Well it has been a while since my last post (7 months to be exact) which should tell you something about the way our life has been, BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!! Life and time just seems to be passing SOO quickly the older you get I suppose. With a house full of six kids and usually one or two extras life never slows down. This train just keeps a movin'. On the days that the ride seems to slow down, something else ALWAYS happens to speed things up again and put us back on track.
Luckily, life for us this week has been a little more low key, and relaxed, although we have kept ourselves VERY busy. You see, it is spring break here in NC and for the first time since Timothy was a baby, we are having a "staycation" here at Hubbard's Haven. We even got to enjoy "Good Friday" off school this year, since we had such a mild winter and didn't have to make up any snow days on our "holiday". We enjoyed a restful Easter weekend, beginning with watching the Passion of the Christ with our youth on Friday, the girls and I took a mommy/daughter day on Saturday to shop for new dresses, and on Sunday took part in a beautiful Sonrise service @ church followed by regular services to celebrate the resurrection of our risen Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ. How precious it was to have enjoyed all of this together as a family, especially since 2 of our children have just recently accepted Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour!!!! HALLELUJAH!!! Jonathan prayed to receive Christ about a month ago in our living room one Sunday after church. Emma Faith prayed to receive Christ at home one Wednesday night after coming back from AWANA. What a joy, privilege and a gift it has been to share those precious moments with our children!!! Nothing like hearing the heart of a child through a prayer of repentance and seeing their brokenness about wanting to follow Christ with their whole heart and life. Moments like these are worth all the hard work, dedication and even pain and heart break that you sometimes must endure as a parent.
Trey our oldest is finishing up his junior year, and is getting TONS of mail from colleges. He just took his ACT at school not too long ago. So I suppose it is just about that time to start making the college rounds and visits. He is still set on going to vet school somewhere and up until this year was set on going to University of Florida, which is probably still his first choice. Being a GATOR would more than please Artie's family, plus he could get in state tuition by living with some of Artie's family in FL. There are some REALLY good schools here in NC that have good vet/agriculture programs, too. He has mentioned NC State in Raleigh, and maybe one or two others. I think he has even made mention of UT in Knoxville, since they do have a REALLY good vet program. This would more than please MY family, since we are Volunteers at heart. He has also mentioned the marines and a few other options. Who knows wherer his path may lead, we just put it all in God's hands and will go from there. For now he is keeping busy with HIGH school, taking care our our little "farm", and taking part in some other extra curricular activities. This week he and friend worked 2 days helping move a fence for the lady who we bought our goats from last year, and then ALL day yesterday, worked to expand our goat/horse enclosure here at home. We currently have 6 goats, 3 of which are pregnant and should be kidding in the next few weeks. We also have 2 new kids, one is the 3 week old son of our goat we bred with a friend's herd, and the other is a 4 day old baby that Trey brought home Monday after helping moving the fence. Trey is still playing in the band and LOVING it, which I love. He also took part in the spring drama at school and played one of hte MAIN characters. He did an excellent job and will probably do it again. He has great talent for acting, wouldn't be surprised to see him on Broadway someday, who know?!?!?!? Oh well, at almost 17 he has his whole life ahead of him, can't wait to see what God has in store for him.
Casey turned 15 in December and got her learner's permit in January. She hasn't done too much driving since then, but I am sure whe will have ample opportunity this summers when we are all home and runing around different places. She, too, has been quite busy with school and church activities. She just left yesterday morning about 6 am on a trip to NYC with chorus from school. SHE WAS SOOOO EXCITED!! Can't wait to hear all about the things she got to see and do. They have a non-stop schedule for the next 2 days, and then back home again via Washington, DC on Sunday. So glad she got opportunity to go. I had opportunity to visit there twice as a pre-teen/teen ager and still didn't get to see everything. Feels good that our kids have the same opportunity to go places and do things like we did and that we are able to send them. Casey, too, spends time taking care of our goats. She and Trey are both in FFA and taken part in showing our goats in several Dairy Goat shows. They spent a whole week at the fair last October with our goats. Casey loves to sing and is a part of our newly formed youth praise band at church. She is finishing up her freshman year and has done well during her first year of high school.
Leeann is in the 8th grade and will be 14 in a month. This has been a pretty good year for her, too. She has done well in school, and has even taken up a love for reading, which was really a struggle for when she was younger. I really credit her love of reading to her wonderful language arts teacher last year. She introduced Leeann to a series of books by an "older" author who has been around some time. Since picking up those books, she just can't seem to get enough to read. She even enjoys reading out loud to me and her younger siblings. It's good to see her succeed at something that seemed to haunt her for sooo long. Leeann also sings in the choir at school and is a part of the new youth praise band at church. This year she has also been VERY involved with Relay for Life at school. One of her classmates was diagnosed with cancer about 2 years ago, endured treatments/surgery, was in remission, but the cancer returned last fall. He is currently undergoing more treatments and will have surgery soon. The Relay for Life team at the middle school, our elemtary school and high school have all joined together in their fundraising efforts to benefit Leeann's classmate and his family to help cover his medical expenses. It is good to know that she is involved with something much greater than herself to help the needs and lives of others. She has always had such a heart for those with special needs, whether physical, mental, medical, etc. and puts her whole self into helping them and being a part of their lives. Such a gift will hopefully take her far in life. She will be taking a trip to the Outer Banks off the NC coast with the entire 8th grade at her school. This is a trip they take every year, and her older brother and sister have been on the same trip and loved it. Probably one of the biggest events for her this is year is that she has applied for the early college program next year, which is something she decided to do on her own, without any suggestion from us or anyone else. If accepted she will take classes at the local community college, as a type of dual enrollment, taking her high school classes and college classes at the same time. This would allow her to get her high school diploma AND a 2 year degree in only 4 years. WOW!!!! Sooo proud of her to take the initiative for her to do this on her own, making sure that she got all her papers filled out, signed and turned in by the deadline. We are praying that if this if God's will for her that it will all work out and she will get to take advantage of such a wonderful opportunity.
Jonathan is finishing up his 6th grade year at the middle school. He is playing french horn in the band this year and enjoying it. He has also been part of the science olympiad, a science competition for middle and high school students, tried out for the BOB team (battle of the books) and has been invited to join the Beta Club for his academic achievement. Although he does well in school and has always made good grades and been in advanced classes, his classes this year have really challenged him, maybe because this is the first year he has really had to WORK to earn his grades. A hard lesson to learn when you never really had to study and work hard since things have always come so naturally for him, but that is just one of life's lessons we all have to learn I guess. Jonathan still loves sports, but has not played any organized sports in over a year. He was going to play football, but they had Wednesday night practices and that conflicted with our Wednesday night church schedule. Maybe next year he can get more involved and try out for sports at school (6th grade is not allowed to play school sports). He has always liked to run and participated in local fun runs. This year, he actually ran his first 5K, which was a fundraiser for Leeann's classmate with cancer. He did pretty well for not really running on a regular basis. Maybe he can work hard this summer and try out for track and cross country next year. Artie also thinks he would do well with wrestling, since he is soooo strong and has the build for it. We will just have to wait and see. As I metioned earlier, Jonathan also recently prayed to receive Christ and will be baptized with his sister this summer, whenever we can work out a date for Artie's dad to come and baptize them both.
Emma Faith just celebrated her 8th birthday in January, a milestone birthday for girls at our house. You see, we have the tradition (which started with Casey) that when you turn out years old, you can get your ears pierced. OH WHAT EXCITEMENT FOR HER!!! After celebrating with a sleepover, where we made pizzas, did makeovers, painted nails, etc., her sisters and I took Faith to Claire's at the mall for the BIG EVENT!!! She looked so grown up sitting in that big chair with her big girl earrings. Such a fun day!! She is growing up too fast. She was just 3 weeks old when we moved to Shelby from Raleigh and now she is 8 and finishing up 2nd grade. Where did the time go? Other than getting her ears pierced, one of hte most exciting thing for her has been getting her own baby goat. He is our newest kid that Trey brought home this week. He is snow white and a mix of 3 different kinds of dairy goats. His name is SAM. Faith also prayed to receive Christ just a few weeks ago after AWANA and will be baptized with her brother.
Timothy is 4 now (going on 16). He thinks he is just as big as the rest of the gang and will let you know real quick that he can DO IT HIMSELF!!! He also loves his big sister "Nanny" (Leeann). Other than mommy (and his 5 girlfriends), she is the center of his world. Never seen a little brother love his sister as much as he loves her. If she ever has doubts about whether or not she is loved in the world, all she has to do is look at his sweet little face and know the answer is YES. Timothy has another year before he starts Kindergarten, since he has a December birthday. He enjoys being outside and playing more than anything else in the world and it has shown this week since we have been home on break and he comes in blacker than the night from playing ALL day long. He love playing with his new goat TJ, which is the son of our goat we bred (but died not long after we got him back home). TJ is brown and white and follows Timothy around the yard, running, jumping and playing just like a little child. Timothy also likes going to visit with our 2 elderly neighbors who live on either side of us. One is a widow, Ms Janelle (who Timothy calls "my neighbor"). Timothy loves to help in her garden. Ms. Martha, who lives on the other side of us, is a single lady with lots of cats and an apple tree in her back yard. Timothy loves to make unannounced visits (unannounce to us that is) whenever he sees them in the yard. We know that if he is outside and suddenly disappears, he is usually at one of their houses "helping" with something. As I mentioned earlier, he has 5 girlfriends and he will quickly tell you in what order, Laura, Gracie, Rebekah, Caitlyn and Sarah. Laura is a friend of ours from church and a college student. He says they are getting married. Gracie, Rebekah and Caitlyn are his "church" girlfriends (although he and Gracie are in the same class at day care, too, when she is not in Colorado with her dad) and Sarah is his "school" girlfriend. Too funny and too smart for his own good, but a joy to have around. Keeps us laughing all the time, sometimes over things he actually gets in trouble for (like saying something he shouldn't, or doing something to one or his brother's or sisters). Artie and I just have to hide our faces at times, to keep him from seeing/hearing us laugh, so he will not think what he did wrong is ok and then DO IT AGAIN!!!
NEVER DULL at our house, NEVER DULL!!!
As for Artie and myself, we celebrated 18 years of marriage this past Thanksgiving. Artie is still working as youth/children's pastor at our church, and I am still working as a Teacher Assistant/Bus driver at the elementary school. Artie has also been working with Young Life this year, as a volunteer leader. He and the 2 older kids go every week to the high school for meetings. They also spent a weekend at Windy Gap camp here in NC and will be heading out west to Colorado to Crooked Creek Ranch for camp this summer. For those of you who don't know, Young Life is an outreach program/organization whose main goal is to reach youth/teens for Christ who wouldn't normally come to church or have opportunity to hear the gospel otherwise. I was a Young lifer in high school and have spent a couple of weekends at Windy Gap myself. I also went to camp in New York one summer. It is a great program and our area has the longest consecutive running Young Life Club in the nation. The club that meets at another high school in our area has been reaching kids for Christ for 50 years. Their leader actually came to know Christ through Young Life as a teenager and is a retired doctor who is still going strong.
We are also gearing up for VBS this summer and will once again have 2 full weeks of camp with our youth and children in July. Most people wind down in the summer once school is out, but we will starting out with a bang since school is out on a Friday and we begin VBS 2 days later on Sunday. Can't wait to see what the rest of the school year and the summer brings for all of us.
Although the last year and a half has brought us through a lot of tough times (illnesses/surgeries, deaths in the family, family issues/daily struggles, etc) God has brought us through it all and has made us stronger and more reliant on him. We actually just had a visit from my aunt and uncle from west TN, whose family endured the unexpected death of a loved one in a car wreck last year. It was GREAT to see them and the kids enjoyed the company and attention they received from their visit. This is the first time they have met Timothy and they hadn't seen the other kids since faith was a year old. Seeing family like that, who you don't see very often unless there is tragedy, really makes you appreciate life even more. Thanks be to God for giving us opportunity to share life with the ones we love, even through the tough times. We know there will be more struggles to come, because life is never always easy. But we can get through anything with God's help and the love and support of family.
Cherish every moment you have with your loved ones, because you never know when your time will be cut short and you don't want to live your life with regrets or "what ifs". God bless you all.
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