Canning and Biking- new fun hobbies!

           A popped bike tire last week put me back on foot to commute for a few days--in the most beautiful of fall weather.  The forecast predicts it to be in the 80's all week--in October--in Minnesota! Walking is a beautiful gift that slows you down to appreciate and observe the small things in life.  I work about 10 blocks from my house and church is about 2 miles away, so walking to either of these places gives me plenty of quiet time.  Alexi Murdoch is becoming the soundtrack of these long walks through the tree-lined streets that are now becoming vibrant shades of yellow and orange.  I enjoy getting to see the neighbors that are out and about, watch the squirrels dart in and out of bikers and cars to scramble up trees, and just observe the changing scenery that comes with each new city block.  Walking also gives me lots of time to reflect on some of the great new things I have been able to try while being here.

       One of my favorites is the opportunity to BIKE all over the city! I have spent a few Saturday mornings biking for a few hours, sometimes solo, sometimes with my roommates.  Minneapolis has a great bike trail called the Midtown Greenway (pictured above) that runs East-West through the whole city.  My favorite Saturday bike ride was with my roommate Rebecca. We rode down the Greenway, around Lake Calhoun, Lake of the Isles, and Cedar Lake before returning home. Our trip was about 25 miles and ended at the Seward Co-op to pick up some groceries.  It was great to have a few hours to just talk and enjoy a beautiful Saturday morning!  We even found some sort of Lake Monster in Lake Calhoun:

 

    
      This past Saturday, I got to represent Open Arms at the annual Breast Cancer Convention for Minnesota.  It was a great event, full of really inspiring women who are cancer survivors.  Open Arms serves about 150 women who are undergoing breast cancer treatments, so I was able to talk with a lot of women who used Open Arms during their treatments, and to share with some women who may be in need of our service. Here's my display:

       On Sunday, our landlords Steven and Stephanie had us over to their house for an afternoon of canning and playing outside with their boys Soren and Linden. Stephanie did LVC almost 20 years ago, so she has been great to connect with.  They have such a great house...I think we all kept saying how they are living the dream life.  This may be one of my favorite days so far!
 The boys were very entertaining and performed a few plays on the staircase that usually ended in a mattress sliding down the stairs with them on it. My favorite play was titled "The boy's worst nightmare at his sleepover." It has been a while since I have gotten to play with kids (yes, I miss camp a bit!) so I enjoyed playing outside with them, scootering in the alley and playing wall-ball against the garage.

 The main purpose of our afternoon was to learn how to CAN!  We had tons of apples, so we ended up making cinnamon applesauce and a few tomato dishes too. It was such a blast (and a lot of work!). The chemistry of canning is a fascinating thing, so I enjoyed learning about that as well.  Here is my photo archive of the afternoon:

 

The peeler makes apple slinkys! 

 

It takes a lot of apples to make a lot of apple sauce.

 

For dinner, we picked veggies from the garden and made homemade pizza in this homemade brick oven pizza oven in the backyard!  

 It is great having free weekends to be with great people, learning and experiencing so many new things!