I personally haven’t been posting lately, largely because I’ve been busy with my job. I thought I’d take some time to explain what I do to provide for my family. Much of it can be seen in our FAQ post “What do you do for a living?“, but allow me to be a little more detailed.

I am first the president of an educational 501(c)(3) nonprofit called Training Minds Ministry. I organize a number of academic debate camps across the country, of which I help coach. Our main camp in Colorado just recently filled up with nearly 150 students and their families. The debaters train to compete in the National Christian Forensics & Communications Association, the country’s 3rd largest forensics league and the only nationally recognized home-school extracurricular activity. We enjoyed quite a success rate as nearly half of our debaters qualified to Nationals, and our camp alumni took many of the top awards once they got there. I couldn’t be more proud of the coaching staff and, more importantly, how God has blessed the students. (Are you interested in our camps? Check us out here.)

Central to the debate program is the curriculum that comes with it. I have my nose bowed deep in research, writing, editing and publishing not only my work but the work of other top coaches in the country. My publishing company, Monument Publishing, has been with the NCFCA since its creation in 1996, delivering the bestselling resources to speakers and debaters across the country. I distribute over 1000 team-policy manuals known in the league as “The Blue Book” (our bestseller). I am releasing my 3rd edition of Jeub’s Guide to Home School Speech & Debate next month (and there is a 50% off sale going on right now till July 15 at the site SpeechSupplies.com…for all preorders). We have a lot of fun crafting the curriculum for debaters.

The skills learned by the students are incredible. Both Alicia and Alissa have strong heads on their shoulders largely, I believe, from the critical thinking skills taught by debate. Cynthia and Lydia plan to debate this year, and they already have learned much in the arena of competition (they have a few more years). I plan to be doing this for the next several years, as we have some champion debaters making their way up through the ages.

We got an email from a mother of 11 who ordered our book last month. I thought I’d post it. Her response to the book captures the heart of why we wrote it:

We just received the Jeub’s book in the mail and I read the entire thing
today! I just couldn’t put it down :-). I highly, highly, highly recommend
it!

I must say that I was re-energized knowing that we’re not the only family
that believes as we do. It is hard to be “counter-cultural”, so the book
served as a major boost for my “down in the dumps” feeling today :-).

We laughed and chuckled as we identified with so many things in the book.

I’m going to keep the book right near my Bible…that’s how inspirational I
found it to be! It might serve as an additional source of inspiration on
those bad days when we get “the look” or “unkind comment” from a stranger.
Little do these folks know what they are missing!

God bless the Jeub’s and all of you folks on Quiverfull!
(PS…we have the Quiverfull bumpersticker on our van and we catch folks
reading it in parking lots! LOL)

In God’s Love,
Walt and Wendy Cukierski and our 12 blessings from God

Click here to order. 

Wendy and I appeared on KTLF Radio earlier this week where we shared some of the highlights of our new book. If you would like to listen to it, here’s an MP3 download:

[audio:KTLFInterview062007.mp3]

I posted a few weeks about the ridiculousness of the overpopulation crowd claiming human beings were bad for the environment (“Are children bad for the environment”). I basically made fun of the idea that CO2 is all-of-a-sudden some sort of poison to the fragile earth.

Apparently there are serious folks out there who believe human beings are, indeed, bad for us. Well, bad for the planet, that is. WSJ Opinion Journal’s James Toronto makes the case that this is “creepy thinking” and lists several modern claims that the human race is “a virus” to the planet. With tongue in cheek, he quotes someone from Planned Parenthood, “The best thing we can do for our grandchildren is not have any children.” Logical, ain’t it?

You can listen to Toronto here. I’d love to hear what you think…

Wendy and I are expecting our 14th child to be born. Wow, God is good. Wendy is just about at her 1/2-way mark (heh, we don’t like to tell people too early). Everything is going along quite fine, the kids are excited, and we are looking forward to a 14th Jeub in November.

-Chris

Please read this entire post and respond to the question I ask at the end. I am very curious about something most profound…

Wendy and I were interviewed by Kevin Swanson a couple weeks ago, and we listened to it this morning. The conversation went well and Kevin, a skilled orator and radio host, brought out some interesting things. One was quite punctual. Kevin asked, “What do you think they [the camera crew] learned most about your family?” My answer was:

I think they learned that the stereotypes of a large family weren’t true. They envisioned a rigid family, a family without a lot of joy in it, one that was chaotic and out of control. What they witnessed instead was a family with a lot of love in it.

Consider what popular culture teaches our young children about large families. “There was an old lady who lives in a shoe, who had so many children she didn’t know what to do.” Old, poverty stricken, clueless. Surely mothers with many children will resemble the old lady in the shoe. How can she not? She has so many children she doesn’t know what to do!

Like many stereotypes, the reality is quite different. We know many large families and, more commonly, these mothers keep their youth and are admired for their agility and confidence. They aren’t controlled by the chaos. Quite the contrary, they are sometimes observed in public leading their many children like a kindergarten teacher leading a classroom of kids. They’re happy and confident. There is not the presumed unruliness and chaos.

The old lady in the shoe begs a question: where is the father? Parenting as a team covers many shortcomings, as most married couples would agree. Whenever Wendy is at the “end of her rope,” I will perhaps come home from work, take the kids from her care, and give her a break. Earlier this year we together decided that bringing the school-aged kids to my office would be a good idea. I school them for 8 hours every week (two mornings a week). Perhaps the old lady not knowing what to do is because there isn’t a dad around to help out.

Wendy and I spend a good deal of time addressing the stereotypes that people have of large families in our book Love in the House.

There is a common stereotype of a woman who has had many children. Her body is falling apart—skin and stomach muscles sagging, barefoot, overweight, and careworn as she chases several unkempt and unruly children. Hardly the picture of vibrant health and beauty. Perhaps this image is partly responsible for the fear many women harbor about having children. They are afraid of how they may come to look, disappointing to themselves and unattractive to their husbands. In stark contradiction, all three mothers featured on “Kids by the Dozen� were beautiful, thin and radiant. Between the three of them, they gave birth to 43 children.

So, where does this stereotype come from if it doesn’t come from real families that have many children? Before I try to give an answer, I would like to hear from you. Fill out a response in the box below, and answer to this simple question…”Why do people have a negative opinion of families with many children?” I am most curious, and it would be interesting to read each other’s opinions.

We just got word from TLC that we will be doing another episode with them. Details are coming together next week and I’ll post more details then. For now, the plans are quite exciting. We will be traveling to the Black Hills for a family vacation. We will be joining DuWayne and Miriam Heppner and their family of 17 children.

If you didn’t know, the Heppners were one of the other families on “Kids by the Dozen.” They have 16 children–many of them adults–and they just adopted their niece (quite a story…I’m sure it will come out in the next episode). Most of their kids are adults, but we’re hoping many of them will make the trip. Josiah, their 4th child, spent a great deal of time with our family a few years ago. He helped us renovate our bus. He’s pictured on the right on the top of our bus. He and many of his sibling may make it to the camping trip for at least one campfire time, and we’re going to try to get Alicia and Alissa up for an evening. The Black Hills is about a 7 hour drive from here, and getting adult children out of their busy lives is difficult, but, we have all the little ones nonetheless.

We’re talking to the producer next week to nail down details. I’ll post as they surface…