Familial Research and Development

Dove awoke with a start! He looked for Mimi but she was no where to be seen. Then he noticed his tail was long again. Then he heard someone shouting, "Dove, Dove, Dove!" Then he woke again and saw Mimi. She was whispering, "Dove, wake up." "What?" said Dove. "Shhhh, you passed out after the stink bug squirted you and in all your prancing around you landed under a beehive. Be quiet!" said Mimi. Things couldn't have felt more bleak to Dove. He had to make sure he was only hallucinating about being in a jungle where so many sheep were swallowed whole by an anaconda. And now he was under a beehive?! Things couldn't get worse. Then they did. There in his view was the biggest spider he had ever seen. Oh! Ewwww! Please let me wake up and be far, far away from this place. The wind was blowing but the spider merely bounced in the security of its very sturdy web. That was it. Dove couldn't take any more. He jumped up and ran pell-m...

Dove was walking with his herd at the beach. He had finally got the burrs out of his coat and planted them carefully. Then he noticed a sand structure. Dove walked closer only to see a little black bug walk out. He leaned to sniff at it and got squirted. It smelled horrible! Illustrated by D. Oscarson Dove started running around trying to get the juice off. Then he jumped into the water. Two days later the farmer drove them to a nearby jungle. Then Mimi said, "We aren't supposed to be here." "Where are we?  asked Dove. "We are in a jungle. My uncle's, dad's, grandmother's, and Aunt's, Nephew's wife died in this very jungle." replied Mimi. "How?" asked Dove. "A snake called an anaconda ate her. My great-grandmother said it was a very sad!"

After experiencing about kites, Dove found a painted strange thing on the ground. It looked like this: It was interesting to look at. The design seemed balanced. Mimi asked Dove Step, "How many ants does it take to lift one ton?" Dove chucked as he thought for a second, then replied, "A ton of ants!" Dove's mom called to him to come see something she found stuck in the grass. He came romping over to see what all the excitement was about. What he saw next was interesting and definitely was NOT something to eat. It was long, thin and white. It had a funny kind of interesting pattern on it.  Mom explained about snakes and how they shed their skins as they grow bigger. What they were then looking at was a snake skin. She then explained the respectful caution they needed to exercise around rocky and grassy places-where snakes regularly frequent. As Mimi and Dove wandered off, Mimi noticed something stuck in Dove's fleece. "What's that in ...

"It's bedtime-time" said Dove as he fell asheep! The next morning the flock grazed by a pond. It was formed when the snow melted so fast that the water pushed broken tree limbs, rocks and mud against some bounders. The water was cool and clear. There were so many new things to explore and learn about. Dove noticed a green lump with eyes. When it blinked Dove realized that only one eye closed at a time. Dove was curious if this green lump was green food nor not. So, Dove stuck his pink tongue out to taste this lump of a bump on a log. WOW! Was he surprised when this lump stuck a tongue out that then touched his! It was SLIMY! It didn't make any noise and didn't try to get away. Turns out his throat was sore. You might say he had a frog in his throat so he couldn't croak! Soon Dove saw a patch of green in the water and wondered if this was food. It didn't have eyes so he was hopeful. He pulled some up with his tongue and nibbled on it. As he chewed...

Very early in the morning the "ankle-biters" came. Well, that's what all the lambs called them. AND there were a lot of helpers with the farmer and the shepherd and the helpers brought their helpers. There were dogs, helpers, four-wheelers and tall, huge horses. They were all headed up the road leading up the canyon to the pastures. Along the road Dove saw different flowers. Some were a very brilliant reddish orange on stalks. Very pretty! Dove noticed a few of the sheep tended to want to walk faster and also to wander off away from the flock. Silly sheepies! They could get lost. They could end up all alone. In the dark of night, this is not just a scary concept but could also be dangerous. Who knows what lurks in the dark. But Dove didn't know that when he looked away those sheep did go wandering around and he didn't notice that the sheep wandered off. The following morning he said, "Oh no! Those sheep wandered off!" The morning air was re...

Today I wondered: "Is this how it felt for Him days and millennia after He cast out 1/3 of His children? Does He still recall the sweet interactions He had with them? Does His heart still ache?" What lead to this musing? When I was a kid there were a few things that happened that were very painful and difficult to bear. One of those things was how my parents disciplined us kids. Dad was volatile-to put it mildly. He took out his anger and frustrations on Mom a lot. As we two older kids aged, his anger started turning toward us. One day my big brother had gone out to play baseball in the street with the other kids. He hit that ball so hard it busted a car window. Oh man! You should have seen the kids scatter. Soon enough there was a conversation between dad and the car owner, a promise to pay for the damages and then a conversation (politely put) between dad and my big brother. Every pay day dad would make a payment on the repair bill on his way home from work. When...

Chapter 5 Very early in the morning the “ankle-biters” came. Well that’s what all the lambs called them. AND there were a lot of helpers with the farmer and the shepherd. The helpers brought their own helpers. So going up to the mountains with the flocks were dogs, helpers, four-wheelers and tall, huge horses. Up the road, up the canyon and to the pastures we all went! Along the road Dove saw different flowers. Some were yellow. Some were purple (these were on the alfalfa plants and tasted very sweet). Some were a very brilliant reddish orange on stalks. Very pretty indeed! Dove also saw purple flowers. They tasted like…. Well, nothing! Mimi told Dove that they turn pink later. Mimi even found a pretty pink flower. The leaf was soft and fuzzy. Dove noticed some few of the sheep tended to want to walk faster and others wandered off away from the flock. Silly sheepies! They could get lost. They could end up all alone. In the dark of night-this is not just a scary concep...