Becca and I have been involved in a small group at church since last Fall. In this group we've been duscussing many issues related to how we grow our food, ship our food, eat our food, etc. After reflecting on numerous problems that seem global, or at least national, in scope, we focussed on local solutions. What can we do? I'm not going to get into the specific issues that we discussed, bet if you'd like to hear more, just ask. As a reaction to what we were discussing, we decided to start what we now call Ploughshares Community Garden; it's on the grounds of our church, Frazer Mennonite Church. The garden is a collection of individual plots, open to anyone in the community. They are 20' X 20, but people can sign up for 1/2 or even 1/4 plots if they want them. People can plant whatever they'd like. We didn't publicize it a whle lot because it was our first year, and we wanted to start small, with 8 full-sized plots. When we officially opened it up to the congregations and the surrounding community, we filled up in a week. So, there will definitely be talks about expanding for next year.

Becca and I signed up for a plot this year and are having a blast. Our plot is 20' X 20'. For most of it, we are experimenting with raised beds (shabby though they may be). We have 4 beds. We are using straw as our mulch. The beds are arranged rectangularly; each is the length of the plot. Although it's pretty difficult to see much besides the marigolds (trying to keep the rabbits away) and the straw, we also have:

Bed 1

• a few other types of flowers (just starting to poke up)
  

Bed 2

• peppers


• spinach (we started from seed and its pretty far behind)


• cucumbers (same deal)


• pumpkins


• lettuce


• radishes (at least we think. . .long story)


• potatoes (We weren't planning on groing these, but friends of ours had extra, so we planted a few. Now, they are these huge beautiful leafy plants that are the most exciting looking things in our garden)


• spring onions

Bed 3

• tomatoes


• more lettuce

Bed 4

• crookneck sqaush


• watermelons


• amish melon (looks like a cantelope on the seed package)


• more pumpkins


• Butternut squash
  

Everytime we go to the garden, Gryff comes along. We tye him up on the outside of the fence next to where we will be working.
We are really having a blast and learning as we go. Becca and I started a bunch of things from seed in our basement under some flourescent lights. Then we planted the cold weather stuff. The weekend before Memorial Day, Mom and Dad came back herer after Andrea Spengler's graduation. We spent the afternoon working in the garden. That's the day that we really got the most done. Mom and Dad were a lot of help. Becca and I are pretty much flying by the seat of our pants when it comes to most of this stuff, hence the "learning as we go." So, Mom and Dad's experience and knowledge was invaluable.
We were having trouble with rabbits or possible groundhogs and, we think, crows. We planted Marigolds to try to keep rabbits away and we put netting over the beds to see if it will keep crows away.
So, we haven't actually harvested anything yet, but we're excited that things are at least growing.

Heaven on earth? - Denver, CO

We're in Denver, CO for a 10 day vacation with some friends from when we lived in California.  They have a daughter 4 months older than Zach and all three of them are really enjoying each other!  It's been great fun!  In the 5 days we've been here, we've hit at least a half dozen different parks, an indoor pool, a stream, a lake, been into the mountains (Evergreen, CO), downtown Denver and just tooling around the Highlands Ranch area.  It's been so nice to spend time with these good friends who not only share our love of all things outdoors, but also share our preferences in schedule (something fun in the morning, picnic lunch, nap in the afternoon, dinner, something fun before bedtime, 3 kids in the giant tub, then bed)!  Not to mention they share the same joys and struggles with their daughter as we do with our boys (their cute phrases, smiles, laughter compared with their fighting over toys, notsharing, and saying "NO!"  I haven't had any time to do anything with the pics yet and I already have over 500 pics in 5 days, so here's just a preview of what I'll be posting when we return...

The first park we went to was huge, new, and had a fantastic view of the Rockies (though it's hard to make out in this small picture).  Later that night we went to a different park to see the local orchestra perform while we had a picnic lunch on the lawn.

This is the view out the back window of our friends' home.  You can clearly make out the Rockies (even Pike's Peak way off to the south) as well as a sea of homes!  It's amazing how the Denver area is just exploding with new growth!

Another park had a stream running through it that the kids could play in.  This is Maddie (or Madison).  She's 4 months older than Zach, but Zach outweighs her by 5 lbs (doesn't sound like much, but it's 20% of her body weight)!

The boys are having a great time!  It's gonna be hard to come home home to reality on Saturday!

Close Call

We watched as tornadic storms rolled across the northern half of our county this afternoon.  I wish I had a video camera so you could watch these clouds rotate over me. These pictures were taken 2-3 miles north of Loomis.   I might have gotten better pictures if I went closer but I was afraid of getting hit with the hail.   There were reports of this storm producing baseball sized hail before it got to us.  There were numerous tornado warnings but these storms did not touch down until after they passed us.  There are numerous reports of damage in Kearney about 35 miles northwest of us.  For those of you who have watched Storm Chasers on the Discovery channel, I saw 30+ storm chasers go through Loomis including the infamous TIV vehicle.

As they went by the videographer was up in the Turret.   It was really eery watching the storm chasers.  Obviously we were in the center of the action.  The storms have gone by now and we are fine.  In fact it never even rained in town.

A Great Week.

God was at work in Loomis last week.  About 60 kids were challenged to Choose Jesus over everything else.  Each day the children gave an offering.  This year the offering is helping Ralph and Colleen Cole fund VBS in Odessa, Ne.  Every year the Coles offer a VBS to the children of Odessa.   This year, the children of Odessa will be challenged to Choose Jesus through the gifts of the children of Loomis.  How cool is that? 

Family Bible Time...

Recently, we started having a daily family Bible Time after we are done eating breakfast, but still at the table.  Now some of you may be impressed, and some of you may be like, "wow, what took you so long?!"  Nonetheless, thanks to Shawn Bergen, a pastor at our church, for his example and influence to get us started. 

So far, it has been both a joy and a train wreck.  Drew loves it, but doesn't always stay focused.  Tessa is pretty much clueless.  We involve her, and certainly understand that the practice is just as formative for her as it is for Drew.  Tonight, was especially hard.  We have learned the lesson more than once, we have to keep Tessa tied down, oops, I mean strapped in to her high chair if there is any hope of her participating.

What do we do?  3 things...

1.  We read the Bible.  We are using a children's Bible that basically tells a story through a very short story and picture.  After we read, we ask questions of each person to further explain what might be happening.

2.  We pray.  We go around first and ask what each person wants to thank Jesus for or ask Jesus for.  Then we go around and everyone takes a turn to pray.  This was a great idea we learned from someone else.  We find that it helps them think about what they want to tell Jesus, instead of just singing their prayer song from rote memory. 

3.  We sing worship songs.  We sing a song we don't know and a song we do know.  The other night Drew wanted to sing, "The Wheels on the Bus."  I was quick to point out that that song was not a worship Jesus song.  He quickly responded..."yes it is Daddy, because Jesus made the buses!"  We sang the song.  A song that "we" didn't know was "the Doxology".  Even though we sang it for a week, Drew wouldn't sing.  Shy or something?  Last night, I was trying to get Tessa to sing with me because Drew wouldn't, and all of a sudden he announced he knew it.  He sure did, every word.  Amazing how quickly he learns...

Here is a little fruit of our labor...

Rob

Loomis VFD

I thought the kids might like to see these pictures of a house we burned down last night.  

 

Happy Birthday Toby

The State of Nebraska is nuts.  They give learner's permits to 15 year olds.   Actually many of Toby's class mates have been driving alone on a school permit since they turned 14.  Unfortunately for Toby this is only available for those who live more than one mile from the school.  For the next year Toby is stuck driving with an adult.  Or are we stuck?

Very Busy Spring

Soccer began for Christopher - He plays in the township league which has scrimmages every Saturday. The season started cold but is now warming up. Christopher usually plays goalie and really loves it. I was able to capture a few pictures of him playing.




Band Concert for me and Darlene- Each spring the band has a concert with the color guard performing the routine from the fall field show, dancing to some new songs, and a little bit of the routine for next year's field show. They did a wonderful job. It seems like we practiced way too much for only one show, but we had a lot of fun. Due to technical difficulties with our video camera, Tom was not able to video the concert and I was too busy back stage to take pictures. Christopher was able to capture a little video and a few pictures with his camera though.




Darlene's Semi-Formal - Here are a few pictures of her and Bryan.




Darlene's Band trip to California - I was not able to go with the band due to the expense so Tom had a little growing up to do to allow Darlene to go without me. This was her first time on a plane and handled it very well without me being with her. She had to call me from the plane while they were boarding due to confusion of seats. I helped her get over her fear of not knowing what to do and then she was fine. She had a lot fun and to Tom's glee, she came home safe and sound. Here are a few pictures she wants to upload.



Next week is Christopher's band concert and soccer continues until the middle of May. It never stops.

The newest addition to the Thompson Family

Did I get your attention?

Meet Gryff (short for Gryffindor):

We adopted Gryff from the SPCA Tues. (4/15/08). The pound thought that he is about 1 yr. old, although we think that he's a little younger than that. He really moves like a puppy. He loves to play and chew. Although, he's been really good so far about only chewing his toys. He's mostly house trained (yay for adopting!). We've had a lot of fun so far getting to know him, and he seems to feel pretty much at home in our house. Commands are coming along, albeit slowly. He's very good at "come," which is great, becase now we can let him off the leash outside. Sometimes he gets "sit" right away, other times it feels like pulling teeth.

Anyway, we're really happy with him, and we're having a blast. We can't wait for folks to meet him.

Brian

Baby Boy? Baby Girl?

Here is a picture of #3.  Becky and I went for "our" latest ultrasound last Friday.  "It" is 1 lb 11 oz and 12.1" long.  "It" is right on schedule in development, due date of Aug 3.  Woohoo!

PS.  Even though the baby has been jumping around for months and Becky is constantly feeling "it", just this week I have started to be able to feel the movement from the outside.  Very cool.

Rob

Happy Easter!

OK, so I know it's been a week now since Easter, but I thought I'd post about our Easter weekend. We had a great time and really enjoyed our time with everyone... the Nebraska crew were missed... but with 4 kids under 4 all hopped up on Easter candy and excitement, we managed to create enough chaos of our own! Here's some pics from a couple special moments.

Mattie is 9

Happy Birthday to Mattie O'Pattie.  She is our St. Patties day blessing.

Happy Birthday

Our Winter Trip

Over Presidents' Day weekend, Becca and I visited Washington, D.C. We had a great time. We saw some of the sites and had a fun and relaxing time. Here are some of the pictures. There are pictures of the mall and the memorials, walked past the White House, the National Zoo, the National Cathedral, the National Museum of Natural History (that blurry reflective picture of the blue thing in the box is the Hope Diamond), and the subway. We also went to dinner in Georgetown twice. During my time at Messiah and now as a member of the Mennonite Church USA, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on foreign policy, nationalism, US history, etc. Visiting the capitol of our country and visiting so many monuments and memorials gave me time to appreciate the many blessings we often over look daily. How different this country would be without the rule of law or the freedom from religious persecution, for instance. Enjoy the pictures!

For you Northerners...

We had a great time swimming today.  It has been pretty "cold" this winter, so we haven't gone swimming much.  Recently, it has been back up in the mid 80's, so the pool will once again be a regular activity for us.  Here are 2 pics and a video.  As always, click on pictures for a few more...

Rob

New Videos Posted on Our Blog

If you haven't seen them yet, we have posted 3 new videos on our blog.  Check them out here.

Rob

A Visit to Ft. Myers Beach

We had our first Care Group (small group of Sunday School class members) activity last night at Ft. Myers Beach.  It took awhile to get there (it was like Ocean City, NJ traffic in July), but we had a great time!  Here are a few pics (I was seriously bummed that I missed getting a picture of that shark fin protruding ominously above the water about 50 ft from shore)...

Click any picture to view the whole album.

 

Rob

Being a Missionary has its Perks

Ok, so you might not interpret this as a perk, but I sure did.  What a great experience!  As part of the missionary conference (GIC)  at our church, McGregor, here in Ft. Myers, FL, we took at trip way out into the Everglades for a tour by Swamp Buggy and by Air Boat.  Either the airboat or the holding of this alligator was my favorite part! Click the picture for the whole album.

Rob

Basketball Fun

Jesse playing point guard

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mattie brings the ball down past her good friend Brooke.

A Great Season Comes To An End

Toby finished his Freshman season of wrestling this weekend.  He finished the year at 22-13 and was one win away from qualifying for the State Tournament.  He wrestled most of the season at 103lbs but moved up to 112lbs for this weekend's district championships.  Although our high was 16 degrees today, track season is just around the corner.  Toby will be running the 1 & 2 mile races. 

Brian would be proud!

On Wednesday, Karen and I picked up our "new" 2006 "pre-owned" Honda Odyssey (doesn't "pre-owned just sound better than "used"?). Despite our earlier promises to ourselves that we would never do it, we broke down and conceeded the fact that they're just plain practical! It's dark gray just like the one in the picture. Very comfortable and even enables us to have friends and family come visit without us having to take two vehicles everywhere (depending on how many come to visit, of course!). I'm sure we got "taken" somehow by the dealership, but at least we got what we wanted for the price we expected and the amount we expected for our trade-in. Although I never thought we'd say it, we're very excited about our new minivan.

Brian, knowing how much you love minivan's, I think you'd love it!

Nebraska Bucks Are In Trouble Now

Sam was excited to get his brand new .50 Cal Thompson/Center Omega Muzzle Loader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 12th Birthday Sam

 

 

February 7, 1996

 

 

 

 

Camping...

I think we've got the camping bug.  We camped a lot before kids came along, but we haven't had/made the opportunity until recently.  Rob went on a one-night guys only trip with guys from our Sunday School class a month ago and out of that came the idea to do the same with spouses (no kids!) this past Friday night.  We had a great time and a great turnout.  It was awesome that the majority of our class was able to attend!  We are planning a family trip in the next few weeks.  This campground was 15 minutes from our house and it felt good to "get away." Here are a few pics.

James and Josh-- our master chefs...

Fran and Justin had the mac-daddy of all air mattresses!  It was her first time camping!

Hanging out around the campfire!

Mark and Brandy's tent got hung up the next morning while they were out riding bikes...

Two weeks ago, Rob and Drew camped out in the back yard.  Drew was so excited when he and Rob were setting up the tent.  Here are a few pics from that night.  Drew is so excited to go real camping with a fire some time soon!

Drew jumped right in and figured out quickly how to help Daddy set up the tent.

Tessa and Daddy being "crazy" in the tent.

They are ready to go, with their matching headlamps!

Ready for bed!  Drew was asleep by 8:30 PM and slept all night.  Rob did a little reading and you tube watching and was asleep by 9:30!  They had so much fun!

~Becky