New Favorite Place

I have a new favorite place, friends.
A little farmers market I recently discovered.
My fridge, tummy, and heart are all happy...

• baby lettuce
• green pepper
• snap peas
• broccoli
• zucchini
• new potatoes
• cucumbers
• baby onions
• tart cherries

Two shopping bags of local, affordable, healthy goodness.

well-developed

Well-developed faith results in well-defined prayers, 

and well-defined prayers result in a well-lived life.

-Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker

bummed

We were going to go on a hike today.

from the files...

Every spring I'm reminded of the two months I spent interning in Malawi in 2009.

I can't believe six years have passed since my first international trek...

Here are a few old photos taken during a brief village stay at my language helper's house in June 2009.

sweeping the front walkway

crushing ground nuts (peanuts)

...those hands never let go of that bucket!

cooking ugali

breakfast: white sweet potatoes and groundnut sauce

washing the dishes

Jubilee Day

borrowed photo thanks to Google

Dear Friends,

This week I attended the largest, longest running, one-day street fair in Eastern, PA.

I think it must be a local thing, because I couldn't really figure out why 70,000 people crowd the streets just to eat greasy food, buy overpriced jewelry, and potentially win a goldfish.

idk.

But, it was interesting to go to Jubilee Day so that I can now say I have been to Jubilee Day.

ps- based on my limited people-viewing at Jubilee Day: apparently Crop Tops are the rage this summer...

Bitty Bouquet

(from Sara's plants)

bundo banana blessing

I love baking with bananas, and of course the best baking bananas are dead ones.

I haven't seen discount bananas for sale in Pennsylvania.

.ever.

(I even asked my friends here, and none of them knew where to direct me to purchase outdated bananas either)...

Imagine my delight when I discovered a rack of bundo bananas at Giant last Wednesday evening while grocery shopping! I limited myself to one bag ($1.51 at $0.29/lb), which was filled with three bunches of smelly bananas.

After work on Thursday I baked a banana cake and froze the rest of the brown gems for later :)

In case you want to bake a banana cake as well, here's the easy recipe I used:

Simple Banana Cake

(originally from Two Peas & Their Pod)

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup sugar (I reduce)

1 cup mashed bananas (extra ripe bananas are best!)

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

3/4 cup plain yoghurt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk wet ingredients.
3. Mix wet and dry ingredients; beat a few times.
4. Pour batter into greased and floured pan (I used an 8x10 glass baking dish).
5. Bake at 350F/180C for 25 minutes or until done.

For Extra Yum

~Sprinkle with chocolate chips before baking, or top with chocolate or 

peanut butter frosting once the cake is cool~

Chocolate Frosting 

(All Recipes)

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup cocoa

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Beat butter and cocoa. Add milk and vanilla an beat until smooth. Slowly add powdered sugar and beat until smooth. 

from Judith

My sister-in-law sent me with this gorgeous bouquet from her garden when I visited last weekend.

I took the flowers to work, where they received lots of compliments from my colleagues.

front row seats

The local Memorial Day parade passed in front of our house!

ride in style

how could we have a parade without a band?

the.sweat.shop.

Mennonite World Conference is coming to the States!

It's coming to Pennsylvania!

It's a big deal!

our small meeting room turned sweatshop

Many members of the Brethren In Christ family will be traveling to Pennsylvania 

(from all over the globe) to attend MWC next month. 

We want to give a special, memorable gift to our friends who are visiting this strange country and joining the assembly...

So, we have a little sweatshop open at the office right now.

A few of us have been working after-hours (or on Friday afternoon last week...)

to craft little wall hangings.

a sweatshop team hard at work

(oops... fuzzed picture)
the hand-crafted, little wire hangers are quite cute

By the way, we're accepting volunteer applications if you're ever in the area and want to join the sweatshop effort ;)

-we have approximately 500 wall hangings to craft-

these two

It was a super special treat to spend time with 

these two gals and their mom last week!

pie date

Last Monday, after work, my colleague Sandy and I drove out to Cross the Creek Farm and picked six quarts of strawberries...

Then we drove to Sandy's house and made 6 pies.

We finished our pie making around 10:30p.m.

On Tuesday morning we shared strawberry pies with all our office-mates.

Sandy and I

Sandy and I had a great time working together, but...

I think it will be a while before I'm ready to make six pies after a full day at work again ;)

-Wherever did that phrase, Easy as Pie come from anyway?!?-

More, More, Morleys

singing for a friend

I spent last Sunday with our Morley friends, who graciously welcomed me into their family for the day. After Sunday dinner (complete with homemade pies and homemade ice cream!), we spent the afternoon chatting and later visited an elderly friend of the family.

It was a joy to spend the day with these musical Morleys, and to be blessed by their singing talent. If you're looking for some good four-part harmony, I recommend frequenting the nursing homes and meeting houses where the Morleys regularly share :)

Thanks, friends, for a special day.

New Addition

Sara recently purchased this cute hutch,

a perfect addition to our dining room.