Az Home School Conference

Miraculously (I am being literal here), Heather and I were able to get child care for all day 8am-9pm so we could get down to the Arizona Families for Home Education yearly conference in Phoenix. We had all but abandoned being able to go as every thing was falling through, so we just prayed about it and left it in God's hands and he provided (not angels, but they might as well have been).

Took off at 8am and really had a pleasant time. So nice just to sit in the car and talk with just the wife and no one else around. The conference was inspiring as always. Nice to be around thousands of folks who are all as committed (or more) to parenting well as we like to think we are. A family of four kids is small for this group of folks. We were very encouraged in lots of ways and refreshed by the speakers, and from hearing from folks who have been in the trenches of parenting and come out successfully on the other side. Got lots of books/curricula/supplies at the curriculum fair as well.

We both were blessed by this message from Dennis Rainey that we downloaded and listened to via Ipod on the way down. It addresses the blessing of children in marriage. This is a topic that is relatively taboo in the protestant church. It is by far the best handling of the topic that I have seen.

Here is a little taste:

"Children are our legacy. They save us from our selfishness, from our materialism. Children are the spiritual messengers that we send to future generations with the Gospel. Children should be viewed from God's perspective not from the world's perspective. The world views them as a burden. The Scripture speaks of them as being a blessing."

I was very challenged by that because many times I can buy into the world's view and think of all the ways a bunch of kids can limit me rather than seeing them for what they really are: blessings. Perspective matters on so many things in life. Complain or be thankful. A matter of perspective. That is not to say that this large family thing is easy. It is not. But it is worth it. It matters. It is a good thing, and every "sacrifice" is really nothing in the eternal perspective. I fear we evangelicals have bought in to the world's "burden" viewpoint too much.

We feel very blessed to have the family we do, and feel strongly the weight of the responsibility we have before God to train these kids well, but also to enjoy them as the blessings they are.

The best part of the day by far was this:



Just me and da wife all day, no one else, learning, driving, eating, and talking together. A twelve hour retreat that was incredibly refreshing. We love the kids, but a break once in a while is essential to recharge and regroup.

Atmospheric Phenomena

The two above are from two different nights. From the deck.

Neighbors

Our Indian neighbors have their grand daughters in town for three weeks and they are exactly the age of our girls.



They have a great time together.

They invited us over the other night for kid craziness and great curry chicken!

New Doo

Heather after her photo shoot for Prescott Women magazine.

Her stylist is featured in an article about the different kinds of blondes. She asked Heather to be one of the models a long time ago, and Heather got a free color and style out of the deal, so why not? Right?

Little did she know that she would be all "Vogued" out for the shoot.

I can't wait to see the pro shots. Heather is quite the good sport. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when she described her make-up to me over the phone. She even went grocery shopping before coming home.

Profit

Our little business has finally turned a profit.

I got a paycheck! (And then promptly handed nearly half of it off to our government)

This is a great milestone, and I am thankful to God in too many ways to count for the amazing provision we have had from all different sources in the six months we went without a paycheck.

I am thankful also for the provision of two great employees (great!) For wisdom in the tons of decisions I have had to make on the fly that turned out to be right. For a plentiful (overflowing) supply of patients, and for the great health to be able to to the job well.

The practice has most of the equipment it needs, has next year's malpractice saved in the bank, and is debt free from the loan required to start it up.

Thanks for the push Lord. You have never failed to guide me in the right direction when the time was right.

Grampas' visits

We had both grampas out here for a visit.

Rey came a week ago Saturday. He left early Monday am, then Gus arrived in the evening, then Rey came back Friday with the usual 1 hour notice:)

It was great to have them both around at the same time.

Gus's week started with llamas (or if you are Joel "mammas!")




This is about 4 houses down on our street.







We hit the "World's Oldest Rodeo" which is a big deal around here. A late night that led to tired kids, but fun none the less.







One night, Gus took The older kids fishing at Goldwater lake. It was a beautiful sunset, but I didn't take photos.

On the 4th, we picked up Rey.



















We had a nice day, then had 14 children and 15 adults out on our deck to watch fireworks. It was chaos, but in a nice way. The house is certainly getting the use for which we built it.

It was hard to get the Grampas off the deck most of the time as that was just the place to hang out, talk and nap.

Sadly said goodbye to Gus this am, and Rey is off tomorrow am. Pat comes in monday.

A few shots just before Rey left with his gorgeous grandkids.





That's all for now. Signing off from Arizona.