Wednesday Wanderings or Wonderings?

 Yay! It's Wednesday! Some call it "Hump Day"...middle of the week, getting up and over that mid-week hump and down to the weekend! I feel like we are finally "over the hump" with this bug we've been fighting for the past two weeks and hopefully we are on the downhill slide to feeling good again!  We did take a nice walk yesterday morning, wandering around the woods in between rain showers.   This is the only picture I took, which shows that the wild plum trees are still blooming. That little cold snap the other morning of 26 degrees didn't seem to hurt them one bit!  

I hope they can withstand the upcoming frigid weather we are expecting this weekend, starting Saturday morning we will be back down to 27, and then a walloping 21 on Sunday morning, and back to 27 again on Monday! That's pretty doggone cold for us folks here in Florida! I think someone must have let the barn door open up north!  We'd appreciate it if you would please close that door!! LOL!

This weekend might be a good time for hubby to try out this new coffee that our sweet DIL and son brought us the other day as a "get well gift"

It sure smells good.  They also brought me a package of some very good tea: (because they know I don't drink coffee)

And I've already sampled it and found it to be very good indeed! It does taste like a cup of Florida sunshine...perfect thing for a cloudy chilly winter day!

They also brought us some very delicious quiche that Rose made, but I forgot to take a picture of that. We just ate it right up...it was so good! It was loaded with all kinds of good stuff...spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, bacon, sausage, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, eggs, and I don't know what else, but it sure was good! We are SO blessed and thankful for our "kids".  

Here's something that brings some sunshine into our days:

This Amaryllis is getting closer and closer to bursting open with

more beautiful blossoms.  Above was a couple of days ago,

and below is this morning:

Speaking of "Sunshine", for those of you who may or may not follow my little friend in The Adventures of Lily Grace, you may have seen that Lily got a new friend for her big birthday surprise.

Her name is "Bailey", and Lily Grace is having to learn all about the responsibility of taking care of a pet, no matter what the weather may be!  That might become challenging this weekend when it is so cold!

Bailey is a very good puppy and is already doing quite well with her "training". LOL.

Yes, we do have fun here...and you may say or think what you want...

I've already shared this little quote before, but it bears repeating here for those of you who may be "wondering"...

On a more somber note, this past week has also brought us some sad news from several different places. There's an old saying that death comes in threes...and I am not superstitious, but it does seem to happen that way sometimes for whatever reason I don't know.  But anyway, it was with great sorrow that we learned of the passing of three different people within this past week.  First was my dear Aunt Joan Tedlie, who was the wife of my mother's older brother Truman. She was 95 years old, and had lived a long and wonderful life and had raised a beautiful family of six children.  I had not seen Aunt Joan in quite a few years, but we stayed in touch through Facebook.   This is a perfect picture of Aunt Joan and her family in Hawaii,  (2006), where they all went to celebrate her 80th birthday

And this picture was recently discovered in a batch of old photos, which shows my Aunt Joan on the far right, my Uncle Truman in the middle, and my Aunt Margie on the left. The two kids are my nephew David and niece Debbie (my sister Doris' kids) This was taken at my parents' home quite a few years ago. 

Then next we heard of the very sad and untimely death of the daughter of some dear friends of ours. I don't have any pictures as I never met the young woman, but it was very sad as our friends had just buried their older son one year ago after his battle with cancer, and they had two remaining daughters, twins.  While they were spending a winter break in  Florida, this particular daughter remained in Ohio, where she had moved to be near her folks to help care for them as they got older. But sadly, when she did not show up for work, her co-workers discovered that she had died very unexpectedly in her home, and our friends received the tragic news  and had to drive back to Ohio to attend to her affairs. Thankfully their remaining daughter met them there to assist with the arrangements...but such a very sad situation for them all.  This young woman also left behind two daughters and several grandchildren who will greatly miss her.

And then yesterday we learned of the tragic death of our former neighbor in our last home. I told you about him recently in this post, about the Turkey Cranberry dish.  Just a few weeks ago our friend was in the hospital up here near us, but we were unable to visit him due to the covid situation and plus we were in the midst of our own issues. But I did call him on the phone and had a nice conversation with him. He was released from the hospital,  and seemed to be doing quite well. According to some mutual friends, he was feeling good enough to travel over to a town along the coast to take care of his late mother's estate issues.  However, he did not make it. Somehow, we do not know exactly why yet, he lost control of his vehicle and drove headlong into a tree, killing him instantly. They do not know yet if there was mechanical failure of the vehicle, as witnesses said it was weaving very erratically before the crash, or if our friend suffered a heart attack and then crashed. I tend to believe the latter, as he had definite heart issues, but they won't know for sure until an autopsy is completed. Either way, our friend was ushered immediately into the presence of God, on a day when he felt well enough to travel.

These three stories are all very sad in each situation, but for my Aunt Joan it was a happy reunion with her husband and one son and other loved ones who had gone on before. She had lived a full life and was quite ready to head home to heaven.  Yes, her family here will miss her, but when one is 95, it is more expected and accepted.  The other two people were much younger, with their lives still stretched out before them, and yet death came knocking very tragically and unexpectedly, cutting their earthly lives short,  leaving friends and family bewildered and heart broken.  

I guess the thing is we have to all realize that death does not always discriminate. It doesn't just claim the old and those who are quite ready to go.  It also comes calling on the younger ones who may still have their lives ahead of them...things to do, people to take care of, goals waiting to be met. When that happens we are left with questions, doubts, great sorrow and often times anger and fear.  These responses are normal and to be expected because it isn't so easy to just say, "Well, I guess it was his/her time to go..."    The point is that we must each be ready to go to meet Jesus face to face at any time, because none of us knows when it will be our "time to go".  We need to be, first of all, assured of our salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, and next, make sure we have done and said the things that need to be said...the "I'm sorry" and "please forgive me" to the ones we may have hurt or wronged...the "I love you" words and expressions to those we love and to those who need to know it. Don't let things be left unsaid or undone that we have the ability to say or do now. Relationships with others are more important than things or places or our agenda of things to do. Let others know that they are also forgiven for the ways they may have hurt us. Even if they don't deserve it in the world's eyes...let it go. Forgive...and move forward with life. Don't let anything hinder your relationship with God...because He's the One we will be spending eternity with.

Okay...I guess this post kind of wandered into a different path than when it originally began.  I apologize for going down that trail, and yet, I felt led to go there. Perhaps someone needed to hear this today. I don't know...I'm just the messenger. 

I will close with this Bible verse that speaks to me:

John 11:25-26

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

A very good question to ask ourselves today.

Okay, now I am going to get ready to go for a walk with my hubby, as he is very patiently waiting on me to finish this post.

Have a blessed and beautiful day my friends.