Thursday Thankfulness and Friday Foto Friends!

 Happy Thursday! I hope this day finds you all doing well and recovering from the 4th of July festivities! I know we already talked about what people would be doing, but now I'm wondering what all everyone really did do!  Hubby and I started out with a big breakfast, thinking we weren't going to be doing much of anything else for the day...but first I had dressed up Lily Grace for the occasion just because she hadn't been getting much attention lately and I felt bad for not being a better "Mommie".

So she became the centerpiece for the table and her dog Bailey tried to eat hubby's breakfast sausage...

I baked biscuits and sausage and scrambled eggs. It was a good hefty start to the day...

But then we were surprised to end up having another family gathering on Tuesday...totally unexpected and spontaneously! Sometimes that's the best kind, because I didn't have to fuss and worry about cleaning the house and cooking a lot of food, etc.  It just all came together and was very sweet and simple.  It started out because our son Scott decided to come home for the day since he had the day off, and I already had a few chicken thighs and breasts thawed out to cook, so I asked him if he'd like to grill them. He said of course he would be glad to. So then I called our other kids Benton and Rose and asked them what they were doing, and they didn't have any plans...and so, long story short, they picked up a few more pieces of chicken to cook at the grocery store on the way, and brought a tomato to add to my salad, and another box of yellow rice to put with what I had, and we ended up with a great little meal!

This picture was taken after we'd already helped our plates:

There's the happy kids enjoying our impromptu dinner!

My plate:

Oops! We forgot to close the door to Scott's room and the doggies went exploring:

Caught ya!!  They knew they were being naughty! LOL.

So they came back to the living room and found comfy places to take a nap.  Poor Sugar, she found a too small of a pillow to lay down on. She doesn't seem to like to lay on the hard floor. I may have to get them both some doggy beds to keep over here...

Especially because Spice seems to always end up on the couch:

LOL.

Oh, for dessert Benton went over to our new Dollar General that is about a block away from our house and picked up one of those Edward's Chocolate Cream Pies...This is my piece...very small and dainty because I know what chocolate does to me, but I just couldn't resist a small piece:

It was so good that Hubby and I decided to buy another one yesterday to have here just for us. That was a bad decision. I decided to have another little bit bigger piece yesterday, and I've been sorry ever since. But it tasted SO GOOD!  The rest will stay in the freezer for the next time company comes over unexpectedly! LOL.

Anyone want pie?  Come on over!  

I didn't do much in the way of decorating for this holiday, but decided to look around and see what looked a bit in keeping with the season already:

Oh, btw, we did go and try to watch some fireworks Tuesday night. We drove into town and parked where we thought we would have a good view. But when they started it appears that either they moved the location of where they shoot them up into the sky over a little bit from last year, or else the trees grew that were between us and the scene, and we really couldn't get a good viewpoint. Plus, it was just SO HOT in the car and we couldn't stay outside because of the mosquitoes, so we just went back home and listened to the booming going on all around  us.  LOL.

We had a powerful thunderstorm pass through last evening. We need the rain, but my goodness it poured! We got almost 2" of rain in a couple of hours. And wouldn't you know it, we had to leave the house in the middle of the storm to go to a board meeting at our church! Since hubby is the chairman of the board and I am the recording secretary, we couldn't very well skip the meeting!  So we donned our rain gear and ran to the car as fast as we could.  A huge clap of thunder and lightning snapped just as we went out the door! "Yes, Lord! We're going! We are on our way!" LOL.  Wouldn't you know it, when we arrived at the church it was totally dry over there! It's only about 3 miles away, but they had not had one drop of rain yet.  However, the rain caught up with us when we were inside having our meeting, and it was pouring down quite heavily when it was time to go home!  So we donned our rain gear again and ran to our cars.  This is what we saw on the way home:

The sun was shining through the clouds enough to give us this beautiful rainbow!

The sign of God's promise to us

Genesis 9:12-17

12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:

15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

May we always remember that this is the true purpose of the rainbow...and may we never allow God's promises and covenants be perverted into promoting something that is an abomination to God. 

So, that's about it for our 4th of July festivities and post holiday activities. It's still very hot, in the mid 90's, but we are supposed to start getting some more thunderstorms here later this afternoon.  That really doesn't cool it off much, but we need the rain and Still Waters Pond is happy for the fresh water! So is our yard.  So we give thanks to the Lord for the rain even if we do have to start mowing more often. LOL.  

Oh, one (or two) more things...as is my usual practice while sitting here at my computer in my "Room with a View", I always take one last look out the window before I finish a post just to be sure I'm not missing anything going on outside that I can share with you.  So I just now looked outside and this is what I saw:

Do you see him?  Look closely...there's an armadillo rooting along in the yard, looking for grubs in the wet ground down near the pond.

This was my last view of him before he went into the woods.  Of course I'm not crazy about the little holes they leave everywhere, but still, it was fun to see him rambling along. Usually they are only out at night, so we don't get to see them very often.

Here's something else I don't get to take many pictures of because they never stay still long enough:

Lovely very big blue dragonfly!

Okay, I guess that's all for today. (and tomorrow).

Oh wait, one more thing. LOL.

One of the reasons our son Scott wanted to come home on the holiday was to get his Camaro that has been sitting in our yard forever, waiting on him to finish some much needed work on it and put new tires on it so he can drive it again.  This car is one of those "project cars" that never seems to get to the end of all the "projects".  

So he was happy to finally get it back on the road and I felt like that was something picture-worthy!

Okay, I promise, that's it!

I hope you and yours are having a blessed and beautiful first week of July!

Try to stay cool and well hydrated!

I'll end with a rendition of America the Beautiful by the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra.

America! America!

God shed His grace on Thee!

And crown thy good with brotherhood

from sea to shining sea!