COTA publicity

OK. So no one probably reads this blog anymore...but in case there is a lurker...

Praxis was mentioned in an article in the Seattle Times! Our original intentions may be long gone, but apprently it's noteworthy, or something. The story appeared on the front page with a large picture from COTA's worship.

Read the article here and make sure you click the "next" button atop the picture for more.

Funny though, that the article wasn't specifically about COTA, but all the photos are from our worship...

[ray] i'm posting again

so, the honest to god truth is we have ceased being an intentional community. at least, what our original intention was has died a slow death. we all still get along, there are still the occasional squabble about picking up after ourselves rather than after each other, but we generally get along well. the problem is that real life (read that "the drab life") has made somewhat of an invasion on a couple of us in particular.

for me in particular, i have faced some work budget crises a couple of times over the last six months. this has meant that i have had to work more in order to bulk up my paychecks. this means i have had to sacrifice monday nights in order to take work as it comes up. also, lacey has become increasingly involved with a cota/fremont abbey ministry/groove venue music-and-art fest called the round which happens one monday a month, so that keeps her out on monday once in a while. so, mondays have fallen by the wayside and we can't seem to figure out another day of the week that would work in its place.

for the time being, the only intentional part of our intentional community is that we are still living together, we don't hate each other's guts, and we can even find times to do fun things together. i think that, instead, our naive enthusiasm for all that we were going to do and accomplish as a house ministry needs to be redefined or continue to be put on hold, at least for now. i don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to put the breaks on for a bit to continue to figure out our identity.

more praxis fun

well, we aren't doing to good on posting. weekly meetings have increasingly come under attack in this urban world. dodging around work schedules (and for me class schedules) has proven difficult to say the least. so maybe the monday night dinner/prayer time just isn't going to do it for praxis.

so what do we do instead?

karaoke.

yes, that's right. praxis had another karaoke night at the little red hen last night. good times. ray and lacey did a smashing rendition of "i got you babe"--it had jocelyn on her knees with laughter!

advent prayer table

So we've had a leave of absence from this blog (does anyone read this?)...it's been awhile since we've had a house meeting, too. But, there's plans in the works to meet this week before Christmas and enjoy some hot buttered rum. Until then...

Here's a picture of the cool Christmas decoration Ray and I set up tonight. Advent candles, white lights, and an icon.

Megan

comment word verification

OK, in response to spam comments on two posts, I turned on the word verification tool to leave a comment. This means any human can post (and we certainly welcome that!!), but through typing in the letters you see on the screen, it will eliminate the spam crap that advertises for some stupid website sent by evil spambots lurking in the recent posts on blogger...

Megan

an update

After skipping last week due to two house members being out of town, Praxis House met again last night for our weekly house meeting. The evening was graced with scrumptious pumpkin bread baked by Leah, as well as soup by Leah.

The meeting itself was shorter than some of our other meetings, which was nice. We are still into soy milk, and have agreed that buying bulk at Costco will be to our benefit. Yay for soy milk!

We are gearing up for the Haloween party on Saturday, partly sponsored by COTA. I'm looking forward to it, because I've not been to a party yet at Rosewood Manor.

Other than that...not sure what to write. Blessings...

Megan

fun outings

Last week Wednesday was the second outing for the Praxis House...we put on our cowboy hats and boots and line danced our way to Karaoke at the Little Red Hen.

OK, so we didn't go cowboy and we didn't line dance, but Ray, Leah, and Lacey took their turn at the microphone--some of the best entertainment that night! Despite the bar being crowded and noisy, I believe a fun time was had by all in the Praxis House. Good times, good times...

community and soy milk

One thing I truly love about community and living in intentional community is that there is no one way to live it. There is not a prescribed rule book to say "THIS is what community is, and only this." There are many beautiful expressions and writings, but ultimately it is a journey by those who live it. Praxis House is lived out in us as individuals and us as community together.

At one point in the common journey, we decided to put in money for community food. As it turns out, that hasn't worked for everyone, so last night at our meeting the issue was brought up. Through discussion, we came up with something new to try. Now for me personally, I could actually go further into the concept of community food and time (for example, sharing all groceries and eating together every night)--but I've learned (and am still learning) it isn't so much about me as it is about hearing everyone.

Instead of a list of groceries to buy, we found some very basics that everyone needs and eats that we will buy, thus reducing the amount of money each person has to contribute to the community money. It will be interesting to see how this works. Our cupboards are full as it is, so one of the aims is to eat the surplus of food--hopefully this can happen while we buy some of our own food. Each of us brought with us into this house food that we had on our own, and much of it (especially condiments) still remains. Therefore, we have to use it up. I can just see it now...a feast of jell-o and muffins (two items we have plenty of). Mmmm...

So, to my original intent of the post: soy milk.

I'm smiling right now because one of the discussions on what consists of a "staple" that everyone is willing to consume was about milk preference. One of us drinks only organic milk, another prefers skim, while still another prefers 2%...and another soy. Would we just buy our own milks? Would we form "milk alliances" on those who could share preferences?

As it turns out, each of us expressed a willingness to consume soy milk. Something came out of this meeting which wasn't expected. We started with an expression of something that didn't work and asked ourselves, "so how can we make this work?"

The answer: soy milk. hehehe. :)

What an adventure this was and is for me.