Luke 15:8 (with slight adjustments) “Or suppose a woman is working in a chicken house immediately before leaving on a trip to Florida, and somehow her only pair of glasses slips from her pocket. Doesn’t she light a flashlight, walking the house multiple times and search carefully under 60,000 birds until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, her daughter summons her friends and neighbors and she says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my glasses which were lost.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents

It’s true- my parents migrated to Florida and directly before the migration, Mother was helping Em in her chicken house. The temp change from the current Arctic Circle we are living in to the inside of the chicken house is significant and caused her glasses to fog up. So Mother hurriedly stuffed them in her pocket and went about her chores aaaaaaand realized about 3/4 of the way around the outside of the 600 ft house that she’d lost something important.

Praise the Lord on the 3rd round of retracing her steps, the lost was found and after a good scrubbing-the glasses were heading south.

My parents, the famous glasses, a gulf sunset, and “our first ever selfie”

My Ben friend brought my dreams of seeing Blackwater Falls in the wintertime to life this past weekend. It was even more gorgeous than I’d imagined. Bless him 🥰

Just wow. Thank you Jesus for creating such beauty ❤️

It was also more of a health hazard than I’d imagined. All 200 steps were covered with a snow ice glaze that made them very treacherous.

Our travel companions created quite a stir as Deb hauled Sweet Baby A along with ease. What an adventure.

The ice snow glaze over the entire countryside turned the world into the most gorgeous place and made our travel breathtaking.

I’m so thankful to have a Heavenly Father who cares about little things like lost glasses, and a girl’s dreams of seeing a mountain waterfalls in the wintertime and provides the right thing at the right time.

Thanks for rejoicing with us,

Kendra

Bonus Pic:

Same Day in Feb, Same sweet nephews, Different year 💙💙

As Juanita was walking down Mole Hill

She met a stranded van heading for Newville

The stranded van held 12 thankful gals

The 12 gals had 4 mysterious sacks

The 4 sacks had 6 organic cats

The rescuers were more than one man (3 to be exact)

Cats, Sacks, Gals, Van

I wonder if you’re following still-

How many were walking down Mole Hill?

---

My morning started early. I flew around the kitchen grabbing my standard cup of coffee and a quick bite. I checked my phone and the radar looked like the projected winter ice storm was yet to arrive. I started my van to clear the windshield of yesterday’s winter weather. And I was off in good time. 4:19 a.m.

The roads weren’t a problem as I headed to the other side of the county to load up my first passenger and her boxes. Apparently someone put an ad in the Lancaster Farming “cats wanted”. My friends were about the 40th to respond to the ad. (Surprise) and there was no longer a cat deficiency, but they knew of someone else who wanted 6 female cats. And since these came from an organic farm-I guess that makes them certified organic lol Either way-we carefully loaded the cat boxes in the van’s box and hurried on. Meowing as we went.

Picking up passengers always adds a lot of time to a travel day, but this one was moving along until-whoops fishtailed around a corner and ummmm power braked to stop at Dry River.

I realized that I was in an H.O.T (heap of trouble) about the time I started up Mole Hill. But I bravely continued only to spin out partway up the climb. The road was a sheet of ice.

I knew it wasn’t going to be a problem tho-because I could just back down. Wrong. Every time I hit the brakes to slow the descent, the back of the van would slide to the side of the road. The worst part of the process was this “Hey Kendra, can you see the 15 ft drop off we are rapidly sliding towards?” I couldn’t actually. But I stopped attempting to be strong and independent and did what any girl would do. I phoned up my dad.

He sounded wide awake for it being 5 a.m, and he didn’t hesitate “sit tight, I’ll be right there”

So there we sat.

While he donned his crocs (appropriate foot gear 🥴) de-iced his pickup, loaded a chain, and slipped and slid our way.

We sat helplessly as a tractor delivered more passengers who were anticipating heading to Newville PA to sort clothes for CAM.

We sat helplessly as a Ford Explorer inched down the hill and tooted the horn merrily as it passed by on the other side.

We sat helplessly as my cousin and her dad walked past armed with fresh cups of coffee heading for the dairy barn.

We sat helplessly as our knight in shining armor crocs slid past us in his pickup fishtailing as he went. He turned around, slid past us again and opted that a tractor was a better option for rescue equipment this round.

The rest of the story is fairly anticlimactic. My dad, my uncle, and a neighbor helped get my van on safer ground and after careful discussion, we decided to try to head to PA another day.

So with the pickup as pilot car, I carefully eased back down off of Mole Hill, retracing my steps.

(At one point, I went a different route than the pilot car and it was a good thing. He called with a road report and all I heard was “oh shoot,shoot,shoot… wooosh, I just shot through the stop sign at Bank Church and ended up in the field.” Well then)

So now I’m back to sitting…. beside my woodstove, rejoicing in God’s provision.

And if any of you have need for an organic cat or 6, I can save you an ad in the Lancaster Farming-these are boxed and ready to go.

Enjoy this wintery day,

Kendra

Bonus Pics:

Such a beautiful winter wonderland around here

Last winter, somewhere between the new relationship “what do you get a guy for Valentines Day” status and up-all-night-with-preemie-twins-might-as-well-surf-the-internet syndrome I came across a website with the solution for Valentines Day. A beef jerky bouquet.

It really was ingenious and it got me thinking-instead of ordering one-could I create one?

I collected supplies (and my sisters) and as I remember, we threw the bouquets together while the twins were sleeping and barely got the mess cleaned up before it was time to feed them again. Ah those were the days.

This year, I came across the matching stainless cup to the one that held Ben’s “beefquet” last year just in time to remind me to do this again.

I’m not a meat sculptor by any part of imagination, but these jerky flowers are easy and fun to make.

I just snip tiny “V”s to make the petals and tack another smaller piece on with a toothpick to create depth. The stems are Jack Links sausages.

Add some string cheese and little packages of Sharp Cheddar cheese ( if your bf has preferences like my Ben friend) and you’re all set.

I’m sorry but I just couldn’t wait til Sunday to give this to him 🙈🤷🏻‍♀️😂

---

1 Cor 13:4 Love is patient,love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,it is not easily angered,it keeps no record of wrongs.6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

Happy Valentines Weekend,

Kendra

I’d rather be fishing

Most of the time

Morning or evening

Rain or shine

Just show me the tackle

Give me some bait

Let me go fishing

The rest can wait

I’ll catch ‘em

And clean ‘em

I’ll cook ‘em up fast

But once we start eating

They surely won’t last

I’d rather be fishing

Wouldn’t you know

Morning or evening

Rain or snow

-Author Unknown

Bonus Pics:

This snowy weekend was such much fun. Quality time with these little men is always a highlight:

The only downside to my beautiful weekend: my Ben friend spent many snowy hours out making travel possible for the rest of the world… thankful for him and his comrades who do a great job at clearing the roads ❤️