2 Fires

We were back to freezing this morning as the temperature outside was 32 degrees.  I called the Illinois Eye Center at 7:30 am just to make SURE the appointment really was at the Peoria Facility. The lady that answered the phone confirmed that. At 8:15 I left for the appointment and arrived at 8:41 am, just 4 minutes before my appointment. The receptionist checked me in then had to figure out where the doctor was working as he had been moved over. She finally had me go to waiting room number 2 where I sat for an hour and 15 minutes. Marcus the therapy dog was wandering around the building and came in our waiting room where anyone that wanted got a chance to meet him.  As I was near the door he came to me first. Some of the patients did not want to touch him but quite a few did.

The picture below was taken as he went to the other side of the room. 

Once I was called in and checked over by the nurse I was taken to another waiting room until an exam room opened up to see Dr. Kolettis. It had been 10 years since anyone has looked at my eyes. In those 10 years I have a good start on cataracts and now have to go yearly. I also was struggling with being able to open my eyes each morning and that was diagnosed as dry eye and I have to get 2 different kinds of drops for that. One for the daytime and one at bedtime. Oh well I guess it is part of getting old. At least both are just over the counter so I didn't need a prescription. I thought I would be able to drive over to the Berean office once finished as I thought if it starts at 8:45 am I should be less than a half an hour late but the nurse stuck 2 drops in my eyes around 10:00 am, one was a yellow numbing medicine and the next was to dilate my pupils. When I walked out of the Eye Center at 10:30 am I was really struggling to see. I knew I would be useless at the Berean office.  I was given sun glasses which helped some and I drove myself home but it really wasn't safe. Thankfully the roads were not crowded and the way home well known. When Mark walked in he had to laugh at my eyes. 

This was around 11:00 am. It took quite a while for the pupils to go back to normal. It was cold in the house. Mark had decided to remove the wood from the porch but I wanted to start a fire to warm the house up so chopped some kindling while he loaded some of the wood up then swept up the area before moving the wood rack back.

Joan needed to borrow the truck and 2 horse trailer to pick up some furniture in Groveland and take to to Morton, IL to Faith and Andrew's new house. I took the golf cart up to the barn then hooked up the truck to the trailer. I was just getting ready to pull it out so I could clean it when Joan arrived. She cleaned out the trailer. Once she was on the road I took the cleaning supplies over to the barn and worked there for 3 hours getting the gym and game room organized, the floors swept the master bathroom closet organized and hunted down and swept up Asian beetles that found their way in. There were 4 fuzzy caterpillars that survived the winter and some how crawled into the gym. They probably wont survive their next adventure as they were thrown into the garbage and that bag hauled over to the dumpster. I stopped in to see mom before going home to make dinner. I tried a new coleslaw recipe and Mark, who doesn't like any coleslaw liked this, he recommended making it for a Sunday dinner but we won't be here next Sunday as we are leaving on Friday for Gulf Shores. We have a airbnb guest coming into the foaling apartment Thursday for 3 nights and also a group coming into the barn on Saturday. Anna and Braelyn are willing to clean the foaling apartment as they will still be here when the guests leave. 

News here in the Peoria area was right at the junction of 74 and 474 an Aldi truck caught on fire and shut down the interstate.

I'm not sure who took the picture above but the video below was posted by the Peoria Area Scanner & Dashcam

Gulf Shores is also in trouble. There is a fire at the state park. WKRG posted the picture below. A tree fell on a power line and started this fire. 

Helicopters are being used to bring water from the Gulf.

Unexpected

 Months ago I made an eye doctor appointment at Illinois center and was given 2 locations ,either the Peoria one our the Pekin one, I wanted to see the doctor I saw last time. I was ok with either location but wanted an appointment as soon as possible as I am having trouble seeing clearly. They told me the quickest would be at the Pekin office on March 24th which was a Tuesday so I asked for the afternoon. Well the card came a few days ago to remind me of the appointment and when I opened it up to look at it this morning found they have scheduled me in Peoria and at 8:45 am. That was quite unexpected. That meant I could not go to the Berean office tomorrow morning. Skip was sent a text that I would not be there but would drop off a treat for the volunteers then went to work cleaning our house. Today I organized the closets upstairs, cleaned both bedrooms and the bathroom then started on the laundry. When the last load was in the washer I left for Kroger to pick up pecan sticky buns for the Berean office then to Berean to drop off the buns. When I got home I had about a half an hour to work on the barn before I needed to be over at mom's as Joan had the Pleasant Hill dinner. The kitchen floor was swept and the garbage all collected before I had to quit. Hopefully tomorrow after the eye exam I'll have a few hours to finish cleaning at the barn. Mom was sleeping when I arrived, Mackenson was at his house but walking over for dinner and Berlica was downstairs. Supper was ready at 5:35 pm. We had a quiet evening. After dinner Joan drove to Groveland to check out a table, 6 chairs and a china cabinet for Faith and ended up buying it. She will use the truck and trailer to pick it up tomorrow afternoon. 

Engagement Announcement

Last night while we were having potluck Joan was serving lasagna to her family and others.  Joan sent a text with a picture.

As they wouldn't be announced until today we couldn't say anything. I slipped my phone to Mark to show him the picture and the rest of the evening we were anxious to hear their story. After the guests left I walked from the barn over to mom's to meet him. I got to talk just a few minutes to him before needing to go back to the barn and David and Stephanie sent the message they were on their way to pick up Israel and Elisabet. I went to bed just after 10 but my mind wouldn't shut off. It was hard to get up this morning but I was up before 6:00 am and got the 8 pounds of hamburger browned, then added that to the spaghetti sauce, then started putting together 2 crockpots of lasagna for tonight. Those were put on low for 3 hours then timed to turn off at 11:00 am. We left for church just after 8:00 am so we could be there by 8:30 to help with getting the lunch ready. Joan arrived with mom and right about then Randy and Kathy arrived with Nancy. Nancy was thrilled to see Joan and could hardly wait to go into church. Gregg Rumbold had the morning message on the last part of Colossians 4. To watch that message click HERE.  I admit my mind kept wandering to the announcements and wondering more about this man who was going to marry my niece. As soon as the announcement was made I sent a picture to our family chat to let my kids know about Josh and Sarah. Sarah was swamped at lunch and I didn't get much chance to talk to her. I told mom she is going to have another grandson and she replied, "what else is new?" Too True!  The afternoon service was the Sunday School Easter program. Mark was not feeling well, he was light headed and decided to stay out in the foyer. It was Nancy's first time to be in the program. She was so thrilled she clapped for herself.

I left right after the program to check on Mark but asked Hannah if she would take his blood pressure. When I got to Mark he was feeling better. Someone gave him a bottle of water and after drinking that he felt better. Maybe he is just getting dehydrated. He is going to make an effort to drink more. When we got home the lasagna was still hot but not over cooked. The salad was made, the bread sliced and butter added between the slices and wrapped in aluminum foil for heating up just before supper. I had a large apple pie for our dessert that was put in the barn oven at 4:00 pm. Supper was ready right at 4:30 pm and was good. After supper the volley games started. Below is a short video of some of the volley's the team that was behind pulled ahead then won it in overtime. 

Some of the girls went fishing over at great grandma's with David. He sent back these two pictures.

Those fish are hungry.

Berlica came over and told us Josh and Sarah were at Grandma's so we asked her to go back and see if they would come meet the family here at the barn (there were a lot of us) and tell us their story. Below they are just walking in.

It really was wonderful to hear their story and learn all about Josh. By the time they left we were all thankful and happy for the both of them. Yes we all approved of this marriage.

We didn't leave the barn until after 8:00 pm but almost everyone stayed that long to listen to Sarah and Josh. What an amazing story they have.

 

Food & Fellowship

 I was up at 5:30 am and went straight to working getting the roasts in the oven. Mark was fed breakfast a little early as he wanted to drive the mower from his brother over to Phil and Anna's house this morning as they don't have a mower. I needed to follow him driving the car with the flashers on as it only goes 6 mph at the top speed.

Thankfully they live just down the road from us. It really didn't take very long before he was pulling into their drive.

I left then for church. David and  Stephanie along with Benj and Kristin are serving lunch tomorrow so all the parents showed up early to help. Dana and Marvin got all the tables washed and dried.

Gail and Martha Kay went to work cutting the clusters of grapes.

Kristin's girls set the tables. Then they all went to work cutting the meats and cheeses.

After I finished I drove home to get the barn living area swept and mopped and restock the bathrooms for today's potluck. I also got the table set.

At 3:00 pm I needed to get Disco out and give him a good groom. He had lots of visitors today. Berlica brought Joshua over, well really Joshua drove her over on the golf cart under her supervision.

The family that is going to be buying him arrived at 3:30 pm to introduce him to their children.

They were shown how I have been leading him and how he needs to stop when I say woah. I also picked up all 4 hooves without a problem. I left then to get a shower. At 4:15 the meat was removed from the oven so the potatoes could go in at 400 degrees. Those were drizzled with olive oil, some garlic and then parmesan cheese and baked for 40 minutes. The meat was falling apart tender so the bones were removed and most of the fat before spreading it all out on a jellyroll pan and spreading bbq sauce on each piece. Once the potatoes were done the meat was put under the broiler for a few minutes then covered well and taken with the potatoes over to the barn. I was unrolling the bouncy house when the potluck guests started to arrive. Not that they wanted to use the bouncy house. Bill and Bethany are in town and their children love to play in it and planned on coming over later this evening.. As David and Stephanie were at a wedding we had Israel and Elisabet for dinner too. The food was excellent. I had forgotten to take a picture of it before I ate but the meat was tender Kathleen made an amazing salad, Crystal brought 2 kinds of bread, I chose the cinnamon bread but the cheese bread was also delicious. Lois brought the green beans that had a sweet sauce made from some of the bacon grease, vinegar and sugar.

Eunice brought a raspberry dessert that was the perfect ending.

We had such a nice evening together. Israel and Elisabet were glad when Joshua and William came over to play with them. They had been fishing and were pretty pleased to have caught some stripers. Of course they let them go but had so much fun pulling them in. The guests left and a few minutes later David and Stephanie arrived to pick up their children. 

We all really enjoyed the food and the fellowship tonight.

It is after 10:00 pm I have some pans to wash in the morning then the lasagna to put together before church AND we have promised to go early to help so I'd better head to bed NOW.

 

Feels Like Summer

 I stopped in at mom's this morning to ask if they needed anything from Sam's Club. Mom was out of cream for her coffee and since the rotisserie chickens are still only $5.00 that was put on the list. I dropped off the clean dish towels and dish rags at the barn and brought back 8 pounds of hamburger to defrost for the Sunday meal. 

Once at Sam's the cream and 2 chickens were put in the cart.  I bought the rest of the ingredients for the Sunday meal plus carrots, and  a coleslaw mix I want to try next week. I also stopped at Aldi and picked up a jar of sauerkraut so I could make Ruebens for our supper tonight. 

I dropped off one of the chickens and the cream at mom's then deboned the chicken, cut up some of the carrots, celery, an onion and made a big pot of soup. After that was simmering I mixed up a batch of Thousand Island dressing for our Reubens. Half of the soup was taken over to mom's for later, we ate some for our lunch. I ended up with 3 quarts to freeze. Mark had a doctor appointment this morning to find out why he has been getting dizzy and feeling weak. They ran an ekg and found he had some heart damage but no way to tell when that happened. 

We had a high of 78 degrees today and the daffodils popped out.

Mark wanted to fill the generator with gas as the last time we lost electricity the generator ran until it was out of gas. 

This evening Israel came for a couple hours while his parents were attending a rehearsal dinner at the barn. He helped Mark by bringing back the golf cart, then running a couple errands with that. The sunset was lighting up the sky as he was helping. 

When he finished he went into the Tesla and played some driving games. He got in lots of driving this evening.

The meat for potluck tomorrow was prepared tonight and put back in the fridge. That needs to go into the oven early tomorrow morning and cook at 225 for hours.  

Life After Death

 Ruth was going to babysit today for Anni so as soon as Mark and I finished breakfast I used the golf cart to first stop at the barn to get the last of the cleaning done then get to mom's by 8:30. Ruth had a brisket defrosted so that was prepared for cooking wrapped well in aluminum foil and put in the oven at 225 by 8:45 am. Aunt Jinnie called this morning and we all had a good visit. Right after lunch it had warmed up enough that we made our way out to the deck. I couldn't get the awning to work but when Rachel came over she found an umbrella. 

Berlica came over and told us it was the plug last time it didn't work. I unplugged the cat's heated water bowl and plugged the awning in that outlet and it worked. As Rachel was there I left for my house. The ladies had already arrived at the barn to decorate for the rehearsal dinner that will be tomorrow evening. Sarah dropped off Israel here so Mark and Israel were working on taking the snow tires off on both my car and his black car and replacing them with our summer tires. They were working in the back garage.  I had the corned beef simmering on the stove and wanted to finish that meal so didn't go back to see their progress.  At 2:45 am mom was ready to come back inside and after getting her settled in her chair finished the brisket. When I got back to the house Israel was checking the tire pressure on all of the tires on Mark's car.

Mark told me later Israel could pretty much change the tires and check the air without any help from him. He just supervised.

When he finished with Mark's car he went with me up to feed the stallions and the weanlings.

As we are now both in our 70s it is so nice to have grandchildren help.

As soon as we got back to the house Mark was ready to take him home but first stopped to pick up Elisabet from Sarah's house. By the time Mark got home the Irish dinner (just 2 days late) was finished and ready for us to eat.

That turned out delicious plus we now have left over corned beet for Rueben sandwiches tomorrow. I only have to go buy a jar of sauerkraut from Aldi. I took some potatoes, carrots and cabbage over to mom's house to go with the brisket. Ruth said it was delicious. 

Mark named his new car Fred and every once in a while I get a text from Fred telling me something Mark left undone. This evening Fred sent a text that the trunk was not shut. Yesterday Fred sent a text that the doors were unlocked. I think Fred enjoys telling on Mark. VRBO allowed us to book another condo in the same complex and have promised to reimburse us for the extra. We got a notice that the reimbursement is on the way. The cancellation turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The new one is much nicer. We leave for Gulf Shores on March 28th and won't be home until late on April 4th. It will be spring break there and will be crowded, not the best time to go but when family is going to be there it is much more fun then just going alone. 

Rhonda had asked Rachel if she and David would be willing to do a family night at the fellowship hall and share about his heart attack.. When Rhonda asked, Rachel suggested maybe it would be better held at the barn. Rhonda quickly sent this text back: I just read this:  Deuteronomy 28:8 the LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns and all that you undertake. YEP this needs to be held at the barn.  They have picked a date and anyone that is interested is invited.

From RACHEL SAUDER:

Saturday April 25th, 2026.

Many have asked us to share David's "life after death" experience so this will be a night of acoustic worship starting at 6:30, followed by David and myself sharing our testimony of God's goodness and faithfulness through this past year. We hope you will join us

This will take place at the barn.

Psalm 147:3-7

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

The Lord lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.

Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God.

We will have refreshments at the end of the night.

Jamaica Fund Raiser

 We were both up at 4:00 am this morning. Not sure why but up and ready to start the day. I went over early to finish the living area of the barn and got all the floors done and the tables and chairs back where they need to be then went over and visited with mom and Ruth until after 8:00 am. Mark came walking over with a bag of garbage from our house so we went home together on the golf cart. Breakfast was the usual eggs, sausage, toast and instead of strawberries Mark cut and ate an orange. I had 3 loads of laundry that needed to be done and once that was started drove to Kroger to see if they had any corned beef marked down. Not only did that NOT have any marked down they didn't have any at all. I stopped at Aldi to get some lemons for Mark and found Aldi still had some but not marked down. I bought a 4 pound corned beef for $25.00. I also picked up a cabbage, potatoes and carrots and will make that tomorrow for our meal. Last year after St. Patrick's day the corned beef was all marked down so we had decided to have that Irish meal a day late. That sure didn't work out this year. We like the corned beef left over to make Rueben sandwiches later. Mark drove Mackenson and Berlica to play practice and was back here by the time I got home from shopping. I had ordered 4 queen size waterproof mattress protectors from Utopia last week. This was the first time I have ever ordered from them and was suspicious but Diane recommended buying them from there. They arrived today so one was taken up to the foaling apartment and put on the queen size bed in the Master bedroom. I see why Diane recommended them. The other 3 will go over to the barn for the 3 upstairs bedrooms but not today. While driving back and forth from the house to the apartment I stopped to get a picture of 3 of the weanlings all snug resting in the hay. 

The 4th was in the other shelter eating off the round bale. Mike went to Middle Grove to put hay in as he is leaving for Gulf Shores for a week but only put 2 bales in. The grass is coming up great there. There is nice green grass everywhere. They sure won't be eating off the bales. We left for church at 6:10 pm tonight. Tim Roecker had the message on 1 Kings 13, an interesting chapter. Click HERE to listen to that.  Tonight after church instead of going out to eat the Bible class served the entire church warm chocolate chip cookies, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, then whipped cream then drizzled with chocolate fudge sauce and that was served with decaf coffee or cold milk. This was a fund raiser for their mission trip to Jamaica and was well attended. Below Chelise is looking at all the pictures.

Below they are serving us the goodies. Eden was in charge of the cookies, Tim was serving the ice cream, Berlica serving the cool Whip and I think that is Anna with the hot fudge.

Most of us stayed a while to visit. We didn't get home until close to 9:30 pm. 

St Patrick's Day

 It was only 9 degrees outside so at 7:45 am I went out to start my car.  The driver's side door was frozen shut as was the back door. Thankfully I was able to open the passenger side, got my left leg over the seat to hit the brake pedal so I could push the start button. The heater was put on defrost and I left to go in and make breakfast. At 8:00 am I went back outside and the ice was still so thick on the front window I had to get a scraper and start scraping. I was able to leave at 8:15 am. What a waste of gas and time. I really should have put the car up in the indoor arena before the storm. I stopped at Sam's club to pick up a key lime pie for the Berean volunteers and a rotisserie chicken for us. When I arrived a lot of the volunteers were already there. The parking lot was a sheet of ice and Skip had to shovel the drift in front of the door before people could get inside. We had a visitor today, David, the director of Berean Prison Ministry arrived to spend some time this morning at this office and see what happens. He sat down with Marvin and Marvin was able to explain the problems we have been having getting Bibles and studies into the prisons.

As mom wasn't able to come Sharon worked on mom's job which was stamping the return address on each envelope, Shirley ran the postage machine and Shirl worked on applying labels on the envelopes and putting the envelopes on the studies.

Kathy was our only reader. We had 21 Bible requests today.

At 9:30 am Marvin's alarm goes off so all in the other room gather in this room for the prayer. Today David had the prayer for us.

We were able to finish and get everyone to their car safely even though no melting had happened yet. It was still very cold but was in double digits. We are very thankful for a working furnace, the Berean office was comfortable while we were working, no one complained about being cold.

After leaving I had to stop at Meister's to drop off Bible studies for Amanda's mom to grade. As 116 is closed I had to go to the Bartonville exit then take Kickapoo Creek Rd. I couldn't even drive up to the main drive at Meisters as the county had big boom trucks setting new poles.

It was back to Bartonville to drop off the Bibles at that post office. Then instead of going Smithville road I had to go the road toward Kroger as Smithville road is closed at the bridge. About then noticed my car was getting low on gas so stopped at the Circle K to find gas is now $4.00 a gallon. I'm really glad my car only took 8 gallons. As long as I was near Aldi I stopped there to pick up some fruit, eggs, tuna fish, pickles and lettuce. I had to take Lancaster road home because of the detour making it home by noon. Mark was ready for lunch and a couple pieces of chicken were just heated up in the microwave. Mark took the left over pie over to mom's to find Dan and Susan there visiting with mom along with Rachel and Ruth. Dan and Susan finished loading up all of the wedding decorations. Mark went over to start the floor cleaning. I organized the gym, then the closet. The gym looks empty now that all of those gorgeous wedding decorations are now all gone.

Mark moved all the tables and chairs over so he could scrub the floor of the living area.

My guests sent a message that they had left the foaling apartment so I went there next. They had left it very nice. I just grabbed the laundry to do at my house then made the beds.

Braelyn is coming tonight to finish the cleaning. She will need to sweep and mop the floor, make sure the bathroom and kitchen are cleaned. Rachel bought the Irish meal at Gil's Supper Club and took that to mom's house.

They had the left over key lime pie for their dessert. They all enjoyed the meal. Rhonda and Spark also enjoyed the corned beef meal down in Missouri.

They REALLY dressed up for St. Patrick's Day.

Spark said his was only $1.99 and he couldn't resist it, it even came with feet. 

Ice Snow Wind

 We awoke to cold, wind and blowing snow. Dan and Susan were on their way to the barn from their house in Goodfield and reported the roads were terrible. They sent back pictures of Trucks and cars in the ditch. Spark and Rhonda left early for Missouri and also sent back pictures. It really wasn't a good day to travel.

I knew Dan made it when he sent the picture below.

The wedding guests that stayed in the barn, the foaling apartment and Diane's basement were all from Florida and we were not sure they should try to start their drive back home. Some of them waited until 11:00 am before leaving. The foaling apartment booked for tonight so as soon as the Florida guests were gone I took the golf cart up with cleaning supplies to get that ready for the next guests. The Florida guests were so thrilled with the snow that they made a snowman last night before the bitter cold came and placed it on the porch of the foaling apartment. 

That was left for the new guests but it will probably only last for 2 more days as we are expecting a warm up then. Meanwhile Dan, Susan and Levi were hard at work at the barn organizing and loading the van and their car. They ended up taking two trips and will need to take one more tomorrow. Susan got all of the bedrooms and bathrooms cleaned in the barn. I took a lot of the towels and some of the sheets to use my machines here at the house and the foaling apartment machines. The final load was finished around 5:30 pm. There is still work to do there but we have plenty of time to get it ready for the next event. I was going to take my car over to the barn but with first the rain then the snow it was all iced up. It only got worse late today, more wind, more snow and falling temperatures. Tomorrow morning is going to start out around 8 degrees. I want the Berean volunteers to feel free to stay home tomorrow as with the blowing snow and cold weather I don't want anyone to get hurt and have the time to stay and get the work done myself. I called Ruth to tell her mom would be staying home tomorrow as I will need to drive my car with it's snow tires. Ruth sent back a picture of mom petting the kittens. She wrote, they are both fragile.

She meant mom and the kittens. Mark took the golf cart and a snow shovel to the apartment and shoveled a path to the doorway. It wasn't easy as there is just so much ice.

We have a fire going in the wood burner and I have just 3 books left to finish from the books Rhoda and Iris found. They are old fashioned mysteries, easy reading and I'm enjoying them when I get the time to sit in the evenings.  Once the last 3 are read I would be glad to give them to anyone interested. They are hardback books and most are written by the same author so the characters stay the same through all of the Mystery Martha Vineyard books. The 3 Mystery at Lancaster county books are of stories of 3 sisters and a couple of those are by different authors but still of the 3 same sisters.