Today we had our end of the year picnic for KCF (Kellogg Christian Fellowship) at the park by Lake Michigan. The first picture is of the second year leaders and their wives, who will be graduating and leaving us in a few weeks. The second picture is of the first year leaders who will be leading KCF next year. It was sad to say goodbye to the second years, but the first years have done a great job so far and I am excited about KCF next year!
At the recommendation of my friend Courtney, Matt and I went to Hopleaf in Andersonville for dinner tonight. Andersonville is a neighborhood a couple of miles south of Evanston. It is a really cute area...the main street (N. Clark) reminded me of a main street in the fifties, although it was definitely urban/hip.
We got there around 6:30 and the wait was 45 minutes. We didn't realize until we were seated that they have a patio out back where we could have waited. The front part of the restaurant is a very crowded bar, so it was hard to wait there (especially when I'm pregnant and couldn't get a drink). I ordered the "CB&J," an interesting take on a PB&J. It is pan-fried on sourdough bread and has house-made cashew butter, fig jam and morbier cheese. It was DELICIOUS. Seriously maybe the best sandwich I've had. 
It was served with Stilton mac-n-cheese, which was out-of-this-world good. I noticed several people around me had ordered a side of the mac-n-cheese with their dinner. Matt ordered the Duck Reuben, which was served on marble rye bread with a cranberry cream cheese spread and sauerkraut. I didn't try it (I'm not a fan of meat right now), but Matt loved it.
We both thought the food was outstanding and we'd like to go again this summer...we'll have to go before August though, as they don't let anyone into the pub who is under 21, including infants.
As of today I am 28 weeks and officially in the 3rd trimester! Time is flying by so fast...I can't believe I am two thirds of the way through already! I am feeling good except for backaches, which are worst at night. Other than that I feel great and actually enjoy being pregnant!
My friends surprised me tonight with my pack-n-play! I go out for a "Girl's Night" every Wednesday night with a great group of girls - Malissa, Courtney, Ruth, Jenn, and Kimberly. All of these women have husbands at Kellogg, and all of them are involved in KCF - Kellogg Christian Fellowship. All of their husbands, with the exception of Ruth, are second-years at Kellogg, and so they will be graduating in a few weeks, which I am selfishly sad about! I am going to miss them so much! The good news is that it looks like Courtney, Jenn, and Malissa will all be staying in Chicago, so hopefully I will still get to see them next year!
We typically go out to eat at a somewhat cheap place each Wednesday, where we chat and eat and end with prayer requests. These are amazing women of God, and I have enjoyed these Wednesdays so much! This past 
Wednesday they chose to go to Tapas Barcelona, which surprised me because it is a much nicer place than what we usually do on Wednesday. I love Tapas Barcelona though, so I was excited. After ordering our food, Jenn and Malissa said they had to go "put more coins in the parking meter" outside, and a few minutes later they came back carrying my pack-n-play! It was awesome, and I am so thankful to them for thinking of me! Unfortunately my camera died just as the waiter was going to take the picture, so we took the picture with my iphone, which explains why it is so blurry!
My sister-in-law, Casey, just announced that she is pregnant! She is 12 weeks today, and the baby is due in December! Yay!! I am so excited for Baby Dart to have a cousin the same age! This is Casey and Eric's first baby, and we are so excited for them!
Cobb, Mecall, and Lucy came to visit us this weekend! We had so much fun. Here is a summary of what we did:
In the afternoon we took the El to Lincoln Park. We stopped at Lush to buy bath products, and then stopped at Stinky Pants, a really cute baby boutique. We had dinner at Minnies, a diner that was made famous recently after the Obama's visited. The concept is that everything they sell is miniature in size, so you can get several mini burgers or sandwiches. The guys even got $2 mini beers! Overall I thought the concept was interesting, but the food was just ok. 
After dinner we walked to a nearby park and let Lucy swing in the swings and ride down the slide with Cobb! On the way home we stopped by an upscale cupcake bakery, Swirlz, for a cupcake and the weather was nice so we sat outside for awhile. 
Matt and I learned a lot about babies this weekend, especially what it is like to live on a schedule. Matt practiced feeding Lucy, and witnessed bath time, and a diaper changing! I think he was getting the hang of it! It was also good to see how our dogs would interact with a baby around. Lucy loved the dogs and would squeal any time she was around them! The dogs were curious of her, but a little scared too I think! We've had such a fun few days, and we can't wait for the Pearsons to come again, and for other friends and family to come visit!
What is gossip? It is not necessarily false information. Slander is false. Gossip might include true information, and maybe that’s why gossip doesn’t always feel sinful. What makes it sin is, first and foremost, that God says it’s sin. But gossip spreads what can include accurate information to diminish another person. That is not how people behave when they are living in the power of the grace of God.
Gossip is our dark moral fervor eagerly seeking gratification. Gossip makes us feel important and needed as we declare our judgments. It makes us feel included to know the inside scoop. It makes us feel powerful to cut someone else down to size, especially someone we are jealous of. It makes us feel righteous, even responsible, to pronounce someone else guilty. Gossip can feel good in multiple ways. But it is of the flesh, not of the Spirit.
Adultery too is a serious sin, and one likely to be disciplined in a church. But I have never seen a church split over the sin of adultery. Gossip is a sin rarely disciplined but often more socially destructive than the sensational sins.
Gossip leaves a wide trail of devastation wherever and however it goes – word of mouth, email, blogging, YouTube. It erodes trust and destroys morale. It creates a social environment of suspicion where everyone must wonder what is being said behind their backs and whether appearances of friendship are sincere. It ruins hard-won reputations with cowardly but effective weapons of misrepresentation. It manipulates people into taking sides when no such action is necessary or beneficial. It unleashes the dark powers of psychological transference, doing violence to the gossiper, to the one receiving the gossip and to the person being spoken against. It makes the Body of Christ look like the Body of Antichrist – destroyers rather than healers. It exhausts the energies we would otherwise devote to positive witness. It robs our Lord of the Church he deserves. It exposes the hostility in our hearts and discredits the gospel in the eyes of the world. Then we wonder why we don’t see more conversions, why “the ground is so hard.”
What should we do when a conversation starts slipping into gossip? We should immediately challenge the sin: “Hey friend, sorry to interrupt, but this is gossip. So here’s the deal. This conversation is now on hold until you go get _____________, and then you can start over and say whatever you feel you must say right to his face. I am willing to be a witness to that conversation, but I will not participate in gossip. What do you choose to do?” Amy Carmichael established this rule at her mission station: “Never about, always to.”
“Let all things be done for building up” (1 Corinthians 14:26). Therefore, let’s always ask ourselves, “These words about to rise up out of my mouth or go out through my keyboard – do they build up? Am I being constructive? If the person I feel like discussing were here with me right now, how would his presence change what I feel like saying?”
Right after we found out we were expecting, Matt's mom gave us the bassinet that Matt used when he was a baby. A friend of hers handmade it for her before Matt was born. This weekend, we decided to paint it white. I think it turned out pretty good! I am also going to make a cushion to go in it with some blue fabric. I am excited!
I love anything that will help me to be better organized, and my newest find is the Butler Bag. It has compartments built in to the purse to help keep everything organized. What a great idea! I am constantly digging in my purse to find things. I would love to try one of these out, but can't justify spending the money right now (the Hybrid is $165), when what I really need is a diaper bag. The website does say that a diaper bag is in the works - hopefully it will be out soon! I'll keep checking!
Here is a video that Desiring God Ministries did of John Piper addressing President Obama on abortion on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It's a pretty powerful video!
Coming from the South, I am used to spring beginning in about March. So it seems like it has taken forever for it to start getting warm here. This weekend it did though, and so Matt and I took advantage of it and took the dogs to the park by Lake Michigan for a picnic. The tulips are also blooming, so we took lots of pictures of them also! Yay for spring!
Posts
All Comments
