Max

Twelve years ago my husband brought a puppy home in a box. He had stopped to visit a family in his senatorial district who operated a hog farm and as God's timing would have it, the cutest litter of border collie pups had just been weaned and David was kindly offered the pick of the litter.
We had four children under age six at the time(and one on the way) the last thing I needed was a puppy to train, but too late, we lost our hearts to the adorable ball of black fluff with the white markings which made him look like a tiny skunk.

Two thousand dollars worth of training later he was obeying me as the alpha dog- translation: the primary care giver while my husband was away four days a week making laws. That is, he obeyed when I was looking.

Well, you can take the dog away from the farm but you can't take the farm out of the dog, and if Max had a theme song, it would have been "The Wanderer". He loved to explore and his adventures brought him to the pound on at least two occasions. Max taught me the importance of name tags and proper ID at all times. The dog officers loved Max and he was given the run of the place until I wearily came to pick him up and pay the fine. The chief officer even offered to adopt him. I often wondered if I had made a mistake in not letting go of the dog whose middle name was trouble when the opportunity arose.
But I couldn't.

Yesterday Sam and Jon-now fifteen, and Joshua eleven, were outside playing basketball and Max decided to wander off one last time. He strolled down our street and around the corner. A neighbor called to let us know he was there and the boys went to retrieve him. But this time he couldn't make it home. His heart was failing.
David and I rushed him to the veterinary clinic and waited. The doctor said it wasn't good, that Max seemed to be indicating that he'd had enough.
This time I had to let him go.

Taming Rafe Blog Tour

Susan May Warren dishes up some old fashioned, diner-sized portions of inspiration- with a side of bronco-riding suspense and an nice slow trail ride of romance for dessert in her new book, Taming Rafe, the second in the Noble Legacy series.
As a new-comer to the Western Romance genre, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was surprised to find myself engrossed in the life of Katherine Breckenridge, heiress to a hotel fortune, and her quest to discover her true identity and her purpose here on earth. I found myself caring about the cast of characters, each having their own secrets and past demons to banish from the plains of their souls. Which brings me to the title character, Rafe Noble, a down on his luck rodeo champion who looks like heaven but smells like trouble- or is it the other way around? Never mind, as I'm sure you can tell, this book transported me from my suburban St.Louis domocile to the dude ranch of my dreams.
Are you tempted yet? If you like stories about second chances and characters that you would like to have as your friends then put the tea kettle on and cozy up in your favorite comfy chair and prepare to get in touch with your inner-cowgirl. I did.

Fasting and Prayer

My life is at a crossroad of sorts. My book project has stalled. I'm wondering if I should give up. It's okay if I do, but I'm trying to get to the bottom of the "Why". The who am I- what am I- of it all. In other words, what are my motives? So I've been doing a fast to clear out the cobwebs. I'm a juice and soup faster and for this carb-especially-chocolate-loving girl, it's a struggle... did I mention my caffeine headache? The green tea isn't cutting it. My body's resistance and protests tell me that my dependency, though on the Lord, gets a major boost from refined sugar and my beloved coffee.

So after two days where am I? In the thick of it- the place where I'm listening to the sermons on the tongue amongst other things, and getting convicted all over the place. But I am feeling God's love, grace and mercy. If I didn't know that He loved me first, I couldn't even face myself, and this fast-small as it is - would be just empty religion.

My conclusion, corny as this may sound, is that I'm going to let Jesus take the wheel.