Communicating HIS Love

 Joan was a little late bringing mom to church today. Just as she was picking up mom, her phone rang and it was the renter in Gulf Shores. They had no electricity. Well that turned out to be the power company problem. We had a really wonderful day in church. Tim Funk had the morning message and Craig Stickling the afternoon.  As soon as we got home the ribs were put in the crock pot and the potatoes started. Once they were in the oven Mark and I went out to move a new bale in the mare paddock.  It was nice and warm but the ground still frozen so that went quickly.  Once back inside the tables were set for dinner. We had 12 at the adult table and 10 at the kids table but served 27.

The afternoon was so nice that some of the kids at during the second shift. After dinner came the birthday party for Braelyn and Eden. 

When Zion walked in I was a little shocked, her hair was cut. Turned out she found some scissors in her van and cut her hair by herself on the trip out here.  Anna tried to help by trimming but time will have to help some of it. It is just hair and will grow back.

The evening was so nice the big kids went out with Lee to play baseball in the field while the younger kids did crafts inside.

Rhoda saw that my toenails needed to be trimmed. Philip found some safety glasses for this big job.

Thankfully the job got done without any injuries. We sure had a good laugh at that.  If intrested in seeing the rest of the pictures from tonight click HERE. I also made a short video.

The volley ball players left for the games. This is their last week to rent the gym in Hanna City. Hopefully the weather will start co-operating for outdoor volley ball soon. Joan and her kids had quite an experience. Each year on Joshua and Gabriel's birthdays they meet at the cemetery, write notes on balloons and send them up.  Yesterday was Gabriel's 18th birthday and it has been 13 years since the motorcycle accident that took his life.  Today when they got home from church there was a message from someone from Indiana.  I'm copying what Joan AND the caller wrote: So every year on the anniversaries of Gabriel and Joshua’s birthdays, we send balloons up and we all write on them. Sometimes the kids will write a phone number on for someone to call if they find the balloons. We’ve had people call from as far away as Missouri. Today when I got home from church I had a voicemail from somebody in Indiana. I googled the location and it was a little over 180 miles away. I called her back and after chatting for a little while she shared some of her own story and then she told me she posted on Facebook about it so this is her post on Facebook. Our God is truly amazing and He can use the craziest ways to communicate His love.

•13 years ago today Tony Q went to live with Jesus. The loss is not as acute as it once was but I still miss him immeasurably. Mostly, I wish he could see how awesome Bryan Quarterman and Kayla D. Collins are and I wish he was here to love on and cheer on Kyndall, Colton, and Brynnlee.

•Early this morning Brad went outside just in time to watch this balloon bouquet land in our yard. He brought them inside and I noticed there were names and messages written on them. Apparently another family lost their loved one 13 years ago too. Coincidence? I think not.

•God is using these balloons to remind me that I don’t grieve alone but I don’t heal alone either. Thank you Jesus for healing my broken heart and reminding me that I’m not alone.

•There was a phone number on one balloon. I’ve left a message but haven’t heard back yet to hear Gabriel’s story. Looks like God sent balloons all the way from Peoria, IL to Verne, IN.

•UPDATE: I was able to have a sweet conversation with Gabriel's mother. She told me that Gabriel was killed in an accident on their way to church in Haiti where his parents served as missionaries. Gabriel was 5 years old and yesterday would have been his birthday. The balloons originated in the Peoria IL area.

Truly GREAT

 It was really cold this morning, the wind was blowing making the wind chill well below zero.  Mark got the wood burner going again early. The house was 3 degrees below the set point but that was more than likely the wind which was causing the furnace to not keep up. Thank goodness for wood burners.

Mark brought in the box of halters that had been delivered at the shop yesterday.  I ordered them last week getting 12 yearling halters, 12 small horse halters and 10 large horse halters. 

We go through a lot of halters each year.
When I opened the box and checked out the sizes. The yearling halters are much bigger than the small horse halters. Check out the size difference. The purple is the yearling.

Those yearling halters were stamped, made in India, Obviously India must have HUGE horses! They won't go to waste, those will fit the Andalusians.

I headed over to help Karin lift mom out of the whirlpool at 7:00 am except mom decided she didn't want to get out yet.  I left and mom stayed in until Ruth arrived. Mom was very sleepy today.  Mark and I left to pick up Nancy at 10:30 am. The first job on the list was to buy her a spring coat. We had to go to Costco to redeem mom's points on her card and found the perfect coat there. Nancy was thrilled with the coat.

From there we drove to Avanti's so Nancy could have spaghetti lunch. That is one of her favorite meals.

I had to ask for extra napkins but somehow kept her clean.  When we took her back I realized I had a thank you card still in my purse that was supposed to have been mailed yesterday.  I quickly googled all the post offices Morton, Bartonville and Hanna City only to find they were all already closed. About that time I saw a post office truck going through Nancy's neighborhood dropping off mail so chased the truck down, ran the card over to the driver who was glad to take it.  When we finally made it home Mark wanted to keep hauling the aquaponic equipment out of the basement so between the 2 of us we got that done.

At 3:30 I quit working to get the potatoes started for potluck tonight.  We left for Dean and Holly's at 4:50 pm and had a wonderful time. The food was good but the fellowship was truly GREAT! 

The meal really was exceptional and then came the desert. Holly told us how it was made and it really does have a secret ingredient which I will share here.

To make the chocolate sauce she melted York peppermint patties, added heavy cream and once blended poured on over the crumbled up mint oreo cookies.  The bottom layer is also made with mint oreo cookies that were put in the blender with a little warm butter. That was smashed on to the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan, allowed to cool in the fridge while the second layer of cream cheese, powdered sugar and cool whip was blended together. The second layer was added and again the dessert was put in the fridge to cool. The next layer can either be vanilla pudding or chocolate pudding blended with whip cream. Allow the pudding to set after spreading it on top of the cream cheese layer. Then add more whip cream, crumble the cookies on top and pour on the chocolate sauce.  The mint cookies and the mint chocolate sauce gave the dessert a delightful deliciously cool minty taste.  Don't like mint?  The dessert can be made with regular Oreo's and instead of melting York peppermint patties just use milk chocolate kisses with cream. If anyone wants the recipe Holly was glad to share it. 

Pretty Snow

 We awoke to cold and a little more than 3 inches of fluffy snow. Mark got the wood burner going early. When I left for the walk I stopped to take a few pictures and thought about how the first snow of the winter everyone posts pictures but when  snow comes middle of March there are usually only complaints. We are SO over pretty snow.  However it really was pretty so below are pictures of the morning. The first one was taken from the front porch before the sun was up.

The next picture was taken around 7:00 am.

These last 3 were taken as I was walking over to mom's house for our walk. Below is Evan.

Below is Valiant hoping for more grain.

Rockaway, the one with the star, is the coming yearling by Valiant out of Lola. With her head in the hay is Sally who may or may not be expecting a foal early December. The bay is the coming 2 year old Dancer out of Jewel by Evan and the black is Sheena who was bred to Valiant and is due June 18th.

Today was my day to stay with mom. I went out to take a few pictures of the snow off her deck but the birds were singing so instead took the video.

  Dan and JoAnn Baer came for a visit. Mom and Aunt Jinnie really enjoyed catching up with them. Everyone enjoyed a snack of decaf coffee and banana bread along with a stollen (a little like a fruit cake but not as much fruit and actually tastes good). 

After Dan and JoAnn left mom took a nap. She didn't get her lunch until almost 2:00 pm.  Mark brought some supper over at 5:00 pm. Spark arrived as we were eating and joined us then took some dinner home for Rhonda. She was busy unpacking as they had just made it back from Branson, MO. Mom had a bad night last night and was tired and a little weaker today but enjoyed the day. We really have a lot of laughter at this house. I left once mom was in bed for the night.  

Watching for Spring

 Right after the walk this morning I left in the Prius for Middle Grove. I figured out I can make 5 trips in the Prius to ONE trip with the truck and trailer. If Irish was bagged up I would need to drive back to get the truck and trailer but since she isn't due until April 6th there was a good chance she would not be bagged up.  I drove the back way and parked at the far gate where Mike puts the hay in. The horses were not in sight. There were plenty of bales out, the hay looked and smelled good and Mike had plenty of salt blocks out in this area, just no horses. Below is a close up of a bale. It is good green fine stemmed hay.

The fields didn't look green but there was new growth under the old and that was young, tender and green. 

The creeks and lakes were all open so plenty of water sources.

I started hiking. The temperature was 24 degrees and the wind was blowing and I was wishing I had worn a warmer coat until I got on the other side of the hill out of the wind.  That is where I found the horses.  Missy was the first to see me.

I didn't head up to see them, just kept hiking until I found Irish. She was off by herself which worried me a little but Mika wasn't too far from her.

She looked back when I called to her and is obviously still pregnant.

The picture below shows better how very pregnant she is.

I hiked over and checked her udder and she is not bagged up at all. That meant she could be left another week out there. The is also a lot of new tender green grass coming up under the old. She found a great place for that tasty snack. The rest of the horses were all checked. All except Rosalie are heavy in foal. Below is Lily who was bred to Valiant and due May 4th which is her 20th birthday. I'm sure she won't have this 17th foal on her birthday as she always delivers early. Lily had her first foal when she was 4 years old and has never missed a year, producing a high quality amazing foal each year. 

Below is Rosaleigh, she was bred to Evan and is due June 7th.

Below is Madiera who was bred to Valiant and is also due June 7th.

Below is Jewel who is bred to Evan and is due July 6th.

Below is Oksana who is bred to Evan and due June 25th.

Below is Indy who was bred to Evan and due Aug 16th.

Below is Jury who was bred to Valiant and is due Aug 21st.

Below is Tatiana who was bred to Valiant and is due May 16th.

Below is Soul who was bred to Evan and is due April 16th.

Sheena and Sally are not out at Middle Grove. Sheena was bred to Valiant and is due June 18th and IF Sally got pregnant when she was covered on Christmas Eve she would be due December 5th. The other horses out there not in foal are Sangria, Mika, Rosalie, Cookie and Missy. Below is Mika.

Below is Rosalie.

Below is Cookie.

Below is Missy.

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures from Middle Grove click HERE.

I took a video while out there of the horses happily grazing. The wind is quite loud in the video.

As I was hiking back to the car snow flakes started coming down and by the time I got home it was snowing. I had to take the truck and trailer back for two more trips to Middle Grove as it was important to bring Cookie and Sally off the fields.

Yesterday Mark got the aquaponic tanks out of the basement and into the yard. 

When Mark got home from work he brought Mackenson over and we started removing all the rock from the aquaponic tanks in the basement. Mark would hand me the buckets of rock, I would walk up the stairs and hand them to Mackenson who would haul them outside and dump them.

We did that one bucket at a time and got both tanks emptied in an hour.  

Below is a short video of Mark emptying the tanks.

The rock was dumped into the tanks we hauled outside. Those will be set up this spring and hopefully by summer we will have a new way to grow vegetables.  This evening I went to mom's and Joined Diane, Karin and Joan for games.  It was good to just sit. My back and legs are tired from all the work done today. We finished games around 8:00 pm it was still snowing and the cars were covered.  This snow won't last too long as we are expecting a warm up next week.  It is 22 degrees right now and tomorrow the temperatures are supposed to be steady low 20s then comes the bitter cold on Saturday with below zero wind chills.  Then comes a WARM 55 degree Sunday. Just 2 more days of cold and maybe Spring will hang around this time.

Stay On the Wall

 Another cold morning. Mark got the fire started early. It was hard to leave the warm house for the cold walk.  Diane stayed with mom last night and they had a fun evening filled with laughter. We are so glad when we see mom enjoying herself. After the walk I left for Sam's club for groceries and picked up some of their delicious barbeque ribs which will be served for Sunday dinner.  I also picked up a box of spring mix for the salad that night. Sam's had the 8 ounce styrofoam cups we needed at Berean. The last time we needed cups they only had the 20 ounce cups and those are much too big. I was glad they had the 8 ounces size but they came in a box of 1000 cups. The good news is they were only 2 cents a cup, the bad news or maybe this is good news too, we won't need to buy cups for YEARS.  With gas going so high I need to figure out how to combine the trips to Middle Grove. The big horse trailer could be taken so I can fit more horses in with each trip but that means much more walking for me as that trailer can't be hauled over the hills there.  If interested in seeing what the winter pasture looks like check out the video below. This was taken when we were moving the herd from the summer pasture into the winter pasture. 

By the way that is Emily riding Sally and Mike riding Mika and Matt (Anni's husband, Emily's brother) on the 4 wheeler in the video. When Mark got home from work we started moving the aquaponic system out of the basement and into the yard.  With inflation already at an all time high and headed higher we will need to start growing our own vegetables. I usually just put in a couple tomato plants but Mark wants to put in a big garden. That is something I was never going to do as growing up in a big family we had a huge garden and instead of play time we had weeding, then harvesting, canning and freezing.  I didn't appreciate that back then but maybe have grown up enough to appreciate it now. With these high high fuel prices I decided to do some research. IS America really running out of oil?  I don't think so. America now holds the world's largest recoverable oil reserve base- more than Saudi Arabia or Russia, it's time these left wing green people move out of the way. Don't believe me? CLICK HERE.

Mark drove my car to church this evening and noticed that the car was going to need gas soon so offered to fill it on the way home. Dave Obergfel had the message on Nehemiah rebuilding the wall. The message of the night was don't quit what you are called to do. Stay on the WALL! Of course that entire sermon was directed directly at me.  The barn needs to get finished.

Bad Breath

 It was 19 degrees outside so on the walk we all dressed in winter coats. I even wore gloves.  The day warmed up nicely later into the 40s.  The walk was cut a little short as Diane and Ruth both needed to leave early.  I picked up Aunt Jinnie at 8:15 am and headed to the Berean office. Today we beat everyone there. If you would like to read about our morning there click HERE. We stopped at the Bartonville post office to drop off the Bibles on the way home. There were 29 Bible requests today which is too many for me to carry inside at the Hanna City post office. The Bartonville post office has a loading dock which makes it much easier. After Aunt Jinnie was dropped off I went in to change, have a quick lunch before heading out to move horses.  Sheena and Dancer's paddock would need a new bale of hay OR I could just move them in with Sally and Rockaway. I chose to move the horses but that meant I needed to stay and watch to make sure they would all remember to get along.  They had been together but it has been a few months and of course they need to re-establish the pecking order. Below is Sheena and Dancer standing together. 

They all did some running. I was most impressed with Rockaway and realized I really need to get a new video of him. He has a HUGE trot. By the time I thought to take a video they had all settled down.

Once they were fine the cat was fed and I headed over to mom's arriving about 3:00 pm. Joan had taken mom to Nancy's meeting this morning and mom was pretty tired from the trip.  We watched the eagle cam for a bit. Both mom and Aunt Jinnie enjoy watching this.

 Later we watched Ben Carson's movie "Gifted Hands"  I HIGHLY recommend that movie. Diane arrived just as dinner was on the table to take over for the evening.  When I went out to get in my car I noticed the parking lot ONLY had Prius cars in it.

Diane's car is teal, Karin's is white and mine is the blue one. With the terrible gas prices happening it looks like we may be prepared at least some. Gas hit $4.59 today all over Peoria and here. WHY won't Biden encourage American oil?  Just think a little more than 14 months ago we were energy independent and gas was under $2.00 a gallon. I went home and made a salad with strips of roasted chicken and fried onion rings. We are both going to have bad breath tonight.