Moving woes, in which I confuse my chemicals

You wouldn’t think community would be so uprooting, but that’s how it seems to work out here. I’ve gotten off easily, actually, since this is only my third move in the last four years (and that’s just been switching floors of the same house), compared to others who are making this fall their seventh move in four years.

When I got here four years ago, I lived here:

Then I lived here:

Now I’m moving upstairs to what was Casa San Dimas, and everyone else is playing musical flats as well. The Great Well Purge of 2011 is going…okay. I spent yesterday afternoon moving some kitchen stuff around (not only does our own stuff need to be cleaned and moved, but all the Stuff from when we were doing the hospitality flat upstairs needs to be sorted through also).

Stats from the the first battle of the kitchen:

Operation: Kitchen freedom

Location: Casa San Dimas

Outcome: Won

Casualties: one champagne glass

Weapons used:

tower vacuum

Honorable service: Agent 409. Unfortunately there was a slight mishap, and this lesson was learned:

Although, we can probably blame the agent responsible for confusing the troops:

(at least the coffee mugs will be ant- and spider-free)

Second battle of Operation Kitchen Freedom begins at 1300 hours. Anyone who likes vacuuming up dead cockroaches is welcome to enlist!

Turn it around

Check it out! This is a link to a video that was part of an article in the Huffington Post a few days ago. The article and video feature an educational program that a couple of our girls are involved in, as they try to become teachers. The video features one of them, Deprece – her son Isaiah is the baby that I attended the birth of and babysit for occasionally! She’s pretty much a rock star. CLICK HERE

Mothers’ Day and Marriage

NO, I don’t have any big announcements to make. It’s a misleading title. Just read on.

A good number of weeks ago I was getting coffee at the snack table after Sunday School class, when I sustained a major head injury, found myself holding a pen, and signed up to bring refreshments on Mothers’ Day. Which means that on Saturday night before the big day I was bottling up the colorful phrases running through my head (since I now co-habitate with a toddler) and paging through recipe books. I actually really enjoy baking, but most of my frustration was coming from the fact that I had limited supplies, no cash, and I had just found out that my one-dollar-produce-grab-bag find, which I thought was full of several pounds of zucchini to make bread, was really full of several pounds of cucumber. Definitely not the same thing.

So I ended up making cucumber-lime-ade, cucumber sandwiches, and cinnamon rolls (not with cucumber). I prepared some of the stuff Saturday night but did the actual baking on Sunday morning. And let me right here and now profess my admiration for moms everywhere. I don’t know how you do it every day. In order to let Amy sleep in a little (or as much as she could with me banging around in the kitchen), I got Babe up, fed, and at the table coloring while I tried desperately to get the cinnamon rolls to rise. This was no easy undertaking. Babe felt like she had to come over and inform me every time she dropped a marker, at which point I would remind her that she could certainly pick it up by herself, and each time she would look at me like she’d never considered that option before. But the rolls rose, Amy got up to give Babe a bath, and I shoved all my goodies into a wheeled laundry cart and jogged the eight blocks to church. In heels. I am Woman; hear me roar.

I got to Sunday School only to find out that in the three weeks that I haven’t been there, they’d done the quarterly change of topics. Which meant I unintentionally found myself smack in the middle of the “art of marriage” class. Well played, self. It actually ended up being really good, even for a slightly immature single gal. My two take-away points: 1) marriage is meant to reflect more about who God truly is, and 2) the concept about finding “The One” who is meant for you is complete B.S. I think I might enjoy this class.

I’m also excited about passing on what I learn to the kids, especially those who have significant others and/or babies. With my ‘kids’ being between 18 and 23, there’s definitely a lot of opportunity for those kinds of discussions. Pray for me; my own relationship advice is oddly much sought-after and entirely insufficient

Also on the marriage topic, Martha and Matt have set a date! I’m completely thrilled to see two of my favorite people fall in love with each other. They’ll be married once in Michigan in August, and once in California in the fall. I just love weddings!

…I hope I’m not giving the impression that I’m living vicariously through my friends’ weddings and babies. Because that would be TOTALLY UNTRUE. Ahem.

*Note: This post was written right after Mothers’ Day, and never posted. Hm. Blame daylight savings’ time. Or something.

Wedding Bells

I’m going to throw my impression of the royal wedding out there, even though I’m a bit late, because 1) everyone else was doing it! 2) it’s my blog and I can ramble if I want to, and 3) come on, I’m of the generation of girls who grew up cutting pictures of the cute teen princes out of magazines to hang up on doors and in lockers. ALSO, it’s a much pleasanter conversation than death in the Middle East. I am completely justified in this.

Really, the biggest impression that I got after watching the highlights on Youtube is that the royal family is just so…normal. I mean, other than the fact that they run an ancient monarchy and are insanely wealthy and have absolutely zero privacy. But watching them go through a wedding was just like watching my friends or family (maybe with less bantering and bickering in the pews, but still). They were nervous, excited, unsure where to stand, grinning, and trying to do everything just so to make the day go right. I thought it was sweet! The flowers girls were aDORable (the one who clutched her flower wreath the whole time just killed me). Harry gave his big brother a hey-hey-hey sort of comment when Kate (excuse me, Catherine) entered, and William was clearly just enchanted with her. I liked how much God was a part of the ceremony – forget modern-age political correctedness, British royalty is gonna stick to tradition. And I loved the waving from the balcony, when the flower girl was about to have a breakdown from the sensory overload, and Prince Philip was all, “Enough of this, there’s an easy chair with my name on it inside.”

Speaking of weddings, let me publicly congratulate the future Mr. and Mrs. Matthew and Martha Miles! Yes folks, due to my excellent management these past two years, two of my best friends are finally engaged to be married. Woohoo!!! I am so extremely happy for them! What I am NOT happy about, however, is that Martha thinks it would be cute for her bridesmaids to dress as shepherdesses.  o.O  I know, right? Hopefully it’s a short-lived lapse of reason.

Yeah, that whole royal wedding spiel of mine was just kind of an excuse to be super excited about Matt and Martha But my sincere congrats to the two happy couples – one royal and of global notice and importance, doing great stuff for their kingdom; the other not so well-known, but very central to MY world and dear to my heart. No one is going to do more awesome things for a bigger Kingdom than these two!

PS: By the way, Prince Harry, if you get the sudden urge to do some public helping of underprivileged children in San Francisco, perhaps your Royal Single Cuteness would like to randomly stroll down 21st Street. Just sayin!

New roommates

I gave up talking about “transitional phases” a long time ago, because I realized that I basically live in transition and there is no “phase” about it. A few weeks ago my friend, roommate, teammate, sister, and kindred spirit Martha moved across the bay to Oakland. The kids and I have been missing her oodles. Everybody has been wondering how I’ve been handling myself in solitude (it’s a running joke around here that I can’t go more than a couple hours alone without starting to go crazy). The answer: not well The other day I realized, as I was leaving the house on a desperate errand for toilet paper, that I hadn’t looked in a mirror or eaten a vegetable in more than 24 hours. And that I had forgotten to put on socks. I need someone around to take care of, so that I remember to take care of myself!

Well, that will change sooner than expected. Our friend Amy was told suddenly that she needed to move out of her current apartment because there were too many people living there. Amy is a full-time student and mom, and she also works at a kids’ after-school program. She didn’t have a lot of options, and my teammate Joy and I had been looking for a way that we could disciple her more closely and move into deeper relationship with her. So she’s moving in tonight with her 2-year-old daughter! Talk about an end to the solitude that has been inflicted upon me

Please continue to pray, my friends, for everybody’s sanity around here, and that this new roommate situation would be one of mutual blessing. I have high hopes!

Baby Boom

I’m thinking of making a career change to professional birthing coach. About 3 weeks ago my friend Sofia gave birth to her gorgeous son, Emmanuel. When she learned she was pregnant, she asked if I would be willing to come help her out when the time came. And of course I said sure…how hard could that be?

Really, it’s not that hard – at least on my end of things. I basically counted to ten. A lot. And tried to convince Sofia’s husband that he had to breathe, not push (he was pushing right along with Sofia at every contraction). So yeah, not hard…but traumatic. I pretty much haven’t uncrossed my legs since. You can never be too careful.

This was actually the second birth I’ve attended in the last year. Last August one of our girls found herself without her doula or her family to help her out, and she was progressing with labor super fast. Martha and I got her to the hospital and stayed with her until little Isaiah was born. It’s absolutely miraculous to witness birth – the appearance of another person in the world! It astounds me again and again with how intricate creation is.

Some sweet pics for your viewing pleasure (don’t worry, they’re only the cute, fully-birthed baby ones):

Isaiah, about 15 minutes after he was born last summer

 

...and Isaiah about a month ago at my house

 

Little Emmanuel at 3 weeks old!

 

Sofia so happy with her beautiful boy

So if you’re in the Bay Area and need someone to stay calm and count to ten for you (Spanish optional!) while you give birth, I’m very experienced. Not many dull moments here!

We didn't attend Angie's birth, but Martha, Joy and I claim all the spoiling rights of aunties anyway

Bon giorno!

On Saturday night I got back from Italy. Let me try that again: on Saturday night, I got back from FREAKIN ITALY. I love being part of an international organization! I was privileged to spend about a week with the various team leaders of InnerCHANGE sites around the world, learning from them and soaking up their collective wisdom. We spent the time in Assisi, home of Saints Francis and Clare. They have special significance for IC, as we have modeled many of our own order’s rhythms after theirs.

One of many twisty little streets in medieval Assisi

We took some time to visit different holy sites around Assisi and the valley below. We saw the church of San Damiano (where Francis heard Jesus tell him to rebuild the church), the Basilica of San Francesco, the Church of Saint Claire, the church of San Rufino…a lot of churches. What struck me is that all of the churches are so opulent. They’re huge and ornate and completely contradictory to the love Francis had for Poverty. More often than not, they are built on top of small, humble buildings that Francis and his brothers used in their ministry. I couldn’t help but feel that Francis is probably rolling violently in his grave regarding all of this (his grave, incidently, is under the Basilica).

My teammate Matt and I on a balcony overlooking the Basilica

However, the trip was full of great experiences while learning more deeply about the lives of Francis and Clare. After our time together ended in Assisi, I got the opportunity to travel with a few friends from Central America to Rome for a few days. We of course hit up the big stuff like the Vatican and the Colosseum…

At St. Peter's Square in the Vatican

The Roman Colosseum from the outside

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…but my favorite tourist site was actually the jail cell in which saints and martyrs Peter and Paul were kept before their executions. We went down there and prayed for all the young people we work with who are trapped in prisons of their own, whether in real jails or locked into addictions and hopelessness.

Peter and Paul's jail cell

So yes, Italy was just fantastic. I ate a lot of pizza. And pasta. And cappucinos…maybe some wine as well. And more pizza (it’s healthier there, I swear). I talked to so many great people, and met new Italian friends as well. I feel awesomely blessed to have had this chance – thanks for helping me to make it possible! It was a great conference, a great pilgrimage…and a great break But I’m really happy to be home in San Francisco. Where else in the world can I walk down the street and overhear two old, grizzled biker dudes talking about Chanel purses while sipping their lattes? I’m back in the heart of the Mission, and I love it here.