The Grove Christmas Card: HEAV Convention

(We're trying to catch up on what's been going on, but we're still a bit behind. So...) June 12-13 we went to Richmond for the Home Educators Association of Virginia convention. In the keynote sessions there were almost 2000 people, and someone estimated that they would have about 10,000 people passing through that weekend! This convention also has the largest home school graduation in the nation - about 200 graduates this year. We drove down on Thursday night and set up our camper (backing in was difficult this time - we had to remove the site number post to get in). We were excited to see an Answers in Genesis trailer in the campground when we drove in! They were there for HEAV as well. We camped next to some friends of ours from church, and they had some other friends there too. The convention was great. We loved the inspiring keynote sessions by Voddie Baucham. We enjoyed hearing from Joel Salatin, a "beyond organic" farmer and entrepreneur who raises livestock in a completely different way than conventional farmers - lets pigs forage, cows graze free-range (rather than feed them corn (very bad) and keep them on concrete all their lives), etc. I don't think this explains it very well, but here is his website: http://www.polyfacefarms.com/ Another speaker we enjoyed was Sue Becker, who so inspired us to the health benefits of freshly ground flour that we purchased a grain mill the very next day and are now grinding wheat for muffins, rolls, and bread. She pointed out that in the Bible people lived almost entirely off bread, and Jesus called himself the Bread of Life. How could those things be possible if the bread they ate was anything like store bought bread of today? Here are some facts: - one day after grain is milled it loses up to 45% of its nutrients - 3 days after grain is milled it loses 90% of its nutrients - the only vitamins not contained in grain are A (eat a carrot), C (eat an orange), D (have a picnic), and one other that I can't remember - white flour is what is left after the rest of the grain is sifted away, and it is a huge cause of many of the diseases plaguing Americans today - fresh milled flour helps control/reduces risk of cholesterol, heart disease, and diabetes. Anyway, it was very convincing. Here is her website: http://www.breadbeckers.com/ I recommend reading the testimonials. We had fun wandering around the exhibit hall. There were book sellers, curriculum booths, soap makers, toy booths, information booths, and many more. It was fun to know a lot of the people there, including friends from church, home school group, soccer, etc.

Saturday night we had a cookout at our campsite with the friends camping next to us, another family from church that had been at the convention, and a couple from church who happened to be camping at the same camp ground at the same time for something else. Sunday morning we packed up and got home in time for evening church. Here are a couple pictures of our time:

looking down on the sign-in place (which is relatively empty in this pict.)