It was just a lovely week

So I"m not entirely sure what made this past week such a nice week, but it was just a really good week for us.

Yes, Jim struggled with the heat and trying to sleep.  He ended up setting up the trailer and sleeping out there.  The cool night air did wonders for him.  :)  YEAH!!!!   No headaches and general icky-ness feelings during the day.  

Justin and I did the pool thing frequently.   He now makes a beeline for his swimming pool when we are out in the backyard.   I can put him down anywhere and if he sees his pool...off he crawls to get to it.   Nice to see him having fun NOT nice having to haul him out wet clothes and all!   

I had my last Sunday School class yesterday (for this year).  We are trying to figure what to do for next year.  The one girl is so ready to move up, the other isn't.   Hard to know what to do.  They really don't want to be in a class all on their own either so....what to do?  Ah, their mom and I and Jim will figure it out.

Justin, Jim and I went for a bike ride for the first time yesterday.   it worked well!   We passed some horses and Justin got all excited.    I was reminded of why I like my bike so much.   :)   Cost enough...I should like it.  I"m hoping next year that we can afford to get the shifting system revamped.   Somehow it got messed up so shifting is an issue, but for just riding around town shifting is just not an issue...I love the smooth action and gliding of my bike.   :)

We had our anniversary, just a quiet day at home with lunch out and a "eat whatever you want" supper.

It was just a lovely week together as family.   It felt like my little old heart smiled a lot this week.

Our anniversary

Jim and I have been married, as of today at around 2 p.m. (I think) for four whole years. They been good years, filled with some tough moments, but also times of gladness and joy.

Times of sadness: arguements with each other over stupid things, loss of a child, watching Riley dog get older and stiffer, death of people in church and so forth.

Times of gladness: watching Riley play again when he switched over to a BARF diet, birth of our son, guinea pigs, The Royal winter fair (yearly), new friendships, and a whole host of more.

We've grown in our relationship with each other.

I've learned to appreciate him in ways that I never imagined.

I've grown in my relationship to God. Never expected marriage to impact that!

I'm a parent! Sometimes I'm still in shock! :) I so expected to live my life as a contented single woman. And now I'm living my life as a more or less contented married woman with a child! God is so full of surprises at times. :)

Praise be to his name!

So we are now at four years and counting....I wonder how many more we will get until God takes us home.... Good thing I can't see into the future. Makes me treasure each day that I have.

Discovery Toys

You know how when you go to fairs and so forth you will often see a vendor booth for Discovery Toys? I like their stuff. It's bright, colourful, children like it, it can be educational and so forth. I also find that their stuff is a bit pricey (at least for my book).

BUT!!!! Garage sales can be havens of discovery! This past Saturday we came upon this toy at a local sale.

CASTLE MARBLEWORKS® Play Tower
Thinking & Problem Solving, Fine Motor

Building the tower is just the beginning of this fast-action experience. As children watch the three weighted chime balls race and spin, twirl and drop back and forth, children learn to predict the pattern of the ball pathways. Set up the 8-piece set in different ways. 25" x 14½" x 10" (64cm x 37cm x 25cm). From 24 months-Kindergarten

In Discovery Land it is worth $50. We got it for the princely sum of 50 cents! It only has the one ball (but we've discovered golf balls work too!) Justin loves it. And I have always liked these rolling path ball toys. I think they are neat! And it's fun to switch which ways the path go, and to make the ball stay inside and to just listen to the sounds of the ball going down the pathways. Fun! Fun!

Discovered this morning

On our walk this morning (me and the dogs) we saw this fellow.

Picture from: http://www.northrup.org/photos/red-fox/

He, of course, saw us first and beat a hasty retreat. He stopped about 100 ft from us. The dogs poked up their heads and watched him. He sat down, curled his tail around us and kept a good watch on us. He didn't move until he thought we were well out of site. Makes me wonder if there is a fox den somewhere on the trail in town.

I just thought it was rather neat. I've never been that close to a real wild fox (one that's actually in the wild). Just so you know...it's way better than seeing them in the zoo! :)

He swims

So this past week we purchased a small pool for Justin. $10 at the local C. Tire store.

Filled it with 3 inches of water.

Let the wonderful hot weather we are currently experiencing heat the water nicely.

Today Justin went swimming. I stripped him down outside and just
dumped him in. (after of course checking that water was indeedy warmed
up) This little 11 month old boy had SO MUCH FUN!!!! Made his
mom-mom laugh. I had purchased some sand toys a while back on sale,
and I dumped half of them into the water with him. Splash and dump
and attempt to drink. Boy.... you couldn't have asked for more fun.

AND THEN>>>> he learned that he>>>>> could
climb out! WOW!!! more fun!!!! more excitement!!!! More screams
of AHH!!!!!

Later today he might experience the joy of bike riding too. Justin
and I picked up a bike seat for him while garage-saling this morning
and then hubbie and I picked up a toddler bike helmet for him this
afternoon. He was unimpressed at the store (he HATES wearing anything
on his head). So we'll see how that goes.

Raw Food Diets

We are switching our dogs from a mainly kibble diet to a mainly raw food diet.

Why?
1. research shows it helps with dogs who have attitude problems which our Sassy dog sometimes displays.
2. research shows it helps older dogs maintain their health longer
3. we can do it for about the same price or a wee bit more as we can feeding a mid-range dog food
4. defecation is reduced!

After one week of doing this Riley was discovered happily playing in the backyard with an old sour cream container. I had never seen him do this with any type of vigor. Jim said Riley used to play like that all the time.

Sassy defecates much less often! YEAH!!!

A dog on the raw diet consumes between 2-4% of their body weight in food each day.

Our dogs are roughly 50 lbs – means 1-2 pound of food per day depending on activity levels

so....looking at that what we will do is

Riley
16 oz to start... we will see how he does

9.6 oz meat – bones, etc. (wings, necks, chunked meat)

2.25 oz veggies (this can be up-ed or lowered without effect overall)
4 oz internal organs – the mix from Metzger's good for this

Sassy
24 oz to start... we will see how she does

14.4 oz meat – bones, etc. (wings, necks, chunked meat)

3.6 oz veggies – (this can be up-ed or lowered without effect overall)
6 oz internal organs – the mix from Metzger's good for this

Tuesday's new mix made

Veggie mix – lettuce, carrots, turnip, peppers, broccoli...
- whatever isavailable with ½ of from above and below ground veggies

Weekly Menu

Sunday night – kibble with veggie mix
Monday night – oatmeal, rice and yogurt, veggies if any left
Tuesday night – veggies with meat
Wednesday night – veggies with yogurt, ½ meat, eggs
Thursday night – veggies, rice with meat – fish night?
Friday night – veggies with yogurt, ½ meat, eggs
Saturday night - veggies with meat

Justin and garage-saling

Yesterday was Saturday.

One thing that Justin is learning about Saturday's in the summer is that his mom-mom likes to go garage-saling. For those of you who have NO CLUE about what that means... it means that his mom-mom likes to check out all the yard sales around town (and anywhere else she sees one).

Yesterday we started off our day at the Fireman's Breakfast. Good food. Justin didn't eat he was too busy gaping at all the people around him. Jim had a huge breakfast, I ate what I could. Nice to support these men.

THEN>>>>> we went garage-saling. What fun!
1. Jen's sale - Justin got a barking dog, a puzzle box that makes noise, and an orange thing that you pull a lever and it tells a nursery rhyme.
2. Other sales - I got a neat scrapbooking sticker page, some free clothes hangers (I needed 10 she gave me a whole whack of them), a barney truck (you know...the purple dinasour that parents love to hate), and... Justin's new favourite toy!

This was a BRAND NEW... as in never been used, still in all the packaging. Shelcore Sort'n See. $5 only! I was impressed.

Justin had so much fun with it. I showed him how the blocks fit through the holes. He didn't get it. I showed him how the lid fits on. Well my goodness! First the blocks go in the bucket (without lid), then out of the bucket (repeat several times) and THEN!!!! the blocks go in the bucket one at a time with the lid going on after each of them. Boy oh boy...what a very intrigued young fellow he was. :)

Very fun to watch him learn and experience and explore.

QUOTE

While on his death bed John Owen was reported to have said, "Oh, Brother Payne, the long-looked for day is come at last, in which I shall see the glory in another manner than I have ever yet done or been capable of doing."

From The Pastor in the Sick Room -- Ministering the Gospel to Those on the Brink of Eternity by John D. Wells 1892, Solid Ground Christian Books, Birmingham Alabama

Tollhaven Trials and Tribulations

Yesterday, May 20, 2006 Sassy and I were at the Tollhaven trial run by Gloria Mitchell.

We had a good day. We ran in three events.
Advanced standard - came in second with no "q". It was a good run with a refusal for a bar that I just didn't indicate clearly enough for her. BAD HANDLER!!!! Good lessons learned though! :)

Advanced team - Sassy ran her side clear but her partner....well let's just say both her and her handler had issues that day! No "q" for that! I was VERY pleased with the effort that Sassy put in.

Advanced Jumpers - Sassy got a case of the nerves due to an equipment change (which caused her to have to wait too long to run) and just wanted her treats and to go home.... So she ended up wasting time on course TRYING HARD to convince me that would be the right course of action. I tried to make up some of that lost time and made her rush a bit so...we had a knocked bar and a run by another jump. So...no "q" there either BUT she still managed to come in fourth overall. This course was more challenging than I thought it would be ... only one team out of 18 ran it clear...and that was a jack russel who hadn't trialed in 1.5 years due to some issues that he had. We were VERY happy that he had a VERY successful day. YEAH ERNIE!

Ah well...life goes on.

It was a good day though rather cold in the wind. We had a bit of rain, with a lot of overcast, the sky started clearing by early afternoon. Sassy was a well-behaved girl who was VERY sucky...not quite acting like herself...very clingy and not observant of things other than cookies and where we were positioned. So we did okay in spite of it all.

GLOWING SQUIRRELS

LOOK OUT! ���

Vellenga Views is a radioactive squirrel!!

Username:

From Go-Quiz.com

Mom's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day.

Now I can't say I'm a huge "make a day for people" type of person. But I did enjoy mother's day yesterday.

My mom-in-law Eva came over for the day. She's a real nice Christian woman for those of you who have never met her.

Justin and his dad-dad even got me a mom's day present. A fun card (yes, I love a well chosen card). This one was fun!

Here's the front. A good card can make my heart just smile.

Justin thought the middle was just so much fun. I should have taken a picture of him with it in the afternoon when I let him give it a good looking over. He was being so careful and so very serious with it. See...it's a pop up! He just thought it was so neat with the bears popping up at him everytime he opened the card! :)

This is the present I received. Isn't it just the coolest photo frame? :) Now I need to find pictures that will fit into these tiny frames. :) Boy...that will be fun (or perhaps frustrating). We may need to print our own I'm wondering....or send them to my mom's since she has a photo capable printer and then size them to what we need. Hmm...fun...a chance to visit my mom!

I've been richly blessed with these two men in my lives.
With an extended family that cares for me and my fellows.
For technology that I can do fun things with.

Ah...God has indeed blessed this household.

THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION

My reading has taken a definite serious turn. From fiction novels to good solid theology. So, I have turned my mind to study the doctrine on which the church hinges, Justification. To do so I decided to re-start reading a book I started to read a while back, but got too busy with other things to complete. Now I try to read a chapter or so a day, and that seems to be working well. The book is The Doctrine of Justification by James Buchanan--subtitled An Outline of its History in the Church and of its Exposition from Scripture

J.I. Packer had this to say about this book, "The doctrine of justification by faith is like Atlas: it bears a world on its shoulders, the entire evangelical knowledge of saving grace. The doctrines of election, of effectual calling, regeneration, and repentance, of adoption, of prayer, of the church, the ministry, and the sacraments, have all to be interpreted and understood in the light of justification by faith. When justification falls, all true knowledge of the grace of God in human life falls with it, and then as Luther said, the church itself falls. The value of Buchanan's book today is that it will help us to understand this message better, and so to preach it in the full and comprehensive way in which the modern world need to hear it. This is still the best textbook on this subject, from the standpoint of the classic covenant theology."

There were two things that I found fascinating in the introduction. Remember that this book was originally published in 1867. Buchanan states, "looking at the character of our current literature, may it not be said that, to a large class of minds in the present age, nothing could well be more new than the old Theology of the Reformation?"

What caught my eye here is how true that was not just then, but still is today. The doctrines of the Reformation seem to have been lost even in many Reformed denominations.

Second, what caught my eye is his guiding principle, "that the only effective refutation of error is the establishment of truth. Truth is one, error is multiform; and truth, once firmly established, overthrows all the errors that either have been, or may yet be, opposed to it. He who exposes and expels an error, does well; but it will only return in another form, unless the truth has been so lodged in the heart as to shut it out for ever."

This serves as a good reminder that as a pastor my task is not merely to reveal and correct error, but much more importantly to proclaim the truth in such a way that believers are filled with it and error is cast out.

So far this book has been fascinating. I am looking forward to the rest of it.

WHAT A NEAT EATER

I thought that since Annette was putting up pictures of Justin, I thought I would add one of my favorite recent pictures of him. Here he is as he works his way through strawberry jam on bread. As you can see, he keeps himself very clean while eating ;)

LOVE OF GOD

I just finished reading this wonderful little book by D.A. Carson. Although it neither claims to nor does deal with this topic exhaustively, it certainly does give a good overview of why the doctrine of the love of God is not as easy for us to either understand or proclaim today. I would highly recommend it as a very good starting point for the study of this important doctrine.

Our boy Justin

So our son, our boyo is a little over 10 months old.

He has been finding life hard this week.

Being told no, Being put into playpens so mom-mom can work, Being bitten by his favourite fish when he sticks his hands in the water, thistles hurt when you step on them, and why can't I just have fruit for breakfast????? Getting pointy teeth is a bit painful. Napping is hard! Having a long cold is miserable. Life is hard being 10 months old.

Mind you...life is also exciting sometimes. Tulips are fun! Even if mom-mom says...Gentle. Dirt is fun! To roll around on, to eat, to examine ever so carefully. Collie is becoming more important to him (stuffed collie dog that he found at the hospital rummage sale). Walks are good. Crawling under dad-dad's legs is just a hoot! Roast beef is new, fun to eat. Swimming is interesting and the little babies should be STARED at.

The cat still won't let Justin catch him. Riley has learned that tails do get pulled with little boys around so moving away is good. Sassy occasionally offers kisses and doesn't growl at him anymore! YEAH FOR THAT!!!

His favourite toys right now are his big stuffed dog, "collie", chairs that he can push around, pots and pans that make noise and a squirty toy in the bathtub.

He is into everything and LOVES to help his mom-mom clean out the fridge, boy how much fun that can be! BUT helping mom-mom do the sprinkler...that's he's not so fond of, especially if the sprinkler catches us! :)

Anyways, that's an update on the youngest member of our family.

The following picture is when he was a little younger.

Where Am I From?

I've come across these poems? blogs? I don't know what to call them and I think they are a neat way of saying things about a person.

I got the basic template from here which also links to a variety of "froms" that other people have done. I think they are interesting to read. :) I thought I would give it a shot, and found it harder than I thought it would be. :)


WHERE I AM FROM

I am from farmyard, from chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, geese and cattle. I am from farm dogs (collies of sorts) and dogs of my own.

I am from the the purple bedroom, the off-limits family room, big gardens, long lanes and the bush!

I am from the peonies, lilac bushes, picking marsh marigolds and irises to bring home to mom, the bush with the fish pond that we would swim and fish in.

I am from "would rather be in the barn" and "hard work never killed anyone", from siblings, Dutch roots and large families.

I am from the twice yearly large family gathering at Christmas and in summer, sledding, pot luck meals, and baseball.

From "you are so much like your grandmother" and "do you have to tie everything up?"

I am from conservative, calvinistic beliefs, a family that believed that God was God and worthy of our consideration and all that we do is for HIM!

I'm from Bill and Wilma, small town Ontario, "stumpot", crusts from the bread that Dad insisted we eat, three good meals a day and lots of love.

From fishing on vacation with my Dad while others went elsewhere, tying a brother up on the picnic table with brothers and sisters helping, the barn wall falling in on the calves when blowing up the old silo, and the brucellosis hitting the herd hard and having to start over.

I am from family albums filled with pictures from days gone past.

Success Granted

Near where we live there is a really nice trail for walking. It used to just be a foot path, not used often, really nice to just let the dogs run. The town council thought it would be a good idea to make it more user-friendly so added a crushed gravel path, some boardwalk, and extended the trail. That made it a really easy path to walk. It is used frequently by all sorts of people.

Even though it is used more often than I like (I prefer solitude when walking the pups), I still often use it.

Last year I picked some plants to see if I could get them started at home.

Bloodroot From Wikepedia "Bloodroot is also known as Bloodwort, Red Puccoon Root, and sometimes Pauson......The plant was used as a dye and for an herbal remedy by the native population. A break in the surface of the plant, especially the roots, reveals a reddish sap."




I picked three Trillium. Two white and one red. From Wikepedia "While trillium flowers are very attractive, some believe they should never be picked, since the three leaves below the flower are the plant's only food source and a picked trillium may die or take many years to recover. For this reason in many areas, e.g. British Columbia, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Washington, it is illegal to pick trilliums. While popular belief exists that it is illegal to pick trilliums in Ontario, no such law actually exists......A white trillium serves as the emblem and official flower of the Canadian province of Ontario. It features prominently on the Franco-Ontarian flag." Only one of the white ones survived.


I also picked some DogTooth Violets. Boy..were they ever hard to dig up! The roots go way down. The bulbs are buried quite deep. I was very pleased to discover that one of the five that I dug up actually made it through! From Thompson and Morgan: "Dog Tooth Violets may not be well-known, but they're definitely worth including in your spring garden. The bulbous perennials form clumps of glossy foliage, with attractive bronze mottling for extra appeal. It's marvellous for naturalising in thin grass. Tooth-shaped bulbs"

These plants, as near as I can tell are native to Ontario. It's really nice having them come up in our backyard. I planted them under our tree in the backyard.

Yesterday I visited

Yesterday Jim, Justin and I headed up to visit my parents. Jim had a sore throat so didn't talk much. Justin had a good nap in the afternoon, he slept there and back. This morning he is such a happy boy. :) Has a bad cough, but looking good.

Anyways, back to my parents.

When we arrived, just before lunch, Roel and Annie were there for a visit. They stayed for lunch.

Mom and Dad were looking pretty good. Mom's been struggling a bit with caring for Dad and trying to get the gardens in order for the season. I helped mom with some weeding of her flower beds and getting the potatoes into the ground. They had LOTS of potatoes. We wanted to get rid of them so we planted LOTS of potatoes in one whole where normally we would only put in one. :) The rest of them we put out to compost.

Big job done. Dad's heart more at ease because the potatoes are out, Mom's heart more at ease because her hubby is more at ease. We also had a nice visit. Justin played and helped them both to smile.

How is Dad? He still struggles a lot with bad muscle spasms. I asked what type of exercises they did, sounds like a good mix between strengthening and stretching. It's hard some days for Dad to do them because it hurts. His blood remains at a good level which is one less concern. And he is off the antibiotics which a blessing as well. The pain levels make it hard for Dad to get a proper sleep which in turn creates it's own problems.

According to Dr. Hupel the hip surgery was a complete success, now we just need to wait for his muscles to catch up to his activity level. It's a struggle.

Your continued prayers are appreciated.

Today I gardened....

Ah..here we have it.. a lovely warm day...started off with a bit of a chill though.. but the day heated up as it went along. As did I.

We had some dirt (topsoil) delivered to us yesterday and today I thought I'd top up the three raised beds that were feeling a deficet of dirt in them. Worked hard...got them done. Justin slept through most of it (took about an hour), but the last garden he was awake and talking to me as I shoveled dirt. I let him out for a bit to see what he would do and of course he made a beeline for the dirt and grabbed a handful of it. Would have eaten it too! (but I thought i'd rather not let him do that).

Anyways, when I got that done I did a couple loads of laundry, had lunch, let the boy have a nap, chatted with Jim for a bit, worked on the flower garden then walked the dogs and the boy again. When we got back I worked on the flower garden again - it was hard going. This garden has obviously not had the benefit of nice dirt in it. It was like digging in dried out clay! Tough sloughing...and I didn't get it done! I'm unimpressed..but gives me something to do tomorrow when the boy naps in the morning.

I have to admit... I"m feeling a bit jealous today, my neighbours peas are up, mine aren't AND they were planted on the same day! ARGH!!!... I want peas I do! I keep telling myself, they'll come up, It's all in God's timing...BUT I WANT PEAS!!!

Okay, I'm okay..done whining now. Need to bring in that last load of laundry off the line and feed the dogs and let in the piggies so enough typing for today.

I am So Proud

So....Jim and I took Sassy for the weekend. Jim's mom Eva took care of our son Justin for the weekend, and also our other dog Riley.

Jim and I stayed at Phyl and Barry's overnight and then headed off to the agility trial put on by K9 Sports. Sassy was entered into four events at this trial.
1. Advanced Gamblers
2. Starters Standard
3. Steeplechase
4. Starters Snooker

We had fun. :) The day started late and ended late. I was rather very unimpressed with that... but that all aside.... We were all bushed by the time the day was finished. Boy oh boy did we get tired. But things went fairly well.

Gamblers....well...we had fun. Sassy and I did well in the opening, and somehow managed to blow the final gamble. Not sure why but she decided the far end on the tunnel was what she should take, but that's what she did... So ah well...we learned lots, she did the mini gamble really well (Yeah Sassy!). Did her contacts wonderfully! She was a good dog with a good heart.

Standard...ah...we did it!!!! My Sassy dog nailed this course! We came in second!!! We "q'd" (as in we ran fast we ran clear we made NO mistakes!) My Sassy dog rocks!!!!!!! woohoo hoo hoo hoo!!!! (can you tell I"m proud of my girlie?)

on another rather cool note..... Sassy decided that she actually liked her x-pen. This the dog who hates being confined. LIKES her x-pen, even wanted to go into it. HA! Cool dog.

Steeplechase...fast, furious, man...we tried hard... but not today. She popped a weave, I wasn't sure if she had...took a chance...and well...ah well...for a first attempt at a fast and furious master's level course... we done good. Sassy worked hard, paid really good attention...but just couldn't hold those weaves. AND>>> we didn't get lost on a twisty course either! So there! :) What can you do eh?

Snooker....ah...the nemesis of my life. And that is what it continues to be. 5 tries at it...still no success. We (as in me, myself and I) planned it well.. and it all went fine until Sassy decided to take the wrong end a tunnel (hmm... do I sense a recurring theme?) :) but she tried so hard and worked her heart out for me... I honestly think that today would have gone better if the day hadn't been so long, and we hadn't gotten so tired. It was exhausting being around people and barking dogs all day long. NEXT TIME...I will take Sassy dog out for a good long walk in nature and just give us both a good break from it all. Even if all we do is go lay down and read in the sunshine. And now we are home and she is relaxing (even enjoyed some beef for supper - lucky girl)

Oh... before I forget. In getting that Standard "q" Sassy has achieved her agility dog of canada title (ADC). We now have the dubious pleasure of running advanced standard courses now (NO MORE REFUSALS ALLOWED!!!). Fun fun! My dog has her VERY FIRST TITLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it's time for bed.. talk more another day... :)