Snow storm!

We bring you this update from the National Weather Service. It is snowing and very cold. Please do not travel or go outside, unless your ducklings are hungry. Carry lots of corn in case of emergency. Thank you.

We are in the midst of our first big snow storm of the winter. We already had snow on the ground, and have had no temps above freezing (during the day) for about a week. Winter has really set in, and all the rivers are freezing up earlier than normal. That can change, as there is often mid-winter thaws here and there. But just to be on the safe side, we are shoveling a littler further off the driveway to make room for more snow.


Susanna battles the drudgery and makes the best of a chilling situation.

Check out that layer of snow on the duck house roof!


Not unlike the Kleins, the parent-ducks hang out in their cozy house...


...while the offspring go and frolic in the flakes!

The ducks are doing fine. The cold doesn't seem to ruffle any feathers. Ha ha.



The big kids report that they are shoveling this homogenized mixture of snow, sand, salt, and ice to form a replica of the real Mount Sinai!


Behind every good bus, there's a young lady who clears the snow so you can load through the back door. Here's Sarah!


Sammy is enjoying his new hat, 98c at the thrift store, ear flaps, fuzzy interior, sturdy snap.


Hannah, Solomon, Zak and Ben. Ben has finished shoveling off the perimeter of the roof (for now) and is joining the driveway clearing team.


Bekah is a hard working girl! We had to pry the shovel out of her hands and persuade her to come inside for eggs and pumpkin bread and cocoa!


Giddy happily moves a lot of snow, but he is not very strategic about it.


The Amish still hang their clothes on the line in the freezing temperatures. It freezes on the line and then they bring it in and dry it the rest of the way inside. Really would cut our electric bill, but I don't know if we'll do that. But we did get these wonderful clothes driers at the Amish store; they are our chandeliers this time of year.


These re-vamped former wall shelves fill a big need in our front porch! I finally broke down and bought a boot dryer -- it seems to work great!


Ben sets up another pot of coffee for the shoveling team.


Solomon sits down for a good breakfast! Abi scrambled a few dozen eggs, and Hannah made us pumpkin bread last night.

As I type, all the work we did has been covered in a couple more inches of snow! Time to suit up again!!

Joshie is 3 months old!

...and then some! He is looking to be a thumbsucker, like eleven of his older siblings. He chuckles and smiles and tries to sit up. Last night during our family prayer time, I peeked and saw him turn his head to see whoever was praying out loud!

A little fellowship in Little Chute

Last weekend, we enjoyed a few days near Appleton, where our dear friends at the Fox Valley Bible Chapel hosted Mike Attwood. Dave has enjoyed listening to Mike's teaching on Voices for Christ, and last year, learned he was going to be speaking here in Wisconsin. So our first visit was last winter, in that cold, old bus!

Mike is originally from England, but that's not the only reason we enjoy listening to him, honest!

Here's Mike with Dave and some of the young men. On Friday, Mike gave a message to the youth, to which Dave took our top six.

Once again we were hosted by our friends, the Morells.


We first met the Morells last year, when we stayed with them for Mike's visit last November. We all hit it off right from the start, which seemed to set them at ease, since we outnumber them. They have six sweet children.

Here are all the Klein girls and Morell girls...


And here are the young men, sans Gideon, who was busy defying gravity or something...


We all enjoy meeting with the folks at the assembly here, especially Joshie, as he is currently the only baby there!


There was a thought-provoking meeting on Friday meeting for the youth on the meaning of holiness. The rest of the weekend was dealing with the Levitical offerings and how they illustrate or foreshadow the life and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. Wish we could have stayed for Sunday, but they are good at posting audio of meetings. So we can listen later.

Here are Zak and Joel Morell (also 19) , enjoying the visit with Mike. Mike has 5 children, and the oldest is about 23. It looks like Zak and Joel are smiling about his accent, but I'm sure they really aren't.

Joshie flies!

Here we are at the airport in Madison, waiting for our flight to Denver! I asked a fellow passenger to snap this on our cell phone.

Only had to run 40 gates at Denver to make our connection...with two carry-ons, plus Joshie. He did so good on all the flights there and back.

This is Linn and me, with Puget Sound behind us at sunset.


Joshie and I took a trip to Seattle to see our dear friend, Linn Dappen. I was very thankful for the special time and for Dave twisting my arm to set a date and go for it. Somehow, everyone survived in my absence -- with only two black eyes (out of a possible 24 eyes, that is not too bad!).

Linn and her family have been working in Mexico as missionaries for over 30 years. This is Linn's first visit with her dear mom since Linn's husband, Art, went to be with the Lord two years ago, and she had not seen her mom for five years. We met her mom, Grandma B, when we traveled to Washington for Art's memorial service in 2006.


Mary Ann is such a dear, dear lady! If you ever meet her, you'll call her Grandma B too! She is full of 87 years of life! While I was there, we learned her doctor found an aneurysm in her aorta. The specialist said he cannot operate. Grandma B is a very vital part of the family, very much a support for everyone. She has such contagious hope and frequently claims Romans 8:28 for everything that comes up in life, good or bad. She continues to plow ahead with projects she would like to complete...but heaven is definately her aspiration. She is very loved by all who know her.

Linn's daughter, Sarah, and her family of 8 children, also live in Washington. They are a very sweet and fun family. Our family instantly clicked with them during our visit in 2006.


Jim and Sarah's children filled in as temporary siblings for Joshie. Joshie got a little stressed out by the peace and quiet of Grandma B's house, so our visit at the Colemans brought back a sense of "normalcy"!

We continue to pray for Linn and her family as they face many decisions and seek to minister. God has used them tremendously, and they have been an incredible encouragement to us! Joshua Arthur is named for Art.

We are not ducks

Well, today, the little boys (Sammy, Gideon, and Joshie) were having our morning school time, and we were reading Proverbs 4. Our older kids, for many years, have tried reading a chapter of Proverbs a day (as it has 31 chapters). We haven't done that with our little guys, but today, that is what we read.

Anyway, in introducing Proverbs to the boys, I pointed out how Proverbs was really written to children (especially sons), and how children need so much teaching from their parents.

Our ducklings, when they hatched, needed NO instruction. They are wired to stick near their mommy, with no need for reminders. But children (at least once they become conscious of themselves and have some mobility) do need instruction. Especially when they are young.

God did not give ducks the Bible. They don't have need for it. But God gave us the Bible, because we need it.

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For our Bible timeline reading, we have gotten through the Tabernacle, the layout of the camp of Israel (around the Tabernacle), the Levites' "chore packs", and the rules for Nazarites. We have a notebook for this time, and we write down things that seem good to remember out of our lesson. We mapped the camp layouts, learning about north, south, east and west, the compass, and discussing which directions various friends live in (north is Rhinelander, south is Mexico and Texas, west is California and the Hansen family, east is the Amish community where we do a lot of shopping).

Since Sammy is learning to read, we pick out certain words and learn about letter sounds. We did ox and oxen, and then fox, lox, pox, etc. Sammy is not reading through the text, but I read it and pause to define things. So, he is always learning and he is learning to LISTEN to what I read. Gideon is too. He really got into the laws for the Nazarites. What an awesome "early childhood education" the Bible is!

Anyway, the subject of oxen came up, because the princes of the twelve tribes all brought gifts of covered wagons and oxen. There were twelve princes, and one ox given by each prince, and two princes gave a wagon each. So this was a good math lesson for the boys.

We also had to explain how you have "one ox and two oxen". But then you have foxes and boxes. English is such a mess! So, we discussed how it was the result of the Tower of Babel!

We are seeing how we cannot "teach it all", but we can "always be teaching". There is just so much to teach our children, and we really can do it all day long. A classroom is one method, but it is so artificial. Ben even showed me an ad in a (Christian) magazine that said "Where life and the classroom meet." (College!)

Anyway, we have learned that we don't really have to make the Bible exciting and entertaining. Kids will learn to love what we love. The little boys always ask to have "school" and they know it's the Bible and they are ready to hear what it's got for them for the day. They never ask for pictures or puppets or videos. (I don't have to use any of the techniques I needed when teaching children's church classes for 10 years.)

Sammy has a large print Bible, and I took post it notes and made printed titles and icons for different stories, so he can find the page for "Time line" or "Jonah" or "Noah" or the story of "Samuel", etc. So he's learning his way around the Bible in more ways than one.

The notebook has simple pictures that jog his memory about things we have covered. Noah (7) and Susanna (almost 9) had been doing Bible copy during this time I work with the little boys, but they are now included in the Bible lesson with Sammy and Giddy, and they are starting their own notebook. Zak stuck up a scrap of white board in my bedroom, so I can make the illustration and they can all copy it in their notebooks.

Anyway, we are enjoying our time with teaching our little ones. We are always learning!

Things as they are

Mommy and Joshie are back from a wonderful visit across the country with Linn Dappen, a dear sister in the Lord. She is currently spending time with her 87 year old mother, also a dear sister in the Lord! Catching up on our families was great. Also catching up on the needs in Mexico.

In the town where Linn's family lived for over 15 years (I forget how long), there are at least a half dozen drug related MURDERS each month. At least! There are no families in that town who are unaffected, ALL have lost multiple family members.

In the hills around town, there are children living up in the mountains, where drugs are grown for sale, without parents. What good are children up there? They cultivate the plants, of course. Without parents (or often even with parents) the children learn to run in gangs and often follow in the same paths of sin as their parents. With the entrance of the television in this town, sin has increased dramatically, fueling the fire...

In southern Mexico, families are the same. They need the light of the gospel. So many parents effectively abandon their children to the streets. These parents, if present at all, shuffle children out of the home at increasingly earlier ages, leaving them vulnerable to all manner of dangers. Not too different from life here or anywhere else. They are symptoms of real problem: sin

There are places in southern Mexico right now where a missionary family could just move in and start caring for orphans...feeding them and teaching them in the name of the Lord.

Some new friends of the Dappens, also doing work with orphans in southern Mexico. They fetch and care for the children of imprisoned criminals. They recently posted this on their blog, and it seemed worth passing on here:

What makes us missionaries is that along with our good works we take the good news message of the gospel to a lost and dying world. What good is a prolonged life of good health and comfortable surroundings if a person’s ultimate destiny is to live forever separated from the only true and living God in a place of terrible torment? Answer: there is nothing good about that scenario; we would only be making it more comfortable for the lost while on their way to hell.

Here is a post from the same blog, but its about what the Dappen's are doing, more recently.

The title of this post comes from a book written by the missionary, Amy Carmichael, also called to work with orphans. In her book, Things as They Are, she revealed the revolting, heartbreaking conditions of many poor children in India. Here is an excerpt that is really convicting to us as christians, and also as homeschooling parents:

Are these things truth or are they imagination ? If they are imagination — then let the paper on which they are written be burnt, burnt till it curls up and the words fall into dust. But if they are true — then what are we going to do? Not what are we going to say or sing, or even feel or pray — but what are we going to do?

It's elementary!

Yes, we finally figured out that we should REMOVE OUR SHOES before entering our house.

For some reason, it never dawned on us to impose such a requirement, as we don't really have the kind of house that one would associate with the need for removing your shoes. E.g. we don't have white carpeting.

However, when you have 14 walking family members, live in a sandy flood plain, have a constant stream of garden/landscape/car repair projects, and have no paved walkway...to most people it would be pretty obvious.

So, we gave it a try; it took all of 3 hours before we realized the new no shoe rule was the solution.

---

A few weeks ago, Rebekah (10) was doing her Bible copy, and was in Exodus 6. She had just been copying verses 16-20:

And these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari: and the years of the life of Levi were an hundred thirty and seven years.
The sons of Gershon; Libni, and Shimi, according to their families.
And the sons of Kohath; Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron and Uzziel: and the years of the life of Kohath were an hundred thirty and three years.
And the sons of Merari; Mahali and Mushi: these are the families of Levi according to their generations.
And Amram took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years.

Bekah looked up thoughtfully and remarked, "Levi was Moses' and Aaron's great grandfather."

When asked her how she knew that, she said, "I was copying the geneologies, and Levi had Kohath, Kohath had Amram, and Amram married Jochabed and had Moses."

Wow! Wouldn't most of us assume that going through geneologies would be so tedious and boring? Yet they are there for a good reason, and we are thankful our children have the opportunity to realize it!

There seems to be such a big market for "Bible" curricula. What did families do before Bible story books and children's Bibles? It once seemed so intimidating to us, but the Bible IS curricula! It is so sad that we parents can be unknowingly limiting our children's instruction in the Bible, through our well-meaning dependence on dumbed-down "children's" lessons.

We are learning that little ones, taught by their parents (or siblings) can sit through normal Bible reading sessions (stopping for elaboration and definitions), with no flannelgraphs or talking vegetables, and grasp much of what they are hearing.

When our fellowship began a study of Galatians, and Abraham's name came up, our three year old instantly tuned in attentively. Actually, it took some work to keep him listening, as he knew a thing or two about Abraham, and wanted to make sure we were informed!

[I wanted to link here to a neat article we have on our site inkleinations.com, but I just noticed all the PDF's are gone. We'll get those back working ASAP, Lord willing. ]

Giddy up!

Gideon attained four years of age last week! This adorable shirt arrived from cousins Jami and Jessi and Auntie Jana and Uncle Jimmy. "Giddy" is Giddy's official nickname, and the reason is obvious, isn't it?


Abi is a fine cake decorator, as she gets lots of practice. Giddy requisitioned a GREEN cake.


A few days later, Joshie attained two months of age! Abi intends to take a monthly photo of Joshua for his first year. He has really started smiling of late, but Abi couldn't get him to smile for this picture. His face seems to say, "So, the 2 month olds apparently do not get a cake."



This useful little broom was greatly enjoyed by the birthday boy. He's had several whisk brooms, which usually get lost quick, but this was a "big boy broom". Woo woo!


The "leaf journeys" have begun. Giddy enjoyed the leaf scoops (click on the picture to see Noah holding them). The kids made several trips to the compost pile, greatly increasing its height, and allowing them to hide within the pile, to surprise Daddy by staging a re-enactment of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. They were (not even) motionless, under the leaves, when a collaborating sibling led Daddy out to see the tremendous amount of leaves they had gathered...then ka-blooy!!


This is one of sweet baby Joshie's first smiles to be captured on digital media. It is so fun to play with him and coax a smile out of him. He actually caused a short traffic jam at Walmart: the lady in front of us at the checkout was enjoying watching Abi and Sarah playing with him, and the cashier had to inform her it was her turn to put her groceries on the conveyor belt!

The home office

Dave finished his first week on site in St. Louis at his new job, and it went very well! Everything seems to be a very good match. We have all enjoyed hearing the reports of the people he has met and the things he is doing. (We talk alot of shop around here!)

During Dave's week in St. Louis, the boys were supposed to be working on his upstairs home office, organizing, clearing out non-essentials....


Note: Guitar is not considered non-essential.


Sarah is the family organization queen, and what's really nice is she's really good at finding things too!

As much as we enjoy having Daddy working from home, the plan is to sell the house and move to the St. Louis area. Until that happens, Dave will be working from our house here in Wisconsin.

So, once Dave headed off for his week in St. Louis, we at home had some discussion about how best to install the door (aka sound barrier) he needed at the base of the stairs.

The attic features just an upstairs bedroom and had a plywood door at the base of the stairs. We originally intended to simply replace the plywood door with a normal door. Strangely enough, we found there were no wall studs in the place where the old door had been installed. Hmmm. Odd.

The idea was tossed out that we install the door at the top of the stairs instead. This would mean a little extra work, but the idea of surprising Daddy got everyone very energized and ready to go! In fact, we just grabbed some 2x4's we had lying around, and Zak started measuring and marking before we could get more!


The attic bedroom really just had three walls, with a rail by the attic stairs. So, we decided to put a wall where the rail once was, and then put the door at the top of the stairs. This also allowed us to add some electricity to the other side of the room, along with a light switch. We had some surplus paneling and some extra used counter top, so the expense was minimal and the effect was maximum!

The wall studs are installed where the flimsy rail once was. This is the view from the bottom of attic stairs.


The new door went up easily after the wall studs were installed. Wall studs are really nice when installing a door....?????


Ben wired the wall for a mounted light fixture in the office, as well as one really needed in that now very dark attic stairway.

Again, we thank the LORD for safety as the boys work on these things. It was a little unnerving for Mommy to hear the new nail gun puffing away. We got it on the tail-end of the new floor project, and it has made a big difference!


For this project we did splurge on getting some white melamine paneling, which Zak really wanted, to build in a white board on the new wall. It looks really nice. The surplus bus paneling was used to finish the stairway-facing part of the wall, and a wainscotting under the melamine inside the office.

Everyone anticipated what Dad's reaction would be, seeing the long-discussed door, and how we'd break the news....

"The bad news is, we couldn't install that door at the base of the stairs, because we found there were no wall studs, and the GOOD news is...."


This is the newly cleaned and organized corner where Daddy works....

... and this is the new door and melamine covered wall. The wall features new outlets, and a switched light fixture! The countertop was a roadside find, and Zak made cord holes in the back so power cords would not clutter the work surface. This side of the room is where Ben and Zak do their computer work...such as www.juglist.net.

Surprising Daddy made the week fly by for all of us, and the kids tried to work it out so that everyone could feel like they did some of the work, even if only vacuuming up the ladybugs. Zak had to scribe the paneling to fit the uneven ceiling, and Ben had to add a junction box, but as usual, Solomon did much of the grunt work. He is really acquiring a servant's attitude, which is of great value to the Lord, and a goal we have for each of us. It's also the ultimate purpose of projects like these...giving us opportunities serve others. Additional blessings are the fun of working together, learning to solve weird and wavy problems, and feeling the satisfaction of a job well-done, which Solomon truly felt!

Welcome to the family, Joshua Arthur!

I asked the children to record this song and for Abi to make me this video for my birthday last week. Hope you enjoy it. It makes me cry. We are so blessed!

Thanks Abi!!!

Today ends Dave's and my "birthday week," eight days in which we are both the same age. My beloved hit the big 4-3 today! Happy birthday, Honey-Dave! He and Zak are currently driving home from Minneapolis. Tomorrow, Dave leaves for a week in St. Louis, starting his new job.

Days with Joshie

Happy Birthday Auntie Karen!!!!

I was going to try to organize these and narrate and make it a story, but, as they say, "time is of the smell" ...so these are pretty much just in the order I uploaded them... here goes...


One of the strangest comments we have ever heard (and fortunately, it has been pretty rare) since Zak (our oldest) was born-- in regard to our having a new baby -- was "Oh, now he/she will never get to be the only child..."

Oh well.


Joanna and her new little brother.


The kids enjoyed a cool, sunny day to take out most of our garden after our first frost. Abi and Sarah supervised, so Mommy could work on things inside.


Sarah had fun replacing half of our basement steps...


Wow! Good job, Sarah!


Gideon (3.99 yrs) is showing Joshie the ropes. Good job, Joshie!



Noah is a live wire, but will stop in his tracks to hold his precious new baby brother! Joshua is very peaceful generally has adapted nicely to his lot as being a lap warmer.


Zak and Sammy are replacing missing bolts on this wonderful and very needed stepstool.


Our long-awaited fall hike on Thursday. Dave's last day with his former client was Wednesday, and this was also the mid-point of our birthday week (we are the same age for 8 days - 42 this year!). We made up zip lock bags of trail mix to eat on the trail, hence the name.


Sammy pauses to find the cheese crackers in his bag. He and Gideon are always begging Mommy to tell them stories of when she went backpacking with her dad (now Grandpa Bill). They have fairly memorized all the fun things we'd pack in our packs (such as instant chocolate pudding, Planter's peanut bars, and sierra cups), the various adventures with getting rained out, hiding our food from the bears, the tick in my ear, and the squirrel Grandpa shot "because he was asking for it."


A fellow hiker offered to snap this picture of all of us. On the East Bluff trail at Devil's Lake, Baraboo, Wisconsin.


Rebekah savors her turn holding baby Joshua Arthur, 6 weeks old.


Everyone loves Joshua's new expressions. This one looks like he's just been asked "How does it feel to have 12 older siblings?" (It's kind of like being asked, "What's it like having blue eyes?")


Gideon is giving Zak some wood working advice. The snowman p.j.s do add an aura of authority, I say.

Here is a photo of part of Devil's Lake, which does not draw attention to its algae-green color. The lake, which I think is natural, is nearly a perfect rectangle. We are on the east bluff, which is comprised of a bunch of rocks. In fact, just about any noticeable change in elevation in Wisconsin can probably be attributed to a pile of rocks.


Hannah and Joanna in front of a big rock.


We are nearing the peak leaf color change time of year. Once the leaves fall, you can really make out the big piles of rocks of which these bluffs are made.


Susanna and Noah pause for a photo on the trail.


Solomon and Ben stop to lend a hand.