This is not a revelation of Pinterest, though I was reminded by a pin how fun "messy" kitchen floor play can be. Eden had a great time exploring which container held more water, etc.

Here's the magnet board mentioned earlier. It's an old toy, but Thomas showed her how to use different shaped magnets from the fridge to create new markings- she is hooked. The below picture is a crocodile eating snow (?).

 And of course there were the little chickies. Here's Eden's picture of them:

And here she is with their new home.

BTW- Thomas' major comps are in 1.5 weeks!! Please pray for him as he prepares for this stressful event. Thanks!

October 2011: Part 2

The last post got most of the way through October, but it would be wrong of me not to mention the Highwood Pumpkin Festival before I move onto November.

Coming from Nacogdoches, with the Blueberry Festival, Nine Flags, Multi-Cultural, Americana, etc, we feel a little bit more at home living in a quaint neighborhood that has festivals all year long.

During the Pumpkin Festival, which lasts 3 nights, people come downtown to carve pumpkins and place them on scaffolding that lines the streets (several rows high). They are all lit on the last night in hopes of breaking the record for most jack-o-latterns lit at once. 2011 was only the second year of the festival, but they succeeded! Over 32,000 pumpkins. It is quite a remarkable site.


Pumpkins can be bought from street vendors for $3 and everyone carves them while sitting on the sidewalks. Kids wear costumes. Eden was a monarch butterfly ($3 dance dress from goodwill, and pink wings we had painted black):

One view of a side street with scaffolding full of pumpkins:

Our pumpkins:

More scaffolding:

This year they had a lot more festivalish activities then in 2010. Aside from the carousels, fair games, petting zoo, pony rides, and live music they had a few unique things. One was a mini outdoor movie theater-projector screen with hay bails for seating and Halloween Scooby Doo episodes showing. The other was a dance floor (about the size of a small dining room) and DJ for a makeshift kiddie dance floor. Seriously- BEST IDEA EVER. We went two nights in a row and let Eden dance about 20 minutes each time. She would have danced all night. It was too dark to get good pictures, but that girl had some moves :). Black Eyed Peas Gotta Feeling was her favorite!

While sorting through October for festival picks I also ran across this:

Eden likes to make wishes in the mall fountains when we go to play at the indoor tree house. After seeing this ballerina mouse purse at Gymboree, and because of her love for Angelina (thanks Anna and Ryan!), she wished for it every time we went- FOUR TIMES IN A ROW.  So I watched online and when it went on clearance for less than $10 I ordered it. The fifth time we went, she made her wish (still for the mouse purse) and I pulled it out from behind my back. It was more exciting than Christmas :).

Sometimes being a mom feels like all work and discipline. It's really nice every once in a while to do something purely fun and magical.

*Disclaimer- the thank you to Anna and Ryan for Angelina love was NOT sarcastic. Thomas read this and thought it sounded so. We are huge fans at this house!

October 2011

As promised, here is the first installation of months I missed sharing :).

October is a fun time in North Shore. It was a very mild start to Winter so the weather was great for lots of outings.

Eden wanted to be a mermaid for Halloween. She spends a lot of time asking me to draw mermaids for her to color. Eden milks the benefits of having parents who can draw and is constantly requesting specific coloring pages from scratch.

For the costume, I found a gymnastics leotard at Goodwill that I used as a base for the top (the blue sparkly sequins part) and added shimmery fabric Eden helped pick out at Hancocks. The tail is actually an "apron" tied in the back. I used this tutorial as a guideline for constructing the fin, but kept it a bit short so she could run around.

There were a lot of pumpkin parties: school party, church party, and the playgroup party hosted at our house. We served peanut butter yogurt dip died orange:

 

Decorated pumpkins (I stole this idea from Eden's school):

Made caramel covered apples:

At some point in October Eden and I adapted this Martha Stewart craft to make pumpkins:

There was also a carnival at Eden's school. They do a lot of fun things :).  There was digging in the hay for prizes, hula hoop ring toss, and a magician.

At our church's Fall Festival there was a chili cook-off! We are such nerds when it comes to food competitions (we really miss Ryan's Burger Cook-Off!). We also miss doing chili and smores every Fall around our firepit at our Logansport St house. We used the chili recipe that we always served at those evenings and can be found here and won. We make very minor changes and I recommend you all make it immediately!

A local farm has a large "farm stand" near our church. The grounds are fairly large and they host a Fall Carnival with lots of rides, a pumpkin patch, and baby animals for oogling.

We bought all our little pumpkins from them. Eden had a blast because you have to wash them by hand in a big tub with a brush before purchasing.

By chance one day Thomas happened upon the most magical farmers market ever. This is in the back alley of Lake Forest's downtown shopping center. Along with regular produce they had every kind of crazy exotic root vegetable you could imagine, homemade gourmet jams, artisan cheese and bread, and lots more. We only discovered it the last two weeks of season. I can't wait until they reopen for spring!

We also finally made it to Growth Spurts. It's about a 25 minute drive and a bit pricey for an indoor play place. They have a great stock of Haba toys that I love but can't usually afford, the coolest play house (a little washing machine and ironing board included), and a constant rotation of art projects set out. Around the corner is a really fun diner. Perfect greasy spoon with a big box of kid's toys (Eden always chooses the dinosaurs to watch her eat). They tie Eden's straw in a knot and decorate her cup with stickers. There are also dozens of rubber duckies hanging from the ceiling. Such a fun outing when we need a break from our normal schedule!

And of course- there was just a lot of this- love this picture (had to document the mustache of course)!!

Quick Check In

Poor blog. So mistreated. The last time we posted was *squirm* November 1, 2011. Many of you requested more blogging over the holidays, so I'm going to try to get back on the blogging horse!
I constantly think about posting things, take pictures, etc, but fail to follow through, and I hate to not share some of the fun of the late fall/early winter: Halloween, Eden's Birthday, Christmas, so I am going to attempt to whisk through the next last few months to catch up.

But first, let me give a quick update on our current state as this blog primarily serves to keep everyone in the loop about how we're doing.

Thomas: Is working SO HARD. Currently he is set to graduate in May, but has quite a few hurdles on the path to completing his MA at Trinity. To accomplish this he has to take four comprehensive exams, complete his field experience, and finish a few classes. The first of his two exams are middle of March, the last two at the beginning of May. These are scary exams that require a LOT of reading (we're talking a heady book every 2 days). He has completed and submitted his PhD application for the Trinity Old Testament/ Ancient Near East program and should hear back about admittance in March/April. For his field experience he is teaching Old Testament Reading Skills at our church for 15 weeks. He is over-viewing everything from genre to geography to history to culture. It's a fascinating class and for those of you who know Thomas well, an opportunity come true :).

Eden:  Is having a much healthier Winter than past which is allowing her to consistently attend her nursery school and weekly Trinity playgroup. This has been a huge answer to prayer as we were afraid 1) she would rarely get to attend school due to illness and 2) that school would make her sick more often. We think she is picking up some reading/word recognition skills. Every once in a while she correctly identifies random words on boxes or in books. She of course will not do this on command (she won't even say correct letters and numbers on command which she certainly knows) but it's fun when she surprises us with her skills! She is very excited about being a big sister and plays mommy and doctor a lot (as most of you have seen demonstrated on Facebook). She still loves to dance and paint, and has gotten really into talking with various silly voices. Lastly, drumroll, she's potty trained!! And very proud of her panties :).

Katie: I have been really busy with Trinity Wives Fellowship publicity responsibilities, lots of fun advertisements and hosting/decorating for Moms Ministry events. I've also enjoyed using my art educator skills to prepare weekly crafts for Eden's Sunday school (though it isn't very challenging to come up with crafts that are neat and appropriate for 2-4 year olds = crayons + glue sticks). Since Christmas break I've tackled (with lots of help) a few house projects- painting an old china cabinet bright blue, organizing our basement, sewing for a few new babies, and organizing my "craft room." I'm sure I'll post pictures when I get caught up on the past few months. Of course, there's being pregnant! It hasn't been as easy as my first (I hear it rarely is). I am 17 weeks, and luckily morning sickness is long gone, but I have been struggling with insomnia (the kind that doesn't allow you to get deep sleep, I fall asleep just fine). Unfortunately lack of sleep aggravates my tremors so I've felt a little off the last month. Sleep is slowly returning to normal- more good nights then bad the last week- and my tremors are gradually improving too.This time around I feel much more anxious to meet the baby, having an awesome one around all day. We should find out if it is a boy or girl in 2.5 weeks, which will gladly give me some insight. Of course we will share when we find out!

Speaking of babies, and because I can't have a pictureless post, I thought I'd leave you with a few of our first born :). Aren't you all dying to know how a second version will turn out?!!!

sacred space and sacred people

Sorry to disappoint if you were hoping for another one of Katie's awesome posts, today you get Thomas :p

The apostle Paul once wrote in Romans 8 a passage that has hounded the corners of my mind for some time now.  I had some thoughts on it today, so I thought I'd exorcise them here (after writing it, I must warn that it is heady, confusing, and long) .  Below, I've changed the formatting but not the order of the passage:

 ----------
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

     - For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
     - For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that
     - the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
     - And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved.
     - Now hope that is seen is not hope.
For who hopes for what he sees?
     - But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
 ----------

The theologians I have read lately have wanted to say that the groaning of creation relates to the desire of non-human creation to be caught up in Jesus Christ.  Unpacked, that seems to mean that creation wants to participate in Jesus' redemptive power, as well as his creative power (Jn. 1:3: all things were made through him).  I thought, "Of course, creation knows the creative power of Jesus; creation was created!  But what manner of redemption is needed for non-sentient stuff, the amoral creation?  They did not fall into sin."

Growing up, teachers pointed to God's cursing the ground in Genesis 3 as a kind of brokenness to the very fabric of created order.  Maybe then, creation would need redemption.... but honestly, I never bought that.  I've reread the passage closely.  Our relationship with creation, especially agriculture, was broken, not the thing itself.  I mean, the Garden of Eden was filled with a fully functional garden (created and certainly agricultural) so if something went wrong, creation could still function rightly sans humanity. Right?

So if Luther wrote about humanity's "Bondage of the Will" then what is in the book about creation's "Bondage to Corruption" (cf. passage above)?  We are saved, and have faith in this, and sometimes even do so patiently!  Therefore, we are patient groaners.  And creation is too.  Strangely enough, that really does remind me of our plight.  Are you a patient groaner too?

Today's insight comes in a roundabout way.  First, baptism is a symbol of death and rebirth. Namely our participation in Christ's death. But in many ways it is a proclamation about our future death, that we will rise from it in order to truly live. In other words, we are prefiguring our ultimate adoption as children of God with new bodies (again, cf. passage above). 

Secondly, creation is also promised a "new body."  See the new earth in Is. 65:17, II Pt. 3:13, and Rev. 21:1.  Not again with water, but with fire creation will die and then be reborn.

Third, is the application the "already/not yet" concept.  It is means that the Kingdom of God has come, is coming, and will come.  So, it is clear what is "not yet" (eternal life, love, etc.).  The "already", I believe, is the sanctification, transformation, reconciliation, and other -ation's made possible by the indwelling Holy Spirit in us.

Last, the "already" for creation is also the indwelling Holy Spirit in us.  This makes sense for at least three reasons. #1 - in the passage above, creation and humanity seem to have parallel and simultaneous experiences. #2 - in Genesis 3, creation and humanity were subjected also to our respective bondages simultaneously.  We became futile on the same day.  #3 - in Heaven and Eden, God's purpose for humanity is to live with him, as his sacred people.  Perhaps, God's purpose for creation is to be in his presence, as his sacred space. 

In sum:

Creation was unwillingly subjected to a corrupt people who made profane space in creation necessary.  And so creation futilely strove to be sacred. In ancient temples, mankind would present an idealized creation with gardens and iconography, which often depicted scenes from their "creation stories."  Unfortunately for our profane space, these temples did not house God, save one. But now! Creation has this promise of sacred space again.  Creation is home to the Holy Spirit, roaming across the land again in temples that are not made by human hands (Acts 7).  The Church and Creation both have tongues of flame resting upon them, awaiting the fuller cleansing of our corruption and the surpassing glory that is to be among us, sacred space and sacred people.