This Past Week

I will forewarn you that my mind is a fog this morning, so this will be a rather random post. It sure is hard to find time to keep up on these blog things, especially when a person is not so computer savvy. I have hopped onto a few friends'/acquaintences' blogs recently, and they are amazing. Very creative. Professional quality pictures, everyday even. Inspirational thoughts. The whole nine yards. Neat blogs. But, I think this here will have to remain simple.

It has been an eventful past week, or at least from our little perspective it has. I knew there was a reason for the title "Our Family Farm"....so here is the first entry including an animal story. Last Friday, Dan had the joy (HA!) of performing a C-section on Lily the cow (Yes, our beloved Lily!). She was just at her due date and was in a ton of pain due to an acute uterine torsion (twist). The surgery went great, but the calf died shortly after, probably due to lack of oxygen caused by the torsion. Anyhow, Lily is actually doing alright, and has beaten the odds thus far. We are currently trying to put a new calf on her, but he is not the sharpest tool in the shed, so it's slow going. One up side is that the kids were able to watch the surgery.... Homeschooling 101!

Dan's arm in Lily's side trying to sort out the problem.

Pulling the uterus out.

Stitching Lily up.
Here, the kids are watching the surgery. Yes, Lydia is wearing a leopard suit (18 months size). It's not worth the fight!

On Saturday, we went with some friends on a train ride starting in Elgin and heading up into the mountains. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time checking out the train. The rest of week was filled with the usual stuff- homeschool, preschool, errands, house stuff, Dan had a dinner meeting, etc, etc, etc. Ellen started piano lessons this week. She is very excited, and I think she's really going to love it. We also attended the annual ECHO parents meeting, so Dan and I (and Ruth) turned it into a date night by eating at the Olive Garden beforehand. So, that's the past several days in a nutshell.

We also had some heartbreaking news this week. A family that lives down the street lost their 10 year old son to Leukemia. He had been fighting the disease for about a year, and was sent home a few months ago bascially to enjoy his last days. They have had a lot of community support, which is AWESOME. I have felt convicted that we should have tried to help out more. I have this tendency to get so caught up in the daily grind that I let other things slide, especially things that are not so easy to do or require me to break out of my shell (like go visit someone in need that I've only met once or twice). Sometimes it's so hard to know what to say, much less know what to do! This family isn't done with their fight. The mother was recently diagnosed with colon cancer (already metastatic), and had postponed her treatments to be able to care for her son. So very heartbreaking. We have so much to be thankful for, with healthy children, a happy marriage, a comfortable home...the list goes on. God has been so good to us. When you think of it, pray for these folks. Their name is the Winters family. They still have a huge battle ahead.