Update on Life part 3... Going's On

Ok, so we are busy!

Besides the farm stuff and preparation for surgery…In a nutshell:

December has been busy, Feast of Dedications/Lights… An opportunity to spend time with family and taking time for re-dedication and cleansing of the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’. We spent time searching within ourselves, cleaning out the pagan garbage and rededicating this temple.

Shelly had her Bat Mitzvah December 26th, She did a great job! (Pics are in the gallery).

I taught a class on preserving food and have been learning to knit socks and spinning! I have been working on a new bread recipe and made some awesome bread pudding! We were able to pick up a good used kitchen island that will meet our needs for counter space and storage, Yay! The wood cook stove is in the house but the tile isn’t finished and the chimney and stove pipe are not installed. So we are heating with a gas heater in the kitchen. I hope we can get it done in January.

I will be attending a class in January on natural healing and hope to share with many the new information I glean from the class.

Satch continues to work and comes home and works… He gets Sabbath as his only rest! We appreciate Yah’s Sabbath!

My Dad and Brother bought a business transporting auto parts across the state. They work swing shift, Monday - Friday. They are enjoying the job and it has helped them with finances.

Mom will be going to B-ham with us and will stay while Satch travels back and forth between there and home. She is doing pretty good, still having stomach issues and will have her gall bladder removed when we get through Shelly’s surgery.

Ricky, April and Mat moved to a new apartment last week. They love their new apartment!

Update on Life... Shelly

Life in the fast lane!

Blessings to all!

Shelly has recovered well from her last seizure event. (Praise Yah!)
Well, we visited the Neurosurgeon and she is really nice. She said she does 90 of these surgeries each year and has done them for the past 5 years and spent 7 years before that working with another Neurosurgeon on the same surgeries. We feel that Shelly will be well cared for. (She will be in Yah’s Hands!)

We were informed that she will loose all of her hair on the left side and the doc recommended that all of it come off. This is a big blow for a 17 yr old girl who loves her hair! She has decided to have it cut before going for surgery and donating her beautiful braids to Locks of Love.

We have been registered to stay at the Ronald McDonald house ($10/night), however there is a waiting list of 20 people before us! We were told that we may have to stay at a local hotel ($50/night) until a room is available.

We will go down to B-ham on Weds, Jan 20th in the evening. On the 21st we will see the doc again and do pre admittance blood work and paperwork. On the 22nd she will have her first surgery that will place the mesh on her brain. She will then be monitored for seizures until they get the data necessary to map the area to be removed. The second surgery will then be scheduled. The second surgery will be to remove the mesh and the area of the brain causing seizures.

We are planning to be there for 2 weeks, but hope to be home sooner. How long we stay will be determined by how quickly her seizures come and they are able to get the data necessary for the second surgery.

How to pray:

*For Shelly to have peace, and not fear, and her pain be minimal
*G-d’s hand guide the surgeon

*A room to open at the Ronald McDonald house the day we arrive and finances be available for the stay.
*For her seizures to come quickly and the data be gathered swiftly

*Pray against the enemy and his devices

*All is done as G-d directs

*A quick recovery

Thank you for your prayers! They are coveted!

Christie

Update on Life... from the Farm

Wow! What a Wild and Crazy ride life is! I haven’t updated the blog in a while, so I’ll try to get it all in tonight!

First on the farm…

We have dried off Shemayim for her calving in February. We had a bout with mastitis, but she is doing fine now. Winter brings low milk production because of the lack of fresh, rich green grass, so 31 is givin’ all she’s got except on Sabbath when her calf, Jaffa, gets all she wants. We are getting 1 1/2 - 2 gallons a day. She is still not bred back yet, and hope to catch her in heat soon! An interesting thought - if we eat according to the season of production, it is much healthier… this is cold season and milk increases mucus production, there is less milk available during the cold season!

The Boys are all doing pretty well! Roast will go to the butcher in February to be put in the freezer. Spot of Beef needs to be cut, will probably be done in January or February, before it gets hot and flies become prolific. Big Boy is still not big enough to take care of the girls, so we still pay for Artificial Insemination.

We slaughtered 6 chickens and put them in the freezer last Sunday. They were from our hatching last spring and were roosters needing to leave the hens alone! Before the butchering we were getting 2-4 eggs daily, now we are getting 7-8! Those ladies were just being harassed!

I finally sorted out the sheep and goats to know who is who and hope to get pics and names up soon (can’t post them on the blog, will put them in the gallery). But at any rate, they are all doing fine. The sheep are due to lamb in February, and since it will be too cold to shear them, they will get a crotch cut in January and then will be sheared in March.  We plan to butcher the lambs at a year old for the freezer. The plan for the goats is to get a boer billy to use for breeding for meat. Of course, the fiber from the sheep and goats will be turned into yarn and used to make socks, sweaters, hats, gloves and anything else we may need to stay warm (and feed my knitting habit.)

As for Hicks and Sasha, what can I say? Spoiled and useless! They are being spoiled and have not worked since the weather has turned cold. They are becoming fat and lazy horses. Spring will come too soon for the both of them!

The back porch has been closed in and is ready for use as a green house to grow our seeds for the upcoming year. The planting boxes haven’t been built, but I hope to get some done soon as the weather permits.

We have spent the past several weeks working on the fencing to keep the dogs in … well, Sumi gets out anyway, I think she is just walking over the fence! Anyway, it is a plague! Still working on fences (an ongoing process).

The bees are being fed and they are staying warm and happy. Next spring we will split the hive and buy 2 more splits. We hope to have 8 - 10 gallons of honey this summer from the 4 hives.

Next installment: Shelly

Update on Shelly 12/03/09

Hello to all,

Shelly had been seizure free since 12/12/08 until this past week. She had a bad event that took her to the hospital. She is still recovering from the effects of the seizure and I am not sure the extent of damage cognitively as of yet.

Shelly’s attitude about the surgery is getting better and she is learning to trust in the Father for all things. She still has some fear but she is overcoming it with her sweet spirit.

Her tests have been completed and the doctors have decided that she is a candidate for brain surgery. We will be seeing the neuro-surgeon Dec 17th. They will do another MRI that day as well.

They have decided to do 2 surgeries. Jan 21st we will go to B-ham to see the doc and do pre-admittance blood work, etc. Jan 22nd they will remove a portion of her skull and insert a mesh eeg monitor directly to her brain. They will induce seizures until she has 3. Once the data is collect from the seizures they will map the area of the left frontal lobe that they will remove. They will do the second surgery to remove the mesh and the area of the brain that is causing the seizures. She will come home the day after the second surgery as long as everything goes well. This process will probably take 1 1/2 to 2 weeks.

We continue to covet your prayers.

Pray for the seizures to come quickly and that the doctors will be led by the Holy Spirit.

Pray for Shelly to have peace and that the pain she will experience will be minimal.

Pray for us to continue in our faith walk with G-d and that accommodations will be available for us to stay in B-ham during the time she is in the hospital.

Pray for our finances as we prepare for the stay in B-ham.

Thank you again!
Christie