A hard week...

Charlie is such a beautiful dog...thiese are two of my favorite pics of him. We found out this past Friday that Charlie has tumors and they are likely cancer. We noticed that he was bleeding from his nose then it progressed to his eye where we could see what looked like a tumor on his nose. X-rays confirmed what we already knew. They also confirmed that it is not just his nose but on his heart and other places. It has been a sad week around here. Charlie has been with us for two-thirds of our marriage and lived in three of our 6 homes. He is a survivor of heart worms, copperhead bites, numerous wanderings when he was younger that resulted in many great stories and living on the ranch. After his successful battle with heart worms we determined to get him a companion and by providence we found Chase which we believe to have added many years to his life. In fact we gave Chase his name because all he wanted to do was chase Charlie.

As of now Charlie is doing fine...chasing deer, barking at neighbors passing by, eating and laying around like normal. In the last two days since on antibiotics and Mommy's herbal concoctions he has started blowing out tissue through his nose that may be a sign of the tumor in his nose breaking up. David and I clean his nose with saline rinse and give him syringes of water and herbs in his mouth that usually start the sneezing fits, but are productive in getting the clots out of his nose. Sorry, this may be more detail than anyone wanted to know! Herbs I have been using are Yarrow tea, spirulina (suppose to be great for fighting cancer), astrangulus root, black walnut hull powder, colloidal silver drops in nose and eye, echinacea, blood builder(kelp, alfalfa, dandelion root, strawberry leaf) and raw milk kefir. A couple of helpful sites I found on treating dogs naturally are Holistic Cancer Treatment for Dogs . Preventing and Healing Animals Naturally
Below are pictures of Charlie over the past 10yrs...note how little Emily and J.Michael are! We continue to treat Charlie and have been in close contact with our vet who has been a great help.

Charlie about 7 months old. Emily is 4yrs.
Spring of 1999.

I love this picture...J.Michael and Charlie have been great
pals for 10yrs. This was taken at our house on Franklin St.
in Hillsboro,TX when J.Michael was 5yrs old.

Charlie was even in our family portraits for
Christmas cards. Dec. 2003



Charlie in the Hillsboro annual 4th of July parade 2004.


August 2004

Playing in the Lake at the Ranch.

J.Michael with Charlie and Chase his dogs and friend Taylor.
Summer 2005



Kathlena warming up to Charlie after 1month home. June 2008

Charlie and Andrew became quick friends. There is just
something about boys and dogs. July 2008

Sardine Lessons

On the evening of Oct. 20, 2008, the 5 month anniversary of Andrew and Kathlena officially becoming part of our family we decided to play a game called Sardines. This fun game for all ages we learned from some friends of ours at church. We are finding out it is a favorite of many kids and adults we know.
So, we began to play and Mommy was to hide first. Oh! yes, I suppose I should explain the game first. Here is how it goes... It is sort of a reverse hide and seek. You turn all of the lights in the house out (best to play at night also) playing in the dark makes obvious hiding places not so. Then one person hides while everyone else counts to 60 then you go looking for the hidden person. The twist is when you find them you quietly "disappear" hiding with them until the last person is left to find everyone hiding.
Okay, so back to our night of sardines. Andrew and Kathlena being a little frightened of a dark house I decided to give them small glow sticks to carry while they searched so they could "see" better and feel more secure about walking through a dark house. Mommy hid first and was met with lots of giggles and fun when found by the boys first. After playing for a while J.Michael hid and Andrew began following Emily some as well as searching on his own. Kathlena and I found J.Michael first and hid with him (Kathlena is a great hider...so quiet, a few times I thought she had fallen asleep, but no, just quiet). A long time passes and Emily stumbles upon us leaving only Andrew to find us. We could see him come near by the light of his glow stick, but not close enough to find us. We began to hear him call for Emily which quickly revealed he knew she had now found us too and that he was alone. His voice betraying his nervous emotions made my heart leap to scoop him up, but my spirit said wait. A few minutes later he comes in and he finds us. "I found you!" He was excited and grabs hold of me tightly saying "Mommy, I thought I had lost you, Andrew was crying for you(inside he did not do this aloud) and so sad as you were lost to me. I never want you to be lost to me because I love you so much."
It broke my heart but then I was quickly reminded that this was a safe way for him to deal with fear and experience being lost in the safety of our own home. We talked about how brave he was and what to do if you get lost somewhere. We also discussed staying close to Mommy in busy places so you do not get lost...only now with a better understanding of being lost. I realize I could have consoled him only and stopped the game giving into his fears and training him to avoid such situations in life, but instead chose to take the opportunity to speak truth into his heart about being brave, courageous and pressing on when he meets difficult circumstances. I could also have allowed his past to color my response, but instead as I am growing in my biblical understanding of parenting, I am purposely focusing on training the character of the man he will one day become by speaking the truth of Christ's faithfulness and power to overcome (Ephesians 6:10-11, 16) life's struggles. Viewing these struggles as stepping stones towards a deeper understanding of our need to rely on the Lord not man's wisdom, but the authority of the Word of God for all things pertaining to our life on this earth. Andrew's name means "Mighty Man" and each day as I pray for our children I pray that the Lord would raise up my sons to be mighty men for the Lord's kingdom. I didn't set out to train on this issue as we played our game of Sardines, but I was admonished by the Lord that in all we do we are training; teachable moments are constantly at our feet for the taking. A simple child's game, Sardines, who would have thought it could have had such a big lesson?

Learning through play

One of my most favorite activities with young children is to provide opportunities to play like real life. Whether it is playing kitchen (like today, see pictures below) or playing with dolls to demonstrate real life activities of going to the dentist or doctor or being a Daddy. A and K love this type of modeling play. Today we played "baby". I wrapped A up in a big blanket like you would swaddle a newborn and held him close...even letting him suck on a bottle or thumb. This was particularly special for me and A as we missed those years together so, for us to "play baby" was good for both of us and sweet loving time redeemed. Daddy also got to have this play time with A. Time that we can look into each others eyes and smile, snuggle, and show affection. It also gives opportunity to talk about babies...what they need, how they communicate and how as you grow that communication changes from cries and grunts to sounds and words...language. The Lord is so good to allow us to redeem the time in small ways...I praise Him for these moments of lost time recaptured through play and fun.

Daddy's hold their babies too.

Babies need to see their mommy and daddy smile at them

while looking into their eyes.

Babies need to be held and loved.

Babies need to eat.

Babies sleep alot.

Junior chefs in training

Chopping up veggies for soup. (a.k.a. our insect counters)

Prep work complete ready to cook.

K making a chocolate pie.

We have also been working on making masks to display emotions and explaining facial expressions to display certain emotions then talking about them. We have seen some real progress in helping A and K deal with all of the changes they are undergoing now and how to properly respond emotionally. Andrew likes to show us his "mangry" face which is his mad and angry face but it is only for a moment because he cracks up laughing...his smile can't be "mangry" for long. Another favorite is his disobey face which is a serious attitude face that is turned away with arms crossed. This face has helped him understand how to have self control and choose not to display a disobey heart and face and choose to obey. It has also helped him to recognize these emotions in others (his sister) too, including characters in books thus giving us more opportunity to talk about these attitudes and emotions.

Andrew is also beginning to talk of being like Papa/Daddy. He wants to do the things that his Daddy does. He is wanting to be big, strong, and protect his sisters like a young man. He is also very loving and caring to Rabbit whom he likes to play "night, night" with and tuck into bed. A and rabbit also like to jump on the trampoline together and go for rides on the like a bike and tricycle. Occasionally, rabbit disobeys and A has to discipline him and train him to obey because that is what Daddy's who obey the Word of God and who love their children do.