How to Make the Most of a Week at Big Sandy

It has become a yearly event around here. Each year our kids count down the months, days and hours until the next Family Conference in Big Sandy, TX. We all adore relaxing at the campground, reuniting with old friends, making new friends, participating in the fun activities for the kids and the learning from the awesome speakers during the conference. We cannot say enough good things about it, our kids love it, we love it and we plan on going back every year, Lord willing! Click here for Family Conference website

          

Since I got SO many emails and FB messages this year asking me a ton of questions about the specifics of camping at this conference I will try to post more details on what to expect and some practical advice and tips.  

  

1. If at any way possible you can camp then do so!
The campground is so enjoyable and it is how you will meet the most people! Everyone we meet says that Big Sandy is SO much better than Nashville or Sacramento's conferences because of the campsite surrounding the conference center. Buy, rent or borrow a camper if you can or just tent camp. We know several families that tent camp every year and they are just plain awesome! There are also small (shed sized) cabins available or dorm rooms (hotel sized) available too. For more info on pricing or housing info click here.

  

  

2. Dress modest but don't freak out about a dress-code.
There is not a strict dress-code and you will not be judged if you are a female wearing pants. You are camping so dress comfy but bring some nicer outfits for the 3 conference days. With that said, most women wear modest, dress-casual skirts and dresses, yet some wear floral print lace-necked dresses and some wear pants and t-shirts. Men wear pants or shorts to the knee and polos or t-shirts, some men main be in a dress shirt and slacks for conference days. There is a dress-code for some of the children's programs but those are clearly stated in the conference guide.

  

3. Pre-cooking and freezing is the way to go!
Although, daily meals are available for purchase at the conference center via their meal plan options. I always prepare and pre-cook all food so that while camping I am truly on vacation. I try to make crockpot meals for every dinner so that I am not inside the camper tied up with cooking but can be free to relax, play and fellowship with our kiddos and others on the campground. Just combine your ingredients in a bag, freeze it, then put it either defrosted or frozen in the crockpot the morning you need it.

  
Tip 1: Put smaller mason jars of condiments you need, like mayo so you aren't taking up fridge space with that wholesale gallon jug of mayo from Costco. Also, freeze your crockpot ingredients flat so you can stack them.
  
Tip 2: Write instructions on freezer bags and have a meal plan list to follow day to day.

  
Tip 3: Pre-make sandwiches, like a thousand PB&Js, and put them back in bread sleeve and freeze them. Let them defrost in fridge the night before that way they will be ready for lunch time. Also, we made carrot coconut flour muffins ahead of time and froze them so we had healthy muffins for a quick breakfast item on the go!

  
Tip 4: Bring LOTS of Smores ingredients as there will be a lot of campfire fun!

  

 4. Prepare to have a TON of fun!!!
The conference itself is typically three very full days (Wed-Fri from 7am-10pm) with registration starting at 11am the Tuesday before and the first two speakers on Tuesday night from 6-9pm.  The past three years we arrived at the campsite on Saturday morning after a 12-14 hour all-nighter drive. We can then relax, fish, canoe, bike, play, and fellowship all day Sat, Sun and Mon before the conference craze starts, then we usually leave anytime on Satuday following the conference. Next year we may arrive even earlier because the campground itself is just so much fun.

  
  
Tip 1: If at all possible bring the kid's bikes. The kids typically spend the entire week on their bike! The campground is huge with many exciting adventures and bikes (or golf carts) help get where you wanna go faster. Walkie-Talkies to stay in touch with kiddos are a good idea too...as most days we only see our big kids at meal time ;)

  
  
Tip 2: Don't try to see all the speakers, pick your favorites or ask someone who the speakers that are worth not missing are. All the speakers are great and you can go see them all but you will wear yourself out (we know, we did the first year!). We usually skip the 2pm-4pm sessions somedays just to catch a nap!

         
Tip 3: Prepare to make lots of friends! Print out business card sized family pictures to hand out to new friends. We also printed our email and phone number on ours this year and the kids handed out all 60 to their friends. They write their address on the back so their friend can write them as penpals the entire year until the next family conference!


Our Family Testimony Video
Once our week of fun had come to a close we left earliy on Saturday so we could make it back to our church by Sunday morning. Our church had asked us to give our family testimony as well as sharing more about our new daughter, Brittany. Here is the video of Brian sharing at our church on Sunday, April 26th, 2015:

Also, after three years of prayer we finally took the plunge and applied as members so we can begin Wisdom Books as our homeschool curriculum. We received our box of member goodies at the conference and have already begun this week with Wisdom Book 1. We LOVE it so far! It truly is a curriculum with a firm biblical foundation and yet such a deep and rich study of God's creation and order, through language arts, math, history, geography, science, law and medicine! We are excited to see what each new Wisdom Book will bring!

Here are posts from our past two years:
Big Sandy Family Conference 2013
Big Sandy Family Conference 2014


Posted by Shannon
Soli Deo gloria - Glory to God alone 

Best of Facebook: April 2015

4/7/15: Click here to see post on FB: 

We have Brittany for our first unsupervised visit! Yay!


4/13/15: Click here to see photos on FB:

Our week of packing begins today! We will be packing our entire RV for 8 people and cooking and freezing a weeks worth of meals so it can be a true vacation for mom too ;) By Saturday we hope to be on our way to Big Sandy, TX for our yearly family camp and conference! The kids are beyond giddy with excitement and super motivated to be helpful so we can leave as soon as possible!

Busy has been the theme of our life lately. I'll use just last week as an example. Sunday we cooked a big Easter lunch and had an amazing Easter Sunday with several friends, which longer than the planned lunch and included a nerf gun war, Super Smash Bros tournament, dinner, long conversation and a movie. Monday we packed quickly, dropped off our puppies and kids at two faraway friend's houses and drove to Orlando to see Brittany, Tuesday it was just Brian and I but a full day of doctor appt, medical trainings and visiting with our daughter-to-be, Wednesday I prepped a powerpoint during the car ride home and rolled into town just in time to pick up kids and puppies and host our 4-H group for a class about fostering orphaned animals and bottle feeding puppies. Thursday after our weekly bible study we caught up on some farm chores and I took my biggest girl to the "life-saver dinner" where she was honored by raising over $2500 for our local Women's Pregnancy Center. Friday we finished some fencing, built some garden trellises, and built two whelping pens for our two very pregnant piggies to give birth in peace. Saturday finished it off by having old friends over so we could teach them how to butcher their own chickens (at their request) and we attended FSU's Kids Brain Fair where we had a great time learning all about how God designed our amazing brains to work! Add to this week meals, daily chores, school, farming, gardening and bottle feeding puppies every 4 hours!

I like the term "full" instead of "busy." We haven't intentionally filled up our schedule but we often find ourselves in a spot where important, memorable events pile themselves up all in the same week or even day! We try to prioritize our lives with people first. If someone calls and says, "Hey, we would love to come by today and visit" or "Can you guys come to help us build a fence this week?" or "Are you available to watch my kids for a couple hours?" then we will always postpone our farm projects, cleaning or even homeschooling to make time for the most important things in life, people!

There are no interruptions to our plans, just God ordained plans that we are made aware of, so we put our own plans on hold for His. Now if I can remember to not hold my plans for this week so tightly-fisted and view every interruption as an invitation to participate in God's perfect plan and put my own on hold!

4/16/15: Click here to see photo on FB:

The kiddos had their last day of our weekly homeschool co-op on Tuesday. The end of the year presentation was very cute showing off much of what they learned throughout the year in Latin, Literature, Bible, History, Science, and Music/Art.

With our homeschool co-op, 4-H, Awana and bible study all taking breaks for the summer we are looking forward to a slower season (Lord willing!).

The past two days have been filled with tremendous amounts of list making, directing, cooking, packing, and cleaning. We take off tomorrow night for Big Sandy, TX for our annual family camp and conference. All our meals are cooked and frozen and most all of our stuff is packed away in the RV. Just some last minute preparations and shopping trip left. If I can get through tomorrow without coming unglued that would be a miracle!

4/17/15: Click here to see photo on FB:

We are finally on the road headed to Big Sandy, TX for a week of camping and fellowship! Our goal was to be on the road by 6pm tonight, well we took this picture as we loaded up at 5pm, an hour ahead of schedule. That is pretty good. Especially since we were out for 6 hours this morning finishing up last minute errands, at a total of 12 different stops, then 3 more hours of last minute prep and packing and we were still out ahead of schedule. And best part!?! I didn't come unglued once today, no yelling, no anxiety, no freak-out mode. Preparing for large trips with a large family typically sends me over the edge pretty easily, God is definitely at work, thank you for your prayers! :)

That isn't the end of the story. We took this cute pic, pulled out of our driveway and were happily cruising along. Brian turned to me and said, "Hon, we forgot to pray just before we left for our traveling." I wish we would have pulled over that moment, "We are about to stop at this gas station to fill up on gas and fill our propane tank, we will pray then." The excited chatter from the kids was bubbling over and the little ones ansy-ness from sitting in a car all day was beginning to become a distraction. Just 30 miles down the interstate we stopped for gas, then filled our propane tank then made sure our grey water tanks were emptied. That is when we noticed we had some major problems. Problem 1, our fridge wasn't turning back on. We had 4-6 hours before we would lose a week's worth of meals and preparation. Problem 2, both our batteries died and our RV wouldn't start. We called our roadside service, It would be $190 to send someone out to diagnose the problem.

"Babe, what did we not do?" We all unloaded and surrounded the front of the RV, laying our hands on the battery, "God we are so sorry we didn't come to You first. Please forgive us. Lord, we are taking this trip to deepen our love and faith in You, please help us."
We opened our eyes and saw a young college student at the next gas pump, "You need a jump?" Oh, yes!!! The moment those jumper cables were on our RV started right up and the fridge turned on. After a two hour delay we are back in business and this time we will keep prayer closer to our hearts. :)

4/29/15: Click here to see article on FB:

We were recently tagged in a friend's post on supporting adoptive parents and we wanted to continue the conversation here.

"I was speaking to an adoptive family recently and they said, "EVERYONE is called to support adoption. You may not personally be able to adopt right now, but you are still called to support adoption. And you do that by supporting the families that have (or are working to) adopted now." Yes, YOU!

Christian or not, you are responsible to support those in our community who have gathered the courage to bring new children into their home. But how? Well, this article is a starting point.

And maybe some of my adoptive/foster family friends could chime in on how we can best support you."-Jen Brown

This article has some great and practical ideas. Our church was kind enough to think of throwing a shower for Brittany this time around. While our other children have never had a shower thrown on their behalf our church and community always brought us meals and material needs within those first weeks home.

Click here to see article: How to Support Adoptive Families

Posted by Shannon

Fun and Fellowship in Big Sandy, Texas!

We are tearfully headed home from our 2^nd trip and week spent in Big Sandy, TX for the annual ATI Homeschool Conference. We arrived early on Saturday morning and enjoyed 4 days of camping fun with our family, meeting new friends and fellowshipping with the families we met last year. We were encouraged in our journey and were encouraged by what the Lord is doing in other families’ lives. From the moment we pulled up our big kids were off finding all their penpals and friends from last year. Once the 3 day conference began it was go, go, go! We would quickly grab breakfast, get some dinner in the crockpot, run the kids to their activities and programs and be filled with great speakers’ teachings and sermons. The conference itself was so encouraging and gave us a year’s worth of application to pursue in our Christian walk, the number one teaching we will bring home is the Power of Prayer by David Gibbs. We hope to pursue of journey of nonstop and very powerful prayer this year!

Here is our blog post from our 1^st year attending this conference, when our discernment was peaked and ready to decipher theological and doctrinal error: A Week in Big Sandy with the Duggars
 

This blog post is to share some pictures of the fun we had during this year’s conference but before I share, I would like to address the current Gothard issue so this is not read as if I am naïve to happenings. Gothard was not present at this conference as he has resigned and has released a statement online (click here for Gothard’s statement). ATI as a whole is not a person but a ministry, a ministry that truly strives to equip families to love and serve the Lord, their families, and others. The families we have met and continue to meet (including the Duggars and Bates) are real people, saved from real sin and serving a very real Jesus. As humans we can and still do fall into sin and temptation, it is why we need a personal, loving Savior. Whether innocent or guilty we do feel Gothard did the right thing in stepping down and stepping back to evaluate his own walk with the Lord and reconcile with those who feel or were wronged. This is just another homeschool conference with great and encouraging speakers to help strengthen Christians, parents and families in their walk with the Lord. I do believe that the ATI’s ministry began to encourage families and provide teaching and curriculum to help them along their homeschool journey, but along the way instead of worshipping Jesus and using ATI as a tool, ATI and Gothard have been worshipped and followed to the point of idolatry. We must always evaluate our own heart and motives, the Lord tells us in Proverbs 4:23 to “guard our heart.” Our heart focus should be Jesus! Gothard needs prayer, he and many other men of ministry are not perfect, they are men like David, who although may be men after God’s own heart they are human and can fall into lust, temptation and great sin (James 1:14-15). It should hurt our heart when we see a man fall and hurt our heart all the more when they bring a whole ministry with them. We were thankful that the conference continued this year under new management, it was an encouragement to our family.

Here are some pictures from our trip:


                The twins Sunday best!                                       Risa and Sam with Jim Bob Duggar!


  
     Anthony and Sam chillin' with Jason.                                  Daddy walking with the twins!

  
       Six little children standing on a log...                                             Cool Dudes!

                             
             Mirabel and Sam on a family walk                    Maggie hitching a ride from big brother

  
        1st fun-filled day at planned activites                                            Mom & Dad

 

  
       Risa and Titus at Children's Institute                               Samuel and Anthony at ALERT

                             
                   Mirabel at Pre-Embassy                                 Maggie hanging with mom and dad

  
               Best friends when awake...                                                     ...and asleep!

Stop by our 5 Kids 6 Months Facebook page where I will be sharing some other wonderful families’ websites and blogs that we have met while camping here! They are real, imperfect and in love with Jesus just like us!

Click here for our blog post about the 2013 conference
Click here for our blog post about the 2015 conference

Posted by Shannon
Soli Deo gloria - Glory to God alone