It's A Dog's Life

I am not a dog person. On most days I cannot believe that we actually have a dog living in our house. Apparently a dog who is being spoiled rotten. This picture must have been taken by the kids because I think I would have blown if I had seen the dog cuddled under an afghan!

And what is with those ears? This picture was taken the day after we brought NutMeg home. Her right ear is flopped. Still cute and lovable, but we're fairly certain that when we first saw her two days earlier both ears were standing straight up.

Then, just two weeks later, both ears are standing straight up again. But don't get too used to it, because just a few days after that...

...her left ear was flopping. This time significantly more than when we had first brought her home. But it doesn't end there...

Not long after that, both ears were straight up again.

And now (you guessed it)...

Her right ear is flopping again.

Now the vet has told me that this is all perfectly normal. Her ears seem to be changing with each growth spurt. It will be interesting to see the final outcome - up, down, left or right?

Family Workday

Fall has finally come to our bit of the world, so we decided that it would be a good Saturday to gather the family and work together. The flower beds in front of the house really needed some attention, and I needed to get the fall bulbs planted so we'd have some spring flowers. Oldest DD wasn't too thrilled with the idea. (Can everyone hear their own teenagers groaning about "family time"?) We forced her to work with us and bring the dog outside at the same time. NutMeg is thrilled with the cooler temperatures and loves being outside. She needs a bit more training to be a perfect gardener though. NutMeg decided that the tree she was tied to needed a bit of pruning. Here she is biting off a branch. She has also trimmed my azaleas in the backyard. Later we allowed NutMeg to help dig the holes needed to plant the Mums. That was right up her alley.




My youngest DD decided that her job was to take pictures of the family work-a-thon. She certainly gets some interesting angles.


This is me, digging up weeds.




DH is working hard.





And, of course, the mandatory self-portrait.



Everyone worked hard at pulling up weeds and dead summer flowers, then planting some new chrysanthemums and tulip bulbs. The Morning Glories were still looking really good, so we left them for some other weekend. They'll die after a frost, then we'll have to cut them off the railings and get rid of the vines.


























All-in-all a good day's work, and the front of the house is looking a bit nicer :o)

Baptism at the Lake

On Sunday, September 30th, DS and middle DD were baptized. It's been over three years since our church has held a baptism. This time it was held at a local lake. There were 17 people baptized, several were siblings, and two whole families. Mostly, the fathers baptized their children. It was very special to watch DH baptize DS and DD. I realize that there may be several of you reading this blog who observe infant baptism and have never heard of, or don't understand "adult" baptism.

The church we attend belongs to the Evangelical Free denomination. We believe that salvation is an individual choice that is made after someone is old enough to understand what they have been/are being taught.

For God so loved the world

that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him

shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

Although we pray and hope that our children will choose to follow Christ, this is not something that we can decide for them. When they are infants we might have them dedicated in church. This is when we stand in front of our congregation and declare that we will raise them in a Christian home and teach them about God, but a dedication ceremony has nothing to do with their salvation.

Oldest DS accepted Christ as his Savior when he was just 4 years old. The week leading up to Easter we had a basket of Resurrection Eggs that we opened each night and talked about a different part of Christ's death on the cross. DS was very affected by the stories and chose to accept Christ as his Savior.

Middle DD was a bit older when she accepted Christ. There was nothing spectacular going on, it was just an ordinary day when she approached me with some questions. We talked about sin, we talked about the consequences of sin and we talked about redemption and forgiveness. Middle DD prayed for Jesus to forgive her of her sins and thanked Him for dying for her.

Baptism, for us, is a celebration. It is a public declaration that the individual believes that Christ has died on the cross for his sins, and he has chosen to follow Him. Baptism is a symbolic representation of the sins being washed away, and the individual becoming a new creation.

Our celebration continued with lunch afterwards :o)

Treats for Halloween

As Halloween approaches and the stores fill with aisles of candy, many people look at us strangely and ask "Since you don't eat artificial colors and flavors, what do you eat for Halloween?"This is a fair enough question, especially if they're looking to treat my kids :o)

This is a sampling of treats that I found today at Wal-Mart. Our very favorite is the bag of Linette Peanut Butter Cups. Inside this bag they are individually packaged for Halloween (and since they aren't such a well-known name brand, they cost less!)

Other treats are Honey Teddy Grahams, and Utz Pretzels (Bats and Jacks). Both FG, stage 1.

My oldest DD loves Mary Jane Peanut Butter Kisses. These are only available at Halloween. The little rectangular shaped ones are not approved for the Feingold Program.

I also found some Stauffer's Original Animal Crackers. I'm not sure if the individual bags are decorated for Halloween, but they're FG approved stage 1!

The last treasure at Wal-Mart were the large bags of tiny raisin boxes. Raisins are stage 2 (a higher salicylate). Last year my DC weren't able to eat raisins. But since we followed the SCDiet for several months last spring we have been able to add salicylates back into our diet. So along with being FG approved stage 2, raisins are also SCD legal. Truly a treasure :o)