Thursday Thankfulness!

 Happy Thursday...and it's Halloween! So hard to believe the last day of October is here already!  It's been a very busy month, and I am thankful that we made it through without any major incidents...taking a long trip with many hours on the road...surviving two major hurricanes (one was in the end of September, but still close enough to be October), and then catching a cold but today I feel SO much better...and hubby is starting to feel better too, although I think he still needs to take it easy for another day or so...but still...we are very very thankful for God's protection and care of us throughout this past month...

So today I want to "Give Thanks" with a grateful heart for all of God's wonderful blessings and protection and grace...

It was wonderful to come home to our own "Still Waters Pond", and find that the pond was still alive and well with our resident water birds...

Mr. Great Blue Heron stopped by to say welcome home...

And then he went on about his business of catching fish for dinner...can you see him in the camouflage below?  

And Mrs. Great White Egret has been stopping by on a regular basis as well...they seem to like the same fishing spots as the Great Blue Herons, but they seldom ever come at the same time...

However, Mr. Sand Hill Crane was NOT happy about Mrs. Great White Egret being in his territory this morning, and he was making a racket about it...

He was calling to Mrs. Crane across the pond and warning her about the Great White Egret being in their territory.  Oh, do you see that big pine tree laying down in the background? That fell during Hurricane Milton over on the other side of the pond.  I love that the reflection in the water makes it look like it is perfectly matched up with another tree...but it is just that one.  I guess it will just stay that way until it falls apart someday, as that is not on our property or anyone else's as far as I know. It was one of the trees standing alongside the road and pond, and thankfully it fell this way and not into the busy highway on the other side...

After a few more warnings from Mr. Crane...

He picked up his mighty wings and flew over to his mate, and actually, The Great White Egret flew away at the same time, but I couldn't get it in the same picture.

A little later I saw the whole Crane family fly in across the street together, and they were on about their duties for the day...

Meanwhile, Mrs. Cardinal was busily getting her breakfast from the bird feeder in our yard...

And Mr. Cardinal was waiting his turn in the tree...

Yes, it's good to be home again! It's wonderful to see that all is well here in God's beautiful wild kingdom along the shores of Still Waters Pond!

Meanwhile, inside, I realized that today is Halloween, and I haven't really done much about decorating or preparing for it.  So I got busy this morning and put out a few more decorations...oh, and I did buy some candy at the Dollar General up the street a day ago so I will have something ready for the trick or treaters. We still get quite a few here on our street, and even though I haven't been feeling all that great this week, I just couldn't bear the thought of not being able to greet the sweet little children when they come...so I am getting ready little by little today.

I put out Mr. Scarecrow...

This will have to be my "jack-o-lantern" for the yard, as I didn't even buy a real pumpkin this year!

However, this little ceramic jack-0-lantern will join me on the front porch tonight.

The "pumpkin patch" little church is lit up and ready...

And our dining table is decorated and ready...

Thankfully when we were up in the mountains, my SIL Peggy and BIL Billy went to a pumpkin patch and brought us back these little pumpkins and Indian corn. So I have some fresh items to decorate with. 

"Welcome to our neck of the woods...where life is good..."

Oh, Lily Grace and friends are ready for the trick or treaters!  Lily hasn't figured out her "costume" for tonight yet...hopefully we will come up with something special before then...

So now I just need to prepare the little bags of candy for the trick or treaters:

And this year I decided to do something different.  I have these "Prayer Cards", which are actually cards with a scripture verse printed on them, and I am going to include one in each little ziploc bag of candy.  I wanted to get some smaller business card sized cards with a verse, but I didn't get around to it, and I already have these, so these will work as well.  I think I have 60 cards, so that will probably be enough.  My thought is that this is an opportunity to share the love of Christ with our community, with those who are coming right to my door! I actually found these at the Dollar Tree some time ago, and they are called "prayer cards", even though they aren't really a prayer, but the Word of God, and my prayer is that God will use this to bless the children who receive them, as well as their parents.  

Many people see Halloween as something totally dark and evil,  but my feeling is why not take advantage of this opportunity to spread the LIGHT of God's Word in the darkness?   I am thankful that there are churches in our community who are also using this opportunity to be a positive witness for Christ, as they have a "Trunk or Treat" event at their churches and have a fun time, but they also share the love of Christ with those who come.  I believe that we as Christians need to take advantage of every opportunity to be His ambassadors of His love and grace.   There's already too many negative influences out there vying for our children's hearts and souls...Let's be the LIGHT!

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

Matthew 5:14-16

So let us light our lamps and shine brightly for the world to see!!

Have a blessed and safe and Happy Halloween!

Vacation Part Two: Visiting Friends and a Beautiful Wedding!

 

North Georgia Mountains

In case you missed "Part One" of our vacation, it was HERE.  I promised I would share the rest of the story today, so here it is.  I thank you all for your wonderful comments on my first post.  I have missed you all so much and it is really like "coming home" to get back to all my blogging friends. I am still trying to work my way around to reading your posts, but to be honest, I haven't felt quite up to par today...I developed a sore throat on our last day that became a cold and plus the other physical "issues" of being away from home and eating a lot of food and sitting a long time riding, etc., well, let's just say it's good to be back home with my own "facilities" close by. TMI. LOL.  

One little story about our ride home on Sunday...we got up early and left the hotel without eating any breakfast. Our room had a "Keurig" coffee pot, with one pod of "green tea" available, and since I woke up with a sore throat,  I had that cup of  decaf green tea before before we left. However, that wasn't very satisfying and I was really longing for a good cup of hot "real tea", so when we finally stopped at a Hardee's in South Carolina for some of their good "homemade biscuits" with egg and bacon, etc. that I'd seen advertised and thought it'd be a good place for breakfast...well, I asked for a cup of hot tea. You would have thought I had asked for "green eggs and ham, Sam I am"...the girl looked at me and said, "I don't think we have hot tea." I said, "Oh, you've got to be kidding?".  She said, "No, Ma'am, I don't think we do, but I'll ask the manager." The manager woman was quite stressed with the cooks not baking enough biscuits fast enough and she really didn't want to be bothered with my need for a cup of hot tea, and she told the girl that they don't have hot tea.  So I asked if I could please just have a cup of hot water, as I had some tea bags in the car, and the manager very curtly replied that they don't do that there and they can't be bothered with that, or something of that nature...  The poor order girl looked at me apologetically and whispered that I could probably get some at the Dunkin' Donuts next door. LOL.  So we did go over there after we ate our biscuit sandwiches in the car (because of the doggies) (which was very good, BTW), and I ran inside to ask for a cup of hot tea, only to discover that there was a LONG line of people waiting for their special coffee latte's or whatever they wanted, and only one person making them, and another long line around the building at the drive thru, and so I gave up on getting any hot tea there!  A little later we stopped at a truck stop for a pit stop and they had hot water (VERY HOT water), so I got some there and used my own tea bag, but it took about a half hour before it cooled down enough to drink...(I should've gotten some ice!)  So long story short, don't ask for hot tea at a Hardee's (or almost any fast food place in the south), "cause they don't do that there"!  I should've known better. When we lived up in New England I asked for "Iced Tea" at a McDonald's, and they didn't know what I was talking about. I had to get a cup of hot tea and a cup of ice and make my own! LOL.  The things we will do for a cup of hot tea (or iced tea) when we are traveling! LOL.  

All this talk about tea...here I am having a cup of hot tea now, as I still have a cold and the tea feels so good...(this is an old picture, but actually I am drinking from the same cup and it looks exactly like this. LOL.)

So let's get down to business here...when we left our mountain cabin on Friday we were headed toward Charlotte, NC for my great-nephew's wedding on Saturday.  However we made a little bit of a detour for lunch.  We picked up hamburgers, etc. at a Wendy's and took them to share with some dear friends of ours who live in a little town in Georgia kind of on our way.  They have a beautiful piece of property and actually own and manage a place that has apartments for retired missionaries and/or retired pastors. It's a long story how they ended up there, but they are retired from the ministry themselves. They have wanted us to come visit for a long time, and finally it worked out for us to stop for a short visit. We ate the burgers together out on their picnic tables, and then the guys went on a tour of the property while us girls had a tour of their home.

Here's Cindy and Ken in front of their home.

This is me with Cindy...

and Rose with the grandpuppies, Sugar and Spice.

And there goes the guys in Ken's new toy he'd just gotten for his birthday the day before!

Benton was riding in the back, and holding on for dear life...LOL.

Here Cindy is showing us her "quilt room", where she makes  quilts. I believe she also teaches others to  quilt.  

This is just one example of her work, although the lighting is not good so you really can't see how beautiful this quilt is:

And this is one that her mother made, which is also gorgeous.  

Cindy also teaches classes in card making, and the cards are just stunning. 

This is the room where she holds her classes:

This is is an example of the types of "cards" they make:

We had such a nice, but too short of a visit with them, and then we had to get on our way to Charlotte. Unfortunately we still ran into a lot of very heavy traffic on I-85, and it was a rather long and tense trip, but we finally arrived at our hotel safely a bit later than we anticipated.

It was bumper to bumper like this all the way for hours...

This is a South Carolina Peach! LOL.

So NOW, the story you are really waiting for...the wedding!  

First of all, let me tell you that the wedding was planned to be outside, in a woodsy setting at my niece's home,  and I deliberated over what to take with me to wear for an outdoor wedding in late October in NC.  It could be cold, or it could be warm.  I figured it would be fall-like cool weather and planned my outfit accordingly for an outdoor wedding in the woods.

If you remember, I told you about this beautiful hand-crochet' shawl HERE, and the significance of it. I decided to plan my outfit based on these colors, since it was definitely created with beautiful fall colors.

So, yes, this is what I wore, however, it turned out to be 80+ degrees the evening of the wedding! Who would've guessed that?  And so I really wasn't able to keep the shawl on for long because it was really too warm, but I kept it with me and showed it off to loved ones and friends and told them the story behind it.  The weather really had a mind of its own that evening, but more about that later...

Back view...

As I said, the wedding "chapel" was set in a lovely woodsy setting on my niece's property. My brother and my niece's husband both worked for months, cutting trees and creating these lovely wooden benches for everyone to sit on. It was gorgeous.

Here we are waiting for the wedding to start.  Oh, I should mention that Rose did not attend the wedding. It was a difficult decision, but because of the length of time we would be away, she felt it was going to be too long a time for the pups to be left alone in the hotel room, and so she opted to stay with them. It was probably a wise decision, because we ended up being gone longer than we expected...

This is me with my niece Debbie, my sister Doris's daughter, who lives down here in Florida.

And here is Debbie with her son Dillon, and my sister Doris and her hubby Art. (from near Orlando)

Sitting behind us was my nephew Brian and his wife Sara,  and Brian's sister Denean (they are my deceased brother Russell's children), and her boyfriend George.  They all live in Georgia, near Atlanta.

Seated in front of us was my niece Leslie and her daughter Zoe. Leslie is my brother Clifford's daughter, and they live in Charlotte.

Waiting for the service to begin...this setting was so peaceful and beautiful. Many times throughout the service leaves would gracefully and silently fall to the ground, like heavenly blessings from above...

While we waited a musician played lovely music on his classical guitar.  I believe I heard the strains of "Hallelujah"...very pretty.

This is my other niece Sandy, (daughter of my brother Clifford) and her husband Todd, the mother and father of the groom.

And this is my great-nephew, Casey, The Groom.

This is my great-niece Sarah (Casey's sister), one of the bridesmaids:

And my other great niece, Meg, (sister of Casey), another of the bridesmaids.

I didn't get pictures of all the bridesmaids and groomsmen, just the ones that I knew personally!

And here comes the bride, Jordan!

(my sister took this photo quickly before we were asked to put away our cell phones from there on and let the professional photographer take the pictures, so I had to "borrow" this picture from my sister. LOL)

The wedding ceremony was beautiful, and one thing they did was serve communion.  You can't see them, but Casey and Jordan and two others were serving communion to us. Casey is an ordained Presbyterian minister, working on his PhD in Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy, and Jordan is also an ordained Chaplain and is working on her PhD in Social Work. Together they serve in the ministry.

The tables were all set up in the front yard of my niece Sandy's home for the reception dinner.  There was a "cocktail hour" while the wedding party had pictures taken and the wedding dinner was being prepared.

Here's my brother Clifford, (grandfather of the groom), running around taking care of last minute details...

Gotta love his smile.  And he's such a hard worker...never guess he just turned 80 a couple of weeks ago!

We managed to get him to sit down for a minute with our sister Doris and me for a family photo:

And here he is with his lovely wife Caryl:

And here's Doris and my hubby John and me...we're all patiently waiting for the dinner to begin, however...

It started to RAIN!!!!   And here we were...about 150 people outside waiting for a dinner in the rain. The caterers thankfully had large plastic table cloths to cover the dinner tables and chairs completely while it rained, and they also provided plastic parkas for every guest:

However, the rain continued for probably an hour, and even though it was a light rain, thankfully, it was wet!  After a while we realized that it was getting pretty late and we didn't want to leave Rose alone that long, and then I developed a sudden nose-bleed, which apparently was the pre-curser to my sore throat and cold the next morning. SO, hubby, Benton and I made the difficult decision to leave before the dinner was served, since we had to get up early the next morning to drive all the way home.

The rain did eventually stop, and I am told that they did serve the dinner as planned and had a wonderful rest of the evening, dancing and enjoying the wedding reception.

Here's the Bride and Groom dancing together...

And Casey dancing with his mother:

And this was the "cookie table", instead of wedding cake:

And this was the bride and groom's cake...Oh, did I mention that they are both "vegan", and the cake and the dinner was also vegan...I wish I had a copy of the menu...I forgot to bring that home with me, but it looked very interesting...and I understand it was very delicious.

And here's the happy couple, ready to begin their life together!  What a beautiful ending to a perfect day, in spite of the rain!  (These last photos were courtesy of my sister and my niece).

Not the end...Just the beginning!!  May God bless them and keep them, and make His face to shine upon them...and give them peace...now and forever. Amen!