You're off the edge of the map, mate... Here there be Monsters!

Yes, we are a family of 13. Our 11 kids are the pride of every moment of our lives, and we can't imagine it any other way. No, we don't really want a dozen, cheaper by or otherwise. No, we don't believe big families are for everyone. Heck, there are days we're not sure they're right for us. But God has been faithful to strengthen us in our myriad weaknesses so that we can walk this path. We engage in cross country running, search and resuce through the Civil Air Patrol, volleyball, hiking, camping, biking, canoeing, and pretty much anything that we can get away with. We enjoy being sequestered up on our mountain, although our family extends to Oak Ridge, Knoxville, and Crossville. Our residence is here, but our allegiance and citizenship is heavenly. We're not perfect. We'll disappoint you. We don't always do justice to the Greatness of our God... but we try, and we know that the limitations of His people doesn't reflect on His Awesomeness.

"Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord," Isaiah 2:3
Dum Spiro Spero.... While we have breath, we hope! (Roberts family motto) Vis Fortibus Armas... Strength is arms to the brave (Cruickshank motto)
More valuable than many sparrows, we are they whose blood is precious in the sight of He who burned up the sacrifice and the wood, and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. To He to whom vengeance belongs do we belong also… a thirteenfold cord that is not quickly broken. We are Clan Roberts, greatfully inhabiting Seraphim Mountain.

Seraphim Mountain is not on a map... well, it is on a map, but not as Seraphim Mountain. It is a small area in East Tennessee, North of Oak Ridge. But beyond the geography it is a spiritual place. It is our home. Seraphim provide a role model, as while they are mentioned only briefly in Scripture, their duties are very clear, and enviable. They fly above the throne of God proclaiming "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." In our own way, we have been led to this mountain, and look to live in such a manner as to proclaim "The whole earth is full of His glory!"

We feel that our home here in these mountains is not as much about the place, but the people and the God they follow. What the poet Maurice Lindsay said about our beloved homeland Scotland could just as easily be applied to Seraphim mountain... it being an "attitude of mind."

Updated 7 April 2010 so don't just sit there, go see what's new!!!

This video is very graphic and disturbing. Not suitable for Children. Watch it only if you want to feel what Liberia has been through and continues to go through. Eyes Wide Open...

The sky is falling!!! Panic!!! See favorite links for why we are NOT warming the globe

Ramblings and Musing

Mine ... My Brother's

When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building' by George Bush. He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return. It became very quiet in the room.
Michaiah Joelle - A rare moment of documented non-unhappiness. The moment quickly fades... You're not my mommy!!!
Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.----- Mahatma Gandhi

I like your Christ. I don't like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. ----- Gandhi

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former ---- Albert Einstein

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides..., for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. --Thomas Jefferson

Our arrows will blot out the sun! ---- Spat out by the emissary of King Xerxes of Persia

Then we will fight you in the shade ---- Retort by Spartan warrior to emissary of King Xerxes

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other. ----John Adams US diplomat & politician (1735 - 1826)

Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide. ---- John Adams, Letter, April 15, 1814 US diplomat & politician (1735 - 1826)

Will you promise not to do anything to me, if I do come?" said Jill.

"I make no promise," said the Lion...

"Do you eat girls?" she asked.

"I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.

"I dare not come and drink," said Jill.

"Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion.

"Oh dear!" said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I must go and look for another stream then."

"There is no other stream," said the Lion.

----C.S. Lewis Chronicals of Narnia

" . . . You know frankly, going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind."

Or, better still, the quote from the Wall Street Journal: "They're there when they need you."

Then there was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?' A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?' Once again, dead silence.
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, 'whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English.' He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?' Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied 'Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.' You could have heard a pin drop
A group of Americans, retired teachers, recently went to France on a tour. Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. "You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. "Then you should know enough to have your passport ready." The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it." "Impossible.Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !" The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained. "Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in '44 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find any Frenchmen to show it to."