Friday Night Celebration! It's Raining!!!

1 Kings 18:41-42 

The Drought Ends

"41 Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” 42 So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees..."

Be sure to turn on your sound so you can hear the "abundance of rain" !!!

Hallelujah!! I feel like dancing in the rain!

 

Looking out the front windows...

Puddles!!!!!

And then....A RAINBOW!!!  I kept watching and waiting, and pretty soon I was blessed with this beautiful rainbow!!! Praise the Lord for His promises to us!

Genesis 9:12-17

12 And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 

13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 

14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 

15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 

16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 

17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

And that's all I wanted to share with you tonight, because I know you've been praying that we'd get rain!  I don't know if the areas that have had the fires got any of this rain or not, but we can keep praying! I believe there's more coming Sunday and several days next week, so just maybe the drought is being broken!! We will claim it by faith!

Thank you all for your prayers!!! Please keep them coming!!!

It's Friday! Fly! Be Free!

The Bluebirds have left the nest!  

They may not have left things very tidy, but at least it appears they all made it out of the nest safely. I didn't see it happen, nor do I know how many baby birds were in the nest, but judging by the amount of "you know what" they left on the walls, there must have been several and it must've been rather crowded in there! LOL.  I am sure they are happy to be free and hopefully safely abiding in the treetops with their parents now and learning how to take care of themselves. 

Happy Friday! First off and foremost, I want to thank you all for so many kind comments on my last post HERE, the "Photo Dump Day". Your comments are always so precious and humbling and encouraging to me...as each of you are also precious to me. Thank you for being such special friends. We may never meet each other in person, but the bond we share through our conversations here in "blogland" oftentimes draw us even closer together than "in person relationships". I think it's because we often share things, ideas, events, deep thoughts and concerns here that we may not have the opportunity to share with people in the "real world" on a day to day basis. I am very thankful for each and every one of you. You inspire, teach, and encourage me in so many positive and uplifting ways. Again, thank you for being my friends! I have a feeling that if we could ever all get together, we would be even better than "The Golden Girls". LOL.

Speaking of "friends"...

Blackie seems to be my best buddy these days. He follows me around in the yard...

And wants to be right there in the middle of anything I am doing...

Literally in the middle...

(this is still a work in progress. I need some help moving those heavy boxes out of the way. )

I had just planted some wildflower and zinnia seeds in this little patch, tried to put a barrier around it so they don't all wash away when I water them, and had everything all nicely tucked in, when Blackie decided this looked like a good place to jump in and investigate! I am not a great gardener, but maybe Blackie helped pack the seeds down in the ground a little better and perhaps they will grow much stronger because of his extra gardening touch...Let us hope so! LOL.

After all "our" hard work planting seeds, we both decided to take a little break and sit on the garden bench for a while...

Oh, and speaking of the garden...the tomatoes are starting to appear!!

Hooray!!

And there are more squash/zucchini blossoms every day! Another Hooray!

Of course maintaining this garden requires a lot of watering on my part since we still have not had any rain...and even though there is some in the forecast for maybe on Sunday and later next week,  I have a feeling it still won't be enough to make any major difference in our pond or dry forests in the area. The fires continue to burn, but thankfully it doesn't seem it is quite as bad as it was...at least there's less smoke in the air.

However, there's apparently something dead somewhere on the still very dry Still Waters Pond. This morning we have a flock of buzzards surround our pond...

I don't know what they see out there...could be a dead turtle or something like that. I've wondered what's happened to all of the turtles who used to live in the pond.  I wish I could walk out there across the pond and see if I can find out what it is, but even though it is dry, there are places where I am sure I could break through the dry crust and sink up to my knees in muck, and I am definitely not willing to take that risk.  So whatever it is, I hope the buzzards clean it up before it starts to "smell".  That's what they are good for...all a part of the cycle of life and death in the wild.

Thankfully, I know it's not our Sand Hill Cranes, because there they are, alive and well and taking a stroll on the pond this morning.

I wish I had some other exciting or interesting news to share today.  Well, let's see...our son and his wife continue to create all kinds of wooden items in addition to the cedar planters. They currently have a booth a the Trading Post at Deep Creek, as well as setting up an outdoor booth bi-weekly at the Farm Swap.

And there's more news...Benton is actually going to be working at the Trading Post at Deep Creek a few hours each week! So if you go at the right time, you just might get to meet him there!  So yes, that's news!

Okay, that's all for today for now.  Oh, the rose bush keeps blooming...it's "living life in full bloom".

And I am very "Thankful, grateful, and blessed". Amen.

Here's some "food for thought" for today from Romans 14:5-13

"5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 

6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. 

7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 

8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 

9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 

10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 

11 For it is written:

“As I live, says the Lord,

Every knee shall bow to Me,

And every tongue shall confess to God.”

12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. 

13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way."

Amen.

Wednesday Treasures...Or Photo Dump Day!

 Happy Wednesday!  Some people call Wednesday "Hump Day", but today I am calling it "Photo Dump Day!"  It seems like I've been accumulating a lot of miscellaneous photos that haven't found their time to "rise and shine", so today will be the day. So pour yourself a cup of tea or coffee and let's take a walk through the garden or the house or wherever this leads us, okay?

I don't always take pictures of my breakfast, but I thought this was pretty so I did.  I baked some banana nut bread the other day, and we enjoy a slice (or two) for breakfast while it lasts...I prefer to put some cream cheese on mine. Of course, one must have some protein, so I made a little "omelette" of eggs, spinach, ham and cheese.  This made a delightful breakfast! I may just have it again today if there is anymore Banana nut bread.  HERE is a link to a post with the recipe if you wish to make your own!

I just looked at this again, and thought that might qualify for a "Green Eggs and Ham" Day.  If you've ever had grandchildren or have worked with young children, you know all about this! LOL.

Well, what's this?  Oh, yes, we must have some Blackie pictures! The other day he saw that our bedroom door was open, and for him that is an opportunity to race me to and through the open door and go hide either under the bed or, if the closet door is open, he loves to go in there and jump in my clothes basket.  This time, since I couldn't entice him to get out of the basket, I just pulled the basket with him inside out into the living room!  He actually enjoyed the ride and stayed right there in it once it stopped! 

But lately he has been choosing to come sit in this rocking chair, which is right behind me as I sit at my computer in the "Room With a View".  

Please notice what is written on the little pillow behind him..."The Song of Bluebirds".  

After he gives himself his morning bath after eating his breakfast, he curls up on this chair and goes to sleep.  For some reason he has decided he likes this even better than sitting in Daddy's lap!  Although he will still do that at other times of the day if Daddy is sitting still long enough.

Speaking of the Bluebirds, some of you may have already seen some of these pictures on my Facebook page the other day.  I took these pictures a couple of mornings ago, when Mama Bluebird was trying to entice the babies out of the nest by offering them bites of this big juicy bug.

How would you like THIS for breakfast?  (would it be better than green eggs and ham??)

What she would do is stick her head in the house with this bug, and let the babies get a little taste of it, and then fly away with it trying to get them to follow her.  

Reminds me of this part of Psalm 34...

"8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;

Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!

9 Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints!

There is no want to those who fear Him.

10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger;

But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing."

I used the illustration of the bluebirds enticing their babies out of the nest with little bites of food in our Ladie's Bible Study the other day.  One lady was asking about how do you encourage someone to go back to church after many years away. The person had recently lost her husband, and had not been to church in many years, and she was very despondent.  However she was resistant to those who were inviting her to go to church, and when she did finally go, she was very critical of everything and didn't want to go back.  I had just watched these bluebirds trying to get the babies to follow them out of the nest with little bits of food, and I shared with these ladies that sometimes you have to "spoon feed" a person with just little bits of "food" from God's Word, and let your own light shine before them so that they will see how God is working in your own life as you go through difficult times.  Perhaps eventually they will want to know how you've found peace in your own life, and you will be able to share Christ with them more fully.  We can't just try to shove a steak down their throats when they really need to be fed with little bits of "baby food" until they are ready for more.  I love how God gives us illustrations from His creation to get His point across, don't you?

Speaking of feeding birds...Our hummingbirds have been active too. This is a male Ruby Throated Hummingbird at the feeder...can you see how smoky it is?  This was a couple of days ago. The smoke has been really thick for the past few days, although this morning is a bit better.  The fires are mostly north of us about 20-25 miles, but the wind blows the smoke our way and it has been pretty bad.

But I was happy to get these photos of the hummingbird. He looks healthy enough.

Also, if you are a Facebook friend, you probably already saw this opossum drinking from the pan of water in the yard.  This was early in the morning the other day.  I know all the critters are very thirsty since the pond is so dry and even some of the lakes are getting quite low.

I'm glad there was still some water in that pan for him. I've been trying to keep them filled.  (There's a lot of dead leaves in there, which I also try to keep out, but there's a lot of dead leaves still blowing around out there with the wind and the drought).

Thankfully our squash plants are doing quite well, since I water them every day...

Everyday there are new flowers on them, so that means there will hopefully be a good crop of zucchini and yellow squash this summer!

And the tomato plants are also getting lots of little flowers. They seem to like the new location.

We took a walk the other morning and I saw this Coral Bean plant blooming...They will attract hummingbirds, and there are some good uses of the plant, however, the beans are poisonous, so don't eat the beans! (or get them on your hands).

I also followed this Red-Bellied Woodpecker  around  trying to get a good picture of him:

He just kept flying further away and I couldn't keep up with him, but he was busy finding bugs to eat in the trees, so I left him alone.

Last night's sunset was pretty special, after a day will smoke filled skies...

However, if you look at the lower clouds on the horizon, you will see that there a lot of smoke there:

Still, we could see the Crescent Moon up in the sky:

Pretty cool!

It was a beautiful evening and I said a prayer of thankfulness that we were safe from the fires here...

But we continue to pray for those in harm's way who are fighting the fires as well as those who live in closer proximity to them.  There have been some evacuations, but thankfully no loss of life (that I've heard of).

However at sunrise this morning, the skies were still very smoky in the distance, and we could still definitely smell it:

Actually, that smoke isn't that far away...but thankfully the fires are...

The skies over the still very dry Still Waters Pond this morning:

I would like to close this post with a favorite passage of scripture from the Psalms, which I believe is appropriate in these turbulent times both here locally with the fires and drought, and around the world, with the wars and unrest and serious threats to so many...Praying this for our firefighters, law enforcement, political leaders and our soldiers, and any who are in harms' way.  

Psalm 91 NIV

1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,

my God, in whom I trust.”

3 Surely he will save you

from the fowler’s snare

and from the deadly pestilence.

4 He will cover you with his feathers,

and under his wings you will find refuge;

his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

5 You will not fear the terror of night,

nor the arrow that flies by day,

6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,

nor the plague that destroys at midday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side,

ten thousand at your right hand,

but it will not come near you.

8 You will only observe with your eyes

and see the punishment of the wicked.

9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”

and you make the Most High your dwelling,

10 no harm will overtake you,

no disaster will come near your tent.

11 For he will command his angels concerning you

to guard you in all your ways;

12 they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;

you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;

I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble,

I will deliver him and honor him.

16 With long life I will satisfy him

and show him my salvation.”

Amen.

I hope you enjoyed my Wednesday "photo dump day".

Have a blessed and safe day, wherever you are.