Trip to the Farmer's Market

Puppy Dog Tails

My younger brother and his wife are expecting their first child in September - a boy! This little bundle of joy will also be the child who makes me an aunt.

I'm ecstatic. And, as such, have been hunting Etsy and other places and favoriting a number of things. I obviously won't be able to purchase all of these things. (Nor would the baby or parents to-be have need or desire for all of them.) So, on the presumption that I have a number of friends who like to ooh-and-awe over baby and young child things whether you have a tiny human in your life or not - -I present a treasury of Baby/Toddler/Little Boy Cuteness! (Plus, some of my facebook friends flat out asked me to tell them what I favorited. Twist my arm!) I'm including things from etsy and elsewhere around the web!

(And just because it seems the thing to do to make these disclaimers: I don't know any of these sellers nor do I get anything from them for "advertising" here. I just like the stuff!)

1. Onesie Sticker Photo-Props. I love these little month markers you can use for your home photo shoots by Lil Baby Bumblebee . Just stick them on a onesie and voila! personalized age outfit. There are a variety of sticker designs for little boys (and girls). I love the transportation ones pictured and the ties are super cute as well.

2. Locavore Baby Onesies from UncommonGoods.com.  Earthy green and red with "Produced Locally" and "All Natural" printed on the front. It makes my hippie side giggle.

3. Off-road wood cars. These rugged vehicles and landscapes are made by Smiling Tree Toys. I'm a sucker for basic, plain, wood toys.

4. Click. You just said, "rawr!" out-loud didn't you? Mhm. Me too. A cute little dinosaur onesie from Rock River Tees.

5..Baby Cowboy Boots.  From Puddin' Toes. Pretty much impossible not to awwwww at that.

6. Custom Birth Announcement Art  There's something about the spelling out of "eight-o-nine in the evening" that makes me love this.  From Invite Me Designs.

7. Houndstooth on a Baby.  I think this is more in line with my style than the style of my nephew's parents - - but what an adorable hat and shoe set!  By Pink 2 Blue

8. I really like these graphic animal prints as they seem they would transition well from baby-boy to little-boy room. From  N. Eve Designs

9. Felted Tool Set. I really do love this. It's ages 3 and up though so I'll just have to wait. From Uncommon Goods.

10. A variety of socks: Baby Tube Socks, Shoe Socks, Puppet Socks, and Oxford Socks . All from Uncommon Goods.


Feel free to share any of your favorite baby/toddler/little-boy things :)

Photo Dump

A few blog posts that have been in various stages of drafts over the past number of weeks that will hopefully be coming to you soon:

• A few of my favorite things: I'm Going To Be An Aunt Edition. Brought to you by hours of clicking "add to favorites" on etsy. 
• Breaking Fashion Rules. Because I like to pretend like I'm a rebel and fashion rules are good ones to break.
• A Decade Ago: Thoughts on hitting that 10 Years since High School mark in life.
• Thankful Lists. I promise I'm thankful. I'm just a bad blogger.

But for now, you get an assortment of random pictures that I found on my camera:


I knew better, but I thought I would see if canned sweet tea was worth it for 79 cents. It was not. Brew your own.



I wore a very bright pink dress the other day and took a very blurry picture of it. It's better than the pic I took where I have no head though. I post it because I like the dress. :)



I made some super simple cards:







We had quite a few days of really hot weather (at times followed by days in which I grabbed a jacket. I love Chicago.) I enjoyed the feel of the grass on the warm days though.



I bought glasses to wear in public for the first time in 12 years:



There are a number of these old-fashioned signs around Chicago. Finally took a quick picture of one. Need to do more and better photos.



And am well stocked for summer reading:

America: It's a country, not a god.

Disclaimer: Please note that I am discussing patriotism within the church. While I do have pacifists leanings and aversions to strong patriotism in any context, I don't hate soldiers and believe that a government that literally asks for the lives of its people should treat those people and their families with respect and dignity.

I grew up in a church that regularly incorporated patriotism into worship. On "patriotic weekends"  like Memorial Day, 4th of July, Veteran's Day, etc - we pledged to the flag, sang the theme song of each of the branches of the military, and talked of the honor and sacrifice of the soldiers of our country. During the summer Vacation Bible School camp we said the pledge every day. One of the churches I attended in college had similar patriotic celebrations.

And while I value many things I learned and the foundation of faith I received in that church - I was never comfortable with the overt patriotism. Not even as a child. Even then I thought it was odd and questionable to spend time set apart to worship God in order to worship a nation. Even as a child and teenager who aligned herself with the conservative/fundamentalist beliefs about society and scripture and believed that wars could be just I still found it odd that we pledged allegiance to a nation whose status of "under God" was as questionable during the days of those famed founding fathers as it is today.

And now today as a pacifist-leaning adult I find it downright appalling that we can use a Sunday morning to choose to worship a vastly imperfect nation in lieu of worshiping the nonpartisan God of the Universe

So, I guess I shouldn't have been shocked when a friend showed me this picture of the church bulletin at my childhood church this morning, but I was.

I literally gasped. And the first thought that entered my head was, "Does he get 40 virgins too?"   Because when you take a verse out of context and imply through the imagery that a man who dies fighting for America is  in the will of God and therefore guaranteed eternal life you might as well start up a kamikaze training program in your church. Not only does this image with the accompanying words suggest that war is the will of God, but it also suggest that all those who die in such a war are guaranteed eternal life.

And I know that's not what they're trying to say. I know that I'm being extreme and making a big jump. But the history of the church includes the scar of hundreds of years of people killing in the name of God and eternal life. (And don't try to get out of that history, Protestants, it happened before the reformation.) And, I could talk about Hitler or the KKK and how they each called upon the favor of  God  in their search for  political gains or ideals..

So I'm going to be extreme with this. Because they shouldn't have used God to justify their political  violence and we shouldn't either - no matter how noble or just we may believe our cause to be.

When you present information in order to influence an audience towards a specific belief - that's called propaganda. And while propaganda is a neutral term in its denotation alone, the negative connotations are evident here - this image uses an emotional scene, strong words, and a Biblical passage removed from it's proper context in order to influence a church-going audience towards a political opinion.    

That verse on that image in context says:

1  John 2:15-17

 ¹⁵Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. ¹⁷And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever

I'd like to compare the 1 John passage to another  verse that talks about being undefiled by the world and how to live out the will of the Father - and it gives some pretty clear directions on what that looks like.

James 1:27

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

I am so very grateful that while I now still attend an evangelical church there was not a flag in sight or military mention made all this Memorial Day weekend morning. Today we sang praises to God and we studied his word. We also had the opportunity to be encouraged this morning as we listened to a couple share how they are actively living out God's command to care for orphans.

While even with my pacifist leanings I can honor and respect the hearts of soldiers and their families who are willing to sacrifice much in the belief that doing so provides freedom for others,  I don't believe that the house of God is the time for the worship of a nation or its people -  however brave and selfless they may be.

"Worship is no longer worship when it reflects the culture around us more than the Christ within us." -A.W. Tozer

Easter Dessert

I made Tangerine Semifreddo with Salted Almond Brittle for dessert. Recipe from Epicurious. It was a process!

The first part was to make an almond brittle which was a literal hot mess - but not that complicated. 

Clockwise from top: Yolk custard, Egg Whites, Almond Brittle, Cream

For the filling  I had a number of different bowls set out on the counter at once. First I had to cook the egg yolk/tangerine mixture in a bowl over simmering water and then cool it really fast by beating it while the bowl was set over ice water. It was my first time making any type of custard so the process was new to me. 

Next up was whipping the cream. I chilled a bowl first and then poured the cream in and whipped away. Pretty simple. 

Then it was egg whites time. Whipping egg whites scares me - what with the possibility of both under whipping and over whipping and a fine line in between. Turned out beautifully though! 

After that I folded together the yolks, whites, and cream and layered the fluffy mixture into plastic-wrap lined loaf pans sprinkling some chopped almond brittle in between layers. I wrapped it up tightly and then stuck it in the freezer to set overnight. It looked yummy!

And then about midnight I suddenly realized that while the recipe called for the yolks to be cooked the whites never were. So I started worrying about giving people salmonella and did some googling on freezing raw meringues and decided it would just be better if I re-did the dessert in a safer way. So I drove to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night to  get more eggs and such and then followed instructions I found online to cook/cool the egg whites similar to the process for the yolks. (And, yes, I do embrace my insanity. Feel free to laugh at me. :) ) The egg whites did not get anywhere near as fluffy - but at least there was no raw egg?  The result was a MUCH shorter loaf of tangerine yummyness - but it was still yummy.

The day of I made the tangerine sauce. I think the sauce turned out a little bitter/salty and I'm wondering if it's because I used a juicer to get the tangerine juice rather than hand squeezing. Perhaps some of the rind or something got into the juice.  So, I'd suggest hand juicing.

In the end it had a creamy ice cream texture with a nice tangerine flavor and the crunchy brittle throughout gave it a nice texture variety.