Last night’s State of the Union Address brought a thunderous applause from the Jeubs. President Bush laid out early in his speech,

My administration reached agreement with Speaker Pelosi and Republican Leader Boehner on a robust growth package that includes tax relief for individuals and families and incentives for business investment.

This stimulus package is a rebate based on 2007 tax returns. Based on our 2007 income (about 20% higher than 2006), Wendy and I will receive $1200 plus $300 per child filed. We had 12 children living at home last year. Here’s a summary from the White House website:

Working Americans who have earned income of $3,000 or more will be eligible for a minimum rebate of $300 for an individual or $600 for a couple filing jointly. Based on the amount of federal income taxes paid, that rebate rises as high as $600 for an individual and $1,200 for a couple filing jointly.

In addition to the individual rebate, families will receive an additional $300 per child credit. The individual rebate and the child credit phase out starting at $75,000 in income for individuals or $150,000 in family income.

These provisions apply to 2008 only. We anticipate that the IRS will be able to begin sending rebate checks, based on 2007 tax returns, approximately 60 days after the legislation is enacted.

That’s $3,600 plus the $1,200 we already are receiving as a joint couple. The Jeubs will receive $4,800 from the U.S. Government! Wendy and I can really use this money, especially in May/June when the checks will be issued. Our publishing company is our sole income, and the spring is the slowest time of the year. This provision is nicely timed.

Count your kids and see the White House website for details.

Wendy and I have been in Estes Park for a 5-day “getaway” (only Priscilla has been with us). This was my Christmas present to Wendy. I flew my mom in from Minnesota to take care of the other kids, and Alicia spent the weekend to help, too.  We haven’t had this kind of rendezvous since our honeymoon!

Estes Park, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and the YMCA of the Rockies (where we are staying) has all sorts of recreational activities. But, truth be known, we aren’t doing much site seeing or adventuring. We have had four days of uninterrupted conversations. We have outlined family plans and filled out a year-at-a-glance calendar with events for this coming year. We talked about each of the kids and wrote out homeschool goals for each of them. We prepared speaking notes for an upcoming conference in April. We sifted through homeschool folders and curriculum.

We know, we know, this doesn’t sound very “romantic.” But we have been relishing every minute. Working together on our family vision is a most exciting venture for us. Ironically, with 14 children we seldom have the chance to do so. We too easily get caught up in the chaos of it all.

Our stay has had its pleasantries, too. The pool has been frequented often. We have enjoyed dining out (something we seldom do normally) and the scenery is breathtaking. We connected with some friends, Scott and Lori, who live in Estes Park. They brought us to a restaurant on Saturday that their daughter works at, and we went to the theater to watch Bella (a GREAT movie, by the way). We visited their church, Christian Church of Estes Park, this morning. We really enjoyed their fellowship.

This most likely will become an annual event for us. Not only are we getting a lot done, this has been a most fulfilling “downtime” for the both of us. We return home tomorrow looking forward to loving our children!

For Christmas my daughter got me Rush Limbaugh 24/7. I stumbled upon this caller today: a mom of 10 kids. “Jean from Illinois” explained a very interesting contradiction among the population-control folks. Jean did a great job explaining to Rush how children are a blessing. Rush (divorced three times and has no children) handled Jean with better respect than I suspected. You can read the transcript here.

On another note, my mom flew in from Minnesota to stay with us for week. She’s a great grandma: she has a stack full of books to read to the kids and looks forward to doing some homeschooling with them. Tonight my mom had all my kids lined up on our two leather couches to begin reading a book that she plans to read in the next week. We said bedtime prayers and sent the kids to bed.

Family is an awesome idea God came up with.

I was at work with my two older daughters, and Wendy was at home attempting to keep the kids focused on their morning chores. There was a knock on the door, and who surprised us? Tracy Chaplin, the onsite producer for our “Kids by the Dozen” episode!

Tracy spent a dozen days with us throughout the TLC experience. He is a private man who not only gets into his work, but gets into the lives of the people he is interviewing. During the course of the filming, he connected with our family so much so that we opened the door to the most vulnerable, painful story of estrangement with our oldest daughter. Without his initial love for us and for people in general, we would not have opened the door to the profound story of love that, ultimately, led to our writing of Love in the House. 

We only got to visit for a couple hours. Being a documentary producer, he was on layover in Denver working on a project for the History Channel. We were blessed by his visit, albeit short. On the way out the door, he said, “Funny. I haven’t been here for 14 months, but it’s as if I never left.” Such is the love of true friendship.

Blast from the past: Tracy interviewing Josiah.

We had all these kids (only four families represented) over for a New Year’s Eve party. You’ll love this video…