For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.
L'ma'an Tzion lo echesheh. U'l'ma'an Yerushalayim lo eshkot. Ad yetzi ka no ga tzidkah. Lo echesheh.
למען ציון לא אחשׁה ולמען ירושׁלם לא אשׁקוט עד יצא כנגה צדקה וישׁועתה כלפיד יבער
It has been awhile since we've posted anything - I'm sorry! Hopefully you are all enjoying these beautiful days of autumn.
In July (while my Mother, Hannah and Tommy were in Israel), we had an open day and a rental vehicle, so my Father and us younger children met our friends the T.'s in Atlanta for a Braves game!
While our family is not the biggest on sports ... the Braves have always been a family favorite, mostly because my father and his father (our grandfather) would listen to the games, and then my grandfather took my father to a game, before he passed away. Therefore, some of these pictures will mean more to some people than others, but I wanted to share them anyways. While my Father had been to a Braves game before (25 years ago), this was our children's first Braves Game!
Here are the pictures!
Atlanta Braves vs. Colorado Rockies - July 29th 2013
We made this sign on our way there!
We were going to eat at the Varsity, but by the end of the game, they were closed ...
... So we ate here instead!
See those three little people?
That is Abigail, Lydia, and Samuel :)
Mr. T. was at job interviews, so we had to leave him a "Will Call", so he was going to meet us at the game later!
Mrs. T. got our pictures.
The T. children.
All of us, except for Mr. T.
Wow! Seats, seats, and more seats!
The guy in the middle (Minor) was actually from/born in Tennessee.
Mr. T. arrived :)
Talk about team work!
We had a nice view of the city from our seats.
BOOOOO ... Rockies!
How cute!
"Take me out to the ball game...!" GO BRAVES!!!
HURRAY!!! The Braves won - 9 to 8 :)
Due to the fact that the teams were tied on the 9th inning, they had to play a 10th inning. When we saw that they had to play another inning, Mr. T. decided to go on home with the boys because he did not know how long the game would go, and he is not really a night owl ... normally :) If he had known they would only play one more inning, he would have probably stayed for it though!
And here are the videos ... there are a lot of different clips that I compiled into one video.
We arrived home late that night ... well, I guess it was early the next morning ... but we had a great time that we will remember for years to come! Thank you T. family for joining us, and adding so much joy :)
Now ... for game #2.
After we got back from our first Braves game, we had such a good time, that we decided we wanted to go back once the rest of the family was home! So, we did :) We did some last minute planning and we took my Dad down for his birthday in August. It was a lot of fun and it was so nice to go as a family, for the first time!
Here are the pictures.
Atlanta Braves vs. Cleveland Indians - August 28th 2013
Lydia got a ball!
And so did Abba :) We told him he should write how old he turned on his ball.
A school choir sang the National Anthem ... but personally I think that the girl that sang it at the first game we went to, sang it better! You can listen to her HERE.
BOOOO ... Indians.
GO BRAVES!!!
I think Mr. Mascot was hungry :)
Schaffer was known for stealing bases ... sometimes he got them, and other times he did not :(
Mr. Schaffer was also known for getting dirty :)
HURRAY ... the BRAVES WON!
This time we did eat at the Varsity!
We did not really get any videos of the game this time ... but we did get one of a race that the children really liked. Here it is:
I will hopeful post pictures and videos from Sukkot soon. But until then, Shalom and be blessed!
Hello everyone! I apologize for the delay in sharing more about our time in Israel. For privacy reasons, we have decided to switch blogs and will be posting about our experiences on our new blog that is open to invited readers only. We had thought about changing the status of this blog to make it private instead of public, but decided against that since we do not have email access for some of you that read it and would not have a way of notifying you of the change. So if you would like to be invited to access the new blog, you must email me at shiningstarsmagazine@gmail.com.
… to join our family and others for a week in September to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles at Fall Creek Falls State Park!
Some of you may be very familiar with this Feast and already observe it … some of you may be familiar and do not observe it … and some of you may not be familiar with it at all! Either way, here is a little information –
The Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths) is first mentioned in Leviticus 23:34-43. The purpose of this feast is to rejoice before YHWH (vs. 40) and to remember how He sustained the children of Israel as they dwelt in booths when they came up out of the land of Egypt. Fast-forwarding ahead … we read in Zechariah 14 that after the Messiah returns, everyone will go up to Jerusalem each year to worship YHWH and to keep the feast of Tabernacles.
For the past 19 years, our family has been observing this feast. Each year is a little different, but we try to go camping for the week and stay in “temporary dwellings” (tents) to commemorate what the children of Israel experienced in the wilderness. We love to join with other families during this Feast, and spend time in fellowship, activities, worship, study, and more! This year, we would like to welcome whoever would like join us. If you are interested or would like more information, please contact us and I would be happy to send you a flyer that my father has written.
We hope to meet some new friends and reunite with old ones, so if you and/or your family are able to join us for the whole week or just a portion of it, we would love to have you. If you are unable to camp, there are cabins and also a hotel at this park. If you have any questions or would like more information or clarification, please do not hesitate to contact us!
I was recently looking at this blog and realized it had been a long time since we have posted anything ... too long of a time! So, here I am with a Washburn Family update.
Life has been really busy ... more so than normal. I will kinda give an overall update from the beginning of the year. I have heard that pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are some pictures ... maybe I will not have to type as much :) Also, at the very end there are a few videos from the last few months.
Here are portraits of Abigail, Samuel and Lydia ... and the last picture is of Sam, Lydia and Sam's dog Golani in the woods. I am so blessed with such sweet, beautiful (and handsome) siblings!
In the beginning of March we went on a puppy delivery trip for our BEAGLIERS. Due to how busy my brother Tommy was with work, he was not able to come with us which was sad :( But he was working with one of his best friends, so I think he pulled through it fine and they had a blast, I believe :)
We dropped off two puppies in West Virginia and then we got a hotel in Pittsburgh PA for the night. In the morning, a person from another state met us at the hotel and got a puppy, and then we walked along the waterfront in the city and around the Pittsburgh Pirates Stadium. It was rather cold, but we had a good time ... it was our first time (us children) in Pittsburgh!
The top row of pics are of a church on a hill and the waterfront ... and the buildings. The next row is of the children by the statue of Bill Mazeroski (a baseball player). And the last row, well, the pictures can speak for themselves!
Below on the top row: my beautiful older sisters, Hannah and Ruthie.
Bottom row: Sam "working out" at the gym in our hotel, and Ima on the computer holding my sweet little puppy Opie, well, Opie is not mine anymore ... I sold him!
After PA, we drove to New Jersey and dropped off another puppy. Then we drove down to Dover DE where my grandmother lives. We call my grandmother Babci because that is Polish for grandmother ... and she is Polish; we are half Polish.
Top row: Hannah, Ruthie and Sarah with Babci ... the dogs are Ernest T (a Beaglier) and Babci's baby girl Daisy (a Cavachon).
Second row: Abigail, Samuel and Lydia with Babci and Daisy.
Third row: Babci was teaching the girls how to crochet and knit and Sam was building something, I am not quite sure what :)
We went to the beach one day! We love the ocean :) We always try and go to it when we are at my grandmother's house because we do not have a beach in TN. The day we went was a little cold, but that did not change how beautiful it was!
Here are the four oldest girls. The top row is Ruthie and Hannah, and the bottom row is me (Sarah) and Abigail.
The two youngsters ... Lydia and Samuel :) The children love feeding the seagulls ....
.... and Abigail loves catching them too! For the last three years, each time we go to the beach she has caught a seagull. And Lydia likes collecting shells. We love walking on the beach! Us children (well, those of us there) tried to get a picture but it was kinda hard to do with the wind, sand and sun in our eyes :)
Have you ever eaten at Grotto's Pizza? Whenever we are at the beach we eat Grottos. Yummm .... I'm getting hungry! It was funny though because they brought out these children's coloring pages for the younger ones, but everyone started playing around and most people (even the older ones) colored and played games until the food came! The next pic is of Sam, and then there is one of me with my puppy. He loved the sand and he ran after me while I walked.
First picture, Babci with some of her grandchildren. Next, us children in front of the Washington Monument. By the way, did you know that the Monument is under construction because an earthquake "damaged" it a little in 2011?
Below is Sophie (our little house dog who is a Bichon) with her daughter Daisy (who is a Cavachon) and then Hannah with Shadow - a puppy from one of the litters she raised but he now belongs to my Uncle Ricky.
I do not know how many of you know this, but our family has a dog breeding business. It is called HAPPY HILL PUPS and we breed Labradors, Cotons, Beagliers and Cavachons. We have been breeding for many years. So far this year we had a litter of Beagliers (shown below). Also, while making a HHP collage, I had to add one of little Sophie!
Oh, I love this picture! What beautiful flowers! Abigail made the bouquets.
Recently we went to a place just a few minutes down the road from us where we had never gone before. It is called Old Stone Fort State Park. It is not a big park, but there is a river that runs through there and it is really pretty. Anyway, we walked around there one day and enjoyed hearing the river flowing.
We tried to get a family picture but it did not turn out as we were hoping, you can barely see Tommy and Ruthie. The second picture is Abba and Abigail, and then Abba and me.
Lydia, Samuel, Tommy and Hannah.
OK, we have this friend who is kinda like a brother to us and his name is Clinton. A year before we met Clinton, we met another girl named Sharon. Sharon lived with her family in a state far away :) After a lot of prayer from my parents (and us children) and some other close friends, my parents "introduced" Clinton to Sharon and her family. LONG story short, they started courting, then they got betrothed and last month they got married! I am so glad to have Sharon as a "sister" now :) Everything was so beautiful and we are so happy for this new couple!
Clinton and Sharon wanted to have a fruit tree at their wedding so Abigail offered to make them several. She made a "test tree" for our Purim party and the pictures from that are on the first row. The second row are pictures from the wedding. At the wedding a lot of people helped put the tree together (THANK YOU to those who helped), but Abigail was the one who instructed everyone and she did a wonderful job!
Here we are getting ready for the wedding and setting up. Also, giving the bride one last hug before she joins her husband (not that we can't hug now that she's married!) The wedding was held at the Noah Community Center about thirty minutes away from us in Beachgrove TN.
My dad performed the ceremony with the help of Clinton and Sharon's fathers. Tommy and Hannah played a song and Abigail sang it when Sharon walked down the aisle. It was actually a song that Sharon had written.
The first row of pictures got a little out of place ... but they are all at the wedding :) The second pic was of them praying before they started, and the third was when Sharon circled Clinton. I think the other pictures can speak for themselves!
Some of my siblings sang a song for Clinton and Sharon called Im Eshkachech Yerushalayim. We also did a good bit of dancing! On the bottom row is our DJ, Samuel :) And last is Hannah, Sarah and Abigail with one of the bride's sister, Sarah.
We have a good friend who we call Uncle Duane and he helped out with the song. Next ... our beautiful parents :) And some more dancing.
OK, so three of these pictures are from the night after the wedding ... but that picture of the girls doing the dishes ... how did that get in there ??? :) That was from the morning of the wedding. Have you ever washed dishes with the bride on the day of her wedding ??? Well, if not, let me tell you one thing ... it is not boring! :) But back to the other picture, we stayed up late, some people played Spoons (a game) and others just hung out. We also watched the bombing that happened in Boston.
At the end of April, our family went to GA for the weekend. There is a family down there (the Smiths) and they were holding a camp-meeting, we stayed at a hotel though! The Smiths are working on a homeschooling curriculum called the Digital Tutor/E6-4. You can visit their website HERE! It is pretty neat what they are doing. My sister Hannah was asked to do some lessons which she went down and had filmed last year.
We had a nice home-y feeling hotel! By the way ... the children loved staying up late swimming! And the moon picture was not actually taken in GA, we got that one here at our house.
We met at a community center and a few times we were early so we had fun hanging out! After we got home I noticed that they got individual pictures of all of the children except for me! Oh well ... there is one with me and my daddy :) It was a really cute county place.
The Heavenly Father really blessed us and we had a wonderful time in GA! The Smiths were a really sweet family and we had great times of praise and worship and fellowshipping, dancing ... the list could go on and on. THANK YOU Smith family! Below are some jamming sections and then there are pictures of Lydia, Ruthie and Bethany, and then Lydia and Sitara.
And here are some random pictures from home! A friend got the picture of the flowers (but they are at our house), then my parents going for a walk ... Tommy weed-eating, and Abigail and Lydia dressed up like two Polish girls ... cute!
Besides company, traveling and dogs, what else have we been doing, you may ask. Well, us girls have started another home business where we sell Israeli tichels (head coverings). We buy them in bulk from a wholesaler and then we sell them on our WEBSITE. We also recently put out our 21st copy of SHINING STARS MAGAZINE! And another thing we did was we made maple syrup this year. We are not doing that right now though because the season is over.
Besides that :) ... we are just living life to the fullest! We have been enjoying the beautiful spring, and we have been planting in the garden, re-arranging flower beds, doing lawn work, etc.
Life is busy for all of us, but in the busyness, may we never forget Jerusalem. Psalm 137:5-6 says, "If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy." Also, our Almighty God said in Genesis 12:3, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." And Psalm 122:6 says, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May those who love you be secure." Shabbat Shalom and have a wonderful week!
Here is a dance that the children did for Yom Terurah (Feast of Trumpets) last night. They did a fantastic job! The dance turned out great but there were some "behind the scenes" that meant a lot more to me than the actual dance.
#1. There was one girl who did not get there when she was supposed to and she had a solo part, so she really needed to be there. We started praying and about ten minutes before they started, she arrived and we hurried through getting her garmented. Our prayers were answered.
#2. When you get a lot of children together (eighteen, to be exact!), they have a tendency of wanting to talk and play around until they go out onto the stage. Last night those children were all calm and, on their own accord, started praying together that the dance would be a blessing to YHWH and to those watching it.
#3. As you will see in the dance, there was a special prop made for this dance. It was a life size model, and seconds (or MAYBE a minute max) before they were going to carry this prop onto the stage, they realize that it was basically the same size as the door. This prop had a major part in the dance, so panic started working on those involved. Instead of allowing panic to take over, they started praying again. Those carrying the prop decided that there was no time to take the prop around to another door so ... they picked it up and pushed it through the door! It made it ... and the children's prayers were once again answered.
I believe that the Father loved seeing His children dancing for His Glory ... but I believe that He was even more so blessed that they remembered Him and called on Him in the time on need.
Here is the dance and I hope you enjoy!
SONG: Mercy Seat by Vicki Yohe ... children's dance.
Just wanted to share a short video with you, but first a little background ...
Last week we had some very special guests for Shabbat! Josua and Stefanie are from Switzerland and my father met Josua when he was in Israel years ago. They stayed in contact ever since and we all looked forward to when the whole family could meet him. Last year, Josua married a really sweet girl named Stefanie and they were visiting in the States ... so that is how they ended up at our home for last Shabbat!
Anyway, they were telling us about their wedding and were trying to describe the song that was being played as Stefanie walked down the aisle. When they said it was a Hebrew song and was taken from the psalm that said something about "if I forget Jerusalem", I thought I knew what song they were talking about! Our internet was not working properly and they could not pull up the song on youtube, so I got my phone and played my ringtone ... which just happened to be the same song they were talking about, but a slightly different version.
This song is called "Im Eshkachech Yerushalayim" and is taken from Psalm 137:5-6 which says, "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! If I do not remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth -- if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy." When Tommy and I were in Israel last year, it was a popular song and we heard it on the radio everywhere and I was so happy when I found it in my ringtone selection!
Eventually the internet came on and we were able to play the version that they had in their wedding ... it is absolutely beautiful and I wanted to share it with you! But ... as I pulled up youtube just now to find the video, I came across another one ... it is the same song but a different video. I couldn't decide between which one to post here so I decided to do both of them. I mean ... can you overdose on Hebrew psalms, pictures and video footage of Israel?!
So here they are: the first one is just pictures and actually cuts the song short a little before the end, but the pictures are great! The second one is video footage of someone walking in Jerusalem.
So which one do you like best?! Hard choice, eh?
I hope you all have a wonderfully blessed Shabbat and remember Jerusalem above your chief joy!
(P.S. If you are receiving this through email, you will probably have to go to the blog to see the videos)
