Monday Monday and Tuesday 4 Combined

 Hello, and welcome to my usual "Monday Monday" post...I noticed that the Tuesday 4 post for this week was going to be about "Rainy Days and Mondays", and so I thought perhaps I would combine the two. I hope that's okay with you!    But first things first...I wanted to share a little about our weekend before I get into the rest of this.

I guess they do kind of go together...

Yesterday was Sunday, and we had a rainy evening. We were going to go for a ride, and when we got outside we noticed the sky looked like this:

So we drove down the road a little ways and decided to turn around and go back home.  However it didn't really start to rain here until much later, and in the meantime our son called us from his house (he lives about a mile away) and told us to look outside, and this is what we saw:

God's beautiful rainbow of promise in the skies!! It was just gorgeous!

I thought it was really remarkable because it still had not rained here. But about an hour later we got quite a thunderstorm and lightning show.  I wasn't able to capture any of the lightning on camera, but it was pretty amazing.

We were thankful to be safely inside our home when the storm finally broke loose. Also very thankful that even though there was a lot of thunder and lightning and heavy rain and wind, we didn't sustain any damage nor did we lose power. That is always a plus!! And we got some much needed rain to refresh the earth and cool things down a little bit! What a blessing! It was a wonderful way to end a perfect Sunday.

Earlier in the day we had a wonderful Sunday service, followed by our 5th Sunday potluck dinner.

One of the special things that happened was "the Blessing of the Backpacks".  Our church is very generous in giving to help make sure that the children of our church and our community have enough school supplies to start the new school year...which will be happening in about a week.  I wish I had gotten a picture of all of the children in our church coming forward to select their new backpack, (following the Pastor's prayer of blessing upon the backpacks and for each child) which was filled with all kinds of school supplies...but these pictures will give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

These pictures were taken a few minutes after they had received their backpacks, when they are on their way to Children's Church and the Youth Group gathering.  Yes, they do this during the worship service because we have found that is the best way to get more children involved in the classes than if it was at an earlier separate Sunday School class. Times have changed, and sometimes churches have to adapt to what works best for families so that we can reach out to them in the best way. 

They are with us in the Sanctuary for the opening songs, etc., and then they come back in toward the end of the service in time for The Lord's Supper.  

Matthew 19:14 NKJV

"But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

And yes, that is our son Benton and his wife Rose serving Communion yesterday. I would not be honest if I didn't say that yes, I was a very proud Mama to see them up there participating and serving in this important Sacrament. I cannot begin to tell you how special that was for me.

I know not every church does things the same way, and that's okay. We do what we believe honors the Lord and is best for our local congregation. I can only say that we have a very sweet, humble, joyful, and blessed gathering of the Family of God here in our little church. We are very thankful to be a part of this family.

On another "note", a couple of weeks ago I mentioned HERE about how special the song of 

"The Lord's Prayer" was to me, and why.

Well, I couldn't get that song out of my head, and it seemed as though the Lord was encouraging me to sing it.  It's been a long time since I've done any solo singing, and especially a song of this difficulty. But the Lord kept urging me on, and because during the summer months our choir does not sing each week we have different ones sign up for special music instead, so after much prayer I decided to sign up to sing this song in church.  The following is the accompaniment that I used. There is no recording of me singing. Some things are just better left to the imagination. (LOL).  One special feature was that a young woman in our church does sign language to music, and so she did the signing for this song while I was singing. That was a very beautiful added blessing. The only thing was I couldn't watch her while I was singing and I would have loved to have seen her doing this.  But it was a joy to see the looks on the congregation's faces as they watched her.  It was a very special time, and I pray the message of the song was a blessing to all.

Now if you really want to hear our choir singing, in the first part of this video below you can watch/hear us singing "Power in the Blood". The song was pre-recorded last spring while the choir was still together before the summer break. Then the Pastor's sermon is after that, which he records each week.

1 Would you be free from the burden of sin?

There's pow'r in the blood, pow'r in the blood;

Would you o'er evil a victory win?

There's wonderful pow'r in the blood.

Refrain:

There is pow'r, pow'r, wonder-working pow'r

In the blood of the Lamb;

There is pow'r, pow'r, wonder-working pow'r

In the precious blood of the Lamb.

2 Would you be free from your passion and pride?

There's pow'r in the blood, pow'r in the blood;

Come for a cleansing to Calvary's tide–

There's wonderful pow'r in the blood. 

[Refrain]

3 Would you be whiter, yes brighter than snow?

There's pow'r in the blood, pow'r in the blood;

Sin-stains are lost in its life-giving flow–

There's wonderful pow'r in the blood. 

[Refrain]

4 Would you do service for Jesus, your King?

There's pow'r in the blood, pow'r in the blood;

Would you live daily His praises to sing?

There's wonderful pow'r in the blood. 

[Refrain]

Last week I mentioned that we had a baptism of two teens, and this week they gave the Pastor a special "gift", which he wore to the potluck dinner after church:

"Pastor, because hardcore devil stomping ninja isn't an official job title."

He got a big kick out of that, and it is just another example of the fun and joy and we have together in our little church.

We are blessed and very thankful.

One other item of thankfulness...I mentioned in my last post HERE that our son Scott had come home last week one day and worked diligently on his car all day long and finally had to leave it to get back to work.  Well he came back home Saturday and worked again most of the day, and he finally got it fixed and was able to drive it again!

So there he goes!

You can't see him, but he is waving at us as he takes off! Yes, this car has a bit of a "rumble" sound as he goes, but it's not too loud...actually sounds pretty good.  It's amazing to us how much he has learned over the years of self-teaching himself how to restore and repair these "classic cars".  Sometimes necessity is the best teacher!

And so with all of that from yesterday's news and events, I will move on to the Tuesday 4 post...

Rainy Days and Mondays

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 where we ask just 4 questions each week to get you blogging and thinking and meeting other bloggers!


Rainy Days and Mondays was a song about being down but, not everyone is down on a Monday or a rainy day.


1. Do Mondays get you down or did they ever? How about a rainy day? What makes it better?

Actually, now that I am retired, Mondays don't get me down at all! They are just another day. This morning we got up early and headed to Walmart before the rush and the heat of the day. Monday seems to be a good day to go there, if you have to go at all. LOL.  A Rainy day? Well that's another story altogether.  As I sit here typing this on Monday afternoon, I am hearing thunder in the distance and it is starting to cloud up and the wind is blowing, and I think we are about to have a rainy Monday afternoon. What makes it better?  Being safe here in my house with my hubby, enjoying not having to be anywhere...

2. How do you like to spend rainy days?
I often spend rainy days either reading, writing, or baking.  Today I am writing to you. Last night during a thunderstorm my hubby said he wished we had some kind of cake to eat, so I baked a devil's food cake and made a buttercream frosting for it. However, I only ate a small piece with whipped cream instead of the frosting, as the frosting is just too sweet and rich for me...plus I can't eat much chocolate. So this cake will be all his to enjoy. LOL. (unless we get unexpected guests, and then they can have some too! Now might be a good time to drop in! We could have cake and tea or coffee!)

3.Do you like to take a walk in the rain?

As long as there's no lightning and if it's only a light shower, I don't mind walking in the rain.  But with our summer afternoon thunderstorms, it's best to stay indoors and out of harm's way.

4.What is your weather like this summer so far? What would make it better or worse? What is your ideal summer weather?

Here in north central Florida where I live our summer weather has been quite hot to say the least.  Although this is actually the norm for us in summertime...hot days and a late afternoon thunderstorm to cool things down a bit, it still seems really extra hot to me.  Ideal summer weather would be to live somewhere where it is no hotter than maybe the low 80's in the day time, no humidity, and cooler evenings around the low 60's or high 50's. I could live with that just fine.

Here is how it looks outside my window right now:

We can hear the thunder in the distance, and by the looks of things we should be getting some rain any minute now.

Another not too unusual of a sight here in summertime...this Black Racer snake was slithering across our yard and ducked under the car when he saw us coming. I managed to get a picture of him before he slithered further away and actually went under the shed.

They are harmless and take care of rodents and other more dangerous snakes, so I don't mind having them around as long as they stay away from my birds!!

Okay, I think I've sufficiently covered the subject(s) at hand for today and tomorrow.  I hope you don't mind reading tomorrow's post today or today's post tomorrow.  LOL.

Thank you, Annie, for coming up with these questions each week.

You all can join in the fun HERE.

I pray that your rainy days and Mondays never get you down!

Friday Foto Friends and More

Good Friday morning everyone!  These sky photos show you how it looked this morning when we first put the flag out.  

Kind of the aftermath of an early morning shower, which surprised me when I heard the rain hitting on the skylight in my bathroom earlier while it was still dark...

Here's how it looked over Still Waters Pond...

And here is how it looks through the skylight right now as I am writing this around 8:45 a.m.:

Looks like it's going to be a lovely day after all!

I don't have a lot of photos to share today, so that's why I've resorted to pictures of the sky through my bathroom skylight. LOL.

I wanted to thank you all for your kind comments on my last couple of posts this week...I enjoy hearing from all of you, and even though I don't always reply back to your comments, I read them and treasure each of you.  

If you recall from my last post HERE, I mentioned that our modem was "dying", and we were having to wait until Thursday for the repairman to come.  Well, he came on Wednesday instead, which was great.  Glad we didn't take off for the beach or someplace fun that day or we would have missed him! LOL. As it was, when he called, we were 20 minutes away, finishing up our shopping at Publix, "where shopping is a pleasure"...(although I was NOT pleased with the high prices that continue to rise every time we go to the store...a puny head of lettuce for $2.99, that was not fit to eat! Come on, Publix, you can do better than that...and potatoes have gone up to $6.99 for a 5lb. bag of ordinary potatoes? What is going on here?)  Anyway, the internet technician called me and said he was on his way, and so we hurried on home to meet him, and he was already here!  After digging around in the dirt he discovered that the lines going into our house were not adequate for the speed of internet we've been paying for for the past several years...and he needed to rewire it to the inside of the house, requiring me to move some furniture around in my little "Room with a view" , etc., but when he was finished with his work I sat down to my computer and discovered that my computer was now running like a racehorse from page to page...no more long waits for the internet to come up, etc.  He said the modem was fine. It was all in the wiring.  Thankfully, no charge to us. Frankly, I think they owe us a refund for all the years of paying for extra speed that we were never receiving! But I will just be thankful it's fixed now and pray nothing else breaks down!

In other news of the week, let's see...well, our son Scott came home one night and spent the night because he had an early morning appointment here and took the rest of the day off from work so he could work on his car, which was having some issues.

He literally sat out there (or laid under the car) for hours, working on trying to get something loose that was stuck...I can't explain it, but he was extremely dedicated to the task regardless of the 90+ degree temperatures. I finally had to go warn him that a thunderstorm was coming so he could get out of there before it hit, especially because he was using an electric drill at the time...Anyway, long story short, he had to leave the car as is so he could go back to work today. He'll be back this weekend to work on it some more.  It was nice having him home for a little while. I baked him some cookies to take back with him, which he appreciated.  We also had Benton and Rose (and grandpuppies) over for a spaghetti supper while he was here, so it was nice having the whole family under our roof again. 

Switching gears...

This is a picture of our front porch,  taken from inside looking through the window. It was raining, and the porch was wet. I was looking at the color of the floor boards when they were wet, and thinking we need to re-stain our porch because, if you look at the posts on the left of the picture, you can see how they look when they are dry. I like the color of the floor boards when they are wet, so I am thinking we will stain the whole porch that color, kind of a reddish brown.  I had debated on painting it white, but decided that would require a lot of work to maintain it so gave up on that idea.

This is the view looking out through the blinds from the dining room, while it was raining.  I don't often open these blinds because we get too much hot sunshine through that window for most of the day, plus there is a road out there and people can see inside. The umbrella is open on the table to help shield this window and the front door from the blistering sun (when it isn't raining).  But I was enjoying this view in the rain. I would LOVE to put a roof up over the front porch so we can enjoy it more and keep the hot sun off the front side of the house better, but that is an expense that we can't afford for awhile since we just replaced the AC last month. It will be a while before we can do any other major projects.

Switching to the back porch...I had to change the hummingbird feeder the other day because this old one broke and fell to the ground:

And all I could find was this style at the Dollar General to replace it.  So far the birds seem to have adapted to it okay, so that's fine. It was only $4.00, so not bad:

And surprisingly, this little Wren was enjoying some birdseed from the new Log Cabin birdhouse I put up recently to replace the old one...I was surprised because Wrens rarely eat birdseed! They are more bug lovers! LOL.

And here's some pictures of Pamela's Victorian Cottage and friends...just because...

The little family stays busy year round...and you are always welcome to come visit!

(If you want to read more about "Pamela's Victorian Cottage", be sure to click on the link under "Some Special Topics" in the right column of my blog page.)

These are their little farm friends who live 'down the road' from them...

Here's how I feel about this...

And with that, I will close this epistle for today. Since I started writing this morning I've left home to go practice some music for Sunday at the church and came back home again. Now it is time to think about fixing some lunch...so I will say farewell for now and enjoy your day and weekend!

It's going to be busy...we have a Community Breakfast at the church in the morning to attend, 

and then we also have a 5th Sunday Potluck Dinner after church on Sunday.  Not sure yet what I am going to take for my covered dish...I guess I'd better quit playing and think about that!

It will also be in the Fellowship Hall:

Okay, that's all folks!!

God be with you until we meet again:

"1 God be with you till we meet again;

loving counsels guide, uphold you,

may the Shepherd’s care enfold you;

God be with you till we meet again.

Refrain:

Till we meet, till we meet,

till we meet at Jesus’ feet.

Till we meet, till we meet,

God be with you till we meet again.

2 God be with you till we meet again;

unseen wings, protecting, hide you,

daily manna still provide you;

God be with you till we meet again. 

[Refrain]

3 God be with you till we meet again;

when life’s perils thick confound you,

put unfailing arms around you;

God be with you till we meet again. 

[Refrain]

4 God be with you till we meet again;

keep love’s banner floating o’er you,

smite death’s threat’ning wave before you;

God be with you till we meet again. 

[Refrain]"

 

 

Special Announcement and Tuesday 4: Friendship.

 Greetings from my desk to yours...This will be brief...our WiFi modem is dying and seems to keep dropping in and out. We have contacted our internet provider, and they cannot come to replace it until Thursday.   Right now at this moment it is working, but by the time I finish typing this, it may be back off again, so you may or may not ever see this message.  I didn't have time to do the Tuesday 4 meme today as I had other things planned and had hoped to get it done tonight.  But I don't want to chance it and will just say that most likely you won't be seeing much of me for the next couple of days.  

Of course without the internet, we also cannot watch TV...and I cannot access the WiFi items on my cell phone either, so things could get pretty quiet around here.  I told hubby we need to just take tomorrow off and go someplace, like the beach or some other interesting place rather than sit here staring at the four walls.  It's sad that we've become so dependent on the internet for our communication as well as entertainment, bill paying, GPS, all of the above and more.  We've forgotten how to "live" without it.  I've been reading a lot of Amish fiction lately, and they seem to get along just fine without it or any other modern convenience. We may need to get back to the basics again and try to spend a little more time focused on real life, right here in front of us without any technological interference. Sounds good to me. 

Well, right now we seem to have two green lights on the modem, so I'll keep typing. LOL.  

I don't really have anything much to share anyway...but the other morning I was in a "vintage mood" and decided to eat my breakfast on this vintage china that belonged to my hubby's grandmother. It was a very common pattern back in the day, seems like everyone had some kind of dishes similar to this. I love it and wish I had a whole set of it!

It was perfect for my two fried eggs and two blueberry bran muffins.

Later that day, after we had gone to the store, I had bought some very good fresh Bing Cherries. It made me think about Mary Englebreit's "Life is Just a Chair of Bowlies", instead of the saying "Life is just a bowl of cherries."  So Lily Grace got in on the act and sat in the chair with a Mary Englebreit placemat and had a bowl of cherries.   I had shared more about this particular placemat HERE sometime last year, when I first got it and thought it was so cute.  It's still cute, don't you agree? And it goes so well with the bowl of cherries and Lily Grace  wanted to say hello again!

Still in the "vintage mood", this was the bowl that I used for the cherries...Isn't it a beauty?

Here's the pattern name if you are interested:   It's the only one I have of it. Found it at a yard sale sometime ago.

Well, the internet seems to be holding up while I type, so I might as well try to do the Tuesday 4 meme for today.  Hopefully I will get it posted before it goes down again.

Here goes nothing... LOL.

Friendship

".,,there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother" Psalms 18

It's time once again for Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.



Let's talk about friendship.


1. Do you have or have you had a special or best friend or do you consider all your friends the same? 

I was blessed all during my school years to have several really special friends. We grew up together, 1st grade through 12th grade, and so we shared many experiences together during all of our stages of growth...early childhood through adolescence and almost adults...Many of us have stayed in touch through the years, and especially now through Facebook.  I don't want to single out any one of them because I love them all.  HERE is a link to a post I wrote about my old school friends, complete with pictures, if you are interested in going down memory lane with me.  I was blessed to grow up when and where I did, and I treasure every friend.

2. Many in the past had close relationships and fell in love through letters. What do you think of online friendships.. are they real ? Are there friends who last a lifetime?

I think our online friendships are very real.  I consider every one of you a special friend, and I treasure your friendship very much.  I have been privileged to meet a few of you in person, and I wish we could ALL meet in person sometime.  Yes,  there are definitely friends who last a lifetime.  See my #1 answer above.  

3. Are there stories, movies or TV programs that you enjoyed because of the friendship or relationship portrayed in it?

I'm trying to think...Anne of Green Gables comes to mind...Here is one of several posts I've written about that particular character.

4. What does friendship mean to you?

All of a sudden I remembered that I had received the book "Friendship", by Ralph Waldo Emerson, as a graduation gift from a lady in my church. So I just went in search of it and found it on a bookshelf...goodness, I've had that book for 55 years!!  I will give one quote from this little book:

"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.  

Shall I not call God the Beautiful, who daily showeth Himself so to me in His gifts?"...

"My friends have come to me unsought.  The great God gave them to me."

That is an excellent way to describe how I feel about my friends...they are gifts from God to me...to bless my life with their presence and kindness and sincerity.  I am indeed very thankful for all of my friends, old and new, near and far...

Here are some other little quotes that are hanging on the walls around my home that will also give an insight to how I feel about friendship:

Each of these special little plaques were actual gifts from dear friends.

Friendship is a very special gift that I truly cherish. 

Thank you for being my friend.

Well, I guess I made it all the way through this post without the internet going down! Maybe it has healed itself...or maybe God touched it with His special grace so that I could share this post with you.

Either way, I am happy I was able to spend this time with you.

Now let's go see what our other friends are writing about over at

Tuesday 4 ~ Friendship  

Thank you, Annie, for making this possible.

I will try to get around to visit you all, but if I don't it will probably be because the internet went back down. So bear with me please, friends!

💕

Monday Monday...Sweet Memories and More...

Oh my goodness! What a weekend it was! There was a lot going on in so many different "realms", but I will begin with these wonderful photos that were sent from one of my paternal cousins in Pennsylvania.  I had never seen these photos before. She found them in a box of old photos belonging to my Aunt Audrey and Uncle Paul. (R.I.P.)

These photos were taken of our family, probably back in 1957, I'm guessing.   In the above picture is:

L to R": My mother, brother Russell, sister Doris, Daddy, me, brother Clifford. 

In the above pic L to R:

me, Mom, Doris, Russell, Daddy, Clifford.

In below pic, I think  that is Doris in the front seat, my Dad, me in the back seat, and my brother Russell.

I'm not positive which is which between my sister and me...not that we look that much alike, but it is difficult to tell in this photo which is which. 

Anyway, the occasion was when we had gone back up to PA. from Florida to load up more of our furniture, etc., from my Uncle Paul's barn, where it was being stored since our move to Florida the year before. You will note in the above photos that we had a little cargo trailer attached to our 1955  4 door Chevy Belair sedan.  We also had a cargo box attached to the top of the car, with a canvas tarp over it, to help hold all our luggage, camping gear, etc., because, yes, we camped in tents all the way up and back on this trip (and many others each summer).  How all six of us ever fit in that car for such a long trip, without AC, I might add, I'll never know. But we did it, and we survived.  We made lots of fun memories playing different road games along the way, like the Alphabet game, The Horse Game ("Cemetery! Bury your horses!) among others to keep us entertained along the way.  There were no interstate highways back then, and we took the long,  winding, mountain roads through the Smoky Mountains, where we could find good campgrounds at State Parks, and roadside parks to fix our lunches on the way.  (and sadly, for me, places to pull over quick because I would get carsick frequently!)

These were special times for our family, times I will never forget.  My parents were amazing to organize and plan all of this so well, so that we always had food enough to eat and places to camp (without the aid of GPS to guide us...all my Dad had was the road atlas and a keen sense of direction, well, most of the time.  If he ever got lost he never admitted it and just made it more a part of the adventure!) Oh, and no credit cards back then either! If you ran out of cash, you were out of luck...which we almost did on the way home on one of those trips, because it rained so much we ended up having to eat in a restaurant (no McDonalds' back then) and that pretty much took the last dollar...but we still managed to arrive home safely even if on fumes! LOL. 

Now, this photo (below) was taken a few years before, while we were still living on our farm in Pennsylvania. This was in 1952.

L to R: Russell, Clifford, Daddy, me in my mother's arms, and Doris in front. That is our old farmhouse in the background:

That corresponds with this photo I already shared a couple of months ago. At first I thought it was taken at the same time, but after looking my sister's dress and mine, I decided this must have been a different Sunday afternoon, even though my mother is still wearing the same pretty sundress.

Also, in the photo above you see our dog Laddie.  Here is another photo of Laddie below:

Now back to the present...

Yesterday, July 23, 2023, was my sweet Mother-in-law's "heavenly" 100th birthday.  HERE is a link to a tribute I wrote about her several years ago.  

She was a one of a kind Mother in law, and I miss her a LOT!  

Well, yesterday, on what would have been her 100th birthday, one of her dear "cousins" (by marriage), joined her in heaven to celebrate:

Yes, our "cousin Jane" entered heaven's gates yesterday morning, and I am sure there was a real celebration going on once she arrived.

These pictures are of Jane and "Nanny" (Vivian) together in happier times.

Jane had just turned 93 a few weeks ago, and passed away rather unexpectedly yesterday...but it wasn't unexpected to Jesus...I'm sure He was there to welcome her "home", where she joined her husband, one of her sons, and many others that she was looking forward to seeing again in heaven.

We will miss Jane. She was one of those unforgettable characters that you love to know.

Here's a picture (below) of the last time we saw Jane, (with my hubby) when she came with other family members to visit us at "Dixie Cottage" earlier this year. At that point, she was still able to live in her own home alone, even though she was legally blind and practically deaf, but one determined lady! Not long after this picture was taken she became ill and it was decided that she could no longer live alone, so she went to an Assisted Living home. She was doing well there until this past weekend, when God said it was time to call her home to heaven.

Rest in Peace, Jane. You will be missed by all who knew and loved you here.

In other news this past weekend, we had an interesting day at church yesterday.  Interesting how things happen in twos...there was two different kinds of "bad news", and then two different kinds of "good news".  I'll go with the "bad news" first and finish up with the good to end up on a pleasant note.   The two items of sad or bad news was one dear lady recently found out that she has Stage 4 Cancer. That was very sad news to me, as I truly appreciate this dear soul and hate to see her have to go through all that she is going to have to endure in the near future. I am joining her in prayer for God's mercy and perhaps even a miracle on her behalf. I know God is still in the miracle business, and I am going to pray that way.  The other disturbing news was another dear friend announced that she and her husband were going to get a divorce. That truly was upsetting, because I know and love both of these people, and I pray that God will again work a miracle and save their marriage if at all possible. I know there are times that it seems that divorce is the only answer, but again, I pray God will intervene on their behalf and help them to work things out. 

Jeremiah 32:27

27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. 

Is there anything too hard for Me?"

And now for the good news:

We have a lady in our church who is a single older woman on a very fixed income. Her car basically died and had to be sent to the junk yard. She had no means of purchasing a new car.  One of the men in our church had an extra vehicle that he was not using since his wife passed away, and so he literally gave this vehicle to this lady free and clear...just because she needed it, and he didn't need it, so why should he keep it when she needed it? That was his attitude of true Christian love.  What a testimony of God's amazing grace!

And then, we were surprised when two teens who were here visiting their grandparents for a few weeks both decided that they wanted to be baptized!  And so there was a baptism of these precious young people as a testimony of their faith in Jesus Christ!  Here they are below with our Pastor and his wife and also one of their relatives who stood up with them...

And here with their very proud and happy grandparents:

What a joyous way to end a day that had its share of trials and difficulties.

Okay, that about wraps it up.  Oh, we had our house pressure washed over the weekend:

This was done by our DIL's sister and her son. They did a great job and our house is pretty and clean again!

And then our DIL and son brought over supper on Saturday night! What a blessing!! I forgot to take pictures of that, but we ended up the night playing Dominoes...and that was a lot of fun.

Okay, that's it for now.  I hope you had a blessed weekend and that you will have a wonderful week ahead.

And remember,

Luke 1:37

37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”