Oh my! My poor, poor little boy Luke. He is very sensitive to things he hears and sees. It is a great gift from God. We watched a movie the other night that had kids at summer camp sitting around a campfire telling a scary story, while others were acting out this story to “get” the other team that kept “getting” them. The plot had Wart Boy as the starring spookster. Luke has been beside himself since.

To top this off, Andrew and James were on “outside chore duty” with yours truly. Luke goes out on the porch and starts hollering. I am in the milk room. He runs in, face full of tears, practically hyperventilating, “Mom, (sniff) look at my face! (sniff, tears rolling, sniff)

“What? Did you get hurt?”

“No… sniff…do you…sniff…see the spots…sniff? My face is covered in spots. Kayla says they won’t go away.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Do I have chicken pox?”

“No,” I answered.

He wouldn’t stop tearing up and talking about these spots. I had to hold his hand to come back to the house.

THIS IS WHY:

Kayla was busting out dirty dishes, when she asked the assistance from her dear little brother, Luke, to clear some of the conquered and clean kitchenware. He REFUSED! She pleaded. He was nasty. She ordered. He was even nastier. She drug him downstairs and told him to go to bed until his attitude changed. He spewed. She resorted to higher tactics.

“You know you have spots on your face from acting like this,” she informed.

“I do!”

“Yes, every time you act mean you get a spot on your face. When you act nice, one goes away. You’ve been so nasty that I don’y think they’ll ever go away.”

In the end, it worked. The dishes were done.

Luke had determined he was going to be the new Wart Boy or the like. He kept locking the doors to keep out the boogy man. He also ended up in our bed last night.

Ray was practically crying when I told him the story, from laughing of course.

The other day, Kayla and I were going through an old art folder of hers from four years ago, when we turned a page, to our suprise, was a drawing of a dog that somewhat resembles our latest addition, Jack. She has laid claim to him, with me being his main trainer for now. What is even trippier is a watercolor of a horse. It remarkably resembles Doree. Did she have some insight?

Luke has a few accomplishments and milestones as of late.

• He is now SEVEN years old. His favorite foods: BBQ chicken and watermelon. His cake is actually slices of watermelon with vanilla orange whipped cream, sprinkled with coconut, and bordered with blueberries and blackberries. He called it his “fruit cake”!

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

• This is his prize winning coloring from Shari’s restaurant.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

• These earrings he made for Kayla at church and we were all impressed with them.

I bought myself an early Christmas present. Dog training tools and instructional videos were in my box. Remote Training collars are a tool I could use around here. We have two young dogs that I would like to train off leash. I get tired of having dogs roped to me all the time. Jack has a very strong prey drive that has led to two chickens dying and almost a duck. He nips too much at the larger livestock also. Tess is hard to get back once she has started circling. We have to let her wear down or catch her to turn her off. I am on a new adventure, learning to use this collar as an extension of my leash. The process is not a quick fix, but a journey over the next few months. Both dogs are at prime training stages. I have resolved to spend at least 1/2 hour per dog per day 5 days a week for training on top of the stuff we already do through the course of the day. I really would like to get Tess trained by a professional herding dog trainer, but that’s not in the cards right now.

I will do the best I can, seasoned with lots of prayer. They have accepted the collars with no problems. They are also in more structure as far as their time goes. I must remind everyone, Tess is a working dog. She has a working dog mentality a better part of the time. Working dogs are not quite the same as strictly pets. Updates will follow.

This is the first year I have not carved on a single pumpkin! They did the carving by themselves. I took the pictures they wanted and transfered it to a pattern for carving except for Luke’s. He did it all by himself. He traced the batman emblem from his costume from last year. Kayla helped him a little through the clean out process. I showed Andrew how to carve out the little lines so light will shine through them on his lid and he ran with it. I did nothing more. Kayla’s I never touched. It did need two candles to glow properly for pictures. They are growing up…And you can smack me. I forgot to take pictures of them!

I was looking out the dinning area window during

school today when a thought struck me;

God designed trees like curtains. We plant them around the house or build near them

for shade to cool us in the summer, but He so graciously has them open up

(leaves dropping in the fall)

to allow in as much light as possible during the bleak winter months.

In essence, the seasons draw the curtains open in the winter and closed in the summer.

It is marvelous.

I had ventured to make cream cheese. It turned into mozzarella endeavor for the lack of a starter culture. It was so cool to experience the craft of making cheese. It is fresh mozzarella not aged so we able to eat some right away! The boys love it. Ray hasn’t tried it. Karen says its sweeter.

Wish I had some fresh basil and tomatoes to put with it!

First, I have to ask the forgiveness of those whom were offended by the news of the miscarriage. Please, forgive me? I was on the phone with one of my aunts last night and she called me on the carpet. Why didn’t I say something? I had been on the phone with her during the process of finding out, yet I said nothing. Why didn’t I want to speak? Why did I refuse to share? I asked myself these and so many other questions last night. I did some soul searching and praying and listening.

My walk with the Father, these last three years, has been under fire. The enemy would have this warrior wounded and turned back from God. I have had to work through many things. I still have many things to be dealt with. Without the power, salvation, and redemption from Jesus Christ none of these things could have been accomplished.

It came down to those irrational fears again, like with the yogurt. I was allowing fear to reach me. I know the scripture, II Timothy 1:7 “God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and a sound mind.” I must retrain myself for this mindset. I knew I was pregnant. I didn’t tell anyone. I was afraid to get excited. Lately, I have had a yearning for a little one around. Not that my life is boring, uneventful, or stagnant, lacking work in any way. Ray noticed the signs. He was elated. The prospect of a new baby. Would this be his “bookend”? He had stated several years ago, that maybe God would give us bookends, a girl on each end of the birth order. I hesitated on the excitement. I did not wish to be pregnant nor did I wish to not be pregnant. I just wanted to know whether I was or not. I waited to take a test at my husbands request. Then some cramping happened. What was that? A few hours later, another cramp, this time with spotting. I waited a day or two. I had a localized pain in the right side. I made an appointment to rule out ectopic complications. Yes I was pregnant. Nothing showed in the tubes. The pain was where a mass was. Probably the baby but they wouldn’t say for sure. It was already dead. I went back 48 hours later to check the levels of pregnancy hormones. They had dropped be half. Late that night, I had some major cramping. I felt something leave my body from the right side. I believe the mass they saw is gone. I’m supposed to go back in a couple weeks for a followup ultrasound.

All these nasty thoughts flooded my mind and my heart cried out to God. “Will I ever be able to carry another healthy baby? What did I do wrong? What did we do wrong? What is wrong with my body? What in my spirit and soul needs to be dealt with?  and a million other lies that the enemy would try to trip me with.” I am at peace with the baby not surviving. Ray made me smile.

“Hasn’t this happened before?”

“One other time it was like this, I believe I was pregnant but I don’t know for sure.”

“God showed me a picture of little ones waiting in heaven for us dancing around. These are just the ones He wanted to raise Himself,” while he was massaging my aching back trying to console me.

Moments like this remind me why I married him. He can be the sweetest most loving person I know.

Sometimes, we humans have very irrational fears. My recent fear that I have tackled is…Can you guess?…Making homemade yogurt. Why was I afraid to try this endeavor? I know not. Here, I have these goats producing more milk than we drink many days (ranging from a gallon to two a day), and my family loves yogurt, so why not make it? I was afraid it wouldn’t turn out. SO! It’s not like everything I have ever made has turned out. I looked up about 10 different resources on making yogurt and finally decided on one. It was so easy! It’s ridiculous that I hadn’t done it sooner. Live and learn. Next I’m going to do cream cheese…

We have a new baby in the family. She is 2 1/2 years old. Her name is Doree. She is Quarter Horse. She comes from some pretty good cutting stock. We have made a deal with the breeder. Doree is staying there at her ranch until we all agree Kayla exhibits enough skill to be safe. She is receiving training about three times a week. The sessions are quite intensive. Kayla is exhibiting her tremendous drive to do all things well. She is progressing very quickly. Today, she and her horse, learned to lunge on a line. Doree had been trained on the rails. Her mane is short because she likes to rub, rub, and rub.