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 so 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 event will take place in the Horsemeister Event 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. 

Sophia and Carl's Wedding

 We almost goofed this morning. Last week Joan had asked us to take Berlica and Mackenson to church this morning but on Thursday Mark sent a text asking Joan are we supposed to pick them up at 9:05 on Sunday and Joan sent back the text she thought Faith would take them. Now I KNEW Faith went with Joan to Georgia on the mission trip but saw that text and didn't remember Faith left. This morning we picked up Rhonda at 9:05 and started on our way to church when Ruth called asking if we were picking up Mackenson and Berlica. Thankfully she was just on her way out of mom's garage and went over to pick them up so we didn't have to turn around. Mike Kaisner had the morning message on Judges 15 and Hebrews 12. So great a cloud of witnesses of the faithful that have gone before. Click HERE if you would like to watch that. At the announcements we finally found out who our new minister would be. We ended up with 2 new ministers, Gabe (Molly) Stickling AND David (Lanae) Beutel. So amazing how God worked in Peoria. Those were the exact two we voted for, Mark for one and me for the other. This afternoon Craig Stickling had the communion exhortation. Click HERE if you would like to watch that. We took Mackenson and Berlica home while Ruth took mom and Nancy to mom's house. At 2:45 pm we were to be at the barn for Sophia and Carl's wedding. I followed Ruth who brought mom over in the wheel chair van and parked at the East side door. Thankfully it wasn't raining as we were getting into the barn. Shortly after arriving a storm moved in with lightning and thunder. Believe it not the barn was almost considered cozy. Dan and Susan did a wonderful job decorating. I admit to getting a little emotional watching Dan walk Sophia down the aisle. 

The minister had a wonderful wedding service. Rachel was the photographer and I know Sophia is going to be thrilled with the pictures. Below are a few random pictures I took during the evening. Below is the youngest flower girl, Eden, Abram's and Addie's daughter.

Below Sophia is giving a big hug to three of my grand daughters who were in awe of such a beautiful bride.

Dan sang a song he wrote to Sophia while Susan played the drums.

After the actual wedding we were ushered into the living area for snacks and drinks (sweet tea and a very good lavender lemonade). Rachel and Karin were visiting so of course I had to take a picture of my two youngest sisters.

Berlica and Braelyn were wonderful help tonight.

I snuck into the gym to check out the reception tables, they were decorated beautifully.

Below we are waiting to be ushered to the buffet line.

After the meal to go get the dessert, cake, buckeyes, cookies and other goodies, you first had to get your picture taken with the bride and groom. Below is mom and Sophia.

Below are some of my family getting a picture with them.

The bride and groom had hidden tiny dinosaurs all around the two rooms and after dinner they had a contest, who ever could find the most dinosaurs would get a dinosaur trophy. Well Iris and Zeke worked together and found 34 of them. They won the trophy.

The dancing started after the dinner was over. We all got in a line, even mom in the wheel chair with Diane pushing her but after one round mom was ready to go home. Ruth had to leave earlier as someone needed to be with Nancy. A cold rain was coming down pretty hard as mom and I exited the building and we both got pretty soaked by the very cold rain. The temperature was dropping fast and soon this rain is going to turn to snow. Ruth was waiting for mom and as soon as I backed into the garage she got mom and had warm dry clothes ready for her. I had Nancy take her pills then get her ready to go as Rhoda and Lee were taking her home. By the time I finally got home I was wet and very cold. We got a fire going and both of us changed into dry clothes. Some of the wedding guests are staying over both in the barn and the foaling apartment so the heat has been left on. I am so thankful for that barn, the wedding was wonderful and the ending a lot of fun. Before going to bed Mark noticed the rain had changed to snow.

I didn't hear it change over until I realized I couldn't hear the rain pounding down. The snow was much more quiet.

 

Wonderful Time

 It was another cold morning. Mark realized he had forgotten to turn the heat pump back on after losing the electricity yesterday. Ruth sent a message that mom's furnace wouldn't turn on. After getting our furnace turned on Mark went over to take care of mom's. That was easy as flipping a switch. They were fine as mom has an unvented propane heater in her living room. Mark left to pick up some groceries. I went out to get Disco out of the paddock and give him a groom but Bill showed up a half an hour early so hadn't finished. 

Bill owns Western Hearts and one of his boarders bought Madiera's 2025 filly. He said she settled down fine and is doing great. His daughter Anna has been helping with her and all of the reports are great. We spent a couple hours discussing horses. After they left I went over to mom's to see if Ruth needed help getting ready for Sophia and Carl's rehearsal dinner. Mom decided to wear her funeral dress. This dress was from our great Aunt Emily who was 99 years old when she graduated to heaven. Mom decided this was the dress she wants to be buried in.

We were glad she is wearing it to new beginnings instead of endings. It went perfect with the wedding colors so was a good choice. I went over after the dinner to bring them some laundry detergent and checked out all of the beautiful decorations. Susan has the place looking very elegant. I met Carl, his parents and his mothers sisters while there. The adults went over to the foaling apartment to visit while the bridesmaids decided to drive in to Peoria. I think the groomsmen were up in the game room playing ping pong. I think they are all having a wonderful time.

Electricity Out

 We were both up before 5:00 am. Our bodies have finally adjusted to the time change. I went up to the foaling apartment with all the clean laundry then over to the barn at 7:00 am. I just needed to sweep the upstairs bedrooms and then empty the 2 big garbage cans and reline them. As I was bringing the one in the gym into the living area the first of the guests arrived. I explained I was doing last minute cleaning and just finishing up. They had been driving most of the night and were glad to go upstairs to crash in a real bed. At 7:30 am Diane and I walked, the wind was ferocious, blowing against us making the walk difficult. Ruth overslept and decided to just stay home. Joan does not walk on Friday as she has co-op. We made sure to be back at mom's by 8:15 am, the time Joan needs to leave with Berlica and Mackenson. Mom and I had a quiet morning but soon the electricity was flickering then went out all together. Aunt Jinnie called about then and finished reading a book to mom. Jessica and her 2 littles came over for a visit. 

At noon Diane arrived to take my place so I went straight over to the apartment to take the sheets out of the dryer, fold them and get them into the closet. It wasn't an easy task as there were no lights. We found out then that a van had smashed into a telephone pole and broke it off. This happened next to Mike and Diane's Hanna City office. The UPS box is at the other end of their parking lot.

Not only was the electricity out it also took out the internet and the estimate for repair was 7:30 pm. As my guests were moving in I had Mark take up 3 of my battery powered lanterns. They arrived while the electricity was still out so I was very glad I had them in and ready for them. Mark left at 11:45 am to pick up Israel from school. He had some projects he wanted to get done. The steps coming down to our patio had both broken off during the winter. Mark and Israel removed the broken ones and replaced them then cleaned up. Below they are just finishing the last pile of debris. 

The next job was to go split wood. Mark drove the tractor and Israel drove the golf cart over to the big pile that still needs splitting. They worked for a couple hours until Mark said he had to quit and rest. Israel helped here cleaning up the craft supplies upstairs and also sweeping up more of the Asian beetles. Those seem to be coming out of the woodwork. At least we aren't seeing near as many stink bugs as last year. Mark wanted to rest before taking Israel home Israel went out to play in the new car. He found you can put driving games on the big display and actually use the real steering wheel to play the game.

He already is a good driver using the golf cart. He came in first on both of the games he played.

I decided it was my turn to learn how to drive this self driving car so drove on the way to take hime home. It works, my hands were not needed on the steering wheel so when Ruth sent a text I just picked up the phone and sent her a text back. Then took a selfie of me not driving as the car is barreling down the road with Israel in the back.

I tried shutting my eyes just to see if the car would still go if I was sleeping but after a few seconds it started sending out a signal. Funny, Mark wears glasses and it doesn't seem to know if he shuts his eyes. After dropping off Israel we went to the Mexican restaurant in Chillicothe and split a chicken fajita meal. The pictures below are after we ate as much as we wanted. 

Of course we asked for a box and took the leftovers home. When we arrived home the electricity had been turned back on but Mark had left the generator running and that had run out of gas. He had to go switch everything back over and soon I had the last load of laundry getting washed. Tomorrow we have someone coming to look at Disco and he will need a good grooming before they arrive. Now that all of the wedding guests have arrived I am free to work with the weanlings. This morning I was telling Diane I have 8 mares that must come in soon for breeding. Basalea, her daughter Thalia, Rosalie, Valerie, Izzy the gypsy mare and 3 of the Thoroughbred mares. Bulu, Holly and Aiken. We will need to bring in Harli the 10 year old Gypsy mare to make sure she is still pregnant. We also have 3 mares due in April. The first is the Thoroughbred mare Star Temple due April 18th, Blueberry due April 28th, and Rosaleigh due April 29th. I'm going to be very busy!

 

Cleaning Day

 I was up at 4:45 am, I'm finally caught up from the time change. That gave me plenty of time for reading this morning before our walk. Joan didn't go again today as mom was not yet up. We stopped in at the barn to see Dan and Susan's decorations for the wedding. The most interesting is the wall. 

The yellow cord is from the vacuum cleaner so ignore that. The carpet he brought from the school. Behind that wall is all the other stuff.

The gym is so big, they have it divided into two separate rooms. One is for the wedding and the other will be for games. The tables are in the game section but right after the wedding the guests will be asked to go into the living area for drinks and snacks while the tables are brought in for the reception. It should be a quick turn-a-round. Dan made a video of Sophia and Carl growing up that will play on the big screen TV. The next stop on our walk was to check out the progress on Mike's barn.

As it was so cold outside, he had a heater running which made the building comfortable for the work he was doing. The building has plenty of lights and the entire area is well lit.

We stopped in after the walk to talk about the wedding and have mom pick out the dress she was going to wear. Diane brought 3 out and we all settled on this one.

Right after the walk I went home to make breakfast then went straight to the barn to finish the cleaning. The bedding for the 6 bunk beds in the bunk room was taken up and those beds were made. The 6 bathrooms were given a good cleaning then the living area was cleaned, swept and mopped. Once that cleaning was done I went into the gym, wiped down all the chairs set up for the wedding as some had dust on them. Then cleaned and organized the area where all the left over tables, chairs, sweepers, floor scrubbers and sports toys are stored. By the time I quit working it was 1:30 pm came home, ate a peanut butter and jam sandwich then sat down to rest. Mark got home and was put to work washing windows both inside and out at the barn. Mackenson helped with some of that. At 6:30 pm my airbnb guest left. Braelyn and Anna came to help get it cleaned. We found some medicine in the fridge. I sent her a message through airbnb that I have that down at the house. Hope she doesn't need it right away. Airbnb no longer will share phone numbers so can't reach her other than through airbnb. We are missing the rug by the door and the front door will not unlock. Hopefully it just needs batteries. It was too late to work on it tonight so Mark will try to get that fixed in the morning tomorrow as we have guests coming in for the wedding and they will be here tomorrow. I'm doing laundry here at the house and at the foaling apartment as we had to wash all of the bedding. The last of the towels are in the dryer now. Tomorrow morning all of this will be taken up to the foaling apartment.