We had our first snow of the year yesterday…..SUCH as it was.  Now it’s just what most people would consider cold and miserable.  If you had something to do outside today to keep you moving, it actually wasn’t too bad if you could get out of the wind and didn’t have to get wet. 

We didn’t actually get enough snow here at the house to say that we even GOT any, but it was a nice thought for awhile.  Not getting enough snow to say we got some is actually NOT a new thing for us in Kansas.  We’ve only had a couple of GOOD snows that actually stayed around for a couple of days a couple of different times since we moved here over a decade ago.  Kind of miss the snows that we used to get when we lived closer to the West Coast when I was growing up!!!  Yes, they were cold, and wet, and if you have 6 or 7 feet of it to try to work your way through, it WAS miserable at times….but I still miss it.  I love being able to catch the scent of pine and cedar trees on the brisk, still Winter morning air.  I love the way the brisk air feels….how alive it makes you realize you are when you breathe it or when you first step out into it and see your breath.  I love that touch of warmth the sun teases you with some days when you KNOW it’s not even warm enough to melt the snow.

Someone asked me a question today that I told them I would have to get back to them on…..Where would you like to go?  After being outside just before that, all I could think of was mountains and snow.  Now is that bad or WHAT?

Oh well….enough babbling at you tonight.  Blessings to all!!!

This could be an interesting prompt to write about…..adventures.  It seems that EVERY day is an adventure around our house.  That’s probably because, even though we have a loose “plan” for the day, they rarely seem to follow that plan for the WHOLE day.  Seems like there is ALWAYS something that’s not on the agenda, whether it be a horse getting out or getting hurt, or the weather, or maybe just people stopping by.

One of the BIGGEST “adventures” out here in our new house is probably learning WHICH critters are running around out here and how close.  We’ve been smelling skunk off and on for about the last couple of weeks.  At our other house, I can’t really say we had too many skunk visitors, but we SURE had possums and racoons!!  We have those out here too, I’m sure.  We have yet to see them, though.  Wouldn’t be surprised if we find a fox or two at some point either, and we KNOW we have coyotes in the neighborhood.  The other night, it sounded like they were howling from the middle of the dirt road that goes in front of our house!!!

The adventure that comes our way is God’s way, I guess, of keeping us from getting bored with life.  I CAN say one thing…..it’s NEVER boring around our house!!!

Blessings to all on this rainy Kansas morning!!!

Yep, that seems to be what we have been doing for about the last 2 months or so….finding our place in things and re-learning how things are SUPPOSED to work.  It has been an interesting process, though…and yes, it is still an on-going process that we are working on.

I read Ezekiel 41-45 and Psalms 12 tonight.  Haven’t really made much headway on my Bible reading in the last several months, or at least it doesn’t seem like it, but I still keep plugging away here and there, when I get the urge and the time to do it when I’m not falling-on-the-floor exhausted.  I SHOULD be able to finish Ezekiel tomorrow, which will be a good thing!!  Ezekiel is one of the MAJOR “landmarks” for me when I am reading the Bible, because it is just about the last book of any size, chapter-wise, in the Old Testament.

I HAVE to say there are a few things (or more) that have changed in the last few months for my son and I that I am VERY pleased with the change!!!  Saying a blessing over our meals is one of those.  I have to thank a very close friend and companion for that….Thank you, Kemosabie!!!

Enough unplanned rambling for now….Blessings in ABUNDANCE!!!

Have you ever wondered if it is possible to rewrite the history of your family?  That is one question that I have been pondering the last week or so.  That’s kind of what I feel like is happening in our lives right now.  I feel like we are……changing what history COULD have been?  Does that make sense?  I guess the easiest way to try to explain it is that, with the help of a friend, we have been making some decisions in the last couple of months that go against what we would have NORMALLY done.  I’ve heard it said ALOT lately by a couple of different people that it you want what you’ve got in life, keep doing and SAYING what you have been, but if you want something to change in your life, you have to change what you’re doing and SAYING.  Charles Capps (a preacher/evangelist), I believe, told Kenneth Copeland a bunch of years ago that God had spoken to him and told him that “I told my people that they could have what they say, but my people are saying what they have”.  How powerful is that!!!  That kind of goes along with the Gospel of Mark, chapter 11, verse 22-24, I believe.  Hmmmmm…..now the thought comes that makes me wonder how we change the words that have been SOOOOOO ingrained and programmed into us into words that change our situations.  It is harder than it sounds!!  But, with the good Lord’s help, and sheer determination and willpower, I AM determined to CONTINUE making decisions that are different, and we’ll just see what happens.

Blessings in ABUNDANCE to you and yours!!!

That’s about all I can say at this point….Oh WOW!!!!  I’m not quite sure what else TO say.  I worked with another horse today that has been here a week or maybe two weeks.  She has supposedly been ridden about half a dozen times, so I figured she had SOME kind of basis for me to work with.  How WRONG I was to assume that!!  Her name is Catalina, and she a pretty, little black 2-year-old filly.  She has ALOT of potential, and is pretty gentle, the little I have been around her since she’s been here.  I singled her out by herself today, with the intention of getting at least to the point where I put the saddle on and where she was as comfortable as she is going to get with a saddle on her with no one in the saddle.  Well, she DOES lead pretty well.  I CAN say that.  And I DID pick up all four of her feet without too much trouble….a little hesitant on the back ones, but I still got them off the ground!!!  She took the saddle pretty well.  She wasn’t all that comfortable with it when I first put it on, but after standing for a few minutes, and then walking around with it before I tightened it enough to get in the saddle, she was comfortable with it.  Then I went and put some weight in the stirrup a few times before I actually got IN the saddle and sat up on her for a few minutes.  It didn’t take her long to get comfortable with me getting in and out of the saddle.  The next thing I did was I got in the saddle and just sat.  She was extremely comfortable with that after the first few minutes.  Most horses, though, if they have had ANY training done from the saddle at all, will eventually start walking around of their own free will.  Catalina, even though we probably stood for a GOOD 20 minutes or better the first time, never had ANY inclination to move in ANY direction.  She just stood there….calm, curious about what was going on around her…but just stood.  I FINALLY decided to try to encourage her to move forward, which she DID…eventually.  I got her to where she was turning by plow-reining/neck-reining….sort of, but she was turning.  We just kind of turned here and there for a bit…slow, but sure….we stood for a while once in a while….and we just generally didn’t force the project…I figured to take it just one, SLOW step at a time.  I’m not quite sure who said she was “greenbroke”, but I’d have to say she’s either yellow or blue, but I DON’T consider her even “greenbroke” yet.  I don’t figure she needs anything but patience, a gentle hand, and time under the saddle, but it IS probably going to be a BIT longer getting her to where the lady that owns her wants her than what we were originally thinking.  Oh well, between Catalina and Chikala, it SHOULD be an interesting, exciting few weeks, if the weather holds for me….In addition to the fact that the lady that owns these horses said she had two more that she’d like me to ride too!!!  Sounds like I am going to be a busy, busy person with the horses, let alone with the housework, mommy-work, maid-work, and everything else going on!!!  But, this kind of busy with the horses is something that I REALLY enjoy, so I am NOT complaining!!!

Blessings in ABUNDANCE!!!

I got the chance to ride Chikala again on November 5th for about 45 minutes!!!  I started out by riding her in her pen, but then I decided to take her out of her pen and into a small pasture North of our house.  She did pretty good, considering!!!  She was pretty hyper to start with, from the excitement of being out, probably, but she was still controllable, and she didn’t try to buck, rear or even run away with me.  We just did circle after circle after circle, back and forth around the pasture, and we did figure-8’s and such just to try to calm her down a bit.  She was bobbing her head quite a bit, but I had left the lead rope attached to her halter, and it’s got a big, heavy hook on it, so I’m THINKING that that was probably part of her head bobbing problem.  By the time she got settled down, her head bobbing had basically quit, so it could have been a combination of excitement and the hook on the lead rope.  Next time I ride her, I will probably take the lead rope off, and see how she does.

I was going to ride a different horse yesterday, but the day just didn’t quite work out the way it was supposed too.  And today….well, let’s just say I thought SERIOUSLY about it, and got to doing a few other things outside that needed done anyway, so maybe I’ll saddle that other horse tomorrow.  Might even try saddling one that we aren’t sure if she has ever had a saddle on her or not.  The gal that owns the horses is supposed to have someone from Ohio coming to pick up a couple, and she was thinking that this person MIGHT be interested in one of our mares out here because she’s Quarter Horse.  This person would probably DEFINITELY take this mare (her name is Annie) if we could say that she has had a saddle/person on her and performed okay!!!

Okay, enough rambling about horses for now.  You all have a blessed rest-of-the-weekend!!!