Why so much broccoli?

The New DeLews are as happy as clams in the Medill. Someday soon I will write an Ode to the Medill and share all the things we love about it (with pictures of course). But for now, I'll just say this- we officially love the Medill, and we are very very thankful. Thanks to great friends, Friday night's move was quick and relatively painless (at least for those of us who were directing where each box should be placed, heh heh). We had bribed our friends to help us move by promising huge amounts of pizza and beer. On Friday we weren't sure how many people would show up, but we definitely wanted to be prepared on the food and drink front, so naturally, we bought way too much Costco pizza and beer for days. Yada yada yada, at the end of the night, after giving away about half a pizza, the New DeLews found themselves with lots of leftover pizza (and tons of leftover beer of course- we're not lushes!) So all that to say, in an effort not to waste anything (we pretend to be green here), we had pizza for dinner 3 nights in a row. Now I like pizza and all, but that's a bit much. It was rough.

After the past week of eating so terribly, and now that we have a kitchen again, it is time to eat our vegetables- specifically green things. Yesterday I decided that broccoli would sufficiently kick off our return to healthiness. After searching through a healthy food blog, I found it! Broccoli Quinoa with Broccoli Pesto. We're talking about 4 pounds of broccoli here, people. If that's not going to get us back to health, nothing will! Now mind you, Mark agreed to this meal, mainly because the other option was a tofu stir-fry. Anyway, I was cutting the broccoli, and suddenly I became nervous that I didn't have enough broccoli. So I asked Mark to stop by our local produce Market- Emilio's, to buy more broccoli. When he came home, I was steaming broccoli and stuffing some of it into a blender to make the broccoli pesto. And Mark gently said- 'Em, that's a lot of broccoli'. But I would not be moved- I need more broccoli!

But then, while I was attempting to stir the largest bowl of broccoli you've ever seen, it all hit me- Oh no! this is a lot of broccoli. So we sat down to eat our green slush of a meal, and I must say, we were impressed by the good flavors. But after about 5 minutes, I sheepishly put down my dish- I just couldn't do it anymore! It was too much! And then Mark gently asked the question that both of us were thinking- 'Babe, why so much broccoli?' My overzealous-ness struck again: good intentions but extreme and ridiculous follow through. And we both have to pay the price- broccoli sludge up the wazoo! So as I eat my broccoli mush for lunch today, I only have one thing to say, lesson learned.

That Miserable Couple

Today is the day- it's moving day! This evening we will be loading up a uhaul and making the long 1-mile trek to the Medill- with the help of some awesome friends (shout out to you all!!), and with the sustaining power of pizza and beer. That's essential.

This past week Mark and I made a packing game plan. Essentially it was- come home from work, pack non-stop, cook or order take out for dinner, and pack some more. We kinda stuck to the schedule. We made tons o' progress on Monday- Mark cooked the Whipple's Last Supper while I went for a run (it was fantastico!). Tuesday we became easily distracted- partly because of my insanely intense wave of hunger that gave me tunnel vision for Indian takeout. We took a packing break to watch Lost, but then realized it was a re-run. Instead of turning off the tv to pack, we got hooked on Biggest Loser/Glee. Needless to say, Tuesday was not our most productive packing day ever. Wednesday, on the other hand, we took care of business! Some friends came over and helped us pack/eat Thai food. Yada yada, we finished packing on Wednesday night. Yep, you heard it- two days before moving day, we were DONE packing! Yeah, the New DeLews freaking rock.

So last night, Mark and I went for a run and then went out to a nice dinner. We had a groupon (we love groupons!) for a chic new restaurant in our neighborhood. You know, one of those places where the tables are real close to each other, so you have to try really hard not to hear the surrounding conversations? We were having a grand ol' time until we started overhearing the couple next to us. This couple was in their early-40s, hopefully not married, and horribly immature. Tidbits of what we heard- Lady: "You're a horrible date! I can't believe you're so awful. You're walking home tonight!", Guy: "Whatever. I don't even care..." Later in the evening, slightly yelling Lady:"I want dessert! I lost 15 pounds so I can eat whatever I want!" Guy: "Fine! Load up on sugar for all I care. I do NOT want dessert! I'm not eating any of that crap!" And the night continued to get worse and worse. They were absolutely miserable. I wanted to tell them to break up, but Mark held me back.

All that to say, the New DeLews made some important promises to each other last night- we will N-E-V-E-R become like that miserable couple. EVER. Now I'm not pretending that we don't have petty fights. Because we do. (thanks to my natural inclination to be petty). But in the midst of everything, we have a foundation of deep respect for each other- and usually that shapes the ways we argue. Disagreeing is inevitable, but we're learning that the way we treat each other during those disagreements is what's important. So, we promise to never be like that miserable couple- we made that vow on our wedding day, and we'll continue to uphold it.

The Joys of Moving

It's been a slightly stressful few weeks because the New DeLews are preparing to move apartments! Yes, the time has come to say goodbye to the Whipple- our lovely first year of marriage apartment located 0.6 miles from the El with drafty windows (that's a 15 minute walk in below zero hellish weather). At some point I'll write an Ode to the Whipple, but right now I'm so eager to live a measly 0.18 miles from the El- yes people, the Medill is drastically closer! For anyone who has moved before, you know that with moving comes a bit of stress. The past 2 weekends we have spent a good amount of time painting the Medill, which led to some strong marital discussions, I mean, agreements regarding the accent color of our bedroom wall. We took a long trip to Ikea during rush hour to find the perfect curtain that will hide the faux brick wall. And yet, we haven't really begun to pack. This will be the first time we pack up our stuff together as a married couple. It's kind of exciting, kind of unnerving. Why, you ask? Well as in many things in the New DeLews' marriage, Mark and I have different styles of packing. I'm talking about very different styles.

Emily's Packing Style Example A: Last night at like 10:30pm I wisely tried to start packing by rustling through a large bin that I have strategically placed next to my dresser. This bin contains all those things that I desperately need- old hair clips, random pieces of fabric that I used to wear in my wannabe-hippie stage (wait, I'm still in that stage!), 4 pairs of scratched sunglasses, and a sundry of malaria and typhoid pills. Like I said, I need these things. As I was sitting on the hardwood floor, digging through this bin, I realized that I hadn't used anything in this bin since my last move- a year ago. But what do you do? I haven't used the turquoise hair flower for 3 years and I had completely forgotten about it, but now that I rediscovered it, I may want some hair flair this summer. Much to Mark's dismay, back into the bin it went.

Mark's Packing Style Example A: Generally Mark keeps his dresser area relatively neat. As he likes to say 'it's easier and better to maintain a general sense of organization and neatness'. So already, Mark is one step ahead of me- he doesn't have a strategically placed bin! He's also been adamant about not buying anything over the past few weeks. Like when we were at Target, 'I don't want to buy anymore ziploc sandwich bags. I don't want to pack them.' So Mark's style is to decrease any extra stuff in order to ease our moving work load. Thus the reason he told me to throw out the hair flower.

All this to say, I'm starting to realize that we'll need an extra dose of grace with each other over the next few weeks. The truth is, we're having such a fun time getting ready to move and we like any excuse to hang out with each other. But we've got to make the plunge into this thing called packing, and decide to appreciate and learn from our differences. And that, my friends, is one of the coolest things about being married!

A Holiday Feast

I'm not the biggest fan of holiday meals. I know, I know, everyone can get all riled up and angry at me for this, but it's true. The big slabs of meat, all the bones, the starches, and so many pies. I really appreciate the symbolism of holiday meals, people together, celebrating, etc.. But the food itself, meh. I think it's just too much at one time.

Even though I don't necessarily like eating these huge holiday meals, I really enjoy any excuse to cook a lot of food. So when we found out that some of our dear college friends were coming to Chicago for Easter weekend, the New DeLews made plans for the Whipple's biggest feast yet! With a total of 15 hungry eaters and only one oven, we knew that a cooking strategy was of utmost importance. After our Easter service (and after a very necessary coffee-stop) the New DeLews and Adam & E put on our aprons, sat down in the Whipple, discussed the 'master plan', and did a little 'Go Easter' team cheer. Yeah, sounds lame, but it was cool. Believe me.

The menu:

For appetizers (because dinner is never ready when we think it will be)

-Sun-dried tomato stuffed mushrooms
-vegetable slices with thai peanut dip
-broiled brie and apple slices on a baguette

Main course (yup, we're talking about 13 pounds of meat, people!)

-leg of lamb with feta and spinach stuffing

-full chicken with lemon curd topping

-homemade tomato roasted foccaccia bread

-rosemary roasted potatoes

-orange arugula salad

Dessert (most important)

-angel food cake

-lemon curd and strawberry tart

And let me tell you, after 5 hours 0f cooking and 6 bottles of wine, we had 15 people sitting at our dining room table (which we had put 3 leaves in and moved into the living room), laughing, chatting, and enjoying wonderful company with each other. It was a such a sweet time. So this Easter wasn't just a typical holiday meal for me, I felt like we were actually practicing resurrection- although we remember the darkness of the Good Friday, because of Easter Sunday we are able to celebrate together the life that God has given us. Because of Sunday, we have hope. And it is so right to celebrate that hope with our community.

Life Stages

All right, I'm just going to admit it. I'm going to admit one of my hidden desires that creeped up on me last fall. So here goes- a couple of months ago, I may have wanted a baby...

Yes, I know, at that point Mark and I had been married for only 6 months. And yes, I know, there are plenty of things that Mark and I want to do before we carry diapers in my purse rather than wine openers (because you must always be prepared!). And yes, I'm still a feminist. Nevertheless, the baby desire was present and strangely strong. And yet I couldn't quite figure out why. What had happened to me?

My diagnosis? I think that I was feeling more comfortable in my married skin and so I was looking for the next exciting life stage. Now this is difficult for me to admit, primarily because it reveals that I'm all talk. I love to talk about finding beauty in the mundane and being fully present in my context, but really, when push comes to shove ... I just want excitement. And strangely enough, the excitement of having a baby seemed like the next logical step to me. And of course, Mark thoroughly disagreed.

Of course, this baby-desire would wax and wane throughout the past few months, but it came to a halting stop about 2 weeks ago. Mark and I spent a long weekend in my glorious homeland- Northern California. We had a wonderful time with my family, being around when my sister got engaged (way to go, Isaac!), wedding dress shopping, and last but not at all least, hanging out with the cutest nieces and nephew in the world (Exhibit A). And may I say, Uncle Mark and Auntie Em were quite a hit with the kiddos this weekend. These dear kids are such a joy!

But as quickly as that 'baby-desire/discontent with my life stage' came, it left. Mark was prepared for me to be extra baby-desirous after spending time in California. And although my desire to eventually have children deepened, I was reminded of how special this time of our lives is, and that I shouldn't wish it away. Having the freedom to give our time to others, having tons of people over for dinner, enjoying the beauty of our mundane lives, these are wonderful things that I should cherish. With each stage of life comes excitement and banality. But we are called to be content in the midst of it all, and to live each stage to its fullest. And I believe that the New DeLews have a lot more to learn and enjoy in this stage of life.

Running with Soy Sauce

As I mentioned last post, The New DeLews are eagerly trying out our new persona- the Sportsy Couple. So let's talk about our history with sportsy-ness.

For the past year I have spent most of my lunch breaks on the treadmill at my work's gym. It's been cool, I've watched a lot of the news, particularly 'Russia Today'- which has given me a superficial view of how Russian media views the U.S.... sometimes depressing, but mostly entertaining. Anyway, I've become pretty comfortable with my inside-running routine.

Now even though I can easily run 3 miles inside, take me outside and suddenly I'm all wheezy and heaving, and I usually end up all angry the whole time. So if Mark ever suggests that we go for a run together, I have 3 criterion that Mark must promise to follow:

1. Mark must talk the whole time
2. I must set the pace
3. I can decide at any moment that the run is over, and Mark can't judge me

Pretty reasonable rules, yeah? Well my dear husband knows how to humor me, so he appeases me in this one area.

One day last Fall Mark and I decided to take a run outside. And of course, I reiterated the rules, Mark agreed, and then we agreed on one more rule- we need to run with a purpose! Now this purpose (for some people) might be to get healthy, to build endurance, or whatever. Our purpose for running that morning- to end our run at the sweet diner that we've always wanted to check out. And it was fun! I mean, sitting in the diner all sweaty and wheezing wasn't necessarily awesome, but we had a good time 'running with purpose'!

Now that I am training to run a 10 mile race at the end of May, I am pleased to say that I've gotten over my running-outside phobia. The 3 rules don't really apply anymore, meaning that I can be a civil human being when my husband graciously runs with me. But we still like to 'run with purpose'.

In fact, last week Mark and I were planning on taking a 3 mile run, when we realized that we were intensely craving homemade pad thai, and that we needed some bean sprouts from the local Korean grocery store. So we figured out a route that would conveniently place us at Jung Boo at the 2.2 mile mark. In we went, picked up the 50 cents worth of bean sprouts and pranced to the cash register. Until we found out that they had a $5 minimum for credit card transactions. (who carries cash anymore?). We picked up the largest bottle of soy sauce ever (it was a great deal, so we had to get the big bottle of course), and cashed out of Jung Boo. Mark graciously carried the huge-*** bottle of soy sauce for the remainder of our run.

We looked like total running rookies with our soy sauce and bean sprouts, but ya know, we had a great time! I'm realizing that our desire to be that 'Sportsy Couple' doesn't necessarily mean that we'll look super sportsy. But we're learning how to interact with each other in sporty-ish ways. So bring on the running outside with purpose- we may not look pretty doing it, but we'll have fun- even with soy sauce in hand.

The DeLew Happenings

It's Saturday morning and I'm drinking French Press coffee, listening to John Coltrane, and staring out the window at the dismal 'wintery-mix'. What a perfect day to catch up on the New DeLew's most recent happenings? (mind you, I am intentionally choosing not to make this post about the [insert inappropriate language here] weather this weekend, so take that Chicago!).

-NYC Baby! Two weekends ago Mark and I had the incredible chance to explore New York for a long weekend, traversing around Manhattan like it was our job. We met up with some awesome college friends, and we even brought along a personal photographer (Chucky rocks!). It totally works out to be good friends with a budding professional photographer, we're always his guinea pigs, as you can see in these sweet pictures. And we contribute to his photography endeavors by lugging his huge tripod and 100 lb camera throughout the entire city.

-Goodbye Whipple, Hello Medill! We came to the exciting decision to move out of our lovely newly-wed apartment and try out the first floor of a classic Chicago brick two-flat apartment. For the same price that we pay now, we're only two blocks from the El and we'll have two bedrooms! So come on over and visit! You'll actually have a bed to sleep on.

-Sportsy Couple- We've decided that this summer we want to be a 'sportsy couple'. This means we plan to be that couple that bikes to work and runs after work. Yeah... we're hard core. But first I need to get a bike wheel, since it was stolen last year. Punk kids.

-Wine- we've decided to decrease our daily wine intake. Partly so that we can be less of the 'wine couple, and more of the 'sportsy couple'. But don't worry, there is still a plethora of vino at the DeLews.

-California- Next weekend Mark has a bunch of work presentations on the west coast so I'm going along to spend the weekend in California with my beloved family. I can handle this horrible snow today, because next weekend we'll be in the beautiful sunshine of my homeland.

-Zambia- And lastly, we are always thinking up ways to get back to Zambia. We dream about living in my host family's guest house and working with the school where I taught 2 years ago. Although we love our new life together in Chicago, our hearts long to be in the community of Musonda, where we feel called.

We've almost hit our 10 Monthiversary. It's amazing to see how much we have learned about each other in these months. And I can't even imagine how much we'll learn about each other in the next 30 years. We are very thankful.