Graham Houses

Since 2002 we've had the family tradition of making gingerbread houses. It all started when Sean was a youth pastor in St. Louis. I got the joy of hanging out with all the young ladies and coordinating "get togethers". I found a website online that should a simple way of cutting the grahams and using Almond Bark for frosting. It works great and dries rather quickly. We have learned tables clothes are a must! Also cake piping bags and precutting is helpful.  The kids have also learned "DO NOT eat too much candy or you will get sick!" ( I will spare the details of one year) :)

Here was last Christmas 08...

And this years creations...

CANDY...

Elijah's Final Product:

Lydia's:

Wish I had all the years of pictures scanned! Sean gets VERY creative each year:

Jason's:

Elizabeth's:

Mom's:

Thus, it has become one of the favorite Holiday events in the Buckout House.  Even buying all the candy excites the kids. Each year we find out new ways to use it :)

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Well, me made a slight mistake in ordering only 50 cards this year and fell very short... so I am posting our newsletter and some extra pictures for an update on our family.  God richly bless you!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

We have an exciting new adventure ahead of us in 2010! Last September we moved into our "Adventure House", which we will reside in till sometime next June.  (We are fulfilling a lease for some dear friends who offered it to us, even though they had lost so much!) God is our Provider and Helper! Words can not express the generous gift they have given us. Plus, next July we will be expecting our 5th child!! I will be 10 weeks pregnant on Christmas Eve. To God be the glory; now, and in all these events to come!!!

So we are settling in, at least for awhile! My dear husband Sean, who is still an avid gardener has stored his seeds for Spring 2011.  He is diligently discipling our children and serving the Lord as the Childrens Pastor at church. He never fails to read the Bible to our kids every night before bed.  He is currently in the book of Luke with the girls, and Malachi with the boys (Jason does get to read a Children's Bible Book too!). What patience he has at these hours when I am done with my day.  We hope to transition to an all family bible time soon.

Elijah Jo, turns 9 next month! I am so impressed with him everyday. The kid has an exceptional memory. He learns more from reading library books than I can keep up with. From describing what makes a match ignite to his sister, or telling me that Jean-Francois was the first to decipher hieroglyphic writing, let’s just say he makes home schooling easy! Today he decided to write a book about a man going around the world for his vacation! I can't wait to see what he becomes as an adult! Ok. I can wait... he is my BOY.

Lydia Joy, is our 7 year old with an amazing talent for baking.  In the past couple of months she has made pumpkin pie, tarts, chocolate cake (from scratch), cookies, pizza pockets and biscuits. Sean keeps thinking of business names for her bakery someday! Lydia is very true to her heart and growing in the Lord. She has a natural motherly oversight for the entire family. She will thrive even more when we have our new baby! I will be blessed with her help! Her home schooling is going great. She wrote her first book called, “Chloe the Cat” and just started multiplication.  

Elizabeth Jane (also know as "Little Bee") is now 5 years old!  Almost everyday she writes me a note saying, "I "heart" U Mom BFF Jesus Loves Always"  She continues to bless our heart with her prayers and expressions of love to God. Weekly, she and Lydia find their way into swimsuits and play ballet. She has completed 29 reading lessons and is very close to reading all on her own.  It is how we get fun cuddle time too! The little girl also LOVES rice.  We see her working with missions someday, enjoying the people and lots of rice!

Jason Jon, who will always be my baby, is 3 1/2, but is willing to give up the title soon.  Jason has prayed faithfully almost everyday that "mommy would have a baby in her tummy, so there will be lots of kids". Those prayers have been such a comfort in hard times! It is very important for him to be heard. If he is not, he will just get LOUDER!  He loves all the Lego pieces his brother has and wants to play with his sisters all the time.  Right now, he and Elizabeth are hanging upside down on the couches. He will always tell you when his "feelings are hurt". What an honest loving boy! Oh, I must not forget he loves to get his back scratched.. "Mommy, please itchy my back"... 

I have been enjoying raising these beautiful kids and serving my wonderful husband!  I struggle like every mom, but always rely on the grace of God. I want to be transparent so they can see EVEN Mommy needs help from Jesus!  I left my Jazzercise Instructing this year because the time commitment was becoming a little too much to manage.  Now I have found a past time of making Mac Book family albums and writing a blog.  Pretty soon that time will be filled with our new baby! I am so excited!! Its is very surreal.

I think this might complete the first newsletter I have ever written! I can't promise one next year, for even now we are only given today. I am so thankful our Father in heaven has our days written down in His book. Even though December is not the month Christ was born, I praise God for sending His son as a little child! Jesus, that little child, grew to be a man (who was tempted in every way we have been!) and by His death on the cross, and resurrection brought LIGHT to this darkened world so we may be saved. Do you know Jesus as your Savior? Take opportunity this Christmas to open your heart to Him who loves you!  Believe and receive all He has done!

We love you dearly!   Love, The Buckout Family

Sean, JuRita, Elijah, Lydia, Elizabeth, Jason and Baby to come!

New Passion

Rabuna Fi Women
Over the past ten years God has been teaching me a lot about the people of Sudan and Uganda. I am shocked by the war atrocities: famine, murders, kidnaps, abuse, and rape.. just to list a few. Even as of late, I can only slightly wrap my mind around the devestation the women and children have experienced.

We have supported and followed Far Reaching Ministries for quite sometime. Just recently I was able to host a  Rabuna Fi  "God is here" party. It is an income generating project were crafts made by African Women in war torn countries, then shipped back to the states were people like us can sell them. The Rabuna Fi women are able to come hear a bible study,  (Have discipleship training pictured right) , fellowship, learn to read, and spend time making crafts for income. A friend and woman I admire, Vicky Bently has poured out her life to reach out to these women making disciples of Christ. She also over sees the a ministry called Love Covers to children. I have yet to read more about how I can help there too!

Lydia helping set up crafts for Rabuna Fi Party

  

Wes and Vicky Bently

Her husband works with Chaplain Corps and leads FRM

Chaplain Corps

(FRM: "At the heart of the ministry is our chaplains of Southern Sudan. The ministry began through the needs of Southeren Sudan and the need for training pastors and chaplains for the brutal world of Sudan. The chaplains of Far Reaching Ministries are currently deployed all over southern Sudan.")

Last night Sean and I watched a documentary on the Acholi Tribe called WarDance. Click HERE for Trailer. The entire group (I think about 200,000 people) have been displaced because of the war. Here is a simple quote from Wikipedia about the Acholi people:

"The Acholi are known to the outside world mainly because of the insurgency of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony, an Acholi from Gulu. The activities of the LRA have been devastating within Acholiland (though they spread also to neighbouring districts and countries). As at September 2009, large numbers of Acholi people remain in camps as internally displaced persons." OR IDP, Part of a camp pictured below:

Most of the children in these camps have barely escaped the LRA (LRA pictured Right and Below with Leader Kony 2nd from right)  They hide in the bush while their parents are brutally murdered (a light way of putting it!). Others have been kidnapped, but escaped (while in captivity raped numerous times and killed others to stay alive ). One child in the movie said, "He is afraid God will not be able forgive him for what he has done." He is only 10. Another child actually describe what he was forced to do... I cannot even write about it... You would have to watch the movie.

LRA walking through African "Bush" Where many fear they will be captured by them.

Acholi Children :)

I found this picture on the internet and loved it! The caption is below.

LALIYA, UGANDA - MAY 26: Children play outside huts in a heavy rainfall on May 26, 2005 in Laliya, a poor rural village in northern Uganda. Many children in this area are afraid of being abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The rebel group has brought terror to Northern Uganda for almost twenty years, fighting the Ugandan government. The victims are usually children, which are abducted and used as child soldiers and sex slaves. About 1.5 million people have fled villages and live in about 180 squalid Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps, which has changed the rural life in Northern Uganda. About 20,000 children walk every day to the nearby provincial capital Gulu where NGO:s house the children. Many children are too afraid to sleep in the villages. (Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)

Why do we ignore it? Why do we turn away from the truth? Strive to find out more.. God bless you!

Video with Vicky Bently,  Far Reaching Ministry Aviation, Rabuna Fi Women (its the video shown at the party I hosted.)

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpjuCmliu5s

Part 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NLTFVyDSM4

Heaven Father, we have so much! Thank you for the simple blessing of this life. Food, water, clothing, .. a home.. Teach us to be content with the things we have. Oh, how we need to be mindful to pray for our brothers and sister in Christ and those who need you in these countries. Teach us how to pray. We need you.. with much is given much is required, let us not forget the freedom we have. Thank you for those who are risking their lives to share your gospel and make disciples. I love you Lord!

Food, Inc.

My dear love Sean, got to do his first wedding at the end of August. I was a little bummed I couldn't go but the Lord knows! The sweet couple who gave him a place to lay his head are dairy farmers. As a gift before he left, they gave him about 25 lbs of ground beef. What a blessing for our little crew! I think it took us about 3 months to run out!  Then, back to Winco I went surveying the meat products. Until we watched this movie the other night: 

Food Inc.   (click for Trailer)

THIS MOVIE WILL SHOCK YOU!

I have never been much of a granola person myself, but after enjoying a few gardens, there is something to be said about knowing WHERE your food comes from.  To me its worth paying $1.50 or a little more per pound for healthy food.  Today we went to Bald Hill Farms, LLC and picked up 5lbs of fresh ground beef.  If I only didn't sell my extra freezer!! When we are settled again, I know we will buy some chickens so we can have some fresh eggs too.

Here is a caption from the website about the film:

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Cartooning Ourselves

We made these on mywebface.com a couple of weeks ago.  Pure fun Buckout entertainment!! We were in tears creating them!  And by the way.. It was QUITE difficult!  Enjoy!

Mr. B

Mrs. B

They kids selected their own features with the help of mom....

Elijah Jo

Lydia Joy

Elizabeth Jane

Jason Jon

And they really wanted to make one of Aunt Wendi too...

A cheerful heart is good medicine,
       but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 17:22


(That scripture should be our family motto!)

The Hardwicks and The Buckouts

We have known The Hardwick family since Sean and I were 18 years old. Besides just attending church together, Janet was my girlfriend and Sean worked with Darius at Roundtable Pizza.  I remember the first dinner we had at their house as married couples. They just had Daniel, their oldest boy and I was very pregnant with Elijah.  We played Scatagories and laughed our heads off because we were VERY comfortable and "informal" with each other! I will never forget Janet showing me all the goods she got at recent garage sales. ( For example a huge pack of pens rubber band together!)
.
Well, we have shared so many memories with our friends. They are TRUE friends. The iron sharpens iron kind. It can go months with out contact and there is no bitterness. We just pick up were we left off....I love it!  We have seen God work in our families as we strive to make Him the center.

Even when we moved across the United States to Missouri in 2002, they stayed in touch with us. Which took much more effort then because everyone didn't have email or Facebook. :)  We even sent eachother recorded VHS tapes of our family.

Conversation of our are not limited too, but include:  Parenting, Homeschool, Politics, Birth Control, Abortion, 80's Things, Cool People, Ways to Save Money, Costco, The Bins, Contruction Help, Remodel, Home Groups, Stomach Issues, Health Care, Natural Foods, Microwaves...ect ect.. ect... LOL

I am going to miss them dearly! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH HARDWICK FAMILY!  Darius is now able to go on full time with CBR Ministry IN OHIO. Praise the Lord for their dedication to save babies!

Since Sean and I our now "back in the race" with them, I am a little sad that they won't be able to see our new baby, but there is always Skype!

The Kids!

BELOW:  Daniel 9, Elijah 8, Lydia 7, Sheldon 7, Elizabeth 5, Brielle 4, Jason 3, Peter 2, Stephen 1

(forgive me Janet if I got any ages wrong!)

Family Picture! 2009

 

Goofy!

Pretending to be in the 1900's

Note: How do we feed all these kids when we eat and fellowship together???  Walleries Pizza or BBQ Hambergers with Bacon are Hardwick/Buckout dinner traditions!

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Psalm 127:3

Dear Lord, Thank you for the entire Hardwick family. Thank you for bringing them into our life. They have been a living example of your testimonies and goodness! We pray for your hand of safety to proctect them as they travel to Ohio. Thank you for being their Provider. Thank you for giving us such wonderful friends.. In Christ name..Amen