A Special Addition to this Sat. Edition

This is the closest I've ever come to live blogging. And it's appropriate on an occasion of new life coming into this world. This little fellow has a true team spirit, contrives to be born on Saturday (and a posting one at that) and is already posing for pictures without complaint. (Did you all figure out what this means by now? :-)

Phares Lee Martin

Named in honor of his maternal grandfather Phares Newswanger, whose 100th grandchild he is. Lee is Dad's middle name.

This photo has "stats" written all over it. Here we go:

Born: today at 8:57 p.m.
Weighed: 8 lbs. 7 oz. (in fact, still does)
Place in the Pecking Order: tenth of ten ;-)

The delivery went smoothly and Mom is doing fine. We are rejoicing in this blessing to our family. To God be the Glory.

Carmen

P.S. Keep going for today's "real" post.

Hello Everyone,

I really wanted to start out this year with these photos, the Sufficiency of Scripture Conference as well as some Thanksgiving Day ones. Life doesn't get much more important than Scripture and giving thanks. I tried my best to limit the quantity of photos and inside jokes. I'm afraid there's quite a few of both, however. :-)

Being the fan of chronological order that I am, Thanksgiving comes first...

Thanksgiving Day

Art ;-)

Passing on a tradition.

If you follow through with tradition too far, you end up with some scary looking folks at the dinner table.

Mervin, it's Thanksgiving. Give thanks for the natives. They're scary, but not very.

Scary... but not very.

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.
- Robert Burns -

Right after Dad said "Amen." :-)

We serve cranberry salad every year simply to test certain individuals' ability to be thankful.

The Apples and the Press

Full dish.

One in, whole dish to go.

All in.

All but two.

The historic moment - the last apple.

Or not so historic? Sort of anticlimactic, not, to find another whole dish of apples?

We stand outside the ring of dedicated cider-makers. We have christened ourselves the "outciders."

More "outciders." They're out of cider and they've brought their pan to get some.

But to get some, you have to join the work crew, become an "incider" in fact!

We wanted some cider - wanted it bad.

Cider is obviously in. So are denim coats it appears.

Conrad gives a demonstration of how I used to try to make he and Candace "die" when we were playing "killed by Indians." They never could do it - fall flat on their faces keeping their arms behind their backs. As their drill sergeant, I used to get so frustrated. I wonder why I never showed them how it's done?

This is how the Einwechters start sword fights.

This is how the Einwechters end rubber-band fights.

Candace, take some lessons from Abigail...

...she watches what she's doing.

Jenga - a game of inevitable doom.

That doesn't mean there aren't small victories along the way though.

(I can't call this photo terrible since Jonathan took it, but... :-)
They were all clamoring for me to post it. I figured I get a lot of fun at other people's expense, and so I might as well let you have some at mine. ;-)

Don't breathe for one second.

What did I tell you... Inevitable doom.

And don't forget to thank me on Thanksgiving because...

...sometimes I get plumb tired of blogging.

Such hard decisions. (Like what to caption this picture.)

Christian's Birthday

The investigation of Christian's birthday present by Inspector Mercy.

Arson! Arson! Somebody set Christian's cake afire.

The Number 1 job of putting the fire out in Thomas's cab.

The appetite of Conrad Martin becomes public.

The Sufficiency of Scriptrure Conference

One non-average, cold Thursday morning, we get the Einwechter's van loaded - and that is something worth noting.

The Farewell Crew

Yeah... some of them did look a little suspicious, but, as soon as we were a few miles down the road, we checked for stowaways.

Sometimes it seems like there's an awful lot of road ahead of us, but... You guessed it! There's a light at the end of the tunnel. We'll get there sometime.

No speed limits are always helpful.

Oh I get it... The SOS conference - the Singing of Songs conference.

Two fingers seem to be popular.

See, I know what I'm talking about.

To those people who say that each day of creation actually represents thousands of years and use the verse "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" to "prove" it, Mr. Ham says...

I don't think so. :)

"If you buy all these, we give you a free cardboard box." - Ken Ham Commercial

Back in the vendor hall, someone checks out the free cardboard box.

Scott, if nobody's interested, you have to interest them.

On my turn, I practice what I preach. I try to interest Philip in buying his dad's books. I used arguments such as family loyalty and a son's duty to his father. Since it was a Sufficiency of Scripture Conference, I even pulled out some Bible verses like "My son, hear the instruction of thy father..." and "Honour your father..." etc. And when he still didn't bite, I...

...well, I didn't know what to do. So I turned the stand over to Karen.

At least somebody was excited about our products.

Some people were just as excited about our competitions' products.

No wonder. They've got some ingratiating sales tactics...

...plus some eye-catching displays.

They even get the little children to come unto them and forbid them not.

At least we're not alone. Here's another vendor reduced to reading his own literature.

I meet up with a familiar face. He had a question for me. And it was a pretty tough one. How DO you get a closeup of John Moore with a Canon Powershot without his seeing you? I told him that, to be a photographer, you cannot be shy. I ought to know; I used to use a Powershot.

He settled for the do-it-behind-his-back method.

What? More stealth photography?