Fitness Friday - For the Dogs

This Fitness Friday is a little unconventional, but I thought I'd share a success story... about our dog!

First, let me give a little background:

Molly is our black lab, who we got from a family off of craigslist two years ago. When we got her, we were told she was about 6 years old - just what we wanted (old enough to be over the puppy stage, but still young enough to enjoy for a while). However, her microchip revealed something different - her birthdate was actually 1998 - making her, that's right... 10! Instead of 6. In dog years, that's a big difference, especially in bigger dogs, whose lifespan averages 12-14 years.

She is now almost 12, and over the past two years that she's been with us, she has gotten slower, stiffer, deafer, and... well, heavier. Elderly dog issues have started springing up, to say the least! This spring at her annual vet check, I was informed that she was close to 20 pounds overweight! Yikes! She's a thick, stout dog anyway, so that extra weight is alot! The vet also told me her aging issues were going to get worse fast if she didn't drop some weight.

So began operation "Molly Gets Exercise". We live on a steep hill, so every morning the boys and I would take Molly for a walk up and down our hill (about 20 minutes total). I reduced her food amount to pitiful portions (she actually gets the same portion as our Boston Terrier, who only weighs 20 pounds, but is much more active), which was torture for her, because Labs are ALL about food. Its their "love language" so to speak.

Then, we headed to the lake for the month.

At the lake, she spent almost every day swimming, often several times a day. Swimming is her other passion - its hard to keep her OUT of the water!


While there, we noticed she was starting to go up and down stairs more easily, wasn't so stiff in the mornings when waking up, and was becoming alot more playful and interactive.

Now we are home, and for the first time ever, we can see a nice trim waistline on her, feel her solid ribs underneath her thick coat, and she's happy and energetic! Instead of an old lumpy couch potato, she's playful, happy, and active. It is AMAZING how just a little bit of weight loss has brought back her youth. I feel like we've won back those years we thought we had when we first got her, and am so happy.

The point of this story is that losing 20 pounds can make such a difference in just a dog, think of how much more so in a person! Its definitely extra motivation to keep trim and stay active!

Here I Am!

I am back from my month long blogging hiatus! I hope everyone had a wonderfully blessed June. The actual reason for my break was because we went on a family vacation to Lake Champlain, in upstate New York. Michael was able to work remote, but I am not allowed to use his work laptop for leisure web surfing (obviously!), so I was offline most of the time. I did access my email via his iPhone as necessary, which was good because I would have come home to WAAY too much email if I hadn't! But otherwise we wanted vacation to be as "unplugged" as possible.

We had a wonderful, relaxing time - it was quite a blessing to enjoy God's beautiful creation and the company of friends and family while we were there, too. Here are some um, lots of pictures!

There was fishing:

and that part that comes after fishing that I am all to glad to have a husband to handle:

And swimming (the water was cooooolllldddd! For further proof, see the videos my sister took!):And a little boating, too:Beautiful scenery:More than a few chilly nights and days (summer comes slowly when you're that far north):

Wildlife:Even the dogs had fun!Look, its the woman normally behind the camera!And all of us, on the back deck of the house:It was truly a blessed time we had making lifelong memories!

Now that we're back we're getting back into routine pretty quickly. We're going to finish up the last few weeks of My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures, and then dive right into Sonlight Core 3. I love schooling year round - last year we tried to take the summer off, and it just didn't work well for us. So the school fun will continue!

July holds some exciting things to look forward to! Next week I'll have a fun giveaway, so be sure to be on the lookout! Also, I begin my official reviews for the TOS Homeschool Crew, as well as reviewing a book called "Voices of the True Woman Movement" based on Revive Our Hearts' True Woman conferences. Hope you like to hear my opinions on things, because I'll be sharing them ;-)

I'm so happy to be back!

Wordless Wednesday - Growing Up

6 weeks old:

6 months old:

Wordless Wednesday - A View of Homeschooling

What I found yesterday after telling everyone to get ready for reading!

Quiet Lately

I haven't been posting much as of late, as some may have noticed! There area a few reasons for it... first, we went out of town for Thanksgiving, so my computer access was limited. Second, since coming home, we've been plugging away and getting back into routine, and life is just busy. Third, while the Lord has been moving in our lives alot, there really hasn't been the cohesiveness of thought to share what He's been teaching me and where He's been leading me... its all a bit "in progress", which makes it hard to post about.

So, I will share an update for now...

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful, and I hope others also had a blessed holiday. We traveled to West Virginia to visit my parents and had a wonderful week with them. It even snowed enough for a snowball fight one day, which the boys and Michael loved! The drive there and back went as smoothly as it could have, no mishaps, arguing, carsickness, etc. Just a pleasant 9+ hour drive! It was such a blessing to have it go so peacefully! Here's a little slide show of the fun in the snow.

As I posted about in my previous Wordless Wednesday, we are indeed getting a puppy. She is a Boston Terrier, and her name is Ada. She will not be old enough to come home with us for about 3 more weeks, so I am using that time to study up on how to housebreak and train a puppy. I've housebroken one puppy in the past, and potty trained 3 children so far, so I'm feeling optimistic about the challenge ;-) Michael and I had two Boston Terriers in the past and absoutely love the breed, so we are very glad to be welcoming Ada. The boys don't know yet, so it will be a fun surprise. Keeping it a secret has been hard, since we're so excited about it ourselves! We're hoping Molly doesn't think Ada is a fun squeaky chew toy! Molly is really laid back about other dogs in the house, though, so we think the transition will be fine.

The pregnancy is going fine - totally uneventful, which is the way I (and my midwives) like it. I am 6 months along now, it seems like the time has FLOWN by! I can't believe how soon it will be time to meet our new little one.

The Lord has been doing some interesting, behind-the-scenes type of things. Its been so fun to see what He's working on in us, and where it will take us. He has been touching my heart in so many ways - areas of gratitude and gratefulness, submission, peace, and also action. Following God isn't just about believing in Him and holding a set of convictions, it is also acting on those beliefs, being used to demonstrate His love and for others. I believe that He has called me to do this within my home with my family first and foremost, but also to use my home as a ministry to extend this to others.

A scripture that has been quietly lurking in my mind for a long time now is James 1:27. Michael and I have dedicated ourselves to praying for wisdom and the Lord's guidance in regards to what He wants us to do as the future comes... please feel free to join us in that! In God's timely way, we just started a series in church on Nehemiah - and the first sermon was about looking out to the world, seeing the needs of others, and diligently seeking the Lord's will about what to do with what He reveals to us! I love the way He works in confirmation! So we will faithfully wait for further guidance, in His timing.

Molly Swims

I love the fact that our Lab does exactly what a Lab is supposed to do - swim! And she loves it. I had a Lab mix growing up who was afraid of water (must have been more mix than Lab!), so its so much fun for me to watch Molly enjoy the water. The last time we went on our walk at Stone Mountain, I took some video of the old girl doing what she does best (other than eating, of course).

Wordless Wednesday - Molly

(There aren't any scriptures I could find relating to a dog with an obsession for licking the yogurt container clean... any suggestions?!)

The Real Reason

We buy a higher quality dog food for Molly. When we first got her, knowing she was an older dog (9 going on 10!), we wanted to make sure that we kept her as healthy as possible, so nutrition was one of our focuses. So she gets fed a dog food with no fillers, no preservatives, colors, etc - just protein and veggies. I discovered tonight just how thankful I am that we spend the extra for it... here's why!





P.S. This is the first time I've ever caught him doing this - its not a regular occurrence - and it definitely won't be continuing! I had a suspicion when I saw him chewing on something, so I followed him and made this discovery. He just learned how to open the dog food container ;-)

Some Silliness

You're a Labrador Retriever!

Labrador Retriever

The Caretaker

Your family is what makes you tick, and you never "flea" from an opportunity to hang out with the whole gang. A family picnic complete with hot dogs, deviled eggs and a refreshing swim in the lake is hard for you to stray from. Your sparky temperament and dogged intelligence mean you are not only a blast to hang out with, but great to work with as well. Your close pals appreciate your patience and forgiveness, knowing you'd rather let sleeping dogs lie than dwell on the mishaps of the past. Your dashing good looks may one day lead to a modelling career, if only you can tame the unfortunate clumsiness that sometimes causes you to go flailing from the catwalk. Learn more »

FAMOUS LABRADOR RETRIEVERS: Bill Cosby, Jackie Onassis, Dr. Phil, David Beckham

LIKELY PROFESSIONS: Doctor, Sales Executive, Teacher

Take the Quiz Yourself!

By golly, its Molly!

We recently added a new addition to the family - a beautiful, sweet Labrador named Molly. She is an adult dog, about 7 or 8 (we'll know for sure once we take her to the vet later this week), and we did have some concerns about adopting an older dog, but the benefits have outweighed our concerns. We wanted a dog that was already trained, active but not hyper, and well behaved and affectionate with the boys.

Molly came from a home with three small children, and she is absolutely wonderful with the boys. She is gentle, but playful, and her maturity allows her some calm moments among her active ones. Her tail is always wagging, and her favorite place to be is about a foot or less from wherever I am (or sitting under the table while the boys eat). She really brings back memories of the Lab I had when I grew up, named Lindsay. She would follow my mom around closely all the time, and now its my turn to experience the same!

She weighs about 75 pounds, but is short and stocky, with paws that remind us of a bear - its definitely a good thing she's so careful with the kids!

Molly is so much fun! We're thankful and glad to have her here with us!







When we went to pick Molly up, Joel was afraid of her and wouldn't come out of the car. After 3 days she has won his heart and confidence! He tells me all the time "I yuv Molly" :-)