24 Degrees but Feels like 10

I was sitting on my reading chair in the living room at 5:00 am with the lights on reading when a bird came knocking on the living room window. It was so pitch dark outside I think the bird thought it could fly through the window into the light.  It left, but a few minutes later was back again. It wasn't slamming into the window like a cardinal fighting his reflection, this was more of a gentle tapping as the wings hit. Mark was heading out to get some wood for the wood burner and I think if he would have left the door open the bird would have come in to warm up. What a shock, we went from a high of almost 60 degrees yesterday to 24 degrees this morning with a strong wind so the real feel was 10 degrees. Winter coats were needed for the walk. I got to the dumpster a few minutes early so went inside the barn to get out of the wind and to see the progress. The sun was shining through those tall windows making it seem like there were orange windows on the north side. 

The video below shows it a little better.

As Sheena lost Loxley this year Mike would like another black Thoroughbred mare. It wasn't Sheena's fault that she lost Loxley and she has raised some gorgeous foals by Valiant. 

Since we have plenty of grazing available he would really like to double or even triple his chances of getting his dream horse.  He checked with a Thoroughbred rescue facility and the owner told him the best option would be to post on a Facebook page.  Below is what we have posted and if you know anyone looking for a good home for a Thoroughbred please keep us in mind.

Horsemeister is looking for a very specific black Thoroughbred mare. She does not need to be sound but must be breeding sound, 16 hands or taller, Under the age of 8 if a maiden mare, must be tested homozygous black. Picture is of our mare Sheena, a jockey club registered mare. Sheena has had a wonderful life here at the Horsemeister farm and we are willing to let another mare or two have the same life. Over 300 acres to graze, lakes and streams to enjoy, an air conditioned stall during a heat spell. The mare we are looking for would be bred to Valiant for a gorgeous half Friesian foal.

 I didn't feel like cooking and as we were driving in for church we just left a little early and stopped at HyVee and ate there. With tax it cost a little over $12 for the two of us.  Warning there is an 11% tax on restaurant food in Peoria now. We just got one manager special but it was easily enough food for the both of us.  It doesn't take long and we were the second car in the parking lot for church. Gregg Rumbold had the message tonight. I'm thankful for our ministers who are so willing to serve and thankful to be with our loving church family for the evening.

Side NOTE:  Ruth only has 3 puppies left, 1 male and 2 females so if a German Shepherd puppy is in YOUR future better contact her soon. 

Good Hunting.

 Aunt Jinnie got a phone call at 7:30 this morning from the Hanna City post office, her thread had finally been delivered. She was asked if she wanted it to go out on the truck or did she want to drive in to get it.  Karin was sent to get it.  That thread has been in transit trying to make it here for over 2 weeks. The company finally sent another batch of thread (which hasn't arrived yet either) We had a good walk this morning. Joan stopped in and took a look at the repair needed in the barn and agreed with what Mark wanted to do yesterday. We just have to figure out how.  The wheel chair van was taken to the Berean office this morning with mom and Aunt Jinnie and thankfully it worked perfectly. IF you would like to read about our morning there click HERE. We left there just after 11:00 am. I had to stop at the trailer repair place to get the key out of the trailer and give it to Kim in the office. From there we drove to the Hanna City post office to drop off the two boxes of Bibles, all of Aunt Jinnie's Christmas cards and a return package I had to send back. We finished lunch by 12:45 pm and Joan showed up a little early to relieve me. That gave me time to finish cleaning a stall and prepare Evan's shelter for a new bale. When Mark got home he helped move the bale in. 

We finished everything by 4:00 pm. That gave me plenty of time to get supper cooked for the dinner at mom's tonight. We had bbq ribs, steamed broccoli in a cheese sauce, egg rolls with a sweet and sour sauce and for dessert a light chocolate pudding swirl. The rain moved in right after dinner.

I love the sound of rain so took a short video.

Mom wanted a hot tub tonight and Karin was more than willing to give her one. Since Karin can handle that herself and I can't she gave me the evening off. I had just walked in the door when Braelyn showed up. She was up cleaning the apartment and had just finished. Since I had Mark's car and it was warmed up I took her home but Anna passed us. She was coming to pick Braelyn up. We have hunters coming in tomorrow leaving on Thursday then 3 more hunters coming in on Thursday leaving Sunday. Evidently we have some good hunting around here. 

Grandma Interviews

 Mom wanted an omelet for breakfast this morning. That meant running back home for fresh spinach and sausage to add to the ingredients mom's house already had on hand. After breakfast Jessica arrived to do therapy on mom's arm.

Jessica asked mom if she could trim a few evergreen branches off for her window boxes. Mom replied, "sure, just take them off Mike's tree" and then started laughing.  That was a good joke as Mike and Diane are still in Gulf Shores.  At noon we had chicken soup and a half of a peanut butter and jam sandwich, but mom wanted crunchy peanut butter and she only had smooth. Good thing I had just purchased a big two pack of crunchy. That meant another trip to my house. I was glad for the car this morning.  When Karin arrived I took the car to the new barn, left that there while the flat bed trailer was taken off of the old truck then the old truck taken to the old barn so the Wildwood camper could be hauled to the trailer repair place. I got it there but Mark had taken our spare set of keys to make copies and the other set was locked inside of the trailer. I will need to make another trip in tomorrow to unlock the trailer for the repair shop. From there I drove to the Peoria post office to pick up the Berean mail. There was not much this week but more than likely that is because of the Thanksgiving holiday. The mail was dropped off at the Berean office before heading home. Mark was already home and wanted  help with a repair in the barn. He also bought new key rings for the 3 sets of the camper keys and wanted those labeled.  Braelyn arrived while we were working out in the barn. She wanted to do a 10 minute interview with me for her class. We were very close to finishing when her lap top went dead. Thankfully they live close and we drove over to grab the computer cord. We did the interview again but when we finished it didn't shut off and then somehow the computer lost all but the last 15 seconds of the interview.  Anna came to help and the 3rd try worked. Then it was time to get a pie made for the Berean volunteers tomorrow. I figured everyone was probably tired of pumpkin so made a pecan.

That is now out of the oven cooling. I'm done for the evening and thankful for everything that was accomplished today. 

Another Blessed

 Peoria church was blessed with visitors today as we had 4 baptisms after the afternoon service. Rachel and Dave served lunch and even though church was almost full still had plenty for everyone. Ruth took mom and Aunt Jinnie to church as Joan's family were in Ohio for a wedding. Ruth took my car home from church as she needed to leave after the morning service. Sarah helped with mom in the afternoon.  Spark ended up driving Mark and I along with mom and Aunt Jinnie to the jail to pick up his van then Mark drove us the rest of the way home. John was there to visit with mom so a quart of frozen  chicken soup and a quart of chili were taken over for he and Beth.   Ben, Jace and Abe were the first to arrive at our house. Thankfully Ben was willing to work on my computer. I had been getting notices that our hotmail account was accessed by someone from Russia but it turned out to be a scam. I was pretty sure it was so wouldn't open any of those emails but thought I may as well call in one of the experts.  Rhoda, Phil and Anna's family all arrived about the same time with Taunya, Addyson and Jack a little later. Tonight we had chili, cinnamon rolls, hot dogs for kids, salad and some of us had chili dogs. We also had plenty of grapes, pears and apples. The kids went out to the barn to play for awhile after supper then when they came in we played games with old peoples canes. 

The kids are now gone, the dishes are done and I think we will have an early night. Thankful for another Blessed Sunday. 

They Don't Match

 The car was frosted up from being left out of the garage this morning but the sun came out and soon everything melted. I think it got into the high 50s today. Another beautiful sunny day. It was my turn to be with mom so I showed up in time to cook breakfast and stayed until after supper. It was so nice we were out on the deck for a while this afternoon.

Right after supper I left to get ready to go to church for testimonies tonight. There were 4 of them starting at 7:00 pm. Maria, Justin, Olivia and Ivan. It was only after Maria's testimony that I happened to look down at my feet and realized my shoes didn't match.

The right heel is higher than the left and that was causing me to walk kind of funny. I thought that was happening because I was tired.

The testimonies went quite long, each person had much to say and we were glad they did. Most of the kids and grandkids went hiking at Rocky Glen on this beautiful day and sent back some pictures.

That trip home from church seemed very long. Can hardly wait to crash into bed. 

50 Degrees

 We had a late breakfast this morning. Mark had gone up to the barn to feed the cat then over to mom's to put chargers on the mowers so we waited until he got back.  Kim and I had so much to catch up on that Mark ask, "don't you girls ever stop talking?  That had us laughing.  Kim left for home before noon. This 25th, day of November was so nice it was a great opportunity to walk around and replace any older or broken boards in all of the paddocks.  

When we finished I tried out a new recipe for cinnamon rolls. I think they turned out ok. I plan on serving chili for our Sunday dinner and in Anna's family they always serve chili with cinnamon rolls. After lunch Karin, Joan, Berlica, Faith and I played games at mom's house. When I got home from that the chili was made, two huge pots full. We each had a bowl for supper and it was good.  The biggest pan was put out on the porch to cool while the smaller pan was put in containers and put in the fridge. I'll take over some for dinner at mom's tomorrow.  This evening Mark and I watched the true story of the 12 soccer boys and their coach that had been lost in a cave in Thailand. I remembered hearing about how all were saved but never realized how they were able to do it. The movie is called Thirteen Lives and I recommend it but hopefully it will be on Pureflex soon. I think there were 2 times the makers of the film had the hero's use a bad word so can't recommend it for children. Not sure why they have to ruin a good true story that way.  Mark found it on Amazon Prime. 

Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

 We had an easy morning waking at 5:00 am and enjoying a good strong cup of coffee. The crock pots were all filled but not turned on until 9:00 am as we were getting ready to head to church. The food was cooked earlier and I only needed to have it heated up.  Craig Stickling had the Thanksgiving message. He started with Hagar and finished up with the women who had the issue of blood and touched the hem of Jesus' clothes to be healed. A good message for Thanksgiving. We didn't rush home but probably should have as by the time we got home the turkey was a little over cooked. Butter was used to moisten it up some and a second batch of stuffing was quickly made to add to the first batch. We had about 40 minutes to get everything done and over to Joan's house. Below are a few pictures as we were getting the food set out.

Nancy was glad for some help and excited to head downstairs to see mom.

The food was excellent. Below is the first plateful.

After dinner games were played both upstairs and downstairs. 

We adults enjoyed looking at pictures from the past that Amy brought and visiting with each other.

Not that Aunt Jinnie is competitive but she ended up taking off her sweater in order to beat Sarah at the game.

Mom wanted to try to play ping pong. Her only problem, other than not being able to walk is she is left handed and since that hand doesn't work had to use her right hand. 

The kids love the toy room. There are just so many different toys to choose from.

Below are the youngest and oldest guest, baby Zeke and Aunt Jinnie. They are 93 years apart.

Below is a video of some of the evening.

Rachel's boys had a foot ball game out in the field. Our kids and grand children left to go to Phil and Anna's house for the evening and sent the picture below to David and Stephanie's family with the text, "Happy Thanksgiving! We missed you David and Steph. Their family celebrated Thanksgiving in Indiana with Stephanie's brother's family.

We stayed until after 7:00 pm at Joan's before heading over to Phil and Anna's with some left over pies. They are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow with all of Anna's family.  We are all going to bed a little early. Another wonderful Thanksgiving and we were all very thankful for the day, the good food and wonderful fellowship. 

Preparing for Thanksgiving

We were up at 4:30 am but that half hour really helped. Lots got done today including baking 6 pies, a turkey and lots of stuffing.  

As soon as the pies were finished the turkey was put in the oven. At 8:45 am I left to go to Aldi for a few last minute items for other meals. From Aldi I drove to Sarah's to drop off a pecan pie and then home to make the stuffing. Once all the cooking was done the kitchen was cleaned up. The rest of the house was also cleaned up as today Kim was coming. Kim is my sister in law and we hadn't seen each other for 4 years so we were thrilled when she arrived.  I baked biscuits and heated up soup for supper We talked until late catching up. 

Valentino Gone

 I was getting ready to head up to the barn this morning when Joan sent a text with a short video clip of swans swimming in the lake. Instead of going to the barn I drove over to mom's to take a few pictures of the swans.

They were huge compared to the Canada Geese. Since they were much closer to Joan's house I drove over to get better pictures.

There is one adult and 3 juveniles with 2 Canada geese in the picture above. Rachel took some awesome pictures which are posted below.

Mom was up so Joan took her outside to see them.

I took the video below some at Joan's house and some as we were walking across the dam. 

IF you would like to see the rest of the pictures from both my phone and Rachel's camera click here.

Aunt Jinnie, mom and I took the wheel chair van to Berean today. The van started right up, the wheel chair ramp was dropped and once mom was loaded and strapped in Aunt Jinnie used the buttons to put the ramp back up. We had a good time at the Berean office. If you would like to read about our morning there click HERE.  It was when we were ready to leave we ran into big trouble. The wheel chair ramp would not lower. I was able to bypass the control and get the ramp to drop to the ground out of our way but not get it to unfold so there was no way to use the ramp to put mom on.  Skip and I had to lift mom and her wheel chair up into the van.  I'm very thankful Skip is so strong.  On the way home we stopped at the post office to drop off the Bibles and Aunt Jinnie went inside to ask if they would look for her thread. She ordered the thread and it was shipped out at least 10 days ago but it has never arrived. The van was left running while we were in the post office. I also needed to stop at Diane's office to pick up a Horsemeister check and again left the van running. When we finally got home, the ramp worked perfect. Must be a loose wire or something. I was thankful we didn't have to call for help to get mom out of the van but now not sure I want to take mom in it again. Joan relieved me in time to give mom lunch. I needed to be at the barn with all the paper work for Valentino as he was getting picked up at 1:30 pm.  He was let loose in the indoor arena so he could get some exercise before his trip to his new home. I started cleaning his stall but didn't get it quite finished before his owner arrived with the trailer. He was tied while she backed the trailer into place. 

He was good about being led out to the trailer and only hesitated a few seconds before stepping inside. His owner sent me a picture of him in his new stall with a mouthful of hay when they made it home.

My nephews Tom and Tim both came to replace the bent hydrant and between the two of them had it done in less than an hour. As it was 50 degrees outside and sunny it was an easy job for those two. It was my turn to provide supper at mom's house tonight. When I arrived with the supper Berlica and Faith were busy making French Silk pie for Thanksgiving.

They had also made lots of popcorn and cranberry strings to use for decorations.

After supper we played games until mom was ready for bed. It was another good day!