Pre-conference preparations!!!

After an April spent by most of us lying around coughing, consuming mass quantities of garlic and cayenne cold remedies, Kleenix and herbal teas, plus some of us having a baby (mostly me), unfinished April projects have rolled over into May. So, we have been scrambling to get two months worth of projects done in a few weeks....because it is almost conference time!!!

We are so thankful to have our next RV school bus conversion underway and in our driveway!

Solomon and Noah have removed several unneeded benches to serve our initial needs for space. We still have tons of stuff to do, but the preliminary stuff should be done in time for our upcoming trip to Wisconsin, praise the Lord!

We are catching up on our laundry backlog after our front loader became a sogging machine. We are making periodic trips to the laundromat until the repairman comes, hopefully tomorrow!

We are doing lots of shopping.

And taking lots of pictures our sweet littlest Klein. His little head was once entirely covered in downy blonde hair but now has developed a smooth bald spot on top, which we think is where he is kissed most frequently. We have to wash his scalp frequently, as he often smells like whatever condiment was used for the most recent meal (e.g. ketchup).

We have a new supply of The Education of Kings in production and anticipate having plenty for our conferences this year!

Most of the kids have gotten much more civil about waiting in line for their turn to hold baby Daniel Amos.

The girls have been working hard on renovating our former office into a larger girls' room. It will also serve as a guest bedroom, and we are anticipating guests, so we are jamming!!!!

At just about one month of age, Daniel gives each photographer the hope that they will be the one to snap his first voluntary smile. You can almost make one out here. (This photo was pre-bald-spot.)

Projects involving the girls usually come in closer to budget because they don't require as much Mountain Dew.

Abi and Susanna re-caulked the scary caulk in the guest bathroom so our guests don't run screaming for their lives!

Sarah is surveying the purpler walls of the new girls' room.

Hannah is printing, folding and stapling as unto the Lord!

Zak is working hard on his client's new site, though sometimes he feels he isn't getting anywhere.

Let's resist parental peer pressure!

A true Christian must be no slave to fashion, if he would train his child for heaven. He must not be content to do things merely because they are the custom of the world; to teach them and instruct them in certain ways, merely because it is usual; to allow them to read books of a questionable sort, merely because everybody else reads them; to let them form habits of a doubtful tendency, merely because they are the habits of the day. He must train with an eye to his children's souls. He must not be ashamed to hear his training called singular and strange. What if it is? The time is short,—the fashion of this world passes away. He that has trained his children for heaven, rather than for earth,—for God, rather than for man, —- he is the parent that will be called wise at last.

-- J.C. Ryle in "The Duties of Parents," 1880

This is in the public domain and easy to find online!