Make it a blessed day!

When logging on this morning I was shocked to notice that I haven't posted anything new for over a month! Time flies around here these days.

The past few weeks has been a mixture events ranging between joy and sorrow - we're honored to be included in the celebrations of nine graduating seniors (congrats to all!). We've also attended four funeral services for church brethren and loved ones.

This combination of celebrations in life and in death brings me to ponder how I have grown in the past 20-odd years and what I'm doing with the life the Lord has blessed me with. I remember graduating from high school as if it were yesterday. I was ecstatic to be done with school and, believing I was invincible, looked forward to starting a new job, making money, and spending the money I made. That was as far as my dreams of the future could take me that summer. I seriously doubt that my thoughts were any different than most of the students in my graduating class that year since the "here and now" is what's most important at that stage in life. But years down the road, life experiences and responsibilities force us to look beyond the "here and now" to the future...there's the obvious things like "how will I possibly manage the shcedule next week?!" And of course there are the more difficult things like financial planning for our childrens' college education and our retirement. But in the whirl of fulfilling our schedule and preparing for future milestones, I don't think I ever take enough time to take care of today, enjoying the blessings in it. Ironically, the "here and now" is really what's most important, for it is in today that I can secure a legacy for my children and future generations. Deuteronomy 6:5-7 says "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." This instruction is for today. Fuilfilling this commandment each day is, ultimately, the security of the future. And so, it is my prayer that I will take time to enjoy today, because I don't know when my todays will end, and at the end of my life I don't want to be filled with sorrow thinking I spent too much time pondering the past and/or preparing for the future.

Make it a BLESSED day TODAY!

Vacationing and Homecoming

Business as usual has prevented me from posting for a while. Spring has sprung and we have been keeping very busy.

Before I share the details of our recent vacation, however, I must brag on my two oldest daughters and our "adopted" family of 4H members comprising the Wayne County 4H Equine Judging Team. Two weeks ago our senior and junior teams traveled to Alexandria, Indiana, to take part in the area 4H & FFA equine judging competition. Both teams gained a spot at the state competition to be held this weekend by placing 4th (seniors) and 1st (juniors). As two of only three returning veterans, Lindsay and Emma were both surprised by and thrilled with their teams' performances. The excitement intensified, however, when the individual results were revealed a few days later. Our daughters were at the top of the lists! Lindsay placed 2nd overall in the senior division and Emma placed 1st overall in the junior division. We are so very proud of our girls and just as equally as proud of their team members' collective achievements. GREAT JOB Wayne County!!

Moving on...Last week we were blessed to enjoy some much-needed relaxation time on our camping/trail riding vacation. Late into the night Sunday found us packing two trucks and two trailers, and after rising early Monday morning, we loaded our three daughters, two of our dogs, and five of our horses for the two-hour drive to meet our friends at Brown County State Park near Nashville, Indiana. What a TREAT! We have ridden the trails in Brown County several times in the past, but have never had the opportunity to stay five nights and six days. Our extended stay allowed us to seek out trails we'd never ridden before, and it was a wonderful trip! We could not have hand picked better weather. Sun beams and warm breezes followed us down hillsides and up ridges each day as we logged 75 miles and 36 hours of riding for the week. We were blessed to see the majesty of God's creation unfold a little more each day as tiny buds which graced trees and shrubbery on Monday turned to full-blown foliage by Saturday. Wondrous sights awaited us in areas that would have been too difficult to traverse on foot or by car. Trail riding is a favorite past time for our family, and this spring's experience was certainly no exception! If you've never observed the beauty of God's creation on horseback, we highly recommend it! Here are a couple of photos of the trails:
Above: Brian and the girls make their way on the trail. This was our first ride of the week when horses and humans are still fresh! Below: Ballenger and Abernathy families in the valley of trail 7 on the way to Story.As difficult as it was to think about leaving Brown County Saturday afternoon, we were all truly longing for home. It was nice to pull into our driveway, get out of the truck, and hear the nickers of our equine family members who had been left behind all week. They may have been happy to see us, but they were THRILLED to see their siblings! Brian and I laughed as we stood at the fence and watched them all once again determine their places in the pecking order. Baby, Dixie, Sassy, Tango, and Shotgun served us well on the trails of Brown County, and we smiled as they each took a few well-deserved rolls in the pasture. They seemed just as happy to be home as the human members of the B5 Gang!

Emma can't seem to find the right end of Sassy! Acutally, she's prepping her saddle bags for the morning trail ride.
Tango decides he needs a little nap before he hits the trail again. Lindsay takes the opportunity to use him as a leaning post.
Lily and Sandy enjoy a moment together in the quiet scenery offered at trail's end in Story, Indiana.

Looking for Signs of Spring

We've been teased with a few peeks of sunshine and warm breezes lately, and it's causing us to look a little closer for those tell-tale signs of spring we "Hoosiers" get excited about. The green shoots of the lily plants have poked through the ground, buds are forming on my lilac shrub, and robins are rockin' around the barn. (I can't think of a more pleasing spring morning combination than a hot cup of coffee in my hand and the sound of a robin's song as I sit at the breakfast table. Joy!) The coming of spring also brings about a few extra chores that have been awaiting better weather. Brian has been working on our "old" barn which is being converted into equipment storage, and building fence for two additional horse turnouts.



A double-whammy prevented me from posting last week: first I was sick (thankfully I was the only member of our family who came down with that nasty little virus), and then our modem went bad. We were lost without internet and email acitivty for the first couple of days, but it didn't take long for us to realize that life really does go on without access to the world wide web! Of course it made a few items of business quite a bit more difficult, but we were able to manage.



I have new photos to post this time. The first batch is from the surprise birthday party we had for Emma on her 13th birthday in February. We were blessed with a BEAUTIFUL day and were thrilled to celebrate with about 40 guests in our barn.










The second batch is of the color guard team that Lindsay and Emma enjoy riding with. We were happy to offer the team an indoor riding opportunity on that extremely COLD night two weeks ago!




We're looking forward to hosting another 4H club's clinic in two weeks and plan to post photos from that event in upcoming blogs.

Happy Signs-of-Spring Hunting to you all!

Visitors, visitors

What a blessing our barn has already been in its short span of existence! Brian and I have been kicking ourselves for not yet starting a visitor's book for the barn, so we sat down this morning to brainstorm and write down names of people who have come to the barn since its completion. Our brainstorming session came up with 140 visitors since February 1, 2008. That is, 140 different visitors! We were very careful not to count anyone more than once since many people are here frequently or have returned for repeat visits, but I'm sure we'll realize that we've missed some here and there.

Last night we were thrilled to watch our color guard team practice in the barn. They were scheduled to be here last week, but bad winter weather forced us to postpone. Eleven riders on eleven horses were in our facility all at once, performing simple maneuvers...what a treat! In addition to those 11 riders were 21 spectators watching from the sidelines. Our biggest concern was parking for trucks with trailers, but we had no trouble parking 9 cars and 6 trucks with trailers in our parking area. It was a great night!

Last week we hosted a horse health care clinic with our veterinarian for the Rough Riders 4H club. Ice and snow the day before had cancelled school functions and knocked out power for many in the community, so we weren't sure how many to expect for the clinic. We were pleasantly surprised with 35 visitors that night, and everyone enjoyed gleaning from Dr. Lance's knowledge.

We're happy to announce the addition of two students to next week's lesson schedule! God is so good! News of our mission is spreading quickly, and we're so excited to be a part of His great plan for these young lives.