Category: Family News

Psalm 44:1 says “O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days…”
Dad, over the years you’ve made it a priority to teach us what God has taught you. I’m thankful to God for a father who has told me what God has done “in his days” so that my faith would be strengthened.

This afternoon my eyes were drawn to a verse in Proverbs. It was underlined in my Bible and I had written “DAD” in caps next to it. The verse says, “There is gold and abundance of costly stones, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.”
Dad, your “lips of knowledge” have been a invaluable treasure to me and many others.
I love the way you bring up intriguing spiritual questions at lunch time or in the van.

It’s hard to express the gratitude I feel! You’ve always taken the time to answer all my questions–from Bible questions to life decision questions to clothing questions–I don’t know what I would do without all your wise counsel! Thank you for raising us kids in a gentle way and for always explaining “why.”

Dad, you are so much fun to be with…always up for an adventure! I remember how you reluctantly agreed to go jogging with me around the Creation Museum’s parking lot in freezing weather at 10pm even though you didn’t feel like it, just because I didn’t want to go alone–or the time you took Stephen and me for a hike in the woods one night during a snow blizzard–or how you often try to find just the perfect little cafe to eat at when we are traveling. You often go out your way just trying to make nice memories for others.

And, of course, I always love going out with you for breakfast, Bible studies, and planning. You are such a great dad. Thanks for everything.

Thank you for teaching us to live for what really matters in life–knowing and serving God.

Stephen got up at 3:30am to go downtown take pictures of the flooding and he’s been there all day. He just called and told us that his pictures were up. Click here to see pictures of the flooding (some of which are Stephen’s).

(Photo courtesy of Caleb Williams)
Can you tell which one is Stephen? He’s the 7th person down. Stephen continues to get frequent jobs from our local newspaper and other online wire services. This picture was taken about a month ago.

Yesterday, Stephen received a call from the New York Times asking him to cover the “illegal alien arrests” in Postville, Iowa. He’s there at this moment and from what we hear, he’s having a pretty interesting time.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

What could I write in just a paragraph that could express adequate appreciation to you?!
Mom, you have always been slow to criticize and so quick to praise. You’re willing to sacrifice pretty much anything for us kids to be happy! Mom, you are one of my greatest examples of humility. I respect the way you get up early every morning without fail to review the verses you’ve been memorizing/meditating on. Thank you for all you have taught me. Thank you for all the times you’ve prayed with me and helped me work through struggles by pointing me to Scripture. Thank you for teaching me to honor Dad. Thank you for all the ways you’ve protected me from things that would have distracted me from Christ. Thank you for being real and honest with us. I love being with you, mom!

One day I hope to be a mom very similar to you! 🙂 I love you so much!

“She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed…” (Proverbs 31:26-28)

News from today:
Sarah’s voice was almost gone when she woke up this morning, but her voice came back and held up through our whole talk, PTL! Stephen still hasn’t been feeling very well, but he’s done a good job hiding it. He’s been working hard, and now he’s sound asleep.
The day went well and we were encouraged. Thanks to a lot of help, we got packed up pretty quickly and enjoyed celebrating Mother’s Day tonight. Tomorrow morning we head home.

“There’s a dead animal in the trailer” Dad announced.
Once we stepped into the trailer and caught a whiff of the stench in there, we all agreed.
“I think it smells like rotting fish!” Sarah said.
Unfortunately, our trailer smelled bad throughout our whole last trip to Michigan. We looked and looked and couldn’t find the dead mouse…or whatever it was. So when we got home we took everything out and did a thorough search for the stinking intruder. And we found it.

A dead crab. Stephen’s crab, that is. When we were in Florida last year, Stephen found this really neat dead crab and he put it into a plastic sack, intending to preserve it in a solution when we got home. Well, he forgot. When everything thawed out this spring, so did his crab.
It’s not that funny, Stephen. [smile]

My mom made a big pot of chicken noodle soup to take to a family from our church who was sick. As she was taking it to the car…….somehow something slipped. Poor mom, she had been working on the soup all day, and it was really delicious (or so I hear). She screamed really loud (her natural reaction when she spills something) and my dad came frantically running out. I think he was relieved that the problem wasn’t more serious. A few minutes later, Stephen and I pulled into the driveway to an unexpected sight….

We’ve shoveled a lot of snow this year, but I never guessed that I’d be shoveling chicken noodle soup!

I was at a friends house recently and saw a little wooden sign in their kitchen that said “There is always, always, always something to be grateful for.” Even when things go wrong, benefits arise. For example, we learn patience, we have something to laugh about (well, later), we remember to be more grateful for all the times when we didn’t spill the soup, [smile] etc.
If things “go wrong” at your house today, don’t forget to “Give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (1 Thess 5:18)

Last Saturday, Sarah and my dad accompanied me to my last WBQA Bible Quizzing Tournament of the year. The tournaments are always intense, very competitive, and lots of pressure…. but also enjoyable (at times). 🙂 It’s like a sport, except it’s mental and not physical. Quizzers have to build their “memory muscles” to contain lots of God’s Word.

A strategy timeout during the finals

I love Bible Quizzing! (As my family knows, I don’t say that when I’m cramming right before a tournament… 🙂 ) but really, I am SO grateful for the way quizzing has helped me to memorize God’s word and for the way my parents have enouraged me to involved. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Here I am with my cousin, Stephanie. Do we look alike? (We don’t think so.[smile] )

Stephanie and I went out for coffee yesterday afternoon and had a good talk about witnessing ideas. Here’s a good idea she shared with me that I thought I’d pass on to you:

When you are at a restaurant, tell your waitress, “Hey–we are just about to pray for our meal. Is there anything we could pray about for you?”

It’s often difficult to get into a good conversation with waiters or waitresses so I am excited about trying out this idea.

When you are the youngest ones in the family, no matter how old you get, you never outgrow the “kid’s table” at family gatherings. [smile]

This afternoon, when my family arrived home from church we were all really hungry. Funny how that happens when you don’t have much food around. It’s been a busy weekend and unfortunately we didn’t have anything planned for Easter dinner.
Dad wanted oatmeal, so Sarah started to make baked oatmeal but then she found out that we didn’t have enough oatmeal so she substituted rye flakes. [smile] (My mom often mentions how she appreciates that Dad is so easy to please when it comes to food…)

However, we decided that oatmeal just wasn’t enough 🙂 so we tried to find something else. We remembered that we had a couple steaks in the freezer. After thawing them, we had a little family discussion about whether we should grill outside (in 30 degree weather) or broil them in the oven. We decided to broil them. Unfortunately, they started on fire in the oven and set off our fire alarm, etc. It’s a good thing our family likes steaks well done.

It turned out that we had a very nice (Easter) Resurrection Day dinner and a relaxing Sunday.

Last week Stephen and I drove to Des Moines to help out with the “Homeschool Day” at our state capitol.

The event was planned for homeschoolers to build better relationships with their representatives, to make their presence known to the legislators, and to lobby on a couple of bills that are up in the state house right now on the issue of homeschooling.

Stephen photographed the event and I provided special music and helped greet and direct people, etc. The whole day went very well and it was fun being a part of it.

Tours were led throughout the day

A radio station interviews a homeschooled student

A rally was held in the afternoon with a HSLDA speaker, a Generation Joshua representative, a local homeschool-dad attorney, and a few others.

A homeschool family talks with their state representative