Back to Blogging - so how about something fun?

I've had "bloggers block" for a few weeks. It's hard for me to avoid the whole subject of the political situation in Honduras. The truth of the matter is that I do have some strong feelings about it all, and I hate beating around the bush and being careful about what I say. So, I've not been feeling inspired to write anything in the blog, when I knew I was avoiding the subject that is really uppermost in my mind right now.

Things have settled into a new kind of normal around here - sort of like settling in to do your normally scheduled activities under a scaffold with a big cinderblock balanced precariously over your head. Things seem just fine, really, but you can't know what the future holds . . .

We've had all sorts of activities and events recently, including a visit from a group of friends from our home church, the death of one of our dogs, and Allen's and my 25th wedding anniversary - that's a big one, doncha think? However, I've decided to ease myself back into blogging by sharing something totally unexpected - we bought a horse!

Here's how this came about:

Our good friend, Rodrigo, is a welder. He did some welding work for someone who was unable to pay him for the work and so he was offered this little horse in payment. Rodrigo accepted, although he has no use for the horse. Of course, he called us and asked if we wanted to buy a horse. Soon after, Rodrigo and horse (and nephew and grandson) were all in front of our house.


Now, do you know any kids who wouldn't fall in love with a sweet little horse at first sight? Maybe you do, but those wouldn't be my kids - my kids were smitten pretty much immediately. It helped that the horse's disposition was so quiet and gentle. The kids climbed on and off, petted her nose, stood all around her, and she was totally placid and unconcerned. Our house is also situated on a busy road, and the horse wasn't bothered by the traffic, either.

We had a family pow-wow (we do this often) to discuss the pros and cons of purchasing the horse. We had already promised the kids that we would purchase a horse once we moved onto our property - but we aren't there yet! So, the cons included the fact that we really aren't ready to be horse owners.

The pros included that we have been planning to get a horse, and this particular horse seemed so perfect for us. As first-time horse owners, we figured a small, placid horse would be a good choice.

Another con - this all took place several weeks ago, when the political situation seemed more likely to blow at any moment. It felt sorta silly to be contemplating the purchase of a horse right then.

We left the pow-wow without a decision, knowing that we would definitely have bought the horse if we were already living on our property, and if the political situation wasn't looking so unstable.

A few days later, Allen was in the city, on business, and Bethany was doing laundry here at home. Going through Allen's pockets, Bethany found the amount of cash needed to purchase the horse. We have an ongoing family joke that whoever finds money in pockets while doing laundry should get to keep the money (it's a joke, though, because some family members are notoriously bad about checking their pockets before putting clothing in the laundry, and the amounts of money can sometimes be surprisingly high) - and Boo suggested that if she just kept this money, she could buy the horse. Later in the day, I mentioned this to Allen over the phone, and he replied, "Yes, I guess we should get it, then."

Well, I thought he was just joking around. Then, last week, I happened to ask Allen over dinner one night if he thought Rodrigo had sold the horse to someone else, or if he still had it. Allen said, "Of course he still has it - I told him we wanted it!" The whole family was flabbergasted - we had no idea the horse was ours!


So now we own a horse! We haven't named her yet, and we haven't moved her up to the property yet, but we are very excited about having her as part of our menagerie.