The Simple Seed! || Family Dinner

Good morning & Happy Friday!

 I want to dedicate some time to tell you about my friend, Christine. 

Maybe you know her? She's really cool. :)

I've known Christine for quite some time because we graduated together.. But, it isn't tell recently that I feel like I've really gotten to know her, especially her passion and dreams. Christine and I met for breakfast at few weeks back, to talk about something that she is so incredibly passionate about: being gluten free. Through her deliciously, yummy looking Instagram posts, I've always had an idea that Christine loves her gluten free foods...but it wasn't until she showed up to breakfast with this packet of like 6, HAND WRITTEN pages with examples of gluten free foods, questions, meal plans, and why I should be gluten free that I realized Christine, really loves her gluten free foods. 

But it's not that she just loves her gluten free foods, she is passionate about being gluten free. Her passion radiates as she shares it with others too: through her blog (www.thesimpleseedkitchen.com), twitter (@thesimpleseed), bringing strawberry gluten free muffins randomly to friend's apartments, meeting personally with people to talk about being gluten free, and then hosting a really delicious family dinner. 

I think it's safe to say that Christine has 3 ultimate goals: 

1) Be Gluten Free & healthy.

2) Help other people feel good and get healthy.

3) And do this all for God's glory.

When I asked Christine if there was anything she really wanted me to say about Simple Seed on here, she said to me, "Make sure you say something about giving all the credit to God and this is a journey for me...I'm excited to see where He is going to take me!" I'm super excited to see where this journey is going to take her too! She has so many hopes and dream when it comes to Simple Seed, and I'm more than positive that she is going to get there!

So, instead of me rambling on to you about how great Christine is, I'll turn it over to her! If you ever have any questions about being gluten free...ASK HER! She loves to help you, and will get really excited about it, and make you excited about it too! Gluten free is not as scary as it sounds... Heck, you can still have ice cream and french fries, peanut butter-bacon-chocolate chip-gluten free muffins, and wine :) ..Seriously it's not that scary! It's work though... you do have to give up some stuff-like pizza, but make your own special gluten free pizza! It's still yummy! :)   

Christine has inspired me to try gluten free, and I hope she can inspire you too! 

Here's some pics from the family dinner/breakfast she hosted::

(where obviously everything is gluten free!)

Chicago Mission Trip :: Alive Ministries 2013

Hey hey guys! 

2 posts in one day? I might be going a little crazy...or doing anything to stay away from homework-you can decide ;)

Anyways...So, in the beginning of April I was presented this totally cool opportunity to help out my awesome friend, Carrie Rodgers, (she is the Student Ministries Director at Alive Ministries,  a leader on my Young Life team at Jenison, and if you haven't met her, you probably should because she's awesome!) and out of the blue, and super randomly had mentioned needing an extra leader to go along with Alive's high school spring break mission trip. So me being, well me, I quickly monkeyed around with my schedule and 1 adult leader, 2 college leaders, 9 high schoolers, and 3 cars later...we were off! 

I have been attending Alive for about 7 months now, it's such a fantastic place with great community and I love saying that I actually have a church home. But, I'm even more super proud to say that we were all apart of the first mission trip EVER with Alive, isn't that pretty awesome?!  

Our team was in Chicago for 3 days. Our trip was through Young Life Expeditions, and led by the amazing Jan Mulder who has been on staff with Young Life for over 20 years! Jan kept us very busy with multiple organizations, we would have been lost with out her (literally-she knows the city like the back of her hand, and can parallel park like a pro!) Our first day we worked at World Vision- there we sorted through supplies donated from various companies so they can be sold at a discounted price for low income families. We also had the rest of the day to explore Chicago a bit! (I finally visited the bean!!!) The next day we worked at Jesse White Tumblers and basically did an organization overhaul of their office; sorting through boxes and boxes and boxes of jerseys and all of their supplies. We also spent some time with La Salle Street Young Life and helped them with their fundraiser to send kids to camp, by making flower pens out of duct tape! It was really neat to hang out and get to know some of the students and leaders serving in Chicago. The last day we did a little spring cleaning at La Salle Street Church , and dusted all of their pews and wood in their sanctuary and did some yard work around the church! 

We definitely got to "experience" Chicago's culture a lot in 3 days. Christ's Vineyard CRC graciously hosted us. We ate lots and lots of different, good, super (not) healthy food...Cheesecake Factory, Chicago Pizza, Ed Debevic's, Chick-fil-A, Sam's (graciously paid for by Mr. White), etc...need I say more?! This trip was a really awesome experience, I got to know some super cool high schoolers and just loved the way I witnessed them serving Jesus. It was also really neat to see the way people in Chicago are making a difference everyday to the community. Jesse White of the Jesse White Tumblers is also the Secretary of State of Illinois. He is a man that has devoted his entire adult life to the city of Chicago and helping urban kids find a better life and stay off the streets and out of gangs. He lives in the community he serves which was amazing for our kids to see since he could afford to live in a nice gates community somewhere. He also took the time out of his crazy schedule to talk with our group and pose for pictures. Kimmy at LaSalle Street Young Life is a native of West Michigan while she attended GVSU so it was fun to make some hometown connections. God is using her in a mighty way in the city and it was cool to witness that as well!

All-in-all there couldn't have been a better 3 days planned in Chicago, and instead of posting a bunch of pictures to share with you guys like I always do...I tried a different route this time and made a highlight video of the trip! What?! Take a look, and let me know what you think! :)

CLICK HERE TO SEE IT! :) 

(sorry you actually have to click on the link to get there!)

Alli + Tim || Engaged!

Good Morning and Happy Wednesday!

 One day closer to the weekend...which means on day closer to the end of the semester; and I am SO excited for summer, and so in need for it! I'm thrilled to be able to focus on photography a bit more too! But for now...let me share with you this sweet and delightful engagement session!

I met with these high school sweethearts a few weeks back. I was anxious and excited to get back behind the camera, and after rescheduling a few times, there was finally a gorgeous spring day, and we were able to venture down town Grand Rapids.  I was also super ecstatic when Tim was willing to walk around with his guitar for a bit; I always want my clients to feel comfortable, and true comfort usually comes when they bring a little piece of home along. Annnnd...I'm a helpless romantic and a sucker for those kind of moments.

These two are tying-the-knot this summer in June after being together for 5 years now! They met in 10th grade, and I found out through Alli that to find excuses to talk to her, Tim knew she always had gum handy and would always ask for a piece...and then, well the rest is history!  

So moral of the story...ladies: Always have gum on hand.  :)

Enjoy.