Tuesday 4~ Relaxing

 

Relaxing

Hello! Welcome back to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.
Do you keep busy all the time? Many people don't take time to smell the roses. What about you?

1. When was the last time you sat down and relaxed and allowed the weight of the world to melt away?

Just a few minutes ago.  I sat down and looked at a new magazine that had come in the mail...

I don't get many magazines anymore...so many of them just have way too much advertising and not enough content. But Country Living still has some beautiful pictures and stories, and someone very thoughtful actually subscribed to it for me, so I will enjoy it as long as it lasts!

It's relaxing to just sit and peruse the pictures and dream a little bit about some of the things I see and the ideas they have for decorating and cooking, etc. Now that so much is online we don't get to actually hold a real magazine very often, and I do enjoy sitting back in my recliner and looking and dreaming a bit.  

This issue had pictures of log cabins...just my style and idea of real relaxation!

2. What things do you find most relaxing ? How often do you get to do these things?

Of course, most of you know I find photographing nature to be a very enjoyable and relaxing thing to do.  Our own Still Waters Pond gives me plenty of  subjects to photograph.  I try to take the time to look out there often and see whatever there is to see. Some days there is nothing much to see, but then other days we are blessed with beautiful creatures from God's Creation who stand and wait for me to take their picture as if they expect it!  The Great Blue Heron stood very still for me this morning. I was most appreciative!

I'm always so thankful and blessed when God provides these beauties for me to enjoy!

I also love taking pictures of sunrises and sunsets. The sunrise the other morning was just gorgeous, and the Sand Hill Cranes made a cameo appearance in a fly-over while I was enjoying the moment:

Can you see them?

There they go! Off to wherever it is they like to spend the day, and then they come back here to our pond for the night.

It was definitely a beautiful way to start the day!

3. What things wind you up and keep you from relaxing?

Housework! LOL. Knowing it needs to be done, and not having the energy (or desire) to get up and do it, but feeling guilty that I'm not doing it.  So I can't relax until I do.  Now, these next pictures have a story.  Saturday morning hubby said very sweetly to me that perhaps it was time I thought about cleaning out my side of our closet, as the clothes racks are starting to look overly full and crowded. I was a little bit put off by his "suggestion", and made a few comments that may not have been entirely sweet and demure in response, but after I thought about it, I decided that he was probably right. I hate to admit that ever...but yes, it was time I did something about my half of the closet. We won't mention the fact that the reason HIS half of the closet looks so nice is because he takes his extra seasonal things out and puts them all in the guest room closet, and I can't even hardly open the door to THAT closet because it is so full of HIS stuff...but we won't mention THAT! LOL.  So moving right along...

And so, I started weeding things out of my side of the closet...and found many things that probably should go to the thrift store so someone else can get some use out of them because I am not wearing them anymore for various reasons.  Among those items were some very special things that I have been holding onto for quite a few years...18 to be exact.  Why? Well, these next items belonged to my mother. They were things that I saved out of her closet after she passed away, and I actually thought I would wear some of them, (and I have), but now I no longer wear them, and they really aren't my style, and they are still in excellent condition for being so old, (my mother had good taste and had some lovely things, but I only kept some that I thought I would wear or that I had actually given to her).

These two jackets I gave to my mother, and I can remember her wearing them, and when I was still working, I often wore them to work. 

And she had some lovely little blouses with short sleeves...

I love this delicate pink one...but again...I just don't wear these kinds of blouses anymore.

I actually wrote a post about this blouse and one of my mother's sweaters HERE a long time ago. The sweater I have decided to keep, as I still wear it occasionally and I really don't want to let it go yet.

I always loved the collars on these two blouses:

So anyway, I made up my mind that it was time to let those things go. It wasn't easy, but it's time.  I pray there will be some dear person who will appreciate them and enjoy wearing them. 

Here's the bags of items I gathered. They will go to the church thrift store tomorrow, and that will be that.

My hubby commended me for a job well done. I thanked him, but told him that  he needs to get rid of about 5 or 6 suits from his years in the ministry that he will most likely never wear again, along with several winter jackets that we have no use for here in Florida. We live in a very casual area, and men just don't wear suits to church here.  We will save one or two for possible weddings or funerals, but that should be enough.

 But that's another story for another day. LOL.

4. When was the last time you treated yourself to something, anything that is special?

Hmmm, I'm thinking...the trip we took to the mountains was pretty special, and I'd say that was a real treat. You've already heard all about that, however.

How about this?  You'll think this is crazy. We took a little walk this evening, and we came across this bush that was blooming: Turk's Cap or Sleeping Hibiscus

With it's bright red flowers on the green leaves, it almost looks Christmassy, doesn't it?

Here's a close up of the flower:

So what's so special about that you may ask? Well...Here I am reliving a childhood memory from our days on the playground at school!  There were always lots of these plants growing all around our playground, and the flower has a very sweet nectar that if you pick it off the stem and suck the end of it, you will get a delightful little sip of what the butterflies and bees love to much!

Hubby also remembers doing this as a child. I think every child who grew up in Florida in our era had this experience.  And so we both enjoyed this little treat very much! It took us back to our childhood!

Here's a Psalm for the day:

Psalm 145:14-19

"14 The Lord upholds all who fall,

And raises up all who are bowed down.

15 The eyes of all look expectantly to You,

And You give them their food in due season.

16 You open Your hand

And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways,

Gracious in all His works.

18 The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,

To all who call upon Him in truth.

19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;

He also will hear their cry and save them."

And so with that I will conclude this edition of the Tuesday 4 meme for this week.  If you wish to join in the fun, you can do so HERE!  I hope you found this "relaxing" and enjoyable! See you again next week!

Friday Foto Friends~Happy Thoughts and Blessings

 Where did this week go?  Wow! and what a week it was!! I know it has been a pretty exciting and nail-biting kind of week, but we all got through it, and now we continue to pray for our country and our new President elect and his family, and that all will go smoothly during this period of transition.  Regardless of which side of the aisle we are on, may we come together in unity and prayer for the good of our nation.  "One Nation, UNDER GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for ALL!" Amen!

I posted this picture of the sunrise yesterday morning on Facebook and said, 

"The dawning of a new day".

And then I shared this Psalm, which I think is very appropriate for our nation right now.  May we read it prayerfully and consider what God has done and is doing in our midst.

Psalm 33 NKJV

The Sovereignty of the Lord in Creation and History

1 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous!

For praise from the upright is beautiful.

2 Praise the Lord with the harp;

Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.

3 Sing to Him a new song;

Play skillfully with a shout of joy.

4 For the word of the Lord is right,

And all His work is done in truth.

5 He loves righteousness and justice;

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;

He lays up the deep in storehouses.

8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.

9 For He spoke, and it was done;

He commanded, and it stood fast.

10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.

11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,

The plans of His heart to all generations.

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

13 The Lord looks from heaven;

He sees all the sons of men.

14 From the place of His dwelling He looks

On all the inhabitants of the earth;

15 He fashions their hearts individually;

He considers all their works.

16 No king is saved by the multitude of an army;

A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

17 A horse is a vain hope for safety;

Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.

18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,

On those who hope in His mercy,

19 To deliver their soul from death,

And to keep them alive in famine.

20 Our soul waits for the Lord;

He is our help and our shield.

21 For our heart shall rejoice in Him,

Because we have trusted in His holy name.

22 Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us,

Just as we hope in You.

Amen!

And now, moving right along to what else has been going on around us here in our neck of the woods...

Not a whole lot. Hubby and I have been still a little bit recovering from that bad cold or whatever it was that hit us after our trip to the mountains.  We are MUCH better, praise God, but still have a little bit of a cough now and then and sinus issues, which I think are probably a kind of seasonal sinusitis that just comes with the season.  Hopefully, if the weather would cooperate and cool back down a bit and get rid of this warm, muggy, cloudy humid weather, we will feel a whole lot better.  I see that a cooler weather pattern is on its way next week, so that is encouraging.  

One good thing from this week (among others), our son Scott came home on Tuesday to vote and do his laundry and visit with us! I was so proud of him to take the afternoon off from work and make the hour and a half drive here so he could vote. This is still his permanent residence, but he stays in Jacksonville during the week, where he rents a room from a friend, so he can work in that area. It's always nice to see his smiling face come through the door:

Of course one of his first questions was, "Is there any Halloween Candy left over?"  LOL. Some kids just never grow up, and YES, I saved a bag of candy just for him because I knew he would be looking for it! LOL.

Scott wasn't our only visitor this week...this pretty young kitty stopped by and looked in our back porch door to see who was inside.

What a sweet face!  I've never seen this kitty before in the neighborhood, and she looks fairly young.

I took pictures so that if I see where anyone has posted pictures on our community lost and found pets, I can at least say I've seen her here in our neighborhood.

She soon took off and I haven't seen her since, but if she comes back I could be tempted to keep her! She just has such a sweet face!  But then again...no, I really don't need or want a cat...but then again...

Let's see, what else has been going on?  The kids (Benton and Rose and the grandpups) came over last night and we had pizza for supper.  We hadn't seen them ever since we came home from our trip, since we were sick, so it was so nice to see them all again.  I didn't take any new pictures, but you know what they look like by now! LOL.  Anyway, Rose brought me this magazine that she picked up in the mountains,

And inside were tucked all the leaves we gathered together while we enjoyed walking around the beautiful property where we stayed!  I was so happy she had done that!

These long leaves we had to look up to find out what kind of tree they came from, and I think they belong to a "sourwood tree"

Have you ever heard the song "Sourwood Mountain"?  I remember singing it many years ago...

Apparently the Bonanza fellas sang it one time, so you can listen to it in this video, and here's the lyrics below (their version may be a little different, but it's fun to hear)

Sourwood Mountain

Chickens a'crowin' on Sourwood Mountain

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

So many pretty girls I can't count 'em

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

My true love's a sun-burnt daisy

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

If I don't get her I'll go crazy

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

My true love's at the head of the holler

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

She won't come and I won't foller

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

Big dog'll bark and little one'll bite you

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

Big girl will court and the little one spite you

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

Chickens a'crowin' on Sourwood Mountain

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

So many pretty girls I can't count 'em

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

I sang this song while we were collecting our leaves together, at least the parts I could remember.  We had such a fun time.

We girls, including the grandpuppies, had a great time walking and finding the leaves...as you can see, there were many different kinds of trees to choose from!

It was a perfect time for leaf gathering...

I'm trying to figure out a way to preserve them better for the future, but haven't come up with any great idea yet...maybe you can help me?  

Maybe I could put some in a picture frame or something.  I don't know, but for now, we will just enjoy them there as is.

Oh, the Memorial Rose continues to bloom and smell so delightfully sweet. I did send our daughter in law Nicole a picture of it on her 50th birthday this week, and she did respond and appreciated it very much.  I wish I could've sent it to her for real so she could smell it, but I'm afraid it wouldn't have made the trip to Maine intact.  But she appreciated the thought behind it and we were able to wish her a happy birthday.  We continue to pray for Nicole and our grandson Noah, as they move on with their lives without our dear son Matthew,  who has been in heaven over 10 years now. (Still hard for us to believe that!)   That's why this rose is so significant, as it was originally planted right after he passed away.

Oh,  my goodness! I was looking for a good way to close out this post, and I turned to this little devotional calendar for today to see what it had to say, and would you look at this?

I think God had that planned all along! I never saw this until right now! Wow! Talk about God putting things together...

That leaves me rather speechless! So I will just say thank you all for reading along and for being such dear friends.  And may we always have "beautiful roses in (our) hearts".

Have a blessed and beautiful day and weekend.

Tuesday 4 ~ Bath Time!

 Bath Time

Hello! It is nice to have you back again for Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.
Our hostess Annie says: "There is something lovely about a nice hot bath on a cold autumn night after a busy day isn't there?
Growing up our home had an old claw foot tub and I loved to fill it to the brim and sit there until my toes were like prunes."

Can we discuss the secrets of the bath?

1.Do you take baths or showers? Is there a reason you prefer one to the other?

Yes, I prefer showers. Why? Well, at my age, getting in and out of a bathtub can be very treacherous and dangerous to my health!  I don't have one of those fancy bathtubs for senior citizens.  But I do have a "garden" bathtub that sits unused and collecting dust. Why do they call it a "garden bathtub", I've often wondered.  It's not something I would think of putting in the garden... but here it is all ready for our pretend bath tonight:

Yes, it is lovely, and I wish I could get in and out of it safely and sit there and soak. But another reason is we have to pay for our water here, and it takes a lot of water to fill this tub, plus it doesn't stay hot long enough so I have to keep adding more hot water to it. But it is tempting, seeing it all lit up with candles, and I have some delightful smelling lavender bubble bath just waiting to be used.  It's a wonderful thought...but I still prefer to take a shower...much safer, hotter, and I can rinse off easier than in a tub. (Now if it was a jacuzzi tub with jets, I might be really tempted to get in.  My aching joints and muscles could really appreciate a nice hot jacuzzi bath!)

2. Once a day shower or bath or do you have a different schedule?

I am a once a day shower person, and I prefer to shower at night before going to bed. I don't like the idea of going to bed dirty or hot and sweaty (we live in Florida), so night time has always been my preferred time to shower.

3. What is your favorite soap and shampoo?

My favorite soap is a lavender goats milk soap, which is home-made by a friend of ours, who lives in the town where we lived before moving here.  We used to sell her soaps in Dixie Cottage when we owned the store (our kids owned it), but now I don't believe the new owner carries it, and we have to contact the soap maker lady privately and order it.  Which reminds me, I am about out of it and need to get some more!  I also prefer lavender scented liquid hand soaps, and will buy those wherever I can find them.

Shampoo: I use Pantene volume shampoo and conditioner.

4. Back in the day many loved Jean Nate spray after a bath. My mom enjoyed Avon's Skin so Soft.. what do you like in the way of skin creams, oils or sprays?

I prefer to use this Aveeno Daily moisturizing lotion on my face and body. It is fragrance free, which I prefer.  I don't like strongly scented lotions or soaps as they give me a headache. Lavender is really about the only fragrance I can tolerate.

Here is a Lavender lotion and soap that I bought while on our trip to the mountains of Georgia.  I have had this lotion before when Rose bought it for me, and I needed some more as I especially like to use it during the winter months on my hands.  I haven't tried that soap yet, but it smells good...a mixture of evergreen and lavender is rather nice and kind of woodsy.

Rose and Benton had visited this place one time when they were traveling without us, and she especially wanted to go back there this time.  And so we did...

They grow their own lavender there and make their own soaps and lotions and all kinds of lovely items.

This is their home too! They live AND work here!

They grow these lovely dahlias also! What beautiful flowers!

It was fun to see their little lavender farm!

And speaking of flowers:

I picked the rosebud from the Memorial Garden today. (Monday). It is starting to open up, and I was afraid something would mess it up outside like last time, so I picked it and brought it in and put it in my mother's pretty green vase.  I've shared many times that this rosebush is in the memorial garden for our son Matthew, and that in the past it has frequently only bloomed around special days.  However, it hasn't bloomed in the past year or more until now.  This week is our daughter in law Nicole's 50th birthday. Nicole is Matthew's wife (widow).  It should be opened up nicely for her special day. I will take a picture and send it to her on her birthday.  I'm not sure how she will feel about that...she's not the sentimental type, but I think it's pretty special and I hope she will appreciate it. Oh, and it smells so sweet...a perfect rose scent! 

Here it is this morning, Tuesday. And it still smells SO good!

I read this in a little devotional calendar yesterday, and so appropriate for these days:

Good thoughts for this time..."With God, ALL things are possible!"

Let us be praying for our nation at this all important time.

For more bath time stories, check out these older posts:

Link to another bath time!

And here's another link to a bath story

This is a WILD BATH TIME post... read on to get the whole story...from our previous home in the forest...Yes, that is a REAL Bear taking a bath!

Good Night dear friends.  I wrote this on Monday night...BUT NOW it is Tuesday morning as I am posting it! If you haven't already, please go out and VOTE!