Quiver Full of Kids

Home Again!

2012-01-25T22:54:00.000-08:00

So, I think this has been the coldest winter since we've lived here, and I'm not just saying that because I'm used to 70 degree weather:) It's been around -20 the whole time. Normally it's only that cold for a week or two :P

The cold makes for some pretty pictures though.

Nondalton all covered with snow.

A couple days after we got back Ms. Regina had us all over for supper. We taught everyone some of the new dances we learned.

We had our first Shabbat at home in four months.

Quentin made a very cool Yeshua menorah.

When we got home our water was frozen then a week later our power was out all day. The joys of winter in Alaska. (cooking takes longer on the wood stove)

During the school year we baby sit a little girl for two of the teachers. She has gotten so big since the last time we saw her!! The little boys and Sarah love playing with her (and giving her mohawks).

It took her a little while to decide she likes the swing being as how her head is at the perfect height to get hit by it every time she walks by.

Sarah and the little boys are getting used to bringing the wood in everyday again.

A one day stomach flu has taken our family by storm, picking us off two or three at a time, well all except for me:) Now I'll get sick since I wrote that :P It's funny how different everyone is when they're sick. Sarah was one of a group of three that got sick one night. She just calmly says she has to throw up then finds "her" bucket and gets sick. Benjamin stays asleep the whole time and you have to practically hold him over the bucket. Caleb and David freak out and call for their mommy. While we were in Israel we all got whooping cough. I was the first one to get it and being as how it's called the 100 day cough I should be getting over it next week. Yay, I'm happy. Maybe I'll be able catch my breath during basketball practice:)

I made another movie out of our video clips from our trip back to Alaska. It shows us visiting friends and family in the lower 48 and traveling through Canada.

Trip Back to Alaska from Paul Brendemuhl on Vimeo.

Hanukkah Celebration & Caleb's Birthday

2012-01-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

The day we left Grandma Effie's happened to be the last day of Hanukkah. Our friends, the Froeses', were having a Hanukkah celebration near Winnipeg. So, we spent the afternoon and evening celebrating with them. We spent the afternoon talking about the book of Daniel then we ate supper.

After supper we lit the Hanukkiyas.

All the kids.

Afterwards we did some dancing.

The next day we started heading up to Alaska, visiting a few more friend on the way.

Benjamin and Sarah

The 31st was Caleb's birthday. We worked it out to spend his birthday and shabbat in Whitehorse, Canada.

He turned nine and we had cake, snug in our motor home with all the windows frosted over.

Being as how his birthday is on New Years Eve everyone celebrates his birthday. The Canada Games Centre celebrated it with a huge New Years party. Everything was free and they had snacks, games in the soccer field, a dance, an obstacle course set up in the pool, free skates for the ice rink, fire works and a bunch of other stuff. It was a lot of fun.

The obstacle course was harder then it looks:P

Sarah and Benjamin had trouble with skates.

We even talked dad into going ice skating.

North Dakota

2012-01-13T00:04:00.000-08:00

Well we've been home a week and a half. There were record high temps in North Dakota and southern Canada and I found out where all the cold weather was hiding:P It's been from -30 to 30 ever since we got home (and the above 0 days only lasted two days).

We spent a week at Grandma Effie's in North Dakota. Our cousins came down for a day visit. While they were there we took the chance to get family pictures.

The whole family.

Grandma and the grand-kids.

Dad, his sister Debbie, and Grandma.

We spent a night at the Lorentzen's house.

What happens when our family gets around video games.

This was how warm it was, Christmas Day and Sarah in short sleeves jumping on the trampoline with no shoes.

Sarah loved dressing up in mom's wedding dress.

Video

2011-12-26T16:50:00.000-08:00

I compiled some video's from our trip into one video. Sadly our hard drive broke half way through the trip so all the video is from the last half of our trip. I tried to upload a high quality version on you tube but I couldn't get them to extend the length limit so here's the best I could do:)

Trip to Israel from Paul Brendemuhl on Vimeo.

Visiting Friends

2011-12-23T18:20:00.000-08:00

We've spent the next week traveling all around the states visiting friends.

We spent the first night at the Hayes in Georgia.

Then we spent the next night in Tennessee at Natalie's house.

We spent Shabbat at the Hood's in Tennessee. The Hood's have 15 kids with 11 living at home so that was a lot of fun. The little boys had fun on the tree swing.

The older kids played a crazy game of killer uno.

We spent Sunday night at the Hershey's home in Missouri. It was Deborah's 16th birthday and Mr. and Mrs. Hershey had a beautiful cake waiting for her.

Granddad's 100th Birthday

2011-12-22T17:55:00.000-08:00

December 2nd was my Great Granddad's 100th birthday.

Even though he's a hundred he still feeds the dog everyday and drives his golf cart to get the mail.

We had a party for him on the 3rd.

My Uncle David and his family.

Granddad and his two sons.

Granddad with three of his grandkids. Mom is pretending to have her arm around Aunt Carole, who couldn't be there:)

And their spouses.

Four generations.

Grandma and Grandpa Rogers

2011-12-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

We spent a couple weeks in North Carolina at my Grandma and Grandpa Rogers house.

Grandma was always in the kitchen cooking and Grandpa cooked breakfast for us every morning.

The little kids were having fun dressing up in old wigs.

Grandma and Grandpa's new dog, Maisey, was a very popular dog while we were there.

The cat and her are good friends.

The boys spent a lot of time working on Grandpa's train set and after a few trips to the train store had it running.

Dad and the boys (and our tree climber Anna) spent a lot of time trimming trees.

It was my cousin, Brittany's, birthday while we were there.

She had her birthday party at a roller skating rink, which was a lot of fun.

We spent a night making cookies with our cousins.

Sarah had a lot of fun riding on Grandpa's horses and mules.

Our friends the Warrens came down to visit us while we were there so we saddled up the horses and mules and went for a ride.

How many people does it take to saddle up a horse?

Will had great trouble staying on his horse:) Long story...

Sukkot

2011-12-21T17:13:00.000-08:00

This post is a little out of place but I just found these pictures. I mentioned it a little bit in a earlier post, but Sukkot is a week long celebration that is one of God's appointed celebrations in the Bible. In the Bible it says the first and last days are days of rest and that you are supposed to live in boothes for the whole week. It is celebrated by everyone in Israel and is a lot of fun.

All the girls had their "booth" on the upstairs balcony. We just put all our cots outside and put palm branches over them. It was kinda cold.

It was one big slumber party:)

Most of the people in our group stayed in the vineyard and made boothes in between the rows. We spent a few evenings with them and one night they had all the instruments out and we had fun singing around the campfire.

The Flight Home

2011-12-20T16:47:00.000-08:00

We spent our last couple day in the land at a friends house in Jerusalem. They left the 24th but had rented the apartment till the end of the month which was when we were leaving. So it worked out perfect for us to stay there.

We were all still sick so we spent most of the time there resting.

We spent one evening on Ben Yehuda street.

We had our last shwormas.

The last day we were there we had to be out of the apartment by ten in the morning so we spent the afternoon with the Kaspi's. The dad works at the Wiseman Institute so we got to go up in the particle accelerator.

Most of us were better by the time we got on the plane but Sarah was still sick with a pretty bad cough. All the little kids that were in the group we were with got it.

Benjamin thought Sarah made a great pillow.

At the airport in Tel Aviv the carts are free, but in Newark they're five dollars apiece! So we were very loaded down with bags.

On the way to Grandma and Grandpa Rogers we spent the night at our friend the Schaefers. On the way to their house we drove through Washington D.C.

We couldn't drive the motor home in front of the capitol building but we could see it down every street:)

We saw the back of the Lincoln Memorial...

And drove past the Arlington National Cemetery. (As we got to Arlington Cemetery, we realized we were at the end of things to easily drive by in Wash. D.C. and we didn't know which way to turn to get to the Schaefer's house (our next stop). We drove around the round-about about 3 times waiting for the GPS to tell us which way to go:)

I think this is the only picture we have from the Schaefers house. Sad, we had fun. We tried to remember all of the dances we learned in Israel around a fire that night.

The Galilee

2011-12-20T16:31:00.000-08:00

We spent a week in the Galilee staying on a kibbutz near Afula.

While we were there we spent a couple days just driving around and seeing the sites.

Fishing boat on the Galilee.

Nimrod's Castle

A view of the Golon Heights from Nimrod's Castle.

The Jordon valley has a TON of green houses on the Jordon side of the river.

We went to the ruins of Megido. It's one of the most extensively dug-out ruins in Israel.

In what used the be the horse barn they had model horses.

It had a huge cistern.

We had Thanksgiving dinner the last night we were there with the family who volunteers at it.

While we were there everyone got sick so we spent most of our week there resting.

Sde Boker

2011-12-19T09:17:00.000-08:00

After Shiloh we spent a week at Sde Boker visiting our friends the Glik's and Travis's. They have a wonderful community of believers. The Glik's have seven beautiful home schooled children and we had the most wonderful time with them.

The little kids had fun making mud pies.

Sarah was very proud of hers.

They live by a very beautiful canyon.

One day we went to a friends farm and helped with his horses.

Afterwards we got to ride the horses.

The Dig at Shiloh

2011-12-19T09:06:00.000-08:00

Trip Note: It's been a while since I've posted, I'll try get caught up soon, but right now we've been back in the states for a couple weeks now at Grandma and Grandpa Rogers and traveling around visiting people all over the states. At the moment we're in Kansas City, MO. We'll be heading up to Grandma Effie's in ND today and we'll be staying there for about a week till we head back up to AK.

The group we were with took over the dig at Shiloh while we we're there. Every week they put a new group of people there to dig. It was a lot of fun.

David and Benjamin were very excited about the first big piece of pottery they found.

There we're two spots we worked at. The one we spent most of our time at we started so we spent the first day just picking up pottery but after that we were uncovering walls and bigger pots.

The other place had already been worked on a lot and we were uncovering bigger things like olive presses.

Every once in a while we'd find a weird bug. We found a few scorpions.

Dad had the most interesting find. He dug up a unexploded artillery shell used in WW1. The IDF sent a bomb squad and we all got evacuated while they blew it up.

Here we're all waiting for them to blow it up.

On Friday we got to go pick Olives for our first and last time.

Mom and Dad's Anniversary

2011-11-17T08:55:00.000-08:00

On mom and dad's anniversary we spent most of the day at the Old City with the rest of our group.

Funny story:) Deborah, Anna, Olivia, Havah, and I started out with about 30 shekels. We bought pastry's, iced coffee, and chocolate milk. When we were done we had 2 shekels left and we were going around to all the stores asking what we could by for 2 shekels. They all said nothing so we decided to sell the boys some of our pastry to get more money. They gave us 11 shekels so we went and bought a piece of pizza. After we ate the pizza, we found five more shekels in Anna's pocket. We thought that worked good last time so we went and bought some more chocolate milk and tried selling it to the boys but they must not like chocolate milk as much as pastry's:) but then Shanea took pity on us and just gave us 20 shekels. So we thought we should see how much money we could make so we started singing on the street corner. We didn't make a lot of money but a lot of people took pictures of us:) We bought ice cream with the rest of our money. I think we did pretty good, we doubled our money:)

Sarah got our chocolate milk that nobody wanted. She looks like she likes it.

Mom and Dad got fancy ice cream since it was their anniversary:)

When we got back to the B&B we all stayed there while they went out for supper at the mall.

Akko

2011-11-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

We spent a day touring Akko with the Kaspi's.

We climbed around on the walls.

The Kaspi's kids and Sarah.

The little boys loved the shark.

Sarah's dream boat:) her favorite color is pink.

Family picture.

Sunsets on the Med are beautiful.

We went Anat's mom and dad's house afterwards. There were snails everywhere. The rest of the kids had a whole bowl of them.

Touring Jerusalem

2011-11-17T08:46:00.000-08:00

We've spent a lot of time in Jerusalem but we spent one day touring all the "tourist" sites:)

We walked the ramparts.

I don't do a very good "help I'm locked in jail" face.

David next to King David.

The Mt. of Olives is covered in graves because everyone wants a front row seat for when Yeshua comes back.

Mt. of Olives from a distance.

The Garden Tomb

Sarah is a very popular little girl. When we're walking around everyone wants to come up and talk to her.

Moving to Abu Gosh

2011-11-17T08:43:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the month the Warren's and the Hayes' left to go back home.

We spent our last day with the Warrens at the shuk eating fish and chips with them and the Schaefers.

We helped take them to the airport and said good bye. The William's drove down to say bye to them too.

Since we were sharing a apt with them when they left we moved to a B&B in Abu Gosh. We help out there some doing odd jobs.

The boys sanded and varnished the deck,

and white washed the wall,

and put together some benches.

The girls got to put together a chandelier.

How many kids does it take to equal out dads weight:)

Hanging Out

2011-11-17T08:28:00.000-08:00

Worship in the vineyard.

The boys chillin'

The little boys and Sarah always find someone to hang out with and talk their ear off.

The girls playing four square.

The boys playing five hundred.

I think CB was a little tired.

Kickball can hurt if you play with guys who kick into the thorns.

The boys playing Josh's new song I Believe.

Devin and Leah made up a funny rap song about working in the vineyard.

Sandy People

2011-11-17T08:23:00.000-08:00

During our last week with the Warren's and Hayes's we went to the beach so Barrett and Devin (newly betrothed) could take pictures. While they took pictures we played in the sand.

Joshua

Even Sarah had to get buried.

Dayton

How many people can stand on someone covered in sand before they feel it?

Caleb and Kendra's Wedding

2011-11-16T07:30:00.000-08:00

Last month was Caleb and Kendra Waller's wedding. The got betrothed this spring and were married here in Israel.

Weddings are good places for family pictures. This is the Warren family who we were living with.

In the group we're with there are five Abigail's.

And here are the three Sarah Elizabeth's in our house.

The bride waiting for her groom with her parents and sisters and sister-in-law's.

The grooms best friends.

As the groom came to get his bride they hugged for the very first time.

The wedding party.

We were seated in the balcony for the marriage feast.

So much good food.

Lot's of dancing.

A Jewish tradition is to carry the bride and groom around in a chair. Kendra looks a little scared:)

There was a open mic for people to tell story's about Caleb and Kendra. The boys are listening very intently:)

Old City of Jerusalem and Ben Yehuda

2011-11-15T21:13:00.000-08:00

Just inside the Jaffa gate.

Eating pizza in the old city.

Family picture in the old city.

Buying shwarma's on Ben Yehuda.

Pizza party on Ben Yehuda.

It's cool how little kids can sleep anywhere.

The Vineyard - Part 3

2011-11-14T21:14:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of Chameleons in the vineyard.

Caleb holding a chameleon.

This is what the van looks like on the way home from picking.

Visiting with the Kaspi's

2011-11-13T21:14:00.000-08:00

On Monday we spent the day with our friends, the Kaspi's. We went to a national park and explored old caves then went to the Mediterranean and went swimming. It was a fun day for everyone except me because I was sick and felt miserable.

There were lots of cool caves. They were originally dwellings, but at some point someone turned many of them into pigeon coups. All the little triangles you can see cut out of the walls were for the pigeons.

An old olive press.

We kids from Alaska are loving the warm ocean.

There are beautiful sunsets on the Med.

Random Pictures - Part 2

2011-11-12T21:15:00.000-08:00

Each family built a Sukkah at our house in Jerusalem. We also spent a lot of time in Psagot celebrating Sukkot with friends there.

Three seas lookout at Itamar. On a clear day you can see the Galilee , the Dead Sea, and the Meditteranean.

Watching a movie can be hard. At one point there were 33 kids the house.

Sarah loves exploring caves.

Gathering at Bet El.

Videos

2011-10-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some videos of what we've been doing.

David's Birthday

2011-10-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

David had his 7th birthday in Jerusalem.

He was pretty excited about it. All day in the vineyard he wanted to carry crates like the big boys instead of pick grapes with Mom and Dad.

There are three Sarah Elizabeth's in the house right now. Here're two of them plus Asher.

The Vineyard - Part 2

2011-10-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

Each one of those square things down there holds half a ton. They're pretty big and we have to pick about 10 tons every day.

After a hard day a picking we sit around and play chess and killer uno:)

Right next to where we pick some times are the ruins of Ai. (The story of Ai starts in Joshua 7.) While I was playing a very good chess game:) everyone else went and crawled in the caves.

Eli's Spring

2011-10-10T08:31:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago we went to Eli's Spring for lunch.

Check out the GREEN water. At first no one was going to get in,

but then Caleb and Kendra jumped in so of course I had to follow.

It didn't take long for everyone to start jumping in.

Even Sarah and Asher had to get in.

Hezekiah's Tunnel and Ben Yahuda

2011-10-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

A few days ago we went to Hezekiah's Tunnel. It was pretty awesome. The water went up past my knees for a few feet then stays around your ankles the rest of the time. It was pitch black and only a few people brought flashlights so every once and a while you run into the side.

Sarah had fun.

Everyone who went.

After we got done going through the tunnel we went to Ben Yehuda street where Jasey, Devin, and Leah played. They got about 150 shekels in a hour and half. It was fun watching them.

They had a pretty big crowed watching them.

Rosh Hashanah and The Mediterranean

2011-10-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a three day Shabbat. Rosh Hashanah, the Israel new year, was Thursday and Friday. We had a big party at our house with all the people from our group living in Jerusalem.

This picture's for you Aunt Carole:) I don't have a good one of us in the vineyard but it's with Lindsey.

We had a movie night afterwards. After the boys went to bed the girls stayed up and watched two more movies:)

On Friday our family went to the Mediterranean Sea.

Then we drove down to Sde Boker to spend the night with some of our friends. We slept outside in a big tent. It was fun but we don't have any good pictures from when we were there.

Barrett and Devin

2011-10-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

We've had quite a lot of excitement in the house the last couple of weeks. Barrett, the oldest son in the Warren family, was betrothed to be married a couple of nights ago. Barrett first approached his father concerning Devin over 2 years ago. They decided he needed to wait until she was 18. Six months ago Barrett approached Devin's father and they corresponded over the summer. A few weeks after they arrived in Israel, Devin's father gave Barrett his permission to propose. Devin had known about Barrett's intentions for several months and let her father know that she approved of the plan. Barrett proposed in the old city of Jerusalem. They announced their intentions the next day in the vineyard. They are both playful characters and they came up with an elaborate skit to announce their coming betrothal. They had us all pretending to pick grapes in the vineyard while a group of young ladies danced and musicians played. Someone announced that Barrett should go and choose a wife, and so he did.

He led her off quite willingly by the hand and then brought her back to let us pray for them. He also told us the details of how God had brought them together. The idea for their skit came because we were picking in the region of Benjamin where the tribe of Benjamin had lost all their wives and they choose new ones from the vineyards.

They had a beautiful betrothal ceremony. Here we are posing for a family picture before the ceremony started.

Family Picture

Worship team.

Eddie blowing the shofar to start the betrothal ceremony. You can just see the moon at the top of the picture.

Barrett washing Devin's feet.

They fed us all a fancy dinner.

Then we did LOT's of Israeli Folk Dancing. The Warren's are awesome dancers so the kids have gotten in lots of practice since we've been here. They had a great time.
Abigail &Susan posted this together....

Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea

2011-09-28T02:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi. It was a lot of fun but the Dead Sea was kinda wavy so waves kept hitting the little kids in the face, which is very painful, so they spent a lot of the time crying.

Notice all the salt on the rocks.

After lunch we drove across the road to Ein Gedi. After the little kids figured out it was fresh water and wasn't going to burn their eyes they had a lot of fun.

Random Pictures - Part 1

2011-09-28T01:50:00.000-07:00

Watching a movie in our room. We have the whole top floor of the house. Its one big room.

Signing our names to the wall at Psagot. Everyone that comes to pick grapes signs their name.

Sarah loves the tree house at Psagot

Mom, Deborah, Quentin, and Anna went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum.

Riding the train to Ben Yehuda. We eat there once a week.

Watching Toy Story in Hebrew.

Fancy Dinners and Shoveling Poop

2011-09-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

The night we got back from the Old City we all went up to Psagot so dad could work on a compressor at the winery. That in itself is a funny story. They spent at least two hours trying to figure out what was wrong when in the only problem was that it was plugged into the wrong outlet. The electricity in Israel is messed up. So while they were figuring that out, the rest of us were having the best time being served by the guys staying at Psagot:) The guys decided to give the girls a break from cooking so they cooked all day. That night they dressed all up in ties and everything. They set the table all fancy and waited on us. It was Zac's birthday so they sang him a couple funny versions of the birthday song:) It was great.

A couple days ago we spent the day shoveling manure into buckets then dumping them on the grape plants. We had a bucket brigade going. It was hard work. Everyone was sore the next day. The saddest thing about it is, we have to do it again:P But the bright side is there was a cookout waiting for us when we were done and then it started pouring rain so it washed most of the manure off us.

Everyone looks like they're working so hard:)

Mt Olives and the Old City

2011-09-22T23:14:00.000-07:00

After we went to Ammunition Hill we went to Mt. Olives and the Old City.

On Mt. Olives

Looking at the Old City from Mt. of Olives

We walked from the Mt. of Olives to the Old City

Waiting for our pizza.

Eating our pizza.

The western wall.

The women's section.

The men's section.

The boys all need their soda:)

Heading back to the vans.

Ammunition Hill

2011-09-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

We've been to Ammunition Hill twice in the week and half we've been here. Ammunition Hill is a memorial/museum for the soldiers who died in the six day war.

The first time we went it was just our house and we took the train. Then yesterday we went again with the rest of the group.

Waiting at the train stop.

The second time we went we had to wait a while for the rest of the group so we started Indian wrestling:)

It got kinda crazy:)

After that got old we started arm wrestling.

The trenches got pretty tall.

This was the makeshift hospital.

The Vineyard

2011-09-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

We've been busy picking grapes with lots of touring thrown in:)

Here's some pictures of us working with the touring yet to come.

Here's most of our group. We have about a 150 people here right now.

Most of the grapes look better than this:)

David and Benjamin getting their picture taken by HeatherMeyers.com
Her husband, and two kids are living in the same house as us. She has some awesome pictures!

Just some of the grapes we've picked.

Lunch with the 36 in our house. The other groups are in the background.

Benjamin &Sarah

There are 18 vans in our group. It's funny whenever we go somewhere.

There's a huge caravan:)

I think Sarah likes eating the grapes more then picking them.

Shilo, where the old tabernacle stood about 3000 years ago.

Sitting in the ruins of the tabernacle.

Trip to Israel

2011-09-20T01:35:00.001-07:00

Shalom,

We’re here in the Land and we started running as soon as we got here. I suppose I should start this Journal with our trip down from Alaska. Rand McNally claimed it would take 79.3 hours of driving from Anchorage to Newark. They were pretty accurate as we arrived at our destination within an hour of “the plan” every night. It was an awesome trip all the way to the 78^th hour… We were and hour and a half from Atlantic City where my plan had us driving up the Atlantic Coast, dipping in the ocean for a few hours that night, finding a nice Walmart parking lot and then spending Shabbat playing at the Island State Park before getting on our plane on Sunday. Traffic had been heavy but was easy off as we drove through Philidelphia. All of a sudden our new GPS told us there was a severe delay ahead and that we should turn off the highway to detour around it. I had a split second to decide what to do and I followed its direction. All day we had been seeing flooding creeks and rivers and one community totally flooded as Pennsylvania was having record breaking flooding from heavy rains. The GPS twisted us around to a closed road so I started making my way around downtown Philly with no idea where I was headed. I had been getting tired, but all of a sudden I couldn’t hardly keep my eyes open even with all the adrenalin flowing from being lost. I pulled into a parking lot so Paul could drive and I could navigate. We had to turn the motor home around to get out and as we drove back out Paul noticed a trail of liquid and was concerned it came from our motor home. He checked it out and sure enough it was! Our transmission had overheated and was leaking. It quickly leaked out all the fluid. We asked around the Philedelphia University neighborhood and got the name of a nearby mechanic. We limped it to his shop and he directed us to a transmission shop two doors down. The transmission guy was just closing up for the weekend, but he said he would fix it while we were gone and then find a place to store it. He also said we could spend the weekend behind his shop. We took a walk around the neighborhood and made some friends. They said if we’d come a day earlier the streets here were closed because of the flooding. With all of our immediate concerns taken care of we started looking for a way to get to the airport on Sunday. As we were weighing all of our options Paul remembered that we hadn’t dumped the sewage tanks on the motor home since Whitehorse in the Yukon. It would be very stinky if we didn’t clean it out before we left for 2 ½ months. After talking to the mechanic on the phone we decided to drive to the nearest campground and dump. He said the drug/convenience store next to us sold transmission fluid. My mom found a campground online that advertised itself as the closest to downtown Philidelphia at 25 miles away. When we put in the transmission fluid nothing leaked out so Saturday we drove to the campground with no problems. It was a nice campground with great showers and a nice laundry facility. Exactly what we needed! I asked the manager if she know of a place to store out motor home and she said they stored them right there! Praise Yhwh! By this time we had consulted with several mechanic friends who felt that since it didn’t start leaking again then it was probably the main seal versus the pump seal?? We decided to store it and then drive it to North Carolina when we get home and Paul can change the seal there. It will be cold when we return so it should be okay to drive for a while. (If any of you mechanics out there have any input, we’d love to hear it) On the way to the campground we drove by the Philidelphia International Airport to rent the cheapest car they had. That evening Paul and I drove to the Newark airport and rented a 12 passenger van while the kids showered and did the laundry.

The trip to the airport was uneventful and the plane rides were great. The food was delicious and Jet Airways had pillows, blankets and passed out damp washcloths. We spent 11 hours in the Brussels airport which turned out to be a blessing. They have great couch areas every so often that provided a perfect place to rest for the day. Our little group had three subgroups, the little kids slept great on the plane and were full of energy and ready to play in the airport. The older group didn’t sleep well on the flight and was ready to sleep at the airport. Paul and I made the third group, we didn’t sleep well on the plane but we had to take turns sleeping so that one of could watch the younger kids. I got lectured in some foreign language about letting my children ride the moving sidewalk by themselves; “they could have gotten their fingers cut off” (she switched to English after she went through the whole spiel and got a weak smile from me.) The sidewalk in front of the area we were hanging out in mysteriously quit working until it was time for our flight to leave. Our terminal was pretty empty all day so it was perfect.

We arrived in Tel Aviv at about a half an hour after midnight and went through customs with no problems. Monty and Dayton Warren and Eddie H. were there to meet us. Monty helped Paul rent our van and we got to the Warrens rented home at around 3 am. The group living there was going to leave at 5 am to go pick grapes. We were all feeling pretty good, the little kids slept great on the plane again, so we went with them. They were just picking a field that was being harvested for the first time. It had been burned 7 times by hostile Arabs. They were just getting started so we didn’t pick a lot of grapes. We were done by noon and then we went and had a picnic on a nearby mountaintop. We could see all the way to Tel Aviv. We all took a good nap when we got home and Abigail, Deborah and I even had enough energy to go to Ben Yehudah street and eat a Shwarma and pizza. We all slept good that night. Wednesday we had the day off from picking so we organized our room and went to the museum at Ammunition Hill.

Speaking of our room, we were intending to rent our own apartment but they have been very difficult to rent this year. The Warren’s were able to rent a very large house in Jerusalem. Before we arrived they had 25 living in the house, we brought the total to 36. Last year Paul and Abigail stayed with the Warren’s their first two nights in Israel and the boys gave up their rooms for them. This year, once again, the boys gave up their room for us. When I say room I should explain. The room is the entire top floor of the main part of the house. It’s got lower ceilings like an attic, but it is great. We have plenty of room, our own bathroom and a balcony looking to the east. You can click on the Warren’s Blog on the left sidebar and see pictures.

Frost heave on the Alcan...

I celebrated my birthday on the road...

Riding the train around the Newark airport. My kids loved it and you can't beat the price!!!

Resting on the train...

We had a picnic of motor home leftovers at the Newark airport...

Jet Airways was awesome, they were very polite and pillows and blankets were waiting at every seat.

Everyone had their personal TV with movies and video games.

The food was great!!!

We had an eleven hour layover in Brussels. They had these great couch lounges so we got lots of rest.

We were also able to finish off our motor home leftovers.

We can't get away from chores even in the airport. Below Quentin and David are sweeping up the crumbs.

Here's the plane we flew in from Brussels to Israel.

We had three window seats and the kids had it worked out to trade for take off and landing.

Benjamin was supposed to have the window for takeoff but he fell asleep before we even got on the runway. So, we switched he and David so as not to waste the takeoff. However, David then fell asleep before we tookoff!

Deborah got one of the windows for our landing into Israel.

Collecting our bags after landing in Israel.

July and August catch up.

2011-09-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

We have been so busy lately Mom hasn't had time to post for a while so I'll do a catch up post.

We got back from our trip to Canada the middle of July. We started putting up fish as soon as we got back.

Sarah loves helping:)

Dad was busy flying all summer. He didn't have time to help with the salmon much but one of his jobs was taking people bear viewing.

If you click on this picture you can see there are a LOT of bears.

The first week of August the five older kids went and spent a week in Iliamna with the Clark's for basketball camp. It was a lot of fun:) After we got back I had my 17th birthday.

I got knives for my birthday:) Three pocket knives.

We had a pretty cold summer but the few nice days we had we spent swimming. Most of our swimming started out as a mud fight and ended with us jumping in the lake with our clothes on.

Even Sarah had to join the fun.

We tried towing behind the boat with a little round sled. I actually worked pretty good.

Right before we left we had Josh Armstrong's 14th birthday.

Well that pretty much catches us up till the start of our big trip. More to come:)

Trip Note from Susan: Yes we are on another trip!!! We are on our way to Israel. We are going to spend 2 1/2 months there touring and studying while helping some farmers in their vineyards and olive groves. We are in North Dakota right now at Grandma Effie's house. We are traveling from coast to coast to take advantage of the much cheaper tickets to Israel on the east coast. So far the trip has been wonderful, it has given us a chance to refocus from the buisiness of our normal lives to concentrate on what God has in store for us next. Pleas take time to pray for us over the next few months. We'll post as much as we can.

Family Week pictures

2011-07-30T23:26:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to some pictures and videos from the Family Week we attended in Canada.
https://picasaweb.google.com/godz.ak.girl/FamilyWeekCanada11

On the Road

2011-07-14T09:49:00.000-07:00

We have had a wonderful trip which I will blog about later. We are in Fort St. John, Canada on our way back to Alaska.

The guys played touch football in the lake at Family Week. The tall handsome guy fourth from the left is Paul out there playing with his sons.

Quentin turns 14

2011-06-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

Quentin turned 14. He's growing like a weed. He already wears the same size shoes as Paul!

After they had cake, Quentin and the boys put up our tent We are going to spend a week camping in Saskatchewan Canada and Paul's Mom is going to join us, so she gets the bed in the camper and the boys are going to sleep in the tent. They wanted to make sure they had all of the parts before they packed it away for the trip.
Quentin got a kit to put feathers on arrows for his birthday. We took a hike up the mountain behind Nondalton and he had a chance to test them out.
The guys spotted a couple of spruce hens and below you can see Quentin stalking one while everyone looks on.

He got it with the first shot!

Below David is carrying the spruce hen that Paul shot with a pistol and the one Quentin shot with his bow and arrow. He and Benjamin took turns carrying them until we got to the top of the mountain and Quentin dressed them out.

Last year for Quentin's 13th birthday I put together a nice slide show that you can see here. http://quiverfullofkids.blogspot.com/2010/06/quentins-13th-birthday.html

We are going to start traveling down the Alcan (Alaska Canadian Highway) today so please keep us in your prayers.

Spring Things

2011-06-07T00:58:00.001-07:00

The ice has all melted from the lake, but long before it was gone, the kids were out swimming in the frigid water. I use the word swimming loosely because they mostly just dare each other to dunk under the water and then come up freezing. We've had a few beautiful sunny days that made you just want to jump in.

Sarah with Gilana and Kinsey.

We were all out doing some yard work. Below David is pounding loose nails back into the boardwalk.
David, Benjamin and Sarah each have a hammer and had a lot of fun pounding on the boardwalk.
The greenhouse now has three sides. I'm not sure who appreciates it more, the plants, our kids or our dog Princess. They all love to soak in the sunshine in it.

Anna is sewing a skirt.

One day was so gorgeous, I volunteered to lend my muscle to the boys putting the snow machine away.
Paul, Quentin, Joshua and Josh A. tucking the snow machine under the eave out of the weather.

Below the kids are giggling and laughing and working on their teamwork as they lift Paul.

Family Camp at Tanalian Bible Camp

2011-05-27T01:26:00.000-07:00

Back in April, just before Passover, we spent the weekend at Tanalian Bible Camp in Port Alsworth. Every spring they host a family camp. It is always a good time of fellowship and good Bible teaching.

It always falls during spring thaw so there is lots of mud and snow. The little boys love it!

David swinging...

Paul and I along with Lavonne and our kids Joshua on down, decided to take a hike toward the falls. It was a gorgeous day, perfect for a hike. It didn't take us long to wish we'd brought a sled for Sarah.

The boys could have used a sled for sliding too, but they are very creative. They made do with what we had. Sarah's mud boots kept falling off. By this time she was asleep in Paul's arms.
Benjamin's raincoat worked the best. He was like a little otter sliding down the hills.

Lavonne took a picture of the rest of us resting alongside the trail.

Caleb found a fun tree to climb.

Remember the post about the guys that came up from Iliamna to snowboard with our kids in Nondalton? While on our walk we found some graffiti that one of the guys, Lee to be specific, left behind on a walk he took with his family about an hour previous to our walk. At least this graffiti will clean up very nicely all on its own.
Lake Clark Air and a few of their planes lined up alongside the runway. The plane to the far left is one that Paul flies a lot.
Lavonne, Josh, Tia, Caleb and Sarah are stuffed in the plane for the short ride home. They got to hold their pillows:)
We love Family Camp, so much so that we are planning a trip down the Alcan to a week long family camp in Canada this June. Paul's Mom is going to drive up from North Dakota and meet us there for the week. We are all getting excited for another motor home adventure. We love traveling in our motor home. Even though the quarters are tight, it is always a special time that produces lasting memories.

Lake Walk & Mud

2011-05-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

Spring has come! Most of the ice on the lake is now melted. One gorgeous day in April we took a walk across the still frozen lake.

Caleb and David, being boys, found a puddle on the lake.

The guys brought their bows and arrows and they shot and retrieved their way across the lake.

Paul & Quentin shooting.

Abigail &Quentin with Paul looking on.

Of course we had to line up for the family picture... I thought it would be a nice touch with the village in the background.

Sarah was quite enthralled with the puddles in the road.

It made my hands cold just to watch her playing in the puddles.

William &Lee, friends from Iliamna drove up on their ATVs to go snow boarding with the kids on the last of the snow. Our older kids drove halfway to meet them. Paul went with them part way to make sure the lake ice was good. About 5 minutes after he left them, they broke through the ice in a huge puddle of water. They got soaked to their knees getting out. By the time they got home they were covered in mud.

But smiling :)

That evening they rode with them part way again on their way home. It started snowing the biggest flakes I've ever seen as they left.

By the time they got home, they were caked in snow, wet, very cold and tired.

Deborah, taking off her dripping coat with her frozen fingers...

Paul & Anna turn a year older

2011-05-10T00:11:00.000-07:00

My beautiful sweet Anna turned 12. She still loves climbing trees and she can still wash dishes with her feet on the counter or in the sink. She is maturing though, just tonight she asked if she could re-upholster the lazy boy chair. We girls did one already, but I haven't gotten going on it's twin yet. I told her to go for it and she took it apart. Hopefully she stays motivated for the project tomorrow:-)

Anna opening her birthday present.

Quentin and Josh A. lighting the candles for Anna's cake.

Anna

Paul and Anna

Two days later was Paul's birthday. We were in the midst of a community three man volleyball tournament.

Paul serving.

Paul, Quentin and Josh A. made up one team.

Abigail, Deborah and I along with Regina, made up another team. We both won one game and lost one game, so of course the tournament bracket pit us against each other. One of us would be eliminated! The girls had a simple strategy, keep the ball away from Paul. My handsome husband is a good volleyball player, and while the boys will be great one day, they just don't have as much experience as the rest of us. Our strategy worked well and we beat the guys. But they were great sports about it. That is one reason I love sports, under proper supervision you can really develop your character for the good while playing sports. Nothing shows your good and bad character traits faster than a good competitive game. We have taught our children how to play and have fun and be good sports and it was a joy watching them play in the tournament.
Last year Paul used a blow torch to light his candles (you can see that post here). This year instead of putting all ? candles on his cake, I used the candles to write his age. Can you make it out below?

Paul, "Where's my blow torch?"

Happy Birthday Paul. May God bless you this year as you lead our family!

Passover, Unleavened Bread & First Fruits

2011-04-28T21:03:00.000-07:00

Praise Yeshua (Jesus), our Redeemer, our Salvation...

Passover is a celebration commanded by God. It commemorates the escape of His chosen people, the Israelites, from Egypt and Yhwh's protection from the Angel of Death. Yhwh's perfect timing caused Yeshua to become our salvation as He again saved us from eternal death on Passover.

Our small fellowship celebrated the Passover together again this year. We've kind of been taking turns leading the celebration and this year it was the Martin's turn.

As the lady of the house, I got to light the candles to start off the celebration.

Teri carves the lamb as we look on.

Paul &Sarah

The kids dipping the celery.

David Martin breaking the unleavened bread.

Children are an important part of the Passover service. In Exodus 12:26 & 13:8, God specifically tells us to explain to them what and why we are celebrating. Traditionally this is done by having the kids ask questions during the dinner.

Below Benjamin is asking his question with a little help from Quentin.

Caleb, reading his question.

Joshua

Passover starts the feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days His people are to eat no leaven. This is to remind us of when His people had to rush out of Egypt so fast they didn't have time to raise their bread. I have gotten into the habit of making challah bread on Friday evenings to start our weekly Shabbat. Friday is Anna's day to cook and she is in the habit of making pizza every Friday evening. Because we were in the midst of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, she made unleavened pizza and I made a special unleavened bread with a little cinnamon and sugar spread on for fun.
The day after the Shabbat during the week of Unleavened Bread is the First Fruits celebration. We are commanded to wave the first fruits of our harvest in thanks to Yhwh on this day. As believers in Yeshua it is important to note that He rose on the celebration of First Fruits. It is a beautiful picture of His resurrection. The First to be resurrected to eternal life. We celebrated at Regina's house (she has a huge living room) with dancing and dinner.

Lavonne watching the little kids take a turn with the flags.

That's me in the dress, keeping up with the youngsters. Not only did we have a great time of worship, but it's really good exercise too!

Afternoon at Keys Point

2011-04-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

We took an impromptu trip up the lake. It was a gorgeous day and the sun was shining brilliantly on the lake so we decided to go up and visit Cam & Nicole's cabin. We babysit baby Hazel for Cam & Nicole and they're building a cabin up at Keys Point, a 15 mile ride up the lake.

Before we could go, we had to do a little maintenance on one of our snowmachines :) and unhook the tobaggon load of wood Paul and the kids had hauled in.

We all piled onto three snow machines and Quentin drove Cam & Nicole's ATV. They needed to get it up to their cabin before the lake thaws so they'll have it there for the summer.

Quentin on the Honda and Joshua driving for he and Deborah on the snowmachine.

Abigail & Anna on the snowmachine pulling David, Benjamin & Caleb.

My self portrait with Paul and Sarah is tucked in between us.

She stayed pretty snug, but her hat kept sliding off.

Igiugig means the place between waters. We live on Six Mile Lake and the Igiugig between it and Lake Clark stays open all year. We hugged the snow and ice that are still remaining to stay out of the water and off the sand.
This pressure crack stretches across the width of the lake. It was easy to find the best spot to cross. The trail we were on is used so much it's like a highway and we just followed the tracks others have made.

When we got to Keys Point, Paul pointed out some wolf tracks to me.

Cam & Nicole's cabin sits right on the lake. When they are able to get up and work on their cabin, they live in the shed in the middle while they work on the main cabin. The shed on the right is used for storage.
It was our first trip to their cabin so the first thing we did was nose around and check everything out.

The wood stove in the little shed.

The bucket for washing clothes in the storage shed.

Next the boys gathered wood for a fire. Here's David carrying a log almost as big as he is.

Caleb's doing his share.

They had the fire going on the beach and in no time we were all sitting or lying down and relaxing around it.

The beach in front of their cabin is all small pebbles. The little ones filled their pockets full. Below Sarah is showing Abigail her treasures.
The boys worked on their rock throwing skills. It quickly became a game where they threw to hit a large boulder so that the rock would skip as far as possible past it onto the ice of the lake.
They were concentrating so hard that they screwed up their faces as they threw. I caught them all looking goofy at once.
We tried to get a good family picture. I set the camera on a tiny tripod on the beach and let it run, then I snipped it to make a picture when we were all looking.

The sun started going behind the trees so the light wasn't great for the pictures on the lake.

Joshua jumping for joy.

I had a hard time getting everyone to hold still. (It could have had something to do with Paul throwing snowballs at them.)

He's still at it...

It finally broke out into a huge snowball fight!

Joshua

Joshua making another snowball before Deborah or Quentin hit him with one.

Benjamin eating snow.

Quentin

Loading up the sled and snowmachines to head home.

The ride home was beautiful.

Paul and I pulled the sled on the way home. The kids bundled up tight to keep the snow from blowing on them.
Just before we got back to Nondalton we stopped to look at two fishing holes. They have a net spread beneath the two holes. Apparently they have been catching a lot of delicious fish.

Joshua turns 10

2011-04-04T22:55:00.000-07:00

Cake & Ice cream! We love birthdays. Joshua turned 10.

Lavonne's Aunt Dorothy made a delicious strawberry cake.

We had the piniata inside. There wasn't much room to swing so we limited the hits and Quentin opened up the box and threw the candy.
Joshua has been very interested in bows and arrows so he got a bow for his birthday. He has peaked all of the guys' interest and they are spending time on the lake shooting arrows at a target.
Happy Birthday to my wonderful, loveable son. May Yhwh bless you this year of your life as you grow closer to Him.

State Championship Basketball...

2011-03-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

We heard that many times last week as every announcer said those words to open each game. We combined Abigail's orthodontist appointment and a seminar Paul had to attend for his aircraft inspector mechanic recurrence training, and took a trip to Anchorage. It happened (Abigail planned her appointment that way) to coincide with the state high school basketball tournament. The two teams that we played with the most this year made it to the state tournament. Newhalen is the closest school to the south of us and the school that we played many games against this year (we played the Jr. High and girls teams). Friends of ours go there every summer and put on a basketball camp where they coach the kids in basketball and do Bible studies with them. For the last two summers, Paul and the kids have joined them. The Wilson's and the Brueckner's are two families serving Yhwh and living in Aniak, a two hour flight into the interior of Alaksa. Every summer a church in Glennallen sends a team there to put on a basketball camp along with Bible study. The Brueckner's invited Paul and the kids to join them this summer. They went and had a wonderful time fellowshipping.

So, we went to all of their tournament games. They both won their first two games quite handily and made it to the Championship game. We sat in the middle between the two teams and cheered for them both. It was a terrific game, close all the way to the end!

The Newhalen Malmutes in the blue...

The Aniak Halfbreeds in the white...

Aniak's first game was at 0800 Monday morning. Only the hardcore fans were there at that hour.

Andy Brueckner homeschools in Aniak...

John Wilson also homeschools in Aniak. It was fun to watch our two young friends play in the huge Sullivan Arena.

Above and below Andy and John are going after a rebound.

Abigail painted her fingernails on one hand blue for Newhalen and the other yellow for Aniak. When Quentin saw that after every game they gave the fan of the game $25 dollars he was ready to go paint his face and collect the money. The closer we got to the championship game it had to be full body paint along with a funny hairdo and a lot of yelling, so he declined...

Deborah is enjoying the game.

Andy came and sat with us when his game was over.

Sarah really wanted to give the lion a high five. She talked Abigail into gong with her, but about halfway there she chickened out and insisted they head back to safety.
All the excitement was a little too much for Benjamin and Sarah. they got a couple of good naps in during the games.

Oh yeah, Aniak won the championship game, but not by much...

Wood Cutting Party

2011-03-09T22:46:00.000-08:00

Our main source of heat in the winter is our wood stove. I love the uniform heat that fills the house from our wood stove in the basement. The kids enjoy going out with Paul on the snow machines and getting a load of wood to bring home. There have been some beautiful days lately and they have gone out several times on wood gathering parties.

Below Paul is trimming a tree he just cut.

Quentin and Josh A. are hauling some heavy logs to the sleds.

Benjamin and Sarah don't often get to go along, but it was such a nice day they got to go too.

Anna and Sarah taking a rest from loading wood.

Paul in the sunshine.

Quentin trimming a tree he just cut.

Paul and Quentin tying down the load.

Anna is enjoying the ride home. She and Deborah couldn't haul much of a load with their little sled.

Josh A. is driving he and Quentin home while Quentin films.

On a previous trip when the older kids were out without Paul they got to this slick spot and did a few doughnuts.

Quentin is afraid this bridge is going to collapse every time he goes over it.

They had to stop to tighten the load. As you can see little kids fall asleep on snow machines just like they do in the van on the highway.

Homeschool Basketball

2011-02-28T15:45:00.000-08:00

The kids played Basketball again this year. The public school had a few kids that wanted to play this year so the homeschooled kids (my oldest five and Josh Armstrong) practiced with them. Our homeschooled kids joined up with two homeschooled boys, William and Lee Clark, from the next village and played many games against teams from villages around Lake Iliamna. Lake Iliamna is a 20 mile drive across our frozen lake, up a trail and down a very icy road. Most of our games were played at the Newhalen school which is the closest village on Lake Iliamna to us. They host many tournaments every year and they invited us down for some of those and for several scrimmages as well. Twice the older kids drove with Paul to Iliamna and then got in the Clark's airplane and flew to other villages around the Lake to play their highschool three man teams. There are still a couple of schools they hope to play after spring break. They've had a great time especially since Paul is their traveling coach. Before Paul's elbow was healed enough to travel, they played in a Jr. High Tournament and Abigail was the coach. The Jr. High tournament has become an annual event for us. Levi and Micah Natewick fly down from Port Alsworth to play in it with us. Because Paul had an infected elbow Joel and Lisa Natewick flew down and picked our kids up on the way and chaperoned them for the tournament. They've had a tremendous season with lots of great memories of traveling in sleeping bags in a pickup in single digit weather.

Crossing the frozen lake in our pickup.

(Sorry about the quality of all the pictures, I snipped them from our video camera.)

Going up the hill on the other side of the lake.

Paul giving instruction during a time out.

Abigail working to get open.

Abigail scoring?

Deborah bringing the ball down the court...

...and driving for the basket.

Quentin has put on some muscle this year. All that sawing and splitting wood has paid off.

Here he is soaring to the basket.

Quentin driving the length of the court.

Quentin with the rebound.

Anna shooting the jumper as Quentin watches.

Anna is an awesome defensive player.

Joshua got to play in the Jr. High games even though he's a fourth grader. It evened things out since Deborah (9th grade) had to play to make enough players when we played five man teams.

Joshua is actually a great little player, he made this one.

A couple of times the mighty mites and pee wees in Newhalen were playing while we were there. They invited Caleb and Joshua to play with them.

Below Caleb has the ball. Joshua is on the far right.

Josh Armstrong going up strong for a shot.

Lee Clark is our best ball handler.

William Clark starting off the game with the jump ball.

Below Lee lost the handle on the ball and stopped to retrieve it which caused Abigail to trip over his leg and the kick the ball away from him. It looks really cool in slow motion...

New Moon Celebration

2011-02-17T00:08:00.000-08:00

Psalm 81:3 Blow the shofar in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our festival day.

As we have been studying the appointed times or feasts commanded by God. The day of the New Moon, which is also how God commands His people to start a new month, is included along with the Sabbath as one of God's appointed times. So, we have been celebrating the New Moon each month. Below Sarah is blowing the shofar for the new moon celebration.

The last few months we have gotten together and had supper together. This particular month started on the Sabbath. A Jewish tradition is to make challah bread and start off each Sabbath with the breaking of the bread and the drinking of wine. As we have studied the Passover it appears that this is what Yeshua's (Jesus') disciples were doing when they had their first communion. Yeshua tells us to do this in remembrance of Him until He returns. So we have been starting off our Sabbaths with the breaking of bread and drinking the fruit of the vine (grape juice) and remembering how Yeshua gave His life for us. The girls and I are getting pretty good at making challah bread (although if I am left to myself, I have to turn on a YouTube video to remember how to braid it.)

Below Paul is giving thanks for the bread.

And passing out the grape juice.

(notice Sarah's bangs, she did that herself! At least she only cut the front...)

Regina, a teacher in the village that fellowships with us, has a large living room. We use the new moon celebration as an opportunity to practice our circle dancing.

It's a lot of fun and good exercise.

Paul's infected elbow

2011-02-06T00:22:00.000-08:00

One evening a couple of weeks ago Paul complained that his elbow hurt. In the morning it was red and swollen. It continued to hurt throughout the day and the next morning the swelling had increased. My dad is a doctor and I talked to him on the phone. He was adamant that Paul needed to go to Anchorage and see a doctor now. Within a half an hour Paul was heading to Anchorage and had an appointment to see a doctor. They lanced his elbow to drain the infection and put him on an antibiotic. He spent the next two weeks mostly in Anchorage getting it cleaned out every two days. He got to come home a couple of times in between appointments. The doctor put a partial cast on so he couldn't bend his elbow.

Abigail went with him on one of his appointments so she could learn how to take care of his wound so he wouldn't have to go back quite so often.

The doctor put a wick in the incision to keep it drained. Below Abigail is inserting a new wick into the incision.

The next village to our south is about 20 miles away. In the winter you can drive there by driving across the lake. The Clarks pastor the church there and their son recently turned 16. Paul had planned on going with Abigail, Deborah and Quentin to his party but he couldn't go because of his infection. We (prayerfully) decided the kids were old enough to make the trek on their own. Below Paul is not using his arm as he makes sure the kids make sure the gas, oil and tires are good before they head out.
The kids play basketball at the school every afternoon. It's very low key and the older kids skipped to go on their trip. That left Joshua to give Anna a ride to practice in the sled behind the snowmachine. Anna is holding 7 month old Hazel, whose mom is a teacher at the school.
Praise to Yhwh, Paul's elbow is doing great. All signs of infection are gone and it's just a little tender. Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray, the elbow is a particularly difficult place to get rid of an infection. The doctor says that if there is no sign of infection for 30 days it should stay gone.

Caleb's 8th Birthday

2011-01-26T10:45:00.000-08:00

Caleb turned 8 years old. He's a smart boy and my favorite saying for him is that, "wisdom is more important than knowledge." It is a pleasure to watch that take hold and mature him bit by bit.

He got a gun for hunting with our Wii during our once a week game times.

We recently had our good friends the Davis' from Port Alsworth, the next village up the lake, drop in on us with their super cub. They landed on the lake right by the house. Below is Jackson, one of their five boys.

We had a wonderful visit. The ice was perfect for hockey that day.

Quentin chasing the puck.

They brought along some cookie dough and we all enjoyed eating the cookies the boys made.

Moose Meat

2011-01-17T22:38:00.000-08:00

We love moose meat. One of the young men in the village shot his first moose and tradition dictated that he give it all away. He gave us a large piece and the whole family helped cut it up.

For the mooseburger, we brought out the meat grinder and flexed our muscles.

We process the meat into roasts, soup bone, gyro meat pieces and mooseburger.

Quentin has become our jerky expert. He took a bowlful of mooseburger, marinated it and then got our three littlest ones to do the messy work (they loved it) and fill the gun that squeezes out strips of burger. He then put it in the oven on low heat until it dried into jerky.

Because we were in the middle of a great book, my job was to read out loud to everyone.

After all that work we had time for play!

Deborah's 15th Birthday

2011-01-08T22:11:00.000-08:00

Smoke is billowing around Deborah as she just finished blowing out her 15 candles. We all enjoyed sharing her cake and watching her open her presents.

Sarah was especially eager to help.

Deborah is a beautiful, talented, young lady. She is quiet and compassionate but can also be very competitive. When I check up on the kids chores, Deborah is usually the one who has already done hers. We're studying Hebrew as a family. I studied modern Hebrew for four semesters in college, but Deborah has a special talent for it and is able to correct me when I mess up my genders. She loves to read and if she finds an especially good book you can find the younger kids gathered around her as she reads to them.

When Deborah finds an exceptional book she'll get me to read it aloud to everyone. Often Paul will become absorbed in it (which the kids love) and we'll take turns reading. Just a couple of nights ago we were reading and the whole family was crying together. I was reading and Paul reached for a tissue, I held out my hand expecting him to hand it to me, loving husband that he is. He didn't see me and proceeded to blow his nose and daub his eyes, I looked at my empty hand and the kids burst out laughing. Paul, being quick, said "Oh did you need that?"

Channukah

2010-12-30T12:49:00.000-08:00

On the last day of Channukah we had everyone up for dinner. After dinner we lit the Martin's menorah and had a great time of praise and worship while the candles melted away.

David is playing the guitar in the background while Regina, David & Lavonne are worshiping at the table.

The kids wanted to give each other gifts for Channukah. I teased them that they were trying to materialize YHWH's Biblical holidays. They love giving and receiving and they did it all themselves so I didn't complain. They picked out clothes for each other from our thrift store, and Deborah, Quentin and Anna made swords and shields for the younger kids. They've been reading a series of books about the medieval times, so they're into swords and shields at the moment.

My Granddad turns 99

2010-12-23T23:02:00.000-08:00

My Granddad celebrated his 99th birthday! Below is our family with him during the summer of 2009 when we got to visit him on our trip across America.God has blessed my Granddad and he is in great health after 99 years. He still enjoys keeping an eye on my Dad's sheep and horses from his back porch. I can remember him keeping on eye on me as I fed the cows with the pickup before I was old enough to have a driver's license...

He is a faithful man and a great example to us all...
I'm already trying figure out a way for us to be there for his 100th birthday party!

Cheda Mary turns 94 & Thanksgiving

2010-12-10T11:04:00.000-08:00

Lavonne's Cheda (Grandmother) Mary turn 94. We had a big party to celebrate.

Lavonne's Mom, Claudine, standing behind Cheda Mary, organized the party. Cheda Mary's daughter Dorthy and Daughter-in-law Pauline, are helping Cheda with her presents.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. Thanking Yahuwah for His provisions to us.

Below Anna is making one of many pies.

Deborah and Sarah are relaxing on the couch as the pies bake. You can tell how much Sarah enjoyed helping by the remains on her face.
Quentin, Joshua and the little boys set up an extra table and put pretty Thanksgiving tablecloths on. Then Quentin showed the boys how his latest electronics purchase (he's building a robot) works.

Lavonne & Josh joined us in Thanksgiving.

Myron & Teri, David, Gilana, and Kinsey also celebrated with us.

John is a caretaker at a lodge nearby for the winter. He drove in on his ATV and brought a delicious macaroni salad to share with us.

Everyone had a great time and we Praise Yahuwah because He cares so much for us.

Sde Boker, Haircuts and School

2010-12-01T00:06:00.001-08:00

Kelly took some good pictures of Abigail and the tent Paul helped put up while they were in Sde Boker. I borrowed a couple from her blog "the Glik Family Journal" you can find it on my right sidebar. Below is Abigail with the Glik's oldest daughter Kai and the Travis' two girls Carmen and Mikki. All of the families Abigail and Paul stayed with while they were in Israel had girls right around Abigail's age. She made many new friends and it made the trip even more special.

Paul and Abigail were able to attend a Father's Heart Conference while they were in Sde Boker. Paul helped Mike set up the tent they held the meetings in.

Paul is the official haircutter in our house. He loves precision work. The boys were in great need of haircuts by the time he got home. Anna wanted to learn to cut hair so Paul is teaching her how. Homeschool Haircutting 101... Joshua was the brave recipient of Anna's first haircut.
It's minus 3 degrees outside as I write this . The ice got thick enough that they marked it. Once they mark it the kids are free to play on it. A pair of ice skates just my size came into the thrift store and the kids talked me into going out with them. It's been a long time since I've been on skates. We didn't do to much of it growing up in North Carolina... I didn't fall down though, Yea!!!
Abigail has been getting back into the routine of our regular schooling, which is not very regular at all, after her wonderful field trip to Israel. She is very much like her Dad in so many ways... The picture below gives a good example of that. Paul loves a nice sharp pencil whenever he has to use one. I had to chuckle and take a picture of Abigail as she was working at the table with seven pencils (count them) all sharpened to a fine point. I asked her why she needed so many and she told me she wouldn't be able to finish her math and science without that many because they got dull so fast.
It's hard to keep good pencils with eight brothers and sisters. The next day I found Abigail working with only four pencils because someone had helped themselves to her stash.

17th Wedding Anniversary

2010-11-20T21:36:00.000-08:00

Our 17th Wedding Anniversary passed while Paul and Abigail were in Israel. Here we stand in wedded bliss and if you'd have told me that 17 years later we would have nine children and be living in Alaska, I would have thought you were crazy! Seventeen years later, I wouldn't trade places with anyone in the world. I love the life that God has given us and the man that God has given me.

Paul just keeps getting more handsome every year!

Paul picked up a couple of steaks while he was in Anchorage and our wonderful kids prepared a delicious meal for us after they decorated our basement guest room. As good as the meal was, the service was even better because the kids were so cute. The boys found white shirts and a couple of ties to look like waiters and they found Sarah the perfect dress. They were very excited about serving us. They gave us the doorbell (it's detachable) so we could press it for service.

Anna is serving us our salad with choice of dressing.

The boys came running at every ring.

Sarah volunteered to taste the food for us.

We look forward to our Anniversary every year partly because the kids make it so special.

Heading home

2010-11-10T00:20:00.000-08:00

Paul and Abigail had a wonderful final week in Israel. They really enjoyed their time of fellowship with the Travis' and the Glik's in Sde Boker along with all of the new friends they made. I don't have any pictures of their final week yet, so I'll write more when I get them. They are almost to Amsterdam as I write this. Then they are on to Seattle and finally Anchorage. If all goes as planned it will take them almost exactly 24 hours to make in from Tel Aviv to Anchorage. I'm trying to keep the shopping list small while they are in Anchorage. I think they'll be kind of tired. They'll arrive in the evening and head out to Nondalton the next day.

Needless to say, the kids and I are getting quite excited for their homecoming!

All of the kids have been wonderful. They really stepped up and helped out with Paul and Abigail gone. Deborah and Anna have taken up the slack for Abigail and Quentin and the rest of the boys have been taking care of the manly jobs that couldn't be put off.

Below Quentin and David are putting 50 gallons of oil into the tank for the apartments so it doesn't get too low with the turn of cold weather we've had. We woke up this morning and the entire lake was frozen over.

Quentin pumping oil.

David is making sure the hose doesn't fly out.

Sarah always wants to go whenever anyone goes anywhere. So she is cheering her brothers on.

We made it almost to the end of the month without any mishaps and I praise God for that. Yesterday we kind of blew though. Joshua put a hole in his chin while ice skating, Sarah found out that the wood stove is hot, and I ended up going to the clinic for seven stitches in my thumb because the can of beans I was opening needed a little help. To top it off I can't take pictures of any of this because Benjamin tossed me my camera when I wasn't looking and it landed right in my cup of tea. Quentin advised me to let it dry above the furnace for a couple of days before trying to use it. We'll see...

David's 6th & Week 3 in Israel

2010-11-02T00:34:00.000-07:00

Paul and Abigail are still having a wonderful time in Israel (nine more days) and things are still going great at home. Praise God!

Paul and Abigail finished the first part of their trip and now they are visiting friends, the Travis' and the Gliks, in Sde Boker which is South of Beer Sheva. They rented a car in Jerusalem to drive down and they stopped just North of the Gaza Strip to splash around in the Mediterranean Sea.

Israeli pizza place

Before Paul and Abigail left, David turned 6. He was quite excited, it seemed like he had to wait forever for his birthday to roll around again.

David is a deep -thinker. It is so fun to watch him grow up!

The kids went all out decorating for his birthday. We had paper airplanes flying all over the house.