Short Grands

 After a really good night's sleep it was easy to get up this morning and didn't even mind waiting the 5 minutes for the coffee pot to finish. Amazing how restorative sleep is. I don't do well when sleep deprived. We picked up Rhonda for church.  Caleb Plattner had the morning message on Genesis 29 where Jacob had to work 14 years for Rachel.  Jacob thought there were no consequences to his sin. Then he was tricked just as he tricked Esau his brother and Isaac his father. Caleb brought out Numbers 32 vs 23: But if ye will not do so, (serve the LORD) behold, ye have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.  Remember this verse when you are tempted to sin. If you would like to watch this message click HERE. This message wasn't all doom and gloom, at one point he had the whole church chuckling but you will need to watch it to see why. David had the afternoon message on the final minor prophet study. He read Zechariah 12, 13 and 14 and this is another message that is SO relevant today. Click HERE to watch that. After church the meal was quickly made and taken over to the barn. Joan needed to leave by 3:30 pm for the all church caroling. Mom really didn't want to go and it was my turn to stay. I ran back to the barn as Mackenson was there and promised to run over to get me if needed. When the grand kids arrived they were given the box of Christmas ornaments for decorating the tree. They were excited and went right to work.

I filled a plate for mom, Mackenson and me and went over to mom's for the evening. Mom was tired today and wanted to go to bed a little early. When Joan arrived around 8:30 pm I went first to the barn to put away any food and clean up but found someone had done it all and even started the dishwasher. Of course I had to check out the decorating job on the Christmas tree.

I had to take a close up of the bottom of the tree, it looks like we had a lot of short grandkids tonight.

The lights were turned out but it wasn't until I got home did I remember I had forgotten to turn off the tree lights. Oh well they can stay on for another night. I'm not driving back for that. 

Wonderful Weanlings

Diane made it home from Gulf Shores last night but because it is a Saturday today we had no walk. We have become lazy and all of that will need to stop as by Monday Diane will have us walking again. Joan had 4 guests arrive last night from Kansas and when I got over to mom's this morning they were all eating breakfast. They know Anna, in fact asked, "Didn't Anna marry into this family?" They are here for a couple days. Today was the day we were going to move the 4 weanlings and Missy out to Middle Grove. I went out early to put halters on all of them then de-wormed all 5 of them with Quest Plus. We had been waiting for a hard freeze to get this de-worming done as earlier I saw some bot eggs on their legs. I was so surprised at how well each stood for haltering and then the de-worming. Not a one misbehaved. I'm just so impressed with all 4 of them. Zion has done a wonderful job teaching them to love people. Once the de-worming was over, they were each given a couple handfuls of grain to help get rid of the taste of the de-wormer. When Mike arrived we hooked up the stock trailer and pulled it forward. I brought out Disco and Shadow first. Those two just stepped right into the trailer. They were tied up and we went to get Dahlia and Roseberry.

Mike was holding these two and asked me to get Missy but right then Mike got a phone call. He is standing talking on the phone, Roseberry got tired of waiting for him and stepped into the trailer without him.

I grabbed Missy but by the time she was out of the paddock and walking toward the trailer Dahlia self loaded leaving Mike outside the trailer still talking on the phone.

These funny funny foals! Missy was loaded then Mike hung up the phone and went into the trailer to remove halters. Below all 5 are ready to go.

The video is of them heading out.

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I just have to brag about these wonderful weanlings. They are SO well behaved. Even loaded and traveling they were calm, no calling out or even panic in a moving trailer. 

Evan was sad to see them leave watching until the trailer was out of sight.

Mike needed to meet the farmer who was bringing over 40 bales of hay at Middle Grove and this way got two jobs done by hauling the weanlings out. This is not the farmer who told us he would have 60 bales delivered before the snow arrives. We heard he went into the hospital and Mike has not been able to reach him since. The farmer he was meeting has been the one putting bales in for us at Middle Grove for the past 3 winters. We are thankful he had extra hay. Below is a video of dropping them off. The herd was not in sight but deer were running up on the hillside. 

Mike said the bales are a little smaller but very good quality. Mark was busy repairing one of the toy horses from the barn when I got back in the house.

Ruth gave us 2 of them but one broke pretty quickly. The kids enjoy playing with it so it was worth repairing. He also fixed the door to the cabinet up in the game room. The door had been broken off. He was able to use a bolt through the top of the cabinet into the door and now it works perfectly.

Jay, Tarah's husband asked if he could use the barn to meet a lady wanting to see a puppy. I saw his truck arrive and used my phone to turn the lights on for them then left for Kroger to order the fried chicken for the Meister Christmas Dec 11th. I also picked up some wild rice which will be served with the chicken teriyaki for Sunday dinner tomorrow. When I went to check out the bill was a hundred dollars more than it should have been. The check out lady scanned the chicken  in wrong. I had to show her the problem before she believed me. This evening I had supper with Diane and mom. Joan is at the Sunday school Christmas party at the church. On the way back I stopped at the barn to unplug the Christmas tree lights. Hopefully the kids will decorate it tomorrow after dinner.

We had a wonderful day with melting snow. The temperature rose above freezing for the first time in a few days. The house was still chilled but not after building a fire in the wood burner. We are enjoying that warmth tonight.

I just sat down at the computer to find out what happened to the Christmas presents ordered through Amazon that said it would be delivered TONIGHT between 5:00 pm and 9:00 pm. They said it was delivered and sent this picture to prove it.

I saw that picture and was shocked. It was left in front of the mailboxes on the main road. I grabbed the golf cart and tore down the drive but too late the box was gone. This held David's gift, Anna's gift, Stephanie's gift and Lee's gift. Mark couldn't believe me when I told him the box was gone. The phone was grabbed to send out a family text to see if anyone had picked it up but when I got the phone there was a text from Diane saying Joan picked up a box for me and it is now at mom's house. So thankful no one driving by decided to take it, well other than family. 

 

Eureka

 The video below is some of the performance last night of the Peoria Cooperative Academy during their Taste of Madrigal last night Dec 4th, 2025

It was too late last night to put it together. We sure enjoyed the evening. This morning it was my turn to be at mom's and I needed to be there at 8:00 am. Mom was still in bed when I arrived but after that late night I didn't expect anything different. We had a very quiet day. Aunt Jinnie called this morning and read a few chapters out of the new book they started yesterday. Ruth came around 4:30 pm so Mark and I could get to Busy Corner in Goodfield by 5:30 pm. The moon was just rising as we were driving. I took the picture below through the car window as Mark was driving 70 miles per hour.

We were meeting Ben and Taunya's family along with Taunya's dad and 3 brothers for dinner before Abe's 3rd grade Christmas program.

The food was good but the place was crowded and the service a little slow. We got our dinners with about 15 minutes to eat before we needed to leave for the Eureka High School.

This was a Christmas program like I've never seen or heard. They started with Kindergarten class and went through 4th grade. Each class sang 3 songs but NONE of the kindergarten, first grade, second grade or third grade sang any songs of the story of Christmas. This should have been called a winter program.  The 4th graders ended the program with Silent Night so we were thankful that at least one song was about the birth of Jesus.  Below is a video of just Abe's class.

The kids enjoyed the songs and the music teacher was enthusiastic. She told us they had been working on these songs since September. 

The moon was high in the sky on our way home and no longer orange but white. A thin layer of clouds were covering it like a filmy veil.

I can hardly keep my eyes open as I type this. I had 2 late nights in a row and now must get to bed before 10:00 pm. 

Taste of Madrigal

Thankful I brought wood in last night as it was only 6 degrees outside when I got up. The fire was started early and warmed the house up pretty quickly. There was no wind which makes a HUGE difference on if the house feels cold. We also had sunshine but interesting as the sun got brighter the temperature fell a few degrees. Ruth cancelled, she was up late babysitting but I went over to visit. With Diane gone we are not doing much walking. The golf cart was taken up to feed the cat and when I called the cat that answered was not our cat. He came running out of hole where our cat sleeps which is above the apartment. Our cat usually does not tolerate any other cat in the barn.

I kept calling and our cat answered from the back garage and when I opened the door came running.

Cats are a very necessary part of a farm and I would be happy if this other cat sticks around but I wouldn't be surprised if ours runs him off.

After breakfast Mark helped get the barn Christmas tree out of his back garage and over to the barn. We bought this tree off Facebook market place (I think for $20.00) because it came in a long box for storage. It isn't too hard to put together. While I was working on the tree Mark was sweeping the gym.

When he was finished with that he needed my help with the dryer. We were replacing the flexible duct pipe. I wasn't done with the tree but stopped to help.

He needed more tools and I needed to get a couple more strands of lights at the house. The ice cycles impressed me as we were walking in as the sun was lighting them up. We wouldn't want to stand under those.

I was able to get that tree finished and the lights on it before it was time to go to mom's house.

When I arrived at mom's HER arsenal of ice cycles made mine look puny.

Mom had a downy woodpecker that wanted to grab a sunflower seed but a big red bellied woodpecker was flying in and scaring the other birds off. The downy just waited on the other side of the post.

The red bellied took his time eating.

Once he flew off the downy flew right in and took his spot.

At 6:00 pm Ruth arrived to help get mom in Joan's new van and we were off on our way to the Peoria Fellowship hall to enjoy the Peoria Academy performance of A Taste of Madrigal. We were met in the hall by the singers then the jester came and showed us to our table. Mom kept looking around asking where Joan was. The jester was strangely familiar and was bothering mom. 

Once that jester left mom asked again, "Do you see Joan anywhere?"

We had to call the jester back and she promptly checked mom's ears pulling a smartie out of one of them.

About then mom realized that jester was Joan.

I don't blame her, Joan really needs someone to show her how to apply makeup. 

Sarah went over and pulled a smartie out of Lucy's ear. 

Berlica was a flower girl and someone bought a flower for mom.

Mom shoved it into Sarah's nose. 

We really had a wonderful time. The music was beautiful, the king and queen were quite funny and the sound of laughter filled the room during the dialog between the king and the singers. I'll get a video of some of the songs made later. The evening was a little late and by the time Joan got back it was after 10:30 pm. The moon was so bright I didn't need lights. I could follow it home and it reminded me of the Star of Bethlehem.

We were reminded of the Christ child, the baby in the manger, tonight. How our LORD left the glory of heaven to be born in a stable, lived His life as a poor carpenter then gave HIS life for ours. Oh what an amazing plan, this plan of salvation, this Gift above all gifts. 

After taking the picture above I zoomed in to get a closeup of this full moon that was lighting up the night sky.

Tomorrow I will work on the video.

 

The LOWS are A-Coming

 The smell of fresh brewed coffee at 5:00 am is a good reason to jump out of bed. That first cup of the day is something that I really look forward to. I'm not addicted or anything, yeah right. Coffee is one luxury I refuse to deny myself.  We met at mom's again to work out this weeks schedule. I'm so thankful for Ruth and Joan, both are putting in long hours. I'll be taking mom to the Taste of Madrigal put on by the Co-op Thursday evening. Joan has to be at the fellowship hall early. Mark asked if I would feed the cat today and on the way back took the picture of 2 of the weanlings taking naps up against the hay.

Missy and the 4th weanling were in the shelter eating off the new bale.

Today for our breakfast I looked up a recipe for potato pancakes. We had left over mashed potatoes from Sunday's meal and I remembered mom making them when we were young. The recipe I found looked about the same as what mom use to make.

I didn't like them then and found I don't like them now either. That was a waste of time plus it made extra dishes. They are in the fridge I'll have to find out if anyone else wants to try them. After breakfast and after the dishes were done it was time to start on the barn. The clean sheets were taken over and the beds made. The bathrooms all restocked and the floors done. I wasn't going to clean the game room as it was such a mess and it is just family coming on Sunday but finally just decided to organize it. The ping pong table was missing the brace that holds the net. That missing brace was found on the foosball table the bag game had the bags scattered all over and after cleaning we are still missing one of the blue bags. The new connect 4 game is missing at least 1 green as there ended up with an extra yellow. The basketball game was repaired and is missing one of the basketballs. Most strange was the white bucket for the softballs is missing. All of the upstairs rooms were checked then all of the downstairs rooms were check.  I started cleaning the gym in hopes of finding the lost bean bag but ran out of time. Mark worked for 2 and a half hours on mom's heat. He thought he could get the heat pump working but wasn't able to. A part is ordered but could be while before it comes in. He got it going on emergency heat. We have record smashing lows predicted tonight and tomorrow. We picked up Berlica and Mackenson for church. Tim Roecker had the message on 1st Chronicles 29 and Galatians 6 . Click HERE to listen to that message. We went to Culvers for a late dinner. 

Winter Weather

 I overslept this morning not waking until almost 6:30 am. Thankfully that still gave me enough time to bake the now risen butterbraid and had it baked and iced before going over to mom's house. Kristin's car was stuck on the dam and Joan's van was already started and warming up. I guess Joan had quite a time rescuing people yesterday that continued this morning. Ruth was with mom waiting for Rachel's husband David to come install the brand new dishwasher. The 3 inches of new snow on top of the old snow left everything white and clean but a little dangerous. Some of the roads were not well cleared off on the way to the Berean office this morning. Skip was already there and was shoveling paths for the volunteers. 

Both Shirley's arrived along with Marvin making us a total of 5 this morning.

We didn't have a lot of studies come in and only 17 Bible requests. 

Below is a short video of getting the Bibles stuffed and ready for mailing.

Looking out the window of the Berean office there were 3 fat birds resting on a wire.

I believe they are doves.

We enjoyed the butterbraid then loaded the car and left. My first stop was to Meisters to drop off some studies for Amanda's mom for grading. The next stop was to the Hanna City post office to drop off the Bibles and studies going out today. When I finally made it home Mark was out plowing the drives. The post office let me know that no mail would be delivered until the road in front of the mail boxes was cleared. There was about 3 feet to clear so I started shoveling until Mark got the skid steer down to finish the job while I slowed traffic. It didn't take very long so hopefully we will get our mail tomorrow.  Mark switched out the bucket for the bale spear and we got a new bale in for Evan. The old dead heads of the flowers were topped with the new snow. 

There was a downy pecking away at one of the stems.

There were also large sharp ice cycles hanging from the roof.

I was able to get all the sheets and towels washed from the barn.

Tomorrow I will go over to make the beds and clean up the barn but today I just didn't want to go back outside. Instead the laundry here was finished and some split pea soup made for supper. Ham and bacon were chopped up and added to the pea soup and it was tasty and filling. The heat pump had frozen up. Mark brought buckets to the house, I filled them with hot water from the tub faucet then he hauled them over to melt the ice off of the heat pump. It took 4 buckets to get it working.

We kept the wood burner burning during the day but Mark wanted the heat pump working so we burn less propane during the night. The winter weather is starting VERY early this year.