LucyBelle Turns One!

LucyBelle's First Day Home

 I resisted. I was the hold out. But we told the kids that we would consider getting a little doggy when our two elderly outside kitties passed on. The kitties didn't make it through the spring...and the lobbying for a puppy began.

Rayray had wanted a yorkiepoo for quite sometime and talked her siblings into it, too. We visited a kennel and saw several breeds....shih-poo, poodle, and this one little black yorkie-poo. I could see it in Rayray's eyes...we could hold all the little cute puppies we wanted to hold, but it was the little yorkiepoo that had stolen her heart. The kids voluntarily pooled their saved money to pay for half of Lucy's adoption fees. Two days later, LucyBelle came home with us.

My sweet puppy!

She is 3/4 yorkshire terrier and 1/3 poodle. She weighs 5 pounds, almost exactly. Rayray has taught her some tricks...sit, lay, roll over, dance. She LOVES playing ball with Hero. When she wants to play, she will worry us to pieces until we play with her. She loves her bones and her kitties, especially Punkin. She barks and runs to the door when we say, "Daddy's home!" She comes straight to me when someone says, "Go find Mama!" And "get in the bed" means to get in the closest sleeping spot...whether it's her basket, her pink bed, or....our bed. ;)

The one thing I did not count on was how attached I would be to this little puppydog. The first night we had her home, she had a low blood sugar attack and we totally missed the warning signs...because we've never ever had a tiny doggie and didn't know about this sugar thing. She let out one solitary bark that I happened to hear in the middle of the night. I went to check on her and she was in a coma and stiff. My husband brought her back, which was a miracle, with prayer and large amounts of Nutrical massaged into her gums and mouth. After that, she was my baby. It was a lot of work...consistent training and internet research on what to do for this or that. She's gotten sweeter and sweeter as each month passed by. We didn't expect her to be so so small...but she is what she is and we love every tiny ounce of her. She has won our hearts and is an official part of our family.

The ONLY time she can sit at the table is
on her birthday.
She looks like a Furby.

Birthday Hair!

"Mommy, for my 8th birthday, I want to
get my hair cut."

So, we went to see "Miss Ronda", who worked
her hair-magic.

She loved it...even though it's not as short
as she wanted to go....but she still lost 6-8 inches.

Birthday hair!
Big Sissy, Rayray, took her turn with her
"magic wand." 

Yes, you can still have piggytails!

We might be homeschoolers....

Or we might be just plain ol' rednecks.

This is what was happening in our "room of learning"
while I was cooking up a scrumptious dinner last night. 

THIS contraption is what I found in our master bedroom
after the scrumptious dinner.

 A few years ago, we closed in the garage to make a lovely master bedroom but it gets the last trickle of cold air from the a/c unit AND is on the hottest, sunniest end of the house. Since Summer has decided to get an early start on the three-digit temps down here in the south of Georgia, we are working ovetime to keep the room cool.....three fans blowing, blinds and curtains closed, extra insulation in the attic, etc. 

The Hero has a lightbulb moment....He did a little google research, spent less than ten dollars and mostly used things we had. He and The Boy together created the lovely, the beautiful, the "won't take up too much space", homemade air conditioner, pictured above. 

Does it work? Well, as long as there is ice in the cooler it sorta works. 

But no matter if it works or not, all three kids were involved at some point in the process and listened intently as Hero explained his method behind the madness. I personally loved the Daddy being the teacher and the group working together on the project......whether it actually works or not!!

Now....where are those pictures of the Redneck Snow Machine they made a few winters ago........

One Year Ago...

Clutching my stomach and bent over double, I crouched in the hall at the plastic surgeon's office trying not to get sick or pass out. All I could hear was my just-turned 7 year old babygirl screaming in excruciating pain and my Hero's attempt to soothe her with his words.

It's been a year today and I'm finally sharing the story.

The morning of June 1, 2010, we were finishing up our last week of homeschooling before summer. I had walked into our bedroom to plug in my laptop. My babygirl came running into my room to tell me something funny the kitty had done.

Then, it happened.

She tripped over the rug in my room and fell, face first, onto the corner of the cedar chest. I didn't see the accident. I heard it. By the time I got to her, she was up, had her hand over her mouth and was stunned and panicky. It took me a split second glance at the injury to see that her mouth needed medical attention, immediately. After a quick call to our beloved pediatrician, we were on our way to the ER.

I never let her see the injury before stitches. I'm glad I didn't. Her beautiful mouth was a mess, her top lip suffering the worse with a gaping gash from top to bottom, inside/out. The plastic surgeon and his nurse admitted it was much worse than they expected.She had just lost her front two baby teeth and the permanent teeth hadn't broken the skin yet. That, in and of itself, was a blessing.

The Daddy joined us at the ER as quickly as possible. What a relief! But we were both brokenhearted. No parent likes to see their babies in pain and scared.  Because of the intricate stitches needed on her mouth, a plastic surgeon in a nearby city kindly agreed to skip his lunch break to fix our girl.

The doctor had to give our sweet girl 5 painful shots in the face to get her mouth numb enough to stitch the lip. The first two shots didn't "take." He gave her no pre-shot calm down medicine nor did he put her to sleep. This is what we were dealing with when I started my story out. Our girl held nothing back...she screamed to the top of her lungs in pain from the 5 shots. I couldn't stay in the room. It was too much for this mama.

With the lip finally numb, the doctor was able to carefully make the intricate stitches needed to sew the jagged  edges of her lip back together. I heard our girl, finally settling back down, start talking...I heard her, of all things, apologize. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I screamed. I just...I just wish this never happened. I just wish I could go home."  My precious.

Here's what I wrote in my journal later:

"Seeing our beautiful baby girl in pain - with her split lip - the uncertainty of what it will look like once healed - her teeth and gums and other possible dental problems - her fear. She was terrified. We couldn't stop the fall. And she had to have the painful shots so the doctor could do the intricate stitches needed to put her lip back together. But, they were for her good. She couldn't see that. She only saw the pain of right then. Her daddy and I, as the two people who love her more than anybody, could not...did not stop the plastic surgeon.


As I crouched in the hall struggling to remain composed, I heard the Lord speaking to my heart, even then. He said, "This is how I feel when my children are hurting. I could stop some things - like you could stop the plastic surgeon and go home- but for your own good, I allow it to happen because I can see the big picture."


Babygirl's lip will heal beautifully with minimal scarring because we allowed the doctor to do what needed to be done. When we allow the Great Physician to tend to our wounds - even if painful - we WILL HEAL and our scars will be minimal. 


When we are in pain, He is holding us, like my husband was clinging to our daughter that day. When we are screaming in agony, He is crying with us, like we did with our daughter. Father takes no delight in our pain. He wants to take it away - but we first have to trust His heart."

A year later, the babygirl, now 8, looks back on the accident not as a horrible experience, but sees how brave she was and how strong she is. She couldn't suck from a straw or drink normally from a cup for a couple of weeks, and she never complained. She couldn't smile for awhile, but her eyes did. Her doctor gave her permission to dance in her recital 5 days later. It amazed us that she even wanted to, with a still-painful lip 7 times bigger than normal and black thread for stitches all over her mouth. Her Daddy found a bandage to match her skin and covered the black stitches. I was a nervous wreck for her. She got on that stage and danced her heart out. She was so strong; we were so proud. She knows where the strength comes from...from the Lord. We believe this time will be a significant one to our girl for the rest of her life...not because of what happened...but because of Who showed up and what He spoke into her life that day and the weeks that followed as she patiently recovered.

Birthdays, Recitals, and Graduation Receptions

Well, what on earth have we been up to the last 10 days?

I decided not to bombard the blog with copious amounts of pictures, although there are some mighty cute and blog-worthy ones.

Instead, what we have here is one picture which embodies the essence of our recent acitivites.

Doodlebug danced her heart out in her recital.

Doodlebug turned 8. EIGHT. My baby...

Papa turned 78 on Memorial Day. The entire country had a day off for his birthday. Ok, not really. And...Hero had to work anyway so not really a holiday for us.

And somewhere buried in there, I helped execute our homeschool co-op's graduation reception for 150 people.

Today, I'm doing what we are supposed to be doing in the summer....

I'm eating a blt, with tomatoes from Papa's garden...trying to decide what to do with allll those yellow squash and cucumbers he brought over.....and what time we should go swimming at the neighbors.

Happy Summer!

From the Resident Poet

The ocean is like a blanket of blue;

It covers the sand and all the fish, too.

It keeps them warm and protected each day,

And at night, it gives them a place to stay.

The ocean is like a great lion roaring;

It bellows and growls when it is storming.

It extends its claws restlessly upon the shore,

As if it is trying to stretch out even more.

The ocean is like an orchestra of strings;

It plays its night music so beautifully.

Sometimes, though, the salty wind joins in,

And the tune they create together seems heaven-sent.

When I look into the blue eyes of the ocean,

When I listen to the song it sings,

I have heard music composed by my Creator;

And, perhaps, a subtle message, meant only for me.

Harvey's Key Lime Cake

Because my "fans" asked for a picture.....

I found this little gem of a cake recipe on the back of the Harvey's circular ad. I confess, I normally don't even look at the circular. And to think I almost missed this recipe!

Harvey's Key Lime Cake


1 pkg lemon cake mix (Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup lime juice (key lime, if you can find it)
1 (3 oz.) pkg lime Jello
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

ICING:
2 cups sifted powdered sugar (the recipe says "confectioners" and my mama says "4x sugar"
1/2 cup lime juice (or key lime)

Blend all ingredients together (not icing ones, of course) with an electric mixer on medium speed for about two minutes. (I actually just used a whisk and it worked fine.) Pour into a greased tube pan or a 9x13 baking pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. After removing from oven, use an ice pick and stick through cake, top to bottom, many times. (Or "poke tiny holes all over it.") Drizzle with icing while still warm. (After whisking the icing ingredients together. ). I dusted powdered sugar over ours to serve.

Random Thoughts on the Topic:
*I love my whisk, by the way. Does that make me a whisker?
* I used a 9x13 pan. A tube pan is round, like a big donut shape. A bundt pan should work fine.
*Bundt cakes remind me of Big Fat Greek Wedding.
*My secret for you: This cake gets better after it sits in the fridge overnight. (It also magically disappears as it sits in the fridge overnight.)
*The cake is such a pretty green color. Would be fun to make for St. Patty's day.
*Upon further investigation, it appears this recipe is quite popular on the web!
*Come to think of it, I think my cousin Pam posted a similar recipe on her Facebook.
*In case you're wondering, Harvey's is a countrified grocery store chain and is a part of the Food Lion family.

ENJOY THE YUMMINESS!!