One Big Adventure

Granny Miller Challenge--Food and Water

2011-03-14T20:59:00.000-04:00

Food

We ate well during the weekend. I think, the main reason we did, was that we menu-planned to the nth degree--kind of like we would have if we were taking a trip. It helped us to stay focused and organized to already have the decisions made. I wonder how that would work in any sort of a long term situation, because I know that I am often hit or miss on meal planning on a day to day kind of a basis. (Note to us: work on being more consistent with menu planning, so the habit is there when the need is.)

For dinner Friday evening, we had planned Vegetable Beef (venison) Stew. Plan A was to cook it in wood-fire coals, but Owen worked with a neighbor off the farm and it rained, so we cooked inside on the propane cooktop instead. We all became fans of the long butane lighters over the weekend and laughed at ourselves for turning off burners and trying to light them by the knobs, without any flame.

Saturday morning, we had planned coconut flour pancakes and homemade, homegrown pork sausage with eggs. We thought it would be handy to use an old-fashioned hand-powered hand mixer to mix the pancakes, but it turned out the whisk was much more effective with a batter. The sausage was easier to make than I thought it would be (I used this family favorite recipe from Alton Brown, and used 2 and a half pounds of already-ground pork.) I used an old cookbook holder from the farmers' market box and really learned to appreciate how much easier it is to read from a cookbook or recipe binder that is propped up in a holder and lit with a lamp on the counter. We cooked the pancakes and sausage over the coals outside. Owen and Becca set up the awning to protect us from rain and Owen's Boy Scout fire-making experience kept us in plenty of hot coals. It was hard work to bend and cook over fire just a foot off the ground. The cook cooks just as much as the food does! We decided to leave off the eggs. The pancakes were egg-y enough and plenty filling with the sausage.

We wondered aloud if homemakers of bygone days wore a towel over their shoulder with 'designated spots' for different 'messes'. Perhaps they wet one end and used one corner to wipe their hot, cooked face, and the other wet corner to wipe off dirty hands. Maybe they saved the dry end for wiping only what was clean, like washed hands. We decided that cooking over the fire is almost too difficult and time consuming for everyday meal preparation. We will be improving our dutch oven cooking skills, learning and trying pit-roasting, looking into making and using a solar oven. In the long run, we'd like to build an outdoor stove and wood-fired oven that will allow us to cook in a more upright position without our faces directly over the fire.

Saturday lunch was more of a snack... rice cakes on hand with hummus or egg salad or pb. It made for a nice break in the day and we visited at the table as no one was distracted.

Saturday supper Hannah and Owen worked together over the fire again. We had pork ribs--they had already par-cooked so they warmed over the fire mopped with sauce, foil-wrapped potatoes cooked in the coals, we had sauerkraut that had fermented in our crock (as a side note, the kraut we have made with homegrown cabbage has been much more flavorful to us than that which was made with boughten cabbage), and broccoli steamed on the stove inside. Dessert was dutch oven-baked applesauce hung over the fire.

Sunday breakfast was home-made yogurt, apples or bananas. The yogurt had already been made using a heating pad for incubating. We talked about options for making homemade yogurt without power. One idea would be to place the yogurt in jars in a cooler and adding some jars of warm water to keep the cooler warm. Perhaps this could be done in an oven as well.

Sunday 'lunch', after church was eggs, bacon, refried beans, corn tortillas, salsa, avocado, lettuce. We cooked inside on the propane cooktop (and wondered how many butane lighters or boxes of matches we should keep on hand).

Sunday supper was our celebration meal. We hand-churned coconut milk ice cream, and popped popcorn on the stove. We agreed we had survived the weekend very well, indeed.

The next post will be about Water. I think it will take longer than I originally thought...

A new hobby...

2011-03-09T22:43:00.002-05:00

Last weekend we did the Granny Miller challenge. It was a great weekend for us. We learned a great deal and agree with Granny Miller that everyone learns so much more from a hands on experience. We sure did.

It seems that some level of preparation has always been important to us. I grew up in a home that had a stocked pantry (even though we didn't grow our own food, my mom always had the next boxes of cereal, bottles of catsup, cans of tuna and bars of soap in a closet in our hall bathroom). Vern grew up in Minnesota and his mom always had extras in a closet in case they were stuck at home after a snow storm. We have generally carried that with us and expanded on it some. In our first country home in Minnesota, we expanded on the idea more. Since we have moved to our current country place, we are sometimes overwhelmed with how much more we seem to need to expand our skill set.

When we read about the Granny Miller Challenge Weekend, we pretty much all agreed that we should give it a try and test out just how prepared we are for a power outage. We altered the plan a little to suit our family.

For our first challenge weekend, we intentionally chose a weekend that would likely be neither too hot nor too cold. We left the power running to the fridge and the freezers. We also used power to process 18 roosters that have been needing to be culled. We used power to run the well pump for water and the plucker. We do know how to process chickens by hand, and realistically, if we had no power for freezing, we would not process 18 chickens at a time anyway.

In general, we would all say that the Granny Miller Challenge weekend for us was like having all the benefits of camping (reduced stress, time together, minimal interruptions, quiet...) without the negatives (we weren't in a leaking tent when it rained, we slept in our own beds, we didn't have to haul a flash light down to the bath house for a middle of the night run.)

Over the next several posts, I plan to cover more specifics in the areas Granny Miller recommends:

1. Food and Water
2. Shelter
3. Clothing/linens/laundry
4. Hygiene/toilet
5. Recreation/communication
6. Miscellaneous
7. Review/what next?

If you have any general questions, please comment and I will try to address them as I work through the list. Please feel free to share your own helpful tips!

Frontier Logs

2011-02-14T01:39:00.001-05:00

We've always enjoyed Lincoln Logs. I don't even remember when we Owen got his first set that he shared, naturally. Up in Minnesota, we had a huge tub full of the newer Lincoln Logs... they, however, didn't make the cut for moving.

Daddy and Momma have mentioned that there used to be Lincoln Logs sets that were all wood. I never saw any till we moved to Georgia. One of our neighbors, Grandma Dean, has some old Lincoln Logs that her sons used to play with. James really likes going over to Grandma Dean's and playing with the Lincoln Logs.

I looked for all wood Lincoln Logs sets, but didn't see any till I looked on CSN Stores. They have a whole bunch of Lincoln Log or Frontier Log sets. For Christmas, we got a set. It was a 160 piece set for $21 plus shipping. Total was $25. Which wasn't a bad price considering some other sets I had, by then, come across.

Owen, Becca, Carrie and James have really tested it out. James in particular. It has stood up very well to being catapulted, tossed, dropped, stepped on (ouch!) and so on. That is, except for the cardboard sign "Cavalry-US". It looks like James has bent it!

Most mornings, James will pull out the tub of Frontier Logs, dump them out on the floor and ask for help in building a house. "Nahhhhnieeee, haowshhh. Meessss" translated to "Hannah, house. Please". So we build a house and he knocks it down and asks for another one.

I really like these Frontier Logs and hope to slowly build up our Frontier Logs to build the mansions Katie, Owen and I used too. From the ~~use~~ love these Frontier Logs have received, I think they will last a good long time. When we buy more sets, we'll get them from CSN Stores because the shipping is quick and the price is reasonable.

We might even get this set. It's only $36.24 plus shipping. I don't know that I like that it also has 20 plastic figures (More to keep track of, IMO). But I'd bet James would. Because they're 'western', Becca would too.

Did you play with Lincoln Logs/Frontier Logs when you were growing up?

***sponsored by CSN Stores. This is my honest opinion of CSN Stores and Frontier Logs... all words are 100% my own. Pictures taken by Becca or Carrie or from CSN Stores website.

Large Family Logistics

2011-01-25T09:32:00.002-05:00

One of my online friends has been talking about this book and then she posted this link. As a former logistics officer and having a large family, I'd love to get this book. But if you enter, win it and don't want it, I would love to have it. :)

Yummy Chocolate Cake!!!

2010-12-14T14:12:00.000-05:00

Who says one can't have chocolate cake or cupcakes on a gluten, dairy, and processed sugar free diet. We think these taste just like their gluten containing counterparts! :*)

What a little girl wants...

2010-10-29T14:19:00.005-04:00

When I was a little girl, one of my biggest desires was to have a dollhouse. And then, one year I did get one! It was a large dollhouse and it came with lots of little wood parts to make it. Daddy and I set up one of the bedrooms to be able to work on it, without little ones touching it. We were only able to glue the first and second floorboards together, before James was born and we needed that bedroom.

Momma and I looked online on that day to see if we could find some dollhouse furniture that would go with it. I distinctly remember seeing a nursery set, with a cradle, crib, rocking chair and a rocking horse. I loved seeing the different sets, but didn't ever get any and finally lost track of the site with the sets. Recently, I came across another site and they carried the same sets I remember seeing a long time ago. I didn't see any on the site, but it would be great to see drop leaf tables for a dollhouse. I could think of many different uses for a mini drop leaf table, but the primary one would be that it wouldn't take up a lot of room. :)

Katie, Owen and I have been talking about seeing if we can put together my dollhouse and that means I will look into getting some furniture and finishing up some dolls Katie and I started when we were about 7 and 5 years old. I really hope we do, because I still like dollhouses. And decorating them too!

CSN Stores sells drop leaf tables, dollhouse furniture and an amazing selection of dollhouses, if you don't have one yet. ~Sponsored

I kissed shampoo (and conditioner) good-bye!

2010-07-15T23:05:00.005-04:00

(with apologies to Josh Harris)

If you don't already think I am nuts, you probably will soon.

I gave up shampoo. And conditioner. I haven't bought any for myself in over three months. And it is summer in Georgia.

I had read a number of things about shampoo and conditioner replacements and about how toxic commercial hair care products can be. And I thought I should do something. BUT, I live in Georgia, for goodness sake, and people SWEAT here. AND I have frizzy curly hair. HOW would I EVER make it without CONDITIONER. I was sure I would be one big, permanent, oily frizz ball.

Then my friend, Millie, mentioned her no 'poo method. And that she has frizzy hair--or did, before she kissed shampoo and conditioner good-bye. And I was convinced that I at least needed to give this a chance.

So, I took my empty tight-wad, unhealthy shampoo and conditioner bottles and rinse them with warm to hot water until I was sure nothing was left.

I filled my shampoo bottle 1/8th full of baking soda, added warm water, replaced the squirt top and shook to dissolve the soda. (Some like to add some essential oil or herbs for fragrance, but the next step makes that moot for me, so I just do the soda and water).

I filled my conditioner bottle 1/3 full of real apple cider vinegar, then added water to fill. No need to shake, but be sure to put the squirt top back on. It will be handy in the shower.

When I shower, I wash my face and neck first, especially if I've been doing 'dirty work'. Then I squirt the Soda wash all over my head and hair. I rub in around in my scalp with my fingertips, just like it was shampoo. Some say it sort of suds for them. I haven't seen or felt any suds. I wash down my hair with my fingers and then rinse... rubbing with my fingertips. The AMAZING thing is that my hair squeaks! and feels clean. One time, after a particular sweaty and dirty garden work day, I had to wash a second time. I knew this because after rinsing, my hair didn't have the squeaky clean feel like it should.

After rinsing the wash out, I squirt the hair rinse (water and vinegar) all over my hair. You don't want this in your eyes! I rub it around in my hair and then let it sit while I wash up and do whatever I need to do! When I am all done washing up, I rinse my hair thoroughly.

Only one time did I think I smelled like vinegar, but Vern said he didn't smell it.

My hair is softer than it's ever been. I can actually brush through it, which I usually cannot do because it is so thick, coarse and frizzy.

I always have baking soda and apple cider vinegar on hand, so it is easy to make up... and it is very inexpensive. I'm also confident that I'm not adding any extra toxins to my body.

Now if I can just win over the rest of the family!

(Notes: I did read somewhere that if you use henna, the vinegar is not compatible with that.)

Do you have any budget-friendly, natural ingredient recipes for hair care products that can be made at home?

Fantastic!

2010-07-08T22:57:00.004-04:00

Today we visited Dr. P, James' surgeon, for James' post-surgery visit.

Dr. Parker came into the room and looked at James (almost like Dr. Keller does). Then, he smiled... and said, "Fantastic." "He looks fantastic!" Then he asked me when his surgery was and had it really only been five weeks? And again, he said, "He really looks fantastic.".. So... I think we know what Dr. P thinks! :*)

He asked a number of questions about how things have been going then he, umm, examined James. Which James was none-too-happy about. He couldn't get over how well James was doing this soon after surgery. And he said that bodes well for a full recovery, BUT :*), he said we still need to be on the lookout for signs of things gone awry for the next 6 months or so.

I asked about James' g-tube and we are tentatively aiming for October or November to close that up... He said it might be Day surgery, but could be overnight, depending. Gotta love a surgeon who doesn't make any promises! I mean that in the nicest way, since really, most things are not their promises to make!

As we headed home, I was mindful that it is not due to anything that we have or have not done, that the Lord has spared our James (whether for now or for the long term, we don't know, of course) and taken other children. I am grateful He is worthy of my trust, no matter what my circumstances. It isn't my circumstances, or James', that determines who I am, or my value (or yours either), it is that God loves us so much, that He sent Jesus to die for us (not collectively, but individually) so that we may be reconciled to Him. And He will pursue us however He needs to, to give us the opportunity of receiving that gift.

And that is humbling... in a very wonderful kind of a way.

Thank you for your prayers for us!

An herbal giveaway

2010-06-25T23:26:00.003-04:00

Much to the chagrin of the doctors who work with James, and think that my daughter, Hannah, should go to medical school (or, at the very least, nursing school), Hannah would rather take a class about herbs... and maybe be an herbalist.

This giveaway could help her move in that direction!

Happy times

2010-06-03T14:56:00.004-04:00

I think the hardest part for me this surgery (besides praying and wondering about pain management) was the fact that James was doing so great before surgery. It is not so difficult to hand your baby over to the surgeon when you know his life depends on it... and he looks like he is depending on you to help him.

It's a little different when he looks the best he has in five years... and you're sending him anyway.

I believe it won't be long until James is back up to full speed and, since pain management has not been the nightmare this time that it has been in the past, I really have no regrets. Already his little belly looks more like that of a little boy and less like that of a war-torn veteran. That is certainly something to be grateful for... and I am!

I am also grateful for some sweet time yesterday. Just about the time I was wondering if this was our day of trouble since James had gone so long without food or drink, the Big Apple Circus clowns that are permanently assigned here showed up. They occupied James for about 45 minutes and I think they had just as much fun as we did!

If you want to see MORE pictures you can go here!

Preparing for the best

2010-06-03T10:37:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was a good day. The last day, hopefully and Lord willing, that James will ever have had an ostomy bag. Already his little belly looks so much better than it has in the last three years! Not to say we don't still have a long road of healing ahead of us.

We do.

There are lots of things to share from yesterday, but for this post, I'll stick to the surgery and what we are looking at for the next while.

After the surgery, Dr. Parker came out to let us know how things went. He was pleased, but remains cautious. His cautions have to do mostly with the fact that James had Hirschsprung's disease as a baby. Once a child has Hirschsprung's disease, any subsequent blockages or enterocolitis are automatically 'blamed' on Hirschsprung's, because they might have missed some bad sections of intestines (they remove those parts that have no nerve cells). At any rate, while we and the oncologists were assuming all along that the enterocolitis that necessitated the ileostomy was caused by James' chemo (vincristine, in particular), the surgeons were assuming there were missed sections with Hirschsprung's disease.

So... what that means is, while the surgeons are in favor of re-connecting James, they will remain only cautiously optimistic until James' colon 'proves itself' with use over the next 6-12 months.

This was not a surprise to me. But after surgery, Dr. Parker spent a good bit of time re-iterating everything that could go wrong over the next 6 months to a year and what we need to watch out for. He does believe we likely have all the bad sections of colon removed, but he can't prove it. The only way to prove it is to hook it all up and try it out.

While surgery went well, they won't call it a success for a while yet.

Now that surgery is done, we look forward to the best case of good things that need to happen.

Over the next days, we need to continue to manage James' pain. I am truly encouraged by the epidural. It blocks the pain from about the bottom of his rib cage to about an inch below his belly button. He does have some breakthrough pain and there are meds prescribed to cover the breakthrough pain. So far, James has been pretty good about telling us when it hurts. Us is limited to me and Hannah though. When other people are in the room, he either closes his eyes or puts on a brave front until they leave! Of course, if we don't know he hurts, we can't do anything to help relieve the pain. Please pray for wisdom here.

Hopefully in the next 2 to 3 days, James will have bowel sounds (or tummy rumbles), pass gas, and stool. All that will be the first steps to prove that this 'is working'. And then he can start taking clears by mouth. In the meantime, poor guy is sure licking his lips a lot! We are putting salves on his lips and he can have a swab with water to 'whet his whistle'. Zorro has been a great comfort so far. Pray it holds! And the tummy rumbles, gas and other proof come just at the right time--after things are healed enough to handle the activity.

Once he tolerates clears, we'll be watching for any bloating (a bad sign of things gone wrong) and if all is well, James will be able to eat some 'normal' food. Then we will watch again for any sign a bloating (still a bad thing) and proof that things are moving like they should.

Dr. Parker said if everything works 'best case', we should be able to go home Tuesday or Wednesday. If anything doesn't, all bets are off. I, for one, would love to home next Tuesday or Wednesday. Even more than that, I would love for everything to work 'best case' and to give God the glory for it!

Rescued!

2010-06-01T21:48:00.003-04:00

It has been a good day. Thanks for your prayers and encouraging notes!

This morning we were able to have a 'homemade' breakfast at the Ronald McDonald house. They have an incredible kitchen set up, which gives us a lot of flexibility. What a huge blessing!

After breakfast, we headed over to the hospital. We decided to drive since we had things we would need to unload from the car. Tomorrow, I'm hoping to walk! We registered right away and visited radiology. The radiologist thought James' colon looked like it had grown some in the last several months, but the rest of his intestines 'looked pretty small'. I forgot to ask if there were any signs of blockage. Quietly I called out to the Lord, that He would rescue James and make a way for surgery... and that it would work.

Getting admitted to the hospital and getting to our room all worked pretty simply. Unfortunately, the emergency room here was very overloaded and the surgery resident and intern didn't have the order for James' bowel prep in by 6 p.m.! About 5:30 (I hadn't realized how time had passed), the nurse commented that if we didn't get the order soon, surgery might have to be moved from Wednesday! Well, that lit a fire under me and I started to make phone calls. Then I realized the surgeon's office was closed for the day! Yikes! I called the Nurse Practitioner we have worked with and left a voice mail. I started to call the answering service for the surgeon and then realized that if I answered the questions wrong, or the wrong surgeon was on call, I would get no help at all... "Oh Lord, here I am in my day of trouble! You promised if I called out to you, you would rescue me!" Just as I finished praying, my faith for this was so small, I had no idea how the Lord would work this one out. Just long enough to see my ugly doubt, and there was a knock at the door. Dr. Parker popped in... looking like he was fresh from vacation (he did just have an almost 4-day weekend!). Just in time, he got the orders in place, answered my main questions and chastised the intern and resident for not calling him and getting the orders in place. Thankfully, no harm was done to James and hopefully someone learned a valuable lesson!

Just another hour and a half of go-lytlely (they'll turn it off at midnight) and then he just needs to sleep for the night. They had hoped to be done by 9 p.m., but this gives James a little longer for drinking clears (he's eating homemade chicken broth as I type).

This afternoon, we met with one of the doctor's that run the pain team... All I can say is, "Why didn't they have a pain team for the last surgery!"... No... I'm so grateful they have come up with this idea! It's essentially an anesthesiology team that work to keep the children comfortable, especially after a painful surgery or procedure. The plan is, believe it or not, to use an epidural. The epidural enables the them to block the pain without slowing the gut. Dr. Li said that morphine will be available for breakthrough pain and that if the epidural works (there is a chance that it won't), James shouldn't need much morphine. This will allow him to get up and around. He won't be groggy and when his bowel sounds indicate he is ready, he will be able to drink and then eat. Please call upon the Lord with us and ask Him to bless this plan for His glory and James' sake.

So, tomorrow is the big day, some three years and 5 weeks after James got his ileostomy, he should get his take down.

Before then, we are hoping to get a good night's sleep. And I need to finish washing diapers!

"Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I will rescue you and you will glorify Me."

2010-05-31T20:59:00.003-04:00

Hannah, James and I are pretty settled in the Ronald McDonald house just a few blocks from Egleston. Hannah and I are dreaming of sleeping. James is dreaming of escaping.

He's already tried.

I realized on the drive up, that my mind has been mostly consumed with post-surgery pain management. That made it difficult to really think ahead and make a good plan and packing list. I'm feeling really inexperienced right now, but I suspect tomorrow will bring a flood of familiar memories. Sleep tonight will help, I'm sure. In the absence of sleep, meditating on Scripture will be a very good thing.

But I am honestly hoping for the sleep!

Last week, I was looking for some comfort about this whole process and God gave me this verse: "Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I will rescue you and you will glorify Me." So, following are some ways I plan to call upon the Lord specifically, anticipating His rescue and glorifying Him!

Once I realized how consumed I have been with pain management, I was able to think past that and better consider all the recent conversations with the doctors and nurses about this week. And that helped me pull some thoughts together that might help you great praying friends and family to pray more specifically.

1. Tomorrow morning, we'll have breakfast and walk over to the hospital. Sometime around 11, James should have a contrast study in radiology. They'll put barium in the top of his colon (his mucous fistula, a stoma on his belly). Best case: the study will be perfect, everything will look great and Dr. Parker will be excited about his plan for surgery. Worst case: There will be strictures which will make Dr. Parker concerned about the possibility of blockages created with surgery and he will decide not to do the surgery. If this happens, we will still stay on and Dr. Parker will use the surgery time to do a scope of the whole colon to see what is going on. Prayer requests: Best case, of course! And that we can keep James comfortable during the procedure.

2. Following the study, we admit James to the hospital. And begin flushing to clean everything out for surgery. (Go-litely, anyone?) Best case: We get a room right away and move in and settle. They are all ready to get started with the flushing and things fall into place. James stays comfortable with no cramping, but steadily cleaning out for surgery prep. Worst case: Not sure. Of course, I'd rather not go there!

3. Meet with pain team and nurses. Best case: We love everyone and they love us too... especially James. Continuity of care is as important to them as to us and we get the same nurse for a few days so they know James' baseline and we have trust and teamwork providing pain management for James following surgery. Worst case: Pain management was the WORST part of James initial ostomy surgery. No continuity of care. Nurses who refused to see James was in pain and didn't help. (Children with Down syndrome tend to present differently than typical children with pain and so it makes communication and treatment difficult.) Prayer request: James will also be on clears during this time. Pray we can keep him comfortable and occupied and have worthwhile clears for him to eat and drink!

4. Surgery some time on Wednesday. We do not currently know the surgery schedule. Best case: Surgery would happen early in the morning so we can make the most of the day scheduled pain management team's help and availability. Worst case:?

5. Pain management: This is my biggie...... and it's easy to get stuck on it... It is very important to me as I know it is hard to heal when everything hurts. And how hard it is to balance pain management and gut activity.

6. Tummy rumbles. We and the medical staff will be listening for tummy rumbles (which indicate things are moving and ready for at least clears). Sometimes, pain meds slow this process down. Best case: by day 2, 3 at the latest, James is ready to drink and eat clear liquids. and handles them well. Worst case: He isn't ready and things don't work right and he is 'dumping'--pray against dumping (where output exceeds input because the body isn't absorbing things like it should.) Also please pray things work so well, he doesn't need to use the feeding tube.

7. Ready for food. Best case: Things in step 6 work so well that by day 3-5 post-surgery, James is ready, willing and more than able to eat lighter foods (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) and he tolerates them well and processes them properly.

8. Stooling. Best case: James demonstrates that things are working because things are coming out the right end, in the right form, amount and timing.

I think once 7 and 8 are in place, they will likely want to send James home, because they know that children do better at home than in the hospital. This just gives me a basic outline to share what I have picked up in conversations recently about 'what to expect'. We could conceivably go home as early as Sunday... more likely Monday or Tuesday of next week. If things don't go so well, we could go home Thursday (doubtful) or later than next Tuesday.

Tomorrow, I'll be able to ask more questions and hopefully be more specific. I plan to update on Facebook regularly (Friend: Stephanie Skelly for updates) and here when I need more room for details... or feel like I do).

If you are reading this Monday, please pray we can sleep tonight. And that James sleeps and doesn't try to sneak away. He got out the door of our room, to the elevator (right next door), pushed the down button and the elevator door was opening just as I got into the hall after realizing that he actually did get out the door when my back was turned. There is no 'hotel' style lock on the door. But I will move the chair over.

Thank you for your concern and prayers for us and James... To God Be the Glory!

The end is in sight

2010-05-21T06:40:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we visited Atlanta (James, Hannah and I). We saw James' oncologist, who was happy to report that James' counts were perfect! What a huge blessing and gift! I was supposed to ask the doctor about vancomycin (a favorite antibiotic for James during chemo) and hearing loss. But I forgot. So I will call and ask that questions, and may not get my answer til we visit again next month.

In the afternoon, we met with Dr. P, James' surgeon.

I think he asked me as many questions as I asked him. Well, almost.

He said James is doing everything he is supposed to be doing, but was quick to point out that there are no guarantees and that even though we put everything back together, there is still a chance it wouldn't work. He didn't try to paint any rosy picture. And I actually appreciate that.

If it 'doesn't work', then James would have to have another surgery and a permanent ostomy of some kind. But putting him back together should not be 'harmful' to James. So that is what we have decided to do.

At this point, we are scheduled for surgery on Wednesday, June 2nd. The day before (Jun 1st), James will have a contrast study of is colon to help Dr. P with his surgery plan and make sure things are good. If this goes well, we'll proceed with surgery on the 2nd. If not, then Dr. P will use the scheduled surgery time to do a visual exam with a scope.

I talked to Dr. P about using real food via g-tube if that is necessary and explained my reasons. He agreed and said that "you have all the backing and support you'll need". But then when we asked him about cloth diapers in the hospital, he said, "you can bring metal diapers, if you want." Some doctors are easier to read than others. If you know what I mean.

I'm still not certain about recovery time. At our last meeting in December, he said to plan on a two week hospital stay. This time, he told the scheduler that worked with us to plan on a 5-7 day hospital stay. We will plan on weeks and hope for 5-7 days (as long as that is what is best for James.

We have a lot to do to get ready. I don't guess we'll be squeezing in too much extra.

Lord willing, James only has 10 more days of re-feeding and one or two days of flushing left.

Hopefully, for good.

As always, we are grateful for your prayers!

Sunday Treats: Blooming Onions

2010-05-16T22:16:00.003-04:00

When I suggested we stop buying potato chips a while back, I got the 'hairy eyeball' look. It's not like we even bought them very often, but nobody wanted to give up the option. Especially for birthdays.

Potato chips have absolutely no nutritional bang for the buck (unless you are horribly underweight and desperate for all the extra calories you can get--even then, the oil and salt used in most brands are bad for us).

So, I had to come up with some good substitutes, enjoyed often enough, to sway the crowd. First I had to find some recipes. Then I needed time to try them. Our weeks are already full, so I thought I would try Sundays. We had been having popcorn in the evening, but not as regularly as we did in winter.

We actually started out with potato chips and then tested a simple onion ring recipe. Then we resurrected this recipe, and adapted it to some of the diet changes we've been making. They really aren't hard, just a little time consuming. Don't worry if it isn't perfect. That's part of the charm!

I should have taken a picture of cutting the onion, but I ran out of hands! This time, I used unbleached white flour. Next time, I will try it with fresh ground spelt.

So, first melt and heat your good, healthy fat in a deep pan (I used coconut oil in a 3-quart pot) Then, you cut the onion. Dip it in an egg and milk wash (I used 2 small eggs and one cup of milk for two blooming onions.)

Then roll and gently toss it in the flour mixture (1 cup flour, 1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper--1/3 of what the original recipe recommends, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano--I was out, so used Italian seasoning), 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, 1/4 teaspoon cumin).

Dip in milk/egg mixture again and cover a second time with flour mixture to coat fully.

Test the oil temperature by putting a very small piece of onion in the fat. If it bubbles nicely, it's ready for the onion. Gently lower the onion into the fat with a slotted spoon. Fry for about 10 minutes.

Serve with dipping sauce on the side. I doubled the sauce recipe since we were doing two onions for 8 of us. (1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1 Tablespoon tomato sauce, 2-3 Tablespoons taratoor sauce from this recipe, because I didn't have horseradish sauce on hand, 1/4 teaspoon paprika, 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, 1/8 teaspoon dried oregano (or Italian seasoning), dash ground black pepper, dash cayenne.)

Mmmmm.

What kinds of special foods do you like to make to replace old favorite snack foods?

Our mother's day

2010-05-16T20:21:00.004-04:00

My mom and dad drove down for mothers' day this year. We had a really nice visit and absolutely gorgeous weather. Vern and the children planned the meal and prepared it and cleaned it up. Delicious food, relaxing holiday with family and perfect weather. We even got to sit around on the front porch!

What else could a girl ask for?

Vern picked a delicious BarbecuedGarlic Chicken recipe from a Lebanese cookbook we were given. It included a dipping sauce (called Tratoor bi Sade) with *45* cloves of garlic in 1/2 cup of olive oil and the juice of one lemon.

He also made and Afghani bread, called Nan or Nani, to go with it.

My mom brought a Nona salad. And the children made herbal mint tea to drink. Mmmmm.

Been there

2010-05-03T21:49:00.002-04:00

My children already know this. But my future grandchildren don't.

And with the current news of the day, it seems like a great time to write about it.

Vern and I met in Alaska, courtesy of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Some may remember that about 21 years ago, the Exxon tanker Valdez ran aground in the Prince William Sound and dumped most of her load of oil. Exxon began clean up efforts, severely hampered by environmentalist oversight and the U.S. military was called in, just in case we needed to federalize the clean up. I was sent up to Alaska as a logistics planner and Vern was our Navy liaison officer. His ship was one of two Navy vessels providing berthing (sleeping space) to oil spill clean up workers. He was the only one who knew about Navy ships. To my knowledge, Exxon leased the ships.

There was a lot to be learned during the effort and while I was only actually on site for about 5 weeks.. and Vern was there for 6 or 7 weeks, we both learned to be pretty doubtful about the ability of the mainstream media's ability to accurately report a story.

We also realized that, in general, people don't learn well from history. The Coast Guard folks we worked with had lots of experience in oil spill cleanups. And they knew their history. Historically, oil spills have been one of those things that clean up themselves over time. During the two world wars, there were lots of spills and within a decade, there was usually no evidence of the spill remaining. This proved to be true of the Exxon Valdez spill as well.

Hopefully, it will be true of the explosion in the Gulf as well. Once the oil stops flowing.

James is learning to read!

2010-04-28T20:23:00.000-04:00

We figured out YouTube and signed up for an account, so we could share this sweet video of James and Momma reading James' ABC book from Love and Learning.

Incredible People

2010-04-28T11:17:00.002-04:00

The people you meet when your child has cancer are really a rare and incredible breed. The variety is great. The people are nothing short of wonderful.

Three years ago, when we moved our cancer journey from Minnesota to Georgia, we met Bill Ruck and his son Pierce. Bill and Pierce introduced us to Love and Learning, a reading program designed for children with Down syndrome. But I digress.

We followed Pierce through his Care Page, diligently kept by his mom, Elena. We were devastated when Pierce relapsed about a year ago. We rejoiced when he made it through a Bone Marrow Transplant last August and we felt like the world had been pulled out from underneath us when Pierce relapsed again shortly after his BMT. Pierce left this world just before Christmas last year. We had hoped to be at his service the day after Christmas, but we all woke sick with res and knew we didn't need to go sharing.

Since then, Bill has been rallying his energies to reach out to other kids with cancer and he's started a new organization. It is called 'From Thin Air' since Bill is so good with 'magic' tricks (the sleight of hand kind) and he is working to make memorable evenings for children will cancer to give them a break from the grind of treatment.

Check out Bill's website: www.fromthinair.org and follow from thin air on Facebook. You can probably friend Bill Ruck too.

If you have connections that might help Bill make special memories (like limos and restaurants and tickets to various events) or you know of a child in the Atlanta with health issues that could use a break from the grind of treatment, contact Bill and let him know.

He's the kind of guy that really wants to do all he can to help!

What country children do when they don't have a swingset

2010-04-22T13:29:00.003-04:00

Earlier this year, Vern got a nice hoist so we can pull up our own hogs and cows when we process them. We had, at Christmas time, done our first hog all ourselves and found it nearly impossible to lift it up to scrape and gut. So now we are ready for the next time.

Vern and Owen like to think ahead (or so they say :*), I think they just like to play with their new toys!) so they hung the hoist in the carport to practice with.

And our country children put the hoist to work, giving carnival-like rides to anyone in the family that wanted one!

What I know about James

2010-04-21T11:57:00.002-04:00

There is LOTS to know about my little Jameser. And I admit, I have a lot to learn.

Monday, we went to Atlanta for James' monthly follow up with his oncologist. (As much as I love the folks in the clinic, I am looking forward to moving to every other month follow ups come October!). James looks great and so do his blood counts. We are grateful all is calm on that front!

That same day, we also met with Dr. Tenjarla, who follows James as a GI specialist. She agreed James looks great and his progress since we met three years ago has been nothing short of impressive. But... she doesn't want us to take the g-tube out yet.

She explained that it is really the surgeon who wants the g-tube to remain in place, but she made it plain that she supports their call and gave me more information to help me better prepare for James' surgery.

Evidently, many children who have this surgery (called reanastomosis) often end up in ICU for a few days. They may end up needing TPN and often need some sort of formula as nutrition and for getting things moving again in the GI following surgery.

I wondered how this would work practically, but, evidently, I hadn't yet asked all the right questions. Or hadn't asked the right people.

Having a g-tube for James will certainly make this whole process easier. We could use an NG tube, but that would, more than likely, make it harder for James to start eating by mouth on his own again. The typical children have a hard time increasing their food by mouth when they have another tube in the back of their throat. How much more would this bother James with his oral sensitivities? Probably a lot... and it would potentially be a big set back for him. We have seen this happen over and over again on the cancer floor, and I really don't want to put James through that.

That said, I'm not at all excited about TPN or formula either. But having this information, and a g-tube, will open the door for us to create our own natural food formulas at home to bring to the hospital to use for James. This will be a good thing, and as long as we can work out the details, I think keeping the g-tube for James will be beneficial all the way around.

I don't know how many of you have read a formula can recently, but all the carbohydrates in the formula James used for a time when he was on chemotherapy come from sugar and dextrose. ALL the carbohydrates! And the proteins come from overprocessed milk or soy. One thing we noticed is that as long as James was getting any formula at all, he had no interest in eating real food, but plenty of interest in 'junk'. Once we had James at home and switched him to homemade real food formula, he got interested in real food pretty quickly and it wasn't long until we didn't need to use the g-tube any more (we haven't fed him with the g-tube since last summer and we haven't used it for anything at all, including fluids, since November).

So, this is where things are now. I have a call into the surgeon to determine exactly what and how much has to happen before we can schedule James' surgery. And I will be calling a nutritionist we have worked with in the past for some help with numbers we need to consider when developing a 'formula' for James.

I am so glad and grateful to know this information now, so we can plan. I would feel so helpless to not get this when we were already in the hospital and I have nothing to work with. Thanks for your prayers. Please keep praying that the Lord would make our way plain!

Brothers

2010-04-13T17:37:00.002-04:00

James had just gotten a bath and Owen offered to get him dressed. Owen surprised us by dressing James to look like a miniature version of himself!

Brothers who match!

Smiling for the camera!

Happy Resurrection Day!

2010-04-04T08:32:00.003-04:00

In my mind, I have long thought that the events of Easter, or the Resurrection, warrant a much bigger and more significant celebration than Christmas. The Resurrection is central to the whole purpose and significance of Christianity, after all.

In reality, Resurrection Sunday always falls around week 6 or 7 of a 9-week run of five birthdays in our family. And I never get it together to do the things I would really like to do.

One thing we try to do every year is Resurrection Cookies. I didn't have much hope that we would get to do them this year, but last night at about 11:10, we were putting our Resurrection Cookies into the falling oven. When everyone is up, we'll get them out.

Here are the instructions:

Resurrection Cookies

1 cup whole pecans
1 teaspoon vinegar
3 egg whites
a pinch salt
1 cup sugar
a zipper baggy
1 wooden spoon
scotch tape
Bible

Instructions:

These are to be made the evening before Easter. Preheat oven to 300F. (this is very important --- don't wait until you are half done with the recipe).
Place pecans in zipper baggy and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested. He was beaten by the Roman soldiers. Read: John 19:1-3

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 teaspoon vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross He was given vinegar
to drink. Read: John 19:28-30

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. Read: John 10:10&11

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. Read: Luke 23:27

So far the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 cup sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him. Read: Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus. Read: Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoon onto waxed paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. Read: Matthew 27:57-60

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF.

Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. Read: Matthew 27:65-66

GO TO BED!

Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read: John 16:20&22

On Resurrection Sunday (Easter) morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Easter Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. Read: Matthew 28:1-9

You could even do them tonight if you like... or you can save the recipe for next year. In the meantime, everyone here wishes you a meaningful Resurrection Sunday!

Amazing things

2010-03-11T09:23:00.002-05:00

For a while now we have been trying to figure out how we could use cloth diapers for James. They wouldn't have worked well on chemo, we thought. Though maybe in hindsight they would have. But we were having the hardest time figuring out how to find one that would fit him.

(And, truth be told, I was a little apprehensive. Since I had had two less-than-impressive forays into the cloth diapering world 18 and 7 years ago.)

James now weighs a little over 40 pounds and there aren't a lot of diapers, by the chart, that looked like they would work. We did ask lots of questions, but it seemed that no one we were asking had dealt with special needs babies who often need diapers much longer than typical children. I really wished we could just try a diaper that was meant for a bigger baby.

Enter Twitter. Since Hannah tweets her giveaways, she's met a number of cloth diapering mamas and one of them very sweetly sent Hannah an extra large-sized FuzziBunz diaper she had! It came in the mail just yesterday! Hannah put it on James, who immediately sighed in relief. (Poor baby, he has been wearing size 6 paper diapers and they are just not big enough anymore.) Not only do these diapers fit, but there is room for James to grow in them. And, if we still need to get bigger, Fuzzi Bunz has an extra large diaper that was made with special needs children in mind!

We were so tickled that we began looking for more FuzziBunz and Hannah found this buy six, get one free deal at Mothering Grace. (Hurry, if you're interested, the deal ends today... but check out Mothering Grace as she hosts a weekly give away and other specials.) Turns out that these are the one-size diapers... and we need the perfect size diapers.

So, we set to searching again. And we found Fuzzi Bunz Seconds AND they have a deal going on for 10 diapers with liners for 2/3s the regular retail price! AND Fuzzi Bunz Store had extra liners 1/2 off in the clearance area. So we put in our orders last night and soon we should have our own little stash of nice cloth diapers that work (he never leaked yesterday in 6 hours!) and FIT! Hallelujah!

Once we had the diaper in hand (and on baby's bottom!), many of the things we had been reading about the new cloth diapers made so much more sense and we have learned a lot!

I'm so grateful to Hannah's Twitter friend for sharing with us!

Three whole years

2010-02-28T22:39:00.003-05:00

With stomach flu and a few other distractions, I nearly missed a very important anniversary.

While I certainly wouldn't have asked for this kind of an anniversary, I am grateful to be where we are in our journey with childhood leukemia. Three years from diagnosis is really a HUGE milestone, and sadly, not everyone sees this anniversary. From this point on, James' statistical chance of relapse is as low as it will probably ever be... in a very good sense.

Of course, with all the side effects and other things that affected James during treatment, we still have a few hurdles to overcome. The biggest hurdle is getting everything in order to get his ostomy reversed. In the fall, we were hopeful that the surgery to repair James' ostomy would happen this winter. For a number of reasons, that was unrealistic on our part and probably not a good time to be in the hospital anyways! Now, we are hopeful, that, Lord willing and James' little body cooperates and works like it needs to, he will be ready for surgery sometime during the summer.

We are amazed that life keeps humming along here. James is doing well in so many ways--the rash he had on his face for the last half of chemo has cleared up (though the skin still looks tender). He is getting taller (though not gaining much weight, which is good to a point, but won't be good for too much longer). He is getting to do some more 'normal' boy things, like play in the dirt and be outside (that will also get more difficult as the weather warms and we struggle to keep his ostomy bags on... until he has his surgery).

We marvel again at God's incredible mercy to us and His great provision for James and for us.

Giveaway: List Planit membership

2010-01-23T15:55:00.003-05:00

Have you heard of List Planit yet? There is a giveaway for a one-year membership at Simply Being Mommy. Follow this link to learn more and sign up!

So much to be thankful for

2010-01-11T20:20:00.003-05:00

I took James to Atlanta to see the oncologist today. Katie and Carrie joined us and we had a good day.

When Dr. Keller came in the room, James walked over and shook his hand. Dr. Keller squatted down with his 'simply amazed' smile and just looked James over. Finally, he pronounced, "Wow. He is looking really good, isn't he?"

James' counts are really good. After being perpetually high through all but the first month of chemo, James' platelets are now a little below normal. His hemoglobin is hanging out around 12.5 and his new energy level shows it. His white blood counts are very good for James... just a little below normal for the rest of us, but good for James with Down syndrome. The rash on his face is so much better. The skin looks tender (and maybe a bit dry), but the nasty bump part of the rash appears to be gone. (PTL!) If I haven't already say so, James is supposed to be seen by the oncology team once a month until October (at which point we'll go every other month, weaning us all to the point of our last visit at five years from the end of treatment....all Lord willing, of course.)

I asked Dr. Keller what he thinks is in James' future from his perspective--not looking for promises, just wondering what he sees from his point of view. He said he is very optimistic about James' prognosis. He says the largest group of children that relapse do so during treatment. The next largest relapse group does so within the first three years--James will hit his own three-year mark in March of this year. Once you reach the three year mark, the relapse rate levels out and things look pretty good. Of course, these are only statistics and if you happen to fall on the unlikely end of the statistics, it's a 100% deal. So, for now, we are glad to know that statistically speaking, James is doing very well. But we are ever mindful that there are no promises and our comfort comes from knowing the Master Planner... not from the statistics.

Dr. Keller said that from a leukemia perspective, there is really no reason to delay repairing James' ostomy.

I was able to talk to James' surgeon today too. He was encouraged by our progress with flushes and said we could move to the next step--(WARNING: TMI alert, sensitive folks may want to skip to the next paragraph) we'll be taking his ostomy output and putting it into his mucous fistula--the top of his colon--so he can try to process it like we do. We'll start small to see how he tolerates it, but the ultimate goal is to put EVERYTHING that comes out of his ostomy through his colon to make sure it will work when we put it back together (Lord willing). There really is no test that can show us that James' colon his alive and healthy and ready to do the work it was designed to do. His body has endured nearly three years of chemo, His colon has been idle for 2.5 years. The only way to make sure it will work is to use it. I am just so thankful for a surgeon with the foresight to put the top of James' colon in a place that we could test it out. Apparently they don't all think to do that, but ours did.

We have seen a lot of improvement in James since we finished chemo. He is getting in to more and dancing more. His energy levels are much higher than they were during chemo. He is trying more sounds and saying more (though he still doesn't speak fully or clearly, he has expanded his repertoire of vowels. I love to hear him say, "Uh....Oh!" He is expanding his food horizons too and, while he still has his favorite stand-bys, he is trying and liking more different foods all the time. Over Christmas, Hannah took James and the little girls to some neighbors to borrow some movies. While the rest visited, James invited himself to climb their stairs and visit their big boys' bedrooms!

We continue to appreciate the prayers of so many and are grateful for your investment in our family. We still have lots to ask God for as we move along in James' healing. We need wisdom and resources to accomplish this next step in preparing James for his ostomy repair, and we need God's hand of blessing on James and our efforts to help him.

The wall, part 1

2010-01-04T15:30:00.000-05:00

Since we moved into our house--just about 2 years and 2 months ago--we have had one big wall that is still studs. Our hope, when we built, was to cover the wall with some sort of stained wood and build bookshelves on most of it.

Thanks to a very generous Christmas gift, we finally started! Vern wanted to put insulation in the wall between the living room and bedroom to dampen the sound.

Pictures below show the first steps. (I'll put up more once we get them downloaded from the camera.) I really enjoyed watching and listening to Vern and Owen work together. My heart longs for the day when they can work together all the time!

'Tis the Season: Be flexible and let the Lord speak to you!

2009-12-24T06:00:00.001-05:00

Some years ago, our now-older children looked forward to Christmas. Every time they saw an evergreen tree, especially one with lights or decorations, they would exclaim with great glee, "Look Momma! Look Daddy! It's a Christmas!"

Of course the best Christmas of all was the one we had in the living room at our house.
Try as we might to explain with words and other family traditions that the trees were not Christmas and that Christmas was Jesus' birthday, we could not seem to get the message through.

Vern and I talked about what might finally help the children, so we had a smaller tree and gave the creche a more central place in our already limited decor. That didn't work either.

Somewhere in there, we must have finally asked the Lord for wisdom. He sent us a dog. She was a black lab and would be about six months old at Christmas. I was also seven and a half months pregnant with our fourth child.

We talked about simplifying Christmas, since we had a very active puppy and a very pregnant mommy, and had the bright idea that maybe this would be a good year to skip on the Christmas tree. Some of our friends and family thought we had really gone off the deep end, but after Christmas, Vern and I agreed that not having a Christmas tree significantly decreased our Christmas stress. We would certainly keep open the option of skipping the tree the next year.

We skipped out on Christmas trees for eight years, and somewhere in there, our children stopped calling them Christmas. What a huge relief that was.

Two years ago, for our first Christmas in this house, Owen, who was then 11, found a tree that would need to be cut down anyway and asked if we could have a tree. He volunteered to cut the tree, set it up, decorate it with the help of his sisters and take it out after Christmas. We all agreed, since we couldn't keep the tree watered, that it would only be in the house for three days--it came in on Christmas Eve and it went out the day after Christmas.

Since Christmas trees no longer seem to be a stumbling block to anyone, we are free to enjoy having one. It no longer causes additionally stress and it doesn't detract from our celebration of our Lord's birth.

And that helps us keep Christ in Christmas!

Merry CHRISTmas!

This post is part of 'Tis the Season Carnival--Keeping CHRIST in CHRISTmas--hosted by Hannah and Mckenzie. You can find more Carnival posts here.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-12-23T22:00:00.000-05:00

Those birthday photos...

2009-12-19T05:00:00.001-05:00

James had a great birthday. He has a couple of little travel pillows that his Nona, my mom, made custom cases for. We tote them EVERYwhere. They go in the car, to appointments, and for diaper changes/bag emptyings. They make his life much more comfy.

So this year, he graduated to the next up size pillow... not quite full size, but still very portable.

And with PIGS... and farm stuff on the new custom cases!

For a long time during treatment, chocolate ice cream was a mainstay for James. Then we tried to cut back on sugar and sweetners because he was having trouble with yeast overgrowth. It had actually been a good while since he had had or asked for ice cream when we asked James what he wanted for his birthday dessert.

And James signed, "ice cream." Loud and clear.

So, Hannah made ice cream towers.

We pretty sure he liked them.

Quick, Cheap, Nutritious Salmon Patties

2009-12-16T23:44:00.004-05:00

Hands down, Salmon Patties are my favorite 'save' meal when I don't have a plan and need something nutritious, relatively quick for a scratch meal and inexpensive. Everyone in the family likes them... most love them!

Since we are feeding eight hungry people in our house, we multiply the recipe. In the summer, we can get by with a double batch (which makes 12-1/3 cup patties). We serve it with potatoes or brown rice and LOTS of garden veggies with butter! In the winter, when fewer veggies are available, we triple the recipe (which make 19 - 1/3 cup patties).

Don't panic! The above photo shows all the ingredients for a triple batch! (Except for the frying oil.)

First we'll figure out the cost:

3 cans wild caught salmon, undrained (I buy 4 packs from Sam's for $7.48; $1.87 for one can)
3 eggs from hens on pasture (We raise our own hens for eggs, but figuring $4/dozen, one egg is 33 cents)
3 rye crisp-type crackers (I buy packs of 32 Wasa light rye crackers from Big Lots for $1.80, one cracker is 5.6 cents)
3 handfuls of parsley, rinsed and drained (This is a great time of year for parsley in Georgia. I bought 3 plants for $9 last Spring and have harvested at least 30 handfuls, so one handful costs me 30 cents or less)
1 cup, approximately, coconut oil (organic virgin), for frying (I buy my coconut oil in bulk at an international market in Atlanta. My cost is $2.26 per pound, 1/3 cup costs me 38 cents)

Ingredients for my triple batch cost me $8.81....divided by 8 servings is just about $1.10 per serving.

Making the salmon patties is the easy part:

Dump the salmon into a bowl, add eggs, crumble in crackers and mix.

Pick the parsley apart into small pieces. Stir in.

Measure 1/3 cup servings....

And fry in coconut oil.

When I am in a hurry (and thinking), I will use my electric skillet instead of a frying pan.

This post is a part of Kimi Harris' Pennywise Platter. Click over to Kimi's blog, The Nourshing Gourmet, to find more low cost, nutritious and yummy ideas for your family!

'Tis the Season - For Unto Us a Child is Born

2009-12-14T21:10:00.003-05:00

Inspirational DaySpring Movies

This post is a part of 'Tis the Season carnival. You can head over to Hannah or

McKenzie's site to read more Christ-honoring Christmas posts.

Perspective

2009-12-13T14:15:00.003-05:00

I have been whining lately, wallowing in my own little pity party and it all boiled down to two things. Not trusting God and choosing to see things from my own perspective instead of His. I was getting so well-practiced at seeing things from my own perspective, I didn't even realize that was what I was doing... and even when I wanted to see God's perspective, I was unable to.

Thankfully, God is merciful. He moved in my heart yesterday, preparing me for His message today.

This morning, our pastor gave several examples of seeing things from God's perspective (that's when I realized how far off-base I had gone). They convicted and encouraged me.

Here are some of them:

1. When someone hurts us, it is natural to want to return the favor or withhold forgiveness. That is our human perspective. God's perspective is for us to embrace the trial, to look for the good God is accomplishing through this. (Count it all joy when you meet various trials... James 1:2) Is the Lord teaching us patience, frugality, or perseverance through this trial? Is He helping us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling? Is He drawing us closer to Him so that we can know the Lord and His truths in a deeper way and be better able to communicate those truths to others?

2. When someone who is younger dies or someone is sick(younger being someone who hasn't lived as long as we generally think we should live--it could be a child or it could be someone who just hasn't, in our view, reach the point of having living a long, full life), it is often natural for us to think it was unfair or unjust, to blame God, to think those left behind got a raw deal. But if we look at this loss from God's perspective, we can learn that what seems important is not what is truly important. We can learn to value relationships and the 'little things' more when we experience an 'untimely loss'.

3. When children misbehave or are strong-willed, it is natural to fuss at them and to get frustrated. Sometimes we might even curse them in our frustration, unintentionally tearing them down. Our pastor told of how he once accused one of his sons of 'being like a bowling ball'. When this son got in an accident, he told his dad he was nothing but a bowling ball. He gave examples of how we could, instead, look at the positive side and encourage or praise our children. One little boy brought a bug to him and after they 'freed' him safely outside, he encouraged that little boy and told him how he was going to grow up to be a mighty man, a protector of all those around him. The little boy beamed!

I will need lots of practice to renew my perspective, but I am convinced that it will be worth it!

What helps you the most to keep God's perspective during life's trials?

Five

2009-12-09T23:34:00.002-05:00

Five years ago we arrived in Holland. At first, there was a lot to learn. We had to find our way around Holland. Now, we mostly feel like we live on the outskirts of Holland. It is a nice place to be.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Jamesie!

Nuts and leaves

2009-12-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

Last year, we raked up a good bit of leaves from a friends place. They have pecan trees and leaves are plentiful. We thought we had nearly gathered a lifetime supply of leaves, but it turns out we could have used four or five times as many as we collected.

A cousin in Minnesota has the richest garden soil we have ever seen. She attributes her fine soil to the addition of large amounts of leaf and leaf mold over the winter. The leaves degrade and become great soil and the leaves on top are mulch, keeping in moisture and keeping out weeds.

Since our goal is ultimately for our garden to be like Cousin Marian's, we started implementing the leaf plan. We noticed a difference in our soil this year and bugs were not near the problem they were last year!

So, we set out this fall to collecting as many leaves as we could. We were filling lawn and leaf bags, but decided it was more efficient to use a friend's trailer. We've raked hauled and spread more than 40 leaf bags and six trailer loads of leaves!

We also found nuts (heart nuts and acorns) which we shared with our hogs.

The flower bed is in need of pine straw. So I guess we'll be looking to rake up a trailer load of that soon, too!

'Tis the Season: Advent helps us keep Christ in Christmas

2009-12-07T16:12:00.006-05:00

This post is a part of 'Tis the Season: Keeping Christ in Christmas carnival hosted by Hannah, over at her new blog, One Southern Girl, and her friend, McKenzie, from Pecan Pastures. Hop on over to Hannah's blog to find links to more Christ-honoring-Christmas ideas.

I don't remember where I found our copy of Family Celebrations, but I know we have been using it for about 15 years now.

We really enjoy this advent celebration. Although we keep saying we are going to try something new or different each year, we nearly always come back to this book. (One year, we read through Jotham's Journey--it was also very good, but had no 'props' to really involved everyone.)

The advent celebration in Family Celebrations includes a tradtitional advent wreath with candles, a banner with a Christmas tree and homemade felt ornaments appropriate to each night's advent devotional, and devotionals with hymns to sing for 24 nights leading up to Christmas. Initially, I thought that repeating the same thing every year for advent would be boring and less meaningful, but, after 15 years, it seems that the repetition is both beneficial and comforting to the children. It's kind of soothing to us adults as well! Even though the devotionals are scripted, we can tailor it with different questions and extra thoughts, but it is still the same story and the same, timeless ideas.

The book also has a Christmas worship service and an Epiphany Party plan. We use the Christmas day celebration most years and we enjoy doing the Epiphany Party whenever we can.

The Epiphany party is a great wind-down and wrap up of the Christmas Season. It includes a feast (which is relative to whatever you want to make--we have done real feasts and we have done soups with homemade bread), a pageant (in which the children re-enact the Christmas story--ours have been better if they have a chance to plan ahead) and a service (during which time we read all the advent devotional scriptures and take down the ornaments from our tree banner and sing some of the Christmas hymns.) It makes for a late night, but lots of sweet, Christ-focused memories.

Glorious eggs!

2009-12-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

Eggs have been in really short supply around here. In the fall, as the daylight time gets shorter, the hens slow down their egg production. We didn't even talk about supplementing them with light this year. We completely forgot about it.

In addition to shorter daylight, the hens go into a moult--they shed their feathers and grow new ones. Feathers are made of protein, so when the hens are growing more feathers, there isn't enough protein to make many eggs on top of new feathers.

This year egg production dropped a lot more than I was anticipating and we have only been getting one or two eggs a day! For a while, a dozen eggs was costing about $7 in feed!!! Recently, egg-laying got better (we think they are finished growing out their new feathers) and we are getting three to four eggs a day. We were able to save up enough eggs to have them for dinner. What a wonderful treat!

Katie made several batches of Mexican Roasted Potatoes (these have become a real family favorite) and we cooked up a big batch of homemade bacon from our homegrown pork. Most of us had poached eggs. Vern prefers his fried and I got this photo of these wonderful looking egg yolks!

We're already talking about what kind of egg meal we'd like to have when we've saved up enough eggs for another one!

Pizza night!

2009-11-25T11:53:00.001-05:00

Pizza night has been almost every Friday. This last week, we had pizza on Thursday. This time, almost all of the pizza ingredients were homemade. I made the mozzarella and ricotta earlier that day, the pesto, I made earlier this year and froze and I followed and adapted a pizza dough recipe, so everyone could eat it. And the most important part of all, this time I didn't burn the crust... I think I'm finally learning how NOT to burn the crust!

Building a doggy house, part 2

2009-11-24T12:05:00.002-05:00

Finally the rest of the doggy house pictures. Owen decided the girls and James needed his experience and helped them finish building it!

Edited: I just checked the blog tonight (11/25) and realized that the pictures didn't show up. Hopefully this will work now! If it doesn't, please leave a comment to let us know.

Building a doggy house, part 1

2009-11-23T11:00:00.001-05:00

I was trying to upload all the pictures from building the doggy house into one post, but Picasa isn't letting me upload more than three pictures at a time :(...

Doing a boy's thing

2009-11-20T11:48:00.000-05:00

James is intrigued by the tree in the front yard... He tries to climb it whenever he can. These pictures are from the other day. He was taking a break from carrying bricks to build a doggy house with Becca and Carrie. The doggy house didn't stay long. The next day, James decided to sit in it and broke most of the walls down!

Some good news

2009-11-12T13:13:00.002-05:00

I just got off the phone with Dr. P.

He got James' biopsy results back and I think he was a little surprised, and encouraged. The rectal biopsy is totally normal. The other biopsies, from higher up in the colon, look "pretty good". The test for Hirschsprung's disease shows there isn't any. At all. This is really good news!

Dr. P said that he still can't promise me anything (and I wouldn't want him to), but he is more hopeful today than he was on Monday that the saline flush and flagyl should help clear things up.

Unless there are problems before then, I am supposed to call him in December to set up a repeat test in January.

I did ask about diet. He doesn't think that James eating lots of yogurt should affect his colon.

This is a big step up from Monday's initial news. Thanks for your prayers. We're still working on good nutritional things we can do for James.

The low-down on James

2009-11-11T10:30:00.003-05:00

We're home and catching our breath after a whirlwind 6 days including two trips to Atlanta, one to Macon and beyond, and a chicken processing day--not necessarily in that order!

Monday was a very long day for James. We got to the hospital at 6 in the morning. It seemed really busy and we were late getting checked in to a room. Later, our nurse would tell me that they normally have 30-40 children come through Day Surgery but Monday, they had 57 scheduled children! Yikes! Considering all that, things went remarkably well from the logistics standpoint. We left the hospital just before 7 p.m. and James' surgeon, Dr. P was heading in for yet another surgery.

The first thing James had done was the fluroscopy. They use a clear liquid dye (I forget what it is called) and put it into James' colon by way of his mucous fistula. Then the radiologist took pictures of the dye travelling through the colon. This showed that James' colon was very small for his age. There was some concern about whether the colon had not grown for the last two and half years or perhaps if there might be something constricting the colon.

Thankfully, James was sedated for the procedure and afterward he fell soundly asleep. Now there was a great delay waiting for James' turn in surgery. One case before James' had new issues come up in surgery and their time nearly doubled (from 2 hours to 4 hours)... When it was nearly James' turn, Dr. P poked his head in to let me know that the scope he needed for James wasn't working, but they had the technicians on it and hoped to get it fixed soon.

Finally it was James' turn and since it was so late in the day, we were able to stay in James' room, rather than move again out to the waiting room. Dr. P came to see us when he was all done with James.

He is very concerned about the condition of James' colon. He said it is very inflamed, pussy, and full of bacteria overgrowth and mucous. It is difficult to tell if this is scar tissue and tissue damage from the colitis James had at the beginning of his chemo or if it is just from non-use for two and half years. Dr. P did say that while it did look like there might be some constricting running the length of the colon, there isn't anything wrapping around it, but that the inflammation in the colon is so severe that the constricting is not even worth considering at this point.

So the plan is this: Once we get the results of James' rectal biopsy to be sure that he has the necessary nerves cells, we will begin flushing his colon daily with saline (the same way they did in the hospital) and follow that with flagyll. The saline should help soothe the inflammation, flush the colon of mucous and other excess cells and hopefully begin the healing process. The flagyll is an antibiotic, which we hope with kill off the excess bacteria (which should then be flushed with the saline).

After two months, Dr. P wants to see James again and do the same tests (the fluroscopy in x-ray and the sigmoidoscopy in surgery) to see if there is any improvement...

My take on Dr. P is that he is currently not even cautiously optimistic. He is very concerned, but not ready to give up.

We are considering using some of the same things we would feed James, that would be nourishing to his colon, along with the saline flush. Please pray for wisdom about what to use and when, and that God would be glorified in healing James' colon and having it all put back together again.

Thanks for following our journey with James and for praying for us and him. While we are done with chemo, we still have a long road to travel with James.

Edited to add: Thoughts and suggestions on ways to help James are welcome! Especially natural ones!

James update: 2:50pm

2009-11-09T14:53:00.002-05:00

James just went back to surgery. Dr. P came in earlier to let us know about another delay (the scope he wanted to use was down... but is now fixed). He is concerned about the fluoroscopy and the small intestines. But, he said he should be able to tell from the scope if it is a problem. If the muscles are constricting, it could be a problem, if it is just atrophy from lack of use, we should be okay. Glad God knows.

Hannah

James update: 2:00pm

2009-11-09T14:04:00.000-05:00

The nurse just came in and said.... It's time. She and Momma are talking about if we want some versed for James before going. Please pray that God will direct the surgeon during the scope and biopsy and the NP during the bone marrow aspirate and spinal tap. Also that James would fall asleep quickly and not panic. Will update more later.

Hannah

James update: 12:50pm

2009-11-09T12:48:00.006-05:00

Edited: Momma just heard from James' nurse. She guesses that it will be another hour before they come and get James unless something happens that we don't know about. Momma is going down to the car and get our breakfast and take a walk (I got mine earlier, when I went looking for a movie for James).

We're still waiting for James to be called back. Checking email and reading some news articles. PTL, James is still sleeping, on the gurney. He is so sweet and handsome (no, I'm not biased). We'll let you know if/when we hear anything.

Hannah

This morning

2009-11-09T12:15:00.000-05:00

Before bed snack

2009-11-09T12:11:00.000-05:00

Popped amaranth, pears (that we canned this year), and coconut milk. So good!

James got new sippy cups at Target.

Helping get yogurt ready for Monday. We added coconut oil and bee pollen. James loves his 'bees and nuts' yogurt.

Talking to the folks at home. We're cleaning up our mess in the RMH kitchen (It's huge!!!)

James update: 11:30am

2009-11-09T11:42:00.002-05:00

Fluoroscopy went well and James fell asleep during it. The radiologist said that James' colon was small, but that it was clear and there was no blockage. We are back in Day Surgery. James is still sleeping in my lap. There is one more patient ahead of James waiting to go to the OR... There was a long delay, one patient had some extra stuff happen in the OR, which is why we are waiting. Please pray that James stays asleep and that the rest of the day flows smoothly.

Thank you for praying...

Hannah

James update: 10:15am

2009-11-09T10:16:00.002-05:00

We're waiting in fluoroscopy with James watching Daniel Boone. He's gotten versed. Please, please pray that the versed will start working and James will fall asleep during the test.

We'll try to put little updates on the blog and Facebook throughout the day. Thanks so much for praying for us and James.

Hannah

Guess where we ate

2009-11-09T09:09:00.003-05:00

It was a delicious meal! After dinner, we went to Target to wear James out and then went back to the Ronald McDonald House.

Hannah

Beef Tallow giveaway

2009-11-06T21:25:00.001-05:00

You probably never thought when you came to our blog, to see a post about a beef tallow giveaway. I never thought that I would be writing a post about a giveaway like this. But I am. Here's the goods: There is a giveaway over at Kelly the Kitchen Kop's site for a 36lb bucket of beef tallow. Now that you think I'm crazy... this is what one would use beef tallow for... For frying french fries (everyone who trys it says that it is sooo good), instead of butter in your pie crust... AnnMarie says it makes the best crust ever.... And how about frying onion rings and chicken tenders in it. Another plus, it's good for you fat. So hurry over and enter. It ends at 11:59pm tonight.

Hannah

Poor man's mushrooms

2009-11-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

We joke around here about what the poor man substitutes for the more expensive things. I've used canned salmon to make Salmon Pesto Pasta (a delicious dish that Nona made for us a couple years ago). Nona uses salmon fillets and we do too, when we have them. But this particular evening, we didn't have a meal planned and Daddy was almost home. So, I cooked the pasta and dumped in salmon and pesto and served it. The only bad thing about it was that the salmon broke up into little pieces.
The other day, Katie was cooking and I taste-tested for her (we do it all the time around here). I was surprised because it tasted like mushrooms and I knew that we had used up the mushrooms in the fridge. Then Katie said that it was a eggplant tart with a potato crust. Now I guess the poor man has eggplant for his mushrooms!

Hannah

That little red hairbrush

2009-11-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

Daddy has a little red hairbrush that he's had for as long as I remember. When Owen was a little boy, about 4 years old, he loved Daddy's hairbrush and would borrow it whenever he could. Finally Daddy and Momma got him a little red hairbrush of his own, so that Daddy could find his.The other day, James found Daddy's hairbrush and immediately attached himself to it. And then it disappeared. James hasn't been able to find it yet. I guess he hid it to keep us from finding it and taking it away and hid it too well. It seems that James might be getting old enough to get a little red hairbrush of his own. Maybe for his 5th birthday in December. My, how time does fly!

Hannah

Minor change in plans

2009-11-02T23:43:00.001-05:00

After talking with Vern and the folks at the clinic, we have decided to just go to Atlanta and have counts done there. We'll just pop in, get James' finger pricked and be on our merry way. Doing it this way, we can be sure that everything is looked at by the right folks and all the results are in the right place so those that need them (the surgeon, in particular) can get to them.

So, on Thursday, we will be taking field trip. Not sure yet what all of our stops will be, but hopefully it will be a nice day.

The nurse called today from the Day Surgery unit about James' tests and procedures on Monday. We have to be at Day Surgery at 6 in the morning.

So, we have two prayer requests:

1. That James' counts would be excellent and everything would look great (and be great).

2. That we can get a room at the Ronald McDonald house near the hospital for Sunday night. We won't know for sure until Saturday morning if they will have a spot for us.

Today

2009-11-02T02:16:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Momma!!!

and many more!

969 days later

2009-10-24T23:05:00.001-04:00

Edited: James' off treatment pictures weren't showing up for some reason. Hopefully it's fixed and y'all can see Mr. Handsome. If not please leave a comment and we'll try to figure out what's going on. Thanks, Hannah

On February 25th, 2007, Momma posted that for some reason, she had this feeling that we had several more big weeks ahead of us. And she was right. Though, none of us would have thought it would have turned out this way. Those several big weeks turned into 2 years and 8 months!
But yesterday, James took his very last chemotherapy pill at 7:10pm and is now officially OFF TREATMENT! In a way, I am so thrilled, for James, and me and our family. But it brings more unknowns... and unknowns are.... well, unknown. But not for God and that is full of comfort. Before we close the chapter on leukemia, I would like to share some pictures of James before, during and after treatment. GO JAMES!!!

***************************************************************************************

Before leukemia and with hair....
(January 2006)

During Treatment

(March 2007)

(May 2007)

(December 2007)

(May 2008)

(August 2008)

(September 2008)

(February 2009)

(September 2009)

And now.... Officially OFF TREATMENT

Off treatment pictures by Daniel R. Simpson Photography

As I put this 'in review' post together I saw so many other pictures I would love to have shared with you. If you want to see more pictures and to read James' journey through treatment, the best place to start is in February of 2007 and then finish up here.

We are eternally grateful to everyone who supported us in this journey and continues to support us through everything coming up.

With gratefulness and happiness,

Hannah

Shin splits

2009-10-23T13:58:00.004-04:00

I haven't been doing any real running recently. A couple of days ago, Owen was going to run up to where the chickens are and move the pens and I asked to go along, because I wanted to get out and stretch a bit. So Owen and I ran pretty much all the way down and back. The next day, my shins started hurting and I thought it was just sore from where James had sat on me. The next day, my shins felt like there was a bruise and someone was pushing down on it all the time, except there wasn't a bruise and I couldn't think of anything I had done that would make my shins hurt this long. So I told Momma what was hurting and what it felt like and Momma said "That kind of sounds like shin splits." so I asked how would one get it and you'll never guess what she said... running or walking after not exercising much. I checked on Wikipedia and now I have shin splits and they hurt! Next time, I think I'll walk, in my sneakers, not my boots!

Hannah

I'll bet you didn't know

2009-10-21T22:58:00.003-04:00

What the difference is between bird flu and the swine flu.
For bird flu, you need tweetmint and for swine flu? oinkment.

Hannah

P.S. Thanks Aunt Donna for this great laugh!

Camping tonight

2009-10-18T18:41:00.004-04:00

Tonight in the south (where we haven't felt 'global warming' in nearly a year), Katie, Owen, Becca, Carrie and I are going camping in the yard. It seems that all us children set up our 8 person tent and sleep in it about once a year. Usually, we set it up in the livingroom/diningroom. But this time we are actually going to sleep outside. Some of us (including me!) are wimps when it comes to camping and we wimps decided to take our mattresses out and sleep on those, smothered in our sleeping bags and piles of blankets. Hopefully we'll stay warm, it's supposed to get down to 39* tonight.

Owen has built a fire and beds and bedding is set up. We even decorated with pine boughs inside and outside the tent and we have boards at the entrance, so that we don't track in sand. Carrie is all dressed up in her flannel pantelettes, red turtleneck, blue couch-pouch and two pairs of socks. Becca has her horse sweatshirt, a denim shirt, flannel pantelettes, sweatpants and two pairs of socks on. They both look too cute for words and are eagerly looking forward to sleeping in the tent tonight. Maybe I should go take pictures, so we can share our experience.

Hannah

Mendelssohn's 200th Birthday

2009-10-17T21:10:00.004-04:00

This evening, Momma, Katie and I went to a concert given by GCSU, celebrating the 200th birthday of the famous composer, Felix Mendelssohn. It was very pleasant to listen to the choral groups and finally the orchestra play. We heard 'There Shall A Star From Jacob Shine Forth' from his unfinished oratorio, Christus and some from the oratorio, Elijah, and then the orchestra played first movement of Mendelssohn’s famous E Minor Violin Concerto (there are clips of the concerto on the link), which was awesome to listen to. We ended up leaving during the intermission, because it was already 8:40 pm and we had things to finish up at home. As we talked on the way home, we agreed that James would love going to listen and it would have been neat to hear more of Mendelssohn's music. Going tonight inspired me to learn more about Mendelssohn and perhaps get some, if not all, of his music from the library to listen too.

Hannah

A recent dessert

2009-10-14T12:25:00.003-04:00

This is what I made for a quick and relatively healthy (wink) treat recently.... Chocolate Pudding, whipped coconut cream and fresh mint leaves on top. Yummy!!!

and the side view.... We had just taken them out of the fridge.

James--endings and beginnings

2009-10-12T20:20:00.003-04:00

We actually have a date for James' last chemo. Friday, October 23rd. He will finish the last pills and we will be done with chemo. The week of Nov 2nd, we'll get James' counts checked locally and the results will be sent to the oncology team and the surgeon. (Please pray with us for GREAT counts!)

The surgeon is in the loop now to start the process of reversing (hopefully and Lord willing) the ileostomy James had to have at the beginning of treatment. If the problems were caused by the chemo AND all is well with the pieces and parts after 2.5 years of chemo and non-use, then they should be able to put our little guy all back together again. Which is, of course, what we are hoping and praying for!

Assuming all is well with counts, James will have a fluoroscopy of his colon on Nov 9th. This will ensure there are no blockages or anything strange with all this non-use. Later that day, James will have procedures in Day Surgery. The oncology team will check his bone marrow and spinal fluid one last time. (Pray all is CLEAR... no more leukemia... EVER, Lord willing!)

During the surgery time, the surgeon will do a rectal biopsy to be sure that James still has all the important cells that should allow him to 'work like the rest of us'. The surgeon will also do a scope of the colon and check the health of James' colon and the mucosal lining. If all is well, he will flush the colon (via James' mucous fistula) and see how things work. Then we will figure out where we stand on the road to repairing James' ileostomy. (Please pray for a healthy colon with great mucosa, all the right cells in all the right places, and that there would be no blockages and things would flow JUST like they are supposed to.)

As we get closer to procedure day, I'll ask for prayer that either James would tolerate the fluoroscopy well, or they would be willing to sedate him for the test.

When James started chemo, it seemed like it would be FOREVER before we finished. Treatment is 130 weeks and we are now in week 128. With the end of treatment, brings the beginning of other new things... so we have endings and beginnings and we have James with us still. Which, if you had seen him 2 and half years ago, you would know that that is nothing short of a miracle. We are so grateful for God's mercies!

Heading to Atlanta

2009-10-08T06:16:00.004-04:00

In a few moments, Momma, James and I will be on our way to Atlanta. James has his regular once-a-month clinic visit to the oncologist and another appointment with the surgeon who placed his ileostomy. Hopefully, I can post about the trip tomorrow, because I'm sure that we'll be tired by the time we get home.

Love, Hannah

Teatime with James

2009-09-30T21:10:00.001-04:00

On the menu: Pretzel sticks, Bread & Butter pickles, Roast Beef squares.

On the first day of school, what is sweeter than tea for two?

Don't you like James' flowers? He went and picked them out himself.

One of James' favorite activities is to have tea and when we make some for him, he loves to help by setting the table (which is actually his toybox) with assorted china tea sets.

Cultures for Health giveaway

2009-09-24T17:05:00.004-04:00

There's a giveaway going on over at Kitchen Stewardship. It ends at 11:59, so if you're interested, you'd better hurry over and enter. It's cultures again. There is sourdough, yogurt, kombucha, buttermilk, milk kefir and water kefir. Someday I'd really like to make water kefir. It's suppose to be a good-for-you substitute for soda.

Hannah

Please Pray

2009-09-18T12:25:00.003-04:00

A cancer family just found out that their son, Ricky, relapsed again with 14 lesions on his lungs. We met the James family in spring 2008 at a camp for families with cancer. Ricky had been declared NED (no evidence of disease) and was a ball of energy. A couple of months later, we ran across their caringbridge site and saw that Ricky had relapsed. He had chemo and surgery to remove the tumor and to place a urostomy. He finished treatment and was NED. A couple of days ago, Ricky had scans and a visit to his oncologist the next day. Last night, we found out from Ricky's mom, Shelli, that Ricky had relapsed. Would you please pray for them? That Ricky would go in remission quickly and the cancer wouldn't come back? Ricky is 4 and has a younger sister, Erin, who, I believe, is 2. Visit Ricky's caringbridge site for updates on him.

Another family is fighting HLH, a bone marrow disease. Their baby, Andrew, had 3 BMTs and passed away about two weeks ago. Their other son, Matthew, also has HLH (it's a genetic mutation) had a BMT a week before Andrew died. He was doing great and had been released from the hospital. Tuesday, Matthew got very sick and last night was taken to the PICU. Currently he is stable and the doctors are testing for infections. Please pray for comfort and healing for them. You will need to have a CarePage account to visit their site. Visit their Carepage for updates on Matthew.

Love, Hannah

The Little Ones

2009-09-09T10:06:00.003-04:00

Momma took these pictures of James and the little girls a couple days ago. After James' hair-cut, known as 'Plan B'. He got a buzz, because he wasn't staying still. It looks pretty cute and James likes to try to make the front stand up, using a pick.

Yep, I think we'll keep them....

A Quote for the Present...

2009-09-08T13:14:00.002-04:00

The past is history; the future a mystery;
But the present is a gift.
And that's why we call it the present.
~ Author Unknown

Preserving the Harvest: Okra

2009-09-04T08:00:00.001-04:00

The first time I remember eating okra was when we stayed with the Clayton family. Mrs. Julie pan-fried breaded okra and it was really good! On Sunday, Momma and Daddy went to see our neighbors down the road (who have a beautiful garden!). While Momma and Daddy were there, the Dominy's gave them a grocery bag of okra. I wasn't sure at first how I wanted to freeze it. In the end, I just sliced it, blanched it and froze it on a tray in the freezer. I kinda regretted slicing the okra before I blanched it because it was, in the words of a friend, 'mucous-y'! But it broke up okay in the gallon bag. Now we have a gallon of okra to use this winter and I'm looking forward to using the okra in soups and casseroles.

Hannah

Preserving the Harvest: Poblano Peppers

2009-09-03T14:58:00.000-04:00

Momma planted poblano peppers this year and we were looking for recipes to use our abundunt crop of peppers. When I googled recipes for chile rellanos, I found this website. There is a whole bunch of recipes that we'll probably try out. With our first peppers, I made a version of chile rellanos. They were pretty good, but the onions were rather crunchy. Then a couple of weeks ago, we needed a quick dinner and Momma suggested I make chile rellanos again. So I ran out to the garden and picked about 2 1/2 dozen peppers and thought 'I won't bother finding gloves, after all, 'a certain someone' said that I wouldn't need gloves for poblanos!' By the time I blanched the peppers, my fingers were killing me! Dinner was good though and I tried sauteing the onions and added some other things to the recipe. Later I did learn many different things to try for peppers burns. Although in the end, ice water was the only thing that cut the burn.

The other day, I picked all the poblano peppers and seeded them (believe me, I wore gloves). Blanched and put them on cookie sheets and put them in the freezer. The next morning I pulled the cookie sheets out and filled gallon bags with the peppers. We ended up with a total of 4 1/2 gallons of peppers. So I'm hoping that all these peppers will about 9 meals worth of chile rellanos.

Hannah

Preserving the Harvest: Green Beans

2009-09-02T13:13:00.003-04:00

Our Kentucky Wonder Beans have done really well this year, considering the late start they had. About two weeks ago, Katie frenched a whole bunch of green beans and blanched and froze them. She got 10 quart bags full and for our family we sometimes use as many as 2 quarts of beans each meal. So Katie put up enough for at least five meals. Yummm. I asked Momma this last time if I could can some more beans, because we were using the green beans, that we canned earlier this summer, more quickly than we originally thought.
Owen, Becca, Carrie and I picked the beans this time (Usually Momma and the little girls would pick the beans) and got a laundry basket full. All our big pots weren't big enough! The little girls, Owen and I spent the afternoon snapping the green beans. In the evening, Momma and I started to snap them into 2" pieces and James who was sitting with Daddy, signed that he wanted to help and came over to help and so did Becca. James helped snapping beans, and did an excellent job of breaking them into the right size. He developed some funny techniques for snapping beans. Once after James had finished a bean, he looked at us and said 'meen' and did the sign for bean. The Signing Time dvd that has the bean sign, we get from the library up at Egleston's and it had been awhile since James had watched it. So we were pretty excited that James was using signs that he doesn't use on a daily basis.

We washed the beans and since they need to be pressure canned, saved them till morning. In the morning, I started water to boil and filled the jars with the green beans. After I screwed the lids on, we had a total of 14 quarts and 2 meals worth of little beans. Now we're just waiting to take off the canner lid and see if all the jars sealed.

Hannah

Preserving the Harvest: Cucumbers

2009-08-24T00:27:00.003-04:00

Hooray for cukes! We have made pickles with our cucumbers in the past, using the usual method of vinegar, et all. This time we thought we'd try lacto-fermented pickles. A blog we read had two recipes and we had the ingredients. So we made them. So far, we've only tried one of the two kinds of pickles. The garlic dill spears. They're actually pretty good. There is a different flavor and I need to get some grape leaves to make the pickles crunchy. But we'll make them again.
We have to wait for 1 1/2 more weeks till we can try the bread and butter pickles. But I think that we'll like those as well.

Now to try lacto-fermented baby dills!

Hannah

Preserving the Harvest: Eggplant

2009-08-24T00:22:00.006-04:00

Our garden is doing really well and our eggplants have started producing. This is our second batch of eggplant. The first few eggplant we made ratatouille with, it was delicious!
Earlier this week, Momma brought in all the eggplant on the plants. I weighed it, 14 1/2 pounds of eggplant. We decided to make Baba Ghanoush. It was relatively simple. It was a little time-consuming though. We got a total of 9 cups of baba ghanoush and froze it for later.

I used the recipe from the 75th anniversary edition of the Joy of Cooking. Now I need to make soaked whole wheat pitas to eat with the baba ghanoush.

Hannah

Amputate or Agitate: What's the Difference

2009-08-16T20:16:00.004-04:00

We're listening to 'The Enemy Below'. Momma and I were by the computer and I overheard 'we had to amputate his fingers', so I asked 'who's fingers?'. After a minute, Carrie said 'A guy's hand was shot and the doctor had to agitate his fingers.' Oh, Carrie, you are so funny!

Love, Hannah

Cultures for Health

2009-08-16T19:38:00.004-04:00

In 2007, James had a big yeast infection. He was on, and sometimes still gets, fluconazole, an anti-fungal med. During this time, we kept James on probiotics, in the form of yogurt and some high-quality supplements. Since then, we have come across food blogs that help us in feeding James good food. One of the blogs we follow is offering a giveaway. Culture starters for yogurt, sourdough, milk and water kefir (One of the more common things people use water kefir for is homemade 'soda pop') and kombucha. All of these cultures are good for you and some add probiotics and prebiotics so necessery to our gut health. So I would like to invite you to visit Kelly's blog and enter the giveaway for the cultures.

Hannah

Another Giveaway: Leather Baby Shoes

2009-07-01T15:04:00.003-04:00

I know, I know. I just posted about a contest. But when I saw this one I had to smiled. Back in 2003, when Carrie was born, a friend sent us a pair of baby leather shoes. They were the cutest little mice you've ever seen. They also looked adorable on James too.

So check it out and enter the giveaway. This link will take you to the BugalooKids site where you can see the shoes.

Hannah

Giveaway: Win 3 Starter Cultures

2009-06-28T16:04:00.003-04:00

Remember the Sourdough bread? Well, I ended up killing the sourdough starter. So we haven't been eating sourdough bread lately. But... the other day I checked a foodie blog looking for a specific recipe for dinner and saw this post! AnnMarie who writes cheeseslave.com also said that kefir has more probiotics than yogurt. Did you know? I sure didn't.

So check it out and enter the contest. It ought to be fun!

Hannah

Two years ago

2009-03-01T00:54:00.002-05:00

February 28, 2007 was the day James was diagnosed with leukemia. Owen, James and I spent the night in Duluth at the hospital in the PICU. There was an incredible snow storm. We didn't know then exactly what kind of leukemia we would be fighting or for how long...

But here we are two years later and the Lord has sustained us all the way.

So much has happened in two years. It's really quite amazing.

We have so much to be thankful for. Including your prayers for us!

Sourdough Bread

2009-02-28T14:20:00.004-05:00

A friend gave us some sourdough starter, and I've been using it to make whole wheat sourdough english muffins. The other day, Momma found a recipe for Grandmother's bread with a variation for sourdough bread. This was made with all-purpose flour and was gone the next day.

Love, Hannah

Blindman's Bluff....James' way

2009-02-24T15:00:00.006-05:00

This morning we started an impromptu game of Blindman's Bluff. All of us children played. Owen was the first blindman and was pretty good at not running into things. James thought he would like a turn too. His way.

Sidetracked

How many blindman are there?

I'm gonna get you!

Watch out, Owie. I'm coming

Lil' James, you're such a cutie pie.

James thought the best way to play was having the bandana on his head and not over his eyes. The cutest thing was when he started calling, "Buh Mah" for blindman. I know its supposed to be a barrel of fun, but I think James is 36 pounds of fun. (and work, too.)

This afternoon, I caught James on Becca's bunkbed. Shooting arrows like James' favorite, err, one of his favorite video heroes, Robin Hood , which we bought at Walmart last summer.

James draws 'air' arrows from his quiver and pulling back the bow and letting go with a 'hsss' or something like that.

Love, Hannah

Old time TV

2009-02-24T00:48:00.003-05:00

I mentioned earlier that we now have a newly refurbished laptop and DSL. These are from the first evening after the DSL was installed.

Vern found YouTube and shared some favorite music with the children (this would be the arts in homeschooling ;*)). They watched and listened to Nat King Cole, and I think Ray Charles singing Georgia on my Mind, some Bing Crosby and others.

Then we found some old "I love Lucies".

Fun times.

James in the saddle

2009-02-20T08:46:00.002-05:00

James likes to watch his westerns from his own little pony. Here, we were giving fluids by g-tube and keeping him settled with one of his favorites--Roy Rogers.
James likes to participate in the show when he can!

Love, Stephanie

Becca turns nine

2009-02-19T22:27:00.003-05:00

Last week we celebrated Rebecca's 9th birthday. She LOVES horses and anything cowgirl. She has been wanting a denim skirt and a 'horse vest'. With a little bit of a late night and some team help with other things around the house, we were able to make both.

It ended up being a really good day to drive to Macon to let all the children get the bikes they had saved some of their Christmas money for.

We found them at Academy Sports. Then we came home and opened presents and ate good food and road bikes in between rain showers.

We ate so much, we save her cake for Sunday (we did this last year too!).

Horse lover that she is, this was one of her favorite birthday gifts.

I love you, Sweet Becca!

Helpers

2009-02-17T22:45:00.001-05:00

During the last couple of months, I have been working on cleaning, staining and sealing the wood trim in our house. Mostly that is the window trim and sills in the big room and the front door. The other trim and doors (in the mud, laundry, bed and bath rooms) are painted. All while I was working on the trim (in the evening and on weekends) the little girls would ask if they could 'paint' too. And I would have to say, "not this time."... Finally the day came when I was done with the trim (everything got a few coats and I couldn't do it all in one evening). Then I started on the boards for the shelves that would go over my very messy desk in the kitchen.

I was happy to have help since this would be done outside:

Me and my two little helpers. "Painting" and wiping the boards.

Happy faces, dirty hands. We smelled of paint thinner for a few days!!!

The Lone (St)ranger

2009-02-14T21:42:00.002-05:00

James got a toy gun, holster, cowboy hat and mask for Christmas (the children got together with Daddy to make this work).. Becca donated one of her bandanas. The pony came from neighbors awhile back. Then he would only sit on the horse if it were inside a large box. Now he'll climb on the horse to watch his favorite cowboy shows.

For Christmas, the little three got a wagon. James is learning to pull it around. Becca is helping him out.

Notice the shorts, short-sleeved shirt and sock-free outfits... This is December. It did get colder in January.

Love, Stephanie

Technical (and not-so-technical) difficulties

2009-02-13T01:41:00.003-05:00

We have had a month or so of technical difficulties. First, it was our dial-up connection, then our computer died. We recently got connected back to the internet with DSL (woohoo) and we used Christmas money (thanks Mom and Dad) to get a new-to-us reburshed Gateway laptop.

We have hit high-tech and it's kind of nice.

Now we just have to keep from getting distracted!

The children have found some old I Love Lucy shows (it's fun to listen to Owen 'giggle') :*). They've also found some incredible videos on National Geographic. And when folks share a link to a video we can watch....sometimes :*).

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving with my family. We saw my brother for the first time in almost eight years and we all agreed not to wait so long for the next visit.

Christmas was quiet at our place. We were passing around something which James got full blown between Christmas and New Year's. He got it the worst and we spent a couple of days in the hospital. He still isn't all the way back up to speed yet--he isn't eating and drinking as much as he was before he got sick, but he is SO much better.

This weekend we are hoping to do lots in the garden and outside. We have gotten some inside projects done over the last couple of months. I'll try to share some of what we've done. But I may just jump in where we are...

As always, we love hearing from you... Please post a comment... or drop us an e-mail (stephanie [dot] skelly [dot] ga [at] gmail [dot] com.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year :*)...

Love, Stephanie

Ignorance is bliss

2008-11-20T23:18:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we went to Macon for local counts. Today I talked with our regular oncology nurse. She told me James' counts for this week--Hgb, 10.7; Platelets, over 700K; ANC, ~900... Then she said there were no blasts (baby leukemia cells). I thought that was really weird. Of course there were no blasts, there haven't been any since...well, since the fourth week of treatment, March 2007.

I don't remember what I said in response now, but Lauren went on to ask if I knew that James' counts from last week showed three blasts. That is why they wanted me to get him checked again so soon. I was too tired to ask why last week, so I just 'went along'. I got the call from a new-to-me nurse, since our regular nurse was out of town last week. I think that must have been Providence. In some ways, I wish I would have known. It might be revealing to see how I would actually respond to that kind of news...and then again, maybe the Lord just knew I didn't need to add that to my plate last week and that He would take care of it.

Thank you, Lord.

Puttin'up apples

2008-11-05T22:40:00.000-05:00

Right down the road from my mom's is an apple orchard. They have all kinds of apples. At harvest time, they can be bought for $16 a bushel...which is between .33 and .38 per pound. So my mom picked some up for us and she and my dad came for a visit. And to deliver apples!

We learned from an experienced apple saucer in Minnesota that if one wishes to eliminate the risks of burning applesauce, cooking it down in the oven is the way to go!

We canned 31 quarts of applesauce, froze 16 qts of cut up apples for pies and crisps and dried 6-1/2 gallons of apple slices from four bushels. We have 2-1/2 more bushels to put up yet.

It's great to have home preserved foods in the pantry.

A life courageously lived

2008-11-05T14:14:00.002-05:00

David North passed from this life peacefully last week. We had the privilege of being at his Celebration of Life on Sunday and I am very much looking forward to meeting David in Heaven one day. In the meantime, please pray for his sweet family (mom, dad, 6 sibs and 2 sibs-in-law, plus grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles) as they heal not just from losing David, but from the inevitable scars that come from fighting a chronic illness with a loved family member for five years.

Can you say "Mack truck"?

2008-10-20T13:53:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, I woke up feeling pretty crummy. Not as bad as when we had the flu back in January, but close. I'm already feeling some better, but definitely not back up to full speed. I slept and rested a lot yesterday, which allowed me plenty of opportunity to pray for friends.

David North is experiencing great difficulty breathing and doctors have told his family to expect his homegoing soon. He has decided he no longer wishes to be intubated and placed on ventilator, but just kept comfortable. I know his mom would covet your prayers for David and their family.

Hannah Cate and her family would appreciate prayers for a number of situations in their family including the 'night watch' which has been difficult lately, Hannah Cate's continuing treatment for leukemia, and some other family needs that God knows.

Hope you are well and enjoying the arrival of fall...and sometimes winter?... would love to hear from you!

A funny thing

2008-10-17T22:09:00.003-04:00

Today we took two pounds of jalapeno peppers we harvested from our garden and made nearly 100 Jalapeno Poppers. We had read several stories about the importance of wearing gloves while seeding jalapeno peppers and so we heeded that advice.

After seeding the peppers, we saved them in a small bowl to rinse them off in the sink before proceeding with the next recipe step. When I rinsed the peppers, I was looking intently to be sure I rinsed away ALL the seeds. Then I felt a vapor come over my face and inside my nose and the back of my throat began to burn.

The really weird thing is that I then got laryngitis. Now my voice is pretty much gone.

Never heard of that one before!

The popper recipe turned out pretty well... We found that one recipe of filling actually stuffs two pounds of jalapenos. It's worth the extra effort for triple dipping, but we thought the peppers were a little too crunchy. To test: 1)will freezing and warming the poppers in the oven sufficiently soften the peppers?; or 2) should we blanch the peppers before filling?

Stay tuned.

Hannah is 15

2008-09-29T08:05:00.000-04:00

On the 18th, Hannah, our second born, turned 15. I am not feeling any older than I already was, thank you.

One of our family traditions is food for birthdays. Hannah started out asking for something simple. I think she was trying to make it easy on us, which was very thoughtful of her. But, we wanted to bless her...so after some encouragement and a little arm-twisting, she came up with this menu.

Hor's deurves: stuffed potato skins (home-made from skins in the freezer saved from roast garlic mashed potatoes), fried eggplant, mozzarella cheese sticks (saved the the freezer from last Christmas Eve), marinara sauce, our favorite (and easy) hot artichoke dip with sour dough bread (from the discount bread rack at Wal-mart) and stuffed mushrooms.

To drink: grape juice in wine glasses.

and a tablecloth to wipe the chin.
Another favorite: Nona salad--my mom's recipe. (Leaf and romaine lettuce, tomato, avocado (only California Haas will do), sunflower seeds (roasted and salted are best), olive oil, salad or tarragon vinegar, garlic salt and pepper).

The main course: Shrimp Scampi and Asparagus

The birthday dessert: Chocolate torte

James loves candles and Hannah very sweetly suggested we re-light them so he could have a whole turn himself.

The birthday girl serves up.

56 weeks to go

2008-09-26T14:09:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, James, Hannah and I drove to Atlanta to see James' oncologist and GI doctor. While we always prefer to be home, it was a good drive and a good day.

First, we saw Dr. Keller and the clinic folks. Since this was just a visit and James had no procedure, he was a busy little guy and all his fans and followers were thrilled to see his shining personality sauntering around the hallways. They're always excited about hair, since so many of the children there are without--or it's quite short.

Dr. Keller said he had just counted this morning and James has 56 weeks of treatment left. That means he's finished 74 of 130 weeks. We all hope we are on the downhill side!

We talked about James pull-through surgery--that's what they call it when they put the intestines all back together again. Dr. Keller wants us to wait until chemo is all done to make sure chemo doesn't hinder James healing. That is fine. It is nice to think about the timing.

Dr. Keller couldn't get over how great James looks--he's come a long way since we first met.

After James' scheduled appointment, we went over to the hospital side to see a couple of our favorite nurses.

Then we saw James' GI doctor--who also thought James looked great!--and talked a little more about James' pull-through surgery. Those 56 weeks could go by before we know it--they certainly have before!

James' ears

2008-09-23T20:28:00.003-04:00

On Monday, James had a minor surgical procedure to insert tubes into he ears.

He has never had an ear infection, but his new ENT doctor said he had fluid behind his ears and that is never a good thing for someone with hearing loss.

As James' pediatrician said at his pre-op exam last week, "There really isn't any minor surgery." Of course that has to do with anesthesia. James is always considered a special case because of his Down syndrome. He has never had any unusual trouble with anesthesia, for which we are grateful.

Even with so-called minor procedures, we lose at least three days. One for all the pre-op appointments, a day for the surgery--because getting up early and going under anesthesia will wipe out a boy, his sister and his mom..and make a boy really needy--and another day for the post-op/follow-up stuff.

I'm not complaining. I'm just saying.

Today, James is pretty much back to normal. I think he is already hearing just a tad better. Next week we go for followup appointments and hopefully for new hearing aid molds and a hearing test.

War movies

2008-09-22T19:24:00.001-04:00

In an earlier post, I mentioned that we like to watch Hopalong Cassidy.

The children are also fond of some of the olderwar movies too. Like Sergeant York and some of the Errol Flynn movies.

Can you tell?

I love that little boy...and his brother and sisters too!

Fried eggplant

2008-09-18T20:57:00.004-04:00

Our eggplant in the garden have been incredibly productive this year. It's a good thing we like eggplant!

In preparation for Hannah's birthday celebration, we made fried eggplant.

Eggplant in the garden basket. This is a Japanese eggplant. I had wanted to get seeds for the bigger Italian eggplant, but they weren't available when I needed them. In the end, we were glad for the smaller eggplant...it just takes more.

Slice 1/2" thick.

Dip in milk, then in a mixture of flour, salt and pepper.

Dip in egg, then seasoned breadcrumbs. We made ours.

Fry in oil. Drain on paper towel. Salt, if desired. Serve on a platter with Marinara Sauce and pretend you are at the Olive Garden--only it's better and cheaper! :*)

We will freeze some to have on hand for 'special meals' as an appetizer.

Homeschool blessings

2008-09-16T11:18:00.003-04:00

Carrie and I have a running game we play with her school work.

It is simple stuff. Practical and innocent. It is a kindergarten curriculum created by Rod and Staff, the Mennonite publisher. There are no modern cartoon characters, but plenty of things Carrie sees everyday.

Like chickens.

I am glad there is such a sweet curriculum I can use when my children are small. But my favorite part is the love notes we write on each page.

Katie's first bread braid

2008-09-06T12:16:00.002-04:00

Last week, Katie was looking for something special to make for Sunday morning breakfast. It tasted just as good as it looks! She decided though that the next time, she would do some sort of wash to make it shiny and more golden.