The Baby of the House

       One of my favorite things to do when in a crowd is people watch, and Portland is definitely a great place to do just that. While people watching I like to try to figure out the relationship that a group of people have to one another.  Maybe they are just a group of friends, or a family, a school group going on a field trip etc.  A lot of times I think we do this subconsciously without even realizing.   So it makes me wonder, when people from the outside world see the four of us from the house – what are their thoughts about the dynamic of our group?  I would guess that most times people probably just think we are a group of friends hanging out – or maybe living together for the sole reason of having a cheaper rent. I doubt any would initially think that we are/have been volunteers and we live in an intentional community together.  This is on my mind because, thus far, I have heard of three outside initial thoughts on the dynamic of our group – and I’ve found them all to be fairly hilarious.

Dynamic 1) When we first moved in the house, we were having a yard cleanup day. I was up in a tree in the front yard (cleaning out dead branches) and Jon and Ben were in the backyard chain sawing a tree, when a neighbor came up to me to introduce himself and asked “are you and your Dads new to the area?”

Dynamic 2) An older gentlemen asked Heather “is this your daughter?” – referring to me. Granted , we were walking out of our house together, and we were wearing matching clothes – but other than that – I’m not sure where he got that from.

Dynamic 3) This past week, we had a canvasser knock on our door right as we were finishing dinner, so we invited him in for some food and proceeded to talk to him, for about an hour, about banning plastic bags from Oregon. Then when it was time for him to leave he pulled out his clipboard to ask us to sign up in support, and he turns to me and says “Sorry, you have to be over 18 years old to sign.” We all busted out laughing.  If I’m under 18, then what does that make everyone else around the table? He left before we got a chance to ask him what we thought our relationship was in the house. Our thoughts – either Heather and Ben were my parents and Jon was the crazy Uncle. Or, I was adopted by Ben and Jon and Heather was their surrogate mother for their second child. Lol oh my

It is true that I’m the baby of the house – but the perspectives from these outsiders put this phrase in a whole different light.  For your entertainment - an updated picture of our family!

My Mom and Two Dads

In other news – Jon and his friend Jerry were out at Camp Myrtlewood this weekend for Men’s Retreat. Heather was visited by her brother and sister in-law and went on lots of fun adventures. And Ben and I played a lot of Bananagrams and had a pretty chill weekend at the house, which was much needed for me in the midst of traveling. It looks like, in the upcoming month, there may be a lot of traveling for everyone in the house – so I’m sure there will be some good stories coming your way.