I rarely stay up till wee-hours in the morning reading a book, but I did so last night. At 1:30 a.m., I finished reading the final words in Clarence Thomas’ My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir. This is a must-read for those of us who remember the Anita Hill Hearings and the national trial of 1991 when a conservative black man was appointed to the Supreme Court. Those of you who remember the portrayal of the He-said/She-said dispute by the media will find the behind-the-scenes final chapters irresistible page-turners.

There were a number of things that struck me about the life of Clarence Thomas that I hadn’t known. First, as the title points out, he was raised by his grandfather (his mother’s father) as his relationship with his biological father “ended at conception.” Before going to live with his grandfather, his life was as “southern black” as you can get, and his book recalls his daily chore of hauling the bucket of human waste out of the outhouse for the rest of the family. His childhood was extremely impoverished, his lifelong belongings fitting into a paper bag when he moved to his grandparent’s home. It was under his grandfather’s teaching (he and his brother called their grandfather “Daddy”) that Clarence learned the strong work ethic that made him the conservative he is today. Read the rest of this entry »

Wendy went up to Breckenridge last weekend with some girlfriends while I stayed home. After a week in the woods hunting, it was refreshing to just hang with the kids. On Sunday we got slammed with two things: 10 inches of snow and Chicken Pox! Two weeks ago Wendy brought all the kids over to a friend’s home to play with their son who had the Pox. Lydia was the only one who didn’t go, and Cynthia had the Pox as a baby. Every single kid (except Lydia and Cynthia) has spots all over themselves. Isaiah, Micah, Noah, Tabitha, Keilah, Hannah, Josiah, Havilah and Joshua have Chicken Pox. We expect Lydia to breakout in a week.

We also have a ton of friends coming over with their children to get a dose of the natural “vaccination.” It has been 14 years since any of our children contract Chicken Pox, and the older children get the more dangerous the sickness can become. While most doctors stand behind the Chicken Pox vaccination, the same medical consenses agrees that the verdict is still out of how harmful the vaccination may be. While Dr. Alan Greene vaccinated his youngest child (the older three already contracted Chicken Pox), he admits:

For the environment, the risks increase the more effective the vaccine. If chickenpox — an old, familiar opponent with which we have developed a stable relationship — were eliminated, this might create a niche in the microscopic environment for a new, unknown, more virulent, human virus.

I’m not one for fear mongering, but I am not convinced that the Chicken Pox vaccination is worth the risk. Dr. Greene’s article does a good job explaining the benefits of the vaccination, and the only one I can see of value is the economic savings of a week of work/school. On the other hand, running the risk of contracting the virus as an adult (which is still a risk even when vaccinated) can lead to many more harmful effects

For my family, we’re putting up with a week of rashes and scratches.

Latest news: Lydia Jeub (13) went hunting in the mountains of Colorado and got a 5×5 bull on Monday morning. It is quite exciting. Here’s a wonderful picture of Lydia and her bull! (her story follows)

On opening day my dad and I got up at 4:30 AM and hiked a mile to our friends’ spike camp. Then we hiked up to our hunting spot and waited till sunrise. We saw a herd go by about 200 yards away so we ran after them, but we had no luck. 10 minets later we heard on our radio that one of our friends shot a cow up by where we were sitting moments before. When we got back to our old spot we decided to move a little bit to another spot where we hunted the rest of the day. At about 2:00 PM we saw a small herd of five elk: two calves and three small bulls. The biggest of the bulls was a 4+3 (a legal bull) but I was too afraid to shoot my gun. My dad said that he was pretty tempted to shoot my Elk for me, for he had it in his sites waiting for me to shoot. For the first day, this bull got away.

It was the second day of hunting and our hunting party of 10 only had two cows. All of us were tired and it rained so we all slept in. We didn’t get to our new spot till about 10 AM. It was cooler that day and my dad said he should take a walk and warm up. While he was gone I thought I saw two or three cows about 150 yards away and they were in-between the thick aspens. I called my dad on my radio and he came back to see if those elk that I saw were still there. But by the time he got there they were long gone. So we decided to walk a bit then sit down. Dad said that this is how real hunters hunt. So we did that for an hour till we found a good spot. I sat on a log about 50 yards from another log that dad was sitting for about twenty minutes; we sat there until dad said to come up by him. I was fazing one way and my dad fazing the other: he was falling a sleep and I was being lazy with my gun. So, my gun was on the ground and I was getting tired of hunting. About ten minutes later Dad wakes up and says, “Lydia, look behind you!” I turned to look and 10 feet in front of us is a 6+5 bull. I was trying to count the points while my dad was saying, “It’s legal, it’s legal! Shoot it, shoot it!” (A legal bull needs at least 4 points on one side of the antlers.) But, by the time my gun was off the ground and in my hand, the bull was long gone. We went after it and followed its footprints but we didn’t see him again. Where we were sitting to see if that bull would come back, we saw three spike bulls and some mule deer but nothing else worth shooting for the rest of the day.

The third day of hunting came and we got up at 4 AM to hike to spike camp. Dad said to me, “Lydia, you can’t go home to your brothers and sisters with stories of how you COULD have shot bulls. You’ll have to shoot one before we leave!” We were at our spot at 6 AM. By 7:00 we started hearing some bull bugling and it sounded like it was right over the ridge. So we climbed the ridge and went across the valley and saw nothing. But we could still hear the bugling. So we climbed the next ridge and went into that valley and there were leaves falling everywhere so it was getting harder to listen for trotting elk. So we climbed the next ridge. By then we had at least walked a mile and we were getting close to private land, but we still heard the bugling. We sat down to rest when we saw two cows across a valley running towards the bugling. Dad said, “Let’s try to cut them off!” So we walked towards the bugeling some more hoping to cut off the cows we had just seen.

Five minutes later a herd of about 30 elk walked right behind us about 10 yards away. My dad raised his gun and shot at a big cow she fell to the ground and the herd split in two, one went off the way we came and the other went in the direction of the bugling. About 35 yards away there were three or four cows and three legal bulls and two spikes. I had my gun ready and was asking dad, “Which one’s legal, which one’s legal?” And dad said, “They’re all legal!”

I rose my gun and shot at the biggest one. The bull walked about 10 more feet before dropping to the ground. I had an eye on my elk to see if it was still alive while dad went over to see his cow. Dad looked for about two minutes to discover she must have gotten up and ran away. So we walked up to my bull and sure enough it was a big 5+5. In the year 2001 my dad shot a 5+5 and this one that now was about twice that size. My dad called on his radio to our friends the Socolofskys to come and help look for the missing cow and help quarter my elk. When they found us, Mr. Socolofsky stayed and taught me how to clean out the elk while dad and Zach Socolofsky (12 years old) went to look for a blood trail. We had all four quarters off in about two-and-a-half hours. By then my dad and Zachary had met up with six other people from our group. While they looked for blood, my dad and Zachary came back to haul out the elk meet. The three guys carried out quarters. I carried some gear and my antlers. We walked 1.7 miles to base camp.

The other half of our group looked for four hours for my dad’s lost cow but there was no luck. So the rest of our group went back to where I shot my elk and got the rest of the gear and the last quarter and took them back to base camp. By the time everyone was at base camp we decided to call it a year and go home the next day. We had gotten three out of ten possible elk and it was just about the same amount as last year.

So that’s my story about the first time I went hunting.

It has been quite some time since you’ve received a posting from JeubFamily.com. It hasn’t been because we haven’t updated the site, but rather because our subscription service fizzed on us a few months ago. We now have it up and running! When you subscribe to our website, you receive an email whenever we post. Go ahead and look through the archives for anything you may have missed.

Allow me to reiterate the purpose of this website. As our About Us page explains, the Jeub Family Website isn’t “just” a family website; it is an opportunity to display what we believe to be the wonderful gift of life. Having children is often the scariest thing in the world for people, and our life is a testimony against that fear. True, we often post fun tidbits about our family, but the core purpose isn’t to place us in a spotlight. Quite the contrary, we want our lives to shine the light on Jesus Christ and how God can work miracles in any family.

Let JeubFamily.com bless you and your family. Please post your thoughts and insights. While we can’t respond to each one individually, we do read them all.

From our family to yours, may God bless you!

We have received a few emails from skeptics who doubted our claimed income in the TLC “Kids by the Dozen” episode. We had 13 children last year when the film crew came to our home to capture our life. I said, “We make less than $40,000 per year.” Our point in making this claim is simple: God provides no matter how many or how few children you have. Wendy and I are convinced that if we had 50 children, God would provide for our needs just the same.

We are late in filing our personal income tax return this year for 2006, but I just sent it into the IRS yesterday. The exact amount: $36,684.  Can you believe that? Even I am in awe at how pathetic our salary is. Ha, ha — what a testimony! How great God is. He continues to provide for my family even with such a low income.

We make this point in our book, Love in the House, and we give pointers on how to live on such a small income. We reveal that we are not on welfare or any government assistance of any kind, including health insurance. We certainly could be, if we chose. In fact, with the number of children and the income we have, we are technically “extremely impoverished,” as the government terms it. We laugh at this, for we consider ourselves to be extremely blessed. We state in our book:

Some may consider our family poor, but we believe we are the wealthiest people in the world. Our kids don’t care that they don’t have their own bedrooms when right outside the back door is a six-and-a-half acre playground. To them, a “play station” is their latest Lego creation. To our minds, materialism is the shallowest of reasons to shut out the blessing of a large family. We’ve all read of people who lived in castles yet were filled with sorrow and loneliness. Likewise, don’t we all know others who enjoyed rich, satisfying lives, despite their modest means? 

Of course, we’re working on making more money this year. 2006 was a tough year for my business and ministry, and this year looks better. But, even if my income turns out to be twice that of last year, is that “enough” by today’s standards for a family expecting their 14th child? Even if I claimed $72k in income last year, most would think that to be still modest.

All in all, we believe this is a heavenly testimony that God will provide for families who put their trust in Him. He will not let you down! Go ahead, have kids: they are blessings. Don’t let anyone tell you they are liabilities. Enjoy the fruit of your labor. God will provide what you need.

It has been quite a while since any of the Jeubs have posted on the website. We have been incredibly busy with so many things. Our last post was August 22 when Lydia finished her second movie on Joshua. Shortly afterward, I left with Cynthia and Lydia to Oregon to kick off our 5-state Debate Camp Tour for Training Minds Ministry. While it was fun, it was the busiest time of our year.

September is a reflective time for the Jeubs. Immediately following the Colorado Debate Camp, I packed my family up in our van and shot out to Wisconsin and Minnesota for vacation. We had a wonderful time with both Wendy and my side of the family. The trip was only 11 days–much to short–and we are already planning another trip out there next year.

Ever since our experience one year ago with The Learning Channel, God has worked in our lives in a remarkable way. As our book, Love in the House, reflects on love being the center of our family life, this trip out east was the most enjoyable time with our family than ever before. We visited family with a whole new perspective. In the past, our hearts would be riddled with judgment on our extended family’s life choices and habits. This time around, we sought honest conversation and the sharing of one another’s lives. Free from the dysfunctional ambition to judge, we simply loved.

When we returned, we immediately started preparation for the year’s Birthday Bash, which we celebrated last Saturday. The entire family joined us, Alicia and Alissa too. It was much more relaxing knowing that a camera crew from New York was not coming! The party was relatively small, too, the smallest Bash since 2001 (only 85 people). It was a fun time! We got to enjoy one another’s company and visit with some depth.

Now that October is on its way, we dig deeper into school and work. I will begin bringing several of the kids into my office twice a week for lessons, and Wendy is already along with a geography unit study. Our weekly schedule is packed with activities and we look forward to a great year.

Jeub 2007 School Pictures