Neighborhood Community

The kids are in bed, the house is quiet, we're having a cold beer and
feeling very pleased. We're pleased because when we bought this house
in February we had no idea what the neighborhood would be like - it
was buried in snow. We've lived here for three months now and
periodically come across neighbors, but typically are either busy or
in the backyard so we're not meeting people too often.

A few weeks ago we found an invitation stuck through our mail slot -
for a neighborhood party right across the street. We went tonight for
the event and just fell in love with our neighborhood so much! We
found out who generously mowed our lawn while we were on vacation - it
was a guy we'd never met. We found that several of our neighbors have
children the same ages as our children. We discovered that one of our
neighbors went to the same college I did.

We talked about parking and traffic. We talked about plants and lawns
and playsets. We talked about schools and churches in the area. We
prayed, had some grilled hotdogs, diverse "potluck" side dishes, and
cold lemonade. The kids played in the sand, on the swings, on the
slide, with balloons, and Simon "drove" a few girls to New Mexico with
the steering wheel on the playset. It was a long drive.

We traded stories of the condition of our homes, shared how long we've
lived there and where we moved here from, and shared how long we plan
to stay. We set up plant swaps with some things we know we'd like in
or out of our yards. We build community.

I love the west side!