Happy's and Crappy's

Before bed, some parents go through "happy's and crappy's" with their children (a good thing about their day and a bad thing). This was never a practice at my house, but we've kinda done it a couple times here for either worship or dinner time conversation. So I thought I'd share some of my recent "happy's and crappy's" with you now.

Some highlights of the past several weeks:

• Making a pumpkin pie completely from scratch. We noticed that we were growing a pumpkin in our compost pile a while back. Mike (my leader) picked it and I went to all the trouble of making it into a pie. It was a rainy weekend and we didn't have much to do, so I spent a long afternoon cooking the pumpkin, pureeing it into a baby food-like consistency in the blender, making pie crust out of my Grandma's recipe (failing the first time and having to start completely over again), and finally baking the pie (forgetting to set the timer and burning it just a little). But despite some initial difficulty, it actually turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. Next time though, I'll probably just buy the canned pumpkin!
• Going canoeing. It's so much harder than it looks! A river runs through town right behind our house, so one of the church members took us all for a spin in it in his canoes last Sunday. Keeping those things going in a straight line is so much harder than you would think! After a while, we were getting tired and frustrated. So my partner Renee and I decided to just float downstream for a while, which was nice. We laid back and enjoyed the sun that had just come out after a rainy couple days. Even though it was difficult, I'm glad I got the experience!
• Getting to know my host family. I have a really fantastic host family, Jim and Karen Skidmore, their dog Tovah, and three cats, whose names I cannot spell, unfortunately. The Skidmores are very creative with their pet naming. Anyway, they are the host family to end all host families. Jim and Karen have hosted a Service Adventure participant every year since 1992 and have pictures of every one of them on their fridge, along with every unit since then. So I'm very excited to make it on their fridge Hall of Fame! They also share many of my interests such as music, baking, and cats. Karen and I have already done a song for creative worship in church and are planning more to do later. Jim loves to cook and bake, and has shared some of his fantastic recipes with me that I can't wait to try out! I hope sometime soon we can make something together. I also discovered that Jim and Karen love to watch Dancing with the Stars. I don't usually regularly watch the show back home, but I enjoy critiquing the dancers with Karen during the commercial breaks.
• Starting work with the Kid Reach program. I love working with little kids, so being able to tutor them two days a week after school has been a blast. It's a pretty strict program. Those kids get down to business for the first about 45 minutes to an hour, but after that we get to play games. It's a bit stressful when there are four kids at a time who need your help with their homework, but generally there are some older kids in the group who are willing to help the younger ones, which I really appreciate.

Things that have been difficult/stressful:

• Chores at home. While living in community with 4 other people my age is a blast, this is our first time away from home, without our parents telling us to clean our rooms and pick up after ourselves. We have a chore rotation here, but there have been several small arguments already over people not keeping up their end of the bargain. I'm finding out that I really like a clean house, and not everyone here has the same standards as me, which is something I'm struggling with right now. 
• Homesickness. This hasn't been a huge deal, but I have been missing my family and friends lately. It's good to get many letters from them though, I have been putting the cards the things up on my wall and it's getting full quickly! It's also very reassuring that I have so many people from the church keeping me in mind and praying for me too.

Things I'm looking forward to in the near future:

• Visits from the East Coast units. The Johnstown, PA and Raleigh, NC units are visiting us this weekend. We're going to the Forest Festival in a town about 30 minutes from here, having a bonfire and cookout at the farm where several families from church live, going to church and the potluck afterwards, and making cider. There will be 15 extra people crowded into the house, so it should be a good time!
• Halloween. Ian and Ella (and possibly Renee, Allison, and I) will be dressing up and I look forward to taking them around trick-or-treating!
• Pumpkin foods. I go crazy for anything with pumpkin in it, and it's finally that season! I know what I'll be spending my $30 stipend on this month....