Friends

Two Flowers

I just finished this onesie for a friend who will soon be having a baby girl. The flowers are made with vintage fabric my Grandma used to make a dress with. I love it.

Iced Beverage Musings on a Rainy Wednesday

I love a good iced coffee drink. Iced latte, iced chai, iced cappuccino. Yes, yes and yes. It's not just the drink that makes me happy. It's the experience. Whether sitting at the cafe sipping it as I read a book, talk with a friend, or people watch with my little mister. Walking down the busy streets or strolling in the park. An iced drink in my hand makes it that much more enjoyable. But buying a coffee every time I go out it simply out of the question. It sure gets expensive, and if you frequent cafés like I do you know that it's not just Starbucks that charges absurd amounts for a cup of joe. And have you noticed that if you want your drink iced they charge you more?? I didn't know cubes of frozen water cost so much. Sure, I have a thermos at home and can make my own to take with me. And this would work fine for hot drinks but for iced drinks, well, it's just not the same.  I want that feeling of the plastic cup in my hand. You know what I mean. Holding it from the top with your palm over the lid and the straw lightly leaning against your forefinger. A simple twist of your wrist to shake the ice around and you hear the dull clanging of the ice against each other and the sides of the cup, releasing the cool throughout your beverage. You know what I mean. Don't you? You just can't get the same feeling with a thermos. This, and the fact that I would like to use more things with sustainability to decrease the negative impact I am leaving on the environment, I was elated when last spring  I found, and purchased, a reusable insulated iced coffee cup at Starbucks. It looks exactly like a venti sized iced beverage drink. It is made of hard clear plastic, fully insulated and comes with a screw on lid complete with green straw. I'm not crazy about the fact that it looks like a Starbucks cup but it will do. Now I can make my favorite iced chai drink at home (thanks to CT Muffin selling the mix and then me finding it online for even cheaper!) and take it with me where ever I go. I am saving money and saving the environment, one drink at a time. HA!

This brings me to today. Lately the money has been tight, the weather has been cold and rainy, and the van has been out of commission.This means we haven't been to the park in a while and I haven't had my café time. So this morning I made my own café time. I baked some raspberry scones, make iced chai and sipped it in peace while Charles took his nap. It was pretty wonderful.

Last

Last year at this time I was in my third week of bedrest. I was 30 weeks pregnant and my sister was here visiting and also to be here for my baby shower. I posted this.  I remember being so happy that my doctor let me go to my shower and it was so nice that my sister came.

Last month we went to see The Roots in concert at Prospect Park.

Last weekend after finishing up our last day of VBS we went to Coney Island to watch the fireworks. They have them every Friday night but this is the first time we have gone to see them. Can you believe that? Well, we tried last year but the fog didn't allow us to see anything. It was Charles' first time seeing fireworks and he seemed to really like them, despite that last picture! 

On saturday we went to Ikea with Margaret, Anthony and Renee. Charles loved the meatballs. We brought along three blinds that had been recalled so we could get a refund for them. (We used them in our other apartment but hadn't put them up in the new place. Chris wanted to get rid of them but when Margaret saw they had been recalled I saved them and we finally were taking them back.) At the return desk our initial experience was like all other customer service experiences in NY. A long wait. Rude service. A woman who didn't really care. We almost left because it wasn't going to be worth the hassle. They couldn't find the brand in their system and didn't know how much it was or why it was recalled (even though it was on the posters that were on the doors when we walked into the store, in the elevator, as well as on the website. ugh) I finally told them that if they couldn't find it in their system to just tell us because I didn't want to stand around waiting any longer. Then another man stepped over to help us and he was so pleasant. Hector. Thank you Hector. He didn't know how much the blinds were, I told him I thought probably eight or twelve dollars. He have us $19.99. For each! A sixty dollar gift card to Ikea for some blinds that we were just going to throw away! Holla!

Sunday we went out for lunch to celebrate Chris' birthday while Margaret and Anthony were still here.  

Last week Margaret and Anthony went home to Minnesota. I visited my friend Ashley while she was working at the cafe and went with another friend to her chemo appointment. 

Yesterday was Christopher's birthday. We only had a few hours in the morning to spend together before he had to go to work. I made him PW's French Breakfast Puffs. This is something I have done for a few years now on his birthday. These little muffins are simply divine and while we could eat them happily everyday- they should really be consumed only on special occasions given the amount of butter and sugar used to make them. Thus, they are reserved for birthdays and Christmas. 

The Writing On The Wall

About a month ago now Chris and I went out to celebrate his completion of his final paper for school. Thirty some pages on how to make the church's time with youth more effective. (He got an A!)

We went to a highly recommended BBQ joint in Brooklyn. Not sure what to expect because in our experience we had yet to find really good BBQ in New York, we took the word of a fellow former Minnesotan and tried it out. It's called the Smoke Joint and let me tell you, it didn't disappoint. Chris ordered ribs and I got the catfish sandwich. YUM.

Seeing as how we never really go to this neighborhood and the fact that we had a baby-free evening we decided to walk around a little after dinner before heading home. While walking down the sidewalk  we came upon this..

As we got closer we saw what was written

The gospel written out boldly on the facade of someone's house really struck me. I sometimes have a hard time even talking about it so to see this written on the side of someone's home was pretty cool. And challenging as well. I couldn't help but ask myself how I could be more bold in my faith. Perhaps writing it on the side of our house isn't the answer for us, but what is? 

"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

Romans 1:16

"For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."

Mark 8:38