Goodbye, Summer

Goodbye, summer, and happy first official day of fall! My anticipation for fall has been seeping into my blog, my closet, and my Starbucks choices even before today, but now it's official.

To give summer a proper salute, I have a handful of various pictures of our summer that never made it into an official post. Consider this the last sweet taste of summer before giving over fully to fall, holidays, and.... cold weather. We take that pretty seriously around here.

Chicago is breathtaking in the summer. Though it wasn't a normal summer by any means because of my health, we still went out and enjoyed our city as much as we possibly could. And looking at these, I have to smile. In between the cracks, it was good.

Not to mention when we were away from Chicago, here, here, here, and here.

{Flower delivery}
My friend Elisa has been a constant source of encouragement throughout my health struggle.
10 months into this thing, she's sending flowers.
I have learned from her.

{Oak St. Beach Days}
This beach is our favorite. It has a stunning city view as a backdrop!

{I have another park to introduce you to.}
First getting to know Neal in the city as students, this is where he first said, "I love you."
The feeling was mutual, and I told him so.
So, we like it here.

{Farmer's Market}
We traveled so much this summer, that we only caught a few of these Saturday markets.
But they're the perfect weekend outing.

(Love my Tretorn rainboots! Find them here.)

{Summer Chipotle dates.}
This Chipotle in our neighborhood has garage door windows that open up to the city street in the summer.
One of the best things you can do with a warm, summer night, in our opinion.

{Lincoln Park}
We fell in love with Lincoln Park this summer.
We took the Vespa there countless times, loaded down with lawn chairs, a cooler, and reading material.
I think we probably looked pretty funny. Or awesome.

{A beautiful summer afternoon spent meandering}
The city can take you many, many places in just a few blocks.

{A new neighborhood flower shop}
I walk by this nearby shop at least every week.
I love the style: clean, vintage, elegant.

{City Walk #21: Lincoln Park Architecture}
These homes were too beautiful.

{Sweet dreams of summer}

Welcome, fall.

A little note to email subscribers: There's a delay in timing from when I post a blog to when it gets delivered to your email. When I post in the morning, you'll usually get it that day, but often you get my posts a day later. Thanks for reading! XOXO.

Job Search

Seeking: part time position eating breakfast out.

Inspiration? A long, lazy Saturday morning spent at Elly's Pancake House with husband. We sat and sipped coffee, ate fluffy pancakes, and talked all things fall hopes and schedules, and movie reviews from the night before. It was cloudy and rainy, and it was 2:00pm, quite seriously, before we settled deeper down into our hoodies and hopped on the Vespa to head home. I promise we weren't rude... there were open tables.

There's some sort of joy that sweeps across your soul when you sit at a window breakfast table till 2pm, snuggled in the first hoodie of fall. A feeling like you've done something wrong, but you've actually done something so very, very right.

So, you see why I would like to have a part-time job eating breakfast and munching on weekend conversation, especially at all our favorites, Nookies, Yolk, Original Pancake House, Third Coast, Egglectic, Honey, and now Elly's. Joined by any of you, it would be even that much more lovely.

Only I'm not available full-time for this eating breakfast out job, because I have this other part time job I'd like to do that I might have mentioned in a blog post awhile back. What was it? Oh yes, being an auntie to Garrett Paul, Lilly Ann, Connor Steven, Kaden Timothy, Emlyn Rose, Eli John, Halie Kathleen, & Addison Hope. So, I'd be a little tied up part of the time.

Yep. My ambitions are big this Monday. Never underestimate the greatness of a weekend breakfast out or little nieces and nephews.

The Bench

Who thinks we might visit this bench again this weekend? You think right. Yes, yes, yes.

Either on our way coming or going from the farmer's market,

before or after our hopes for a breakfast out (we're thinking Elly's... any suggestions?),

as a rest stop during a bike ride,

or a place to sip lattes and read,

.... in one or all of these ways, we will make our way back to this bench this weekend, I'm almost sure of it.

But not tonight. Tonight, we'll be hanging out at a soccer game on campus, and then going to a movie with one of our RA's and his girl. It's going to be a good night. And bench, I imagine we'll see you tomorrow.

Anniversary Weekend

Because we live and work on a college campus with students who are beginning to set their aspirations for life and take their first steps towards creating that life, Neal and I forever get the question, "I want a marriage like yours. How??" While this question is at once both a lot humbling and a little encouraging, it still stumps me as far as what to say. Not because we don't work hard at our marriage, and not because we don't have intentionality in our relationship, but because my first thought is, "Because Neal's so good. Without him, left up to me, this thing would not be good!!"

No, he's not perfect, and yes, a marriage really is the coupling of two sets of strengths and weaknesses. But this man has got a gift for leadership, gentleness, patience. It goes a long, very long way. But, what I'm meaning to say besides all this, is that I came up with one little practical answer for the question. Celebrate.

Celebrate anniversaries as special (not necessarily expensive!) as you possibly can. Make a big deal of one another. Create time to intentionally make big of the beautiful thing, valleys and mountaintops, that God has done in your joined lives. Go all out, whether it's going to the most beautiful picnic spot you can possibly find, sharing a cup of beloved high end coffee, spending a whole day together, or going to the top of one of the tallest buildings in Chicago for dessert.

Because maybe, if you treat your relationship as small, mundane, ordinary, and passed-over, then that's what it might become. I'm no expert, and I know I have a lot to learn... but just thoughts.

Regardless of what we've been able to do to celebrate in the past, and regardless of what we'll be able to do in the future, Neal and I have one tradition that will always be. Want in on it? Cards. Simple enough, right? But not the kind of cards where you write, "Happy Anniversary, I love you, Love your wife (or husband)." The kind that are completely covered on the inside, and then carried over onto the back, our own written words, scribbled in mad love. Specific words of thanks, encouragement, support, hopes, memories, and at times, even mourning together the sad things. The most special part of our anniversary date every year is reading those cards out loud to one another. Yep, we cry, and it's my favorite part of our celebration.

So, I feel satisfied that through our anniversary this year, I found a little, tiny piece of an answer to a very big question. Celebrate. Because celebration lifts us from the mundane. Celebration brings life alive. Celebration helps us believe again and cherish what we've been given.

Here are some pictures from our anniversary weekend. Thursday, a little "day of" dinner out (because I'm such a "day of" person, are you?) Friday, celebrating a friend's engagement. Saturday, official anniversary celebration day.

{Surprise trail of notes for Neal's office}

{Dinner at Penny's Noodles}
Every single time we've been there, we've sat at the same corner window table.
I love things like that.
When a table can become part of your story.

{Mr. Kite's Candy Shop}
For after dinner treats

{Whispers}
Munched on our Mr. Kites treats here (and people-watched!)

{Goodies ready to celebrate with our newly engaged friends}
Congrats Allie and Joel!

{Crisp Saturday morning walk through the park}
Destination: Starbucks and the Farmer's Market

{Division St. Farmer's Market}

{Sitting a spell back at the park, one of our favorites}
Cold air, coffee, conversation

{Cards}

{Anniversary dinner at North Pond in Lincoln Park}
A beautiful fine dining restaurant in the park. We've been wanting to go here for years.

{Restaurant Scenery}
It sits all alone on the north pond of Lincoln Park... so romantic.

{Cupcakes at Molly's}
Boston Creme Pie and Cookies & Cream

Later that night, we went home and changed into sweatpants and hoodies and sat out at Montrose Harbor watching the last fireworks of the season. We made a little fire and peppermint hot chocolate, and we both agreed we could have stayed for hours. Maybe we did, I'm not sure. It was just perfection.

Are all our days so perfect? No. We are just normal, and even on our celebration day I had to come back home for the afternoon and rest because my pain was too bad. So don't get any ideas about a perfect couple, or a perfect life, because if that couple exists, it's not us! But we talked lots about how this anniversary truly has been the best one ever. I think in the face of suffering, goodness is just that much sweeter.

Yesss!

This baby came in the mail the other day. Can't wait to leaf through it... pun intended! Fall is my very favorite season.

As I write this, the first cheers and whistles of the Colts game are coming through the TV, joining September in the announcement that summer has ceased and early fall has truly commenced. My husband will now wear his Peyton Manning jersey every Sunday from now until... oh goodness.... Superbowl Sunday?!

In the meantime, I will grab the open Sunday afternoons to do a little extra blogging, hot chocolate sipping, napping to the sounds of football, reading, and maybe even taking an occasional mind-clearing walk to the lake under bright blue skies, crisp, cold air, and warm fall sun, usually with my camera along.

On that note, I'm starting to think more about wanting to get a nice, fancy camera... I'm finding I love attempting to capture the daily beauty of people and love and life all around me, and I've been inspired by so many of you! Not sure where I'm going to get that hefty chunk of change though!! I would love to hear any advice, preferred cameras, and possible places for deals from any of you with fancy cameras. Not that I would have any clue what to do with such a camera, but I'd love to try! Words of advice?

Other fall adventures in the queue of my mind that have made their way to pencil sketches in our calendars...

Apple picking at Apple Holler
Camping
Visit to Neal's parents' at Timber Pointe when the leaves are in full splendor
Weekend getaway to Lake Geneva

What's more, apple cider and lisianthus from the Farmer's market, apple cider donuts, pumpkin spice lattes, city walks through crunchy, swirling leaves, and hopes for a cozy fall flannel shirt, gray Toms, and a new poppy garland headband from my dear friend Ilene's muchlove-illy fall collection.

What about fall this year are you looking forward to?

Another part of my fall will include a big doctor appointment on Sept. 23rd with the director of internal medicine at Rush Hospital. Until then, I continue to attempt the art of living in the midst of difficult circumstances. Something I know many of you do in your own way!

Happy Weekend!

Happy weekend, friend! What will your weekend hold? I'm pretty happy with what, or rather who, I have held already this weekend... baby Kaden!

Mom, Tiff, Lilly, and Kaden came to spend the afternoon, and it was simply lovely. Time with those women blesses me so much, and time with those babies makes my soul smile. Of course, our afternoon was too short, but then it always feels that way.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this weekend...
Hopefully, if the weather holds, Neal and I will check out Renegade in Wicker Park, a craft fair of handmade goods, so fun!
Otherwise, we have a busy weekend with church, as we prepare to launch our new location of Harvest Bible Chapel, Chicago North.

The new location will be in Roscoe Village, a much more residential area with families than our current location in Wicker Park. We had a leadership team meeting tonight, and after planning and prayer with the team, Neal and I rode our Vespa up to check out the new digs. The view from the Vespa was home after beautiful home and lots of cute restaurants. We'll be excited to explore our new church neighborhood, and even more excited to see this part of the city reached with the Gospel. If you're in Roscoe Village in the next few days and you see people out with sidewalk chalk, balloons, and coffee inviting people to church, well, that's probably us.

I hope your weekend is lovely, friend! Neal and I are just getting used to this delicious feeling of a pure, unadulterated weekend for the first time in 3 years... (we are both officially done with school for now!) It feels so good.