Our Family Newsletter--as a blogpost

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

My Liv before her Christmas piano recital.

Ethan at a play area I took him to this year. He thinks I'm pretty fun!

My 18 year old son, Andrew! He's so good-looking.

My beast, Cali before she broke her 1st ornament.

Scott, aka Honeybear, during our Dallas staycation.

I am so blessed to be her momma!

Hunt Fam
Special events in our family’s life:

• Andrew made it to 18!
• Scott finished his latest novel. Pray for publishing in 2012.
• Olivia knows all of her states and capitols, to a song, of course.

Home Sweet Home

This year we moved from our comfortable apartment onto my mother-in-law’s land into “The Barn.” We started with no electricity or plumbing. Weird, we know. It’s been an ongoing adventure and challenge. When I first brought my grandson Ethan over to see where we lived, he paused in front of it and asked, “You live in the shed?” My niece called it glamping= glamorized camping. It’s been amazing to watch Scott transform it into our home. Olivia’s Christmas wish was for her own bedroom so she could have “some sense of normalcy.” It should be complete by Christmas morning.  Maybe in a year you can come over for a visit?

Updates

Olivia is now a fifth grader. Scott continues to homeschool her and she’s thriving this year. She is an avid reader and writer too. She’s in her second year of choir and piano. She’s asked everyone to give her $ for Christmas because she’s saving up for a saddle.

Andrew spent some of the year living with Trey in Round Rock, but then moved back to Southeast TX. He has a driver’s license and is working hard at a refinery. I’m proud of his accomplishments, but still pray for him. 
 
Our grandson, Ethan started kinder this year and is learning sooo much. I got to visit him at school for a lunch with grandparents. We love being his GiGi and Pops and hope to have more grandchildren someday.

I am still teaching technology to little ones in Mansfield as well as volunteering at Lifechurch. Tv and Traffick911.

Life is very busy, but we are blessed!

Romans 15:13  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him.

Blue Bell Creameries

Blue Bell, the best ice cream in the country!

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Shelling Peas

The trip to visit Liv's pen pal, Aunt Sherry, proved to be eventful & filled with firsts.
#1 We took Liv saddle shopping and she was more interested in a TOP. She's apparently never seen one of these old, metal spinners. #2Later that evening we walked the perimeter and she (and Dottie the dog) went for an ankle-deep dip in the creek. "How does it feel to squish mud between your toes?" Weird.
#3Today, we shelled a bucketful of peas. It was fun at first, she thought, but soon pittered out.
We had a fun, relaxing trip! Lots of firsts and yummy, fresh food.

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Boys Will Be Boys

Andrew figured he'd motivate Trey by doing his back flip first. LOL

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Cranky Gardener

On Saturday morn, H & I got an early start, trying to beat the TX heat. Fail. I think the heat, plus hard work put me in such a foul mood. I even asked H how he could stand me?! He said I'm worth it, but if I don't improve, I can't work with him anymore :)
My job was basically to walk back & forth to the garage to get tools. We repurposed some old wood behind the barn to make the frame. 4x4. We are starting small & practicing for next Spring.
Note to self (& good excuse for new shoes): wear work boots!! While foraging for boards, two nails went thru my flip flops and luckily not thru the skin. I know, dumb. H didn't even need to say he told me so...
Eventually, with sweat in my eyes, we completed this small task & visions of late summer harvest danced in my head.

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My open letter to ABC

Dear ABC TV Network:
Via website http://abc.go.com/site/contact-us
My husband and I were watching 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show with our daughter this evening. This show’s rating is PG. To my disappointment, you aired a commercial (which most people fast forward through) advertising the upcoming movie FWB.
Grown-ups can decipher what FWB stands for and thus implies. We do not need it spelled out during prime-time television; however, I do expect you to edit out young women speaking lines like “No emotion. Just sex,” as well as the guy bragging to his friend, “It’s just sex.” I am so disgusted by the role of television to normalize sex in our culture. There may be girls in this world that pretend that sex is all they want, but that is not the message I want my nine-year-old daughter to hear while watching a game show. I wouldn’t want her thinking or saying lines like the actress in the movie is saying.
Please quit spreading the false idea that it is okay to sleep around while pretending that there is no emotional loss when you give a part of yourself away to anybody. Sex is sacred and special and emotional and physical. It’s a wonderful thing for grown, married people to experience together.
In fact, God created it to be all of those things. He says so in His word, the Holy Bible, that is an actual book to be read and not just an iPad app to be sworn upon right before two idiots sleep together.
Quit feeding the American people crap! DO YOUR PART—be a responsible, positive voice and hold yourselves accountable for the morality of our nation which continues to decline daily.

Sincerely,
Stace Hunt
Wife, Mom, Christian, Educator, Volunteer

The Miracle of Indoor Plumbing

“Where in the world do you live that you do not have indoor plumbing??” asked a co-worker who’d seen a recent Facebook post.

“In a barn, but I have a toilet now.” I responded. Or, as Ethan says, “A shed. A shed with a bed.”

It’s nothing short of miraculous to be able to flush a toilet. How many times do we habitually do this with no sense of wonder? I guess I have a newfound appreciation and education of pipes, PVC, poop pumps, etc. It’s intricate and complicating. And my husband worked sooo hard to provide it for me.

I went 99 days without a toilet. Of course, I have had luxuries like electricity (only 55 days without it, directly); and now a window a/c unit—with bedside remote. Hopefully the camp toilet is a thing of history and will only be used for its intended purpose—camping. Although, my niece Lyn refers to our living quarters as glamping=glamorous camping.

Sometimes Scott and I lie in bed at night and wonder, “Who does this?”

Well, we do. We work until we run out of $$ and then we stop for the month. We are truly, honest-to-goodness broke by the end of the month. Two months ago I had one cent in savings and less than a dollar in my checking. I didn’t have enough gas to even get to work. BUT I remembered we had fuel in the red, lawnmower gas can. So, Scott put it in my car. God sustains and we made it to payday. It’s not fun and it’s definitely uncomfortable, but it's also an adventure!

I know it will be a year before it’s more like we want it (aka presentable to my sister who thinks I’ve lost my mind), but I do revel in these times. It’s the basic necessities (like a coffee pot) and I know that the Lord is preparing us to be uncomfortable and bug-infested somewhere else in the world where we can be a light in the dark.

My 1st Daniel Fast

At the start of 2010, when all my Lifechurch.tv friends fasted, I did not. I found out about it the day before it was starting, too late to wrap my brain around the concept. So I vowed to try it in 2011. The Daniel Fast is basically a vegan diet, no coffee or sugar, no soda, no processed, bleached white flour. The concept of fasting is to grow closer to God and when your physical body is having a craving, you feed your spiritual being by praying and reading the Bible.

Let me start with some honesty...My name is Stace and I am addicted to coffee. I drink it first thing every morning. After school I stop by the gas station to get my 32 ounce fountain Diet Coke and then after dinner I make another pot of coffee. Bad, right?

I wanted to reflect on my experience, since it was my first and I may never attempt it again. :) The first five days I had a massive headache from caffeine withdrawals. I would wake up in the morning thinking about it like a true addict. It was my biggest sacrifice and struggle. Once, when Scott and I were shopping for fruity, herbal teas we had to go down the coffee aisle and we literally had to stop and pray for resistance right there in the middle of Wal-Mart to combat the urge to buy the coffee and quit the silly fast. Ridiculous, I know this. Luckily, a friend told me about Pero and I drove to Whole Foods that very night to buy some. It's roasted barley and rye for heaven's sake, but it's hot and brown and tastes decent with soy creamer.

By day six, the headache was gone, but then came the leg cramps. I had not done any extraordinary workout, so I attributed it to some sort of deficiency. So I ate bananas and put muscle rub on them. I know it says that Daniel used no lotion, but that wasn't gonna work in winter. Oh, and I forgot to mention the acne that popped up on my face!! I literally looked like I was having a teenage breakout.

Olivia, my nine-year-old daughter, participated by default. We gave every tempting, perishable food to our middle son and his wife. Olivia went over to her cousin's house to play and the first thing she did upon arrival was go into the kitchen and ask her aunt, "Do you have any meat?"

She also asked if when the Daniel Fast was over, could we please have 21 days of unhealthy eating. And my husband declared that after this fast was over, we'd do the Paul Fast, where" all things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial" (I Cor.10:23).

It was hard not to look for a weight loss on the scales. Scott and I both needed to shed a few pounds, but the weight was not falling off. We had a saying, "It's not what we're losing, it's what we're gaining."

By day nine, I hit my stride and began to feel vibrant. I read the Daniel Fast reading plan on YouVersion every morning. I looked forward to the interesting creations my sweet husband was coming up with in the kitchen. My faves include: foccacia, potato soup, Nutrein nuggets (from Tom Thumb) and bean tostados with cilantro guacamole.

The fact is, we made it! Not all of my friends can say that, not to boast. It only proves that it was not easy, especially in our fast food nation. I asked Scott if he wanted to wake up at 12:01 am and brew a pot of coffee. We've opted for sleep. I have been contemplating which things I've enjoyed and want to continue. I am not going back to Diet Coke. I can't even have one because then I'll crave it and fall back into that habit. I am going to continue being vegetarian (I had been for two years and had gone astray). I will enjoy my coffee every morning, but maybe in the evening I will drink Pero or Bengal Spice tea instead.

The last day of the Bible reading for today, said "No matter how deep you are now [with God], go deeper still. I hope that by dedicating the first part of the year to Christ, that I will continue to go deeper still in 2011. God blessed us immensely during these 21 days and more importantly, I pray He was blessed by our sacrifice and obedience. He is the only One worth giving up my morning cup of coffee for.

Amen...that it is finished!