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posted by Jonathan on 05/12/10

Ring Ring! We all ran to the phone, eager to find out if it was the Bates family. And it was! They informed us that they were leaving…. Now we only had a little time left for final preparation. We all quickly got back to making beds preparing food. The hours flew by as we checked off our to-do list. They had been invited to West Virginia for Mothers Day, and we were privileged to be their hosts. Three of the Bateses were coming in from Illinois with James and Daniel, while the other 16 were coming from their home in Tennessee. Nineteen guests for three days! Could we do it? Of course we could. The Staddon Brigade swung into action and with God’s blessing and lots of cooperation it worked out wonderfully. 

James, Daniel, and the three oldest Bateses stopped at Hocking Hills State Park on their way home which gave us some time for family night with our Grandparents.

After supper and Rook our Grandparents had to leave. Just after saying good-bye and seeing them disappear out of our driveway we heard somebody honking; James and Daniel had arrived! After greeting them and showing them where they would stay we played a few games of chess before going to sleep for the night.

The rest of the week flew by as we played ping pong, hiked, went bird-watching, felled trees, rode bikes, played chess and many other exciting games. On Saturday we were invited to  attend the 40th anniversary celebration for the church that the Bates family’s pastor had started in Clarksburg. At the service the Bateses were such an encouragement as there whole family joyfully sang together. We were blessed and encouraged to have the Bates family visit. Their joy and dedication to the Lord shone through as they diligently took care of younger siblings and helped out in innumerable ways. Praise the Lord for such a Godly example.

More pictures from James coming soon!

9 Comments » | posted in Family News

posted by Jonathan on 03/22/10

Because of such a long hard winter, the weather didn’t permit us to tap our Maple trees till March instead of February! On the other hand because of all the snow, more water was in the ground causing the trees to have more sap flow in them.

This year we tried an experiment tapping Red Maple and Sugar Maple to see if their was any difference in taste or looks. We wanted to tap twice as many Red Maple as Sugar Maples because we had heard that Red wasn’t as sugar-concentrated. Unfortunately, the store we ordered our spouts from was out of stock. Michael, David and I ended up putting twelve taps in Sugar Maples and eight taps in Red Maples on the 13th of March. Last year we left the taps in for about four weeks and harvested just under 100 gallons of sap. But this year we left them in for only one week and we harvested around 150 gallons of sap! Though two big sap producing Sugar Maple trees fell down last spring in a wind storm, we managed to find replacements.

When the harvesting time had ended we calculated that the Red Maple trees produced about 5 gallons per tree totaling 40 1/2 gallons of sap, boiling down at a rate of 80 to 1. The Sugar Maple averaged 9 1/3 gallons per tree totaling 112 gallons of sap, boiling down at a rate of 55 to 1. After 99 hours of boiling every drop of the150 gallons of sap it all came out to equal 3 gallons of pure maple syrup.

This process would have been impossible if it wasn’t for everybody’s help hauling sap to the house, taking shifts through one night (because of the overload of sap), and watching the sap boil so that I could take short breaks.

Proverbs 13:19a
“The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul”

4 Comments » | posted in Possessing the Land

posted by Jonathan on 12/14/09

What fun we had decorating this year! But one thing we are learning is that it isn’t the end of the world to break old traditions. Since we will be traveling to Florida for Christmas, there are many things we decided to do differently this year.

For instance, we usually we spread out our lights all over the house, inside and out. This year we decided to put all 2000 of them in the living room! Usually we go to Grandma and Grandpa Brannon’s for cookies and a gift exchange on Christmas Eve. This year we will be taking our gifts with us in the car! Usually we have family and friends visit us around Christmas. This year we will be visiting them!

But most importantly, usually we think that if we ever did it any differently it would lose a lot of the fun. This year we found out that isn’t true! The spirit of Christmas is not based on traditions! It is the relationships with God and others that make Christmas what it is. Circumstances may be different, but the historical facts and spiritual meaning behind the traditions still make Christmas (whether at our house or not) the best time of year!

Check back soon for the Christmas Cookie Contest!

3 Comments » | posted in The Bright Side

posted by Jonathan on 10/19/09

For the past years we have always looked forward to a fall Apple Butter Festival. In years past we have participate in “Greased pig contest” and other little activities. But this year sadly we were all too old to join in. What could we do this year that would make this 25^th anniversary special.

A couple of weeks before the Festival we read Psalms 40:9-10 which gave us an idea that we scribbled down, the next Sunday I suggested it in our Sunday school class, everybody liked it so we scheduled to have a meeting after church. In the meeting many possible ideas were suggested and numerous questions asked. Did we have enough time to put it together? We decided we could and registered. Another meeting was arranged for the up coming Saturday. All that week our family had many delightful and exciting conversations around the dinning table.

Finally the long awaited Saturday arrived. Those who could, piled in the  car and headed for the church. The meeting was well organized and each family left with an assigned responsibility. We had began the 2009 “Evergreen United Methodist Church” float!

Our contribution was to make some banners: first, a long banner in front of the float which introduced our theme which said, “The fruits of the spirit are…” we decorated it with fall leaves, baskets of apples, and bright fall colored letters; secondly, two banners for the side of the float which had the name and location of our church, and the life cycle of an apple painted on them.

Our next meeting took place on the following  Thursday night, two days before the parade! We presented our banners and started putting the float together. We miraculously found exactly 9 red wooden apples, for the nine fruits  of the spirit, to go on our plywood tree, painted green. Unfortunately we weren’t able to completely finish the float because of the approaching darkness of night. So we consented to finishing the project the morning of the parade.

Early on Saturday a group of us met at the  church to continue our joint effort on the float. After a breath taking ride from the church to Salem, we enthusiastically put on the last touches before moving into line with the rest of the parade.

We quickly found out how much coordination it took to toss candy to onlookers. Unfortunately we ran out of candy before reaching the end of town, where the people  were packed up to the side of the floats, but were delighted to  “proclaim his righteousness throughout the congregation” of Salem! Later while walking through the fair grounds we unexpectedly found out our float was chosen “Best Float” and given first place!

The next Sunday I read Psalms 40:9-10 in church and exhibited the trophy to the whole church. It would have been impossible if every member in the church wouldn’t have taken some small part in the whole project of the float!

I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart: I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

Psalms 40:9-10

7 Comments » | posted in Ministry Reports

posted by Jonathan on 09/19/09

This past week Mom had the opportunity to go to the Northwoods on a week long “Journey to the Heart.” Esther left at the same time to go back to Oklahoma City, leaving only Dad and the five of us boys at home. Thankfully Mom and Esther had left detailed instructions which prepared us to fill in for them while they were gone. We were amazed at the many chores that didn’t “automatically” clean up themselves! Here are  some of the ways we came to appreciate their responsibility and loyalty to our family.

- David: I missed their help and encouragement in my school work and music.

- Daniel: I appreciate their morning hugs, and smiles throughout the day.

- Michael: Their help with kitchen clean-up has saved me many hours and enabled me to move faster to other projects each morning, a luxury I no longer enjoyed while they were away.

- Donald: I realized how far ahead Mom and Esther planned in order to stock up on food we needed. That way we never had to go to the store.

- Dad: The three things I missed most were her presence, smile, and counsel.

It was lonely without them, but we had fun working together so Mom could take a week off for her much deserved retreat.

4 Comments » | posted in Family News