Yesterday was an incredible day for the Jeub family. Wendy managed two shifts of children at a local NSF-approved kitchen to grind and prep about 1000 pounds of pork that was donated to us and our ministry. Wow, what a blessing. So glad we’re not Jewish. Wendy started at 7:30 a.m. and finished up at 10:00 p.m.

I wasn’t sitting around, either. I was in the office all day with our web developer to add features for customers of Blue Book Report, an online academic debate site. I also wrapped up Monument Publishing’s most ambitious publishing project: the Ironman Curriculum: a 330 curriculum that teaches every aspect of debate. We are three weeks ahead of schedule getting it out: it’ll ship Monday and Tuesday to eager coaches.

We work our tails off. It is a marvel to most, and we think it is “marvelous.” Though the economy is tanking, we continue to have more work to do that most can even fathom. We pondered a few things last night:

1. “Work” for the family is “our” work. Though Wendy and I were in totally different places doing totally different things, they were both just as important for the family. Putting up a couple hundred bags of ground pork is just as important as building the publishing business that brings home income. Wendy never asked me to take the day off to help her, and I never ask her to hang up being a mom so she can come into the office to do the “important” work. We’re both working for the family.
2. We know when to rest. Though yesterday wasn’t one of those days, we are caught resting quite a bit. There is a difference between “rest” and “slothfulness.” I seldom sleep in past 6 am, and Wendy hardly ever goes to bed before 11. We hardly ever waste a minute, and taking a long nap on a Sunday afternoon is a fantastic use of time. We’re kinda looking forward to that this afternoon.
3. We love to work. I think everyone should work hard, even the unemployed. In my opinion, if lowering the minimum wage will decrease the amount of unemployment (which it would), I say go for it. Why? Because people need to work, even if it is a temporary fix. And work is good.

It was after 10 when we arrived home last night. The kids went straight to bed after prayers, and we were quick to follow. We laid in bed and talked about the good, hard work that we finished. It is exciting to see so much pork put up, and such a ground-breaking product hit the shelves–and so far ahead of schedule at that.

I saw a bear this morning. Every morning I walk the dog to the creek. Fresh cup of coffee in hand, sun not yet up over the ridge, cool mountain air. A perfect morning to stroll down the hill. Low and behold, a big brown bear was walking up the hill to greet Brownie and me. It was 50 yards away.

Fear leaped into my throat, but I didn’t run. Instead, I pulled out my phone and recorded the bear. I could tell it was spooked, more afraid of me than me of it, a non-aggressive bear more interested in trash than male flesh. Instead of running, I recorded it on my camera.

Should I have run? Judge me if you want, but I was thoroughly enjoying this morning’s walk.

I returned to my porch (everyone’s still asleep at 6:00 am). I recorded some more, my heart pounding, watching this big brown bear run around in the brush oak behind our shed. The dog by then caught scent and barked off the bear. The excitement was over.

Now here’s the cool part of my morning. I cracked open my Bible for a morning devotional. Psalm 2 was queued up on my Bible Gateway software:

“Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.”

Okay, God. You’ve got my attention. What are you showing me?

Granted, I’m not in rural Alaska and that bear was not a Kodiak or grizzly. But I had a fear and trembling in me when I saw that bear. Not the kind that causes you to turn and flee, but more of a hunter fear, the trembling “buck fever” that shoots through you when you meet the wild face-to-face. And within the trembling, I admit: I find joy. It is thrilling, unsafe, dangerous.

There are plenty of verses that speak of refuge and harbor, “deliver me from evil,” including danger. God didn’t have me turn to those verses this morning. Come to think of it, I seldom have conviction to pray for danger to go away. It has been to engage it and overcome it, a challenge to be met. Life happens, and when risk happens to greet me in my path, I actually enjoy the encounter.

My business right now requires some big decisions to be made. Wendy and I have huge plans in the next month. Our children–all 15 of them–have individual needs to be met. So little time, so little direction, and I feel like I’m making up things as I go. Risk and uncertainty is everywhere, and if I’m not careful, fear could cripple me. It could rob me of joy.

How should I continue through the challenges of life God has in front of me?

Answer: continue to serve. Serve my wife, my children, the families in ministry and business. And serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

I just published an article on our corporate blog at Monument Publishing, “‘Dominant Design’ for Home Education” (read it here). It’s an attempt to explain just how important we believe speech and debate is for home educators.

There is a reason we knock ourselves out every year going to tournaments and competing every chance we get. It isn’t to wear ourselves out. It is because we believe the activity teaches our children more than any textbook or lesson plan can come close.

I write and publish curriculum for the homeschool speech and debate community, but I’ve not coached a club for three years. We’re going back to coaching with a new club here in Monument: Monumentum. Cool name, eh?

See the Monumentum Club Webpage Here

Monumentum has three teachers on staff (I’m one of them) and will be following the Ironman Curriculum in the fall. We’ll be hosting our own tournament in November and prepping for competition throughout the year.

Read the article I posted minutes ago. If you are able to make it to our Colorado Conference in August, there are still available slots (see here). If you and your family make the commitment to do speech and debate, you will not regret it. I have yet to hear of anyone who does.

A couple years ago we published a very nice 48-page study guide to accompany our Love in the House book. It is now available in Published Digital Format (PDF) for free when you order the book (and the book is already 20% off retail). It’s a great study for groups or with your spouse. Here’s a reprint of the introduction:

Reading Together

Not many people can imagine a life raising as many kids as we have. At the time of writing Love in the House, we were the parents of 13 kids, and finalizing this study guide a year later we have 14. The Learning Channel’s “Kids by the Dozen” series is very popular, and we have enjoyed our attempts at explaining how our life operates.

As hectic as our lives are, we couldn’t be more fulfilled. God has called us to this life. Our days are filled with dirty diapers, sibling rivalry, and piles of unfolded laundry. Our income scratches the upper end of the poverty level. Our clothes are mostly second-hand, we’re preoccupied with finding deals at the supermarket, and our travels avoid virtually every attraction. Why would we claim to be fulfilled?

The answer is in the title: Love in the House. We have learned lessons in love that are most profound, and our book unfolds many loving truths. Love is nothing new, really. It has been preached since Jesus Christ showed the ultimate testimony of love by dying on the cross for us. Since then the greatest stories, songs and poetry have attempted to grasp the profundity of love.

Because love is so much more than an academic study, we worked hard to develop this study guide to encourage couples to learn these depths together. While we’re sure our book is a good read for individuals, it is best experienced when read together as couples or in a small group of couples. We agree with Alexander Strauch what he says in his book Leading With Love,

Christlike love for others cannot be learned merely by reading a book in isolation from people. Math and history can be learned by reading a book, but not love. Love requires a minimum of two persons, the lover and the beloved.

You can experience Love in the House in three ways, the first being as a married couple. Because the chapters are short and concise (we did this intentionally), spouses will find it easy enough to read the book together. We envision moms and dads cuddled up together in bed reading our book before retiring for the night. Discussions should flow from their reading that will strengthen their marriages, their parenting, and their understanding of love applied. At the end of each section, we included a “Couple’s Reflection” to incite deep discussions about family and marriage. This study guide should intensify your experience.

The second way to experience this book (and which this study guide is primarily written toward) is in small groups. This study guide is written for seven individual meetings, perfect for book groups, Bible studies and couples groups. These groups enjoy the camaraderie of others as they wrestle with the challenges laid out in these pages. Truth be known, all parents struggle with raising children. You should not need to go it alone; connect with others and “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2).

A final way to use this guide is as a group leader. A special appendix is included that lists possible answers to the questions in the guide, giving the group leader ideas for lively group discussion. Special digital downloads are available on our publisher’s website (www.monumentpublishing.com) that give group leaders handouts that can be easily printed for the group. Use the code on the inside cover to access these free resources. Ladies’ and men’s groups, Bible studies, and couples groups are most rewarding experiences, and we encourage you to invite your friends and study through the guide together.

Our hope and prayer is that love will fill your home to allow God’s will to blossom among you and your kids. Coming to terms with the profound power of love will transform your days and bring slices of heaven to your earthly life (Matthew 6:10). While our book tiptoes around very practical household solutions like managing money, rearing children, and so on, the greatest and most practical of them all is the mastery of love. The most perfect home absent of love is a misery, a dark tragedy of good intentions, a situation we wish upon no couple, and a home that God desperately wants to heal.

Open your hearts to the transforming power of love. Enjoy your journey.

~ Chris and Wendy

Already own Love in the House? No worries. You can order the PDF for only $2.95 for an immediate download. Click here for Love in the House Study Guide PDF.

“Did you plan to have 15 children?”

More than one person has asked us this question. Answer? No. In fact, I don’t know anyone (and we sort of hang out with parents of large families) who claims to have planned to have a lot of children. Family planning wasn’t and isn’t on our minds. God has that figured out. He’s the plan advocate. We’re just the parents who love each other and trust in God’s plan.

The picture above was not posed. Tabitha was cuing up a YouTube video and the kids naturally huddled around. The iPhone pic made us ponder. Wow, just look at ‘em. Every one of them have unique personalities, each one adding so much value to those around them. They’re like the Little Rascal’s Gang, the Boxcar Children, the kings and queens of Narnia…put together.

Life is good, children are a blessing, and planning otherwise doesn’t make sense.

National Public Radio came out with an article last week about how incredibly expensive it is to raise children these days. Like most government entities (which NPR is), the numbers are displayed as nearly shocking. Gasp! the title reads: “It Costs $222,360 to Raise a Child.“

Read the article. It is short and sweet, the obvious conclusion that it is a heckuvalot of money to raise a child nowadays. The Jeubs blow this study to smithereens. We have rebuttals for such nonsense…

1. Housing accounts for 31% of total child-rearing expenditures. This accounts for 1 child. What’s the housing costs for a second child? Perhaps 1% for getting a bunk bed from a garage sale. Most homes come with more than a couple rooms, so housing plummets after the first child. Claiming 31% total expenditures is like claiming per-person fuel expense in a car; add a passenger and it adds virtually nothing to the fuel expense.
2. Child care & education. Odd how they lump these together. Assumption is child care at a young age then paying for their own school. 17% of the yearly expenditure. They must not have interviewed moms who stay home and homeschool their children. Wait, that doesn’t matter. Those families have to pay for their own school and child care AND that of the public schools. That’s only fair.
3. Food. Wow, 16% goes to the grocery bill. Much of Cheaper by the Dozen CD digs into that. This is perhaps true for our family of 13. If a one-child family is spending this much, I’d like to see how their spending their money. They need a lesson in frugality.

These numbers don’t faze us. We’re having more children and our expenses will be covered. According to this study, we should be making $182,000/year to survive. Heh, heh, heh. That’s funny.

What do you all think?

We returned Sunday from the first Stoa NITOC (National Invitation Tournament of Champions). Hundreds of homeschool families whose kids qualified to the National Tournament gathered at the University of San Diego for speech and debate competition. It was an absolute blast!

And Lydia came through all the way to the final round in Original Oratory! It is a pleasant explanation on siblings getting along with one another. Lydia has made it through a significant journey in understanding and accepting her brothers and sisters, and her oratory attempts to bring it all together. We’re quite proud of her accomplishment.

And here’s her speech, the final round at NITOC, captured last Friday:

The Jeubs made a really tough decision earlier this week. We were all settled on packing up all 15 of us heading to San Diego for the Stoa NITOC tournament, rolling the honor in with a vacation. Typical homeschool thing. We’ve been extremely busy trying to pull all the details together.

Then sickness hit us. Me particularly, then our 3-yr old Priscilla, followed by virtually all the littlest kids…for now. Our plan was to head out at 4:00 am Thursday morning for our pilgrimage. It would have been a lot of fun, but because sickness ruled our day, it just wasn’t gonna happen. The Stoa NITOC trip has become another tournament trip, rather than the end-of-the-schoolyear family vacation that other families are enjoying.

Good news: we pulled together plans for a California Debate Camp in Laguna Hills in August. We’re already planning to follow that camp with a family vacation. So, we’re looking at this as a postponement. We’re disappointed, but this happens sometimes with big families. Eh, it happens in all families.

I imagine the girls will get a lot of “where’s your family?” questions at NITOC, but that’s okay. We wish them well and pray that they don’t get sick.

My childhood friend from 8th grade is at it again. He made it on the cover of my favorite current events magazine, World. I absolutely love the opening line. Oh my, what an article. I have it started below and link to the rest…

The quiet weapon

Meet a man who plans to balance the federal budget without raising taxes and put the U.S. economy on sure footing without bailouts, overhauls, or takeovers: Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan | Edward Lee Pitts

WASHINGTON—Paul Ryan likes to hunt. The strategy involved in tracking his target, the need of going at it alone, the skill to take aim, and even the thrill of the kill are reasons why Ryan, who recently turned 40, goes hunting as often as he can. But he prefers walking into the woods without a gun.

“Rifle hunting is easy, but bow hunting is tough,” claims Ryan, who stalks prey with his bow as often as he can, even making his own sausage from his kills.

The sport’s allure to Ryan provides clues to why he is drawn to the part of his life that’s not a hobby: being a lawmaker. This year Ryan, a six-term Republican congressman and senior member of two key committees, shot a quiver full of arrows at the nation’s ongoing fiscal crisis by targeting healthcare, the tax code, trade policy, and entitlements in a substantive and daring proposal he calls the “Roadmap for America’s Future.” MORE…

I’ve got several Wendy Pictures in my photos, and this one was taken with my phone at 2:00 a.m. the morning after Easter Sunday. Wendy and I rushed to the emergency room with Zechariah who had a bad case of croup. The picture here shows Zech trying to sleep, waiting for the steroids to kick in, sucking on oxygen.

If you know croup, you know how scary such a situation is. Zech is #15, but our first to experience croup. The wheezing coughs made it so difficult for the little guy to breath. That night was getting worse and worse. The lungs collapsed deep into his chest as he heaved in and out. He couldn’t sleep because of how hard he was working to breathe. After a night in the ER, he pulled through and is now fine.

This isn’t the most glamorous picture of Wendy. I suppose I could have picked the studio shot where she radiates (like this one). I like studio shots (she’s beautiful and takes a great picture), but I love action shots. Wendy in action: mothering her children. Studio shots tell of her beauty, but action shots like this one show her love.

Wendy makes mothering look easy. I suppose it is when you love your children. She doesn’t have to fake anything. And the more children that she and I have, the more loving of a mother she becomes. Here’s a quote she posted on her Facebook page a couple days ago:

“Some argue that having so many children weakens our ability to love them all, but we disagree. There is a miltiplying phenomenon that occurs in large families, where there is strength in numbers and a compounding of love.” ~ From Love in the House

Happy Mother’s Day, Wendy! Your husband and children love you.

Things were rolling quickly earlier this year–many key things coming together for a May 9 release of our new book Love Another Child–but we’ve decided to put the project on hold till this fall. It was a complicated and difficult to decision, so allow me to explain.

We’ve got the book completed and proofed. We cover deep topics. We envision Love Another Child as a pivotal, life-changing book for couples, validating in their minds what they know in their hearts: having and loving another child is a wonderful step in the right direction.

But we were running up against a hard deadline. Wendy and I even spent a few nights in a local hotel so we could pound out the final edits of Love Another Child in time for a spring release. We were incredibly confident we would be able to pull it off, sharing some of the great pieces on this blog, and even announcing draft releases by Mother’s Day.

We have the book complete, but we’ve gotten some rich editing advice from our editors that we cannot ignore. If you’ve read Love in the House, you’ll agree that the last few chapters are the real gems in the book. Sure, the beginning is fun to read (how we manage a household of a dozen children is interesting), but to fully grasp what we are trying to say–the heavy convictions that beat in our hearts–you’ve got to let the last few chapters settle. The profundity of love is what the book is about, and readers are persuaded that–no matter what the family size–love is what must rule.

Love in the House has made an impact on thousands of families, and that we are grateful to God for that. We want to impact millions with Love Another Child. This is much bigger, but the persuasion needs to be greater. We can’t afford to turn off the reader with the opening ideas against population control, environmentalism, etc. We take on some dicey issues. Though we end on the profundity of love, many will not make it to the zinger conclusion. We have to essentially turn the book on its head, start with love, and then move the reader through the more controversial topics that we want them to overcome.

And that takes a major overhaul, some more retreats, a lot more time. We simply do not have the time right now. We’re planning a big trip to San Diego to support Cynthia and Lydia in competing in the national homeschool debate tournament. We’re volunteering at the CHEC homeschool conference shortly thereafter. My business has camps and resources stacked up in the queue for 2010 summer release. We’re starting a forensics club here in Monument and the kids have horse camp in a month. Pulling off Love Another Child cannot happen as planned.

Please accept our apologies. We are committed to getting this project done, it just won’t happen as originally planned. There were several other reasons for delaying its release, but the editing decision is the biggest one. We have September 1 on the calendar to return to this project, with the hopeful release a few months later. Stay tuned!

Time for a sale. We have every one of our products marked down to only $9 each. This includes:

• Love in the House (Reg. 14.95) — Now $9
• Love in the Kitchen Vol. 1 (Reg. 19.95) — Now $9
• Love in the Kitchen Vol. 2 (Reg. 19.95) — Now $9
• Love in a Diet (Reg. $14.95) — Now $9
• Cheaper by the Baker’s Dozen (Reg. $12.95) — Now $9
• Arrows in His Hands (Reg. $14.95) — Now $9

If ordered by Tuesday, we’ll get this in the mail in time for Mother’s Day. Wednesday may be pushing it, but we ship everything Priority Mail. We’re keeping this deal open till May 15. Order these books for the Mom you know and love!

Two adults, three teenagers, and 10 children–crammed into a 15-passenger van for an 18-hour drive to San Diego. Are we adventurous or crazy? Maybe a bit of both.

“Stoa” is a new homeschool speech and debate league that we’ve affiliated with (we still affiliate with the NCFCA). Their first national tournament will be in San Diego in May. Well over a thousand homeschoolers will attend, and we’re going to be a part of this exciting tournament. Cynthia and Lydia qualified in all their speech and debate events, and I (Chris) will be running a mini-camp the weekend before the tournament for qualifying debaters.

There was a huge hesitation in going. Traveling with so many little children (five are 5 and under) will have its share of challenges. We had originally planned to send just the girls to compete–fly in and fly home. Quick and easy, no brood to keep watch over, simple.

But then we thought, “Why not?” The cost of driving out with the family is not much different than a few flying to and fro. No car rental necessary. We won’t stay at a hotel (we think hotels are rather boring), but are making arrangements to camp (cheaper, and more recreational options). Considering the choice between being apart for a week or being together, we decided to stay together.

Sure, it is going to be a lot of work in the coming weeks to prepare, but that’s part of the fun of it. If you can make it to Stoa’s National Invitational Tournament of Champions, look for the Jeubs!

Pictured: Cynthia and Lydia nearly broke to outrounds when they went up against the Rose/Rose team, Robert Rose pictured to Cynthia’s left. Funny how far back our history with homeschool debate goes. I remember judging Robert’s older brother, Joseph, at the 1999 HSLDA debate tournament in Virginia.

This is a gem of an article. We’ve been feeling this stuff for years. Read the complete article, but here are some nuggets…

• Isn’t it true that we “lotsas” are using more than our share of natural resources, burning more than our share of carbon, and just plain taking up too much space? Probably not.
• Many large families actually have a smaller carbon footprint than a typical family with one or two kids.
• It’s not the numbers that count; it’s the lifestyle.
• Two or three kids fit in a bathtub at a time. The oven stays on 350 degrees for 45 minutes, no matter how big the meatloaf.
• Most large families I know don’t live in energy-hogging gigantic mansions.
• We happily trade a second income for another armful of babies. The quick and easy methods of saving the environment that make the news daily are hardly news to cash-strapped families.
• Children of families that are open to life also know something much more important, something that rabidly utilitarian environmentalists still don’t seem to realize: A human soul is more than the sum of how many kilowatts he consumes.
• Grown children of large families tend to be what you might call natural conservationists…A small crowd of perfect environmentalists.
• Love your children, and teach them to love each other; and if you and your brood feel like a sign of contradiction, then that’s a good sign.
• There is no contradiction between loving and caring for the earth and supplying it with inhabitants: We are commanded to do both.

Can you think of more? Add to the list below…I’d love to hear how we are helping the environment by having more children.

Our two-week tournament tour is over. I traveled with two of my daughters to Modesto, Calif., and Seattle, Wa., for two fantastic debate tournaments. My family has been involved since the inception of homeschool debate in 1996, and I’ve met a lot of people over the years. Good people on trips like this: competitors and their younger siblings timing, alumni taking time off from college to judge rounds, parents rooting on their children and volunteering on tournament staff, and grandparents with their video cameras. What good folks, a rich community.

And what an excellent activity. The day I witnessed my first debate, I knew, this was it. Speech and debate is a tool used to “train minds for action” (1 Peter 1:13, our ministry’s key verse), a key to fulfilling the Great Commission and move mountains in our world.

While waiting for awards to start in Seattle, I struck up a conversation with a dad. I knew him just a little, his son attending our camp last year. I had seen his wife more often at previous tournaments, but he was the chaperone this time around.

“I don’t make it to many of these tournaments,” he said. “Boy, are they impressive. I am so optimistic for the future.”

I hear this often. These kids are sharp. I, too, am optimistic when I see these young people do so well, and I attend as many tournaments as my time (and money) allows. Not all dads are able to do so, and I love to talk with them when I can. I inquired further about why he was so optimistic, asking, “What makes you say that?”

Think about that question. Before I share what this dad said, think: Why are you pumped up about speech and debate? It probably isn’t trophies, as you may think comes to the mind of someone who loves competition. Some avoid the activity because of its competitive nature, making the naive assumption that we folks are “all about winning.” I suppose there have been some over the years who gloat as they take their trophies. Okay, whatever. Here’s a little secret from someone who’s trained the top winners in the league: champions don’t worry about such things. Ironically enough, when they begin to grasp that their prize is beyond the trophy, they start to win.

Here’s another common reason: scholarships. Tough to blame parents for thinking that. Colleges consider speech and debate kids top-notch, best-of-the-best students to lift their academic reputations. Thousands of dollars can be saved for competitors (particularly debaters) who have stacked up winning records. Competitive forensics on your transcript opens doors for post-secondary education unlike most (any?) extracurricular activity.

Even if awards aren’t stacked to the ceiling, students still come out strong. Simply having debate on a high school transcript tells an employer, “This gal is focused” or “That guy is smart.” Communication is not a hurdle for alumni competitors. They handle interviews confidently. They make friends easily. There’s so much going for the graduate of speech and debate. Their future’s so bright, they’ve gotta wear shades. (Over the kids’ heads, but parents will appreciate that one.)

These kids are awesome; I’m so proud of them. All of them–even the ones who struggle in adulthood. Speech and debate is no silver bullet to raising perfect children. I have 15 children. The older I get and the more children my wife and I raise, the more we’re convinced that a silver bullet to parenting doesn’t exist. That said, in my opinion–and the opinion of the dad I was talking to–speech and debate is the best shot we’ve got.

This dad’s response had little to do with the kids, not even his own son. When I asked what made him so excited for this program, he got very personal: “These kids move me.” And then he explained his observing the event, Persuasive Speech. Paraphrasing a little: “I listened to the final round, and they genuinely challenged me to focus on God and on important issues of our day.” He referenced several other events. “In the debates, I had previously thought one thing, until I heard such-and-such debater argue against it. I had never thought of some of the things they brought up. The oratories, the questions they got in extemp and impromptu and apologetics–all I can say is wow. These kids are delivering the truth unlike our generation ever did, or even tried.”

“They’re training minds for action,” I returned.

Please forgive me. This was a shameless plug, referencing our ministry’s verse. Sometimes I can’t help myself. We pour our all into kids, to train their minds for action–in and out of the tournament. They learn to think, speak, and persuade. Spending a week with these focused students, you leave impressed. More so, you are captivated, rivited, moved.

The dad recognized my sales pitch for our events. “Yeah,” he smiled. “We’ll be there this summer, don’t worry.” Then more seriously, “You helped my son do well. Thank you for all that you do.”

I cannot tell you how much this moved me. I’m not an emotional man, but I definitely felt the lump in my throat. Thank you, Lord, for the encouragement, I thought. I changed the subject. “I have an idea.”

“What’s that?” he said.

“How about we get every homeschool family in the nation involved in speech and debate?”

Not missing a beat, he said, “I’m in!”

Call me a dreamer, but I believe it would be awesome if every homeschooler were involved. All 2 million of them. All training their minds for action, confidently moving into life, their jobs, politics and government, churches, the economy. Strong, confident, Christ-loving adults starting families of their own. This dad and I are like-minded. We invest in our children’s competitions, in their training, in their resources–whatever it takes to give them the opportunity to compete. Why? If we’re honest, it is because they move us.

Republished from Monument Publishing. Cynthia Jeub contributed to this article.

I just listened to Samaritan Ministry’s response to Obamacare HR 3590. It is a great, valuable listen: http://www.samaritanministries.org

• Listen to Samaritan Ministry’s response on the passing of HR 3590.

The bill is the most aggressive takeover of the private sector in the history of America. We’re sickened by how Congress broke its own reconciliation rules, lied about how money would be saved, and passed the most overreaching bill in history. What a travesty and a mockery of our Constitution, a real punch in the face to America.

We are so incredibly opposed to this bill. Contrary to what you may think from listening to the news, health care will go down and people will die because of HR 3590. Proponents have fallen for the dramatic stories of the left about lack of health care leading to deaths. It doesn’t take much economic understanding to note that because government took over health care, we will see quality nosedive and a welfare-type bureaucracy blossom. Yet, speaking of death, the bill does allow for public funding of abortions. Not one pro-life organization endorsed HR 3590, which should have spoken volumes to the so-called pro-life democrats who turned coat on their convictions for the unborn.

An interesting advantage that Samaritan Ministry cited is that doctors will be more open to cash payments for medical care. Samaritan will attempt to gain an exception to the penalty for refusal to purchase health care. As medical care diminishes in years to come, people like us who pay upfront with cash will rise to the top of medical care. It makes sense: it’s sort of like shopping for a house without having to wait for a mortgage to go through; if you had cash, you’d get the house you need.

Now more than ever, Samaritan is the option for our family. We so believe in the program. Click here to apply, and let them know the Jeub family referred you.

It’s finished! At least the brainy, creative part is. It has been exhausting getting these 50,000 words to a publisher. Man, it is good to get it out the door. We aren’t quite sure how quickly WestBow will turn it around, but we’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, remember the 50% off sale on MonumentPublishing.biz. All our products–including the 2007 Love in the House, all our cookbooks, and Wendy’s Love in a Diet. Note the special inventory clearance of Arrows in His Hand, too. These deals are only good for another week, so stock up.

Life goes on. We have a NCFCA National Open Tournament in Denver starting Wednesday, speeches and debate briefs to prepare, and a couple kids have come down with fevers. Never a boring moment!

Monument Publishing has 40 of these storybook remaining, and does not plan to reprint them. They are 1/2 price for the rest of the month, and will disappear from their .BIZ store when they are sold out. This is a fantastic storybook that was written when our twins were born. See here for complete details.

We have some very good friends who have nine children. Shelley, the mother, and her daughter, Morgan, penned a beautiful story about the blessings of children through this storybook. Morgan, 12 at the time of illustration, has a tremendous gift in art. This mother/daughter team wrote the story of Jubilant and Jubilee, two villagers who welcomed the gift arrows from their King.

You get the idea where the story goes. Through beautiful pictures (see below for some great pictures) and a craftily told story, children–and even adults–will catch the vision for the gift of children. This is a must-have for families who share in the vision of letting God bless them with kids.

Writing a book is tough; it drains you. We’ve been pounding this content out for over a year, little by little, but have really turned up the time commitment since Christmas. Twice Wendy and I have locked ourselves in a local hotel to pound out content. So much to say, so much burning in our hearts, that this book is almost poetic. I hate to sound haughty, but let me risk it: “You’re going to love this book!”

We changed the name from “Have Another Child” to “Love Another Child.” We were struggling with a part of the book that reflects on broken families who cling to the idea that bringing children into the world will fix their family. Having children alone–without love–is just as ugly as any family absent of love.

Who knows what the editing process will weed out, but a table of contents has been established. I grabbed a snippet from each chapter and pasted it below. We hope to have the book in entirety off to the publisher by the Ides of March.

Chapter 1: Our Early Convictions

We do have this regret: we wished we understood the profundity of love at a younger age. This book doesn’t end with a legalistic command to have another child. The title is Love Another Child, and for good reason. If we would have had that mom and dad of a dozen kids next door pour their wisdom on us when we were young and struggling with our convictions, we imagine them telling us to love our children more.

Chapter 2: The Camera Eye

Let’s be clear: we pray over every single media opportunity we have, and this opportunity seemed to open up quite naturally, as if God was blessing it. We’ve turned down opportunities before, even some that promised large compensation. We interviewed with the CBS producers and were convinced that they were genuine, honestly seeking answers to our unique lifestyle. We don’t doubt they were interested; granted, we live an odd life and people are genuinely curious about our family. But “Born to Breed”? What a stupid title. We grew worried at how we would be portrayed, but by then there was nothing we could do. Besides, our faith, not our doubt, directs our steps. God opened this door for us, so no matter what happened–ridicule and shame included–we were going through with it.

Chapter 3: Financially Speaking

It isn’t poverty that is a shame, it is an impoverished mentality that is. What a shame it is when parents carry this weight around their neck. Rather than put their resources to work and together fend for themselves, they bury their God-given talents and accept the impoverished mentality. Shame.

Chapter 4: Our Environment

Our hope is that someday men will look back at the practices of the 20th and 21st centuries and ask the same questions we ask of previous centuries. How could they have justified such atrocity? We ask this of slavery, how a free nation could allow buying and selling of human beings. It is with the same blind idea that we justify the restriction of the birth of children. Human life is devalued, always illogically so. We don’t buy their bag of goods, and neither should you.

Chapter 5: Fear of Child Bearing

We have been extremely disappointed to see some Christian leaders jump on the bandwagon of environmental lunacy. They fall for the premise that “good stewardship” (the Biblical root of environmental concern) means liberal political advocacy that responds to the great fear that earth is on the verge of being destroyed by mankind. Good heavens, the air we exhale (CO2) has now been labeled a pollutant. Keep this book; I guarantee that a few generations from now people will look at such lunacy like we do at leech bleeding of the 1800s.

Chapter 6: Making Love

It’s unnatural, really, to fight the attraction a married couple has, especially at the times when the woman is most fertile. Saying “no” when the female’s body is saying “yes” is painful, yet millions of couples resort to this. This is the way of NFP (Natural Family Planning), abstaining when you want to engage the most. It lends to the popular joke about NFP: “What do you call couples who practice NFP? Parents.” It is largely because their wills weren’t able to stand it, they made love when their bodies demanded it, and they were blessed with a child. We say, “Amen,” to that.

Chapter 7: Loving Your Children

When pressed, most parents will vehemently say they love their children. Who wouldn’t? It is when they are alone with their closest confidants that they open up and are more truthful. There are those children who get under our skin. Now, we have 15 children, so we have a lot of personalities to deal with. Loving some have been more difficult than others, but not impossible. Unfortunately, many (most?) parents allow unlove to fester toward one or two children–the tougher children–and the results are devastating to the family.

Chapter 8: Getting Right With Love

It is difficult to share this story with you, brief as it is. The wounds have healed in the past five years, but the pain is easily remembered and felt. In a nutshell, we were told to leave because we refused to support the excommunication of one of our church members, a sitting elder no doubt. The other elders told us we were in sin for not throwing our support behind them. Their favorite chapter to quote was Hebrews 13; not the opening verse “Keep on loving each other as brothers” (Hebrews 13:1), but later in the chapter, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority” (Hebrews 13:17). We refused, therefore in sin, so “there’s the door, Jeubs.”

Chapter 9: Check Out or Stand In

What is there to appreciate about normality, anyway? Do any of us really think we’ll lay back on our deathbeds and ponder, “So glad we were just like our neighbors”? The deathbeds of parents who welcomed children as blessings will be surrounded with a rich and diverse heritage. The childless do not share in this fortune, and one of the saddest realities of our modern world is that most of the childless are so by choice.

Chapter 10: Your Heritage

It isn’t surprising, really, to see similarities. Our personal conviction is quite common: have children, open your heart to the idea of several children, and let God’s love pour in to lead you through the blessed heritage. This “movement” is not a product of a slick marketing campaign, funded by some huge subsidy, or led by an underlying denomination or theology. It is as simple as this: God is pressing on parents’ hearts to Love Another Child.

Wendy and I are on a “writer’s lock down.” We’ve extended our deadline to the publisher (was due Feb. 28) and got a hotel room, managed babysitters for the kids, and are busily typing away on our new book.

I took a quick drive to Taco Bell and listened to Rush Limbaugh get attacked by callers for admitting to have never used coupons. I’m shocked. How did Rush get a transcript of our new book without our knowledge? I’m changing my server passwords. I had better get this posted now or else the Maha Rushie will come after us for plagiarism. Rush didn’t take on bread baking, but the coupon section sounds eerily familiar. Here’s a sneak peak from our chapter “Financially Speaking”:

On a side note: we don’t bake our own bread. Through the 1990s there was a cultural expectation among stay-at-home mothers to bake their own bread. We looked into it and figured at least a few hundred dollars worth of hardware and ingredients that would end up costing more than the bread outlet. Add to that the labor of messing up the kitchen and the cost of running the oven all day long for a family our size, we are glad we blew off this expectation. For us, it was a no brainer: no way are we baking our own bread.

We’ve literally had mothers at conferences come to us as if we lifted the world from their shoulders. “Thank you, thank you, for telling me you don’t bake your own bread! I’m never baking my own bread again!”

We don’t do coupons, either, and we get the same response from mothers who were told they should do the coupon game. We considered all the time it took to cut coupons and compared it to the savings, and our decision to axe the project was an easy one. Make no mistake about it: coupons are meant to get you to buy certain products, not to save you money. There isn’t anything inherently evil about coupons, but they do control the buyer, not the other way around.

The chapter goes on to explain how grocery store marketing is set up, coupons being one of many ways to draw you in to purchasing the product they (the stores and manufacturers) want you to buy. Whenever someone defends coupons by saying something like, “I saved 50% on my grocery bill because of coupons,” we demand to look at their list. “What list?” they reply, “You mean the receipt?” No, we mean the shopping list they started with. There seldom is one. They were led by the hand by the Sunday paper, told exactly what to buy, and they are now proud owners of a cupboard full of food they may not even get to.

So there you go, Rush. We have this time-stamped prior to your broadcast. It’s all original, and the book goes into further detail on how to save money and live the life God is calling parents to live. Now, back to writing…

We’ve separated ourselves from selling our books through a PayPal account. Instead, our store is being redirected straight to the publisher, MonumentPublishing.biz. This is a very helpful move because it allows the publisher to give customers the best deal available, sort of like a factory outlet.

To promote the new storefront, MonumentPublishing.biz is OFFERING 50% OFF EVERYTHING, including all the Jeub Family resources.

This offer is good for this month only, so start ordering up! And please send this email to your family and friends.

If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. – 1 Timothy 5:8

We quote this verse in our CD Cheaper by the Baker’s Dozen. Providing for your family is the 1 Timothy 5:8 way, but is it really talking about financial provision alone? We’d be mistaken to think so. Children are to be taught the valuable lessons of good stewardship, but this is done in both poor and rich homes alike. How much money you have or don’t have makes little difference.

Take our family sport of hunting, for example. We claim that we “hunt for food,” but that really is with tongue-in-cheek. After what we spend on traveling, ammo, gear, etc., hunting is a very expensive method for gathering meat. We hunt for a much deeper, more eternal reason than meat. These include heritage, conservation, family, and rich moments in God’s great outdoors. Sure, there is something to be said for taking advantage of the sport and getting as much in return as possible. From the permits we buy to the land we scout, our minds are on maximizing our hunting potential. We may dream of our trophy bull or buck, but we are thankful to God for whatever He blesses us with. The children are just as into that provision as the adults.

The Jeubs are hunters, but we aren’t the rowdy, shoot guns in the air, poaching type of hunters. We are conservationists who believe hunting is a heritage, much like agrarianism. Being a good steward of the earth is a biblical mandate, and hunting falls into that category of land and wildlife management that is necessary for a healthy environment. After dropping our elk, we make a habit of taking off our hats, kneeling, and laying a hand on the warm animal to give thanks to God for the provision blessed to us.

We choose hunting as a family activity largely because of the valuable life lessons it teaches: conservation, diligence, nature skills, camaraderie, safety and survival, and on the lessons go. Top on the list is provision. The children are eager to contribute to the provision of the family. Knowing that their hard work and diligent hunt brought the food on the table is a realization that sinks deep into the soul. The kids become creators of provision, walking in the image of God.

We butcher our own big game animals. Most hunters drop their animals at the local meat market. No shame in that, but we choose to butcher our own. It gives the entire family a piece of the action, even the little kids not yet old enough to hunt. We will name the choice cuts with the name of the hunter that brought down the animal, like “Lydia’s Tenderloin Steaks.” What better confidence builder is there than this: sharing a hearty elk steak meal with 16 others all saying, “This elk tastes great!” knowing that you were the one to provide?

This post has been taken from our new book Have Another Child, due out Mother’s Day 2010.

Taken from Chris & Wendy Jeub’s book Have Another Child, release date May 2010:

Life at our home is never boring. Activity is the rule of our days, and we thrive in it. We’re busy, but it isn’t dysfunctional busy, not like a workaholic who dives into an activity to avoid deeper issues in life. We’re busy because there is life going on in every corner of our house. Right now, the baby’s starting to stand up, the toddler is into spontaneous dancing, the preschooler is reading the alphabet, the boys are growing like weeds, the teenagers are preparing for debate and speech–we could go on and on. There is never a boring moment in our home. Children are our life and family is who we are.

Perhaps this is what people find so fascinating about big families like ours. Each child has such a dynamic personality that we have a tough time keeping up with every one. The social norm is approximately two children per couple, the nuclear family, perhaps one boy and one girl. I can imagine what they think of families like ours. “Wow, our family multiplied 7 or 8 times. That’s insane!” And they watch Kids by the Dozen, The Duggars, and Jon & Kate Plus 8 with extreme interest and curiosity.

We didn’t have reference to these popular shows early in our married life. Fifteen children was not even a thought to us. Honestly, we had difficulty with the idea of multiple children, letting them come one after another, because no one in our social circles was doing anything close to what was on our hearts. Chris was a school teacher with more children than any of the other teachers in the entire district (a whopping five children at the time). When Isaiah was born, our firstborn son, all social pressures said it was time to stop. Opinions rolled in–usually unsolicited–from doctors, coworkers, neighbors, church, and extended family. We didn’t have a family of a dozen kids next door encouraging us to have another child. We were alone in our conviction.

On our hearts was a simple prodding: have another child. It wasn’t “have 15 children” or “have more children than anyone else.” Our convictions are very personal, shaped for our lives and our hearts, stemming from our personal relationship with God. As husband and wife, we prayed together and read scripture together. We reasoned together through our weak moments when we doubted our convictions and questioned our sanity.

Our doubts were strong at that time in our life, but our fertility was stronger. Despite a fair amount of effort, we had three boys right in a row: Isaiah, Micah and Noah. Bing, bang, boom. Hardly a year between any of them. By 1998 we had seven children, 4 girls and 3 boys. We were still in our 20s and feeling incredibly healthy and blessed.

A funny thing happened at seven children. The social pressure disappeared. Our family and friends stopped dropping those annoying comments like, “Aren’t you done yet?” or “You do know how that happens, don’t you?” When you have two, you’re extremely normal; at four or five, you are in the same boat as many married couples, wondering whether or not to cut the line and stop having children. Once you’re at seven, you’re in Loonyland–you’re “out there” and there ain’t no persuading you.

Something happened to us, too. The pressures to conform began to roll off our backs. Instead of wondering if we were crazy, we would reflect on how exciting our life was. We laughed the wise cracks off. “You do know how that happens, don’t you?” Yeah, we do, but we refuse to give it up. Or yes, and we’re really good at it. And here’s one that I (Chris) told a newspaper reporter, and it ended up in the local paper: Wendy does, but she won’t tell me. Even cynics laugh with us.

We’re now in our 40s, have two adult children, a grandchild, three teenagers, two tweenagers, three middleagers (is there such a thing?), two kindergartners, three toddlers and a baby. We look back on our early 20s and think, how petty our anxiousness. We wrenched our hands and struggled with our convictions. For what? To avoid this life of limitless activity and joy and love? We are so happy we can hardly stand it. When we sit back and reflect (rarely happens in our busy life, but we manage to find the time now and then), we are incredibly thankful that we didn’t give in when we were young.

Perhaps this is why families find our life fascinating. We’re still young–we could have more children–and we live a free life without the burden of worry that we may have another child. Controlling conception doesn’t fill our thoughts, and discovering a pregnancy is, without any hesitation, joyous news. We make love without worrying something will “go wrong.” We welcome the blessing of children, and our home is filled with the joy of the prospect. This freedom is wonderful. This family life is liberating.

Deep down inside, couples wonder, “What would our life be like if we just let children come?“

Let us know what you think. Post something in the comments section…

Little is more gratifying than hearing of a former student meet the man of her dreams, fall in love, and announce her engagement to be married. I just got word that a former debate student became engaged yesterday. She was one of my favorite, went onto my alumni college, and I’m certain it was because of the recommendation letter I wrote for her (heh). Yesterday was her birthday, too, the same birthday as Wendy’s. Esther, whose Facebook wall today reads “I’m going to be Mrs. Andrew Wagner!” was one of those students I recall thinking, “If there isn’t a guy smart enough at Regis to…” Well, let’s just say that Mr. Wagner is a very smart guy.

A little more gratifying is when these married young couples start having children. Check out the beaming pride of Ron and Rachel, barely in their 20s with three kids already. I knew Ron when he was in high school, his father and I elk hunt together, and now his bride attends a book group with Wendy. Pretty daring on Rachel’s part, a book group of women in their 40s and 50s, yet she enjoys it. They’ve had three kids in four years, the last one being their first-born son. My kids babysit them when the ladies are out. A beautiful family. They’re so full of life and future and optimism, I can hardly stand it.

I see something in my dad’s eyes when I play with my grandson, Isaak. My dad sees something that I don’t fully comprehend, but I’m starting to. It’s similar to the joy I have for Esther/Andrew and Ron/Rachel. He sees me experiencing the joy of entering a significant life stage, that of a grandparent, and he finds joy in my discovery. Love for your grandchild is so different than love of spouse or child. Is there a love more freeing? I can let Alicia and Josh do the tough love of parenting, the kind of love that is often firm and uncomfortable. Isaak is coming over to spend the weekend with us soon. I can’t wait. Grandpa and Grandma (along with his 13 aunts and uncles) are going to pour so much love all over him. Simple, freeing love. If you’re a grandparent, you know what I’m talking about.

This is rather deep, but bear with me for a moment. Wendy and I are working on our next book, first draft due to the publisher at the end of the month. We haven’t nailed down a title yet, but the overwhelming theme in the book is this: have another child. This may end up the title. This may work for readers of this blog, but consider for a moment: what title could be more challenging, more controversial, than having another child?

Truth is, couples today make the mistake of avoiding it, dreading it, fearing it. Our book challenges couples to rethink the all-too-common persuasion that family life should be delayed. Marriage, parenting, grandparenting–these are the things worth living for. Jobs, degrees, travels, money–good things, perhaps, but they pale in comparison. They shouldn’t define your life, and those that are are sad lives. Family: this is what makes life worth living.

Ron’s dad and I were hunting together when he received a cell phone call from his son. Kendrick Rush Stauffer was born that day. At the news of his firstborn grandson, Ron’s dad–elk hunter, Boy Scout leader, business manager, genuine tough guy–wept. I’m certain Esther’s mom cried when she heard the news of her oldest daughter’s engagement. These stages in life bring meaning to it all. These are stages no one should miss.

We’re getting this social media thing figured out. It was quite a learning curve simply because we didn’t want it to drain our lives away. Our Twitter accounts were toes in the water, but now Facebook is blowing it wide open. We opened up a Facebook Page, a place to go for everything Jeub Family…

Jeub Family

If you are on Facebook, become of Fan. Our publishing company, too, has a Facebook Page. We post news items about all our authors (we’re one of many), and if you are interested, become a fan:

Monument Publishing

And don’t forget Twitter! Micro-blogging is working great with our iPhones. Wendy and I both post on what’s going on in our busy lives. Here are the links:

www.twitter.com/chrisjeub
www.twitter.com/wendyjeub

It’s sort of nice having a rare name. The usernames and titles seem to always be available.

Last, but not least, is LinkedIn. Wendy opted out of this one. A mom of 15 need not more social media sites to manage. LinkedIn is especially nice for business-to-business ventures, which I love to connect. I frequent my profile often and love to make connections with other entrepreneurs:

One of the main themes in Love in the House (1 of 5) is creativity, what Wendy and I call “an image-of-God trait.” Creativity separates us from animals. Our shelter, our food, our choices–they all require creativity. No other creature on earth can create anything, only humans can. This is what makes us unique, created in the image of God.

Cynthia, Lydia and I spent some time in California with the Stout family. Marie was last week’s director for the Concordia Challenge (what was the largest homeschool speech & debate tournament in history). We arrived a couple days early and observed a bit of their homeschool. I was intrigued with Don’s weekly labs in his garage. See, Don is a patent attorney with two science degrees, so he and his boys–along with a few homeschoolers in the neighborhood–spend one morning a week to “do lab.”

I doubt he followed a formal science curriculum, and if he did, he steered his own course while just dabbling in it. Don loves science, and he creatively worked a lab into his busy schedule. He and his boys would wake up early once a week for lab, and Don made sure he scheduled a late arrival to the office that day. What fun!

The 16 hour drive home gave me time to think through a lot of things. I wake every morning with my boys to read Scripture, something we’ve been doing fairly consistently since August. We cover a chapter and talk about it. A great way to start the day. The boys and I then straighten up the house and make breakfast, waking the rest of the family to get the day started.

Now, creativity takes creativity, not conformity. I’m not a science guy like Don, and it would have been awkward for me to announce a weekly lab with my kids. (What happened to Dad? the kids would wonder.) I am an English teacher, a publisher, an editor and writer. Lab experiments wouldn’t go over well for me, but sentence structure, grammar and usage–whoa, baby, now we’re talking!

Time is also an issue. I’m a very busy guy. I barely am able to squeeze in the Bible lesson and breakfast with the family. How can I squeeze in language arts lessons? This is the weight I’m supposed to be carrying in our homeschool, and I hate to admit it, I’ve been a pretty lame teacher lately.

Tension. Time versus responsibility. Perfect breeding grounds for creativity. We read Matthew 21 this morning, and after a short discussion about Jesus praying, eating, sharing, buying, we launched a short lesson on suffixes and verb tense.

And we really got into it! I drew columns on notepaper and talked about the five verb tenses. Even I got a little confused, so we did a few Internet searches on the spot, discovered 12 verb tenses, and focused on the four “present” tenses, whipping up a lesson on these. As we whipped up eggs and bacon for a big breakfast, we talked about helping verbs and the ever-so slight differences between the four present tenses, bringing all sorts of examples into the discussion. The boys’ sisters woke up and heard us gabbing about “present perfect progressive” tenses, asking questions and stimulating more discussion.

This is what homeschool should be like, fully taking advantage of parent-child opportunities, spending time together and naturally working through the details of education. It reminds me of Deuteronomy 6:7, a favorite verse among homeschoolers, about teaching the laws of God: “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Or when you’re making breakfast. Or in the garage before heading to the office. You fill in the blank: when is the best time for you to press on your children the valuable lessons in education and spiritual growth?

I’m chalking up a daily activity for the kids and me. We’ll “do English” before heading to the office.

Wendy and I saw Sherlock Holmes. An interesting theme wove throughout: fear clouds our thinking, fear allows evil to triumph, and fear justifies the most hideous behaviors. Of course, Sherlock overcomes his fears (wincing just a little) and solves the mystery in the end. The diabolical plot of the bad guys almost succeeded, solely because of how fearful people could become.

We constantly come up against fear when speaking with couples and their decision to have children, or not to have them. Though God is pounding on their hearts to have another child–or even their first one–they come up with all sorts of reasons not to. All of the reasons are based in fear: fear of poverty, fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of vulnerability and even love.

Parenthood is one of the greatest adventures in life, and couples rob themselves of the experience because of fear. The fear sometimes appears rational, as couples (typically the liberal, yuppie types) cite some college professor’s dissertation on why not to have children. They appear to cling to “reason.” Dig a little deeper, and their reasons are still based on fear. Overpopulation, harm to the environment, economic instability–all doom-and-gloom intellectual dispositions. These couples actually believe they are doing the world a favor by not having children, or at least having just one or two.

With a little bit of research and thought, we find these “reasons” to be extremely unreasonable. They’re laughable, really. While some look at our life with 15 children as “crazy,” it is difficult for us to look the DINK (double-income, no-kid) advocate in the eye without busting out laughing at their ridiculous ideas. Here are a few.

• The world is overpopulated already.
• Human beings harm the environment.
• The economy cannot bear a growing population.

These are the popular mindsets, and our educational system constantly drills these fears into our society. This is one of the biggest reasons we choose to home school. I taught as a public school teacher from 1993 to 2000, and I saw little more than worldview indoctrination in many classrooms. It appears that little has changed since then. A relative (bless her heart) bought my children all sorts of popular magazines for our children. The old classics, like Ranger Rick, could barely turn a page without ranting about the evils of CO2 or global warming. The magazines would come in the mail and very quickly get discarded into the trash.

Fear, fear, fear. No wonder parents don’t want to bring children into this falling, crumbling world? Even professing Christians fall for this nonsense. I’ve been in Bible studies with God-fearing men whose knees shake at the prospect of having children. “Why?” I ask them, and they answer some fear-based gibberish about the end of the world coming soon. More fear, and from the very people who should be fearless!

There are signs this ignorant tide is turning. Yesterday’s issue of Blue Book Report, the online news site that posts daily articles on the debate topic of environmental policy, posted an article about Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski’s attempt to block the EPA’s regulation of CO2. It is insane to think that an unelected executive department of government is attempting to regulate the very gas human beings exhale. In America, no less. What gives them such unlimited power? Fear of climate change, global warming, environmental damage. Never mind the scientific challenges to such fuzzy claims, just think of Al Gore’s claims of world devastation (be afraid!) and you will see the reasoning behind such political power.

Hollywood’s traditional Sherlock Holmes, the one with pipe in mouth and intellectual correction of Watson, looked to science as the solution for everything. This isn’t entirely true with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation. Fear is the reason for crime’s success, for the prevalence of frenzy and falsehood, in the true Sherlock Holmes. In the recent rendition, Hollywood gets it right this time.

“The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.”

~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Valley of Fear

Cynthia and Lydia are away from the family this weekend at the first Region 3 Speech & Debate Qualifier in Salt Lake City. Breaks were announced this morning, and both girls did well. Cynthia broke in all her limited-prep events (Impromptu, Extemp and Apologetics) and Lydia broke in Original Oratory. They are watching and flowing the next round of debate, and will be heading into semi-final speech rounds later this morning.

Wish I were there on this final day of the tournament. I plan to fly out to Salt Lake on Monday to meet the girls at the airport. We then are driving an additional 11 hours to Irvine, California, for the first Stoa Open Tournament (Stoa is a new home-school forensics league). The girls will compete again, and I will have a vendor’s table with speech & debate supplies available to the 400+ student registrants and their families. We’re looking forward to this!

Speech and debate has become the “sport” for home educators. I often ask parents, “Who were the jocks when you were in high school?” Typical answer: football, hockey, basketball players. In the home-school movement the jocks are debaters and competitive speakers. It is encouraging to see academically focused students as the “cool” kids in their social circles.

Are you interested? Our publishing company, Monument Publishing, is the leading publisher of curriculum and sourcebooks for the home-school leagues. We’re running a special on “Complete Preparation Bundles,” intended for those home-school students who want to jump right in and get going. Tournaments are happening across the country, and the Complete Preparation Bundles are exactly what you need to compete. Check out our new Google calendar here to connect with a tournament in your region.

And I’ll let you in on an exclusive coupon that we sent out with all our midseason orders on January 2: the “no brainer” coupon. With any order over $20, you can get $10 off. Simply type in the code “nobrainer” and $10 will be dropped from your final bill. The coupon is aptly named: it is a no-brainer.

I’ll post later with results. Go at it, Cynthia and Lydia!

Wendy and I got a really good email yesterday, and we spent some time this morning writing up an answer for our FAQ section. (We let the kids sleep in this morning because they’re staying up till midnight tonight!) Here is the question (edited slightly):

We have four children and when we are asked if we “plan” to have more and I give some kind of general answer like “I would love to” or “I am open to it.” We get many comments like jokes or even people shaking their finger at us, shaming us. It can be very difficult. How do you handle it?

Short answer? We ignore them. But we have a lot to say on this, so we created a new FAQ on it. Read it here.

We receive two kinds of questions:

• How do YOU deal with negative comments about YOU?
• How do you deal with a culture that looks down on big families?

First answer: we ignore them. There are TV gossip sites that enjoy judging everyone and anyone that appear on television. I guess we’re of the crowd that gets judged. We pray seriously about every media opportunity that comes our way, and we’re confident that God has used those opportunities to touch people’s hearts. We live transparent lives. Sure, this gives some an opportunity to judge us, but it gives us the opportunity to live free. Why fear the words of judgmental men and women?

Second answer relates to any family who has more than, say, two kids. “How do you deal with a culture that looks down on big families?” Answer: We don’t believe in this presumption. This isn’t just an opinion; we really don’t think we live in such a culture. Who says the culture looks down on big families? Hollywood, maybe, but not regular people we run into. When we venture into Wal-Mart with a dozen-plus kids in tow, without exception we get asked if they are all ours. Daring ones ask us more valuable questions like how we manage them all, how we feed them, etc. Again, this gives us an opportunity to be transparent and share honest answers. This FAQ section is an example of our transparency, and it is one of the most popular areas of our Web site.

People do not “look down” on big families. People are curious. Since we live transparent lives free from others’ snappy judgments, we’re more than happy to share our experiences. We’re “live and let live” folks. If God is calling you to have two kids, by all means, have two kids. You’ll be like most couples in the world, and that’s fine, and our family of 15 children will continue to marvel you. God’s calling for you–how He convicts you personally–is what is important.

“Conviction” is a beautiful concept for followers of Christ, and our obedience to allow God to bless us with children stems from a personal conviction. Here’s the kicker: this question is asked by parents who are experiencing the same conviction. This FAQ is for them. How will YOU deal with the negative comments? Here’s our suggestion: ignore them.

You see, there really is no criticism that can penetrate genuine godly conviction. God is love (1 John 4:16), and he loves you and me and convicts us to follow his calling. What is so bothersome about that? The only bother is when we listen to the presumption–the so-called “culture”–and how we should look and act and live like everyone else. If we all listened to the culture, we would have no leaders, no innovation, no heroes, no martyrs. Do you want to have faith like that of a martyr? Walk in God’s path, even if it means walking into condemnation from the culture.

We hesitate to equate ourselves with martyrdom, or claim that we are persecuted. We can hardly call the joyful life of 15 children “persecution.” Our life is filled with unfettered joy–and it’s nonstop around here. This joy is the direct consequence of having so many blessings running around the house, which is, frankly, a direct result of following our personal convictions. If God is calling you and your spouse to have another child, go for it. Be honest with yourself: you’re on this Web site for a reason, and if you need validation to break from the norm and have another child, you just found it.

The snippy comment from a gossiper rolls off our backs, and they should roll off of yours, too.

Well, I’ve been tweeting for a few months now. Social networking is interesting stuff. Though it can suck your time away, it is a great way to stay in touch with loved ones.

So, Wendy just signed up for Twitter and is going to give it a try. She has 0 followers as of 10:30 on Dec. 30. Click on the following to follow:

www.twitter.com/wendyjeub
www.twitter.com/chrisjeub

We had our traditional Christmas Eve service in our living room. We read from Luke 2, finish reading Jotham’s Journey, the kids present gifts to Jesus (several colored pictures and impromptu speeches), and we open our “Thankful” ornament. Gifts to Jesus consisted mostly of colored pictures and impromptu speeches, but Tabitha and Lydia read very thoughtful poems they wrote to the family. I’m sure Jesus was pleased. Our “Thankful” ornament is a box with jots from everyone’s thankful blessings of the previous year. We started this tradition in 1991. It took an entire hour to read through the 18 years of thankfulness, plus go through the entire family to write down 2009’s blessings (every child has a line items).

It’s now 11:36 p.m. Not too bad. Wendy and I have set up all the presents, stuffed the stockings, hung new candy canes on the tree. Strict orders: no waking Mom and Dad up before 6:30, but the kids can unload their stockings when they wake up.

Gotta love this music video. I watched on the Hugh Hewitt blog and thought I’d pass it onto you. I sure wish I had more time to post on the political climate of today. So much of it is anti-family, anti-business, anti-American. Something on the Franz’s website caught my attention: “In a world of dark uncertainties and monopolized ambitions, there is still something that touches the soul. Music.” This video certainly keeps my perspective in line…

The tree is up and the decorations unpacked, and the Christmas letter needs writing. We can’t wait to share the exciting things that the Jeubs did this last year. What a year it has been! As the oldest Jeub child at home, I (Cynthia) am penning this year’s letter. First, let me to give you an overview of our year.

In January, we began remodeling the kitchen. More specifically: we completely tore up our kitchen, dining room, and living room, floors, walls, counters and all. Dad focused on redesigning the kitchen to best fit our large family. The result has been incredible. We replaced the flooring, upgraded our stove, moved the front door, and built all new counters and cabinets (mostly the handy work of our friend, Mr. Adams). Our new layout opens up the entire upstairs, a very pleasant place to hang out.

It’s hard to believe we did anything else this year. Our trip to Minnesota in May, a TV show, speech and debate competition, one scouting and two hunting trips, debate camps, phy-ed, etc., etc. Exciting, and I’ll let all this news explain itself while explaining the family’s achievements of the year… Read the rest of this entry »

Cynthia has drafted our Christmas letter this year, and Lydia will be laying out the design. It is amazing how much time and effort it takes to write out summaries of the year for 17 of us, but it sure is fun to recall all the exciting things in our life together. We will post our letter later this week.

We also LOVE to receive Christmas letters from families who visit our website regularly. Could you include us in your mailing list? Please do! Either email chris@jeubfamily.com with your letter, or mail to:

Monument Publishing
c/o Chris & Wendy Jeub
18725 Monument Hill Rd. #13
Monument, CO 80132

We have quite the tradition concerning Christmas letters. First, we tape them all over our entryway. We’re hosting Monument’s home-school parent party this year, and the montage of family pictures and Christmas letters will be a very interesting conversation piece. Second, we start reading every single letter following the holidays, a couple every morning over breakfast. The kids love to hear about friends and other families, and we take the time to pray for each family we read about.

We hope to receive your letter. God bless your Christmas season!