A lifetime garden to nourish your life

I just found this on our local 4 H newsletter. You can grow this garden all year long, over and over with the results of becoming a better person!

The Garden…A lifetime garden to nourish your life:

First, plant six rows of squash.

1. Squash dishonesty in all its forms.
2. Squash prejudice.
3. Squash fear.
4. Squash negativism.
5. Squash gossip.
6. Squash apathy.

Then plant five rows of lettuce:

1. Lettuce be kind.
2. Lettuce respect each other.
3. Lettuce be grateful.
4. Lettuce be patient.
5. Lettuce be faithful to our beliefs.

Add three rows of turnips:

1. Turnip to do your share.
2. Turnip to vote.
3. Turnip to help others.

For spice, plant three rows of thyme:

1. Thyme to teach and play with your
children.
2. Thyme to learn and grow wise.
3. Thyme to think about who you are and
why you're here.

Finally, finish off the garden with two rows of
peas:

1. Peas of mind.
2. Peas in your relationships.

If you care for this garden, it will produce all

Father/Son Campout June 2009

Luca, Noa and I had an awesome time camping out at Clear Lake with a ton of other dads and sons from church June 5-6. We roasted bratwurst and marshmallows and sang to the guitar and violin around the campfire. We collected feathers and went fishing with poles and nets. Our favorite was kayaking across the lake together and chasing a beaver around in it. Luca did a great job paddling, too! There was lots of other beautiful wildlife including dragonflies, goose families, various ducks and colorful birds, and unfortunately mosquitoes. There was a lovely beach we enjoyed playing and digging at as well. I sure love my sons and feel blessed to be their dad. :)

We love kayaking!


Our friends Jared and Isaac caught a little fish they later fried and ate as a family. :)

Germany 09

Our old landlord asked us sometime in April:"Would you guys like to move out early?" Utterly surprised (He knew Lincoln had a commitment in Spokane through August) we said no, thinking why would we move out early. We had prepared a nice blog for him helping him to find new renters. He got a lot of responses from people already wanting to rent it. Here are pictures of our old house for those of you who have been wanting to see it.

After a lot of thinking we decided it would be perfect to use the money we would not be using for rent to fly to Germany. We ended up moving into Lincoln's parents house the end of May, who agreed to take us in until now, before we're off to Colville. This seems like a long time, but the kids and I got to go to Germany in between for a whole month, while Lincoln was there with us for the first 2 weeks. Our stuff has been in storage in Colville already. It's been nice to be with Lincoln's family and for the kids to grow close to them, though I cannot wait to move into my own house after all these weeks.

It had almost been 2 years since we were in Germany last. It was so nice to see everyone and have the kids get to know my whole family better. They got to speak so much German, it was astonishing how well they handled the whole situation. I'm so happy that they get to speak two languages and function well in both.

Leea slept like this for several hours on the way there...

One of the highlights was that Luca got to go to my old elementary school with my old teacher Frau Fallahi for one week! I had her for 4 years. It was great of her to let him come to her class, even though he was 2 years younger than the kids in her class. They took such good care of him, and most importantly he got to speak German all day long. Luca and Leea also got to go to preschool (3-6) there, but they actually didn't like it. I was hoping it would be a little more fun for them, but they were just sending everyone off for the summer and didn't have much going on. The kids were simply bored.

Luca and Frau Fallahi.

The school grounds with a huge log to climb on.

My parents had tons of red and black currants we had lots of fun picking - yummy!

Mini Zoo in Essehof.

Playground in Braunschweig by the Waldorf Kindergarten.

Tante Eva's backyard. If you can't tell, Eva's obsessed with rabbits. At some point she was breeding them unwillingly. I guess they kept getting pregnant until she figured out how rabbits multiply...Sorry Eva, this was ages ago....

Noa

Ava

Leea

The whole family, without my dad.
Stephan, Matthias, Alina, Eva, Patrick,
Oma Sigrid, Uroma Maria, Lincoln
Noa, Luca, Leea, Rebecca and Ava

Noa eating the good German bread...

We like playing with our food, and Lincoln cracked us up with this little veggie-freak.

Isn't he cute? Here he's got hair as well.

We enjoyed having dinner with my mom's cousin Peter, his wife Karin and Karin's parents Dorchen and Gerd. Thanks so much for what you guys have done for us! You're truly amazing!
Look how much fun a few kids and adults can have with a 200 piece puzzle for kids! :)

Luca and me.

Lincoln and Uroma Maria.

Luca signing his first contract.

Aktivspielplatz Fallersleben. It's a playground kids supervised by an instructor can build things out of wood or other materials. They also have animals. It appears to me that it's for kids socially neglected, as they have lots of instructors there teaching all kinds of things and mostly spending quality time with the kids. It's open to everyone, so we checked it out. Note the wooden VW Luca's sitting in! Folks, I grew up by the VW headquarters, if you didn't know that.

Leea before she lost control of the vehicle and ended up on the lawn.

We loved the zip line best.

A raft somebody had built.

The kids having fun with ucle Matthias.

Lincoln and Luca.

Picking cherries at my friend Ulla's house. This is one of Lincoln's favorite things to do, enjoying the fresh breeze way up high in the tree and eating fresh fruit off the tree. :)

Leea made a present for my little brother Stephan. She put all kinds of stuff from around the house in it. He had fun opening it.

Italian Gelato!

Pirate playground with water pump. One of our favorite places ever.

One of my favorite places in my home"village" (It's more like a small town in US standards.) We used to go here quite often as kids and play in the river and by the old dam.

Huge old tree.

My dad got this accordion from a friend, and Lincoln being a natural could play it right away of course. Here's my mom trying it on for style.

Allersee

We had so much fun several times at the Allersee in Wolfsburg. As a family we hardly went when I was a kid, but now it's our favorite lake. It's supposed to be the cleanest lake in Germany. Who would have thought. It's pretty close to our home. The kids are still raving about it and keep asking me when we'll go again.

Here's mermaid Leea.

My mom feeding the kids Haribo fruit snacks....

Papa and the kids digging huge holes and making forts.

Luca ready for the water.

Noa checking out the lake from atop his pail.

Oma Sigrid and Ava.

This is one of my favorite things from when I was a kid. Getting buried in the sand.

Snails Everywhere

My parent's backyard was full of snails. The kids had a blast collecting and studying them. They built little houses, fed and even accidentally killed them. Apparently snails do not like living in covered houses. :) I didn't know that either, and the next day they had turned all bubbly. They also do not like swimming pools, but by the time I discovered the pool the snails had already drowned. I suggested we just build a house without a roof, but the very next day the snails were gone - I wonder why! :) From then on we just gathered them and studied them, because we learned it is best to just have them live their own way and that they can't be kept as pets. Sorry to all creepy creature lovers out there who feel this is one step too far....but then think about those people who love escargot!

One of the snail houses.

Leea loves little creatures. She was out in the backyard "taking care" of the snails a lot.

This is at my friend Ulla's place. The kids in her neighborhood are into snails as well...

Schladen Snake Farm Visit

We went to the Schladen, Germany snake farm and got to see lots of snakes (more poisonous than non-poisonous), spiders and reptiles. Noa kept pointing out the Noa-, Ava-, Luca-, Leea- and Mama- snakes. He couldn't find a Papa-snake, because he apparently was at work (just like in real life - Papa is always at work). When Luca was asked where the Papa snake works, he said, like it's totally clear, "In the desert!"

The kids playing with a super poisonous black mamba.

Nabucco and Moritz

My sister Eva was so kind to let us ride her horse Nabucco and a little pony called Moritz that stays in the same stable. Thanks Eva, we had a LOT of fun! And even though I'm terribly allergic to horses, it didn't bother me as much this time around...

...partly, because I wore this little contraption. I think I might try allergy shots before going again.

Luca on Nabucco.

The kids patiently waiting their turn. Bike helmets for safety reasons...I knew a woman who fell off a horse not wearing a helmet and died soon after. I won't let the kids ride without a helmet.

My mom helping out with the kiddos.

Lincoln was great at guiding the animals...

...but when it came to riding Nabucco, he seemed too tall for the horse. It looked quite funny, though the picture doesn't capture it. I think we might have a video somewhere. Hi hi...

Tante Eva and Ava riding on Nabucco on another day.

Leea riding on Moritz.

Luca and Moritz.

Noa found a perfect spot for digging. What would Noa do without any dirt? Pretty soon the other kids joined him. I guess they needed some serious relaxation after the horse ride.

After the fun comes the clean up...starting with horse poop...

... and then the hoofs.

The boys even got to ride on the tractor.