good eats, good reads

good eats:

If you've been reading my blog for long, you know how much I love roost. The photography, the recipes, the writing--it's all sublime. Their recent summer squash salad post has me weak in the knees (helloooo peaches, manchego and truffle oil!) Once I start feeling better, I am SO making this.

Can't get enough peaches? How about this combination? Shutterbean has a knack for combining my favorite flavors in delicious-sounding and -tasting recipes (much like Joy the Baker, who, by the way, is shutterbean's internet BFF). 

Speaking of fresh Summer fruit, how can you pass up a refreshing glass of agua fresca? I made a pitcher of a strawberry-melon recipe a few weeks back that lasted all of two hours. Next on my list? This one by David Lebovitz.

All of my favorite food blogs are leaving me hungry, craving all sorts of flavors and textures I've been missing out thus far in my pregnancy (no thanks to you, colitis). Cabbage is a big no-no for now, but when I'm improved, you can be sure I'm going to grill up a big, juicy flank steak and serve this slaw alongside.

good reads: 

My baby girl started Kindergarten this week. It's been five and a half years in the coming, but it still hit me like a ton of bricks. What an emotional whirlwind. I cold so totally relate to the sentiments of one of my all-time favorite writers, Kelle. 

I so appreciated these comments over at Stuff Christians Like. It's something we strive for at Soma SRV, to be real, to be vulnerable, and to admit just how deeply flawed we are. The world would relate so much better to a bunch of people saying, "Yeah, we're messed up. We don't have it together. But God loves us in spite of that. And he loves you, too."

I love a good, honest writer. This post on adoption by Jen Hatmaker doesn't sugarcoat any details but also speaks the grace of the gospel so clearly. It calls to mind Ephesians 2:4-7 to me: 

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

We've been accepted and adopted in grace. We were (and are) unlovable apart from Christ. Adoption is not always an easy process, but it is one of grace, of kindness, and of immeasurable riches.

And with that, I say: Happy Weekend, dear readers!