Thankful Thursday ~Strange Things Happening In Our Land...

It's Thursday, and I must say I am very very thankful...Yes, "strange things ARE happening in our land"...A Hurricane/Tropical Storm hitting our state in November is very strange.  The winds and rain have been very powerful...much more so here than they were in September for Hurricane Ian! We listened to the wind and rain hitting against our house all night long last night, and just prayed that God would protect our home and our family and friends from any harm.  Thus far, as far as we know, He has truly answered that prayer, and we are extremely grateful.

These pictures are really nothing...I should have taken them this morning when it was really blowing and raining, but it was too dark to get a good picture.  Just trust me when I say it has been a steady, blustery, brutal day...but we are still very thankful for no damage and no power outages (yet). It's not completely over yet, so I don't want to be too exuberant.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those along the coast who are again experiencing much flooding and beach erosion and severe damages. Many had not even had a chance to repair the damages from the September storm (Ian). So this is like adding insult to injury for them. My heart truly goes out to them.

Yes, we are very thankful indeed.

We've had another kind of "storm" this week in our nation...the mid-term elections have taken place and the outcome is still not completely certain. Many are perplexed, some are giddy, and many are thoughtful and prayerful. We know it isn't over until God says it is over.  We continue to pray for God's will to be done in our land.  We know that He is still in control, no matter what the outcome. And we will put our trust in Him no matter what.

Here's some thoughts from God's Word...written by a mighty king many centuries ago...as he gave praise and honor to the Mighty King, Almighty God:

Praise to God in His Holiness and Majesty

A Psalm of David.

Psalm 29

 1 "Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones,

Give unto the Lord glory and strength.

2 Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name;

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;

The God of glory thunders;

The Lord is over many waters.

4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;

The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars,

Yes, the Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon.

6 He makes them also skip like a calf,

Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox.

7 The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire.

8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;

The Lord shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh.

9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth,

And strips the forests bare;

And in His temple everyone says, “Glory!”

10 The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood,

And the Lord sits as King forever.

11 The Lord will give strength to His people;

The Lord will bless His people with peace."

Amen.

Now, switching gears a bit, I know some of you may be anxious to know how the saga of our new floors is coming along...Well, let's just say it is a real saga...and it continues...slowly, but hopefully surely...The work that was supposed to get started sometime on Monday didn't really begin in earnest until Wednesday...(yesterday).  They started off with good intentions and ran into a few "issues" that needed to be corrected as they went along...by the time the men left our house last night around 7:00 p.m., they had only completed the first room, our bedroom, and even that still is not totally complete.  They had very good intentions of returning at 8:00 this morning to work all day, but Tropical Storm Nicole changed their plans. One of the men had a major roof leak develop overnight, and so of course that was more important than working on our floors...and then the wind and rain was so bad this morning that  it would have been a futile effort to try and keep working when they would need to go in and out to cut the pieces of flooring, and even with our covered porch they would have been drenched.  So....hopefully tomorrow they will be able to get an early start and work all day again...and I expect they will still need to come back on Saturday to finish the job. (Hopefully, "Lord willing and the creek don't rise..." literally!)  

So here's a few pictures so you can see what progress has been made:

There's our floor! LOL.  The "before" picture...

Here is our bedroom, work in progress, but an issue developed. Where you see the two pieces of black felt on the floor, they are on either side of the seam that runs down the middle of our house because this is a manufactured home. When they started laying the flooring, they realized that the floor was not real level where that seam is.  So they had to install the felt on either side of the seam to help fill in the gap so the floor tiles (vinyl planks) would be able to lay evenly over it. After working with it, it seems to be doing the trick, so they were able to continue working...

In order to move some of our very heavy dressers, they needed to take out some drawers...one is my nightgown and undie drawer, of course, exposed for all the world to see...

Well, while the drawers were out in the open, they also needed to do some sanding on the plywood subfloor to smooth out some places, and never thought to cover the open drawers...and of course I never realized it either until it was too late and the damage was done...and so now I will need to wash everything in those drawers once this job is done.  Not to mention the very fine layer of sawdust that is all over everything in that room and yes, even out into the living room...and probably in our nostrils and lungs, because we were sitting in there watching TV while they worked and didn't realize what was happening until it was too late.

But even with all the "issues" and setbacks and delays...I do love what I see and I know it will be worth it all when it is done...and hopefully that will be soon!   

Oh, today, because of the storm, our kids decided to close Dixie Cottage for the day and they invited us to come over to their house for lunch (they only live a mile away, so it wasn't a dangerous trip).  Rose had cooked a Boston butt for pulled pork and so we had BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw for lunch and played Dominoes! What a blessing that was! Then we came home and took a much needed nap, because last night we slept in the guest room for the first time and even though the bed was comfy and cozy, the storm outside was howling, and my hubby was uncomfortable because he had to put his 6'2" body in a small double bed instead of our usual queen size bed.  I reminded him that he never seemed to mind the double bed we had when we were newlyweds 53 years ago...LOL.  Of course we were both quite a bit thinner and lighter back then...

And so, with that I will bid you good night.

P.S. Oh, we will be at Dixie Cottage all day tomorrow because it is Rose and Benton's 5th anniversary, and they hope to be able to do something fun, depending on the weather.  So while the men are working here at home we will have a place to stay out of the way of the noise and dust.  And then on Saturday we are expecting some very special company to come meet us and go to lunch...some of you may know her as Simply Linda.  A couple of months ago she and her hubby purchased a piece of furniture from Dixie Cottage, but couldn't take it with them because they were still waiting to move into their new house, and if you follow Linda, you already know all about that story!  So now that they are moved in they hope to come pick up the desk from our shed.  I hope this strange weather doesn't change their plans, but we shall see what develops. Hopefully we will remember to take some pictures to share with you!  Okay, now I'm done.  Good night for real!