Some days...

Some days just don't start the way you'd like. I'm sitting here with a disaster of a kitchen, kids playing with Lena instead of their school and my jammies on. I guess if the kids like doing school until 7 p.m. then that's the way it will be for awhile. Isaac had lego robotics last night and it always ends up a late night. Dad got home late and everyone wants to see him and read with him. We try not to skip the prayer time and Bible reading no matter how late he gets home. "Tradition" as they say in Fiddler on the Roof. I'd rather let the kids sleep in and do school a little later than miss out on a family moment. It can get a bit challenging for me because I'd like to be done by 2 and work on canning and other house projects.

Isaac has a chest cold and other than late nights he is doing great! Praise the Lord! He dressed identical to his brother today and I'm having trouble telling them apart. They keep laughing and wrestling together constantly! I may need to separate them if this keeps up! :)

Strange conversations...

I have repeatedly asked prayer for Isaac's bm's. Well, they are changing for the good! I am in particularly thankful. I've realized that I have been living a bit by fear. I get fearful every time I hear a toilet seat sound. I think, "Oh, here he goes again, spilling out his life blood and his life." I get tense and sick and nervous about what it will be like. This week I have been working on that reaction and trying to live more by faith than fear. I've been practicing not reacting to that sound. It's a lot like that experiment with dogs they did when they heard a bell and began to salivate. I hear that seat and my spirit sags.

Isaac continues to feel good. He and Caleb had an all-night movie night watching Robin hood in bed. They cleaned out some of my garden today and Isaac cleaned out the playground for the winter.

Unfortunately, we don't seem to have licked the lice thing. We treated again and will try to treat again in a few days. We should have treated again last Monday night but just didn't feel like it, the night was already long enough so we are paying the consequences. This time around we should see less than the first time. It's a nightmare keeping track of jackets and where people lay them after they wear them. We are drying bedding on a rotation this week. I pray we can take care of it this week. Praise the Lord for giving me the strength to do it everyday.

Best Friends again...

My boys Isaac and Caleb are 15 months apart. They have spent a good deal of their 11 and 10 years of life in the same room, doing the same things, in the same grade at school basically. This last year of Isaac's illness has separated best friends. It was hard to see that happen. First, Isaac was too tired to take part in things that Caleb wanted to do. He didn't have the strength to ride his bike, climb trees, play in the snow and build forts. Then he moved into his own room. Again, changes happened. Isaac was too sick to even want Caleb around. They have drifted for several months. About May, they started playing legos together again, talking about swords and knives and guns. Well, now that Isaac is really feeling good, Isaac has been sleeping in the top bunk with Caleb down in his old room. They go on almost daily walks with bow and arrow or BB Gun in hand. They talk and talk and talk to each other until I say, "Enough." "Back to school." They seek each other out when they have some great thing to say. It is incredibly soothing to my soul. Thank you Lord Jesus!

One down...

I think we have one kid nit-free! I keep checking Moriah's hair and can't find anything! Yeah! I haven't checked Jordan since Saturday so I should get around to it. I've been using a really hot hairdryer on my hair (still no sign but I don't want to take any chances), Moriah's and Rebekah's. Last night, I still found 9 nits on Rebekah. I can't figure out what a dead nit looks like though. I think we may be pulling off dead ones, that'd be great. I took a break from drying all of the bedding and did just pillows. I actually have no laundry to wash right now and only one load in the dryer and one waiting to be folded. WOW! I've done up to 6 loads a day and have not been able to catch up. The dryer runs from 9 am to after midnight. It's doing so well and it's over 16 years old.

Lena is cutting her first molar and it's not fun for her. She makes a really cute face though when she clamps her lips together, I assume in discomfort.

Isaac is doing well. We had seen blood in his bm's and it got us a little concerned so I changed his diet some and we have seen it lessen. Thank the Lord. God was very good to us today. He sends encouragement in many different ways. I called the doctor we see in Mankato to try to change our appointment and talked to the receptionist as I also wanted to see if I could talk to him about some diet things pertaining to Isaac. I was telling her a little of my wonderings and she said her son had Ulcerative Colitis in his early teens. He is 27 now and completely over it. It was a three year process and they were on the meds and got off and she had to figure out a diet on her own by trial and error and she said it was a very long and hard time. I was encouraged because we have a lot of resources helping us deal with the diet part although I am seeing it is trial and error even with help from those who have been there. I tell you I was so encouraged and given hope and I give all the thanks to the Lord for in His word he says in Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." I'm learning to continue trusting Him especially when the anxious thought threaten me and I question what we are doing or if he is getting well.

Isaac has been a clown lately. He runs everywhere he goes in the house and he is friends with his brother Caleb again (only 15 months younger). He hasn't felt good for so long and became somewhat of a loaner as he just didn't feel good. Now, I walk in a room and he's wrestling with Caleb or playing with the baby or humming or singing silly songs from the Sesame Street tape Lena watches. It is a joy to see him like this. I keep looking at him and the memories of what he was like before this illness come back and I think it's happening. I kept praying for that old, goofy, a little bit annoying, laughing and having fun Isaac to come back. This got real long. Thanks for praying. Keep on praying for healing.

Stepped it up a notch...

I nit pick each girl once a day and now I have Emily going behind me and checking it again. She finds a few more that I didn't see. The number we are finding is coming down. I think I found over 30 on Rebekah yesterday and today it was about 16. Bad news is that I found some on Moriah today and we hadn't seen any previously :( Em found a good blog of a woman who has been there with the lice thing. As the louse in the egg (nit) grows it gets bigger and moves up some on the hair shaft making them more visible (I assume this has something to do with your hair growing too). Well, I have noticed that each day they get easier to find. Makes sense but means that the treatment doesn't kill the nits if they keep growing right???? We are going to treat again on Sunday night to make sure no nits have hatched out and we didn't catch them and then we'll keep nit picking. I think as we find less and less nits I'll slow down on how often I dry all the bedding. Right now I dry all the girls bedding each day, vacuum their beds and the floors around their beds and after everyone is in bed I vacuum the whole upstairs to pick up any possible fallen hairs with nits. The living room is still off limits so we are living in the kitchen, dining room and school room. (Staying on hard surfaces.) We are learning to get along a little better. I figure we may need the information we are learning through this to help someone else someday! :) I can say that now but when I finally get to bed after midnight I'm not so optimistic about all that is going on.

It looks like coyotes did get over 30 chickens. No feathers indicates that it wasn't our dog. She leaves lots of feathers around. Kevin was ready to do away with her so thankfully she was saved.

Isaac has a cold. Please pray it will clear up in a normal time. One of his meds makes his immune system not respond to these things. Athena from the U of M called today and said we need to watch it because of that med. Please pray also for continued healing on his intestinal tract. He is looking so good. We are claiming God's healing on him with a little help from scripture.

Exodus 15:26 ...for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Exodus 23:25 And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

Matthew 8:16-17 ...and he...healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses.

Psalm 107:20 He sent his word, and healed them...

Psalm 103:2-3 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all they diseases.

Someone gave me a booklet with these and more. We are praying them in our house and speaking them aloud.

Here a nit, there a nit, everywhere a nit, nit...

OK, so I am here plugging away at the nit picking. I just finished Rebekah's hair again and found about 20-40 more. They are hard to see so I think I just missed them from yesterday. The best way to get rid of lice is to nit pick often and keep them from hatching. We are also drying all bedding in a hot dryer and vacuuming their beds and surrounding floors. Tonight I am going to vacuum the hard floors and tables to keep up on any hairs that may have fallen with nits or possible live lice that fell out of hair although I have not found anymore live lice since Monday. Please keep praying we can lick this in one week!

Kevin went into the chicken coop and we have more than 25 missing chickens. They may have been taken by a coyote. We saw feathers in the yard yesterday and on my way home from the chiropractor today I saw a coyote running away from the direction of our house. He was about 1 mile away so I can't say for sure he was coming from our place but it's awfully suspicious especially with Kevin noticing missing chickens.

Lord, help us, this is so hard sometimes. It feels like we keep getting beat down. You are still Lord of this house and we will praise you always.