Bridge Haus (Part 2)

BRIDGE HAUS PIE! Crafted expertly by Brooke

Minnesota Onions

Thyme tea (courtesy of Brooke)

Yet another delicious 50th anniversary pie

Vegetarian lasagna created by the lovely Wendy and Andy

<3

Canned tomatoes for ze winter

Wedgie the (soon-to-be Swallowtail) butterfly

Beautiful garlic bread with rosemary

Rosemary in everything!

Lori's pumpkin cookies

Bridge Haus

This year, I'm sharing Bridge House with 5 other lovely ladies. Thus far, it truly has been wonderful to learn how to live with one another. However, the house we moved into hasn't been lived in for a number of years and wasn't really renovated when we moved in, so we wanted to share with you some of the idiosyncrasies of the place we call home.

Our upstairs bathroom requires a little bit of diligence, because when you turn off the water, it turns right back on unannounced; hence the sticky note reminder.

We do our best to clean up and to keep the kitchen tidy, but sometimes our windowsills become cluttered with vegetables, thread, pens, and coupon cards for free turkeys. 

Ahhh the gnats. We have had a number of different gnat infestations thus far. Sometimes we forget about produce, other times we forget to bring out the compost, other times they are just in your bedroom for no reason. However, here is our ingenious gnat trap (and a few dead ones too..).

We tend to either go thru soap too quickly or at an abnormally slow rate. The bottle on the left lasted for a week, but the bottle on the right lasted for a month and a half. 

Who doesn't want a good old fire extinguisher clipped up in the middle of the kitchen! Also a handy-dandy exit plan located directly above, in case we forget where our doors are in an emergency.

Our beautiful wires outside our bathroom.

The dingy single light bulb.

#sustainability

Haphazard tea hutch. 

Who doesn't want to see an empty crockpot the first thing when they walk home?

Ah an off-white light switch holder juxtaposed nicely by a white inspirational track poster!

What better way to block off a door than putting lights over it?

So glad we have all of those shelves!

Windowsill decoration.

Multiply this by 50 and you've got approximately how many holes are in our walls on the main floor.

Unknown yellow-orange stain on purple couch.

Pinecone for kicks and giggles.

Rusty radiators.

Beautifully colored wires crack peer thru encasements.

Lotion for everyone!

Located outside of our upstairs bathroom. Safety first!

This post was mostly kidding, we love Bridge House and all its little quirks. Stay tuned for part 2!

Silence

"Silence precedes, undergirds, and grounds everything. Unless we learn how to live there, go there, and abide in this different phenomenon, everything--words, events, relationships, identities--becomes rather superficial, without depth or context. We are left to search for meaning in a life of events and situations which need to increasingly contain ever higher stimulation, more excitement, and more color, to add vital signs to our inherently bored and boring existence. This need for stimulations is the character of America. We are in danger of becoming just a shell with less and less inside, and less contact with the depth and reality of things-- where all the lasting vitality is found. This is what Jesus calls "a spring inside us-- welling up unto eternal life" (John 4: 14). God is always found at the depths of things, even the depths of our sin and brokenness. And in the depths, it is always silent."  

-- Richard Rohr

Snapshots from Mexico

While these pictures perhaps aren't the most picturesque places of our trip, they show the dreariness, desperation, and bleakness of the immigration issue that is plaguing countries around the world.

Looking out at the pueblo of Nogales, Mexico from an organization called HEPAC. 

Looking out at Nogales, Mexico from the trash dump at the top of the mountain.

Houses people create from the rubble others throw away in the dump. Families live here and earn more money on average than the typical maquilla worker.

Memorial for Jose Antonio who was killed on the Mexican side of the border by border patrol agents on the side of the United States. 

Beautiful street art next to the memorial. 

The wall from the Mexican side at Nogales, Mexico. 

More street art at the wall in Nogales, Mexico. 

Candles painted on the wall. 

Art near the wall. 

We spoke to this woman at a shelter on the Mexican side of the border our first day. Then, we picked up the paper the next day in the United States and saw that she had been interviewed by the press regarding her situation. 

Sonoran desert beauty. 

More desert beauty. 

While the desert is beautiful, it is unforgiving and is deadly for many migrants.

Friends. 

Hiked to the top!

Attempting to hold the sunset in my hand. 

Walking thru paths migrants take to get across the border.

Empty water bottles that migrants had left on the trails. 

The wall from the Mexican side. 

Bible study at the wall.

With the help of members of C.R.R.E.D.A. we refilled these water containers for migrants who might be passing through.

Chiricahua National Park in Arizona, famous for balancing rock formations.

Small park near a Quaker settlement, about an hour away from Tucson, where cranes gather by the hundreds for the night. The night air was filled with their calls to one another at sunset.

Community garden project in Agua Prieta, Mexico.

More community gardens. 

Mountain climbing with the best!