I Am A Breeder...

This is my edited version of an email I received after my nasty dog day yesterday...

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• I am a breeder...(of dogs, don't laugh I feel I need to clarify that)
• My food receipts for a family of 8 and my dog food bills match
  
• My electric bill has doubled
  
• It is I, a breeder, who when my fridge quit, saved the dog meds and let the food go bad.
  
• My feet find the way to the kennel before I have even grabbed a cup of coffee in the morning and the kennel is my last stop before bed.
  
• While my friends are on a cruise to the Bahamas and my family meets for Christmas I am home delivering puppies.
  
• I make all vacation plans around heat cycles, whelp dates and vet appointments.
  
• Most of my friends breed dogs, who else can you call at 3am for support?(SO true!)
  Who else has the experience I sometimes need, the meds I sometimes need or just an uplifting word? Who else would understand how it feels to have invested hours and hours in a weak puppy to loose it or the joy in investing hours in one that lives?
  
• I know what it's like to have slept on the floor beside a whelping box and lost a whole night of sleep to make sure each puppy is delivered safely.
  
• I have learned to be proficient at vaccinations, giving sub-q fluids, removing dewclaws, bottle feeding, tube feeding and grooming.
  
• My vet knows me on a first name basis
  
• My vet knows my children
  
• My vet knows it was I who added on the wing to the vet clinic.
  
• The phrase "63 days" takes on new meaning and I am still excited by every approaching whelp.
  
• It is I who is there to deliver all my pups, towels and heat lamps on and ready.
  
• I love puppy breath. I want to bottle puppy breath.
  
• I love my dogs, each one and am not illiterate or lazy as some Animal Rights folks would imply of breeders. I have found my niche.
  
• I am a breeder.
  
• I tell my children to hush, do not tell others we are dog breeders, and I wonder when did breeding puppies go into the same secret place as criminal activity?
  
• The cards of thanks and the pictures of my puppy with its new family are the fringe benefits of my efforts.
  
• I am an animal lover, nurse, midwife, heavy laborer, customer service representitive, and marketer. AND..
• I am a breeder.

More Voddie, Dogs and C-Sections

Last night my husband found this mini-sermon (5:08)by Voddie Baucham, one of our favorite teachers. He starts off funny, but don't let that fool you. Wow. The Lord has taught me many sobering things through Voddie and I encourage anyone searching for a new *teacher* to glean from, he's your man. He is going to be speaking at our annual Christian Heritage Conference next Spring and we are giddy just thinking about hearing him speak. ;-) Don't get me wrong, we don't him on a pedestal as gospel truth, all things must be tested with scripture, but this man has amazed us with Truth.

Other mini-sermons or snippets by Voddie

The Consequences of Feminism 1:58

Is It Ever Too Late For Our Children? :57

The Importance of Family Worship 1:22

Why The Bible Is True - 9:54

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Yesterday was a big day. It started the night before with having dinner guests from church bless our home with their fellowship. We all ate to our full then settled into conversation. We do not ask the children to *go play* we brief them beforehand that they are wanted to sit and participate in the adult conversation. Our visiting couple each had a child leaning against them with a couple on the floor as we shared our testimonies of how the Lord saved each of us, how this couple met, life in general. We don't pretend to have lived these perfect lives, the children hear how their now *perfect in their eyes* mommy used to visit bars with Daddy. It humbles them as we explaining what their lives would have been like without the Lord intervening. Daniel, Emma, Micah, Gracie and now the little one growing never would have been. It makes them sad for a twinkling moment and then they realize what the Lord has already done for them personally.

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With that said, right before our visitors arrived, and I mean minutes, my dog Pansy decided to whelp two days early. I was excusing myself many times to check on her as she finished whelping six puppies and then could not pass the last one. Long story short, we had an $800 C-sec, the first for our kennels, yesterday afternoon. The pup was dead. She is back home with her babies doing great, but I felt as though I had been hit by a train when I got that bill! I had enough from our last set of puppies back in March to cover the expense and her existing litter will pay it back, but still. Wow, a one hour procedure on a dog costs that much???? So that said we have another sweet litter of puppies, they are so fun!

Not exactly entertaining.

No time for blogging. If you walked in my house this is what you'd see.

Jessica practicing piano and Emma getting her schoolbooks out.

Daniel and Jacob schooling.

Gracie shopping for shoes.

And Micah *vacuuming* the living room for me.

That's all folks.

First Day of School

Back to school. Jacob & Daniel are busily doing school at the table, Jessie is folding laundry, Micah & Emma are playing with play dough, Gracie is on my lap and I am chasing down a recipe for dinner that I am delivering to a family in church who just had a baby. Somewhere in there I need to get groceries yet and check/help with schoolwork, read our history & biology lessons as a family and make dinner. I wish I could say I have it all together, but I do feel a little overwhelmed. It always takes a couple weeks to get back into the routine!

Plums, Woods and Great Mothers

O.k., my mom saved the day. As she always does. She came to my house this morning with two yummy hot lattes from Woods and we canned plums together. What a hoot. Here is our bounty.

I must admit I am a far cry from Susie homemaker in respect to canning. Oh, I have canned many peaches, carrots, tomatoes, beans, jam & stew...why the last time I canned was in 2004 when the children and I picked and canned 95 quarts of blackberry jam. Hmmm...that may be why it has been so long.

Cash-n-Carry's' frozen veggies give me NO reason to can corn, peas or beans. I just had to can these plums as I couldn't watch them rot. We ate a ton already, and we all know you can eat too many plums...no really...you can. 5 children eating unlimited amounts of plums equals at least 3 children lying on the floor groaning with tummy aches.

The children were bright eyed as they washed and pricked the plums for me. Plums are a beautiful fruit, you know? Shiny, plump, purple, aesthetically pleasing in every way....That is before hitting the canner. A jar broke in the canner and when the children saw a canned plum I got these looks just like the first time they saw a pig butchered....sick, queasy looks and statements like "We have to eat that? "What HAPpened to them?" Fortunately they will never know when I add them to breads or smoothies. Hee hee.

Ho-hum

For years, every Saturday morning my sister, mother and I meet for coffee together, alone, in town at our favorite little coffee shop The Kitchen. We sit for an hour and a half and visit and catch up for the week over lattes or coffee. This is the part where you are supposed to feel sorry for me...remember Paul is working 6 - 10 hr shifts? Well, poor me(not to mention HIM) I loose out on my coffee time. Ho-hum. I think I will start those plums... stay tuned.

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While in the car ride to California Micah sang Jesus loves Me in an aDORable way. Over and over and over he sang it while we oohed and awed at how cute it was. All was fine and dandy for the first half hour...then hour...then it came to the point we wanted to pull over and all run from the van. After too many gentle pleas Paul finally got serious and in his low louder voice commanded Micah to stop singing that song(he knows no other songs so it isn't like he could sing something else) Micah dropped his blanky and his whole body showed the sign of shock as he said "Daddy, you don't love Jesus?!"

Another recipe with a twist

Noodless Lasagna

Recipes like this are perfect for playing around with as there are so many ingredients you may add to custom fit it to your family.

1 whole cabbage, cooked a little on the raw side. I cut mine in wedges and boiled for 8 minutes(instead of usual 9-11min) then drained immediately and rinsed in cold water to halt the cooking.

1 lb ground meat(I added rice to increase volume)

1 Onion(I used two)

2 C Spaghetti Sauce

12 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded(I used cheddar)

Parmesan Cheese


Brown beef and onion together then add speghetti sauce and heat. Layer in 9x13 starting with cabbage, beef mixture then cheese...repeat...ending with a good heavy sprinkling of Parm. Make 350 for 30 minutes.

My 3 yr old was the only one suspicious of this casserole and in need of persuasion. All my children love veggies, every veggie, that was a goal of mine from before my firstborn arrived, therefore they all loved it. Because there were no noodles I served it with corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes from the garden...yummy!! We all loved it, but then again, you need to like cabbage.
The kids and I picked our plum tree clean this afternoon and were dissapointed at how few plums we harvested. I am going to plant more trees tomorrow and then we are going to can what we did get. Canned plums are great in winter smoothies and on ice cream!

Life is over...

There is no reason to live. (Oh the drama)

Blanky is in the big white machine and I am going to sit here until it returns safe in my arms.

I love my blanky and my blanky loves me.

We are inseparable. We are forever friends...

(Paul snapped this while Gracie sat on the peanut butter bucket wailing. She saw her blanky in the dryer when I opened it to throw something else in. Whoops... It sent her over the edge. This was the day after coming home, give me a break on my messy laundry room)