community sayings (part 1)

I'm starting to put together some quotes and sayings on community in preparation for the move to Newberry Place. I'm hoping that we end up with some pre-dinner or celebration moments where we can pause and share some thoughts on what it means to be community and good neighbors. To have a little archive of thoughts/meditations will be helpful. If you have anything to contribute, just post a comment on one of these threads.

Here's one that I've used already and been thinking about, that speaks to the slow process of building community...

"If you want your dream to be,
build it slow and surely.
Small beginnings, greater ends.
Heartfelt work grows purely.
If you want to live life free,
take your time, go slowly.
Do few things, but do them well:
simple joys are holy.
Day by day, stone by stone,
build your secret slowly.
Day by day, you’ll grow too;
you’ll know heaven’s glory!"

'Brother Sun, Sister Moon'

first family moves into newberry

It's official. The Schaafsmas are in and unpacked. This is a really exciting stage of the project as units get completed and real, live people start occupying their homes. Over the years I got so used to talking about the project's development that I almost forgot people would be living there.

The bad news is that my foundation isn't even in yet, so we are looking at a Thanksgiving dinner at the old house instead of the new one. It's hard not to be a little envious of the folks that are getting their keys.

returning from a week off

I took last week off of work to have a little family vacation. We didn't go anywhere spectacular, but did have a great time together.

The Highlights:

• camping with Levi for the first time at Benton Lake
  
• riding my bike up White Pine Trail and fishing on the Rouge
• Nora and I biking on Monday and working around the house while Levi was at daycare
• fly-fishing on the White River near Pine Points (first time in a long time)
• dropping Levi off at Matt & Ruth's for night - getting a good dinner, waking up late, watching a movie
• watching the kick-off of the EPL soccer season on Saturday morning
• getting ready for the local food potluck tonight

Bwindi showing Levi a trick

on the lighter side

Head over to www.simpsonizeme.com and turn a photo of yourself into a Simpson's character. Here's how mine turned out...