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.

Straight from the publisher brings better deals, this month 50% off!

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:

"This freedom is wonderful. This family life is liberating."

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…

Marriage, parenting, grandparenting--these are the things that define life.

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:

Creativity: An "image of God" trait.

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

This is the start of Cynthia's extemp box: a collection of articles to help master current events.

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.

People are genuinely curious on how big families operate.

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.

Probably our best Christmas ornament ever!

Those who think the Jeub kids are deprived, they don't know what they're talking about.

Stockings stuffing consists of fruit, candy, a new ornament, and a wrapped gift.

We have nearly 100 Christmas letters taped up...we'll start reading them after New Years over breakfast every morning.

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 »

We collect Christmas letters sent to us, and we read them through January at breakfast.

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!

Wendy and I took about 25 minutes to sort through all the stuff that has stacked up over the year. It reminded us of one of our most popular FAQs, “How Do You Budget for Christmas?” Our Christmas tree barely has room underneath for all the gifts. Click for the full FAQ:

http://jeubfamily.com/2007/12/04/how-do-you-budget-for-christmas/

I’m working on a book called How to Think. It is in rough draft form right now (set to release 2010), but I have to give you a sneak peak on a chapter where I attempt to expose one of the biggest frauds in our modern times. Considering late-breaking news, you’ll catch on to what it is. Enjoy.

Academic policy debate students freely use the term “status quo” as if it is a common table-talk term. It isn’t any longer, but the meaning of the term is quite fascinating. Debaters are tasked to run cases that challenge the status quo and promote a change to its policies. Negative teams are tasked with attacking the affirmative’s propositions and, essentially, defend the status quo. All in all, the activity teaches students to never presume that the way things are done currently–or what is necessarily believed to be truth–is actually the best policy.

So engrained in our media today is, what I believe, to be a huge hoax, one that millions of people (many whom are in control of our world governments) believe without one shred of doubt. It is an all-out fraud, nearly cult-like, and challengers to this status quo form of thinking are branded “deniers” of what appears so obviously clear.

Global warming is this fraud, and it resembles a religious frenzy more than a scientific theory it claims to be. Several readers of this book may frown on my choice of what to call a fraud (couldn’t I pick on Wall Street greed or the years of the Bush administration?). Please, hear me out. It usually doesn’t take me long to put a Global Warming activist on the defensive, and if these folks are serious with themselves, they typically start doubting what they have always been told was the truth.

I remember being taught in the 7th grade that the world, in fact, was cooling. Come to think of it, I was taught that glaciers were on their way to overcoming the northern hemisphere and would greatly impact my way of life. The earth was on its way to freezing over.

This wasn’t the only farce that came through disguised as educated science. I was also told that the lakes of the Upper Midwest and Canada were all acidifying due to the irresponsible pollution of industries. The claims were profound, too, making sure my small preschool brain was fearful of the harmful effects of pollution. Today, Minnesota and Canada have the best bass fishing in the world.

Every decade seems to go through their scary doom-and-gloom tactics. In the 90s, the tropical rain forests were on the course for destruction, and the entire West was to be obliterated into desert wasteland as a result. Today the jungles of Brazil are just as thick as ever. Who can forget the evils of Y2K? Be honest, some of you still have wax candles in the basement leftover from your stockpiling preparation of certain disaster. For the past several years, every flu outbreak has a predicted course of wiping out one-fifth of the world’s population. It never does.

The thinker should push against any theory, idea, or even apparent scientific finding that struts its arrogance around posing as fearmonger. This is the element consistent with all of these doom-and-gloom scenarios: fear. Fear and change, that is, usually change that involves money to invest, lives to change, and a change in power. Fear is a tool to control the masses, and it is precisely what is evident in the Global Warming movement.

Remember, these are the “scientific community” that Al Gore touts is in consensus! One of the most revealing comments about the Global Warming movement came from Al Gore when he was promoting his 2004 movie, An Inconvient Truth. In response to some who were doubting his findings in the movie, he responded, “There is no debate.”

There is no debate? You mean, there is no room for discussion or questioning or doubting? That is exactly what he meant, and most of the Global Warming advocates are taking this stance a bit further. There is concerted effort to mock those scientists who have questions Gore’s claims as “deniers” failing to honestly accept the “fact” that global warming exists. They’re made to look like crazy Chicken Little, when Chicken Little resembles these scientists more accurately.

Even when these Global Warming activists choose to debate, their reasoning is squirrelly. There is an uneasy umbrella of reasons–anything, really, that goes on in the climate–is now explained away with a simple word change. Instead of Global Warming occuring (they’re slowly admitting that such showings are infitesmal and, perhaps, non-existant), they are claiming “Climate Change.” How convenient of a position. Just a few years ago we were at most certain doom of rising ocean levels and heatstroke, but today we are faced with global cooling patterns that are just as bad.

This isn’t science.

Looks like a good book, eh? I had tried to publish this in ‘09, but time got sucked up with all sorts of other projects. I hope to wrap this up early in ‘10.

Other great reading on ClimateGate, being touted as the largest scientific cover-up in modern times. If you haven’t heard about it, it is likely because major news stations are sitting on the story. The news is incredible.

• Do Smoking Guns Cause Global Warming, Too?
• Science Is Dying
• Blue Book Report covers the story that the rest of the media doesn’t

The Jeubs are looking at a very blessed Christmas, but it is going to be tougher than we’re used to. The ministry of which I head up, Training Minds Ministry, is not doing well. I have not taken a paycheck from the ministry for over a month, and it looks like I won’t for the rest of this year.

We bit off a lot this year, training more young people and parents than every before. We marched our campers to a great deal of competitive success in our first NITC program, and we hosted camps in Colorado, New Hampshire, California and Florida this year. We launched online classes so students can be trained by the best coaches to speak and debate, no matter where they live. Check out our website and read the fantastic testimonies.

Make no mistake about it: training the mind for action is ministry, a ministry that is needed today more than ever. Not only are these young people moving on in competition (they are the best in the nation), but they move on as leaders in the workforce, in politics, in their families and neighborhoods. See, training the mind means training in how to think, speak and persuade. The skills our campers and students learn are second-to-none. Check out what one of our campers, Nic Townes, said after attaining semi-finalist status at Nationals in June:

I can honestly say, at least on Esther’s and my behalf, that any and all success we experience is a direct result of the investments Training Minds and NITC have made in us. Thank you ALL again and happy hunting for those still in the race.

No doubt Nic will go on as a strong leader “in the race” for the Kingdom. As will hundreds of students who go through our programs and thousands who use our resources. Attend a speech and debate tournament in your area and you’ll see what I mean. If you had any doubt in the youth of today, they’ll be washed away when you see these future leaders speak and persuade in their rounds.

But we need help to keep the ministry going. We are opening up registration for next summer in January, and down-payments and other financial commitments need to be made now. Besides, our prices are figured out ahead of time, and these prices greatly depend on how much in donations come into the ministry in December. There are many families who would not be able to afford these camps and classes without the generosity of our donors.

Would you consider making an end-of-year donation to Training Minds Ministry? It is completely tax-deductible. You can be rest assured that your generosity will go to doing great work for young people.

Thanks for considering this. Donate here. And Merry Christmas!

I had asked permission to post some content from “Born to Breed,” but CBS turned me down. I wondered why they turned me down because most other WE-tv shows were all over YouTube. It must have had something to do with the editing I wanted to do (like strip out the strippers in the intro–yeash). If you can stomach that, here is the Secret Lives of Women “Born to Breed” show.

UPDATE 12/18/09: The person who posted the show apparently did not gain permission from CBS. I figured as much, but I also figured their legal department would sort that out. Strange, it seems like all the other “Secret Lives of Women” are all over YouTube, but their legal department is concerned about our show. It may be because it is so new and still being aired.

That said, there is this clip from the “Secret Lives” website:

Our most popular section on our website is our FAQ page (Frequently Asked Questions). No wonder, really. Life with 15 children is an exciting and interesting life. We’re happy to know that people are curious!

I spent a lot of time revamping our FAQ section to make it easier to navigate and understand (see the page here). We’re open for suggestions on what you would like to know about us, about large family living, about the quiverfull movement, about parenting–whatever you want to know.

Public speaking is a big deal in our family. Training Minds Ministry, the organization I lead, has training camps for speakers and debaters, the largest camps of the kind in the nation. We take “training the mind for action” seriously.

And we start young. Below are two videos of some Jeub speeches given at the Colorado Junior Speech Tournament. Noah and his friend, Michael, took first place with a hilarious duo of a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon strip. Below that is a shorter video of the twins (4 years old) giving a speech in front of a room full of people. They did the Berenstein’s The B Book.

These are more than just entertaining: they are encouraging. Think about it. This is our future generation of leaders, thinkers, and speakers. Building these skills up in the young ones is what our ministry is about. Consider supporting us at www.trainingminds.org.

Rick Wilking works for Reuters as a photo journalist. He was there with CBS during the shooting of the “Born to Breed” episode. You’ll see a lot of the same shots that was on the show, but Rick captured the moment to a tee. Check out this video, posted in July… Read the rest of this entry »

We just learned that the “Born to Breed” episode of Secret Lives of Women is available through the iTunes store. If you have iTunes on your computer, click on “iTunes Store” in the sidebar and use the search to find “Born to Breed.” The entire show can be downloaded for only $1.99.

It’s a great show, really. Don’t let the title scare you away. The only reservation we have is the marketing guy (the producer is convinced it was not a woman) who put together the intro–shows women with body tatoos and leather outfits. Sick. But, get past that and watch the show; it is a nice and thought provoking episode.

And don’t be so quick to judge the adversaries on the show. They have very personal takes on the Quiverfull movement. Though they are vocally against families like ours, their perspectives are interesting. We think especially of Vyckie and her oldest daughter, Angel. They have a heartbreaking testimony of religious abuse and judgment. Sad, Vyckie admits she brought this on herself, though she ultimately lays blame on her x-husband. They’d probably be surprised to know that Wendy and I found ourselves really hurting for them, and in some ways relating.

See, there is much to be said about religious legalism in this Quiverfull movement. Many of us (Vyckie included) at some point thought works could somehow replace the personal calling God has in store for our families. We take fine-tooth combs to Scripture and come up with all sorts of foolish dogma on how to live perfect Christian lives, and I suppose letting God bless you with children can be one of them. It wasn’t till after our fallout with Alicia, our oldest, that we began to see the error of our way. We go into depth with this in our book Love in the House where we returned love to its rightful place in our family.

Of course, we still hold fast to the promises of Scripture and the calling God has for the Jeubs. But we take the Word of God at its word: Love is the most excellent way. Place anything above love and your life will morph into an ugly, legalistic beast. This is the picture Vyckie and her new friend, Kathryn Joyce, try to paint of families like ours. Thank God they’re wrong.

Believe it or not, I ordered Kathryn Joyce’s Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement. She’s a good writer, though she comes from a secular feminist perspective of the world. She admits in the introduction to this. I would argue that she fears the implications of conservative, Christian parents with several children. Her arguments attempt to put families like ours into a carefully defined, narrow box. After this, she will systematically tear the box apart with her feminist perspectives.

Heh, only past the intro and I can see where it is going. Kathryn, if you’re reading this, return the favor and buy our book.

You may be visiting this site for the first time after viewing “Born to Breed” on WE-tv. Welcome! Tell us, what did you think of the show? Enter your answer into the poll to the right.

Special Deal 30% and free shipping

If you want to find out what really makes the Jeub family tick, get our book Love in the House. We delve into many of the issues that were brought up in “Born to Breed.” Wendy’s new diet book Love in a Diet is a must. Order tonight and receive 20% off any of our books.

We have only a few resources, so if you want to buy them all, take advantage of our “One of Each, Please” sale. All five products come at 30% off PLUS free Priority Mail shipping.

Comment on the show in the comment fields below, and subscribe to this blog. We’ll be posting our thoughts of the show soon. (Believe it or not, this evening was our first time seeing the show, too!)

Tonight’s the debut of the Jeubs (with others) on “Born to Breed,” WE-tv, Secret Lives of Women. We hope you can watch it at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

We have not yet seen the entire show, only the clips that are online. Wendy and I are going to a friends’ home tonight to watch the show. The producer is overnighting a DVD to us to watch with the kids on Wednesday. I’ll be Tweeting during the show giving my live thoughts (Wendy will be with me). Go to www.twitter.com and find me…my handle is “chrisjeub” (one word, lower case).

We’re excited about this show for a different reason than TLC’s “Kids by the Dozen.” The TLC show was more of a spotlight, a feature family film where we told our story. The CBS show is a documentary, less reality television and more of an investigative journalist piece. We’re analyzed for our decision to have as many children as God sees fit, and two positions against this idea are likewise analyzed.

I sometimes find it hard to believe that there are people who find us offensive. We’re having children, and we believe these children are blessings to not only us, but to everyone around them, to society as a whole. If our example encourages others to have children, then great! We write our books and blogs for this underwriting reason: to encourage couples to have children, to throw off the all-too-easy arguments out there that paints children as drags, as liabilities. Children are blessings, period, end-of-argument. So, therefore, have children.

It’s not too complicated, but oh boy, is it controversial. Follow my tweets tonight, and post your thoughts on www.jeubfamily.com.

CBS just posted the clip of the upcoming “Secret Lives of Women” show. Check it out…

I love the part showing me chasing Alicia and Alissa. Funny, that was our 2-bedroom apartment, Wendy and I were both working full-time to get me through college. We were extremely poor, but man, those were good days.

One of the other moms profiled is Rachel Scott. She was on the Joy Behar Show on CNN:

Rachel handled herself very well, didn’t she? I think that was HER skiing behind that boat. Way to blow those stereotypes out of the water, Rachel!

The two ladies to her left were anti-quiverfull women, and their show clips are here and here. We’re not so quick to jump all over Vyckie or Kathryn. We find their perspective adversarial, but also a bit enlightening, as to how people view us. We can’t wait to hear Vyckie’s story. Full of pain, rejection and judgment from what she claims came from the Quiverfull movement.

This is turning out to be a very interesting show…airs 10:00 p.m. Tuesday on WE-tv.

We got word yesterday from CBS News: the Jeubs will be featured on the Women’s Entertainment Network (WE-TV) on Tuesday, November 10. The show that captures us (and two other “quiverfull” families) in the series Secret Lives of Women, this episode titled “Born to Breed.”

Huh?

Yes, you read that right: “Born to Breed” on the Secret Lives of Women. Take a look at some of the past show titles here. Tattoo artists, polygamists, abusive women, and worse. This is a rough crowd we’ve jumped into. Quite dicey.

Update: The producer emailed me a newer link that updated the show’s title to “Quiverfull Moms.” We’re back to “Born to Breed”…See here.

But Wendy and I have a strong story to tell, one that we hope CBS fairly captures. In a nutshell, God has laid on our hearts to have children, and we raise them with the tools He gives us. Our “dicey” side is this: we push back on popular assumptions about families like ours. More specifically on WE-TV, Wendy brings this message home to women.

There is a popular sentiment against family life. For a moment, consider the rush of arguments. Women like Wendy (housewife, mother of 15, living on a modest income) are stereotyped. She should be fat, barefoot and pregnant, at her wit’s end. Her life should be oppressive and overwhelming. She should have no self-esteem, no joy or fulfillment. You know, the woman-in-a-shoe template.

Wendy–a fulfilled, beautiful woman who follows the heartfelt conviction from God to have and bear children–dispels these myths. Come to think of it, this is a “secret life,” one worth exposing on sensational television. We are a large, happy family who are living the life we were born to live. We hope the show brings to the surface a universal question women have: What would my life be like if I, too, had children? Maybe a lot of children?

We have been given fair warning about the show. The preview of the “Secret Lives of Women” series has some risque camera shots, I suppose what you’d expect from cable television. Two other quiverfull families are profiled. Rachel Scott has much more experience than us appearing on nationally recognized news broadcasts (e.g. Fox News) advocating for families to embrace the quiverfull movement. The other family is a divorced mom who previously embraced the quiverfull lifestyle, till her marriage fell apart. Kathryn Joyce, a known anti-quiverfull feminist, was interviewed for the show, but I’m not sure if she made it through the editing. We’ll see how it goes.

Doing these television shows are a bit nerve-wrecking. We don’t see the show till the rest of the world sees it. Tune in Tuesday, November 10, and watch it with us. I’ll post a poll on www.jeubfamily.com for your feedback.

This morning we celebrated the twins’ birthdays. Havilah and Joshua waited in the boys’ bedroom this morning as the rest of the brothers and sisters prepared presents and breakfast in bed for them. We ushered in and showered them with gifts.

It is hard to believe they are 4 already. It seems like they were just born! One of the first posts on jeubfamily.com was the news of their miraculous birth (read the 2005 archive here).

Happy birthday, Havilah and Joshua!

We returned yesterday from our yearly elk hunt. We’ve enjoyed success in 2008 and 2007, the two years I began bringing my children hunting. I have four children of age to hunt, which caused me to seek my dad’s help mentoring them in the woods. Needless to say, we had not one opportunity to harvest an animal. To make matters worse, my dad (who traveled all the way from Minnesota) got altitude sickness and had to return home on the second day of the hunt. More bad news: Franklin Springs Media pulled out of the filming opportunity for financial reasons, and now I’m kind of glad. The anticipation of one of the youth taking down an elk for the camera was let down, but…

We had the time of our lives. Follow with me on this. I’m not just spinning a bad experience into a good one. We seriously had a mountain-top experience, one that most men never have in their entire life.

Sitting with my kids all day long in the Colorado mountains was absolutely precious. Micah went hunting with Grandpa, I brought Lydia and Isaiah, and Cynthia stayed close to camp on her own. The weather was about 60 degrees and sunny–way too hot for hunting, but incredibly comfortable for hiking through the mountains and enjoying one another. Watching the 17, 15, 13 and 12 year old work hard and patiently at completing the hunt was a joy for a father to observe. And to see them enjoy themselves despite a successful harvest, I couldn’t be more proud.

Fellowship was impeccable, probably the best in all my years of hunting. Two other dads brought children: Ron Stauffer (with Rachel, Reuben and Ryan) and David Adair (with son, Matthew). Camping at 11,000 feet requires a lot of work–team work, the kind you expect from mature adults. The teens never complained when one of the dads gave an order. They worked hard, always contributing to the betterment of the camp–cleaning this, preparing that, getting odd jobs done that needed to get done. The hard work paid off with the most open and vulnerable joy around the campfire, best friends singing and laughing in the moonless nights of the Colorado mountains. Perhaps the joyful noise at the camp drove all the elk away.

Ron and David are best friends of mine. Our conversations were open and honest, the kind that only come in the most welcome environments. We shared our struggles with business, cast visions for our futures, and encouraged one another as men. It was magical; tough to put it to words. We “carried each other’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2) and “sharpened one another” (Proverbs 27:17), I suppose as men should do more often, much more often.

My dad wisely observed, “Being out here brings you closer to God.” This was one of the first things he said as we began the 2.5 hour drive down the mountain to meet my mom in Salida, a halfway point to get Dad home. It started a conversation that dug deep into our 39-year relationship, bringing up issues that are much too intimate to share on a blog. Though the depth is unique to my dad and me, it is in a sense universal. Every father and son have issues to work through, even at ages 66 and 39. Don’t get me wrong, my dad and I have a great relationship, but 2.5 hours of windshield time was exactly what the both of us needed.

God wanted us to be in the wild for five days, set apart from the same-old routines of everyday living. We fool ourselves to think reality is in our sterile, monotonous, scheduled lives. Reality–sober, unadulterated, pure reality–shows itself when tromping through the woods for several days seeking to fill a DOW game tag. I hate to admit it, but in his divine wisdom, God kept the elk from getting in the way, getting in the way of finding Him, finding ourselves, finding reality.

Moses returned from Mt. Horeb, the “mountain of God,” with a renewed strength in his purpose (Exodus 3-4). I can relate, and it is one reason I return every year for our family elk hunt. We’ll have other years to enjoy a harvest. This year was a pruning year. I not only feel refreshed, I am refreshed. A dozen hunters returned from the mountains walking with God, ready and willing to keep that walk going into their lives.

The Jeubs, Stauffers and Adairs: Elk Camp 2009.

To see the rest of these photos… Read the rest of this entry »

We’re gearing up this weekend for our big elk hunt. Franklin Springs Media just released their promotional video that features two hunts, a Tennessee deer hunt and a Colorado elk hunt…

We had a professional photographer take photos of our family a couple weeks ago, and he put together the following montage. There are some really good shots in here:

Presidents have called emergency addresses to Congress for national crises, largely limited to big issues like war. Last night President Obama addressed both members of Congress on what he considers an emergency: health care. He and the Democratic leadership have come under fire lately for insisting on a government takeover of 17 percent of the American economy. This was his 112th speech given on health care reform, one that was expected to be a slam-dunk speech that would clarify the controversies and relieve the doubts the American people have grown in the past few months (currently, 52% oppose Obamacare).

I watched him last night with honest curiosity. Sure, I’m against ObamaCare, but perhaps, I thought, I would gain some insight into the democratic proposal. Instead, I was enraged. Barack Obama turned on the offensive, stating he would “call out” those in opposition to his health care plan for their lies in three areas:

1. Creation of death panels
2. Funding of abortion
3. Medical care to illegal aliens

Mr. President, let’s be “called out,” specifically on these three claims. Here goes…

1. Creation of death panels

This was a direct counterattack to Sarah Palin’s coined term “death panels” from her Facebook comment a month ago. Nowhere in Obamacare are there things called “death panels,” but does this make Sarah’s claim a “lie”? Hardly. HR 3200 specifically mandates end-of-life counseling for terminally ill patients as a money-saving procedure. President Obama explained how “perhaps taking the pain killer” would be better for an elderly patient. The following You Tube video of the president himself:

Now, which sounds more like the truth? Sarah Palin’s Facebook term “death panels” or Barack Obama’s explanation how government will decide end-of-life issues? The President can call this end-of-life “counseling,” I suppose, but I would hardly call Sarah’s word choice a “flat out lie” as he did last night. In fact, her word choice struck a chord with the American people; it is a fair analysis of the President’s own explanation of his bill.

2. Funding of abortion

Abortion on demand is the Democratic party’s pillar issue, so it is extremely difficult to believe it’s now off their radar. For Obama to claim that he would protect “federal conscious laws” smells fishy. FactCheck.org sets the record straight in a full article, “Abortion: Which Side Is Fabricating?” Its subtitle says it all, “Despite what Obama said, the House bill would allow abortions to be covered by a federal plan and by federally subsidized private plans.”

Now, FactCheck.org is a non-partisan group, hardly a right-leaning group. The article addresses reasonable claims that abortion is covered in HR 3200. Responding to NRLC’s director Douglas Johnson’s claim that the government plan is to cover all elective abortions, FactCheck.org admits, “Our analysis shows that Johnson’s statement is correct. Though we of course take no position on whether the legislation should allow or not allow coverage for abortions, the House bill does just that.”

The declaration of a lie does not make it a lie. President Obama is wrong, flat-out wrong. Coverage for abortions–all abortions–is in HR 3200.

3. Coverage for illegal immigrants

There is a provision in HR 3200 that exempts illegal immigrants from federal health care option, and prior claims that illegals are directly covered in the plan are false. But no one is currently making this claim. The problem people have is that HR 3200 has no mechanism that requires validation of citizenship, thus making it very plausible for illegal immigrants to apply and receive health care. This already happens in many state health care systems that did not put an enforcement mechanism in place. Just like emergency rooms are required by law to treat anyone who comes in — insured or uninsured, legal or illegal — HR 3200 could reasonably be held to the same standard. The 1,017 page document doesn’t seal this loophole up, and amendments proposed to do so have been purposely kept out of the bill.

Cause for concern? Yeah, I’d say so, and according to a recent Rasmussen poll, an overwhelming number of Americans think so, too. The President is attempting to marginalize this concern by claiming, “That’s a lie, plain and simple.” This just doesn’t cut it.

It is NOT plain and simple. These aren’t “lies,” and claiming them to be so are insults to our intelligence, to our concerns. President Obama’s “calling out” those people and calling them liars is backwards. The democrats who are pushing HR 3200 should be “called out” to explain themselves, not vice versa. The status quo has presumption: US medical care is the envy of the world, produces the best medical treatment in the history of man. Handing over that system to the government is a pretty big sell, one that is in the President’s court.

Last night the President was tasked to make his 112th speech on health care, to answer unanswered questions, to reveal his plan — again — with the suave that got him elected. He instead attacked his adversaries, presumably the Republicans to his left. Frankly, I wish the Republicans were truly an opposition party, but last night they were standing and applauding much more than opposing. No, Obama was not attacking Republicans; he was attacking concerned citizens and the American people, 52% of who now strongly oppose ObamaCare — nearly twice that number since the bill was released to the public. They are rightly “calling out” the President to justify, to explain, and to deliver the truth.

He didn’t do that last night. The more people read for themselves what is in the bill, the more skeptical they become…in the bill and its advocates.