Tuesday Thankfulness and Lovely Views

I know it is Tuesday, and I didn't do the weekly "Tuesday 4" as per my usual norm.  It has been busy the past few days and somehow I just couldn't wrap my head around it this week.  My apologies to Annie, who goes to a lot of work to come up with great questions every week for us.  The link up is above if you'd like to check out what the questions were and see what others have been sharing.  

I think these Canada Geese are hurrying right over there now to check things out! LOL.

Actually, they were parading in front of us as we pulled into a parking lot today at the Doctor's office where we were headed for an appointment.

When I got out of the car, I quickly discovered where they were coming from:

Kind of reminds me of my own Still Waters Pond! Such a lovely spot in the middle of an urban development!

Today we had to make a trip to "Fleming Island", which is about an hour's drive north of us, for an eye appointment for my hubby. He was meeting with a Cornea specialist surgeon to discuss whether or not he will need a cornea transplant due to an eye condition that has developed.  Thankfully, this doctor did not believe that the need for surgery was imminent, and wants to see him back again in six months to see how things are "progressing", and then a decision can be made at that time.  All in all the appointment was very encouraging and my hubby left there feeling much relieved.  I'd say it was an answer to prayer, as we were both very concerned about this situation...and God has given us much hope today.

Speaking of our Still Waters Pond, this was the view over the pond a few nights ago at sunset:

I found it to be very comforting and peaceful...it looked like an angel hovering over us and spreading a golden light of peace and good will...

The lighting was really beautiful It could have been some remnants of that Saharan Dust Cloud still passing through the atmosphere...

The next day we received at least an inch of rain, and here is how that same area looked after the rain:

It was so refreshing to see the pond being restored with life giving water once again...

Another view of that "angel in the sky" the night before...perhaps it was sending us a special heavenly blessing?

And this is how that same area looked after the rains:  You may not be able to tell it, but the water is much deeper and healthier.

That same golden sunset...

And again, that same spot after the rains...

Still Waters Pond is rejoicing to be given a new lease on life!

Here's how things looked in our front yard during that rain storm!  You will see a "moat" running down the front along the road...in front of our "castle".

Thankfully all of that water had soaked into the sandy soil within an hour. That's one good thing about having sandy soil! It doesn't hold standing water for long! (I apologize for leaving the flag out in the rain. It started storming before I could get out there and bring it in, and then I wasn't going to go out and get soaked!  Thankfully it dries quickly!)

Again, this was Still Waters Pond during the rain storm.  It really was what we call a "frog-strangler" kind of storm here in Florida! LOL.  Again, we are very thankful for these life-giving waters.  

John 4:10-14 (Jesus with the Samaritan Woman at the Well)

10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Speaking of happy times...although this picture was certainly not properly "staged", it is a picture of our "kids" here on Sunday after church for dinner...Rose and Benton and their two pups, Sugar and Spice.

Also our son Scott was there, but he managed not to be in this picture. LOL.  It was the first time we'd all been together for over a month, and it was so wonderful to have everyone here again, safe and sound and healthy again.

The other day I heard the familiar sound of a bulldozer over next door on the empty lot, so of course, being the nosey neighbor that I am, I had to go check it out to see what what happening.

He was bulldozing down those newer piles of clay and preparing the ground for the "pad", that will be the "foundation" for the new house. Here's the finished product:

Then when we got home this afternoon from our Dr.  appointment, we were shocked to see this sitting on that lot already!

That is only 1/2 of the full house...the back half.  I understand that the front half will be delivered tomorrow.

Here is what the back side of the house looks like:  

It is a kind of woodsy green color, which I actually love, because it will blend in better with the woods around it and won't be so bright and glary to look at!

And it will certainly have a lovely view from every window along the back:

I hope I have these in the right order. I stood in front of each window, starting at the kitchen window, and took a picture of what the view would be:

The Dining Area window

The Family Room 1st window:

The Family Room 2nd window:

The back (or 4th) bedroom window:

Hey! It's still not too late to be my neighbor! This house will be for sale in the near future, as soon as it is set up and ready for occupancy!

I was disappointed to have missed the delivery of the first half, but hopefully we will be here tomorrow to watch them deliver the 2nd half, and I'll be able to take some pictures!  I hope you don't mind all this crazy stuff!  It's just that sometimes it's more fun to watch all this happening than it is to stay inside and clean my own house! LOL.

Well, I suppose this is enough for one day.  Thank you for hanging in there with me!  

Also, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago a request to keep our blogging friend Debbi from "Debbi's Front Porch" and her husband in our thoughts and prayers.  I know she appreciates the prayers, and because of her privacy, I won't go into any details, but just suffice it to say they still need our prayers for a serious medical situation. Thank you so very much.  

Thursday Thankfulness and Friday Foto Friends

It's raining! It's pouring! The Old Man is snoring! LOL.  Yes, we are currently having a humdinger of a thunderstorm and LOTS of good old pond soaking rain! Hooray!  So that is my #1 thing to say I am thankful for today!

2. We are SO thankful the "kids" made it home safely and we had them come over for supper last night. It was SO wonderful to have them and the puppies back home again after almost a month of being away visiting Rose's family in Minnesota.  I didn't take any pictures of them last night, but they still look the same.  LOL.  They did bring us a few little gifties from their journey:

Zucchini fresh from her father's garden...still has the Minnesota dirt on it! LOL.  I am thinking I'll be making some Zucchini bread very soon with that big one!!

These are either hot pads or dish cloths, or washcloths...whatever you wish, made by Rose's sister Sherrie, using the fabric from a terrycloth bathrobe!  

(They are all reversible to the hot pink side).  Really soft and neat! I love things like this, don't you? Especially when someone has taken the time to make them and recycle something that otherwise might have been discarded or given away.  Thank you, Sherrie!! I love them!

And then Benton and Rose brought us this magnificent bear/deer figure...it is so intricately created using a laser cutter. They know we love bears and deer, and this is perfect for us!

I'm still figuring out a perfect place to put it.

Oh, and last, but not least, Rose brought me this bottle of :

It smells so good! She said it is especially good for making a garlic bread...maybe even put some in a homemade loaf of bread?  I may have to try that!

Don't you just love it when people are so thoughtful to bring you something from their trip? I never expected anything, and that's what makes it even sweeter!! But most of all, we are thankful they are back home safely. It's amazing how much better WE feel just knowing they are back home safe and sound and only a mile away from us instead of a three day drive!

3.  In a recent post HERE, I told you that we had received a text from our Grandson Noah, with a wonderful picture of him and his new car.  (Here it is again in case you missed it. It's always nice to see his smiling face again).  He said in his text that he would be calling us soon, and yes, he was true to his word!

He did in fact call us the next day as promised, and we had such a wonderful long conversation with him! That was such a blessing to us!  And yes, this is a "new" car (not brand new, but new enough!). He purchased it after having a run in with a deer on the highway which pretty well totaled his old car, but thankfully he himself was not hurt. (The deer was not so fortunate...but if you've ever driven country roads at night in deer country, you know how easily this can happen!) Where Noah lives in Maine, he is fortunate it was a deer and not a moose! Now that can really do some severe damage!  Anyway, we are very thankful that Noah was fine and that he was able to purchase this pretty new red car.  He has had a good job for the past year since he went back up there last summer, and he is very thankful that he's been able to save some money and also makes enough to afford the payments and the insurance...which, since he will not be 25 until October is considerable.   Also he has received a kind of promotion in his job that has been very beneficial for him as well.  So he is really doing well and sounds SO good.  And he LOOKS so good too! Yes, he has put on a little weight since we saw him last, which he needed to do actually. For those of you who do not know him, he is 6'4" tall and has plenty of room to fill up.  Also, hubby and I had a little 'bet" going on before he called.  From the picture we weren't too sure if he had cut his formerly long and curly hair or if he just had it pulled back really tight.  I voted for the haircut, hubby wasn't so sure.  Of course, being a grandma who asks all kinds of questions, I asked him if he'd cut it, and he said yes he did as it had gotten too hot and too much to take care of.

Here is a picture of Noah with our two sons Scott and Benton, a little over a year ago when he was last here with us.  You can see what he means about his hair being too hot and too much to take care of. It is very naturally curly and when it is that long, well, you can imagine...  

We had a very interesting and positive conversation about current world events and his thoughts on all of that, which we were very pleasantly surprised to hear that he shares much the same views that we have about all of what's going on, both politically and from a spiritual sense. That was refreshing and comforting to us to hear.  You never know what the younger generation is going to think or profess in these turbulent times.  God has been hearing and answering our prayers in this regard as well, and we are very very thankful.  

Psalm 40:1-3 NKJV

1 "I waited patiently for the Lord;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the Lord."

Oh, now here's some fun photos from last evening while the "kids" were still here. Rose and I took a little walk over to the lot next door because we had noticed something running across the pond and around the back of the island (the pond has some very dry marsh areas making it possible for something to "run" across the pond in places).  We wanted to see if it was coming out over there where we could see it... And sure enough, if you have really sharp eyes and look pretty much in the middle of this photo below, you will see a raccoon running along the edge of the pond. From there he went into the woods and we couldn't see him anymore.

But what we DID see was something really funny...there are still some big piles of dirt on that lot waiting to be spread out for the pad/foundation for the new home that will be arriving soon.  The Sand Hill Crane family seem to be having some fun playing on top of the mounds of dirt. Maybe they are thinking about making this their new home???

After a little while they decided to head back toward the pond...

And from there they actually went around and ended up in our yard.

I told them that I was still a bit upset with them for destroying my pot of Purslane/Portulaca the other day.  (If you missed it, you can read all about it HERE)

But I had to forgive them because even after them pulling all of the plant out of the pot, I stuck it all back in the pot, and the next day it was blooming again. I did put it on the front porch where it will get plenty of sun (per Sandra of MadSnapper, who is a kind of expert on Purslane. )  And so far it seems to be doing just fine.  

See?  So, yes, this is another thing for which I am thankful!  I don't have a green thumb, so it is very comforting to me to know that I can do this much. I know, it really is all glory to God! He is the Master Gardener!

To close this out I must show you the beautiful sunrise we had this morning:

If you look really close in this one, which is a close up of the one above, you will see the Sand Hill Crane family flying over above the tree tops. They flew right over top of me while I was standing out there on the porch taking pictures, and I almost missed them! 

It was truly a glorious morning!

And I especially wanted to include the American Flag, which we wave proudly from our home every day.  

America, the Beautiful

"O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,

Whose stern, impassioned stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America! America!

God mend thine every flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved

And mercy more than life!

America! America!

May God thy gold refine,

Till all success be nobleness,

And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam

Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!"

Amen.

I guess this sums it all up.  We are very thankful for our family, our country, and for all that God has done for us and is doing today. We must all continue to pray for our country in these turbulent times, however. There is so much at stake.  I am not going to get into political issues, but prayer is the most important thing we can do. Amen.