gwendolyn faith is not a crayon.

on singleness and marriage.

Wed, 22 May 2013 18:10:15 -0500

I’ve been single for most of my adult life. And, uh, most of my life in general.

In the past few years, I’ve come to see singleness as something blessed, something God-glorifying. (You know, like marriage. Gifts, one of one kind and one of another.)

Recently I stumbled across Fabs Harford’s prayers for singleness and for marriage, which speak to the blessings of both sides of the coin. Click through to read more; I don’t want to steal all the thunder!

Display the spiritual nature of God’s family that grows from regeneration and faith, not procreation and sex

Father, I pray that you would help me not to waste this season of singleness. Let me invest in those around me with as much vigor as mother invests in her children: with passion, prayer and love for those who are your lost sheep.

Seek sanctification through the peculiar pains and pleasures of singleness

Thank You for the ways I have learned the curves of Your face through the dark seasons and the gifts of joy that have come in this stage of life. Let me not waste a drop of pain or a hint of pleasure. Let me exploit all the fullness of this season to learn You, to know You, to love You.

Capture more of the single’s life for non-domestic ministry that is so desperately needed in the world

Protect me from the temptation to view myself as the owner of my time and resources. Let me spend myself radically for Your cause. Let me be fully devoted to Your mission in this world and let me exploit this season to that end.

manasavedula: mandycreates: kethera: coconutcoconutcoconut: y...

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:54:00 -0500

manasavedula:

mandycreates:

kethera:

coconutcoconutcoconut:

youneedmeoryourenothing:

#actors who are actually their character

the greatest casting ever.

Even better when you think about how Dan got a place for himself in NY to continue his career, Emma went to a school in USA, and Rupert bought an ice cream truck.

Follow your dreams Rupert

I didn’t know this. So I looked it up and - HE ACTUALLY DID.

‘I keep my van well stocked. It’s got a proper machine that dispenses Mr Whippy ice cream and I buy my lollies wholesale – 50 for a tenner – so I never run short.

I’m not allowed to sell my merchandise. I’d need a licence for that. ‘I tend to avoid July and August, but the rest of the year I’ll drive around the local villages and if I see some kids looking like they’re in need of ice creams, I’ll pull over and dish them out for free. They’ll say, “Ain’t you Ron Weasley?” And I’ll say, “It’s strange, I get asked that a lot.”

It makes it even better that he just GIVES the icecream away. [Source]

Amazing!

Rebba’s spending the summer in D.C. for an internship at a...

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:04:51 -0500

Rebba’s spending the summer in D.C. for an internship at a law firm, which is great news for an aspiring attorney but terrible news for the friends she’s leaving in the Windy City. Tonight we gathered for farewell drinks at Bridge House Tavern, where the riverfront patio was a sad consolation for our collective despair.

liking lately.

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:28:28 -0500

Maxi dresses.
Madewell.
Meals on the back porch.
J.Crew’s Minnie Pant.
Lululemon’s Inspire Crop.
Inductive Bible study.
Used bookstores.
Pret a Manger.
Merlot.

thebluthcompany: Previously on Arrested Development | NPR’s...

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:13:22 -0500

thebluthcompany:

Previously on Arrested Development | NPR’s guide to the running gags from the show

This is dedication.

ellegolightly: maryanne: tyleroakley: MILEY HAS NO TIME FOR...

Sun, 19 May 2013 23:31:28 -0500

ellegolightly:

maryanne:

tyleroakley:

MILEY HAS NO TIME FOR THIS.

SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADE.

I gotta say, I sorta like sassy Miley.

SHE’S JUST BEING MILEY.

Eager to try a new breakfast recipe—and especially eager to see...

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:45:10 -0500

Eager to try a new breakfast recipe—and especially eager to see some of my favorite friends—I hosted Rebba, Sara Jane, Erin and Denise for brunch yesterday.

I finally tried a recipe from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook: Baked Ranchero Eggs with Blistered Jack Cheese. Eggs and black beans cooked in a spicy tomato sauce, smothered with melted cheese and topped with crispy, freshly-made tortilla strips and lime crema.

(Unfortunately I overcooked the eggs, leaving the yolks firmly set. Don’t make my mistake, especially if you’re the kind of person who feels nauseous looking at a hard-boiled yolk. Me.)

Sara Jane baked a delicious raspberry cream cheese coffee cake, which the five of us polished off ourselves. No shame.

To soak up the gorgeous weather, we dined al fresco in the garden my landlord keeps. And I might’ve accidentally locked us out of the apartment ‘til my upstairs neighbor arrived home to our rescue. The girls might’ve tried to get in through windows. Hostess of the year, y’all.

After everyone else left, Sara Jane and I talked the rest of the afternoon away, officially ending brunch at five in the evening. The mark of a successful morning meal, right?

ellegolightly: missjacobi: gnocchi pasta salad...

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:18:25 -0500

ellegolightly:

missjacobi:

gnocchi pasta salad with mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil pesto cream

(via how sweet eats)

I think my heart just exploded.

I’m not above semi-homemade meals that look like this.

"If privileged people want to avoid a mismatch between their good intentions to their behaviors, they..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:53:00 -0500

“If privileged people want to avoid a mismatch between their good intentions to their behaviors, they must identify both their specific intentions and the specific behaviors that correspond with those intentions. A general attitude in favor of reconciliation won’t necessarily lead to behaviors that reflect that attitude. More specific attitudes like ‘It’s important to empower the women of color at my church’ are needed. And the specific attitudes need to be matched with specific behaviors like developing leadership/mentoring programs that successfully target women of color and addressing cultural biases that discredit diverse leadership styles. In order to accomplish this task, both the privileged and oppressed people must work together to spell out the specific intentions and behaviors that are needed.”

- Christena Cleveland in her blog series “Listening Well As a Person of Privilege”

All six posts in the series are worth a read for anyone interested in unity and reconciliation, especially within the Church!

Several months ago, my friend Katie mentioned in passing Making...

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:20:00 -0500

Several months ago, my friend Katie mentioned in passing Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, a book I think she’d read in seminary. Somehow, despite the somewhat dry name and dated cover, I was intrigued, committing the title to memory.

If Christian non-fiction sounds at all interesting to you, I recommend Making Room wholeheartedly! I’ve recently been mulling over ways relationships can, and should, deliberately demonstrate the Lord’s love for us, which made the book all the more relevant and meaningful to me.

Union University’s David Gushee captures the book well in his initial review:

The biblical demand for hospitality, Pohl shows, is clear in both Old and New Testaments. The people of God are aliens and strangers whom God has welcomed into the “household of faith.” In turn, God’s people are to “make room” for the stranger, not only in the community of faith but also in their own personal households. This is the biblical meaning of hospitality-making room for the stranger, especially those in most acute need. Such care must not be reduced to mere social entertaining nor may it be self-interested and reciprocal; instead, biblical hospitality reaches out to the abject and lowly and expects nothing in return. Hospitality is not optional, nor should it be understood as a rare spiritual gift; instead, it is a normative biblical practice that is learned by doing it.

Hospitality is implicitly subversive in the way it shatters social boundaries, especially those boundaries enforced by table fellowship. When we eat with the lowly and welcome strangers and “sinners” to our table, we topple social expectations and bear witness to the kind of love God has for all his creatures. It is not coincidental that Jesus perhaps most scandalized his critics in his practice of table fellowship. “He eats with tax collectors and sinners”-this was not a compliment. And it was precisely the radical nature of Christian hospitality, Pohl shows, that characterized the early church, helped spread the Gospel, and healed the dramatic social barriers that initially confronted the church as the Gospel permeated the Greco-Roman world.

The connection between hospitality and Jesus is indeed rich and mysterious. As Pohl shows, in New Testament perspective Jesus is simultaneously guest, host, and meal. He is guest whenever we welcome and care for the stranger and the broken (Mt. 25:31-46). He is host, for example, when he hosts the Last Supper, during which “we … celebrate the reconciliation and relationship available to us because of [Jesus’] sacrifice and through his hospitality” (p.30)-and when he will host the Great Supper in the Kingdom. And he himself, as our paschal sacrifice, is the meal we eat, not only in Communion but in ongoing Christian experience as we feed on his life to nourish our own.

I especially appreciated Pohl’s definition of hospitality, which rediscovers its historical roots. When we do consider hospitality outside the home, we think of hospitality as providing a service: Logging volunteer hours at a homeless shelter, maybe, or serving lasagna in a food line at a soup kitchen. But in this paternalistic framework, I see myself as the one with something to offer, the one deserving of respect.

Instead, as Pohl explains, “hospitality involves sharing your life and sharing in the lives of others, strangers are not first defined by their need. Lives and resources are much more complexly intertwined, and roles are much less predictable. Respect is sustained in the relationships in two related ways—by recognizing the gifts that guests bring to the relationship and by recognizing the neediness of the hosts” (72).

"Gatsby is obsessed with this green light across the water from his house. The green light represents..."

Sat, 11 May 2013 21:23:03 -0500

“Gatsby is obsessed with this green light across the water from his house. The green light represents Daisy, because Gatsby is “green” with envy that Tom Buchanan gets to hang out with her all the time, and also because green is the color of “go” and Gatsby would like to “go” over there.”

- A Great Gatsby Book Report by a Kid Who Only Saw the Movie (via copperoranges)

Ida had a rough day, realizing the passage of time can be...

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:43:00 -0500

Ida had a rough day, realizing the passage of time can be relentless and unforgiving and all. Her day was probably even rougher than mine.

I think Ida needed to spend an hour or two at the Art Institute to pull herself out of her funk. Art always helps, at least a little bit.

{ Into the World There Came a Soul Called Ida by Ivan Albright, 1929-30 }

This week I’m bringing [Sweet] Potato Feta Gyros in my...

Tue, 07 May 2013 21:55:39 -0500

This week I’m bringing [Sweet] Potato Feta Gyros in my ~~lunchbox~~ repurposed plastic grocery bag.

Or maybe for a few weeks, depending how many team Lunch & Learns pop up on my calendar. I made pita bread a couple of weeks ago, but thanks to several Lunch & Learns with plenty of leftovers, the pita stayed in the freezer for awhile.

To be a little healthier, I subbed sweet potatoes for white potatoes, but I imagine the recipe would be even better as written. Sweet potatoes compete with the pan-roasted garlic and feta cheese, whereas white potatoes are almost a blank slate.

The tzatziki, though, is the star of the show. Definitely my new go-to! (…Do I actually lead a life that requires a go-to tzatziki recipe? Y’all.)

Recipe and image via Shutterbean.

A week or two ago, my friend Emily shared a photograph of a...

Sun, 05 May 2013 10:43:03 -0500

A week or two ago, my friend Emily shared a photograph of a breakfast nacho buffet she’d set up for her friends. Since then, I’ve been thinking about breakfast nachos a lot. A lot, a lot, a lot.

(I hope you, like me, pronounce a lot, a lot, a lot like Lindsay Lohan as Annie James in the Parent Trap.)

Luckily, I found a perfect excuse to make breakfast nachos yesterday when Michael—a friend from high school who’s now studying astrodynamics at Purdue—came into town. I invited Denise, who went to high school with us, over for brunch, too, and set out fixings for a breakfast nacho buffet of our own.

Scrambled eggs a la Gordon Ramsay. Crumbled breakfast sausage. Sliced avocado. Leftover Gorgonzola and seasoned black beans. Diced purple onions. Salsa. Sriracha. And plenty of tortilla chips.

I’d be totally, completely happy to see Michael and Denise even if brunch weren’t involved. (I probably can’t say that about everyone.)

…I’m obsessed with breakfast nachos nonetheless.

#PPP13

Sat, 04 May 2013 11:45:00 -0500

Yesterday instead of reporting to the office, my team celebrated the end of planning season, during which we develop our clients’ media plans for the upcoming year.

That’s right. I’m talking about my team’s annual Post-Planning Party!

Vendors sponsored events at spots across the city, making for one of the most fun Fridays in recent memory. (Thanks, everyone!)

We started at Rockit, where Google sponsored a breakfast buffet and office awards show.

We then headed to Paris Club for hors d’oeuvres and blackjack with the Facebook sales crew. I might’ve won $50 ~~with my fabulous newfound blackjack skillz~~ in a raffle.

Afterward we set sail on the Mystic Blue, basically turning the entire boat into a dance floor. (I’m sorry, but I can’t not dance my heart out when Robyn’s playing.)

We finished the day at the House of Blues, where Pandora sponsored live-band karaoke. Live-band karaoke is my life, y’all.

And as much as I like risk-free blackjack, spontaneous dance parties and live-band karaoke, I adore my co-workers even more. I loved celebrating their success coming out of planning season!

a pair of paisley pants

Wed, 01 May 2013 08:52:52 -0500

need, not want.

well, practically.

champagnetoasts:

I stand for many things. For second chances, for the Wolfpack winning an NCAA championship of any sort [because no one is holding their breath for our football team], for true love, for grilled cheese sandwiches being their own food group, and for wearing clothing that feels like a pair of pajamas.

I’ll give you a hint: this ensemble MIGHT be cozier than all my Lulu outfits. Combined. Yes, I’m dead serious.

In fact, I’m pretty sure there is an equation for this theory of mine:

maximum cozy + effortless style + not looking like a slug while doing so = living your best life

There you have it. Just call me scholar and a lady, folks.

wide-leg pants: Anthropologie // cobalt blue top: Bordeaux // lanyard necklace: J.Crew // shoes: Michael Antonio (similar in gold) // bag: Goyard // denim jacket: Rich & Skinny (similar) // sunnies: House of Harlow

I found my perfect man. Cary Agos, a founding partner of the law...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:25:13 -0500

I found my perfect man.

Cary Agos, a founding partner of the law firm Florrick, Agos and Associates.

Luckily, he lives in Chicago.

Unfortunately, he’s a television character.

Can’t win ‘em all.

I don’t tell y’all often enough to watch The Good Wife.

As an aside, Christine Baranski might be one of my favorite actresses, period.

I have salmon problems, people.A few weeks ago, I met my friend...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:45:22 -0500

I have salmon problems, people.

A few weeks ago, I met my friend Mark at Toro Sushi, his favorite sushi spot in the city. We sat at the bar, watching the sushi chef prepare masterful creations.

Since Mark’s a regular, the sushi chef gave us three pieces of salmon sashimi with our order. I definitely eat raw fish in rice rolls, but I’m never one to get straight-up sashimi. I wanted to show the sushi chef our appreciation, though; I wanted to eat that raw salmon.

Y’all, I almost died trying. I couldn’t stop gagging; I’m pretty sure my eyes almost popped out of my head as I choked. In the end, I swished the salmon back and forth in my mouth ‘til it was liquefied enough to swallow.

Recently, my salmon experiences at home haven’t been much better. I bought frozen wild-caught salmon filets months and months ago, but when I started to prepare one, I couldn’t get past the skin on the backside. Back to the freezer the filets went.

Until now. Perry’s Plate’s Creole Salmon Lettuce Wraps with Squasho de Gallo make me forget all about the salmon skin. Cajun-flavored salmon, topped with creole-spiced cream and a homemade pico de gallo that gives summer squash a starring role, all rolled into a lettuce wrap.

I’ll be real. The salmon probably would’ve tasted better, not as tough, if I had made it, oh, six months ago. But paired with the squash salsa and the creole crema, the too-tough salmon barely slowed me down. Give ‘em a try!

Image via Perry’s Plate.

Happy Patio Season, y’all! Chicago’s springtime...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 11:45:25 -0500

Happy Patio Season, y’all! Chicago’s springtime temperature caught up to the rest of the country’s over the weekend. To celebrate, I met Rebba, Sara Jane and Christian for tacos and margs on the Big Star patio after my early-morning kettlebell class and dentist appointment. Finally!

"In contrast to a more tame hospitality that welcomes persons already well situated in a community,..."

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:45:00 -0500

“In contrast to a more tame hospitality that welcomes persons already well situated in a community, hospitality that welcomes ‘the least’ and recognizes their equal value can be an act of resistance and defiance, a challenge to the values and expectations of the larger community.”

- Christine D. Pohl in Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, imploring us to expand their practice of hospitality beyond dinner parties with friends