• Prayer Conference 2007
• Goals for 2011

I am sure there are many deep and spiritually-pertinent things I could say about that conference, but at this point, nobody cares.

Why, you ask?

Because we got a new kitten on Sunday.

New kitten Marco makes his debut on the blog.

For Christmas, Sarah received a gift certificate for her ‘big’ gift: one kitten to be her very own. This is a big deal to Sarah, since she is bossed and rebuked by many of her siblings whenever she tries to pick up our other cat, Misty.

As it turns out, Christmas is a difficult time to get a kitten. It seems that parents around the United States take leave of their senses around this season, and they all rush out and buy up all the available kittens. When the procrastinators show up, there aren’t any kittens left. So we had to go with a certificate.

Fortunately, Sarah is a very patient little girl, and she carefully bided her time, tactfully reminding us, without being obnoxious. Finally, our excuses ran out. Kathy contacted the Itty-Bitty-Kitty-Committee, and we were awarded a visitation appointment.

Sarah waited very patiently, and her patience is finally rewarded!

So now little Marco is part of our family. We hope to teach him to say ‘Polo’ when we call, or at least to Meow. Sarah is beside herself with glee, and our efforts to induce Misty to accept him move forward. As I type, she is crouched by the mud-room door (where we have set up protective custody for Marco), trying to see him under the door.

Truth be told, Kathy hinted that she wouldn’t cut my hair tonight unless I posted something on the blog, and so I took the easy path. I could’ve spent an hour or two crafting a thoughtful, useful blog post, or I could be done in 20 minutes with a few photos of the kitten.

Save time, score!
Get a more favorable response, score!
Get a free haircut, score!

Tim

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This one keeps my heart full of joy and love!

I’m not sure why I continue to have such optimism when one of my other defining characteristics is a horrible inability to actually COMPLETE a project. Really, the only way I ever finish things is because they often come with concrete deadlines. Sigh.

Still, again this is where my optimistic nature immediately kicks in, I LOVE the New Year and the chance to reevaluate the previous year and cast some sort of vision for the upcoming year. In this and last weeks’ sermons, Pastor Jim has been teaching on the importance of establishing godly plans. [Best Time to Plant a Tree Pts 1 & 2] I so appreciate the emphasis on “godly” and “plans” rather than resolutions.

School and candy canes – perfect combination!

Tim and I have blogged on the subject of goals several times over the past few years. It has been a topic that encourages and challenges us in our growth as believers, parents, spouses, and servants in our local church body.

Last week Tim presented the idea of goal planning to our T&T kids at AWANA. These 3rd through 5th graders are such an exciting group to work with. They have energy, enthusiasm, and, unlike the younger ages, are capable of handling some complex and difficult concepts.

Brendan and Zach are ready for some serious goal planning!

Tim shared with them a video from the Skit Guys and selected six student to come up front and read a passage from I Corinthians 3. We try hard to keep the kids engaged and interested in the Word of God – and nothing like a little competition (“Pick me, Mr. Tim! Pick me!”) to focus their attention.

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. I Corin 3:10-15

Finally Tim passed out some goal planning sheets for the kids. Here’s a link to the Word file. I respect Tim immensely for encouraging the children to think about the upcoming year and make some decisions about how they want to spend their time and energy.

Mr. Tim offers a special prize for the kids who return their goal sheets!

Love that the night hasn’t even ended and Bethlehem already has her form filled out!

It has been a tremendous blessing to serve in AWANA as a family over the past few years. Tim is the T&T Director. I help him in T&T’s (administrative duties and the like). Daniel works in the games department (as Joshua did before he went off to college). Rachel is a Sparks leader (probably one of the best in the whole program). Sarah is a current T & T’er and David helps in Sparks when he isn’t attending middle school.

Another awesome T&T’er.

I hope to do some work on my only godly plans for 2013 as well in the next two weeks. I’m sure this will be the year …

Kathy

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Niki invited all interested children in grades 3rd through 5th (with some 6th grade stragglers); she formed a core team of willing kids and created the LC3 Serve Team. Now this team meets monthly for dinner and planning sessions. They practice, train and play. Each month the children come to the meetings armed with their calendar of availability (LOVE IT!) and sign up for ministry responsibilities.

Duties/Opportunities of Service Include:
1) Helping in the nursery
2) Working with the 2 and 3 year olds
3) Serving in the 4 year olds class
4) Leading worship in Promiseland (k thru 5th grade)
5) Acting in skits and dramas

What a gift for the children serving, the little ones being served and the church as a whole! These kids on the “Serve Team” are learning how to minister at church. They are learning the joy of giving of themselves. They are seeing how they can be a part of the body of believers and use their gifts, no matter what their age.

It is thrilling to think we are raising a new generation of children who are excited to be at church, who are taking responsibility for significant ministries at church, and who desire to be a blessing and a servant.

Let’s get that mixer and start making cookies!

During a brainstorming session, the serve team kids came up with several projects they wanted to do. One of them was to make meals for people in need. This week Niki and Nancy (seriously, did I already note how amazing and humble and full of grace, energy and true selflessness these women are!!) put together an entire meal making event. The families were divided into groups, assigned a station, and handed out their recipes and instructions. One team made up pieces of garlic bread. Another set out salad fixings. Still another group prepared the ingredients for lasagna rolls, and of course, it wouldn’t be a complete meal without a dessert (snickerdoodles).

Hurry, we need that Kitchen Aid inside, asap!

Each group prepared their part of the meal and then went to all of the stations to assemble the individual portions. There was even a table of blank notes and a bin of markers so we could write little notes. Next to that table was a collection of names of people who might enjoy a meal (everyone from singles, Prime Timers, and families with a deployed parent). On the slips of paper was the phone number and address so we could easily deliver our meal.

In between our cooking and assembling we had time to write a few notes.

Daniel spent nearly all of the time washing dishes. What a servant!

They think of everything! We had a blast making cookie dough and then going around the room and gathering our meal fixings. I didn’t get a picture of Niki (probably because she was running around answering all of our questions) and I wish I had taken a picture of our final dinner – so compact and ready for delivery. We dropped one meal off on our way home and left the other in the church fridge (all labeled and ready to be picked up on Sunday).

Would you trust these two in your kitchen? (Nice gloves, Debi and Nancy)

Serve Team Rocks!

Thank you Niki and Nancy for all your hard work.

Kathy

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One of our last letters from Grandad

Often our problem isn’t writing the notes, it’s MAILING THEM!! Ugh. Once I found a sweet note Joshua had written to my uncle TWO YEARS after he had received the gift. Seriously? Hanging head in shame.

So two nights ago when I was making Tim’s lunch, I had the brilliant idea of gathering the kids together for a Daddy Thank You Note writing session. I hoped a few cheerful cards in his lunch bag would help ease the transition off vacation and back to “real life.”

“What did I get for Christmas? It’s been so long.”
“Um, it’s been a week and a half.”
“I know, but I still can’t remember.”

We use a company called Send Out Cards for our Christmas letters and other photo cards. For several years we’ve had a subscription, but we never really used it to its full potential. We have birthdays loaded into the database as well as addresses and contact information. I hate to even admit how easy Sendoutcards makes it to upload your own photos and connect with friends and family.

Thank you notes to Pa!

But this is January, a new year. Fresh starts and all that. Surely we can do better! I think Mamie mailed out at least a dozen thank you notes while she was staying with us – it does NOT have to be difficult or time-consuming, fancy or long-winded. A simple note. A stamp and we’re done. David has already gotten online, uploaded a picture and sent off a cute thank you note. Only one, but still it’s a start!

These kids look VERY grateful!

I’d like to be done with all of our Christmas thank you notes by the end of this month. We won’t talk about the ones from the birthdays over this past year. Sigh. I guess this is a good time to mention how very grateful I am for all the gifts and hospitality our family has enjoyed over the years.

If you don’t get a personal card, consider yourself thanked here on the blog.

Kathy

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Such a blessing to have everyone gathered together for Christmas – we miss Grandad!

There are more things I wanted to discuss with him. There are projects around the house I had hoped he would do with Daniel and David. I wanted him to see how well Joshua is doing at college and marvel over Rachel’s new car and shake his head at how much we love our cat. I wanted to watch him hug the kids and listen to them talk about their friends and school and the books they are reading. I wanted to see him hold Mom’s hand and sing enthusiastically (off key of course) to the Christmas carols at church and watch Christmas movies with us.

We love Mamie!

It is a sweet comfort to know we will see each other again. I hold tightly to the truth that death does not part forever those who love Jesus and follow Him. And I am thankful beyond measure that I had such a godly, wise, loving earthly father and that my children had close, tender relationships with their grandfather.

Mamie and her oldest grandson.

In the meantime, as we wait for heaven or Christ’s return, I am holding tight to the gift of this time with Mamie. What an honor that she comes and spends weeks with us. It is worth the effort of shuffling kids around and sharing the space. She brings such a light and joy to our family times. Even her tears are a reminder of God’s love and His design for marriage – she grieves deeply because she loved wholeheartedly. I hope that I will be as closely bound to Tim in our marriage.

A restful moment at The Refuge!

The children love her (even if she says Grandad was the “fun one”). She is always ready for a game or an outing or a story. She is faithful and steady and gifted us with her service (she must have washed dozens of loads of laundry while she was here) and finances (paying for groceries and dinners out).

Laughter and joy – a silly moment.

Our last official outing – pedicures for the girls!

We love you, Mamie! Thank you for traveling to Washington to be with us. Thank you for loving my children and my friends. Thank you for pedicures and dinners and laundry and groceries. Thank you for tissues and cold medicine and wise council. Thank you for Christmas presents and little treats and clean dishes and helping me prepare many, many salads. It was NOT long enough! Please come back soon!!

Kathy

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Rachel and Sarah decorated the whiteboard.

Love chalkboard markers – decorate the pantry door.

I posted all sorts of pictures on Facebook from our (infamous?) New Year’s Eve party, but Joshua isn’t on FB these days and he sweetly asked/begged/entreated that we start blogging again.

It was wonderful having Timothy and Joshua home for Christmas

It’s 2013 and I would love to begin blogging again. Spending Christmas with Mamie (my mom) and Joshua (home from college) made me realize how precious it is to capture some of the big and little events of our lives and share them.

Time for some Mexican Train!

For the past several years we’ve hosted an open house style New Year’s Eve party. We invite friends, make lots of food, clean like crazy, set out games and then enjoy the hours until midnight. This year was no different. The guest list grew and grew until I was both worried I had forgotten someone important/special and concerned that our house wouldn’t hold everyone.

One of the best things about the party was having all the kids/teens/college students gathered around playing games and laughing.

Thankfully teenagers are willing to crowd in on the couches and also sit on the floor, and little ones are happy to run around in the garage (cleaned and organized and stocked with Nerf guns and Wii games). There was plenty of food, laughter and games. I think we had games going in several rooms of the house and food spread over the kitchen table and counter tops.

Daniel and Mamie made a delicious Bûche de Noël for the party.

The men hid upstairs in their own game room.

Ahhh, it was a lovely party. We were delighted to have the King family visiting from Germany. And one of the best moments was when some guests (love you, Debbie and Tung) arrived AFTER midnight. We gleefully (loudly) counted down the New Year AGAIN. We talked, laughed, and ate our way well into 2013.

Robert (here from Germany) and Katie.

Time for a hug – Allison, Heather and Hannah

Ringing in the new year!

Grace helped with the countdown.

This year I stole an idea from Pinterest for a New Year’s Eve balloon countdown. We filled 13 balloons with little pieces of paper and marked the balloons with a time (from 6pm to 12:00) and taped them around the house. At each half an hour we popped a balloon and followed the instructions written on the paper.

Some of the activities:
1) Gather in the kitchen and sing “O Come All Ye Faithful”
2) Tell one thing you are thankful for
3) Hand out a mini candy cane to all the children
4) Share a goal for 2013
5) Stop and pray for LC3 (our church)

I LOVED this idea and am definitely including it in our New Year’s Eve traditions. Next time I will be more careful in planning the timing of the different instructions and I will throw in some more silly ones for the kids.

Sarah, Lizzie, Ceara, Hannah, Emma, Julia and Tarah pose for a picture.

Several years ago we had so much food leftover we had a New Year’s party AFTER the New Year’s Eve party. One night of games and friends just wasn’t enough. Another year Joshua was leaving for a trip to Africa and we had to move our celebration back a bit.

Sarah, Jenny, Allison, Rachel and Heather – beautiful on the inside and out.

Who knows what 2013 will hold.

Happy New Year!

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For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. — 2 Peter 1:5-7

In February, Kathy and I were a little discouraged with our abilities as Math teachers, and we adopted IXL as a supplementary math resource. I wrote about our adoption of IXL in IXL Blues toward the end of February. As of that writing, I was hopeful but was half-bracing myself for IXL to fizzle out. To help keep incentives high, I promised $100 to each of the children if they would finish a year’s worth of IXL ($200 if they applied it toward a Christian camp or conference).

It has really paid off. All four of the kids using IXL saw significant improvement in their annual test math scores, and Sarah (awesome math girl that she is) managed to finish an entire grade level in just over four months.

“Sure,” you might sneer, “an entire grade level — those online courses are notoriously easy.”

Not so. The grade level that Sarah just completed featured 215 distinct math skills, each with a full complement of problems. Sarah completed 8,282 problems in just under 97 hours, all done in addition to her normal work load as a student.

I am so very proud of Sarah, and I hope that her example is an encouragement to David, Daniel and Rachel, who are not far behind. As much as they may grumble about IXL, I am firmly convinced that the math disciplines they acquire will result in substantially higher confidence and scores on the PSAT and SAT.

Tim

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We haven't actually used it yet, but the tennis court is pristine, and (of course) has a view of the beach.

But it is not our last day. We aren’t leaving until Wednesday afternoon — four more incredible days await us. As Kathy and I sit with our laptops, side-by-side at the kitchen counter, looking out at the water, we continue to be amazed at God’s grace and goodness to us, that we can enjoy this. Just this morning, I was thinking about how incredible it is to have eyes that can see all the contrasts of colors and shades within colors — even though I have to squint sometimes, I almost want to drink in the scenery with my eyes.

The pool is as warm as bathwater, and useful for snorkeling practice, or just to rinse off the salt, sand and coral at the end of the day.

Yesterday we drove around the island and saw many of the poorer parts. For all its lush vegetation, the island is mostly coral and rock — we didn’t see a lot of arable farm or garden land. It seems evident that many homes have been abandoned or are unused, most of the time — sad to think of the lost opportunities bound up in those properties.

Kathy enjoyed a delicious Mexican salad at the Seaside Cafe, at Ocean Club West. I had a very tasty blackened-fish sandwich, with a mountain o’ fries.

It is a little weird driving here — very strange when you come over a hill, around a corner and there is a car in the lane to your right, coming towards you. There’s a moment when you grip the wheel in panic, ready to swerve out of the way, before your brain kicks in: “It’s OK, you’re supposed to be on the left side, he isn’t going to hit you!” Sure enough, no one has hit us yet — the drivers here have actually been quite kind and courteous, with only an occasional luxury SUV careening at double the legal speed limit.

As we step out our door, these flowers greet us each morning.

We visited several of the other resorts, including the Ocean Club West, the Royal West Indies Resort, the Paradise Caribbean Inn, and the Seven Stars Resort. We decided to limit our stay here at the Aquamarine Beach Houses to a mere seven nights, and to spend our last night on the island at one of the other resorts. I must admit, I’m leaning toward the Seven Stars as the culmination of our visit — it was very swanky.

Breakfast on our own little beach side patio — and of course, you can’t go wrong with a good biscuit or two.

We’ve mostly been cooking our own food, partly for economy and partly because of the norovirus that struck some of the all-inclusive resorts just before we arrived. Still, dining at the beach, on food that someone else has prepared, has a definite charm.

There was this one lady in a pink hat that kept staring at me, all through lunch — I suppose this is the sort of adventure you must expect, in the tropics. Maybe she is Mrs. Pollifax’s beautiful niece?

One question we’ve been asking people who live on the island, is whether the beauty of the beaches has become routine or mundane to them. No one has yet admitted to this, but a few have seemed startled by the question — I can imagine that after a few years, you might become inured to the beauty, just as we have come to take our mountains and rivers for granted, where we live.

This morning, Kathy asked me, “What is one thing you would like to change, when you get back home?”

“I’d like to make better use of our mountains,” I told her. “There are people here on this island who will never see a mountain, all their lives, and we sit at home, not really exploring them or getting the most out of them.”

Maybe this year I’ll actually take the kids camping or something.

Tim

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“Somewhere in my youth, or childhood, I must’ve done something good!”

So goes the song in the Sound of Music movie, in which Maria reflects on the undeserved blessing of winning the love of Captain von Trapp. And so goes the song in our hearts as we reflect on the joy of spending a day on this glorious island — how can it be possible that we are allowed to stay here? Surely the Deserving Police ™ will burst into our apartment and haul us back to the airport, stuffing us on the nearest outbound plane, amidst outraged cries in thick islander accents: “You do not deserve to be here! You must go! Close your eyes, it is not proper for you to see our island!”

Don’t get me wrong. We paid good money to be here, thanks in part to the generosity of our parents. But as we soak in the tropical sun, or float in the body-temperature water, we feast our eyes on the cornflower-blue horizon and the many shades of coral-blue in the water as they contrast with the white of the sands. Every few minutes, our minds circle ’round to this question: “How can it be that God has blessed us to be able to see and experience such beauty?”

I didn't know God made this many shades of blue.

Kathy and I have been married twenty years — and they have been some pretty wonderful years. We have some fights and disagreements, but on the whole we have greatly enjoyed growing closer to each other and to our God. As we learned a few years ago, one of the main reasons for marriage is for God to make us holy, as we are continually offered opportunities to serve and love each other, even in adversity.

But we aren’t holy yet, and we feel it keenly, at a place like this. Turks and Caicos should be reserved for those who have arrived at holiness, or at least can see it on a clear day. It just seems wrong for people like us to enjoy a place like this.

The view from our front porch is nearly enough, all by itself.

Yet somehow we are managing, with only the occasional guilty look over our shoulders. We wallowed in bed until 10:45 am this morning, an accomplishment I have almost never achieved since I was in college.

Kathy rolled over and said to me in a muffled voice, “We should really get up.”

“What time is it?” I asked, mustering almost a microgram of interest in the answer.

“It’s about ten a.m.,” she told me. “Shouldn’t we get up?”

“Yeah, any minute,” I assured her, and promptly went back to sleep.

Eventually, we did get up, and I called the Avis office while Kathy went down to the water to make sure it was still there. Our apartment is at ground level, and our front windows look out onto a ‘yard’ of white sand. Beyond that yard is a path through the tall grasses, and some 40 yards from the house is the beach. And what a beach it is! Stretching miles left and right, there’s nothing but turquoise blue water, white sand, and blue sky as far as the eye can see.

The Seabreeze villa (where we are staying) has rooms above and at ground level.

We got our rental car (a stick-shift, but with the wheel on the proper left side) and practiced driving around town on the left side of the road without any major hazards. We found the grocery store and stocked up on food (we plan to cook much of our own food this week) and made it home in one piece. We made lunch and ate on our shaded porch facing the sea.

Spending the afternoon on the beach, Kathy coasted in the water on a float while I read my book in the portable cabana (I’ve been trying to avoid excessive sun, after my skin-cancer diagnosis last winter). We sat and talked in the beach chairs, reading each other snippets from our respective books and reveling in each others’ company.

Because of the strong westward wind, Kathy had to work hard to stay in front of my position on the beach.

By 6:30 pm, we were hungry, so we walked the miles and miles 40 yards back to our villa. Kathy made a salad and a delicious vinaigrette, with some sauteed cauliflower and carrots and chicken breast over her salad. I cooked some smoked pork chop with penne noodles and we both settled in to enjoy our meal in our living room.

It gets pretty hot here, during the day, and our hostess has asked us not to run the air conditioner in the day time, but with the windows open, we get a nice breeze, and it isn’t unbearable. Once the sun went down, we felt free to close up the windows and turn on the A/C — and now we’re quite comfortable, sitting together in the kitchen, side-by-side with our respective laptops.

Our beach is blessedly empty, most of the time — an unexpected treat from the hand of our God.

We’ll be here 8 nights altogether, and I’m sure the time will slip away more quickly than we can imagine. In the meantime, we’ll enjoy this preview of Paradise.

Tim

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Here at the Duckabush Blog, we are bound by no such constraints.

Some 45 days ago, our middle son (Daniel) celebrated his 15th birthday. Birthday parties often pose a certain challenge, especially with a large family living on a single income. Each child typically wants their party to surpass all previous parties, including those of siblings or friends. All it takes is one friend with a doting or wealthy parent, and the bar can be set impossibly high.

Nothing says '"happy birthday" like a wrestling match on the climbing wall.

We try all kinds of subterfuges and schemes to limit the cost of the party.

“Remember, every dollar we spend on your party is a dollar less that we spend on your gifts.”

“No, you had your big party last year — this year it is your turn to have a modest, family-only party.”

“As it turns out, we recently discovered that you were switched at birth, at the hospital. If we can find out who your real parents are, maybe they will throw you a party.”

OK, maybe we haven’t actually used that last one, but it is certainly worth a try.

We tried, with some success, to stop them from using the climbing wall as a tool to achieve escape-velocity.

Anyway, this year we were blessed with a cost-saving alternative. One of my good friends works at a nearby company that provides lavish recreational facilities for the workers, and makes them available to employee families and friends. He graciously invited us to join him for a morning of mini-golf, pickle ball, basketball, darts, air hockey, rock-climbing and massage chairs, to celebrate Daniel’s big day.

Daniel really seemed to enjoy the event, pictured here with Noah.

Afterwards, we enjoyed pizza and ice cream pies at home — definitely a fun and joyous way to celebrate Daniel’s big day.

Nothing says "Happy Birthday" like a photo-shopped, history-revisionist sign.

Happy birthday, beloved son!

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