Country living

Tomorrow Vern and Owen are planning to do some burning and work on re-clearing the line, Lord willing. A bulldozer comes in handy for that kind of work. Especially when you can borrow it from a neighbor. In order to save time, Owen and I walked over to the neighbor's to pick up the bulldozer this afternoon. The walk over was reasonable. The walk and ride back took more than twice as long.

When we picked up the 'dozer, we also picked up Owen's tricycle--Carrie has been asking for it. The tricycle rode back in the bulldozer bucket.

On the way home, our neighbor, Quincy, stopped us and said, "That's a mighty expensive piece of equipment to use to carry a tricycle."

Lookout Hoppy!

The children are big fans of Hopalong Cassidy. James loves to imitate him and the rest of the children (especially Owen, Becca and Carrie) love to play along. Mrs. Julie brought these toy guns--she works at Salvation Army and when toy guns are donated, they can't sell them. (No, I don't know if that is just their store or if it is a nationwide policy).

At any rate, the photos below are of Hoppy-inspired activities around here recently.

Life around here-a visual

Back in July, our neighbor loaned us her spare camera. The children went crazy taking pictures of life and things around our little homestead.

Yesterday, I was finally able to upload some test photos to Picasa--our online photo sharing server. So I uploaded the photos the children took into an album for your viewing pleasure.

You can see them here if you like.

Home, glorious home

Okay, so that's not how it's supposed to go. But we have been home ALL week this week and it has been wonderful! No doctor's appointments, no trips to town, no grocery stores, no Wal-mart runs. No extra gas. No unnecessary shopping.

And I'm starting to catch back up with myself. Did I mentioned how excited I am to be home all week?

James

Here are some for fun photos from the past month or two, since I haven't put any up. Hope to do more.

In our room, we have a mirror that is about my hip level. In Minnesota, we hung it in the mud room, but I don't have a place there. I remembered seeing at Mommylife that Barbara Curtis (mom to 12, including 4 with Down syndrome) hung pictures and mirrors down low for her littles. So we thought we would try this for James. He loves it!

Grandparents now hang just above the mirror and I am keeping my eyes out for other things that would be suitable to 'hang low'.

Where we worship

Tonight I was looking at a few friends blogs and I found this post by Daniel with photos of our church home. If you're interested in knowing where we worship, take a peek!

We made it! Praise the Lord!

Well, James made it! We are rejoicing here by enjoying our regular Friday Night Pizza and movie.

James got his last dose of steroids yesterday morning, but he is still steroid-hungry. That is certainly a silver lining to the steroid thing!

Today he has eaten:

1-1/2 home-canned peaches
1/2 c. scrambled eggs
8 oz. orange juice (EIGHT OUNCES--this is a Hallelujah Record!)

TWO bananas
1 piece of celery (a first!)

1/2 homemade pieroshky with gravy
1-3/4 c. homemade yogurt (plain, with honey)
4 oz. orange juice

one of those yucky frozen-pops-in-a-bag-thing-ies :*)
a piece of bacon

5 more oz. orange juice
1/2 peach (picked off a piece of peach pizza)
a whole piece of homemade double crust pizza, stuffed with onions, tomatoes, a little bacon with cheese on top minus the crust

about 3/4 cup of Breyer's chocolate chip ice cream

I think this is a whole record day for James eating...

Truly the most amazing part of this steroid/g-tube time is that his site was a little tender this last Thursday when we got vincristine and started steroids. Yesterday, his site looked better than it has looked in about a month and James was no longer wincing every time we touched it!

To God be the glory! Thanks for praying!

James on steroids

James' little face is starting to puff and his appetite is increasing. He ate like a little piggie today and we are so thrilled. The more he eats and drinks, the less we need to use his g-tube for feeding and fluids, the less we use his g-tube, the less of an issue the pressure on the g-tube site to cause erosion! So far, his g-tube looks pretty good from the outside.

Today James ate:
a little bit of apple juice
1/8 cup ice cream to help the morning meds go down

1 quesadilla
4 peach halves
3/4 cup chocolate ice cream

2 T. pulled pork with barbecue sauce
3/8 cup corn with butter, salt
2 oz. herb iced tea
1-1/4 cup yogurt/jello parfait
generous 1/2 cup chocolate ice cream

He would have eaten more ice cream but we need to save some for the rest of the week!

Thanks for praying with us. Please don't stop. And let's give the glory to the Lord.

Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify me.

Psalm 50:15

A couple of prayer requests

Yesterday, James got his 'hard chemo'. It isn't hard to get (although he does have to get stuck for it), but it is hard on his little body. So are the steroids he takes for the week following.

If there will be any difficulties with this round of chemo, we wont' see them until next week sometime (Mon-Wed, more than likely). Please pray that God's will would be done... and if it is at all possible within that, that we could stay home again and James would have no difficulties. Wisdom to help in that would be good too!

We also have a cancer friend (actually I know his mom from the hospital), David North. He has suffered much since his second Bone Marrow Transplant in April 2007 and learned this week that his leukemia is back again. With a vengeance. Seventy-five percent of his bone marrow cells are leukemia and they have no more drugs to fight with. His doctor believes he has only a few weeks left.

I saw his mom yesterday in Atlanta and she said the only way she is making it is to keep her eyes on Jesus. She is a dear, gentle woman and and she loves David with all her heart. Please pray for David, Pam and the North family.

God provides

Except for our first baby, we have always used port-a-cribs. They are the perfect size--cozy for the baby and not taking up too much floor space.

Well, James is getting a little too long for his crib now. And I'm not ready to put him in a bed without rails. Last summer we were blessed with a $20, very-lightly-used crib. We have a mattress that we had used for a toddler bed. But there wasn't enough room in the bedroom.

In order to make room, we have been praying for bunk beds and one mattress (we already have one extra mattress on hand). We had hoped to purchase a second set of bunks when we moved in, but that hasn't come to pass.

This week, we got a call from a sweet friend from church. She wondered if we could use some bunk beds, with one mattress.

Now they are all set up in the girls' room and the queen sized mattress set that the little girls have been using are leaning against the wall, waiting to go to their new home tomorrow.

Then we will pull down the crib and mattress and James will have a bed he fits in.

God is so good!

Lost

Last week, James dropped my cell phone into a cup of water. It didn't make it. He bought me a new one, but I have lost all my phone numbers.

One of my new projects is to work on recreating a paper copy of my phone list. I have been surprised how lost I have felt without my phone and programmed phone numbers.

Groanings too deep for words

In the evening, we generally have a time of family fellowship and worship. We sing--usually hymns--we share stories, read a chapter of the Bible and answer questions (right now we are working through _Balancing the Sword_), share more thoughts and stories and then we pray together. Most of the time, Vern prays. Some of the time we 'pray around' and everyone has a turn.

Tonight, we prayed around and James decided he wanted a turn. He was sitting on the couch beside me and he folded himself over, as only James can, into a sort of seated prostrate position. And he prayed. "Mmmmm." "Mm mmm." "Mmm mmm." We all smiled at each other and yet we were respectful of James praying, so it was a quick smile and we kept our heads bowed. When James sat up and looked at Katie, we thought he was done. So, Katie started to pray. Then James signed to stop and he folded himself over again, and prayed.

"Mmmmm." "Mm mmm mmmm." " Mmmmm mm mmmm mmmmm." "Mmmm." [Giggle, giggle] "Mmmm mmm mmmm." [Chortle, snort, giggle] "Mm mmm mmmm mm." [Giggle, chuckle, chortle, snort] "Mmm mmmm mmmm." "Mmm mm mmmm." [Chortle, snort, chortle, giggle, giggle... stern looks from Daddy... deep breaths] "Mmm mmm mmm."

Then James sat up again. He looked at Katie, who was waiting patiently. We each took turns coaching James to sign to Katie that it was her turn. When Katie signed and said, "Your turn", James apparently misunderstood it was what he was supposed to say to her and he folded himself over again and "Mmmm....."

[Bbbwwwaaaah ha ha ha haaaaa.]