10 Random Highlights

There are just 8 days of Sidewalks left!  Whaaat?  I thought I would share with you 10 random highlights from the summer. Stay tuned to the blog as many of us will be posting reflections over the next week!

10. Cooking SPAM! Somehow we ended up with a couple cans of SPAM in our house, and a few of us have indulged. No parents and friends, this is not a passive call for you to overnight mail food to us. :)  Pictured above: Michael

9. Sharing our blogs with each other.  While this blog has served as a fun way to translate and share our experience with friends and family, it has also been a way for us to share our stories and reflections with each other.  Once or twice a week, each blog author reads their recent post (and comments too!) to the group!

8. A burning truck on the block!  During one of our house discussions one night, we looked out the window to see a truck fully engulfed in flames!  Turns out some neighborhood kids set off a firework that went in the truck and burned it up!  YIKES!  Worst part of the story is that the police did nothing to press charges against the kids.  Hopefully the insurance companies will do the job.

7. Ultimate frisbee on our Sabbath! Our weekly sabbath has been a chance for us to stop and remember who God is and how He has been at work this past week.  We study Isaish, take time to reflect, worship musically together, call family and friends, AND play sports!  Here is Emmy preparing for our weekly game.

6. Picnic in the park!  Back on the 4th of July, we decided to take our dinner food and grub it up in the park!  Some folks in our house invited a few homeless friends.  The evening ended with a rousing game of kickball.  Check out Nick about to peg Elle with the ball.  Haha.

(Not sure what is going on here)

Post game sportsmanship is a value in our community.  :)

5. Cooking together!  The recipes and food we've had recently have been straight up ridiculous.  Cuisines we have enjoyed include (but are not limited to) Indian, Peruvian, Ethiopian, Pennsylvania Dutch, French, Filipino, Mexican, Japanese, Italian, and coming tonight: Egyptian!  We are in the process of making a Sidewalks recipe book with some of our best creations!  Pictured above L to R: John, Caroline, John again, Elle.

4. Sending and Receiving mail!!!!!!!!!!  A daily excitement has been communicating with loved ones via snail mail.  Our record of letters SENT in one day is pictured above (final total was around 31).  If we are here when the mail arrives, we swarm it like vultures (below)!  This IS a not so passive request for more snail mail ;)

3. Playing Pandemic!  Although Emmy blogged about games a while ago, one more recent addition to the hit games in the house is called Pandemic!  The game is both nerderrific and collaborative. In other words, the key difference in the game is that we must work together, depend on each other, and communicate effectively as we play against the game itself.

Here are just some of the super cool people who play this game. (L to R: Wes, David, Danny, Celeste, Jamie)

2. Exploring Lancaster together!  Each week, we take time to meet neighbors and explore the city together.  Here John & Celeste are checking out a mural.  Recent explorations have led us to local public pianos, the county pool, a local organic / fair trade grocery store, the library, and some delicious wild raspberries growing in the park!

1. POTTER!!!  This crazy dog is our 17th housemate.  He keeps it interesting around here.  Just today, Potter sent us all a message that he does NOT enjoy being left at home alone.  He chose to eat a bunch of bagels and store 2 bag fulls of them in stashes all over the house.  Then he left us a chocolate deposit on the living room floor.  New house rule: food must be stored above 36 inches off the ground at all times.  Thanks Potter.