Tuesday 4~Fall Traditions and Memories

I'm late with the Tuesday 4, but you know the old saying, "better late than never". 

 

Fall Traditions & Memories


Welcome to another Tuesday 4 a fun meme started by Toni Taddeo.


It is Halloween , all Hallows Eve and tomorrow is All Saint's Day. Originally these days were to remember the deaths of Christian martyrs but things have certainly changed and the dark, the scary and remnant of Samhain (So-Win) have been introduced.

I waited until tonight on Halloween to write this post, so I would have some new pictures to share from this evening's fun.  

1. What is your opinion of Halloween?  I wrote about this in my post yesterday, and this is basically what I said:

"On Halloween, we look forward to the children coming to our neighborhood for Trick or Treat. It is one way we can be friendly and neighborly and let the children (and their parents) know that we care about their kids.  I love to see their cute costumes and their happy faces as they come to the door for the candy. Our world is getting so sad and scary and there just aren't very many safe and happy ways to do things in our communities anymore. I'm glad that there are churches who also provide a happy time for the kids with a "Trunk or Treat" event in a safe environment.  I think if we can capitalize on the fun aspect of this "holiday" rather than just dismiss it as something bad, we can use this opportunity for a positive way to reach out to the children of our communities. That's my thoughts on it, for what it's worth.

Happy Halloween from our house to yours:

Rose with Sugar and Spice, me with the candy bowl, and hubby John on the porch with Lily Grace...

And here's a close up of Lily Grace and her dog Bailey.  She wanted to be a "Rock Star" for Halloween...

I've had this ceramic jack o' lantern for many years. It was a gift from my Aunt Marion...(cousin Becky's mother).  Miraculously it has survived many moves and still looks great!

The scarecrow didn't scare anyone away. We had quite a few trick or treaters, but they mostly came when it was already getting dark and I didn't get any pictures of them this year.

But we enjoyed these two little trick or treaters...Sugar and Spice and every thing nice!

Back inside after the action is over...

2. Memories are important. Some of them are seasonal good times. What fall memories and traditions can you share with us?

Seems like I've talked about this before... If you really want to know...click on THIS LINK for lots and lots of fall memories.

3. Stews, soups and chili dishes warm the tummy on chilly fall days. Have you a good recipe to share for a good fall dish?  No special recipe that I haven't already shared, but one thing we do enjoy occasionally is a good old bowl of Campbell's Tomato Soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. This was just the other day...Sorry I already took a couple of bites out of the sandwich before I thought to take a picture. But it was so good and I couldn't wait!

Another tradition we love in the fall is homemade applesauce with biscuits for breakfast. I finished up the last of our Georgia apples with this dish of applesauce...

And served it hot over biscuits.   HERE is a post I devoted to this tradition from many years ago.

Another fall recipe we love is Hobo Stew. HERE is a post with the recipe.

4. Fall is football season. Are you a fan of any teams? Do you watch games>

This picture was taken on Saturday, while hubby was watching the Florida Gators vs. the Georgia Bulldogs. This is always a big event in our state. The University of Florida is quite close to where we live, so of course there are many Gator fans here.  However, unfortunately, the Bulldogs beat the Gators in this year's game.    My hubby watches all kinds of football...college and NFL.  I personally don't get all that excited about it and usually find something else to do during the games. Living in a home where I was outnumbered 4 to one (3 sons and 1 husband), I gave up long ago trying to watch anything else on the weekends.  But that's okay. They always had a good time watching the games together, and I had plenty of other stuff to keep me busy. I loved hearing them cheering for their favorite teams and making all the noise that guys make while watching football. Thankfully, our son Benton came over and watched a game with hubby on Sunday afternoon. It made my heart happy to hear them together. Even if their team didn't win. 

I hope you've had a blessed and wonderful day today. Hard to believe tomorrow will be November already, and the beginning of another busy and happy month of giving thanks to God!

Here's some good closing thoughts for the day:

Oh, here's a bouquet of wildflowers I picked on our walk this afternoon...our first walk since hubby had his surgery almost a month ago!  It felt sooooo good to get out and take a nice walk in the woods! 

Praise God!

Good night everyone!

Let's go see what others are writing about today at Tuesday 4!

Monday Monday~Thankful!

 Tonight's sunset...October 30, 2023.   What a lovely way to end a wonderful day. 

1

Psalm 66:16-20

16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,

And I will declare what He has done for my soul.

17 I cried to Him with my mouth,

And He was extolled with my tongue.

18 If I regard iniquity in my heart,

The Lord will not hear.

19 But certainly God has heard me;

He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

20 Blessed be God,

Who has not turned away my prayer,

Nor His mercy from me!

Amen.

 

And a beautiful thought of peace and comfort for today...

It's been a wonderful day...we got good news today at the Dr.'s office and it seems as though the Lord has answered our prayers and has brought healing for my hubby. We are extremely thankful and grateful, to our friends both far and near who have prayed, and to the Lord, because He has heard and answered our prayers.  It's been a long several weeks of recuperation and staying out of "action", but thankfully the waiting has paid off and hopefully things will begin to return to "normal" again, a little at a time.  We don't want to jump right back into the "fray" too quickly...but it will be good to get back to doing the things we enjoy doing with family and friends and especially our church.

We've had some good company during this time...the Sand Hill Crane family has paid us many visits...

(there's always that one who likes to linger in the  water)

And the Canada Geese have been flying in and out frequently, with a "honk honk here" and a "honk honk there..."

I don't know if you can see them all in this picture below, but this was a large flock for sure:

And I was happy to see Mr. Great Blue Heron out there again. We haven't seen much of him lately, so I hope he's going to be making a more regular appearance these days.

Tomorrow is Halloween, and we look forward to the children coming to our neighborhood for Trick or Treat. It is one way we can be friendly and neighborly and let the children (and their parents) know that we care about their kids.  I love to see their cute costumes and their happy faces as they come to the door for the candy. Our world is getting so sad and scary and there just aren't very many safe and happy ways to do things in our communities anymore. I'm glad that there are churches who also provide a happy time for the kids with a "Trunk or Treat" event in a safe environment.  I think if we can capitalize on the fun aspect of this "holiday" rather than just dismiss it as something bad, we can use this opportunity for a positive way to reach out to the children of our communities. That's my thoughts on it, for what it's worth.

Well, it's getting late...it's been a long day, but a very good day, so I will say good night and thank you for being special friends.  Thank you for so many wonderful comments over the past few posts. I haven't been able to get around to answering everyone like I would like to, but I do appreciate your comments and friendship so much. God bless you all, and good night!

Friday Foto Friends

Good Friday Morning, everyone!  I hope this day finds you enjoying whatever beauty God has provided for you...whether it be outdoors in your garden, yard, or neighborhood, or inside your home where things are cozy and warm and comfortable. Wherever you may find yourself today, I pray it is a day filled with God's blessings and much joy.  It's there...if we look for it.  Turn off the TV, step away from the computer and the cell phones for a bit, and watch for the beauty around you.

The other afternoon I noticed this Gulf Fritillary butterfly flitting about the milkweed in the butterfly garden.  I'm so glad it happened to be there while I was outside and watching!  So often they come and go before we get a chance to see them and enjoy their delicate beauty!  I felt honored to be there at this moment!

I also felt thankful that the milkweed was still blooming and looking so healthy this fall, and that the butterfly garden continues to attract butterflies for us to appreciate!

This morning's sunrise!  Nice, huh? I was a little late getting up and putting the flag out, so I was thankful that I hadn't missed this morning's event!

While I was out front putting out the flag, I thought perhaps it would be a good time to take some pictures of the chrysanthemums that I just purchased this week. 

I figured it was about time as Halloween is next week and I hadn't even put out our scarecrow or bought a pumpkin! So there you go! This is the extent of our Halloween decorations. No spooks or hobgloblins here...just a friendly scarecrow to welcome the kiddos when they come trick or treating next week. I have purchased what I hope will be enough candy to take care of them this year. Last year we ran out and I had to turn off the light and shut the door while there were still kids coming. I felt bad about that. We enjoy seeing the children in their cute costumes. Our neighborhood seems to be one of the few neighborhoods in our community with paved streets and houses closer together where the children can come and safely do their trick or treating. One of the community churches also does a nice "Trunk or Treat" fall festival for the kiddos, so all in all it's still a fun and safe activity for our little town's children.

No, I'm not necessarily a fan of "Halloween" itself, especially the darker side which focuses so much on the occult, but the traditional fun of putting on costumes and going about with your parents to trick or treat is a happy memory for many children, and as long as it is kept that way, it is not a bad thing in itself.  We used to have harvest parties in our churches and bobbed for apples (yes, everyone sticking their faces in the same bucket of water to snatch an apple with their teeth...and no one drowned or died from it that I know of...), and played other fun games and the kids wore suitable costumes (nothing demonic or satanic), and we had a really good time.  Those are happy memories that I am thankful for.

So this morning after watching the sunrise I sat on the back porch with my cup of tea and journal in hand and "listened" for the sounds of nature waking up and giving their praises to the Creator God.

There were many birds coming and going...

This female Cardinal sat there at the log cabin bird feeder for a long time, enjoying her breakfast and watching the activity in the yard.  At one point an armadillo scurried across the lawn, too quick for me to get a picture. I think he was out partying all night and was in a hurry to get home before his family woke up and wondered where he'd been. LOL. I never saw an armadillo run so fast before!

I was trying to take a picture of this dove sitting on the branch by itself, and my intentions were to name it "Lonesome Dove". But just as I snapped the picture, Mr. Blue Jay flew in photo bombed it! LOL.

Then he proceeded to fly down to the bird bath for a little drink and visit with "Bobby the Squirrel".

Mr. Cardinal flew in to say good morning as well.

If you look at this picture closely, you can see autumn leaves on that maple tree in the background.

So it's been a mostly uneventful week, although we've had several doctor appointments, lab work, etc. Benton and Rose brought over a spaghetti supper Wednesday night! Rose cooked the spaghetti and garlic toast and I made a salad. It's always a blessing to have them come over.  We didn't know it, but apparently it was World Pasta Day, (October 25), although I see that National Pasta Day was on October 17th.  Anyway, we did our part to celebrate even though we didn't even know we were supposed to. LOL.  

We have been so saddened and appalled by the horrific mass shooting that took place in Maine this week. When I saw that on the news my heart jumped into my throat because we have family in Maine. Thankfully this was further north from where our family lives, but still it was too close to home.  Our prayers go out to all those affected by this terrible crime. Praying they can find the perpetrator soon and bring him to justice...but that will never make up for all the lives lost and the heart ache and grief for their whole community and state. 

We also continue to pray for the terrible war in Israel and Palestine. It's a much bigger picture than we can even begin to understand...but for those of us who believe God's Word, the Bible, we know that God is in control and we will continue to pray for the salvation of Israel and all of God's chosen people.

As I was closing out the day with prayer last night, this song came into my mind and I laid on my bed singing it in worship and praise to our Savior:

"Jesus, name above all names
Beautiful Saviour, Glorious Lord
Emmanuel, God is with us
Blessed Redeemer, Living Word
Jesus, name above all names
Beautiful Saviour, Glorious Lord
Emmanuel, God is with us
Blessed Redeemer, Living Word"

There is something about praying the Name of Jesus that brings great peace and comfort to my soul.  There is peace, power and healing and strength in His holy name. That is my prayer for you and our world today...peace, power, healing, and strength in Jesus' Name.  Amen.

 

Tuesday 4 ~ Automobiles

I remember the Edsel. 
I believe my Aunt Margie  and Uncle Ed Moss had one.

 

Automobiles


Hey there... welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.

We rely on cars to get just about everywhere today, so maybe we should talk about them a bit. Okay?






1. What is the earliest car you remember your family owning? Do you recall the color or the plate number?

This is the earliest car I actually remember my family owning, but I know there was an older green Plymouth or Pontiac before this one.  This was a 1956 (I think) Chevy BelAir, and the color was a dark green.  This was our family all packed up for one of our trips from Florida back to Pennsylvania to load up more of our furniture.  We moved to Florida from PA. in 1956, and this was probably 1957. You can see the Florida tag for yourself.

That trailer was filled with a lot of our furniture, which we had left at my Uncle Paul's farm in Pa., so we went back to get it. We also had camping gear in there because we camped all the way up and back.

All six of us fit in that car, but it was cramped, as you can see my brothers were tall teenagers by this time.

I remember after this car we had a Studebaker for a while, and then a Studebaker Lark, and after that a Ford Falcon. None of those cars was really big enough for our whole family, but we managed somehow.

2. What does your state's license plate look like? Do you like it?  

This is my favorite tag for our state, but there are many other choices and specialty plates that you can pay extra for.  

3. What color is your car now? Charcoal Gray.  Probably not my favorite color, but it's what was available at a reasonable price when we last traded cars.  We never buy brand new cars, so we take whatever is available that we can afford, which nowadays would be difficult to find even a used car we can afford. I pray this car holds up for a long time!

4. Did you have a car as a teenager? If yes, what kind was it?

No, I did not have my own car as a teenager.  I was allowed to drive my parents' 1964 Plymouth Valiant back and forth to the nearby community college where I attended my freshman year.  But I did not have a car to drive when I was in high school.  I usually rode to school either with my mother on her way to work, or in my junior year I remember I rode to school with some neighborhood friends.  I came home from school with my mother after she got off work at 5:00. I either had cheerleading practice after school and then walked to the downtown drug store to wait for her to pick me up, or I went home with a friend who lived in town and waited there until she picked me up, because we lived too far out of town to walk home. 

When my hubby and I got married we had his 1964 Dodge Dart. It was standard shift, and I had a difficult time with that since I am left-handed. I was glad when we got rid of it for an automatic transmission.

We kept that car until we were expecting our first baby, and then we bought a 1970 Chevelle coupe. From then on it was either station wagons or larger sedans as our family grew. Our current vehicle is an SUV, and I probably like that style best of all.

I hope you enjoyed this step back in time to hear about our old cars. 

Now let's go see what others are writing about!  Thank you, Annie, for coming up with these questions each week.

Monday Monday~Sanctuary

The other morning I sat out on the back porch overlooking Still Waters Pond and was determined to "listen" for the ways that God would be speaking to me.  The past few weeks have been challenging, to say the least, and I have been needing some time alone with God, away from the distractions of what's going on in the world at large, as well as in my own little world.  

As I sat there watching and listening to the birds singing while they were going about their morning routine of finding seeds and berries for food...I thought about this lovely spot as a bird sanctuary...

and then my mind went to the words of this song, "Sanctuary", and I began to sing.

"Lord prepare me

To be a sanctuary

Pure and holy

Tried and true

And with thanksgiving

I'll be a living

Sanctuary, for You"

As I sat there singing and thanking the Lord for this little sanctuary, I prayed, 

"Lord, prepare ME to be a sanctuary."

(these Bluebirds have been spending a lot of time around the birdhouse lately...I don't think it's nesting time for them, but maybe they just need to feel like they are in a safe place...)

Psalm 63

1"O God, You are my God;

Early will I seek You;

My soul thirsts for You;

My flesh longs for You

In a dry and thirsty land

Where there is no water.

2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,

To see Your power and Your glory.

3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,

My lips shall praise You.

4 Thus I will bless You while I live;

I will lift up my hands in Your name.

5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,

And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips."

Matthew 11:28-29

28 "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: 

and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

As I sat there thanking God for this time alone with Him, I also did a little reading and research about the word "Sanctuary".  I found a website entitled PreceptAustin.org,  and found this information that was very helpful: 

"A SANCTUARY is a sacred place, a place set apart for a holy purpose, a place to commune with God in intimate fellowship, a place to worship Him "in spirit and in truth" (Jn 4:24), a place to "find rest for our souls" (Mt 11:28-29-note), a "place of refuge from the raging wind and tempest" (Ps 55:6-note), and "a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat." (Isa 25:4) In the New Covenant, our Lord Jesus is our Sanctuary and place of refuge. To use a modern expression, Christ is our "Safe House" now and forever. "How blessed is the one whom Thou dost choose, and bring near to Thee, to DWELL IN THY COURTS. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, Thy holy temple." (Ps 65:4-note) "Thou wilt make known to me the path of life; In Thy presence is fullness of joy; In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever." (Ps 16:11-note) "How blessed are those who DWELL IN THY HOUSE! They are ever praising Thee. Selah"

Since the past month has been filled with many interruptions to our normal life in the way of medical issues, recuperation and changes in routine, we have not been able to go out of the house except for doctor appointments and other necessities, so therefore we've not been able to attend church or our regular Bible studies, choir practice, etc. Even though we keep up with our daily devotions and prayer times, it still isn't quite the same as being able to worship and fellowship in person with our church family.  Therefore, this place of "sanctuary", beside Still Waters Pond, (Psalm 23:2..."He leadeth me beside the still waters") has become a sacred place of worship and thanksgiving.

I must add, however, that we had good visits with our kids this weekend. Scott came home and mowed grass and took care of several little jobs that needed doing around the house. Benton and Rose and the grandpups came over last night and brought fried chicken for supper, and we had a nice visit with them. So I count those as extra special blessings!

This Eastern Phoebe has also been spending a lot of time in and around this part of Still Waters Pond,

carrying out her duties of catching bugs and singing "Phoebe! Phoebe!" to let her mate and/or family know where she is.  Maybe she's thanking God for the food He provides for her.

The Sand Hill Crane family comes and goes, and they always announce their arrival and departure with loud and raspy trumpet sounds.

Personally, I think they want us to know they are here as a way of showing a kind of friendship.

Here's what popped up on the this little daily devotional calendar for today:

So appropriate for this season of life we are in...

"When you pray, I will listen. You will find me when you seek me..."

Jeremiah 29:12-13

Psalm 23 KJV

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

I hope you enjoyed spending a little bit of time with me today in "The Sanctuary".

I am thankful for each and every one of you and look forward to visiting with you again soon.

Meanwhile, is there a special place that is your "sanctuary"?  Maybe you can share it with us in one of your posts. 

Have a blessed and wonderful day my friends.