A Premature Advent Post

Chicago’s weather is not mild. Our winters are painfully frigid. 

Come daylight savings time, darkness descends upon our city at 5 p.m. The trees become barren and eventually covered by snow. January is not for the faint of heart. By February you have a deep yearning for the balmy temperatures of May.

Then it all changes.

The warmth and sun returns. When the weather finally becomes temperate you feel a sense of accomplishment as if you truly earned it. You did the hard work and now you get summer.

I moved to Georgia for a season thinking that I would love the year-round warmth and sun. But I didn’t. I missed the distinct changes between the seasons, putting on coats and hats, feeling the whipping wind against my face. I missed having a running nose and having to alter my schedule to the weather.

Somewhere deep inside my heart understands there is a greater joy in redemption than constant happiness. 

My heart leaps not at perfection but at the imperfect that reminds me someday Jesus will bring perfect. Georgia was perfect and beautiful. But it felt artificial and like a forced, boring story. Where was the darkness that eventually brings forth light?  Where was the climax? How did we earn this? How could you even appreciate it?

I love Matt more than I could possibly love anyone because he knows the bad, broken parts of me, parts that may be unresolved yet he committed to stay until those become beautiful. Life is not constant joy and light. But it eventually will be.

For our lives now we have broken joy.  

We live in seasons. Seasons of darkness and then incredible warmth.   

Sometimes we have to bundle up and put on twinkly lights when it turns dark at 5 p.m., and wait for the balmy warm winds to return.

For the coming Holiday season, I am going to put on lots of layers , let the cold wind whip against my face and light candles in our apartment in anticipation of what is to come. I am going to let the darkness point my heart back to the one who will be born who brings true light. 

A baby born in the middle of the night will lead us into a greater story. 

It will not be told on a balmy beach in Florida but will begin in a manger in the midst of darkness. 

If you are over the age of twelve, the Holiday season is full of contradictions. It is generally not Christmas until someone cries in our family.

The Holidays heighten my desire for wholeness and joy, and yet something will always go wrong.

Someone will hurt my feelings. I will be let down in someway. Not everything will be shiny and warm the way I want it to be. 

There will be broken joy and yet it will be perfect. I will turn on the heat and cover our little apartment in lights, and remind myself of the light He brought out of darkness in my own life. 

Black and White

Black and white is always simple and chic.Black swingy skirt with a white peter pan collared shirt and black booties screams perfect fall day outfit. Add a red lip for a little pop of color. 

// Skirt from LOFT found here// Boots similar but without the fringe here // Boots with the fringe here// Similar option found on sale here//White shirt from Free People, similar here// 

Everything You Need To Know about the Chicago Sky Deck

I have lived in the Chicago land area for my entire life, yet like most Chicago natives I had never been to the Sear’s (always and forever) Tower! Making an outing to the Sears Tower became much more enticing after seeing the pictures of the new Sky Deck. Since the whole event is about as touristy as it gets, there are a few things you should know before buying tickets:

1.    Check bargain websites for discounted tickets. Tickets are $20 per adult but be on the lookout for discounted tickets and pricing through bargain websites like Living Social and Groupon. I bought our tickets on Living Social at a slight discount so we spent $15 per ticket as opposed to the normal $20 pricing. You can buy tickets there as well. Unless you have bought the more expensive ticket ($45- the Fast Pass) even if you bought your ticket ahead of time, you will still have to wait in line with everyone else.
2. You will wait in line and actually enjoy it. Even if you do not see a line outside the building you will wait in line for 2 hours. Matt and I went on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and felt naively optimistic about our wait time since there was no visible line when we walked up to the building. Normally, when I walk by the entrance to the Sky Deck the line flows out of the building and down the street. However, we ended up waiting in line for 2 hours in an intricate line that flowed through the building. The wait time actually went surprisingly quickly since the line flowed through galleries with interesting facts about Chicago and Chicago history.  We even got to watch a short movie about the history of the Sears Tower. All in and all, although the wait was much longer than we had expected it was surprisingly enjoyable.
3. You will wait in another line once you reach the 103^rd floor to go out on the Sky Deck. Once we reached the 103^rd floor observatory, we were surprised to see that we would have to wait in line again to walk out onto the Sky Deck boxes. The wait for the boxes was not very long, but we still waited for about 15 minutes to step out into a Sky Deck box.
4. You will not be alone. All the pictures taken in a Sky Deck box make it appear like you have the whole box to yourself. Not the case. The lines filter about 3 different people into the Sky Deck Boxes at a time. If you go during the weekend, you will likely be standing in a small area of the box and then have to leave after about 5 minutes to allow someone else to step out.
5. You will be more impressed than you had thought you would be. I was surprised by how high up we were. It was very cool to look down at the Trump tower and see how much the other buildings paled in comparison to the Sears Tower. The view was totally different than anything I had seen at the Trump etc. just because you are looking down at everything. The Sky Deck is also more amazing than I thought it would be. The cleanness of its design really adds to the scare factor of the whole experience. I looked down and my stomach dropped. I did not look down again...
6.  You can eat Pizza here! For $100 per person you can purchase the “Pie in the Sky” dining experience where Giordano’s Pizza provides you with a 3 course catered menu after hours at the Sky Deck Ledge.  To book your date night here, click here. 

Needing Beauty

"Glorifying God does not mean obeying him only because you have to. It means to obey him because you want to — because you are attracted to him, because you delight in him. This is what C. S. Lewis grasped and explained so well in his chapter on praising. We need beauty."- Tim Keller 

We all need beauty to connect us back to the glory of God and to remind us that He is actually good. It reminds me that He knows better than I do and that His way leads to more beautiful results than my own. My prayer for this new season is that I would see beauty where others might not see it, that this beauty around me would stop me in my tracks, that I would be overwhelmed every day by some beautiful moment, and that the beauty would always point my heart back to Him. Here's to being overwhelmed by beauty and working to encourage and create it in our own lives. 

Two New Favorite Restaurants

1) Restoration Hardware (RH) The Gallery at The Three Arts Club. 

(Hours: Sunday from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.)

Restoration Hardware just opened its new gallery store in Chicago and it is to die for! The space is worth a trip in and of itself, and the food is really, really good. Perfect Sunday lunch or brunch spot. There is also a bar where you can grab a drink and sit on the roof or you can just take your glass of wine and walk around the store. You can also grab coffee and a donut in the coffee shop. Basically, there is something for everyone. I could not get over how beautiful the entire space was, just perfection. Beware of the daytime hours and make sure you plan a Saturday lunch outing to check it out. 

2) Parachute. 

This Avondale restaurant was runner-up for the 2015 James Beard award, and after the first bite you can immediately see why. Make sure to make a reservation far in advance since the space is small and there is limited seating. We had to make our reservation a month out and, even then, the only day open was a Wednesday night. The food has so much amazing flavor that you will not be disappointed. If it wasn't so hard to get in, we would be here all the time. Get the Bing bread for sure and do not skip dessert! The Pavlov was unreal. 

^^ The pork belly and mung bean pancake was absolutely to die for

Camouflage Coat and Colors of Fall

This past weekend we got to explore some forest preserves in the area which were absolutely breathtaking. The weather was warm and perfect which made the whole experience even better. Fall clothing is so fun because you get to layer and wear fun coats! This season, I am especially loving all new layers with this white sweater vest and a unpredictable coat. My camo coat is relatively inexpensive and a great fun little addition to the normal monotone coats. I am pretty petite and extra layers can over power me and make me look even shorter when they are too big. This sweater vest was one of the only ones I tried on that did not make me look like I was drowning in fabric. 

Sweater Vest from Loft, found here // Camouflage jacket from H&M, found here // Skinny jeans from Zara found here //The most comfortable, worn pair of shoes in my closet, found here//