I grew up watching my parents spend countless hours during the spring and summer tilling, hoeing, planting, watering, weeding, and picking in their garden. There were always fresh tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, beans, and peas available straight from the garden every summer back home in Broadway. I would say that I definitely enjoyed the rewards and bounty of the garden without ever putting much into it. I left that to Mom and Dad, and they seemed to enjoy it. And over the last ten years of living in numerous apartments or townhouses without much of a yard to call my own, the closest thing I've had to a garden has been a basil plant or two on my deck...
Well, the days of basil plants on the deck are over! Given that the BVS house has a good size back yard, and that we think it's a great idea to actually eat food that comes right from our very own soil (no pesticides involved, no energy expended on transporting it to the grocery store....what could be better?), we have decided to start a garden. And when I say start, I do mean start... as in put a garden in where yesterday morning there was a grassy lawn. Jon and I spent about 4 hours yesterday afternoon digging and moving sod, and wah-lah, a garden was born!
Now, it is true that our beds are not actually ready for planting yet...there's still a lot of work to do (put a border around the beds and cover them with some more topsoil for starters), but we've broken ground, and that feels good. I hope that I will still be able to say it feels good after spending many hours in the next few weekends and during the coming months doing all of those things that my parents spent countless hours doing in their garden: the hoeing, planting, watering, weeding, and picking. We'll have to have a party when we pick our first produce....I have a feeling it will be worth celebrating!
- Heather
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Some R&R- Running and Retreating
So, it's official...all four of our house members are runners. (Jon ran three miles non-stop last week, so I think that classifies as official.) And it's also official, that our ultra relay team for the Portland to Eugene Relay is complete! We actually have six members now, which is ever so pleasing to Ben and I!
This past week Chelsea and I had the opportunity to travel to Chicago, well actually Dickson Valley, which is a camp near "Sandwich" (Yes, that's actually the name of a town) for the BVS mid-year retreat. We had various sessions, with one focusing on "vocation". This is a topic that always intrigues me, because I'm still trying to figure out what my vocation is meant to be. The definition of vocation that I liked was "it's the place where what makes your heart sing and what the world needs of you intersect". One suggestion for trying to figure this out is to highlight some things in each day that you are grateful for and some things that you aren't grateful for....and hopefully over time a pattern may start to emerge. My grateful and ungrateful list for the week:
This week I was grateful for...reconnecting with friends from grad school, running on rural roads, watching a pink sun rise above the fields, afternoon naps, Ben's new job in California- even if it takes him away from the house until June, being challenged to think about what the bible means and doesn't mean to my faith, sunshine and 60 degree days, my housemates and the fact that they take seriously this idea of living simply and trying to tread lightly on the earth, the start of the NCAA basketball tournament (I love March Madness!), daylight till 7 in the evening!
This week I was not so grateful for...white bread (I prefer wheat), oatmeal packets (I prefer real oatmeal, not oat dust), and gray clouds over Portland upon my return (an obvious one- I prefer sunshine!)
And I'm concerned about...the people in Japan and the situation in Libya. Because we don't have a TV in the house and we didn't have much access to news coverage at the retreat, I feel a little out of touch, but I've heard enough to know that there are a lot of people suffering in both places. That makes white bread, oatmeal packets, and gray clouds something I shouldn't ever complain about.
-Heather
This past week Chelsea and I had the opportunity to travel to Chicago, well actually Dickson Valley, which is a camp near "Sandwich" (Yes, that's actually the name of a town) for the BVS mid-year retreat. We had various sessions, with one focusing on "vocation". This is a topic that always intrigues me, because I'm still trying to figure out what my vocation is meant to be. The definition of vocation that I liked was "it's the place where what makes your heart sing and what the world needs of you intersect". One suggestion for trying to figure this out is to highlight some things in each day that you are grateful for and some things that you aren't grateful for....and hopefully over time a pattern may start to emerge. My grateful and ungrateful list for the week:
This week I was grateful for...reconnecting with friends from grad school, running on rural roads, watching a pink sun rise above the fields, afternoon naps, Ben's new job in California- even if it takes him away from the house until June, being challenged to think about what the bible means and doesn't mean to my faith, sunshine and 60 degree days, my housemates and the fact that they take seriously this idea of living simply and trying to tread lightly on the earth, the start of the NCAA basketball tournament (I love March Madness!), daylight till 7 in the evening!
This week I was not so grateful for...white bread (I prefer wheat), oatmeal packets (I prefer real oatmeal, not oat dust), and gray clouds over Portland upon my return (an obvious one- I prefer sunshine!)
And I'm concerned about...the people in Japan and the situation in Libya. Because we don't have a TV in the house and we didn't have much access to news coverage at the retreat, I feel a little out of touch, but I've heard enough to know that there are a lot of people suffering in both places. That makes white bread, oatmeal packets, and gray clouds something I shouldn't ever complain about.
-Heather
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Where I come from
Portland is a pretty cool place. Even with it being sorta rainy and kinda chilly a good bit of the time since we arrived I'm still digging it out here.
While Nokesville, Virginia is still "home base" more or less, I haven't lived there except for in-between times in the past four years or so. Generally I'm completely fine with this. Nokesville is on the edge of some icky gross suburbia sprawl and it never looks quite like it did the time before whenever I get back to visit. Most of my friends from high school don't live in the area anymore. However, there's enough that stays the same that it's still "home" when it comes down to it and that's good.
Sometimes I wonder if I should still be out in the great wide world of non-Nokesville. I think it's good for people to experience life beyond what they knew growing up and it's okay to come back home. Whether or not that's for me, I don't really know yet. I don't particularly fancy myself as someone who'd stay in Nokesville anymore; it's become a bit more of an uppity area. There's also the fact that I doubt I'd be able to afford housing in the area, especially with Nokesville proper having hardly any apartment-esque living options. Throw in a mildly conservative mindset and it just doesn't seem terribly appealing.
On the other hand, I miss out on a lot of stuff. I don't get to visit with Grandpa, the great-aunts, Memee, or any of the other Beahm and Bear clan on a regular basis. I've missed all of the cousins getting hitched in the past few years; there's another one happening this weekend. The pregnancy epidemic sweeping through my home congregation is just now showing up as a blip on my radar and all of them are due by early May. Our family dog, Roxie, is not doing so well and I'm not there to be sad and eat ice cream with my sister when Roxie goes.
I guess this is my version of being homesick if there is such a thing. I don't think I actually get homesick really. At camp growing up I could never understand the kids that missed home so much they got sick. Seriously? You're at CAMP! "C'mon, let's go look for salamanders and then I'm gonna eat that plant over there!" (Note: I never would've said this; I would've done it by myself. They could join if they wanted to.) The same is true for the college kids who just wanted to go home. Unfathomable. Obviously I like my hometown well enough, but I don't long to be there every waking moment.
Yet every once in a while, I wonder about how things are going back in Nokesville. After all, the majority of my life thus far was spent there. I may be familiar with the roads in Alamosa, Cincinnati, Frystown, Middleburg, Mountain Grove, West Liberty, and Portland, but I'll probably always know the roads of Nokesville.
Jackie, next time I'm home the ice cream's on me.
While Nokesville, Virginia is still "home base" more or less, I haven't lived there except for in-between times in the past four years or so. Generally I'm completely fine with this. Nokesville is on the edge of some icky gross suburbia sprawl and it never looks quite like it did the time before whenever I get back to visit. Most of my friends from high school don't live in the area anymore. However, there's enough that stays the same that it's still "home" when it comes down to it and that's good.
Sometimes I wonder if I should still be out in the great wide world of non-Nokesville. I think it's good for people to experience life beyond what they knew growing up and it's okay to come back home. Whether or not that's for me, I don't really know yet. I don't particularly fancy myself as someone who'd stay in Nokesville anymore; it's become a bit more of an uppity area. There's also the fact that I doubt I'd be able to afford housing in the area, especially with Nokesville proper having hardly any apartment-esque living options. Throw in a mildly conservative mindset and it just doesn't seem terribly appealing.
On the other hand, I miss out on a lot of stuff. I don't get to visit with Grandpa, the great-aunts, Memee, or any of the other Beahm and Bear clan on a regular basis. I've missed all of the cousins getting hitched in the past few years; there's another one happening this weekend. The pregnancy epidemic sweeping through my home congregation is just now showing up as a blip on my radar and all of them are due by early May. Our family dog, Roxie, is not doing so well and I'm not there to be sad and eat ice cream with my sister when Roxie goes.
I guess this is my version of being homesick if there is such a thing. I don't think I actually get homesick really. At camp growing up I could never understand the kids that missed home so much they got sick. Seriously? You're at CAMP! "C'mon, let's go look for salamanders and then I'm gonna eat that plant over there!" (Note: I never would've said this; I would've done it by myself. They could join if they wanted to.) The same is true for the college kids who just wanted to go home. Unfathomable. Obviously I like my hometown well enough, but I don't long to be there every waking moment.
Yet every once in a while, I wonder about how things are going back in Nokesville. After all, the majority of my life thus far was spent there. I may be familiar with the roads in Alamosa, Cincinnati, Frystown, Middleburg, Mountain Grove, West Liberty, and Portland, but I'll probably always know the roads of Nokesville.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Feeling puzzled
When we first moved here back in November we were showered with gifts of all sorts from the Peace Church congregation. Even so, we still needed plenty of other items to fill out our house so that it would be comfortable and convenient. This generally meant patrolling Craigslist and keeping an eye out for any appealing trash, yardsales, or good thrift stores. I love doing this kind of stuff - connecting with others and finding value in what they have deemed as excess, out-dated, or simply junk. Even as I'm writing this I'm wearing clothing items from three different thrift stores, one box of free stuff, and a neighbor's trashcan in Cincinnati. Ah, bliss.
Once we had secured all the furniture we could reasonably fit in our house and stocked our kitchen with the desired supplies then the search for free and super cheap stuff was basically done for the time being. Sure, I kept my eye out for amazing finds like a pool table or ping pong table in case something phenomenally great like that showed up, but that was about it.
This past Saturday I found myself poking through the "free" section on Craigslist as I still occasionally am known to do and I came across a post for someone less than a mile from the house. This is exciting because 1) I don't have a car, 2) most of the good finds are closer in to downtown or farther out in one of the suburbs, and 3) there's something kinda magical about finding something so close to where you live that you would have otherwise not known about. A quick e-mail and a phone call later, Chelsea and I were out the door to check out the bounty up for grabs.
The home was in a little cluster of apartments set a bit off the road behind some other houses; Chelsea and I had never noticed them before. The lady who had posted was moving with her son to North Portland and had extra stuff she wanted to get out of the house and maybe save herself the trip to Goodwill later. The one item I found most tempting was a lamp with a matador figure as the base. It was more than four feet tall. As appealingly tacky as it was, we couldn't imagine anywhere it would fit in the house. On the bright side, there were some books and puzzles that looked promising. We scooped up what looked interesting, stuffed it in our backpacks and bag, and wished the family luck with their move.
Later that evening I caved in and walked down to the closest Goodwill store to poke around. Combined with a mosey through Target on the way back, I didn't get home until after 10:00 that evening. When I did I was greeted with the sight of Jon diligently working on one of the puzzles we'd picked up earlier in the day. Chelsea and Heather had been helping but had maxed out their puzzle patience after an hour or so. Just like a really good cookie "hits the spot" sometimes, the same can be true for a good puzzle. Even better is when Jon happens to have gluten-free double chocolate chip cookies hanging out on the counter from when he made them earlier that evening.
The puzzle was a photo collage of paraphernalia from when Halley's Comet was visible in 1910. The pictures were cool to look at and the puzzle pieces weren't all traditionally shaped without being too off-the-wall. Jon and I worked on the puzzle until we finished it some time after 4:00 that morning. I don't think I even stayed up that late for New Year's this past year. It was definitely worth it, though. The two of us got to eat way more than our share of the cookies and we had some good conversations, too (beyond "Hey. Where the heck does this piece go?"). I didn't think to get a picture of the completed puzzle before it went back in the box but I did find a picture of the box courtesy of a quick search.
I actually kinda wanna do it again. I guess I'll just have to wait until the next time the puzzle bug strikes.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
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.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Dinner Guests and other Happenings....
One of the highlights of the past week was having two couples from Peace Church over for dinner on Monday evening, the Groff's and the Eller's. I love it when conversation just happens to be spontaneously good, and it was Monday evening as we talked about our reflections on the video that was shown in church last Sunday called "Our Journey To Becoming a Welcoming Congregation". (See Jon's blog post last week for more opinions and info.) In a nutshell, watching the video made me feel grateful to be a part of a church family that is accepting and welcoming to all people. As the bulletin each Sunday says, Peace Church of the Brethren Celebrates and affirms the image of God in all people, every age, gender, race, ability, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. What an amazing thing! Peace Church of the Brethren is just a great place to be, and more and more I feel really enriched by the experience of being able to worship with these folks and share my time in Portland with them.
So in addition to having a pretty awesome church family here....I'm going to give a little shout out to my housemates too. Given that four of us live in a fairly small house and share 2 bedrooms (thank goodness for the cozy room that helps keep us sane), house life is going amazingly well after 3 and a half months. I mean, we actually were up until midnight laughing and enjoying each others company a few nights this week. And when anxiety was getting the best of me a day or two this week, we went for a late night snack run at the coaxing of Jon and Ben. Life is good, and I'm lucky to have the housemates that I do.
Last, but not least! Any runners out there reading our blog? Ben and I have signed up to run the Portland to Eugene Ultra Relay, which is a 170 mile race divided up amongst 6 runners, with each runner running 6 legs of about 3-6 miles each. Those reading this may think we are crazy, but Ben and I are totally psyched!! What this means though is that I need to start doing some much more serious running between now and June. Thank goodness for the extra minutes of daylight we're getting! That will be good motivation to go for more after-work runs. (A side note...if anyone is reading this and wants to come out to Portland June 17-18 and run with us, let us know- we're still looking for teammates!)
So in addition to having a pretty awesome church family here....I'm going to give a little shout out to my housemates too. Given that four of us live in a fairly small house and share 2 bedrooms (thank goodness for the cozy room that helps keep us sane), house life is going amazingly well after 3 and a half months. I mean, we actually were up until midnight laughing and enjoying each others company a few nights this week. And when anxiety was getting the best of me a day or two this week, we went for a late night snack run at the coaxing of Jon and Ben. Life is good, and I'm lucky to have the housemates that I do.
Last, but not least! Any runners out there reading our blog? Ben and I have signed up to run the Portland to Eugene Ultra Relay, which is a 170 mile race divided up amongst 6 runners, with each runner running 6 legs of about 3-6 miles each. Those reading this may think we are crazy, but Ben and I are totally psyched!! What this means though is that I need to start doing some much more serious running between now and June. Thank goodness for the extra minutes of daylight we're getting! That will be good motivation to go for more after-work runs. (A side note...if anyone is reading this and wants to come out to Portland June 17-18 and run with us, let us know- we're still looking for teammates!)
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Love makes a family, and a church
Like so many other Brethren across the country, our house and church is talking about same-sex covenantal relationships. Last Sunday we previewed a documentary about Peace Church’s transformation to being an open and affirming congregation.
I’ve lived out on the west coast long enough that I don’t get what the big deal is. I don’t get how people aren’t accepting of everyone. I really don’t give two hoots what anyone does in their bedroom. If a friend of mine is in a happy, healthy relationship, awesome; that’s what’s important. Period. Our job as humans is to love and accept each other, regardless of race, gender, creed, sexual orientation, age, ability level, etc. Off my soap box I’ll try to step for now.
The video that was shown in church was good. It should both average every day straight Brethren and LGBT Brethren, and their families. I posit that the biggest holdup for conservative Brethren is simple lack of contact with LGBT people. I grew up in a pretty small eastern town. I didn’t make my first openly gay friend until college. But when you realize that the fear-mongering and hateful vitriol spewed against the LGBT community is baseless, a transformation happens: you realize that people are people first. You realize that sexual orientation is just a part of all of our’s identities. You realize that LGBT people have the same desires for family, security, fun, enjoyment of life as everyone. You realize that being gay is not a choice: who would want to face discrimination and being potentially ostracized by loved ones? And I don’t know about other straight people, but I don’t remember the day I decided to be attracted to women.
Church and I haven’t always had the closest of relationships. I’ve felt comfortable here at Peace Church because everyone is really accepting and loving of everyone where they are. Church shouldn’t be about prescribing behavior and dispensing ample doses of guilt. Church is about community, a family. Church is about accepting everyone in that community, BECAUSE of our differences.
I close with a quote (still firmly perched on my soap box, accept my feeble attempts at apologizing). This is from the end song from the documentary:
“I want the whole wide world to see that love makes a family
The kids up the street have two moms and no dad.
Some people tease them; they say that it’s bad
The way people treat them, it makes me so mad
‘Cause their house, it is filled with love.”~Two of a Kind
Ps if you are interested in seeing this video contact Groff Video Productions, Vancouver, WA.
I’ve lived out on the west coast long enough that I don’t get what the big deal is. I don’t get how people aren’t accepting of everyone. I really don’t give two hoots what anyone does in their bedroom. If a friend of mine is in a happy, healthy relationship, awesome; that’s what’s important. Period. Our job as humans is to love and accept each other, regardless of race, gender, creed, sexual orientation, age, ability level, etc. Off my soap box I’ll try to step for now.
The video that was shown in church was good. It should both average every day straight Brethren and LGBT Brethren, and their families. I posit that the biggest holdup for conservative Brethren is simple lack of contact with LGBT people. I grew up in a pretty small eastern town. I didn’t make my first openly gay friend until college. But when you realize that the fear-mongering and hateful vitriol spewed against the LGBT community is baseless, a transformation happens: you realize that people are people first. You realize that sexual orientation is just a part of all of our’s identities. You realize that LGBT people have the same desires for family, security, fun, enjoyment of life as everyone. You realize that being gay is not a choice: who would want to face discrimination and being potentially ostracized by loved ones? And I don’t know about other straight people, but I don’t remember the day I decided to be attracted to women.
Church and I haven’t always had the closest of relationships. I’ve felt comfortable here at Peace Church because everyone is really accepting and loving of everyone where they are. Church shouldn’t be about prescribing behavior and dispensing ample doses of guilt. Church is about community, a family. Church is about accepting everyone in that community, BECAUSE of our differences.
I close with a quote (still firmly perched on my soap box, accept my feeble attempts at apologizing). This is from the end song from the documentary:
“I want the whole wide world to see that love makes a family
The kids up the street have two moms and no dad.
Some people tease them; they say that it’s bad
The way people treat them, it makes me so mad
‘Cause their house, it is filled with love.”~Two of a Kind
Ps if you are interested in seeing this video contact Groff Video Productions, Vancouver, WA.
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