Friday Fotos and Just Ducky Stuff

 Tomorrow is Friday already! Wow! Where did this week go?  Seems like just yesterday it was Sunday!  I hope that your week has gone well. Ours has been fairly uneventful, except for some very cold weather (for Florida), but other than that it's been pretty normal.

Sometimes I feel like these Ring Necked Ducks on our "Still Waters Pond":

All day long they swim around in circles, and they look like they are having the best time ever...

But in reality they are doing what ducks are meant to do...they are swimming, diving, and gathering food all day long.  They work hard for their food...diving and pulling up the roots of the water weeds.

 They arrive early in the morning and don't fly back out until it's almost dark. I wonder where they go to spend the night. They must have a special place to huddle together and sleep in peace and safety until morning.

It has been interesting watching them throughout the week. Some days we have had a group of seven or eight at a time...and the members keep changing. Some times there was only one male and three females, then there was two males and one female, and then four males and three females.  Today there were two males and three  four females. (just found another female).  We don't know if this is the same group that just keeps rotating around or if different groups are flying in and out. But whatever it is, we've enjoyed the show and hope they will keep coming back! 

 

 Don't you sometimes feel like you are like these ducks? Just going around in circles, constantly working to feed and take care of your family?  Others may watch from afar and think since you are retired you don't really do anything all day but play around and dabble at this and dabble at that.

But there is usually a reason for everything we do...it may not make sense to others, but we do what we know we need to do to take care of our own situations in life.

 Like these ducks, sometimes we may be feeding just ourselves, and other times we may have others, who are in need for one reason or another, to feed and look out for.  Ultimately it is from God, whether we think we are feeding ourselves or helping others...it all comes from the hand of God.

 Psalm 145:14-16

14.  "The Lord upholds all who fall,

and raises up all who are bowed down.

 15.  The eyes of all look expectantly to You,

and You give them their food in due season.

 16.  You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing."

Psalm 145:3

"Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;

And His greatness is unsearchable!"

I guess that is all for this week. I apologize if you find these photos a bit repetitious or difficult to look at with all of the reflections on the water and the lily pads. Somehow I just find that watching these ducks is very relaxing and entertaining.  Even though they are busily working to find food, they are putting on quite a show for us to enjoy.  They are beautiful and amazing creatures, created by God. They are very diligent to do what they have been created to do, and they don't even complain when the water must be very cold, or when the sun isn't shining, or when it is windy and even rainy. They just go about their day, faithful to care for their young and protecting their families. I think we could all take a good lesson from the ducks!

Okay, let me see if I can find something else to look at before we go...

I've been changing the look of the kitchen counter top from the Christmas decor to a more springy look... (Welcome back to Pinky Flamingo, who flew south for the holidays and has now come back "home" to roost for the summer)

I added this favorite "plate" to the collection:

This is what it says:

"Cherish your family for they are your treasure.

A storehouse of riches...wealth beyond measure."

That seems like a great place to stop for the night.

Good Night friends...

Go spend some time with your family...