One set of puppies arrived!

Birdie successfully delivered seven puppies on Good Friday. J. came and assisted in the deliveries of puppies 3, 4 and 5...the first animal deliveries she had witnessed. It was almost as fun to watch J. enjoying her new experience, as watching the puppy births. My daughter actually resuscitated the last puppy, which had come out droopy and not breathing after the initial stimulation. She continued the stimulation of rubbing, blowing, stoking, etc. until she got a response. Then she spent all evening and night watching over the pup - making sure it got several drinks of milk despite the weak sucking reflex & competition of six other wriggling bodies rooting around for nipples that smelled of bitch's milk. Tonight all is well with that litter. Birdie is relaxed and resting between her occasional checking of each puppy with her eyes and tongue. Pi, on-the-other-hand, has had her temperature drop from the 101 degree F. range to 98.6 degrees. She should deliver within 24 hours. We should have an Easter litter for our friend. Refusing her meal this evening was another indication that more deliveries are imminent. My husband took the first watch of six hours and then hit the bed, snoring within 5 seconds. Now I am checking the doggy nursery between blog sentences. Nothing is quite so fascinating as new life.

The Joy of the Great Commandment

The last couple of weeks have been joyful! My family has had the opportunity to "do unto others what we would like to have done unto us". As volunteer leaders of a small Messianic congregation, we have the opportunity to physically and spiritually feed our small group each Shabbat. Many changes in our mishpocheh, (transliteration for the Hebrew word for "family"), are opening doors of service for us. We spent much of a week helping a couple sort & pack their belongings and clean their cabin/home so he could be driven as quickly as possible to Atlanta to receive alternative treatments to his stomach cancer. About a month ago, we had sat in hospital waiting rooms with the wife while her husband underwent a major surgery (Bilroth II) that removed a large, last-growing tumor from his stomach and duodenum. Unfortunately the margins of the tumor were diffuse rather than defined, so the pathology slides above and below the surgical site still revealed cancer cells, although it appeared to the naked eye that the cancerous tumor had been completely cut away. A week in ICU and another week in a regular surgery ward started the healing after the surgery. Then the husband went home with a "j tube" in place in his small intestine, so he could get additional tube feedings, since he has less than a third of his stomach left. He is a large man, so the calories needed to support him can not be obtained only by continual smaller day meals. We learned that stomach cancer does not respond well to either chemotherapy or radiation, so they have had to seek other alternative treatments. One is to heat up the entire body to above 103 degree F. temperatures. Fast-growing cancer cells heat up even faster and are killed. This has evidently helped some people in the past. Of course, special diets are important in stomach cancer treatment.
In extending ourselves with these friends and another couple who are moving to Alaska, we noticed ourselves almost on an emotional high. We have also been supporting an elderly couple, who decided for the wife to move into an assisted-living facility mid-week. She has had a couple of strokes which have created disability that extensive rehab. has not eliminated over the past couple of years. The husband has been getting minimal sleep during that time as he has cared for her in their home. He is totally exhausted and she is slowly declining mentally and physically. We have helped with food and emotional support. They decided not to have us help with night care. We watch these couples and realize how blessed we really are.
We like dogs & have two golden retrievers. Therefore, dog-sitting is also an avenue we use to help friends. It's a win-win situation for everyone involved. At the moment we have two very pregnant female goldens of a friend in our diningroom. One is in our whelping box, since her temperature has begun to drop. The other is in a more make-shift pen for possible delivery. Our friend took two other goldens to a dog show in Alaska. We hope to get a puppy from her in the future, as she breeds from the best golden lines and has wonderful show quality puppies in her litters. Anyway, we love the life helping others gives us. God has arranged - even in this fallen world - for many of the blessings you give others to boomerang back into your own lives.

Purim - Esther's Fast/Feast

This year is a Jewish leap year with an extra month of Adar. As a result, Purim is the Jewish holiday close to Good Friday and Easter, rather than the usual Passover. Our Passover Seder will come on the 23rd of April at sunset this year. In recent centuries, Jewish families eat Hamantashen during Purim and give gifts to the poor. The story of "Esther" is read and often dramatized, with all the children dressing in costumes of the characters in the story. Our daughter loved to dress like the queen, her namesake, when she was young. While reading the story, noisemakers, called groggors, are shook or twirled, or folks boo & hiss whenever Haman's name is read. Wolf whistles are made when Esther's name is read. Everyone shouts "Yea" or "Hurrah" when Mordecai's name is read. Hamantashen are cookies that look like the three-cornered hat that tradition says Haman, the villain in the story, wore. Here is my favorite dough for Hamantashen:
1/4 pound butter 2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup sugar 1/4 tsp. baking soda
3 egg yolks 1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 pint sour cream 1/8 tsp. orange zest
3 cups flour

I always double this recipie when I make it. Cream butter and sugar together until well mixed. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks. (Save the whites for Meringue cookies) Add the beaten egg yolks to the butter-sugar mixture; then add the sour cream.
In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda; add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture. Now add the vanilla and orange zest. (I always save orange peels for a couple of weeks before Purim to make my own fresh orange zest.) Mix well. Cover securely with wax paper or plastic wrap. Let stand in the refrigerator overnight. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Roll out 1/4 inch thick and cut into 3 1/2 inch rounds. Place a heaping tsp. of filling into the center of each round. Draw up two sides of the dough and then the third, pinching the edges in the center of the round to form a three-cornered "pocket" for the filling. Place on a greased baking sheet & bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned. ( Our favorite fillings are fruit preserves like apricot, strawberry or huckleberry. More traditional are date, prune or poppyseed fillings.)

Meringues Plus Cookies - What we do with the egg whites!
2 egg whites 3/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt 1/4 cup chopped nuts
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar 1 6-ounce pkg.chocolate chips or bits
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Beat egg whites with salt, cream of tartar, and vanilla until soft peaks form. Add sugar slowly and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold in nuts and chocolate. Grease cookie sheet and dust lightly with flour. Drop by heaping teaspoonful on sheet & bake for 25 minutes.

On those years that Purim is close to St. Patrick's Day, I add a little green food coloring to the egg white mixture. On leap years, I leave the mixture white, so it more resembles the Messiah's tomb. When baked, the cookies are mostly empty!

First Jobs

My sixteen year-old daughter is applying for a job at Cold Stone Creamery. She has two friends, who were on her high school basketball team, who already work there and like it. Two weeks ago, she picked up the application for employment and filled it out. She returned it the next day. In a week, she was called in for what the manager called an "audition". She and a dozen other teens were present to answer questions, make up singing jingles and try to make a good first impression. Now a week later, she was phoned and asked to come for a regular interview. Each step of the process has created a case of nervous second-guessing and mannerisms in my daughter. Now she awaits the final call to find out if she landed a job, which starts at minimal wage. This brings back so many memories. Sometimes I'm plain happy that I am no longer a teen, no longer trying to decide who I really am and what I might want to do with the rest of my life. All this, while I am also trying to impress the boys or managers of businesses. Yes, I am satisfied to be in my mid-life while watching her.

Lamb Antics

Obviously I am feeling verbose this evening after days of no blog postings. As noted in the previous blog, it has just been too nice outside to remain at a computer. Our lambing season has stalemated after half of our ewes birthed the six lambs. Those lambs get into predicaments in their explorations. Yesterday I came home from a trip to Hamilton to find one of the lambs entrapped in the electric fencing around our chicken house. The baaing of the lamb and answering chorus of baaing from the rest of the flock on the other side of our regular fencing, caught my attention. As I came near, the lamb did not realize I came to help. He grew more panicky. He repeatedly jumped into the regular fencing, bounced off and tried again. He tried to squeeze through the gap between the gate and fencing, but couldn't get through. He would turn and run in the opposite direction toward the chicken house or toward the three Tennessee Walking horses that share the pasture. The horses had walked over to watch this noisy lamb and didn't move when he would run at them in his panic. About the time I thought the lamb would bump into a horse leg or two, he would realize where he was and reverse his direction...only to run and bounce off the fencing again or almost get stuck at the gate in trying the squeeze method of escape. After twenty minutes or so, one of his bounces was near the corner of the fenceline where the fencing is a bit loose. His weight carried him partly under the fence. He squirmed the rest of the way to the other side. This is probably how he got into the wrong pasture. The Lord compares us to sheep and lambs. I never get into situations like this and panic, do I?!

Antrim Point

How I have been enjoying our unseasonably dry and warm February and March days. Our weather forecaster stated recently that this is the second dryest & warmest winter on record for Missoula, MT. and the surrounding area. During the 50 and 60 degree temperatures, I have pruned trees, weeded the herb bed, helped remove pieces of tin from a large pine tree in front of our home and resealed the tree with pruning sealer. My husband even cleaned out our chicken house. Best of all, we have loved the starlit nights and the hikes on Sunday afternoons. The last two Sunday afternoons, I ambled south on Meadowlark Lane until it ended. Then I cut across another neighbor's property a few feet to be able to cross over onto the acreage owned by Priscilla Antrim. Priscilla bought 4 Coriadell sheep from us about ten years ago and gave us permission at that time to hike whenever we wanted on her property, which had been placed into a conservation easement years earlier. This property is called "Antrim Point", as it is the highest ridge around our area. It once boasted a Forest Service fire siting tower located at the level summit. The summit has a wonderful 360 degree view of the Bitterroot Mountain range, the Sapphire Mountain Range, parts of the Eastside Highway and homes along it, as well as the Bitterroot River. In June, Antrim Point wears Bitterroot flowers, from which our valley is named. Only the evergreens were green on these past two hikes. I could not even find the early Buttercups that we have seen down in the lower meadows. What I did find saddened me. As I left the conservancy, I noticed several signs announcing proposed subdivisions that would border Antrim Point. Our rural area is slowly but surely being built into a suburbia. I still plan to hike Antrim Point at least early in the morning on summer days. I'll hike down aways from the summit to sit on an old pine that my husband and I have dubbed "Lover's bench". The pine grows up from the ground about a foot, then turns parallel to the ground for about two feet and then turns vertical again for the rest of its height, which is quite tall. There is a nice view of the Bitterroot River and mountains from this natural seat. I like to sit and commune with the Creator of all this beauty at this spot. Hopefully the sprawling encroachment of homes will not change my private meeting spot. I'm starting to engraft more of "the Word" - James and some of the Psalms - into my life and hope to spend time meditating on the words I've memorized while sitting on the lover's bench and gazing at the Bitterroot beauty.

Short of Power

Our electricity went off and stayed off most of Monday when a bird flew into a large transformer at the power station for our area. All the tasks I had planned for the day came to a screeching halt - the laundry, exercise on the treadmill and the shower after it, cooking lunch and dinner... I did a few tasks that did not require electricity and as the minutes ticked to hours, I finally left to run errands in Missoula & attend my weekly Hebrew class. Thankfully our electric gate opener has a battery attached to it so I could flee my frustration. The power was back on just before I returned home from my Hebrew lesson, where we are translating Genesis. Once again I realized how reliant I am on electricity in my daily life. Before Y2K my husband and I bought a generator strong enough to get the water from our well or to power our freezer for a few hours. However, we never had the proper switch put into our electric box that would allow us to switch over to the generator without causing problems. We must make aquiring that switch a higher priority. My natural self is just like that poor bird. I detect a lack of spiritual power and so ask my heavenly Father what happened. He often reveals that my fleshly self got into the middle of a situation that He had well in hand. I messed it up but good and shorted the whole system for myself and oh so many others!

Truth - Emet

My friend, Sherry & I have attended our last Monday evening video in the "Extraordinary Women" series. Honestly, I should have gotten a clue from the title for this school-year long series for women. I thought that "Extraordinary Women" was somewhat mistitled... that the videos' contents would still reveal the "Extraordinary God" that we ordinary women truly seek. So far, only 3 or 4 of the speakers have met that goal. Our speaker last night didn't. She started with a good topic - "Make Your Marriage a Great Marriage!" Her approach in teaching this topic, however, turned TRUTH on its head. I'm guessing that she borrowed a lesson plan from her husband, who has been a speaker for "PromiseKeepers". She forgot to adapt that lesson geared to men/husbands to her audience - women/wives. She spoke about the five love needs of every woman: unconditional love, emotional intimacy, spiritual intimacy, encouragement and friendship. She systematically addressed how a husband should meet each of these needs. In other words, the speaker set-up our husbands by handing us a list of expectations by which to judge our husbands... expectations that only an Extraordinary God can fulfill. Therefore, our human husbands are bound to fail & we could desperately need her last subtopic: how to guard your heart from affairs, if we try to implement her suggestions. I was completely disoriented when she again flipped the topic's approach and concluded the lecture by quoting Philippians 2.
Wow! She could have started with this Scripture and then clearly presented the TRUTH of how dependence on God totally meets our needs & those of our husband as well. (Psalm 23)
The Hebrew word for TRUTH is EMET. It is spelled using the first, middle and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It illustrates that God's WORD encompasses truth from the first letter to the last. I desire to be obsessed by and to focus totally on the TRUTH of God - the WORD made flesh - Yeshua. (John 17:17, John 14:6) Such a fixed focus transforms a person and gives them God's family resemblance. Then the TRUTH can be lifted up and will draw others to God, who is eternal life. (John 12:32) Focus on myself and my needs will only leave me in the fleshly resemblance of the first Adam - after the Fall. When the Hebrew letters of EMET/TRUTH are reversed, you spell out TEMA, the name of a son of Ishmael. (Genesis 25:15) Yes, TRUTH turned on its head will result in being like Ishmael, one "born according to the flesh". (Galatians 4:23) Sherry and I hope to continue meeting together on Monday evenings. Stay tuned to our blogs to read what will replace the misguiding videos.

Gimel - A Voice in the Wilderness

Still with unhurrying chase, And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, Came on the following Feet, And a Voice above their beat - "Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me." Francis Thompson, "The Hound of Heaven"

Half of February has already passed before I could get back to this blog and fill you in "on the rest of the story." My first entry summarized quickly the character from which I come. Now a hint of the character which I hope to be becoming... can you believe a John the Baptiser or even Elijah?! Remember, my life story is somewhat tied up in the Hebrew letter/word, "gimel", which means "camel". These men both dressed in camel's hair. Just as camel hide was "working clothes" for them physically; they were "working clothes" of the Holy Spirit. That is my aspiration. (By the way, the second, third and fourth letters of the Hebrew alephbet - which I mentioned in the first entry - taken in order spell "beged", meaning "garment".) In the original Torah scrolls that scribes hand-copied for centuries and still do, there is only one place in Scripture where "gimel" is printed oversize. As we have intimated, the "gimel" is a spiritual person dressed up like a camel. The oversized "gimel" is found in the middle verse of the Torah/the 5 books of Moses/ Leviticus 13:33. It is located in the phrase, "v'hit'galach", meaning "And he shall be shaved." (And some people think God has no sense of humor.) I believe that God wants to remove the camel hair so as to reveal the One hidden within - the Holy Spirit - who knocked on the door of the person's life and was asked inside. Have I totally lost you in the Hebrew and theology? I hope not. The meaning of my life & who I really am is best told in this way. I married into a Levite family. Doubly Levite. My husband's father and mother were both totally Levite. Thankfully they both asked the Holy Spirit into their lives before they left this life to be with the Lord. But, that's another story for another time. If you have questions or can not follow my thoughts, I would be happy to try to explain further.

We are in the middle of lambing season. A week ago, one of our six ewes had triplets. Within a few hours, another ewe had twins. If you want to see them, look up the recent blog entries on "Portrait of the Artist..." by Sherry C. and view her great photos. The lambs are hop-skipping around the area fenced-in behind our barn/garage. It's not easy to get things done when such cute babies & their antics are in your backyard.

SHALOM

Shalom...Having read the blogs of a new friend, I decided to try blogging for myself. My initials spell out "camel" phonetically. My Jewish husband and I also raise a few sheep... Romanov-Texel-Columbian to be exact. Sheep are sheared; llamas can be sheared. Can camels be sheared? I think so. I will pretend so and share some of the shearings with you.
I chose this blog name to fit the character from which I come and the character which I hope to be becoming. In the Hebrew alephbet, the third letter is gimel and means "camel". This also stands for: a beast (the carnal self), something lifted up, or self-will/pride. This letter emerges from the second letter, beit, which means "house". ("House" was my maiden name.) Gimel looks like a person walking from the beit to the fourth letter, dalet, which means "door". My spiritual journey began at the age of two-&-one-half. It is also my very first clear memory. I am in a Sunday School class listening to a missionary describe the meaning of a large picture set up in front of the class. The picture is of a man dressed in a robe knocking at a door. The missionary asked us if there was anything unusual about the painting or the door itself. Someone mentioned there was no doorknob or handle with which to open the door from the outside. The missionary explained that our lives are like this picture. God comes knocking on the door of our lives through the convicting of His Holy Spirit, but we are the only ones who can open the door to our lives and let Him inside. I did not respond in that class. But, later, I asked more questions of my father, the minister. My second memory is that of my father and I kneeling at our livingroom couch. I am asking Jesus to come into my life, because I am opening the door. This picture was probably inspired by Revelation 3:20 where Jesus is addressing the church of Laodicea, one of seven churches in Asia Minor to which Revelation was written. This church was proud, complacent and rich. Although this city was known for its wealth, God told the church there to buy their gold from Him - as they were really poor spiritually. Laodicea was proud of its wool cloth and dyeing industries, God told the church there that they were spiritually naked and needed to purchase white garments from Him. This city boasted of the eye salve made at its medical school. God said these folks were blind and needed to get His salve to heal their inner eyes so they could see the truth. The truth was that material possessions are transcient, while a right relationship to God is eternal and life-giving. Of course, as no more than a toddler, I only understood that I asked God to be a part of my life. And He has been since then. Well, enough for now. I'll share more shearings soon, so you can get to know me beneath the camel hair.