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

Lesson in Submission and Mommyhood from Fort Rock

 Maybe some of you mamas love to live on the edge and a spontaneous road trip with 6 kids sounds like a dream but when my hubby asked if we could pack the RV for a 4 day getaway in less than 24 hours I know my face showed my lack of enthusiasm. I may have even cringed as my head reeled with packing checklists, on the road meal plans, and all the logistics that came with packing our RV for our family of 8.

Times like this is what tests my submission to my husband. I know some ladies just winced when they read the "s" word but God created us humans as submissive creatures. Jesus submits to the loving, merciful authority of God the Father. Man submits to the loving, merciful authority of Jesus. Woman submits to the loving, merciful authority of man. And child submits to the loving, merciful authority of their parents. There is a mutual submission, all parties are submitting to authority and ultimately to God.

  

(Picture Commentary: Mirabel, Risa and I arrived at camp Fort Rock in Arkansas)
 

When I say the word submission I am not talking about the abusive "woman, get in the kitchen" definition the world teaches us, but God’s loving, serving, self-sacrificing leadership that mutual submission willingly and happily bends to. Submission does not remove a woman’s voice but gives her a safe, protected place to share that voice. Submission chooses gentleness. Do not confuse gentleness with cowardice, timidness or fearfulness. Submission doesn’t say, "I am second class" but says, "I am a mutual heir of Christ, equal to man, but I choose to be a picture of God’s love by laying aside my own will or wants for the benefit of others.

True leadership that we are called to submit to is servant-hood. True leadership willingly takes the burden of making a decision that honors God and puts other’s best interests ahead of their own. Leadership washes feet. Leadership protects, comforts, encourages, builds up and loves so deeply that they would sacrifice all even their own life for the other.

When a man lives out true leadership and a woman chooses to willingly submit to that loving leadership we become a picture of Christ and the church. Together we point to the Maker of true love.

  

(Picture Commentary: We are having fun exploring this rustic, western looking camp)

Okay, rabbit trail, back to the RV packing and last minute road trip. Times like this test my submission to my husband. This man that loves God and wants to serve his family with their best will at heart wanted to surprise us and visit friends. He was able to get the time off, contact several friends that were available, and find local friends to care for our farm. This man wasn’t asking me to do anything sinful, illegal or wrong, just something out of my comfort zone. Although I have flat out put my foot down in the past my hubby graciously gives me more chances to leave my bubble of comfort and stretch my type A planner wings.

  

(Picture Commentary: We played in dress-up and jail and Risa got to do her favorite thing!)

This is what submission looked like in our home this time: "Do you think we can pack the RV quickly and take a 4 day getaway to visit friends?" my sweet hubby asked. I calmed the mini panic attack in my mind, "I love you so much Babe. You know I struggle with anything I don’t have time to plan for. I trust you and see how it could be fun. I will try my best to pack in so little time but can you give me a minute to digest and plan?"

  

(Picture Commentary: This horse ride was the real deal, through the woods and up a mountain!)

Well, let me be the first to tell you that trusting my hubby was SO rewarding! He had, in fact, called some friends in Springdale, AR and Guthrie, OK who gladly invited us over to visit and stay with them. He also surprised us and sent our two oldest girls and I on an amazing mother/daughter retreat at Camp Fort Rock, AR. We had so much fun horseback riding, range shooting, archery, zip-lining and being reminded of the hugely important, yet often taken for granted, job we hold as a mother. On top of all the fun we had enjoying activities and each other’s time together we also were privileged to hear some words of wisdom from a speaker, Nancy Newport, about our relationship with our children. I will try to digest and spit back out some of what was shared with us.

"There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—
A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace. 

What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end." Ecc. 3:1-11

  

(Picture Commentary: We got to do new things like rifle shooting and zip lining!)

In every aspect of parenting there is a season. Ever changing seasons in our lives as mama. We must remember that these little ones, given to us through birth or adoption, are not our own. They are on loan from the Lord. The Lord requires that we teach our children about their Father’s ways:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Deut. 6:5-9

     

(Picture Commentary: Isn't my skirt just awesome! It is a Jeanology brand skirt I found brand new at a local thrift store for just $5.99. It is so comfy and easy to maneuver in. I am in love!)

As the Ecc. 3 verse above continues it tells us the different seasons we may see in our lives and this is also true for us mamas. There will be a time for us to die to ourselves, just as Jesus died to self (His will) to always do the Father’s will. There will be a time for us to plant the Word and a time for us to just pray, pray, pray. There will be a time for us as mamas to kill old habits and use healing words, comfort and touch to begin a fresh start.

     

(Picture Commentary: First time ever picking up a bow and I did pretty well!)

There will be a time to train, train, train our children! Train to listen, to come, to stop, to share, to sit quietly. Teach them "no", respect, authority, chores, accountability. There will come a time that God asks them to do something that doesn’t make sense (like building a large ark and filling it with animals) and we pray they were trained early to listen and obey. Use every moment to teach them the Word. Read, read, read God's Word as you walk in the way. We must be always filling up their hearts with Jesus and teaching in the good times not just as a tool for correction.

   

(Picture Commentary: The camp was a blast and the time with my girls was priceless!)
 

Praise them…LOTS. Be a living example of the gratefulness you want to see in your children. Believe that the weeds they pick for you are more valuable that any amount of money spent on roses! Build memories. Create a family fun night, let your kids plan what you will do on this special night. Work together, if you work hard together then play hard together. Laugh LOTS, don’t let the enemy discourage you. Let your hair down. Be a fun mom.

   

(Picture Commentary: While we were gone the boys got to attend a Razorbacks football game.)
 

There will be a time as our kids grow that we allow them to struggle. They are learning to listen to the Holy Spirit and we don’t want to get in the way. Your kids will hear and see things that you want to guard them against. We live in a lost world and will be around lost people. Help them see people around them from God’s perspective. There is never a time to yell at your kids, yelling says, "I am out of control" and counteracts all we have strived for to teach our children about self-control.

  

(Picture Commentary: After a double date we said our goodbyes and left these sweet friends.)
 

We must take care to not treat our aging children as little ones. They must grow into their own convictions, as mamas we must loosen our grip so they can find who they are. We must cast away our own inconsistencies in our lives. We should pray Scripture over their growing, changing lives. Let your children see your struggles, doubt and lack of faith and let them see you choose to trust the Lord in the mess you are in. When all is done and their wings are grown we will enter a time to just PRAY, PRAY, PRAY.

  

(Picture Commentary: More fellowship on Sunday, visit this awesome family at Grace Family Farm!)

If you are anything like me, once you read this list you will think, "Although this is the desire of my heart, this is not where I am or feel I will ever be. How will I ever live up to this standard and do all that I should as a mom?" I have come to a place that I know I do not have what it takes to raise children after God’s own heart. It is here that I realize I must cry out to Jesus for His perfect power, strength and love to make it through day by day, sometimes minute by minute. He is always faithful to show up and fill me with that same grace and mercy that washed me clean and gave me a new heart over 5 years ago. My prayer is that my mistakes will not hinder my children and I may be an empty vessel used to fiercely love my children and point them to Christ!
 

Posted by Shannon
Soli Deo gloria - Glory to God alone