Brr Brrr Brrrr!

We woke up to only 5 inches of light fluffy snow and luckily no wind to blow it around. Mark got busy shoveling before it was light.

Emily got on the skid steer to start plowing the driveways. Diane and I left at 7:30 am for work, after vacationing last week we were pretty sure we would be buried with mail. The roads weren't plowed yet so the drive in to Peoria was slow but we arrived safely. Ellen had not picked up today's mail but felt with what came in since last Tuesday was more than enough to keep us busy.

 Diane got right to work trying to make copies and of course the copier wouldn't work. She gave up and called Wayne Printing to see if we could get a rush job done but it wasn't to be, they were not able to produce the 9000 copies needed by tomorrow morning. Philip came in to see if he could work on our copier and wouldn't you know it started working and kept working until all 9000 copies were finished. Diane's next job was to start opening mail. We got a unique Christmas card in the mail today all hand drawn and colored.

 When it was opened it had a pop up message. Amazing to think the work that went into this card and the time it took to create.

 Our usual workers couldn't make it in, Eva Jean was scheduled to have surgery this morning and Shirley's roads weren't plowed. We were thankful when Kathy and David arrived to start reading letters.

 Rhoda came in and was able to finish boxes and boxes of Bibles, then loaded them all in Diane's van. Lisa donated 3 of her kids today. We put Shelby to work opening mail while the other 2 stamped 1500 envelopes. We were still opening mail at noon so weren't able to leave for lunch until after 1:00 pm.

 After lunch we worked a couple more hours then decided to quit for the day. Tomorrow mom is going to help me get caught up. Mom provided dinner for us tonight, a nourishing tasty beef barley soup, thick enough to be considered a stew. After dinner Anna needed to be brought in for the night. The picture below shows just how saggy she is becoming but she is just about as wide. We are praying for a safe delivery and a healthy foal, although I hope she holds off for a couple weeks, it is SO cold.

 The weather report is 16 below zero tonight and only a high of 3 below zero tomorrow. Karin's school was called off today and again for tomorrow. She spent the night at mom's last night and worked 4 mares today. She was pleased with all of them but feels we'd better bring Ayanna in from Middle Grove to take Indy's place at the fair just in case Indy does not deliver before the fair. We had a beautiful sunset, the sky was all pink, purple, red and gold. Too bad it was too cold outside to stay out and admire it.

 The waterers were all checked tonight and thank goodness all are working. Mike has the automatic waterer working at Middle Grove, this is much needed, after this cold spell the lakes and creeks will be frozen solid.