#CHA spot: Enzo's Market

Sunday in the South. Everybody's churchin'. You wanna be brunchin'. What to do? Enzo's Market appears as an oasis in the otherwise sleepy-on-a-Sunday-morning Southside neighborhood in Chattanooga. We visited on Mother's Day morning around 9 a.m. and the market was already percolating.

The store exterior has an eco-aesthetic. In contrast, it is bright and very modern on the inside (think: glowing like a brand new Lamborghini). The store has a wide produce aisle, a fresh meats, fish, and cheese counter, and a whole wall dedicated to attractive freshly baked goods. The bakery area is also where you can order food items to-go.

In the middle of the store, you will find several aisles of delectable groceries, including half an aisle dedicated to olive oil. I know. I, too, thought I had died and gone to Tuscany Heaven. The selections of sorbets and ice creams and other treats was also generous, too. I could happily get fat at Enzo's.

We enjoyed lattes, a salmon + egg brioche platter, as well as fresh blueberry pancakes. All were reasonably priced based on portions and freshness.

High praise for: Free parking Spacious indoor eating area Charming patio area with lots of encounters with neighborhood dogs Egg + salmon brioche breakfast platter

Negatives: Slow check-out experience with cashier No flavor syrups for lattes

Looking forward to more from Enzo and his team. So glad to have you as another open door on a Sunday morning (among other mornings) in the Southside!

Bumper Stickers of the Christian Writers Conference

I have spent this past week in Someplace Beautiful, USA at a Christian Writers Conference. Blessings have been pouring down. I have felt drenched as a writer from the blessings: interactions with fellow writers, editors, agents; insights on the Christian publishing industry; the beauty of creation here. As a little marker of my time here, I've "collected" some of the bumper stickers I have seen around the conference center. Bumper stickers are such a big-small thing, are they not? In a small space, we can convey a big message. As a petite person with a mousey voice, I appreciate the economics of impactfulness :) Bumper stickers, as a concept, are also metaphorical of our spiritual walk. We may not get to choose what car we drive. But we do get to choose what message we convey as we travel.

Spring Break 2013, as told by Baby Girl and Little Man

So for spring break, which is a really fun time where we can stay in our pajamas for hours in the morning, our mom said we had to get out of Daddy's hair so he could get better. So we drove and drove and drove to Savannah where Auntie Ashley lives. But on the way to Savannah? We stopped at a museum. With trains!

And Mommy took our picture outside of it but Tatum was trying to run inside the museum to see the trains.

And inside the museum, you just pressed this button and then the choo choo train came and there was a man with a rainbow sweater also looking at the train.

The big train inside was pretty cool.

The train table in the kids' room was pretty cool, also.

I liked dressing up in prairie clothes.

We got to climb on the real caboose.

Then we got to Auntie Ashley's house and we bounced on the air mattress and played with her dog Zeke while Mommy and Auntie Ashley laughed and cooked in the kitchen.

The next day we got to ride the Trolley. A man got on the Trolley whose name was Forrest. Even though Mommy said we shouldn't talk to strangers or take candy from them, Mommy said it was okay to talk to Forrest and take a chocolate from his box.

We went to a park that had an awesome playground. Mommy and Auntie Ashley were all excited about the fountains and the flowers but we were mostly excited about the playgrounds.

We went to an ice cream place called Leopold's.

There was a jukebox there. We put a coin in and did the Hokey Pokey. Well, mostly Mommy did the hokey pokey and we were embarrassed for her.

While we were waiting for the trolley to come pick us up again, we looked up at somebody's balcony and we saw this.

The Jepson Center is super cool and you can find these flowers made out of all recyclable materials.

Mommy said she has been friends with Auntie Ashley for 400 years and that is a very long time.

On the way home, we went to the Varsity and we got a Frosted Orange, as well as got these hats.

Three cheers for Spring Break!