Family Camp Rocks!

Prior to saying yes to speak at the Ozark Conference Center, I knew next to nothing about Family Camp. I’d heard my friend Julie mention Family Camp, but figured it was just an outing her church did. Boy did I have a lot to learn!

Our friend John Thomas provided the perfect opportunity. He asked if we'd like to spend Labor Day in Solgohachia, Arkansas, talking to 20 families in the mornings, then spending the rest of the days doing Family Camp.

Not only is Family Camp bigger than one church and even one denomination, it's a fast growing, nation-wide phenomenon. (Ok, maybe not a phenomenon, but it is popular!)

Our induction to Family Camp was here, in Solgohachia, AR, at the Ozark Conference Center (OCC).

In it's early days, OCC's mission was to bring inspirational speakers such as J.I. Packer, Jerry Bridges, and Elisabeth Elliot to the spiritually hungry in Arkansas. We were humbled thinking about the speakers who had come before us, but we felt God's anointing in presenting the things He's been teaching us about fruitfulness, God-oriented parenting, and living intentionally.

It's not a ritzy getaway. (This tractor was our transportation. And that's John--Camp Director, pastor, and chief tractor driver.)

But that's the point. Instead, it was a long weekend of making new friends

alongside swimming,

games,

archery and turns on the zipline and scream swing,

meals in the mess hall,

morning devotions and worship, evening prayers under the stars, and more.

We played a Family Camp version of Survivor.

We painted our faces, gave ourselves a name (Rockin' Dynotastic Anacondas), and competed hard for the prizes. (Not sure what they were, but we had fun trying!)

Most importantly, we enjoyed it all together as a family.

We sure hope to do it all again next year...and maybe even meet some of our readers there.

Andrew Peterson Counting Stars, Playing Guitar, LIVE

A few weeks ago, I'd never heard of Andrew Peterson.

Then Steve mentioned that AP's new CD was full of songs about doing family.

Then, like someone who's never seen a white Toyota Sienna until after they buy one — and then that's the only car they seem to notice everywhere — I started seeing tweets about Andrew and his upcoming release of Counting Stars.

The next thing I know, Steve's scheduling dinner with Andrew and Steve Ford of Centricity Music, and time in the studio to record an interview for the Boundless Show.

And what an amazing time it was! This guy's album is a soundtrack for the life of a couple in the trenches of making a good marriage and raising kids for God's glory.

And his books have captured our kids' imaginations.

I hope you'll take a minute to listen to him play his guitar and talk about why family is at the center, right next to his passionate faith in God.

Hiking with Kids

Once upon a time, I wrote an article about family hikes. In it I said, "We figured if we raised two kids in Colorado and never got out in nature, they'd never let us live it down. So we bought some hiking boots and a guide to the Pikes Peak region and started walking." That was five years ago. Since then, we've had two more kids and out of necessity, slowed down our pace. Recently we dusted off our trail book, laced up our hiking boots, and headed back to nature.

Turns out my advice back then still holds. Even with twice the number of kids (maybe more so). Things like:

Don't be afraid to try something new.

Do it for the kids.

Make it fun.

Five years ago I wrote, "Encouraging a four year old to keep going to the end of a 2-mile hike can be a chore. But when he knows there's a root beer float waiting for him at the end of the trail he's more likely to embrace the challenge. And when his little legs get tired and he starts begging for someone to carry him, we often divert his attention by singing songs or practicing his letters ('What does apple start with?', 'How about baseball?', etc.)"

Maybe I should have actually read that old article before we went hiking. Confession: I remembered it after the hike, while editing these photos. And so instead of having a clever game ready to distract our three-year-old, and certainly no plan in place for root beer floats post-hike, Steve carried our 20 month old in the back pack and the three year old in his arms. (Ibuprofen anyone?)

But even being less-than-prepared, we made lots of memories in a beautiful place.

Back then I wrote about the joys of guilt-free chocolate on the trail. "Who wouldn't love a reason to eat some favorite high-energy snacks, knowing the exercise involved will burn those calories?!" For this hike I forgot to buy snacks before we left.

And so, we stopped here.

For snacks.

Very salty snacks. We should have brought more water than we did.

Instead, we shared our one water bottle and focused on some more of that advice: The thrill of discovery.

There's something new and innocent about a child discovering God's creation for the first time. A new bird, a bubbling stream -- or in this case, our state flower.

All these and more provide lots of oohs and ahhs on the trail while instilling a respect for nature.

Realizing "they can do it" is a big deal for little ones. Each step taken over rough terrain, each trail completed, even the occasional scraped knee can build self-esteem in kids. And even if they don't self-actualize, they'll be glad for some undistracted time with their favorite toys: Mom and Dad.

Neils Family Photos

What a pleasure it was to be with an old friend today. Even more so to be able to photograph her beautiful girls and newborn son. (It's no surprise we haven't seen each other, what with all these kids running around!) We had a full house in our red living room. And later, outside.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, it's ... Six Planes, Actually

It was a warm, windy day with clear blue skies.

The perfect sort of day for looking up. (Even better with a hand full of chips.)

What were we watching?

The United States Air Force Thunderbirds!

Okay, that last image wasn't mine. I was shooting with an up close lens. Here's the shot I got with my camera.

You can kind of see the planes if you look really closely.

Every May, the Thunderbirds fly over the Air Force Academy at the precise moment the graduates toss their hats in the air. It's a stunning show from within the stadium. But even from miles away, it's quite a show.

And a LOUD reminder of the price the men and women in our armed forces pay to protect us. We are grateful. Thank you.

Boundless webzine's LIVE webcast

Yesterday Steve and I were part of the first-ever LIVE webcast from Boundless.org. What fun it was to be a part of the production. And it was some production! I didn't know you could fit that many talented people into one control room. The team behind the scenes did an amazing job of getting all the film clips, mics, people, cameras, and more coordinated. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it.

Unless, of course, you include the production that is getting dinner on the table in our kitchen every night!

Here it is, archived. The whole show. Steve is in the opening segment, with host Lisa Anderson (you may recognize her from the Boundless Show podcast). My contribution is at the end. We wanted to mix it up a bit from what I typically do in the Q&A online and for the podcast. So we landed on a lightning fast round of answering questions from Boundless readers. I think we squeezed in 25 questions in about five minutes. It begins at minute 43:53.

Enjoy! And if you're as moved as we were by the film clips and conversations about the "life-on-life" ministry going on through Focus on the Family, I hope you'll consider making a donation!

Thanks for watching.

Spring is Finally Here

Mere days separate us from the freezing temperatures that brought us hail and ice as recently as two weeks ago. But it does seem that spring has finally sprung here in Colorado.

Along with these dandies.

Which aren't really dandy after all.

Unless they're sitting in a vase by the window. Handpicked and delivered with a crooked smile and lots of love.

Spring's the perfect time to remember we're raising kids. Not grass.

How Kids See Things

Our recent trip to the zoo was a good place to see the wonder we've been missing.

Keep reading ...

Photography Lessons

When I'm not answering questions for Boundless, running sorties to the library, washing clothes or wiping noses, I love taking photographs. This semester, I had the added pleasure of teaching two students some photo basics for our homeschool co-op. Today, we're pulling together some of our favorite shots for an end-of-year presentation. Following are Becca's faves from our colors and patterns lesson.

Now for her best black and whites.

Cake

Of Teddy's first taste of chocolate.

And the response, though tepid at first, was unequivocally YUM!

An Even Shorter Short Season

This fall, it only took one week to go from this:

to this:

After a short burst of glorious color and one outing to Pike's Peak, we started passing around a virus with cold-like symptoms and spent the better part of Indian summer indoors. Then yesterday the ice came.

Today's drive to church was eerily lonely and one of the boldest red trees in our neighborhood was laying on the ground like a fallen sentry. (The marks on the trunk suggest there's a car out there with a badly dented fender.) I guess it's good we don't watch much TV—that kept us from knowing about a huge multi-car pileup on the slick interstate last night. If I'd known about it, we probably wouldn't have gone to the early service this morning. But I didn't. And we did.

It was good to be back after so many weeks of someone being too sick to go.

Now we're feeling nearly back to normal and in the mood for lots of this:

What's the weather like where you are?

Experiencing the New Normal

Saturday mornings are our time for fun. We start the day with pancakes and lately, a loud dose of Phil Joel's deliberateKids. Churchill, who's been known to utter the words, "where's my microphone?" grabs the paper towel roll,

<p</>Harrison tunes his broom,

or whatever other instrument he can find

and we're off and running.

Last night we went to see the real deal in concert.

The kids were especially pumped to meet the band and shake Mr. Joel's hand. But for Teddy, it was just another outing in pjs. He seemed most interested in the band's luggage.

And putting whatever technological things he could get his hands on into his mouth. Or at least trying.

It was a great show. Loud music to dance to. New friends to make. Air guitars to strum and riffs to mimic.

It was well worth the long drive to Longmont to see the Joel family living their message of deliberately pursuing relationship with God and the abundant life that follows.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Out-of-town company and consecutive days of rain aren't things we're accustomed to. But sometimes when it rains, it really does pour. My Dad arrived amidst scattered showers last Thursday, and it pretty well rained throughout his five-day visit. Though we were glad for the free water (I can think of a lot of things I'd rather spend money on than our utility bill), it posed new challenges to find five days worth of mostly indoor activities for the whole crew. We ate Crock-Pot chicken thighs and veggies—when the weather's right for comfort food in the middle of spring, you have to go with it!

But of course, we couldn't just eat. We had to find things to do. So we traded our typical schedule of hiking in the mountains and picnics in the park for bowling and playing cards. (The older kids are just old enough to start learning our favorite family game: Whist.)

We also went bowling, picked up pizza for dinner, baked cookies, told stories, and slept in sleeping bags (that last part was a kid thing).

On Saturday morning, my Dad took the big kids to Cracker Barrel for a down home breakfast and a to-go box of Marsha's buckeyes for me, thanks Dad! (Note: Marsha started selling these buckeyes 24 years ago in the grocery store I went to as a kid.) Then on to Lowe's for their Build and Grow Clinic (they made another variation of the wooden box project, hammer and real nails included).

By Saturday afternoon, it was time to get outside, rain and all. (Like I said, it doesn't rain here much so, yes, that is a sled on my dad's head.)

And after that. Carving! Carving what, you ask? Why, watermelons, of course. (You didn't think we'd carve pumpkins in May, did you?) This guy's still out on the front porch with a candle inside.

By Saturday afternoon, Steve and I needed a break. And thankfully, so did the storm. Just in time for our date to to celebrate our anniversary. Steve brought me these:

One for every year we've been married. During that non-raining hour or two, we zoomed over to P.F. Chang's for some dinner while the kids rode bikes and dug in the dirt and my Dad made mac 'n cheese. (Thanks to a tip from Tightwad Momma, our lettuce wraps were free.)

Now that Ippy's flown back home to dinner with my Mom, we're winding down a wet and wonderful weekend, full of gratitude for grandparents, and soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. In the words of one tweet, "Memorial Day is to honor those that did extraordinary stuff so that we can do ordinary stuff."

Well said. This week, rainy days and Monday didn't get us down.

Bluebabies, Strawbabies and other Good Words

One of my favorite things about a child just learning to talk is the creative way they pronounce words. Most recently, it was our 2-year-old reaching out for the pints of blueberries I'd gotten on sale at the grocery store. "Bluebabies, bluebabies!" he demanded. Not sure what he was after, I looked to see him up on his tip-toes, reaching for the precious fruit. I gave him a few. Not enough. A few more. Still no good. He ate the entire package. At least they're full of anti-oxidants. That's what I tried to remember when, a few hours later, the bluebabies had done their work on his diaper.

Bluebabies. Strawbabies. Raspbabies. That's what he likes to eat just before we say "good might" for the evening and take him upstairs to "Rock!" and sing "Twinkle." Precious.

Of course once they start talking, they rarely stop. Except at night when (if) they're asleep.