National Dog Day: Our Great Dane Life

It’s National Dog Day! Woof Woof!

Normally I don’t chime in on these national day of “fill in the blank” but I’ve got to jump on National Dog Day since I now have a dog.  I didn’t even know there was a National Dog Day until just recently!

National Dog Day was founded in 2004 by dog lover Colleen Paige.  The day is celebrated every August 26th.  I like that it is a set date and we don’t have to count out to the fourth Sunday of the month of something like that.

Great Dane, Great Life

Our dog is a Great Dane.  He was born with the Blue Merle gene and therefore was not show quality.  Of course, that hasn’t stopped him from being a family quality dog!

Great Danes are commonly called “gentle giants” and they really are very sweet dogs.  Our dog can’t stand for someone to be upset.  He must come over and try to love them back to happy.  Not all of my friends appreciate his effort!  There is a lot of slobber involved with his affection for sure!

Living with a Great Dane is similar to living with a rock star.  Everyone wants to talk to you about the “horse” you keep inside your home.  Those who are shy may not enjoy the new found popularity that comes with owning a giant breed dog.

The Great Dane Bad

Since people often ask me, “Would a Great Dane be a good fit for my family?” I’m going to start with the “bad” of living with a Great Dane.  Thankfully there are very few of these cons.

In real life, a rock star is expensive.  In Great Dane life, the dog is expensive!  Ours is a little fat, weighing in at 175.  A dog of this size is going to eat a lot more than his 30 pound cousin, he is the size of an adult man.

Medications for a Great Dane are also going to cost you.  Due to the large size of the dog, you’ll need much more medication to reach a therapeutic dose.  They can also have thyroid issues so some medications may not be a good choice for this dog breed.

Their accessories are going to cost more too.  You’ve got to buy or make a much larger bed for your dog.  In the past I would by 6 pillows from the dollar store and then get a king size sheet and sew it into a pillow case.  I’d sew the pillows together and then tack the sheet case to the newly made bed.  After many shredded dog beds, I finally threw in the towel and got him his own sofa.

Toys need to be made of high quality materials if you expect them to last more than a week.  Our darling dog loves to carry around a stuffed animal before bed.  Unfortunately, they don’t last long so we have to keep a nice supply stashed away.

The Great Dane UGly

There is a lot of slobber.  Perhaps the Great Dane breed will not slobber as much as an English Mastiff, but there is definitely a lot to go around still. Our dog will shake his head after every drink and he can fling slobber all the way to ceiling.  There are times he literally wipes his nose on the wall or sofa.  This means we have to schedule plenty of “wall washing days” among other things.

Remember above when I mentioned people ask me about the “horse” I keep?  Well, if he is the size of a horse, you can imagine that his potty trips are the same size as well.  We have literally broken a cheap pooper scooper with this dogs load!

If you’re living in a place that has a limited yard, you may want to consider the waste the dog will need to eliminate.  He has also killed a plant or too with his heavy dose of “watering” as well.

Lastly, they are VERY close to their pack.  Our dog doesn’t do well at all if he has to sleep alone at night.  He needs to be with his people or he will get sick.  We made the mistake once of having a neighbor check on him while we were gone for about 17 hours.  Since we got in so late, he was worried and got a nervous stomach and made a mess.  Our friend did the best she could to clean it up.  It was a very good thing carpet shampooers were available!  As long as he knows we are in the house, he doesn’t mind sleeping alone on his sofa.  From now on, if we leave and can’t take him, we have to find a dog lover to stay with him overnight.

the great dane good

This dog is certainly a loyal friend.  He loves the whole family and doesn’t choose to be loyal to just the alpha family member.

He’s really not a barking dog unless someone comes to visit and then he alerts us to the company.  Most of the time he just sits right under my feet sleeping to day along.   It’s almost like having a living throw rug!

A Great Dane is big enough to go and do long hike trails and enjoy the outdoors with us.  If you end up wearing yourself out, he’s more than happy to sleep the day away with you as well!  I love that his energy level is pretty low but he can also be motivated to “get up and go” for a little chicken and car ride adventure!

In my opinion, the Great Dane is the best dog to own!  Our Great Dane has brought so much joy to our lives.

Here is a video of our Great Dane getting a drink from a water bottle. Such a silly boy.

Young Great Danes at play.

Our Favorite Great Dane Approved Toys and Accessories

Below are affiliate links of products we use and love for our dog.  These links will take you to sites such as amazon if you’d like to purchase some for your own dog.  I do receive a small commission from these companies at no extra charge to you.  I truly appreciate your support!  I’d never violate your trust and recommend products that I don’t use and love myself.

Thank you!

I really appreciate you dropping by today and reading about our dog.  Would you like to hear more about our Great Dane life? Let me know what you think of living with such a large animal in the comments below.

Until Next Time –

Davi

 

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Dear Husband Knows How To Push Buttons

Oh my!  Does my darling husband ever know how to push my buttons!

Nightly dear husband and I have a “date” time that starts shortly after all the littles are in bed.  Most of the time it’s right at 9:15pm give or take few minutes.  When I picked up blogging, I began to work a little a few nights per week during our “date night” time, especially if we are watching a movie.

I cant type a single post without his help.  He just simply must reach over and help me by PUSHING BUTTONS.  So, if you see any typos, it wasn’t me. Haha!

Sometimes he just pushes my fingers

He is still indirectly pressing the buttons through my fingers though.  I personally believe this to be just an excuse to touch my hands.  He finds me so irresistable you know! LOL  Maybe my nailbeds are button like?

Other times he swipes my hands clear off the laptop!  He really thinks he is funny.

Occasionally dear husband presses my nose

He lovingly calls this boop the nose.  Dear husband has seemingly always been fascinated with my nose.  I’m not sure if it’s actually a “button” nose per say.  Even if it’s not a true “button” nose, my husband believes it works well for a button.

The dreaded “tickle buttons”

I’m not a huge fan of being tickled but I suppose if I am to be to tickled, it should be by dear husband.  Of course this often turns into a pillow fight as I try to defend myself.  As long as no elbows are thrown, everything usually works out fine.

Hospital Bed Buttons

I’ve been known to spend some time in the hospital.  One fond memory would be when dear husband was sitting next to me while I was on a hospital bed.  As you’ve probably guessed by this heading, he saw some buttons.  Since this bed was a transfer from the ambulance to the emergency room, it had a big red button that would collapse the legs and fold them up to load into the ambulance.

Dear husband leaned over and said, “Hey baby, what does this button do?”  Before I could muster up a reply his happy button finger was already pressing buttons. The next thing I knew, my legs were being dropped down to the floor with a loud crash!  A nurse ran in with a stern glare and helped put my bed back up.

The Jest

This post is silly of course and pokes a little fun at my beloved.  In all honesty he wouldn’t be picking at me and pressing buttons if I was actually upset.  I knew the risks involved with bringing work to our date. 😉  And, he’s just so cute I can’t possibly get mad.

Do you have a date night with your spouse?  I hope you make time to keep each other first.  We certainly have a blast.  Let me know in the comments below, what do you do to keep your marriage in the romance phase?

Thanks so much for dropping in today.

Until Next Time-

Davi

Psalm 36: A Psalm of David

Psalm 36 A Psalm of David

Today during my devotional I read Psalm 36.  I’ll be honest the first time through I didn’t get much.  I had to apologize to the Lord and ask him to help me wake up.  I haven’t been sleeping well.  It’s probably my kidney stones. :-/

Once I was more alert, I read the chapter again.  The following is what I gleaned from my devotion.  Hope it helps you as well.

1) The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.

For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.

The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.

He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.

Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.

Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.

How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

10 O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.

11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.

12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.

Scripture taken from King James Bible courtesy of BibleGateway

Character of the Wicked

Verse One shows us that the wicked are not at all afraid of God, not even when they commit an act of wickedness.  We can also deny God in our lives when we choose to willfully sin, at that moment, we are telling God we are not afraid of his chastisement for sin.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be lumped in with, “the wicked” and it scares me to think of how God views a willful sin.

Verse two shows us that wicked think much more of themselves than they ought too.  Now, the Merriam-Webster dictionary tells us that flattery can be an insincere praise and this wicked person could possibly be offering himself that, a form of pride, but I think “a pleasing self-deception” is more likely what this wicked person is doing.

After all, Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Apparently this wicked person’s lack of ability to recognize how deceived and prideful he or she is also leads to being hateful.

Titus 3:3  “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.”

As hard as it may be to grasp, before Jesus came into our lives and saved us, we were hateful.  I certainly have no desire to go back to malice, envy, and hatefulness after all the Lord has done for me.  Pride will put us right back in that place of hating and envy so we need to guard our hearts and protect against it.

Verses three and four show us that when a wicked person speaks, they are saying ugly things and/or deceiving others with their words.  This deception is for their own personal gain, not to actually help others.  The thoughts of the wicked person are all vanity as well.   This person can only think of plans that go against the Word of God.  They have forsaken wisdom from God and have turned to whatever sounds best to them.

I aspire to be a lady in whose mouth was found no guile.  Unfortunately, I can’t say that is true all the time.  I have been provoked to anger and I’ve certainly said some things I wish I could take back.  Haven’t you?  I do believe that God is faithful and he alone can help us to be a purer vessel that will be found with no guile.  All we have to do is let him work in our hearts.

God’s attributes

When I think of just a handful of God’s attributes, I’m truly overwhelmed.  My friend sings a song called, In My Father’s Eyes.  You may have heard it as well.  I honestly can’t imagine what the Lord saw when he reached down for me.

Verses five and six tell of us God’s mercy, faithfulness, righteousness, and judgement.   He is faithful to extend mercy to us so many more times over than we deserve.  I know that just since I’ve been saved, I’ve failed him more than I could count and yet he’s NEVER failed me.

His righteousness is GREAT like the mountains.  I’ve not seen many mountains, but when I have, I just have to stand in awe.  It’s so beautiful yet so intimidating.  Can you imagine meeting someone that was so right in all they did that they were never wrong?  Wouldn’t it be intimidating just to sit and eat with them?  Think of an extraordinarily successful person, how would you feel sitting with them to a meal?  Honored I’m sure, but you’d also put on your nicest clothes, make sure you didn’t over eat, and maybe refresh your manners.  And yet God, who is right in all his judgments, desires a relationship with us!

Lastly, in verse six, we are told that God himself, not anything we can do, preserves both mankind and animals.  Why does he do that?  He loves his creation!  That is why he sent his beloved and only begotten son to die for our redemption and that’s why he still preserves us today.  I’ve faced a lot of illness, so have many of my friends and sometimes all I could trust was God will preserve me and hold me together.

Colossians 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

That single verse kept me going through some of the worst pain in my life. If you’d like to read about the painful disease called endometriosis I lived with for years, click here.

The Joy of the Christian!

Now that we have seen the traits of the wicked and the holiness of God, David gets excited over the life of the redeemed!

In verses seven through ten we see the lovingkindness of God mentioned twice.  Not only does he love us, he expresses that love with kindness.  What good does it do to love someone and never show them your love with kindness?

As wives, we need to show our love to our husbands.  It’s so easy to get caught up in the mundane, run of the mill life.  Don’t forget to find ways to show your husband you love him.  As a mother, we need to show our children love.  As home educating moms it is very easy to get wrapped up in paperwork and lessons and find yourself not showing the love your children need.

Daniel 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

As women, we need to protect ourselves from fatigue because the devil is doing his best just to wear us out.  I don’t know about you, but when I’m wore out, I’m not loving.  Be vigilant to protect your heart, mind, and the body from just being worn out.   For some of us with chronic illness, this means we will need to say “no” to some things so we can stay healthy enough to take care of our families.

In verse seven, my King James Bible has a note on the word “excellent”  and it says “precious.” Is the lovingkindness of God still precious to you?  If you find you’ve been taking for granted the lovingkindness of the almighty God who desires a one on one relationship with you, it’s time for a heart check.  Above all, we should never forget to show the Lord our love in return for all he’s done.

David’s Request

Verse eleven is a prayer made by David.  David is asking God to keep him from being puffed up with pride.  The position of King can cause a man to become full of pride.  Pride was the devil’s sin and he will provoke us to be prideful as well.

1 Corinthians 8:1 “Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.”

David was a good King and he knew that he needed God’s help to stay humble and keep his mind pure.   God gave a wonderful testimony about King David when he said that David had followed God all the days of his life, except for the matter of Uriah, the Hittite.

1 Kings 15:5 “Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”

If even the great King David could fall into sin, how much more do we need pray this prayer, let not the foot of pride come against me?  Probably every one of us could improve our prayer life.

The Plight of the Wicked

Verse twelve shows us that wicked do not truly prosper in the end.  The wicked fall and are cast down.  There is no one to help them help stand back up since they have turned from God.

In contrast, a righteous man can fall and God will send someone to help him back up.  A righteous man knows when he has made a mistake or even committed a sin.  King David certainly knew and he was very quick to repent and ask God’s forgiveness and help when he did mess up.

Proverbs 24:16 “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

Final Thoughts

There is a lot to unpack in this short Psalm.  Twelve verses cross reference us all over the book and teach us a lot!  I’m thankful that God wrote his word down for us to read over and over again.

As Christians, we should seek to make improvements on our lives daily.  If we are successful with making those improvements through daily sanctification, we need to take care that we do not become filled with pride.  We need to remember that we can slide right back into the behavior of the wicked man.

2 Corinthians 10:12 “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”

We also need to remember not to compare ourselves with what we perceive another Christian lady to be.  We need to stay in our own lane, run our own race, and compare ourselves with the perfect example, Jesus.  How well are we shining Jesus through our life?

If you’re still reading, I truly want to thank you for stopping by.  Let me know if this daily devotional helped you.  I love to hear from readers.

Until next time-

Davi

 

 

What To Do When You Fail

When You Fail, Dont Stay Down.

We have all probably heard the famous Thomas Edison quote, “I have not failed.  I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”  They key to his success was learning from the first mistake and doing something differently the next time he tried to reach his goal.   When you fail, you need to be like Thomas Edison!  Dust yourself off and try again.

Let’s take a minute to look at some things to do when you fail to get back on the horse again.  Each failure, when properly analyzed can be a stepping stone on your path to success.

Relax and Step Back

Don’t be too hard on yourself when you dont meet a goal.  If you’re anything like me, it’s pretty easy to brow beat yourself for not reaching an expected goal.  Yes, we want to meet deadline and crush our goals, but spending to much time kicking yourself while down hinders your bounce back.

Let’s face it, we have enough negativity coming at us from other areas in life.  You can’t always control what you hear from your boss, team leader, or co-worker but, you can control what you hear from yourself.  Don’t be your own worst enemy!  Be realistic, not self destructive.

Take Inventory

Next, you will want to break down the steps you took in your attempt to reach your goal.  Have you ever woken up and thought, how did I get here?  Sometimes we don’t really realize how certain decsions will hinder our progress on the road to our goal.  For example,  if you have a financial goal to save a certain amount of money in a week but you give in to the temptation of buying a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee every day on the way home from work or school, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.  Without really realizing it, you’ve spent $10.75 or more.  Small decisions can add up to a derailing quickly!

Perhaps you plan to write a novel and you set a goal to finish the entire manuscript in 4 months and then you fail to reach the goal.  Begin to take inventory by asking yourself some questions.  1) Did I have a good idea for a story?  2) Did I make an outline of the basic story? 3) Did I think through my main characters?  4) Did I set small daily writing goals?

As you answer the questions you have about your failure it becomes easy to identify your weaknesses.  For me, failure to meet a daily writing goal happens a lot.  Some of this is the season of life I’m in and some of it, if I’m honest, is just poor time management skills.  These are examples of things I have actually failed at in my daily life!  You now have the priviledge of learning from my mistakes.

Remember failure is an event, not a person.

Failure happens to the very best of us.  In fact, it’s a vital part of learning.  Both failure and success are just an event that happens, neither are people.  If you show me a successful person, Mark Cuban comes to mind as I write this, I’ll show you a failure too!

It is so very imporant and liberating to remember that a failure is simply an event in your day, like the page on a book.  This failure does not and will not define you as person.  My husband often says that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.

A success, lottery winners for example, can quickly turn into failure if you react to it wrong.  Often we see lottery winners spend money so quickly that they don’t have enough money for taxes and end up with a large IRS problem.  Inversely, a failure can spur innovative thinking and creativity that can launch a new product, a new career, Lydia Senn’s virtual assistant career comes to mind, or maybe even a new scientific theory!

Failure is Education

Failing isn’t really the issue, the issue is refusing to learn from the event.  I’m sure you’ve heard of “the school of hard knocks.”  Using a failed circumstance as merely a learning expierence is what that saying refers too.

You can go to school and get a degree in buisness and still not learn everything you need to know about your business.  The failures you meet along the way on the road to building your business are going to provide valuable lessons you just can’t get in the class room.

I remember years ago in EMT training we had drill days to practice our skills that we studied in books.  Everything reads well in the books but it’s very different when you try to put a C-Collar on a person in  an actual squashed car.

In high school my brother watched all of games on video so he could identify his weakness or point of failure during a game.  By doing this week in and week out over the course of his high school career he was able to improve significantly faster than those who relied solely on the coach’s observations.  He won many achievements and awards by using failure as a teacher and we can do the same.

Failure is NOT an Excuse

Finally, failure is not an excuse to give up.  My father always told me that nothing worth doing is easy.  Maybe that’s not exactly true since eating is relatively easy but, his point was clear.  Worthwhile things take time and commitment.  If something goes wrong, we need to be problem solvers and not quitters.

Winners don’t always win but a quitter will certainly never win.  Failure can drive us to educate ourselves better and change tactics but it should never be an excuse to just give up.  What if you are only one failure away from success?  Don’t let failure scare or stop you!  Remember it’s not a person, it’s just part of life.

In fact, Jesus told us to expect to fail at some point!

Luke 16:9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

Prepare to Fail Again

Since we now know that failure will always be a part of life,  we need to prepare ourselves to face many times over the course of our lives.   Failure doesn’t have to be a terrifying monster.  It is something we can tame if we view it differently.

Tom Corley has a great book that show us how our daily habits can be a point of failure.  I highly recommend giving this book a good read!  I bought my copy on google play books with some reward money.  I’ve linked a hard copy version from Amazon here.  I enjoyed this book so much, I ordered one for my public library.

In order to accomplish great things one must be willing to risk a great failure.

“It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.” —Abraham Lincoln

I hope this has helped you to view failure in a new light.  Please comment below, I love to hear from readers.

Until next time-

Davi