Cool to the Max

I just heard about Days with My Father. (I was initially confused about how to use it, too- just scroll down).
Wow.
It is an incredibly moving photo essay with captions. Worth your time.

I also just heard about trendwatching.com - a free online digest of trends that's tracked by a giant global team of trendspotters.

Also, my new favorite blog is thecoolhunter.net. Basically, this guy's job is to hear about cool stuff and blog about it. Like this Christmas installation in Paris, above. Or this:

The Snowtunnel. So hot right now. Or what about this:

The National Geographic International Photo Contest 2009. Thanks, Cool Hunter, for the tip! PS You can still vote in the NatGeo Viewers' Choice Award category. Or this:

Somewhere in Nairobi, my Satty is having a heart attack.

I know. Brace yourselves, people. This stuff is seriously cool.

Also hot:

The Mini Goes Neon. My head is about to explode with Coolness!

A kitchen made of Legos!!! Too much!!! Too much coolness!!! I can't take it!

Team Harry

Texts from Last Night is a very naughty, but very funny, website where people send in ridiculous messages they've received. My husband occasionally sends me ones he thinks are particularly hilarious. Today:

(720): You can't like Harry Potter and Twilight. You have to pick. Vampires and Wizards are mutually exclusive.

We all know which side I'm on.

Only a few more days until December 7......

Today's mashup

I love this backsplash of rough brick

This is hysterical. Thank you, Kathleen.

I love it! Sweet little guy.

Have you heard Esquire magazine included Shane Claiborne on their list of "Rebels and Radicals who are Changing the World"? The editors of Esquire, not known for their tee-totaling generally, invite Shane to write an open letter to non-believers, used-to-believers, etc, and to say anything he wanted! Really?!

Here is Shane's letter in Esquire magazine.

I've got a new favorite blog. It's Parkside Stories, which describes itself as "a beautiful multi-ethnic, low-income apartment complex in the suburbs of Chicago. God has put together a team of people living there who are working towards transforming this community. We live intentionally and work on building relationships between people in and outside the community. As one of Church of the Resurrection's locations, we are involved in community development and an apartment church-plant."

I've had two favorite posts lately - one about how the church should stand alongside immigrants (who make up a big part of the Parkside community and who need a great deal of help navigating the) and another about living a double life.   The author's "double life" consists of living in a low-income apartment complex among the very poorest poor of Chicago, but then leaving each morning to drive just a few miles to her day job - teaching in a rich high school. I can really relate, especially as B and I prepare to move to Haiti to teach high school. Will that be what it feels like - a double life, where I live among the poor and look like a local (well, kind of....), but have a cushy bank account, big house, and tons of beautiful things packed in storage at home?

Did you know there's a modern-day Underground Railroad going on right now, between North Korea and China? Much like on the Texas-Mexico border, many would-be refugees seek the help of a broker/human smuggler to get across the border, but that puts them at great risk for human trafficking and being sold into slavery.

Finally, may I say that Jillian Edwards' music has not left my mind since last week when I saw her delightful self in concert. Check her out! 
Happy Thanksgiving! 

Honeyyear

One year ago today I left for my honeymoon with my best friend and newly-minted husband.

What an amazing trip, what an amazing year!

Thank you, Brabourne Farm, for your post on my very favorite piece of furniture.

One day, years from now, when I'm back in a furniture-buying stage of life,

I'll bring one of you home to my house:)

And maybe, just maybe....

my house will have a garden like this

And all 25 of my adopted kids will play there, with all my friends' kids too.

It will be just like this (except add lots more toys and balls and jumpropes).

Haiti or Bust

THE NEWS IS OUT!!

Friends, we're officially out of the closet - the Haiti closet, that is.

My husband and I are moving to Port-au-Prince, Haiti for a few years of mission and aid work.

Get the full story at
http://www.benandkatieinhaiti.blogspot.com/ .


Add us to your Reader, or Follow along!

Veterans Day

Speaking of Veterans. How about this one, my brother, in Spain (with Kelsey at the 2009 Marine Ball)...

Or this one, Pat, husband of my dear friend Savannah, flying helicopters in Alabama.....

Here's a prayer for our military men and women, and the significant others (and mama, and sisters too) who love them dearly.

Sometimes

Sometimes, when I get off the train downtown and walk up the marble steps to my big, giant skyscraper office building.... I feel just like this. There's a thrill. Wanting to throw my hat in the air.

Sometimes, I feel just like this- warrior princess. Raised by wolves.
Kind of like my favorite thing I ever learned in four semesters of Swahili class:

Binti wa Simba ni simba pia.
The daughter of the Lion is also a lion.

Want to know a secret?
My mom and I are getting that proverb as a tat.

Invite your friends!

Let me practice Jedi mind control for a moment. Ready?

YOU WANT TO COME TO THIS AWESOME CONCERT! MARK IT ON YOUR CALENDAR! INVITE EVERYBODY YOU KNOW!

Click here for the Facebook event.

Let's see:

1. Free event

2. Tasty organic coffee at Mokah Coffee Bar, a pretty sweet place to spend a Thursday night

3. Really talented artists

4. Learning about and supporting Buckner International's ministry to orphans and vulnerable children around the world.

5. Door prizes

What a win-win! See you there.

Fathers, Brothers, Husbands, Sons

President Obama was elected one year ago this week. Though I did not vote for him, I am now glad that he won the election. His policies do not always align with mine, but I am particularly proud of his efforts to make America more of a "team player" in this global neighborhood of ours.

Even as a proud Texan who sported a "Luv Ya, Dubya" sticker on my car in the fall of 2000, I cringed at our damaged relationships with other nations over the following 8 years. Yet, as I read this data today, I remembered what the US have given to advance the cause of freedom in our world:

1. Aisne-Marne, France, a total of 2,289 of our military dead.

2. Ardennes, Belgium, a total of 5,329 of our military dead.

3. Brittany, France, a total of 410 of our military dead.

4. Brookwood, England, a total of 468 of our military dead.

5. Cambridge, England, a total of 3,812 of our military dead.

6. Epinal, France, a total of 5,525 of our military dead.

7. Flanders Field, Belgium, a total of 368 of our military dead.

8. Florence, Italy, a total of 4,402 of our military dead.

9. Henri-Chapelle, Belgium, a total of 7,992 of our military dead.

10. Lorraine, France, a total of 10,489 of our military dead.

11. Luxembourg, a total of 5,076 of our military dead.

12. Meuse-Argonne, a total of 14,246 of our military dead.

13. The Netherlands, a total of 8,301 of our military dead.

14. Normandy, France, a total of 9,387 of our military dead.

15. Oise, Aisne, France, a total of 6,012 of our military dead.

16. Rhone, France, a total of 861 of our military dead.

17. Sicily, Italy, a total of 7,861 of our military dead.

18. Somme, France, a total of 1,844 of our military dead.

19. St. Mihiel, France, a total of 4,153 of our military dead.

20. Suresnes, France, a total of 1,541 of our military dead.

Love those Catholics

I read a very interesting blog called Busted Halo that is written by Catholics, mostly, toward a younger, "spiritual seeker" audience. They cover very interesting topics often- for instance, this morning I read an interview with a Vatican-trained exorcist working in the San Jose diocese. Fascinating!

One of my favorite regular blog features is the Question Box. This morning's topic: What do Catholics think about speaking in tongues? The priest's answer is pretty much exactly what I would say I believe, too. I love it when I find common ground with Catholics, or other believers around the world. I think it brings great joy to our God when we are in unity and brotherhood. Church is supposed to be a singular word, after all:)

thx, Wade

"In a way all of us at Oxford knew, knew as an undercurrent in our minds, that it wouldn't last for ever. Lew and Mary Ann expressed it one night by saying: 'This, you know, is a time of taking in-taking in friendship, conversation, gaiety, wisdom, knowledge, beauty, holiness-and later, well, there'll be a time of giving out.' Later, when we were scattered about the world. Now we must store up the strength, the riches, all that Oxford had given us, to sustain us after. She stood there, Oxford, like a mother to us all with her hands heaped with riches. We could take what we would. We, Davy and I, would, for one thing, take all who came to the Studio. Whoever came, whatever the hour, was always welcome."


-Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy