Summer T-shirts

You know how pretty much every summer you have that one t-shirt that you absolutely love and wear practically everywhere, to the point that it almost defines the summer for that year? And then later, you see yourself in that shirt in all sorts of summer photos: out with friends for lunch, at a 4th of July party, standing in front of some random statue on your random vacation, bumming around at the beach. All the while wearing your fav T. For me, last summer's T was a stretchy brown one from Old Navy with all sorts of white road signs on it, except instead of the road signs saying their normal things, they say things like "GO" and "Right Way" and "Speed on Ahead" and "Hurry" and "Do Not Hesitate." A shirt with a positive attitude. Love it. And those of you who spend a lot of time with me are currently nodding your heads because you've seen me wear that shirt, like, a thousand times. It's my Summer of 2008 Shirt.

My Summer of 2009 Shirt is super cool, too. It was given to me by my good friend Sheri for my birthday...a few months late (love ya, Cheryl!), but it's here nonetheless. It rocks. Take a look.

What is cooler than Audrey Hepburn??? She was the epitome of grace and chic-ness. I obviously love her; I even named my car after her (see my post on March 6th). And I'm going to be wearing this shirt all summer. Look out, world.

And here's a close-up of Eric's fav T for this summer. It always makes me giggle.


So what's your Summer of 2009 Shirt?

PS: Lots to blog about, but we're having so much fun this summer, we just haven't taken the time to do it. Here's a sneak preview into what we plan on filling you all in on sometime soon:

• Nick, our house guest for the summer
• Making granola from scratch - Yum!
  
• The never-ending project of painting the outside of our house
  
• Ian walking with a cane, "Just like Papa"
  
• Concocting homemade laundry detergent
  
• Discovering Kiva
  

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Blogs I Read: Part 6 -- the final installment

Blog #6: Hoosiers Insider
I grew up with my dad being a huge Purdue fan, especially in basketball, the royal sport. Sadly, I didn't watch as much sports with him as I now wish I had, but they were certainly a part of our family life. So I was, by default, a Purdue fan as well.

Then I met this guy named Eric. Who LOVED IU (Indiana University, for you non-sports people out there -- and Purdue's biggest rival). I fell in love with said guy. I began to realize that Eric's love for IU and my disdain for it, especially that yucky Bob Knight guy, could really start to come between us if I weren't careful. So, I crossed enemy lines and joined their team, all in the name of peace.

And now I'm an IU fan.

There, I said it. It's out there in print.

Well, honestly, it's no surprise to anyone that knows me now. I don my IU wardrobe pretty much any time we view either a football or basketball game. I've allowed us to spend hundreds of dollars over the course of six years in Bloomington on season tickets to both sports. I schedule my TV watching time around IU sports events...even baseball this past week. I know the difference between nickel and dime defenses. I know what a spread offense is. I know that the same signal is used for a travel in basketball and a false start in football. I know players' names, jersey numbers, and even sometimes their hometown. I know some of their stories, and I have my list of favorites (A.J. Moye, you'll always be at the top). I've sat in the pouring rain, completely miserable, while stupid Ohio State fans chant their stupid O-H-I-O cheer all around me....in OUR stadium, mind you. I've teared up at several events, including one where our underdog football team (who are always the underdogs because we kind of suck) played my former favorite Purdue in the last game of the season and won it to get the chance to play in a bowl game for the first time in eons.

I'm an IU fan.

And one person who has helped me in all of this is Terry Hutchens of the Indy Star. My appreciation of him began before he had a blog, when I would read his reports of various games and IU situations online. He had an online newsletter, basically, called "Ask the Expert" where he would answer questions sent in by fans. When I was a new IU fan, this particular venue filled me in on all kinds of IU lore and history and kind of got me up to speed. Now, "Ask the Expert" has morphed into Hutchen's blog entitled "the Hoosier Insider," where he writes about things that don't get into his news stories. He also recently put up a fairly comprehensive IU basketball database, with stats dating all the way back to 1901, which is available to the general public in an easy format. In short, he's one of the best places to brush up on one's IU knowledge. You may just find yourself becoming a fan.

Blogs I Read: Part 5

Blog #5: EnviroMom

Ok, so this blog could really be called "EnviroFamily", but it wouldn't have the same familiar ring to it reminding us of the environment. As you can probably guess by the name, it's a website devoted to environmental responsibility, especially in regards to raising families. Plus, it's written by two run-of-the-mill stay-at-home moms in Portland, Oregon. Their whole shtick is the idea of "baby steps" -- huge, astronomical lifestyle changes just aren't practical in a family setting. At any rate, it's been very helpful for me in my quest to s-l-o-w-l-y adjust our lifestyle so that we live in a more economical, sustainable, and earth-friendly way, and by my own actions, to teach Ian to do the same.

What I love most about EnviroMom is that they're so NOT pushy and judgmental. In fact, they spend most of their time talking about what they haven't mastered yet and ideas they're still just thinking about but haven't implemented yet. It's a daily chronicle of their little "baby step" decisions to cut this small thing out, or add this activity to their lives, etc.

Some things I've changed in our household because of EnviroMom are:

• using old diapers instead of paper towels
• using cloth napkins instead of paper napkins
  
• buying in bulk to save on container consumption
• generally reducing what I bring in to the house so I don't have to recycle/throw away as much
• composting my food prep scraps instead of tossing them in the garbage
• using homemade vinegar solutions to clean my windows instead of store-bought ones
• using phosphate-free dishwasher detergent along with vinegar in my dishwasher
  
• spending more time outdoors
• trying to limit Ian's toys to mostly wooden ones instead of plastic
• feeding Ian snacks that are homemade/fresh and not out of a box or a package

Some things that are still "stewing" in my brain for possible future baby steps:

• using wash cloths instead of toilet paper for every day use
• buying bikes to do more of our errand running/church going that way instead of in our gas-guzzling Jeep
• buying most or all of our food through local businesses or farms
• switching to "greener" beauty products (possibly reducing my use of makeup -- gasp!)
• canning/freezing food like crazy in the summer so I don't have to buy it through non-local means in the winter.

I've still got a long way to go, but it's all about "baby steps," right?

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Blogs I Read: Part 4

Blog #4: God Entranced

For the six years that we lived in Bloomington, we attended a non-denominational body of believers called Evangelical Community Church and loved every minute of our time there. Not only was the church a real community who supported us and encouraged us in life, but the preaching was dang awesome. Shout-outs go to the senior pastor, Bob Whitaker, for bringin' it week in and week out and kicking our butts every now and then. But kudos also belong to the college ministry pastor, Dan Waugh, who embodies a good balance of cultural relevancy and thoughtfulness in his approach to the Faith. While I never got involved in the college ministry Connexion at ECC, I always appreciated the obvious thought and hard work that Dan put into his Sunday morning sermons when he would pinch-hit for Bob. So naturally, when we moved away, I started reading his blog, God Entranced, to keep up with what was going on at the church.

Now, we're attending a Christian Reformed Church here in South Bend, and let me tell ya, that is quite a difference from our Wesleyan, Anabaptist heritage! But we love the church and we especially love the people we've come to know and serve alongside there. Our time at ECC really prepared us for taking this step into a denomination whose beliefs and practices are a little different in terms of things like baptism and predestination than the churches of our upbringing. And Dan's blog continues to help me understand and appreciate these different points of view, while also giving me some food for thought on topics such as atheism, the evangelical church, the workings out of faith, and various issues in Reformed theology. Plus, the dude has good taste in music. Too bad he likes the Cleveland Indians.

Blogs I Read: Part 3

Blog #3: Simply Recipes

I stumbled upon this food blog around Valentine's Day, when I was searching for a chili-chocolate cake to make at Eric's request. Once I found this recipe, I spent literally an hour, gaping and drooling over Elise's family's recipes and pictures of the delicious-looking food they make. I was hooked. Since then, I've made several of her recipes, including the Chipotle Flourless Choclate Cake (my rendition is pictured here) and Rhubarb Sorbet. Everything I've attempted from this website has been a success so far.

I like several things about Simply Recipes more than other food blogs I subscribe to. One is that the author takes time to share some back story for each dish and why it's special to her. Plus, she's a fantastic photographer and I have yet to see one single unappetizing photo on her blog. The Type A personality in me loves that all her recipes are so organized and indexed so well for easy perusal. Have some extra eggplant on hand? Type it in the search box and you'll get no less than 10 accessible and yummy ideas for the big purple vegetable. And to top it all off, she cooks with real ingredients: no processed food products anywhere, so the website fits well with the way I cook and try to nourish my family.

Blogs I Read: Part 2

Blog #2: Stuff Christians Like
Ok, so I already wrote about this one back in November, but I really, really like this blog! It's by a guy in Atlanta who started it a little over a year ago as a joke (based on the mainstream "Stuff White People Like" blog), but it's turned into this humongous community of people who have a sense of humor about the funny and strange things Christians do, say, and think. If you think about it, we're honestly an interesting and quirky group of people. Full of irony and introspection, Jon Acuff's blog not only makes me laugh every day, but also challenges some of the misconceptions I'm often still holding onto as an American Christian.

The whole idea has become so successful, that this perfectly ordinary guy has become something of a celebrity -- speaking at various Christian conferences across the nation, being referenced in major publications like Relevant Magazine, and even writing a book based on the blog that is set to be published sometime next year.

If you haven't spent some time in SCL world, I highly recommend taking a few minutes to see what Jon has to say. It won't be time wasted.

Blogs I Read: Part 1

The purpose of this blog is to give our family and close friends, especially those who live far away and don't see us much in person, the chance to peer into our lives and know a little bit of what's going on with us. It's one of the ways we keep in touch with you all and share our lives with you, even though we don't see you as often as we'd like. Thanks to the Internet, we can foster a sense of community we wouldn't otherwise have through mere letters and phone calls (which we also utilize as often as we can!).

This week, I thought I'd post a little about the online reading I do on a daily basis. There are a few blogs I follow, thanks to the help of Google Reader, and I'd love to share them with you. Hopefully, they'll enrich your lives like they have mine, or at the very least, you can know and understand me a little bit better.

So, in no particular order........


Blog #1: That's Not Me Anymore
I love this blog, and I love the girl who writes it. She's not only the daughter of some good friends of my parents, but she's also a part of the extended family on my husband's side. We played together when we were in diapers, and now I get to call her my cousin! Her name is Beth and she's a fun, creative, and lovingly transparent mom of three whose love for Jesus is contagious! In addition to all that, she's got her own mom's gift of writing. (If you haven't read anything by Rachael Phillips, you're missing out!) Every time Beth's blog shows up on my RSS feed, I get excited because I know I'm about to read something both funny and touching. Her perspective on life is refreshing, and I'm so thankful that she has the guts to share herself with the world. She certainly blesses my day several times a week.

What the Bugger-Boo is NOT doing right now

This picture is taken from a week or two ago and is the opposite of what transpired today during nap time. Instead, this is the wide-awake face that greeted me following this afternoon's nap time:
Sigh....What's a mother to do?