Updates

With so much going on and so many changes I feel like I have left a lot of fragments on this blog that I want to catch up on.

1. My reading challenge: As you may remember from this post I have challenged myself to read all the books we own that I haven't read before I buy any more new books. I made a list of all the books (this does not include philosophy books of Mr. P's that I don't want to read or college text books) we own that I haven't read. It is a long list. Out of about 630 books we own there are about 200 I haven't read. I am working off that list in no particular order. So far I have read, The Joy Luck Club, West with the Night, East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath and Sweetness to the Soul.

2. Our House: We are much more settled in our house and are absolutely loving it. When I first posted about living in a house with another couple I got a lot of comments asking to hear how it works. Well so far it's wonderful. The one thing I was worried about going into this living situation was getting enough space and quite. While I did grow up in a big family I have never lived with a lot of people since leaving home. It helps a lot that our house is so spacious and has a large yard. Each couple has two rooms, a bedroom and a study, to themselves. The shared spaces are large enough that everyone has a place to be. Some evenings the Wilson's watch a movie in the family room while Mr. P and I read in the living room. If the guys have friends over and I want to go hide I can retreat into the our study or bedroom for quite time. The yard is enormous and offers plenty of room for going off and being alone.

One of my favorite things about living in a house with other people is the division of labor. We do all the food combined as a household. Jessica and I sit down and figure out which nights we are cooking and make a menu. We each cook three nights and Mr. P cooks one night. Once we have a menu and schedule worked out we make a grocery list and go to the store. We have a set food budget for the house that each couple contributes to it is divided to give us a weekly budget. Then whoever cooks dinner also cleans the kitchen. This way if it's your night off from cooking it's also your night off from dishes giving you a true night off. I love this! I have also found that because I'm cooking three nights a week instead of seven I have much more energy for cooking projects outside my dinner nights. It is also nice to have the variety of what the other person chooses to make. Jessica often chooses foods to make that I wouldn't have chosen and visa versa. We also divide regular household chores. Each person has a household chore group each week with one week off. The chores are: deep clean kitchen, dust, sweep and clean floors, and sweep and tidy porch, patio, walkways and drive. Then the bathrooms are a rotating every other week schedule. I feel like I spend much less time cleaning house and yet live in a cleaner house.

3. Gardening: Because the torrents of rain continued last week we still haven't planted our garden. Although our beds are ready and we have all of the starts and seeds ready to go in. It is going to be a later garden but such is the case for everyone in Eugene. Our garden beds are beautiful. It may be a strange thing to say about dirt but it very true. We will start planting this evening. We are planting tomatoes, cayenne and habenero peppers, fava beans, green beans, peas, chard, collards and mustard greens, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce and acorn squash. That is just our summer garden. Mid summer we will plant fall crops as well. Eventually we plan to have a year round garden.

I hope to get some pictures soon to share of our wonderful house.