Two years ago

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.