Thanksgiving

God bless our dirty dishes

they have a tale to tell

While other folks are going hungry

we're eating mighty well

with home and health and happiness

we shouldn't want to fuss

for by this stack of evidence

God is very good to us

From Dear Abby

Many years ago but still as true today as it was then.

Have a happy Thanksgiving

May the Lord bless and keep you in his loving care.



Regards

Mary


Oh give thanks unto the Lord of lords for his mercy endures forever

Psalms 136: 1

Follow the Light

The sun had already cast long shadows and darkness was beginning to take over the land when we realized one of the fillies was not with the herd. Bob drove around the field on the tractor and found she was on the hill side outside of the fence. She had found the fence down and had stuck her head through because the grass IS greener on the other side of the fence.

I grabbed the lead rope and we got into the truck to get as close to her as possible by road. We saw her up the hill and just outside of the fence. I insisted that I could get her and got out of the truck to climb up the steep hillside to where she was standing. I had just enough light that I could see the deer trail leading up through the thick brush and steep hill side.

It was tough going. I half crawled up the hill grabbing onto small trees to both pull myself up and keep from falling backward. Thorn's from wild roses grabbed at my clothing and caught my bare skin a couple of times. But I was able to slowly make my way up the hill to where Masissah was standing. She didn't wait for me to catch her. She bolted back through the fence and gaited to the rest of the herd where she walked over to the bale of hay. I found her there innocently eating hay like she had been there all the time.

I instructed Bob to unplug the fence and I walked a stretch of it putting wire back on the insulators to hopefully keep them in the field and out of danger. It was now completely dark. I was across the field from the house. I did not have to make my way back down the same hill. I climbed through the fence and walked toward home.

The night was quiet and peaceful. The only sounds I could hear was the sound of my feet as I walked across the field toward the comfort of home. Despite the darkness that surrounded me, I could see enough in front of me that I knew where to step to keep my footing. I had already noticed the lights at the house shinning through the darkness. It seemed they were there to guide me home.

Then I started thinking about the true light of the world, Jesus Christ, and how he lights our path as we head toward our home in heaven. Behind me was darkness and the hill I had just climbed. It was steep and had I not been careful I could have fallen and landed at the bottom. I had some light then but what if I had turned around and decided to take a chance on going back down that hill away from the light.

Isn't that what we do when we take our own path and decide we know best. Instead of following the light, we take the path where danger lurks at every turn. We take one step after another until we are on that hillside in the dark and not being able to see we fall. But even then Jesus Christ is there to save us. Even then we can cry out to him and tell him we need him. We need his light.

In this life we are walking in darkness if we try to live as if there is no God. Without Christ the world in a scary place. In our ignorance we say to ourselves, I can do it myself. I don't need Christ to save me. I am too smart to fall for that fairy tale.

Have you ever tried to put something together and not read the instructions. We usually laugh and say that when all else fails we will read the instructions. And usually we do find that we have to get the instructions and read them.

I have decided I want mail delivery out on our route. I get some mail addressed to my home address instead of my P O Box and sometimes it is a letter I would have like to receive or needed to have. So I bought a mail box. I thought I was surely smart enough to put the mail box together. Yes, some assemble was required. I put some of it together and found some things about it that I couldn't decide how it needed to be done. So yep, I got out the instructions.

We do that every day when we don't read God's instruction book, the Bible.

May your paths always be lite by God's perfect light and may you always be guided by the light that leads you home to Jesus.

And may God bless and keep you in his loving care.

Regards,

Mary

Look deep into my heart, God, and find out everything I am thinking. don't let me follow evil ways, but lead me in the way that time has proven true.

Psalms 139: 23-24

For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.

Proverbs 1: 32-33

And Then There Is Rascal

First picture is WOF Ann's Mt Treasure. She is a yearling filly and is getting ready to compete in trial obstacles at the KMSHA show. Second is WOF Dock's Velvet. Velvet is 3 years old and a daughter of Choco Dock. She is a beautiful bay mare. Third picture is Vanessa Crowe showing Dixie Belle. She is a beautiful Chocolate Palomino that is 2 years old and is just put under saddle last summer.

Rascal is the newest member of our family. He is not a horse for a change.

Now I don't mean to offend people who own and love cats but I really don't like cats for pets. They are too ___________. You know cats so you fill in the blank. It is not that we have never had cats for pets.

We had two house cats at one time. My daughter had gotten a kitten (thanks to her children) for a pet. They named their new kitten Bob. It seemed like a suitable name until Bob got older. Bob was part minx. As most of you may know Minx is a breed that has no tail. They are also shorter in the front than in the back legs. Bob was a beautiful cat. and Bob had kittens. So now we know Bob was not exactly the best name for her but Bob she was and Bob she stayed.

When Bob had kittens my grandchildren really thought we should have one of them. They were really cute as young animals always are. So I finally agreed to have A kitten. Not kittens but a kitten. My mistake was that I let Bill and one of the grandchildren go to pick out the kitten. They came home with two kittens. Some of the grandchildren liked the female cat that was calico color. She was long haired. Some of them liked the short haired white cat that looked like his mother. And he was a very beautiful kitten.

So Bill compromised and brought both cats home. So now we were a two cat household. We owned the usual cat stuff. The liter box, the liter, the little scoop etc. The cats eventually grew up as cats do. They had some lessons along the way. For instance, they wanted to sleep with us. They kept getting put off the beds in a very firm way until they learned their lessons. But they never learned not to get up on the furniture.

I had a nice feather duster that I really liked. One day I came home and the duster was turned into piles of feathers all over the floor. I guess they thought it was a bird and decided to tear it to pieces.

These two cats were good mousers. One morning as I was getting ready for work I heard a mouse in the heat vent. Before long the male cat had caught the mouse and he was very proud. I was getting my clothes on when I heard some growling in the dining room. I walked out of the bathroom and the female cat was growling like a dog at the male cat. She took his catch over and let him know it was hers. He backed off.

They had not been out of the house for their whole lives and I decided that they needed to go out. I was tired of the liter box and the male cat always managed to get in the box but he hung his back end over the box and missed it. So I was left cleaning up his mess.

My husband and daughter tried to put them out one day and they hung on the back door. It was so funny. Both cats hanging on the back door. So they came back in and weren't put out for awhile. One day they were sitting in kitchen window. I opened the window and pushed both cats out before they knew what had happened to them. They tried to get back in but couldn't jump high enough to reach the window. So they stayed out during the day but came in at night.

One morning I noticed fleas in the house. I sprayed the house and we gave the cats a bath. After that the male cat became known as flea bag. The female had already become known as hair ball because of being long haired she had the problem of hair balls. This was Bill's names for the two cats.

When we went on vacation one time Bill took them to the vet for boarding. They asked what their names were and of course he told them Fleas Bag and Hair Ball. They had a good laugh over that at the vet's office and promptly gave them more normal names but around our house they were always Flea Bag and Hair Ball.

Flea Bag liked our dog Hannah but Hair Ball hated dogs. Flea Bag would curl up beside her and they would sleep together. Hannah never minded him being there. Hair Ball would wait for Hannah to walk by a chair and she would jump on her and attach her. Hannah was very confused. She didn't ever know (kbb whjm mjj Erica is helping me write) why she was attack. And there was no reason she was mistreated in such a way since she never bothered the cats.

One day Flea Bag disappeared. We could only guess what happened to him but we thought he maybe got too friendly with Coyotes. We had Hair Ball a bit longer but one day she disappeared as well. So we no longer had cats and I did not want another cat.

And then just recently Lucy and I had a girl's day out and we went to Stanton to the Van Bert Farm. It just happened a little kitten had appeared from nowhere on that particular day. It had a broken foot. It was really a rather ugly kitten. He had been shaved around his neck and his hair was shorter there than anywhere else on his body. He had fleas and was under weight even for a young kitten. He looked like he should still be with his mother. But there he was in Van Bert's barn.

Vera came out of the office and announced that cat had to be taken care of because she was fearful the dogs would kill him. By then he was climbing up Lucy's pant legs and she was already hooked. But as she explained, she already had a couple of cats and she couldn't take another one home. So guess who got talked into taking the cat home. You guessed it. Grandma. But then I do have the coffee cup Lucy gave me that says "The most sweetest Grandma Ever!" So I guess I am pretty easy.

We got home with him and she gave him a bath to get rid of the fleas. We wormed him and put him in the milk room at the barn. Vera had given us cat food so we promptly fed him and tucked him in for the night.

He is such a sweet little thing that he worms his way into your heart. Mine included. So now I am once again a cat owner. I do not say "cat person". But I do like Rascal, as I named him. It really does suit him.

Well now you know how it is. When children and grandchildren are involved you can own dogs and cats you really thought you didn't want and they become part of your life and then you don't know what you did without them. (That is also how I got Erica) That is another story for another day.

There is a lesson to be learned from animals. Any animal if we look for it. I can always relate our relationship to Jesus from animals I own or have owned. The little kitten is not perfect. He was a rather ugly little thing when I first saw him. He had a broken foot and walked funny. He was wormy and had fleas. We took care of the worms and fleas and he is getting prettier. He has grown so fast with good food and TLC.

Jesus took us in at the point in our lives when we were ugly in our sins. He cleaned us up and forgave us unconditionally. Our sins though scarlet are wiped out by his precious blood. He has saved us once and for all by us just asking for his forgiving grace. We can't earn it. We don't deserve it. It is a free gift that cost him a terrible price. The price was death on a cross. Shedding his blood. He was pure and innocent but shed his blood for you and me. We are clean but until we die and see him face to face in heaven we will still sin. We will still have that broken foot, so to speak.

Do you know my Jesus? Have you told him you need him more than life itself? Have you committed your life to him. Have you accepted that free precious gift he died to give you?

May God bless and keep you in his loving care.

Regards,

Mary

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11