Wednesday Treasures or Thursday Thankfulness...

 Depends on when you read this. Most of you probably won't see it until Thursday, so therefore it shall be the "thankful Thursday" post.  But since it is still Wednesday, I'll throw in a treasure or two. LOL.  I've been enjoying reading everyone's posts and also the comments on my 4th of July post. I haven't had time to respond to everyone because it's been a couple of busy days and I feel like I am doing good just to read and try to keep up with you all. Some of you are so prolific in your writing I often wonder how you do it! But it is fun and I look forward to your stories.  

So what have I been so busy doing, you ask?  I don't really know...aftermath of Monday's activities...and then yesterday morning hubby had lab work to be done, followed by an actual Dr. appointment, and then of course we had to go have some breakfast before he fainted away! LOL.

Here's my breakfast:  You'd think I was the one in danger of fainting away...but not after attempting to eat all of this. I did end up bringing a good bit home with me:

We went to our favorite little home town Nana's Cafe'.  This isn't the real "Nana", but she is our favorite waitress. However I was trying to get a picture of the sign: "There will be a $5.00 charge for whining."

Ha ha!  Don't you wish you could charge people for whining?

Here's a couple of other signs up on the walls:  "I can at Nana's", and "Nana's Place, Memories Made Here, Where grandkids get spoiled with plenty of hugs and lots of cookies".  

Sounds like a nice place to visit, "Nana's Place".  Not just the restaurant...but the real place.

Now, this is a treasure and a thankfulness item...Not the picture of me, but what I am wearing:

I have been admiring this "Life is Good" t-shirt online for a while. It keeps popping up on my Facebook page because apparently I must have looked at their website one day and so now I keep getting ads on FB.  Anyway, I loved this particular shirt because of the design and what it says:

"The earth has music for those who listen", and there is a picture of a Great Blue Heron on a pond...wonder why I liked it?   Well anyway, I love the Life is Good shirts, but I don't spend money on myself very often...not that much, anyway. So I just kept admiring the shirt but ignoring the temptation to buy it.  So you can imagine my surprise one day recently to receive a package in the mail from Life is Good, and out pops this t-shirt!!! The very one I wanted, but I had never told anyone about it. 

Well, I couldn't figure out how they knew I wanted that shirt, and certainly the company wouldn't be sending out free samples, would they?  Hardly!  Then I noticed a packing slip in the package with a note on it from my cousin Becky saying, "I saw this shirt and thought of you."  What??? Gosh! I was flabbergasted!  Becky and I rarely get to see each other, maybe once a year if  they come to Florida to visit from their home in Ohio. But she's the cousin I grew up with who is just 9 months younger than I am, and believe it or not, this weekend was her birthday, and she sent me a gift! So I called her to thank her and also to wish her a Happy Birthday, and she reminded me that she is now the same age as I am for the next few of months! LOL.  

Here we are together a few years ago, with our hubbies.

And here we are below, at my 10th birthday party, quite a few years ago:

You can see my Barbie doll in this picture. That is the year we both got Barbies from our grandparents, and we played with them every chance we could together. I would spend weekends and summer days/nights at her house, and we built our own Barbie dollhouses and made furniture for them and made clothes for the dolls, and had so much fun, probably until we were about 13, and then I guess we decided we were too old to play with dolls. These are precious memories for both of us. We were blessed to have each other growing up. I was the youngest of 4 kids, and she was an only child, so we enjoyed doing many things together...even got into some mischief occasionally...but I won't bore you with those details. Maybe another time. LOL.

Here's that same Barbie doll today. She has retired and lives among the crystal dishes in my china cabinet.  Now, that's a treasure! She will be 62 years old in September! Looks pretty good for being so old, doesn't she?

I still do play with dolls...Here's Lily Grace amongst the 4th of July decorations. Someone asked me why she wasn't participating in the activities on the 4th, and I honestly felt really sad that I had not included her in all the fun. She would have loved to help us make the homemade ice-cream! In all the action and busy-ness of the day I forgot to let her join us.

I'm so sorry, Lily Grace and Bailey! Please forgive me! 

"It's okay, Mommie!  I still had fun watching everyone having fun!"

Anyway, let's see, what else is going on? I didn't take any pictures of this, but we had a busy morning today as well.  Hubby said the car needed two new tires, so we headed to Walmart to have them put on. While we waited we did some shopping for non-perishable items, and then we walked all the way across the parking lot to the Chili's Restaurant and had lunch.  Someone had very thoughtfully given us a gift card for Chili's for Christmas, and so I guess it was about time we made use of it! Everything was timed perfectly, and when we got finished eating and walking all the way back across the parking lot in the noon-day heat, our car was ready for pick up.  We also had a new battery installed, as it was getting weak, and we certainly don't want to get stranded somewhere with a dead battery in this heat! Thankfully our car air conditioner works really well, and by the time we drove home we were cool again. (and ready for a nap!). LOL.

I will finish this up with a few pictures from our calendars for July.  

I love this Country Seasons calendar with paintings by John Sloane. This is the picture for July. 

Of course, I LOVE the picture of the train in the background. Reminds me of our toy Lionel train that we set up for Christmas, with the little red caboose!

We don't live in farm country like this anymore, but when we lived in Ohio many years ago we lived in the heart of Amish country, and we often saw the Amish farmers working in their fields with the big draft horses like this. They also made their haystacks just like these:

My mother once told me they called these haystacks "hay-doodles".

Oh, hey! (pun intended) "hay"...that reminds me of this picture that is a real treasure for sure!

This was taken on my grandparents' farm in Ohio many years ago, probably in the late 1940's.  Those are my cousins on the hay wagon and my cousin Elinor on the horses, and my Grandma Tedlie and my Aunt Belle walking across the field to see them.

Amazing how similar this picture is to the one on the calendar, except of course for the train! LOL.

I love this picture from my Teapots calendar for July also:

Here's the story about that particular teapot:

Do you see the birds have the necklace? 

Here's another interesting quote from on this calendar:

Yes, Iced tea in the garden or on a "cool corner of the porch" would indeed be "as grateful a beverage as a July day can produce."   This is definitely the season for iced tea rather than hot! 

Well, friends, I think I'll find a "cool corner" of the indoor porch  and enjoy a glass of iced tea. There is no such thing as a cool corner of our outdoor porches or yard right now. It was very nearly 100 degrees again today. 

But now it is evening and time to think about retiring for the night.

So I will bid you adieu, and hopefully will catch up with each of you in the next few days.

Thank you for being dear friends. I always look forward to visiting with you and appreciate your comments so much!

Here's a final thought for today:

"Let all that you do be done in love."

I Corinthians 16:14

Amen.

Oh my goodness, I was just getting ready to hit publish and looked out the window and saw this sunset:

I thought you might enjoy seeing the sun setting over Still Waters Pond.

Okay, that's all folks!  Now I can hit "publish"!

Good Night!