urban homesteaders?!

i turned 30 and my brother bought me a book, "the urban homestead" by kelly coyne and erik knutzen. i think if someone would have told me that i would have chickens in my backyard when i was 30 i would have laughed.

so what is urban homesteading, i discovered as i read that we are doing it, didn't know it but i am an urban homesteader. a friend had told me about rural homesteaders and i thought there is no way i could ever do that. i guess its my draw to civilization, people, streets, buildings that makes me the urban kind. it just kind of happened to us one step at a time. a friend is a great gardener and taught us about chickens and gardening. we have tried some seeds and failed. we already had a couple fruit trees and added more when a gardening store was going out of business.

but i was encouraged by the book to share this idea with others because it isn't just about chickens, its about growing some of your own food, recycling, energy conservation, composting (they do talk about a composting toilet and i am so not going that way...) they offer gardening solutions for people who live in apartments, use pots or guerrilla garden and use the dirt area between the sidewalk and street. anyone can do some part of it.

from my fun birthday book: "Urban homesteading is an affirmation of the simple pleasures of life. When you spend a Saturday morning making bread, or go out on a summer evening after work to sit with your chickens, or take a deep breath of fresh cut basil, you unplug from the madness."

this week I picked basil, brought it in to rinse it. Placed the green leaves into the food processor with olive oil, pine nuts, and cheese - fresh pesto. My kitchen smelled incredible. my friend Taffy and I enjoyed fresh pesto and mozzarella sandwiches made panini style. so good.

urban homesteader. in the heart of bellflower. it's been amazing to see how much we compost instead of putting down the disposal, and starbucks gives us all their coffee grinds to add to it. here are a few of our current garden eats, so beautiful, fresh and organic. be encouraged to try to grow something, if I can do it anyone can. i have to say ryan gets the most credit for our garden, he does all the hard work and i pick the bounty. thanks for the book dirk i've discovered something new about myself.


our molting chicken - we just eat the eggs...


my basil bush


dwarf orange tree


pomegranates


red lettuce

cowboy and chicken

my cowboy because he didn't want to be a clown...


malachi and ely


my sister sarah came again this year for halloween


trick or treating with dad

abram's one year pics a little late

vacation to marco island

malachi said the best part of florida was going in the pool and walking on the sand. he is sitting on my lap and telling me he could type right now... he also liked the boat ride on mommy's 30th birthday. he and abram loved hanging out with grandma and grandpa too. here are some shots of our fun time.


enjoying the zoo because it was little cold



ducks!






driving the boat with ryan


driving the boat with grandpa



this little river was dug for the boys to play in...little did we know that it would turn into an uncontrolable current that emptied the beach of all the water behind the boys. it also trapped people who had walked down the beach and came back to discover they couldn't get across the river. two women attempted to jump the river and fell flat on their faces. oops. goes to show a little digging can result in huge problem. we packed up the evidence and left the beach because we were getting a lot of looks from people. but it is a good story.


malachi running on the beach


abram digging


learning to swim all by himself


so proud of himself


help from malachi blowing out my candles

shalom

ryan and i along with other kingdom causes staff traveled to miami in october to go to the Christian community development association conference. we started attending this conference in 2000 and have come back again and again. they bring together people engaged in community development ministries across the united states to learn, to be encouraged, to be inspired and to be together.

it was refreshing for my soul to be at this conference. the theme this year was shalom and this was interwoven throughout worship, speakers, workshops... i realized while i was there how deeply this concept of shalom penetrates my heart and the call ryan and i have for bellflower and for life. i wanted to share ccda's explanation of seeking the peace of the city, shalom. it is rich and it is true and it is a call for each of us in the places we are. Here it is below.

“Seeking the Peace of the City”
When God created the heavens and the earth, He wove it all together like a million silk threads forming a dazzling garment never before seen - each thread passing over, under and around millions of others to create a perfectly complementary, tightly-woven, interdependent, amazing whole. This wondrous webbing together of God and man and all of creation is what the Hebrew prophets called shalom.

Shalom is a word packed with hope for a broken, bruised and wounded world. It speaks of wholeness, right relationships, justice, salvation, and righteousness, all of which can be missed when we simply read the English word, ‘peace.’

God’s intention for every community is that His shalom would reign. Can you imagine neighborhoods with secure streets, healthy relationships, effective and affirming schools, clean air, and a thriving local economy? Can you picture neighbors sharing meals together, children laughing and playing freely, and the elderly being valued, honored and cared for as the norm in our communities? Can you fathom vibrant churches in every neighborhood being beacons of light and hope because of their deep concern for the well being of all community residents, not just their members? Can you envision people being drawn to the love and power of God because of the clear witness of Christians fully committed to Jesus Christ?
We can! In fact, CCDA exists to see this kind of impact in the poorest communities in our nation and world. Our passion and commitment is to be a voice of challenge, equipping Christ-followers who are ready to step forward and see the shalom of God become a reality in under-resourced communities. To this end, we pray boldly and confidently, as Jesus prayed, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

SHALOM!

this is it - i wish i could sit down with each person that reads this blog and express how this statement resonates with me and resonates with you. i think i have at times done a poor job explaining how this desire to seek the peace and prosperity of the city connects to my life. but then i think this explains how we desire to live and why we might do some of things we do and i hope our life illustrates this.

what a great time and i am thankful to have been a part of it. to sit with, talk with, and worship with people who are seeking God's shalom for their communities was an honor. i pray we would all be moved toward greater shalom in our hearts, our homes, our neighborhoods, our cities, and our world.

our new nephew, carter jeffery leep

i am working my way backwards on whats been happening in our life. we were unplugged the last week and a half on vacation. so while we were gone our nephew was born. malachi and abram are excited to have another boy join the verwys cousins. carter jeffery leep was born on the 29th to ryan's older sister, rebecca and our brother-in-law jeff. his big sister's look like they love him a ton and we are so excited to meet this big bundle this christmas!!



9 lbs. 12 oz and 21.5 inches and he was 2 weeks early! what a handsome guy.



leep family



carter (brand new) and addisyn (6 weeks)

happy 51st birthday bellflower

this weekend we celebrated bellflower's birthday at the family fun zone - they shut down the street downtown and created a little party. this is the first year without a parade. what a great decision to have this new set up. for those of you who have attended the past parades i think you can agree with us - that free cotton candy and games beats seeing 20 middle school marching bands... anyway. we had a fun hanging out, playing games, eating junk food, and enjoying the inflatable slides.

although we are surrounded by city upon city and concrete we still feel like bellflower is a small town. we are close enough to walk downtown, we run into friends, and its a great gathering for our community. and just a fun trivia fact: my mom was born in bellflower the year it became a city.