Heart Worries

The boy has a heart murmur. The vet found it on Saturday. We don't know how serious it is but I'm worried. It could be congenital or it could be a result of anemia from poor early nutrition. I got most scared when Dr. Dible said that there have been instances when puppies with heart murmurs just die while they are running and playing.

This little guy has our hearts - totally and completely. He has so much inner joy.

If you pray please remember Sammy. Pray that the good nutrition he's getting now, heals his little heart.

Thanks.

Last Kid on the Block

I was the smart, quiet kid on my block who was always reading a book and a good year or so behind everyone else in keeping up with the trends. We didn't have much money and my tennis shoes were always the ones from Payless. They were the ones that everyone else had worn the year before. I always tried to hide my feet under the bus seat and under my desk at school so the other kids wouldn't make fun of me. I badly wanted to be like everyone else, so I know what it's like to be the last kid on the block with something cool.

I thought of that this morning when I realized that the forsythia in the front corner of the house was actually a forsythia! It finally bloomed!



When we first moved in, nothing was evening hinting at being green yet. I thought maybe the little thing in the corner was a forsythia – but when everyone else's on the street was blooming, ours was just sitting there looking like a bundle of forlorn sticks!

It's OK little fella. . .when their blooms are falling off you'll still be in all your glory!



I was also excited to realize that we have not one, but THREE purple lilacs! There is a huge bush in the corner of the backyard and two smaller ones on either side of the house. They are among my favorite spring flowering plants.



Any ideas on what this is? I don't have a clue. It's got long stems and is more a plant than a shrub. There are several other unknown things coming up around the house and I'm looking forward to the spring surprises!

And, I don't care if we are the last kids on the block!

Spring Cleaning – Several Ways

The picture of Sammy from yesterday’s post was taken last weekend. We were engaged in the time honored spring tradition of cleaning the closet. It’s the time of year that I look forward to the most – when you put away all the wool sweaters and thermal shirts and finally get out the shorts and t-shirts again! It’s almost like having a brand new wardrobe because it seems so long since you’ve worn that summer stuff! Poor Sammy was lost in the piles when Ali took that pic.

As the days warm up and the clothing gets lighter, skin that hasn’t seen the light of day for five or six months begins to reappear as well. Since more than just my hands and face is now exposed I decided to make a bath scrub and celebrate the coming of the warmer weather.



This is a Jasmine Salt Scrub and here’s my “recipe.”

1 cup sea salt
½ cup sweet almond oil
6 capsules Vitamin E oil, pierced and drained
1 tsp. jasmine oil

Combine in a glass jar.

This stuff is WONDERFUL and smells really yummy. It makes your skin very smooth and moisturized. You can use any essential oil (available at health food stores) that you particularly like the smell of. Some of my other favorites are lavender and orange oils. This recipe also works well if you substitute sugar (either brown or white) for the salt.

Happy Spring!

Just Because

Just because. . .he's cute and such a good little helper! He's great at carrying shoes around the house and excels at "watering" the carpet! I'm convinced that puppies (and probably most children) are cute because it's God's plan to keep them alive when they are getting on your nerves.

He weighs 19 pounds now so we must be doing something right!

Welcome!

Meet my latest crafting creation! We needed a wreath for the front door so I whipped one up.



When we were moving I found a long lost Mason jar full of pennies left over from some sermon illustration long, long ago. I was too lazy to re-roll all those pennies so I stashed it in a closet until moving day. When Ali’s mom saw them, her eyes lit up and she offered to trade me a jar of buttons for the jar of pennies.

I got the WAY better end of that deal!

After sorting them all by color, I decided that there were more than enough white and light pink ones to make a nice wreath. I cut the donut shape out of cardboard and used a piece of Ali’s scrapbook paper to back it. Adding about a half zillion buttons with white glue was the fun part.

It’s hung with a nice long piece of white ribbon tied into a bow.

I think it makes a humble welcome to our home! Drop in and say hi!

Some Thoughts on Food

My first word as a baby was “bite.” Adults would lovingly ask me if I wanted a taste of whatever they were eating, and I quickly learned that “bite” would get me another morsel of the good stuff. . .not the baby stuff!

Food marks all kind of milestones in my life. My great-grandmother lived in a tiny cabin in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. She created the most incredible country cooked meals I’ve ever eaten. Fried chicken with cream gravy, biscuits that would melt in your mouth, fried corn and potatoes that she grew herself, raspberry pie made from the fruit she picked on her little patch of mountain land – all washed down with sweet tea drunk from mason jars. This kind of feast was regularly consumed around her battered Formica kitchen table with the six chairs that didn’t match.

As I got a little older my vocabulary evolved from just “bite” when I wanted some good food. When we visited Mamaw when I was a toddler I would run to her, grab her long skirts* and say “Kitch Mamaw! Kitch!” Loosely translated this meant, “Mamaw honey, would you go to the kitchen and make me something good to eat? Please??”

My mother began teaching me to cook as soon as I was big enough to stand on a chair at the counter and hold a spoon. My mother was a mean cook in her own right. I never remember eating any food other than Jello that came in a box and that included every cake I ever consumed up until she got a job when I was in high school. Every morning before school we had a hot breakfast with homemade biscuits.

As I began to get older and more responsible in the kitchen, Sunday afternoons after church became my baking time. When I was about eight years old I made my first unsupervised baked good. The recipe is called “Tea Time Tassies.”

CRUST:
1 (3 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 c. butter, room temperature
1 c. flour
FILLING:
1 egg
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
Dash of salt
2/3 c. nuts
Grease small cupcake pans. To make crust, blend cream cheese, butter and flour. Chill for a few minutes. Shape into balls. Press dough on bottom and sides of each cup. Blend all ingredients of filling until smooth. Fill each dough-lined cup 2/3 full of filling. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes or until filling is set. Makes 2 dozen.

Although I’m a good cook now, baking is still my forte.

Food is still influential in my life. I’m the only person I know who reads cookbooks for pleasure. I have more than 150 cookbooks. I particularly like older books that describe cooking in the American South.

The only real collection of things, besides cookbooks, that I have is metal lunch boxes. They have been stored in the attic for the last 4 or 5 years because there hasn’t been space to have them out. Until now.



Sunday morning I unpacked my lunchboxes. As I held each one in my hands in the stillness of the morning and washed and dried it before putting it on top of the kitchen cabinets, I thought about how cooking has been a connection with my family. It has taught me that people show love by creating meals – from the simple to the elaborate. As I learned to cook in the kitchen alone, it taught me self confidence and how to learn from my mistakes.** Cooking has taught me to think on my feet as not everything goes as expected.





But, more than anything else, cooking has taught me that food has been such a nourishment in my life. And not just in the physical sense.

My lunchboxes are just another reminder.


* When Mamaw Lily died at 98 she had two distinctions I’m sure I will never encounter again – she never had a pair of pants on in her life and never cut her hair. Most of the time she wore her long hair in a bun, underneath her bonnet. Yes, the kind of bonnet they wore on “Little House on the Prairie.” I wish I had one of hers now.

** I once made a grilled cheese sandwiches for my Dad and his friend Jeff Hensley. They were outside playing basketball when I decided to surprise them with lunch. I cut Velveeta cheese into about 4” thick slices and grilled them in the skillet. When the bread was done I took them outside. . .Jeff was a good sport and ate the whole thing without complaint. My dad on the other hand. . .let’s just say I never lived it down and rarely make grilled cheese anymore. . .

Alabama Stitchin'

I've always been afraid of hand sewing. My mom taught me the basics when I was a young kid, but it never felt sturdy enough. I was always afraid that whatever I was making was going to fall apart if it wasn't machine stitched. Then last week I stumbled on a blog post that talked about the amazing new book by Natalie Chanin called "The Alabama Stitch Book - Projects and Stories Celebrating Hand Sewing, Quilting, and Emboidery for Contemporary Sustainable Style."



This is an amazing piece of writing and teaching. Natalie uses only thrift store t-shirts in all of the creations in her book. There is a quilt, several skirts (that I MUST MAKE!), flowers, a tablecloth and various other interesting garments. All made out of soft and worn vintage t-shirts!

She celebrates the history of using what one has, or reusing something to create something beautiful. I am crazy about this book!

My first project celebrates the same idea - some old t-shirts turned into something new for a recycled dog. (Recycled dog = a dog someone else didn't want. It becomes recycled when someone else does!)

The first step was to create a stencil. I used the computer to lay out a page full of puppy paws. Using an x-acto knife I cut the stencil out.



Cutting two triangles from old t-shirts, I placed the stencil over the smaller triangle and spray painted the pattern onto the fabric.



Next, I pinned the two triangles together, and with a running stitch, outlined every element of the stencil. I used a contrasting thread to make the stitches pop out. After all the stitching was finished, I used embroidery scissors to cut away the inside of each paw print.



The final step was to embroider the edges of the inner triangle and present it to it's new owner! I think she looks pretty good!



Now, to make one for the newest recycled dog in our lives. . .

It's A Boy!

It's a boy. . .and his name is Samson. It's not a name that we gave him lightly. The Hebrew character Samson is a Herculean figure who uses tremendous strength to combat his enemies and perform heroic feats unachievable by ordinary mortals. . .or dogs. Looking at the picture of Samson right after his first bath in the kitchen sink you wouldn't really think superhero.



Don't judge this little guy til you've heard his story.

On February 7, 2007 the Wood County Sheriff's office was called to a home in rural Wood County where they found more than 100 dogs, 17 cats and 2 birds in one small home and an adjacent barn. Most of the animals were covered in hardened feces that weighed more than their body mass. You can read the full account of this heartbreaking story here and here.

When the Wood County Humane Society staff and volunteers arrived on the scene, our little boy was picked out of the filth and examined by a veterinarian who thought he was dead. Margaret Weinberger, Vice President of Shelter Operations, refused to give up on him. After being dosed with Tamiflu, Samson spent the next few days in ICU being pumped full of antibiotics and fluids. He, like many of the other animals found that day, was suffering from extreme dehydration. After being released from ICU, Margaret became his foster parent, taking him home and feeding him round the clock – every hour. . .24 hours a day. . .for 10 straight days.

As he slowly regained strength and body weight he came down with a Staph infection from the filth he had been born into. After treating the infection he came down with mange on his head. Mange is a tiny mite that flourishes when an animal's immune system is compromised and is unable to keep them in check. The hair on his face and head fell out during treatment. But, who could resist this face?



Margaret talked with us at length about Samson's past and she told us how much she was in love with him. Who wouldn't be after sacrificing so much of herself to save his life? But, she felt he would be a really good fit for us and wanted him to have a good life – pampered and spoiled. We were more than happy to make that kind of promise!

To say that Margaret loves him doesn't do it justice. Margaret has a connection to Samson that is deep and strong and good. Every day when we're holding him we whisper softly in his velvet ear about his first momma – Margaret. We tell him how lucky he is that his Angel Momma found him and loved him back to life.

Samson is still regaining his strength. He's been with us since Saturday afternoon and every day he gets more energetic and funny. He's about 4 months old and still has that silly little puppy way of running – more like a rabbit than a dog. He loves to be held and cuddled. He's fond of hiding his face. I suppose it makes him feel safe.



Often, when losing himself in playing with his toys or simply exploring, he will suddenly stop and look around for one of us. It's as if he forgets, for just a little bit, about being hungry or alone and then has to make sure that it's OK to have a little fun.



Samson, it's going to be OK for a very long time. We promise.

Crafting With Beer

My latest craft project involves bottle caps. In order to have an ongoing supply, one must drink beverages that require a twist off metal cap. . .and one must know of others who drink beverages that require a twist off metal cap. . . and since beer is one of the few worthy beverages that meets these requirements it’s been flowing! Just kidding! (mostly!)

I took a bunch of photos of places, people and things that are meaningful and reduced them down to an inch in diameter. Then I cut each one into a 1” circle and glued it into the bottom of the bottle cap.

The next step is the most fun. At Hobby Lobby you can get a two part polymer coating that gets mixed together in equal measurements and poured into each bottle cap. After drying for 8 hours (which gives you plenty of time to come down off the high of breathing the resin vapors! it's almost as good as the buzz from drinking all the beer. . .) you glue a magnet to the back of each bottle cap and voila. . .you have a very interesting and personalized magnet for your fridge!



I see Christmas presents for everyone this year. . .

Everyday People

This song has been stuck in my head all day. I'm not really sure why. . .it would make a great church service. . .