Gone Beachin'

Clint and I are enjoying a spur-of-the-moment 10-day vacation. We decided to "run away together" in the middle of a hectic week. We found a beachfront house in the 4x4 area we enjoy. Then we added ocean-view hotel stays to either end of our ocean-view beach house rental for a little extra time. When we come to the beach, we come to see and experience the ocean. So, we only rent ocean front houses and hotels even if we have to pay a bit more.

For most of our trip, we are staying in Corolla one dune off the beach with its own beach access. It's just us and our two dogs, Penny and Sprocket. We plan to do Bible studies, walk the beach looking for shells, driftwood, and sea glass, gourmet cooking, observe the wild horses, catch sunrises and sunsets together, watch for ships and dolphins with our binoculars, etc. 

We will hit our favorite spots in the OBX and so some visiting in Kill Devil Hills.

We stayed in room 10 of the Blue Heron Hotel in Nags Head until this morning. When we visited, it was clean, comfortable, and had more square feet than most modern hotels. The second-floor balcony had a fantastic ocean view where we watched a sunset and a sunrise. There was a full kitchen (sink, fridge, microwave, stove with oven)with dishes, utensils, and cookware. Dish cloths and towels were provided along with plenty of bath linens. There were dispensers in the kitchen and bathroom with hand soap, dish soap, body wash, and shampoo. The hotel was quiet at night and the beds were comfortable. There was a pool, hot tub, private beach access, sand wash-off area, thriving purple martin colony, ice machine, etc. The staff was welcoming and very friendly. It is a great deal at $70 a night (total price, off-season rate, late April, price included our pets). We were a little hesitant at the low price, but our experience there was very favorable! We will return.

Our love to all!

She Said Yes!

Caleb and Elora are engaged to be married. Clint and I are very happy for them. Our entire family is ecstatic! God has poured out blessings upon us!

Cheap Grace

"Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

VIDEO: great Transgender COVER-UP is now being EXPOSED! Lawsuits EXPLODING ...

She gives sources. Worth a listen.

Birth Pangs Encouragement

 But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.
Matthew 24:8

A birth pang is a contraction during pregnancy.

synonyms for pang: agony, anguish, discomfort, spasm

synonyms for contraction: decline, reduction, recession (a deterioration? -w)

As a woman who has had 14 pregnancies and has seven living children, one thing I am familiar with is pregnancy and labor. I contemplate this verse a lot. 

I learned my babies' personalities during the intimate relationship during pregnancy. I discovered their sleep patterns, movements, and how they respond to voices, music, and other sounds. I knew when they had the hiccups and towards the end could tell you who liked to sleep in which position in my womb. Those things helped me get a glimpse of their personalities. Every day, I would greatly anticipate my child's birth so I could get to know them face to face. The severe hyperemesis gravidarum, aches, pains, restless nights, and so on were sufferings that made time seem to stretch out further and further. Time just dragged on. It was hard to believe there was an ending! Then, before it seemed possible it was finally time! Labor had started! The contractions would come, and then I'd get time to rest between them. There was more rest between the pangs at first but the closer it became, there was less time to rest. Finally, there was no rest at all and the hardest part was upon me. I tucked my head and bared down. Then, I heard the cry that signaled the one I was waiting for had arrived. That cry signaled the end of pregnancy and the beginning of a new life! It was JOYOUS! Once I had the baby in my arms and was looking back, it didn't seem like the pregnancy was that long at all. The wait and discomfort became worth it to get to the one I was waiting for.

We are getting to know the Lord and each other through Christian fellowship. It is a foreshadowing of what is to come. We greatly anticipate the day our Savior will come for us so we can get to know Him face to face. But, these disruptive and painful things we are going through down here at the very end of the Church Age make the time pass so slowly. We get time to rest in between events, but I can't help but wonder if soon there will be no rest as the hardest part comes upon us. Soon, we will hear the shout to signal that the One we are waiting for is here! The Church Age is coming to a close and soon our new life with Christ will become a reality. It will be JOYOUS! 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it seems like time is passing so very s l o w l y right now, but that is because we are so eager for our Savior to arrive. When we look back on this time, we will see it wasn't that long at all. Like pregnancy and labor are worth it to get our child, what we are going through now will be worth it to get to Jesus.  "..the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Romans 8:18

Keep living for Him! Keep sharing the Good News of salvation through Jesus! It will be over before you know it!

Love to ALL! 

-Mama Asbell

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Religion vs Christianity

 Religion tells you what you must do to be saved, Christianity tells you it is done for you.

Jesus said "It is finished!" on the cross. The Bible is clear all we have to do is BELIEVE in Him.

Hannah's Graduation Photo

Hannah graduated at 14 years old in December 2023 if you go by the completion of her course. But, due to some issues on the school's part, she graduated at 15 years old in January 2024 if you go by the date the paperwork was finally finished.

She doesn't care one way or the other. She's happy to be finished!

She has been working on her driving coursework for the last several weeks.

Soon, Hannah and Emily will start college together as was their plan.

How does the Bible define sin?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNOZ7ocLD74&ab_channel=BibleProject

I challenge you to listen to this and see if your beliefs are accurate. 

Security

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOjNdJtbgLE&ab_channel=AndyWoods

During the course of this lesson, Pastor Woods goes into why we, those who believe in Christ as Savior, can not lose our salvation even if we later turn away from God. I agree with his interpretation of the verse he uses. It is a great comfort as extended family members who grew up in the church turn from the Lord and curse His name and the parents who taught them about the Lord. 

18

I don't mention my miscarried and stillborn babies often because I don't want to drag others down. Today, I will mention one of them briefly. I want it in our family archives that I did not forget my babies. In fact, I think of them daily. It was only weeks ago I dreamt I was pregnant and losing a baby and woke up with a troubled heart. 

It's been 19 years since I held and said goodbye to my son, Josiah. He would be 18 years old today. 

Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection have made my loss a gain. I will get to be with ALL of my children for an eternity. This is not the end of the story. The story with Josiah and my other babies is just beginning. The best is yet to come! Thank you, Jesus!

Hatching Time Quail Cage Update

Because I recommended the cage to so many, I want to give a full disclosure. 

I am using JB Weld Water to fix the leaking issues with our 5-layer Hatching Time quail cage. This is a very common problem with all of Hatching Time cages going back many years. One can find plenty of evidence of this if one looks at forums and groups and the different websites with reviews.

The first cage was a pain to assemble due to holes and plastic pins that did not line up well and flash (excess plastic) in the holes. Reviews show a lot of people have struggled with putting it together.

The second cage was much easier to assemble (holes and pins lined up), but it is leaking like crazy from five different places. Five gallons of water on your floor makes a mess and can damage things.

The square plug that you see is one leaking issue. This area is assembled at the factory. The gasket is pushed out on this particular one, but the others don't have this showing..and they still drip. We have three of those square plugs leaking. I contacted the company, and they said they would send replacement plugs. From the reviews, they will most likely leak again or develop a leak over time. JB Weld solved the issue in an hour. However, I will not be able to remove the square water pipe intact again.

The black hoses are leaking from three places. I made sure they were seated with no gaps, but they still drip. Clint checked my connections and said they were correct. We are now trying to get hose clamps to work on that side. I am close to having it resolved, but I am days into it. I don't like using my time to fix a known issue. Hatching Time should provide better support and should come up with a better watering system.

I researched the competitor, Wynola Ranch, who makes a nice metal stackable cage that can be used indoors and outside. It is predator-proof and has a float valve on the water troughs. However, I learned from several reviews that the wire floors are tearing up the birds' feet which is worse. Bumblefoot is not fun to treat. I'd rather work out the water issues than have injured birds.

If you buy an HT cage, expect to have to work with the leaky water system. So many of their customers are having a problem, I guess it is a given it will be a problem. It is very frustrating with the $826 total for one cage. It should be a turnkey system, but it is not.

Clint did not have the time to build cages, so I had to find something I could assemble quickly to accommodate our birds who needed to be moved out of brooder boxes. I strongly recommend you build your own if you have the time and skillset. You can save yourself time, money, and frustration. If you can't do that, maybe you can contract someone to build one.

For a more affordable indoor system, Amazon sells sets of six cages (24x16) for around $150 with slide-out trays. I THINK three of those are close to the space in one row of the HT cages. Even if it takes all six of them to equal the space, it is still a much better deal. For the savings, they can affordably be modified with auto feeders and waterers and placed on inexpensive plastic shelving. The trays are not very deep, but they can be suspended over containers with the tray removed. I can not speak for how well the birds' feet will do on the wire in the cage, but that can be modified with coated wire or plastic grid. If it still flexes, a support in the middle could help. I am just throwing out ideas for others. I kind of wish I had gone that route, but I did not learn about it until after my purchase.

As a side note, we have hard well water that will clog up the water system (ask me how I know), so we collect rainwater for all of our nipple watering systems.

If you have any questions, please see the header. Our email is there.

Update: Hatching Time sent out five entire water pipes (the long square-shaped pipe with water nipples that runs along the back of the cage). They arrived about two days after our emails with them.  It is more than we expected or needed. It will allow us to replace all of the pipes in one cage. We could have fixed the issue with two of the $3 square end plug. We are very pleased with their response to the leaking issues we experienced.

Please pray for Tippy

April 9: Tippy is at home. He has been continuing treatments. He said the treatments are different each time and he is tolerating them OK. 

March 3: Linda, Tippy's wife, says that the past few days have been very hard. He is feeling better today, but there will be more chemo tomorrow. Please keep him in prayer.

February 25, 2024: Tippy has been mentioned in the blog before. He is a family friend and a co-worker of Clint's and Amanda's. 

Tippy recently discovered he has brain cancer. He is undergoing treatment this coming week. Because it is in his brain, he has to stay in the hospital for the first week. 

This cancer is treatable and possibly curable. 

Please keep him and his family in prayer. Thank you very much! May the Lord bless you for praying for our friend.

Peace in the Midst of Turmoil

Friends of mine asked why I was talking so calmly about our world's current state of affairs. 

I am not worried. My Savior has it all under control. He loved those who follow Him so much that He took the time to inform them about what was to come, so they would know He is real and so they could have peace. God is in control! As His child, I am under His protection. 

I find what is going on fascinating and exciting! I have looked forward to the day I would meet Jesus ever since I accepted Him as my Savior. That's almost 50 years of waiting. While I want to complete the mission He has for me on this earth, I am also eager to the best part of my existence...eternity with Him. 

Bottom Line: I am confident in God's ability to protect and provide for me and mine.