Tuesday, December 17, 2013

The Heart and Spoon Update


 
 
So, we’ve recently reached our highest-ever capacity here at The Heart and Spoon, Our house currently holds 4 kids, 8 adults, a dog, a cat, 2 snakes, 5 chickens, and a goldfish… along with some unaccounted-for critters who we intermittently try to kill… with traps.

There are plenty of positives and negatives to living in this full house.

Here are some negatives:  

1.      Our trash and recycling bins overflow each week. Someone suggested that we generate less waste. I think that’s a great idea, but I haven’t figured out how to do it yet. For now we just dress in all black and scuttle about the neighborhood at midnight before trash day, peering into various bins until we find one with space.

2.      Our kitchen is kind of tiny. This is great when someone has chosen good music, folks are laughing, and bumping elbows feels affectionate. But when somebody just wants to make coffee, egg and toast while bumbling about in a grumpy stupor… even a little aura mixing feels intense. In this situation, we sometimes suck in our energies as much as possible and slide around each other without touching. Unfortunately, the kids don’t generally cooperate in that practice. Neither does the dog.

3.      I’m always finding weird stuff in my laundry, and it’s likely that everyone else does too. But, when other people find weird stuff, I think they just throw it into mine… I’m talking about a T-shirt that someone cut off just under the breast area… Silk, trapezoid shaped placemats… Socks with the toe-part cut out… shrunken sweaters, stretched out hats, crocheted beer cozies with tiny pockets sewed onto the side… WHAT?

4.      We only have one inside shower (the outside shower is turned off during the winter). Any time the sink runs or a toilet is flushed, the shower becomes momentarily frigid or scalding. You can probably imagine, with 12 people, that this happens A LOT. The resulting shouts of alarm are not always PG.

5.      Sometimes, when the kids are really raging, I feel bad for non-parent innocent bystanders. It’s really impossible to relax in the living room during couch-cushion-fort time, or ninja time. Or when someone is shrieking like a maniacal banshee because she wanted a red gummy-vitamin and she ended up with an orange one.  

Here are the positives:

1.      If you are feeling isolated and grumpy, and you go into the kitchen to make coffee, a housemate might intercept you and give an account such as the following:

“I was just walking by the irrigation ditch when I found myself in the mix of two old ladies, and three 14-year-old boys, all observing spontaneous duck sex.”

After some coffee, and a conversation about this encounter, you will probably not be grumpy anymore.

2.      There is dinner on the table, almost every night at 7:00, and you don’t always have to cook it. And when you sit down to eat, there will probably be at least 5 avid listeners for the story you’ve been dying to tell about your statistics teacher who farted in class and then tried to hide it by shifting his desk, loudly and abruptly, until all his papers fell onto the floor, and everyone tried to pretend that nothing happened. Except the one girl, who laughed uncontrollably.

3.      Parents can put their kids to bed and then leave, sometimes, while other people keep an ear out.

4.      People who don’t have kids still get to play chess with 6 year-olds, help them with their homework, and receive kisses, cuddles, and I-love-you’s from 3-year-olds who really mean it.

5.      There will almost always be someone fun to dress in all black and go with you on an incognito trash depositing mission.
Sometimes living here feels great, and sometimes it's really hard, but it’s always inspiring... and remarkable. I should write about it more. I hope I do.
Love,
Jes