New Home!

Hi friends,

I’m sure you’ve all been wondering what I’ve been up to. Well, the short summary is that Brad and I successfully moved into our new home in Chicago. We LOVE our apartment, our neighbors, living in the city, and living near family (who have recently gotten us out of several binds). Not everything was smooth sailing but the move and settling in has probably gone as well as it could.

I spent last week applying for one job (it was a five-step application) and finally got an offer on Friday! So I am going to be working with an after school program in a neighborhood on the south side with one of the highest rates of poverty and crime in the city. I will have twenty-two kiddos to love on and care for. Don’t worry: I will share more details about our move and my new job in the future.

Most of all, I wanted to point you to my new site: justsimplicity.net. I’m hoping to make this a more focused blog on living simply and promoting social justice, so invite your friends to read. I’m going to be posting there every day – God willing – with practical ways to make the small steps to impacting the world. So check it out! I’d also appreciate any suggestions of things you would like to read about!

I’m hoping to keep up this site too and write about more personal topics here.

Absolute Chaos

For everyone who’s wondering where I’ve been at, I’m knee deep in sorting through all our stuff for a big moving sale this weekend and then for the move itself. So I may not get back to posting regularly for a few weeks. But I will give some updates here and there. Wish me luck!

Currently…

Watching

TED Talks. My husband has been watching these for months and I was apparently not listening very well when he was telling me about them. I only started watching them a week or so ago, and I’m absolutely riveted! Basically, TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a gathering of thousands of the world’s smartest people. The talks are 15 minutes long, and most of them are absolutely fascinating. Some of my favorites so far:

• Mark Bittman – What’s Wrong with What We Eat?
• Dave Eggers – Once Upon a School
• Hans Rosling – New Insights on Poverty and Life Around the World

Listening to

Pandora. Very cool radio website. Type in your favorite band or artist and Pandora will find other similar artists. You can approve or reject songs and teach your station what you like. Nice.

Wearing

Well, I’m actually not wearing this yet but will be eventually will be. The goal of Fifty Thousand Shirts is to raise $1,000,000 in relief aid to help those affected by the earthquake that occurred in China on May 12th. Each person who buys a shirt gets their name added to the online wall. Plus, you get a cool shirt to wear. I love buying t-shirts with a purpose. Get yours.

Riding

My awesome new Specialized Crossroads bike that we bought used from a friend. I finally realized that my cheapo Wal-Mart bike is just not going to cut it. Ironically, Brad also has a Specialized Crossroads bike (which is gold, not blue like mine). Awww…won’t we look so cute biking together? It will be great for biking in Chicago.

Speaking of which…

Doing for the next four weeks

Packing! Selling furniture! Setting up the lease on an apartment…in Chicago! That’s right, folks. It’s finally happened. We got an offer on our house yesterday and accepted the offer this morning. Just a few details to work out, a home inspection, and we will be moving out on July 10th!

I’m very, very, very excited (I knew all I had to do was start the vegetable garden and it would happen)! But I’m also a little nervous about taking care of all the details as well as saying good-bye to all our great friends and moving into such an entirely different environment than the one we’re living in now. I know that God is leading us, and I’m just trusting that He’ll take care of all the details.

More Waiting

So I haven’t written for awhile, and it warms my little heart that people have noticed my absence and perhaps even missed my random writings. I do have some wonderful friends. I will try to do better, folks.

I was in Chicago last week looking at apartments, but mostly I haven’t written because it’s been kind of a down time for me. Okay, maybe a little more than “down.” I have been practically weepy. I was trying to think of a title for this post and the first thing that I came up with was something along the lines of “The Nothingness that is My Life.” I decided against this title because I don’t want people to worry about me. However, my life does feel largely empty right now. I am stuck in that place between wrapping up the place I have been for the past couple of years and moving on to new things. In my mind I am already in Chicago, but apparently God has other ideas. I keep hitting one closed door after the other.

It’s been a week of stumbling. First, Brad and I decided that we can’t move until we sell our house so that kind of puts me back into the just waiting game. Then, the family that we placed Reina with returned her because she didn’t get along perfectly with their puppy. The washer died, and no one showed up at our open house (which my mom and I spent three days cleaning and scrubbing for).

So that’s all the junk. I’ve mostly decided to stop trying to clean the house spotlessly before every showing. I’m just going to keep in clean like I did before, doing a little every day rather than trying to do it all the day before someone looks at it. I’m absolutely sick of cleaning, so maybe that will save my sanity a bit. We did lower the price on the house, so I’m really hoping that that will appeal to buyers. I keep trying to remind myself that it’s an awful market to try to sell a house, and there is nothing more I can really do. I just have to wait. But it still is a very discouraging process, one that I’m not planning on repeating any time soon.

Some of the positive things: Reina is currently staying with another family who is trying her out to see if she will get along with their dog. She has been there since Saturday and I haven’t gotten a phone call yet, so I’m hoping that they might want to keep her. Also, my mom spent two days scrubbing my white cabinets and they look much better. Now, I don’t absolutely loathe them. It’s probably more like a feeling of disdain and tolerance. And yesterday, we spent the afternoon at Lake Wedington with the whole church family. The weather was absolutely perfect and it felt so nice to get out of the house and into some fresh air.

So I’m trying to stay positive and keep chugging along. I just hope that I will find an open door to something soon. This patience thing is pretty hard.

Tying Up Loose Ends

In preparation for our big move to Chicago, I have found myself rather scatterbrained. It’s hard to know what to tackle next. I can’t really pack until I know when we’re moving, and to know that, I need to find an apartment. To know what price range we are looking at for apartments, I need to figure out if our house is going to sell any time soon. It’s somewhat of a cyclical catastrophe. Tomorrow – otherwise know as the DAY of Apartment Hunting – I’m looking at at least five different apartments. Tonight, right after I fly in, we are driving to Logan Square to go to an open house (or…open apartment, I should say). Then, after all that, who knows?

Through all this, I find myself thinking about God quite often. One recurring question I have is: “With all the big problems out there in the world – genocide, torture, slavery – why would God care whether I get this apartment or that one? Or whether my house sells now or three months from now? Is it prideful to think that this issue even matters to Him?” Certainly, I know that God cares about us, but what about the specific apartment that we live in for the next two years, while the Josiah Community is developing?

I’ve ushered a lot of little, one-line prayers to this effect: “God, guide our footsteps.” But it is hard to know exactly how that guidance will reveal itself. Scripture is full of the stories of men and women, all including a God who is intimately involved in the background details. I have to believe that He is likewise involved in my story.

Today has been a rather sad and discouraging day, but also hopeful. First, we heard back from the second apartment we applied to: we were turned down from that one as well. Then, we placed our largest dog with a new family. She spent the night with them and they called this morning to say that she got along great with their dog and they wanted to keep her. We are so excited about this, since we didn’t want to leave her at a shelter, but it is also a little hard to say good-bye to a friend we’ve had for almost three years. We still have our three other little beasts to keep us busy, and we are happy that Reina is going to be in a great home.

Change is an interesting journey. I personally enjoy change, even with the difficult parts, because I know that I am growing through the experience and I hope that I am listening to what God is teaching me.

Social Frays: Gentrification

As Brad and I are looking into our options for moving to Chicago, we have had a lot of good discussions about gentrification. This all started when we were listening to a segment from This American Life where a Lawndale (yes, the Lawndale we want to move to in Chicago) resident complained about gentrification in the area, specifically noting that she could tell that Lawndale was gentrifying because of all the white people walking their dogs. And I thought, “Wait. I am white. And I have dogs. So if we move to Lawndale, will the residents just see me as one of those people.”

Wikipedia describes gentrification this way:

Gentrification, or urban gentrification, is a term applied to that part of the urban housing cycle in which physically deteriorated neighborhoods attract an influx of investment and undergo physical renovation and an increase in property market values. In many cases, the lower-income residents who occupied the neighborhood prior to its renovation can no longer afford properties there.

The last thing that I want is to be a part of a movement that is forcing low-income residents out of their homes and into areas with even higher rates of poverty and crime. There are, however, lots of different viewpoints surrounding the issue of gentrification. Some people say that by bringing in businesses and wealthier homeowners, the economy of the neighborhood is improved: people can find more jobs, schools improve, crime decreases. Often times, the government provides grants and low-cost loans so that current residents can move into newly built/remodeled houses or condos. On the other side, as I originally said, many of the residents are forced to move to a new neighborhood because they cannot afford the higher rent or property tax.

This history of gentrification all begins with the creation and design of cities. Many of the neighborhoods that are currently being gentrified were originally built for the middle class and blue collar workers. The idea behind cities in general is to create a lot of housing and public services for a large concentration of people who are intimately involved in the local economy. After the end of Word War II, with greater number of people owning cars, it became less important to live near one’s work. Suburbs were created, and with them, the phenomenon of white flight.

Starting in the ’70s and ’80s wealthy young adults of all races began rejecting the suburban sprawl for the appeal of the city. Their return is gentrification. This is the position Brad and I find ourselves in: we know that we want to live in the city rather than the suburbs. That kind of lifestyle, closeness of resources and neighbors, and public transportation appeal to us. We also know that we don’t want to isolate ourselves from lower-income neighbors. We would like to live in a lower-income neighborhood in order to be an active part of that neighborhood. We don’t want to separate ourselves from the poor. But we also don’t want to be seen as part of the problem that is increasing poverty for our neighbors.

The best solution may be living in the neighborhood and fighting for quality, low-cost housing. The Lawndale Christian Development Corporation builds low-cost housing for Lawndale residents. The Stevens Square Community Organization has built $70,000 lofts in Minneapolis. I don’t think adding a Gap and Starbucks to Lawndale is going to help much, but change can happen if so-called gentrifiers truly become neighbors.

More about Gentrification:

Flag Wars: a PBS documentary about gentrification in Ohio

There Goes the Neighborhood: a book about racial and social tensions in four Chicago Neighborhoods

Gentrification a boost for everyone: a USA Today article discussing whether or not gentrification really forces large numbers of people to leave their neighborhoods

Apartment Update

We didn’t get the apartment, but I’m not too disappointed. At least we know. And we had an excellent, excellent showing of our house today and the people are coming back on Wednesday. So if our house sells, that’s even better. We’re still looking for a good 2-3 bedroom apartment in Logan Square/Wicker Park/Humboldt Park (but mostly Logan Square) so if anybody knows anything, send me info!

The Waiting Game

Let me just come out and say it: once I get excited about something, I simply cannot wait for it to happen. Patience is not my strongest character quality. And the reason that I am writing about this today is that I am in the midst of an anxious waiting game. You see, last Saturday Brad and I visited an apartment in Logan Square that is such a great price, we could afford to move even if we don’t sell our house beforehand. We saw it, liked it, called the landlord to say that we want it. And now we are waiting. She apparently didn’t get our message and I’m not sure that she likes the idea of us having three pets (we actually have four, but we are giving one away so we can get an apartment). And we are waiting. At this point – a week later – I don’t really care if she says “yes” or “no” (okay, I really want her to say yes), but I just want to know so that I can move forward. Right now I am just hanging in the balance. I can’t start planning for a move, and I can’t start looking at other apartments. Let me just let out a Charlie Brown wail right now: AAAAARRRGG!

With each passing day I feel a greater longing for Chicago. It’s almost a physical feeling now. I was reading a blog today and when the writer mentioned Jewel (a grocery store in Chicagoland) and my heart literally flipped. I don’t even shop at Jewel when I am in Chicago, but the association was so strong that I almost couldn’t stand it. I wanted to pack up the car right then and there and drive home today. Now, you may think that I’m being irrational. The funny thing is that I know I’m being irrational, but I can’t seem to put these feelings aside or ignore these longings to be in MY city.

In a way I know (more in my head than in my heart) that this is a good thing, this longing, this waiting, this appealing to God to make sure that we are headed in the right direction. At some points I wonder whether this is what God really wants for us. Would he make it so difficult, force me to be so patient, if this was really the way? Wouldn’t it just be easy: sell the house, find a place, move and be home? Then I am reminded of all the times in scripture when people had to wait for God’s will to be accomplished:

• Abraham waiting for a son
• Joseph waiting to be release from prison
• the Israelites waiting in slavery (surely that wasn’t easy, was it?)
• the Israelites waiting to enter to Promised Land, or to return to Israel after exile
• the whole world waiting for the Messiah
• Jesus waiting for the Jews to repent and follow him
• Paul waiting to travel to Rome (he actually says to the Romans “I have been longing for many years to see you” – Romans 15:23 – that certainly sounds familiar)
• Paul waiting for a fair trial

A wonderful friend we visited with during our past weekend in Chicago reminded us that what is most important is not necessarily seeking God’s will but seeking intimacy with God. If we a closely connected to God’s side then the decisions that we make will be His will because we are thinking with the mind of the Father.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21

Even though I don’t like it and it makes me uncomfortable, I must conclude that this time of waiting is an important part of God’s plan for my life. It’s not like I’m siting in a waiting room, just passing the time until I can get on with my life. This waiting is part of my life. If I let Him, God can use this time to do a good work in me. Ah, that sounds cheesy but I don’t know any other way to say it. This waiting, this slow step-by-step journey is God’s Way. He is not drowning in busyness like most Americans. He is consistent, steady, reliable, and trustworthy. And I am learning (hopefully and slowly) to quiet my heart and allow Him to build this kind of character in me.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:12

Josiah Community

This past weekend Brad and I visited Chicago for a number of reasons, but probably the most important reason was a meeting with the Josiah Community. This is a group of folks from Chicago who are coming together with a vision for a building in North Lawndale. This building, in fact:

The vision of the Josiah Community is to transform this building into a L’Abri-style learning center for urban ministry and spiritual growth. Also, the top three floors will offer 45 cohousing units. What is cohousing? Cohousing is a architectural development style that centers around building community. In a cohousing community, each individual or family owns his own living space (a house or condo) but also shares a good deal of space with the rest of the community. The plan for the Josiah Community project is to have a shared kitchen and dining room (where members can enjoy dinner together each night or eat dinner in their own condos, using their own kitchens), playroom, music room, tool room, laundry facilities, garden, dog run, canning/food storage room, and a lot more that hasn’t been figured out.

The whole purpose of cohousing, and of the Josiah Community in particular, is that we would be a true community. A hundred years ago, folks lived in small towns and worked together to build the town. If someone needed a barn built, everyone would come together to accomplish that task. Women would work together to can the summer’s harvest. Families would share tools and that responsibilities of watching the children. Cohousing seeks to create that sense of shared responsibility and support.

Another important aspect of the Josiah Community is making a strong impact on the outside community, our neighbors in Lawndale. Lawndale is a low-income area with a lot of social, spiritual, and financial needs. God is doing incredible things there, especially through the work of Lawndale Community Church. It would be wonderful for the people in Lawndale to see Josiah Community as a place where they can go and find people that will love and care for them no matter what. This is the prayer.

The final part of this project is the Josiah Community learning center, where people can come from around the world to stay in the guest rooms or hostel and learn more about spiritual development, social justice, and urban ministry.

I came across this project somewhat by accident (or probably not so much by accident) and the concept floored me. I would love to live in a place with other Jesus followers, learning and sharing with each other, as well as trying to make a difference in a very struggling part of Chicago. The Josiah Community is just starting out, but let me tell you, this is an amazing bunch of people. We just met for a few hours last Sunday but I already feel like I have known these folks for a lifetime. They are incredible, smart, passionate people who are really trying to seek out God’s will for their lives and this building. Brad and I are taking the plunge to become a part of this project. It is our prayer that it will turn into a reality.

Brad and I were able to get a tour of the building, and it was absolutely incredible! This is on the fifth floor, where Brad and I would like to get a unit. There is enough ceiling height here to create lofted space. The glass block in the windows will be knocked out and used for shower walls. Huge windows with photovoltaic awnings will take their place. The goal is to having the building create enough energy for itself, and even to sell some electricity back to the grid. And did I mention there will be a canning room in the basement. Oh, it makes my heart flutter!

This is the view from one of the windows. Look closely and you can see the Chicago skyline.

So right now the goal for Brad and me is to get an apartment in Logan Square, which is a bit north of Lawndale, a bit of a nicer area so that we can adjust to city living before taking the plunge in Lawndale. Once we are in Chicago, we will continue meeting with the Josiah Community and being part of the process to bring this vision to reality. And there is still room for more people to join us (hint, hint)

Kitchen Necessities

I am currently in MY city, Chicago (that’s right, I decided that it is now mine), so I haven’t been cooking too much but since it was my birthday yesterday I have had fantastic meals since we arrived: dinner from my favorite Chinese restaurant (plus birthday canoli) on Saturday and grilled burgers and dogs (plus birthday ice cream cake and an enjoyable time watching Juno) last night.

Today I wanted to share with you my most beloved tools of the kitchen, things that my kitchen runs on that I absolutely couldn’t live without.

First on the list: olive oil. Our house practically runs on olive oil (hopefully, someday we will have a car that runs on veggie oil but that is another story for a different time). I don’t have a favorite brand or anything, as long as it is extra-virgin and organic. Once we move up to Chicago, I know there are folks from Canaan Fair Trade who sell Palestinian olive oil here, so I would love to try out that stuff. For now I use olive oil to cook almost everything (just not for frying): Brad’s famous hash brown potatoes, sauteed portobello mushrooms, sauteed onions and garlic for soup. You name it; it’s better with olive oil.

Secondly, I might get a lot of flack for this, but I love pre-diced garlic in the jar, organic of course. I know I’m Ms. Make-Everything-From-Scratch, but dicing garlic just seems like such a tedious and annoying job to me. It’s not so much the dicing part but the peeling-off-the-skin part. It takes me like 10-15 minutes just for the garlic. Now, when searching for a photo I came across a blogger who pre-diced all her garlic from the garden/farmer’s market and canned them in small jars at the end of the summer. I could probably go for that. We’ll see if it happens at the end of this summer. For now, I love being able to scoop out a tablespoon of garlic whenever I want, and that happens to be almost every meal, and at least every dinner.

And third would have to be my beloved spice “rack.” I have tried three or four different ways of storing spices over the years: one of those little spinny things with slots for the jars, a bar with a hanging basket, little jars stacked in the cupboard, and finally these magnetic metal tins. You can buy these jars from Bed Bath and Beyond for $2 a piece. Then fill with a spice or herb, label that back with a silver Sharpie, and stick to your fridge. It’s absolutely amazing! I have lots more space in my cabinets and I can see all my spices without them taking up precious counter space. The best thing about the tins is that there is a hole in the side of the tin and then two sets of holes on the side of the lid. So if you twist the lid, you can line up on the holes and shake out some curry or cumin or onion powder without having to open up the tin. That might not make sense to you, but, trust me, it’s pure genius.