Why a Baby Conference?

In 2010, as the focus of much media attention centers on the victory of selfishness and the defeat of the biblical family through the introduction of “the pill” fifty years ago, Vision Forum Ministries is committed to defending and celebrating life — in particular, the blessing of children and their role in building healthy cultures and vibrant households.

As the world lauds barrenness for economic and personal convenience and marginalizes the value of our aging populace, we purpose to celebrate life and to explore a myriad of practical and theological issues that are pertinent to Christian families of the twenty-first century, such as: adoption, home birth, the coming cry for euthanasia on the horizon as our elderly generation increases, and the many blessings that come from raising children in the fear of the Lord.

Who’d want to miss that?!  This was our first conference of any kind outside of chiropractic.  Despite my nerves over how my children would behave, I had an extremely blessed time.  San Antonio, although only an hour away from our home, is very humid! That would be my main complaint

My Top 10 Favorite Moments

As is common with any great event, it was difficult pinpointing 10 aspects that really stuck with me.

10) Electronic Polling.  I am so impressed with Vision Forum’s foresight to arrange a time to poll their audience.  What better opportunity to get some valuable statistics?! There were approximately 1700 people in attendance and after the polling I can tell you:

• They were homeschoolers (>90%)
• They had/would consider a homebirth
• They wanted as many children as God gave them
• Most had not used birth control in the last year

9) Large Family Logistics Panel.  I loved getting to hear from mom’s with large families (3 w/ 10 children, 2 w/ 8 ) and how it all worked out logistically.  They discussed pregnancy (how to delegate from the couch when you’re sick), birth, laundry, dad’s involvement, schedule, chores and cooking.  Completely silly but my favorite “tip” came from Kim Coughlin who said that each kid had their own bath towel and it didn’t get washed until it needed it. In our family of 6 we have a towel problem.

Modesty Abounds.  What a sight for sore eyes! I loved the variety of modest clothing I was able to see.  Some families wore very traditional neck to ankle dresses while others wore more modern skirts.  All of it was beautiful and I never felt uncomfortable with anyone’s choice of clothing.  I also cherished that my daughter’s were able to see hundreds of other girls wearing skirts.  They don’t often see others dressed like them.

7) Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.  If there was a family today that truly lived out humility, gratefulness and love it would be them.  I’m sure that each one of the hundreds that spoke with them would all say they felt special.  Michelle Duggar was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love as she received the Mother of the Year award from Vision Forum.  Even my husband cried a bit from the show of gratefulness.

6) Meeting a blogger.  I was blessed to meet Kelly of Generation Cedar!! I am not good at introducing myself to people but I stepped out of my comfort zone and spoke with her.  I enjoyed our conversation and now I can say “I know her!”

5) Biomedical Ethics Panel.  I thought this would be a snore.  Far from it. I’m not sure I want to be completely controversial but I will say my eyes were opened about organ donation, termination of life and eugenics.

4) Kevin Swanson.  How could you not love a speaker that jumps around on stage and makes every point relevant and personal?  His topic was biblical discipline.  The illustration that impacted me the most was his use of a Texas Highway Patrolman.  When you get pulled over you are scared (if you’re me VERY scared).  They come to the window in a cool, calm and matter of fact manner.  There’s no “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU JUST DID THAT! DON’T YOU KNOW THE RULES!?”  He just simply says, “Ma’am, do you realize you were breaking the law?”  Hmmmm…which one are you when your children break the rules?    I will pledge to be a Texas Highway Patrol from now on.

3) New Friends.  Might seem silly to be my #3 but I’ve always desired to meet families similar to ours no matter where they live.  I’ve read of families visiting friends across the U.S. that they met through events like these and I always thought that was a blessing.  Who knows if our friendships will endure.  At least the next time I attend a conference similar to this I will recognize some faces!  Hi, Amy, Melanie, Lisa and Sharon!!

2) Tea with Michelle Duggar. I’ll sum up my experience with my take home lesson: “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” That is how she deals with frustration and being overwhelmed.  I’ve taken it to heart and it’s really began to change me.  Not because she said it but because the joy of the Lord really is my strength!

1) Commonality.  Hands down my favorite part of the Baby Conference was being around hundreds of families that trust the Lord with their family size. What a true testament of faith.  I believe the average number of children per family in attendance was 6 or 7.  We were a small family with 4 1/2 but if the Lord wills it we’ll be there someday!

To read my husband’s perspective head on over to Theological Thoughts.

My conscience has told me there are better things to do with my time. My conscience has a name, its Holy Spirit. (Did anyone else just start to sing the Oscar Meyer jingle??)

But, am I sinning though when I choose to watch HGTV or TNT at 9:30 instead of reading a book?

Here’s an excerpt from an excellent blog post dealing with this topic:

As a Christian, is it wrong to watch TV or a movie? What about playing video games?These questions fall into the discipline of Christian Ethics, which deals with the teachings of right and wrong in light of the Christian faith. As Christians we look to the Bible to be our final authority in all matters of faith and morality. (What higher authority can we look to other than the One who is set apart in His perfect moral purity, His holiness, from all created beings. God’s holiness is the very definition of what is good and right in the universe.)

So therefore, when dealing with the question of ethics, “Is wrong to do ______?”, we must look to our guide, the Holy Scriptures.

To read the rest of this post hop on over to Theological Thoughts. I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

You might wonder what there is to do and see at the South Llano River State Park in Junction, TX.  Here are just a few activities:

Birds

Black Throated Sparrow. Focus is a bit off but I love this picture.

Cardinal. I know they’re everywhere but he is beautiful!

Lesser Goldfinch. My 2nd favorite bird sighting.

Painted Bunting (male). I could not believe I saw one!! Gorgeous birds.

Vireo (forgot which species) nest.  She diligently sat on her precious eggs.

Forgot to look this guy up. He’s a Vireo of some kind.

Summer Tanager. Not a full red adult yet.

Inca Dove.  At first I wasn’t impressed then they grew on me.

Hiking

2nd time Michael has picked out a trail that is insanely hard! He is so not choosing anymore trails.

So sweaty and tired. But, finally going downhill.

Fishing

Michael caught a small bass.  It’s always fun to watch someone catch a fish.  I’m content to just sit and cast.

Eat Watermelon

LOVE this picture! Paisley is so photogenic.

Sterling just never stops eating.

Haven with his “war paint” (Burt’s Bees sunscreen).

Tubing

“Everyone kept telling me to go tubing, but I kept saying no. Then I decided to say yes and I’m so glad I did! It was SO fun!” -Haven

Paisley loved tubing.

Haley is part fish.

Creepy Crawlers

Six striped lizards. They were EVERYWHERE at the camp.

Katydid saying hi as you entered the bathroom.

I couldn’t resist a creepy effect for this tarantula photo. It was neat to see one close-up.

Dung beetle picture?? I was impressed to see one in real life, not just on Discovery Channel

and more books and more books…

Can you ever have too many books? From my perspective, possibly.  From my husband’s, absolutely not.

I want to read all these great books but where’s the time?!  I know, I know.  I have the time I just don’t make the time.

I do Bible study every morning for 30-45 minutes (the 4 chapters designated from For the Love of God), I read out loud to the kids in the morning and on good days in the afternoon, we do Bible study at night and Michael reads out loud before bed.  So, I’m “reading” just not that cozy-up-with-a-good-book reading.

I know there will be a day when my life will be more flexible…like when all the kids are out of the house.

Until then, I will gaze upon the bookshelves and dream about the stories and adventures that lie within.

Oh, and the real reason for this post is to end my guilt about never updating the Books We’re Reading category.  I can’t keep up with Michael and Haley.  Haley’s a beast.  Michael’s just dedicated.

Instead of updating here are labeled bookshelves filled with books that have been, are being or will be read.

As you can see we buy a lot of books.  After much research, Michael has found the best place to buy most books is Christianbook.com.  Other places we buy from: wtsbooks.com, amazon.com, monergismbooks.com, and I’m sure others that I’m forgetting.

I’m pretty lame. I have a blog (a real blog that gets attention from me) that I feed 2x a week and in turn it provides me with vacation money.  Then I have this blog.

I promise you I am a prolific writer.  I write blog posts all day- in my mind.

For example, this one is really funny, one day when I was doing laundry Paisley asked what that black bug was.  Strange that she had never seen a cricket before.  Her and Haven studied it for a while then continued on in their non-stop mischief.

Fast forward a couple of hours to family worship.  As Michael is reading Matthew 6:? he says the word hypocrite and out yells Paisley (with complete excitement that she can relate to something Daddy is reading) “I JUST SAW A HYPOCRITE!!”

I think I might have peed in my pants at that point. Hilarious and perfect.  We all had to walk that line of not making her feel like a joke but still enjoying the moment.  She was confused but very proud.

Now we call those “black bugs” hypo-crickets.

Things like that happen all day and I think “I should blog that” but I don’t.  Maybe when this morning sickness is over I’ll write more.

Which leads me to my next random thought: morning sickness.  Do you know how hard it is to live James 1:2 when you feel like poop all day?! Very hard.  I certainly try but that usually lasts until about 8:30 (and I wake up about 8 )

I will continue to thank God for this precious blessing and pray intensely that the morning sickness ends promptly at the start of the second trimester—which is in 12 days.

Gum.

That’s another thing I thought about today.  Gum is one of those things I used to always have. Then about 10 years ago when we cut out Aspertame (acesulfame K) the gum went bye-bye.  So it’s weird when I see people chewing gum.  I think of how weird the whole concept is, I also think of how many brain cells they’re killing for fresh breath.  I realize there are xylitol gums but my thinking is, if you chew a healthy gum how are your kids to know the difference when someone offers them the unhealthy kind?

Oh, and the blog award.  It seems I have a friend (okay, I have like 3 or 4) and she says I make her think.  That is quite humbling.  I love making others think.  I’m not as good at it as Michael is but I’m taking notes and learning.

Lisa @ The Pennington Point nominated me.  Apparently, I don’t just get the award but have to earn it (a little Roman Catholism there).  Here are 7 things about me that will shock and amaze you…not really since all 10 of you already know pretty much everything about me.

1) I yell.  But, I’m working on it.

2) I dream of eating donuts. Oh, how I wish I could eat donuts every day.

3) I sweat whether it’s cold or hot. I hate it.

4) I don’t like to talk on the phone and because of this I usually don’t answer.

5) I wish we did not have dogs. I vacuum and Swiffer constantly yet there is still dog hair everywhere.

6) I kill everything I try to grow. Therefore, I try and stay away from the garden. I suspect the problem is that I forget to water the plants.

7) We have more student loan debt than most people have in mortgage debt. (but, it’s getting smaller!)

So, there ya go.  These 7 things reflect the mood I’m in right now.  Perhaps on a more cheerful day they would have been more…cheerful

Thought provoking statement of the day: “To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only Him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I love this video!!!!!

As part of Haley’s daily homeschool schedule she reads out loud to me for 20 minutes.  We’ve been going through Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates for a while now and finally finished it the other day.

I set Haley up in front of the webcam and had her summarize the book.  Seriously, the kids is adorable!! I love the face she makes at about 1:06. I could smooch her all day.

She left out the whole middle of the story but you get the gist

You know you’re talking to an intelligent person when you can converse with them about the flaws in the public school system and they don’t get all flustered.  Even if their children are in the system.  I am fortunate to have family that can openly discuss these major flaws and not feel like they are labeling me as holier-than-thou.

I came across the trailer for a documentary called The Cartel.  We’ve all seen the movies like Dangerous Minds and Stand & Deliver (and a hundred other similar inner city school vs. teacher inspirational movies).

These movies move me the same as anyone else.  I don’t leave the experience thinking, “If they’d just homeschool their kids these problems wouldn’t exist.”   Instead, I’m praising the Lord that there are amazing teachers out there who are willing to nurture kids that everyone else has given up on.

There’s no doubt that the system needs help.  Will it ever be the best place to educate your children? No, but that doesn’t mean the children don’t deserve a good start in life. With sound, valuable knowledge (not just learning to make good scores on a standardized test) children from all income levels will have a chance at success in life.

I won’t even go into the fact that public schools don’t teach about Christ. That’s the biggest flaw and unfortunately the one that will never change.

I love birds!

This year has been the start of our real interest in birds.  Everywhere we go I’ve got my camera ready to capture any bird.

Naturally, I had my camera in focus constantly at the Birds of Prey show at Scarborough Faire.  Amazing creatures!

Here are some of my favorite photos…