Tuesday 4 ~ Dream...Dream...Dream

 Dream.. Dream.. Dream

Welcome to Toni's Tuesday 4 friends!
It's up early due to a busy weekend.

Dream, when you're feeling blue
Dream, that's the thing to do
Just watch the smoke rings rise in the air
You'll find your share of memories there

So dream, when the day is through
Dream, and they might come true
Things never are as bad as they seem
So dream, dream, dream

Dream, when the day is through
Dream, and they might come true
Things never are as bad as they seem
So dream, dream, dream........by Johnny Mercer

1. As evenings are long, temperatures drop and we have more time to dream and ponder, are you pondering or dreaming of anything right now?

Nothing special that I can think of.  Just living one day at a time, thanking the Lord for each day that He gives us, and trying to live in the way He would want me to live.

Now don't get excited...but you asked what are you pondering, etc....well, I'm not really dreaming of this but I do love to look at new houses being built, and there's a new neighborhood being developed not far from us, and we love to take a ride over there and keep up with the progress.  It was fun to actually get out of the car this time and go through this house to see the floor plan and also to look out the windows to see what the "view" would be. 

I am actually a frustrated home designer...ever since I was a little girl I've loved to draw floor plans of houses, and I've actually designed a couple of the houses we had built for us...of course, by designed, I mean I made rough draft drawings of how I wanted the floor plan to be and gave it to the builder and they drew the real plans to the proper scales, etc. and made it work.  Those were probably the two best houses we ever had! 

This is the floor plan for this model, except in reverse. (Mirror image) And this one actually has a little front porch all the way across the front .

The things I like about this house: 1.  The living/kitchen/primary suite are all across the back of the house so you can enjoy living where the "view" is.  2.  The two car garage. 3.  The little porch across the front. (see below photograph)

Things I don't like: 1.  When you come to the front door that little bit of space they call "Porch" on the floor plan above is really wasted space since there is a front porch in front of that. I would prefer to incorporate that space into the house and have a better foyer, because the current foyer is too long and narrow and there isn't even room for a foyer table or place to hang your jacket, etc.

2. I don't like that you have to walk past the family bedrooms and bath to get to the living area of the house.  If someone comes to the front door, and you also have someone taking a shower in the guest bath, you would have to make sure they know not to come popping out of the bathroom when there is someone at the front door.  I would have to put a pocket door or sliding barn door or something over that little hallway entry to the guest bathroom and bedrooms so they have privacy going to and from the bathroom. 3.  Neither bathroom has a window.  4.  I don't like that the walk in closet in the primary suite opens directly into the bathroom instead of the bedroom. It gets two crowded when you have two people trying to get dressed, take a shower, etc.  5.  The furnace closet should be in the garage, and not taking up valuable space inside the house.

This is how it will look, again, in reverse.

Here's some of the land behind it. It's very wooded, and I hope it will stay that way.

Anyway, I like to do mental exercises of what it would be like to live in such a house. Actually this one is a bit on the small side for us, except for the fact that it has a nice two car garage, so that helps to have the storage space for all the stuff you can't fit in the house! LOL ! Stuff that you don't want to get rid of, that is. However, even if we wanted to do this, which we don't, this house it too expensive for what it is, and unfortunately that is how it is these days. You don't get nearly as much for your money as you could have even a couple of years ago. So we just like to look and "ponder" the what ifs...we've talked about wanting to get into a house on the ground level rather than a manufactured home where you have to climb 6 steps to get inside. The older we get, the more we think about that. But still...it's got to be affordable, and this one isn't.  And I love our current home with its view of Still Waters Pond! LOL.

2. Day dreaming , singing, humming even, can lift your mood and change the entire state of your health. Do you daydream or sing during the day ? Now that you know it can improve health will you try it?  Yes, I sing songs in my head and sometimes out loud quite a bit. Since I sing in our church choir and go to choir practice each week, I often have several songs in my head that we are working on.  If you listen to this video, in the beginning you will see and hear our choir singing the song that we did on Sunday morning.  This was recorded on Tuesday night, and it stuck in my head all week. "I Will Sing of My Redeemer"...  We were missing a lot of our choir members at this practice, but we still managed to get it recorded...not perfect, but hopefully you will appreciate the message of the song.

3. Fess up friends! When you window gaze is it because you are nosy or because it's just so lovely outside? We will still love you no matter what the answer.

Well, when I window gaze here, it is because it is so lovely outside on the west side looking at Still Waters Pond, and also in the morning when we have beautiful sunrises out on the east side of the house.

Here's todays offerings:

Sunrise this morning!

Sunset this evening (Writing this on Monday night)

And just as the sun was setting, Mr. and Mrs. Sand Hill Crane flew in to the yard to say hello, and so we rewarded them with a little bit of bird seed:

Then they flew back behind the island in the pond to roost on their nest for the night. I wish I could see it from here, but not this year!  I will have to walk all the way around to the side of the pond beside the new house next door if I want to watch them.  As long as no one lives there I will be able to keep tabs on their progress, but once the house is sold I will have to stay put in my own yard, unless the neighbors are really friendly.

(This was my view of their new nest area from yesterday afternoon, before they flew in for the night:)

4.Daydreams can become reality if they stir us to action. Were there any times in your life when dreams came true?

Gosh, where do I begin?  Probably many times over the years as we said "Yes!" to follow Jesus into the ministry, and hubby went to seminary in order to be qualified for the ministry...That actually could be a whole book...the one I keep saying I want to write someday...the one I said I would entitle: "Giant Leaps of Faith and Other Crazy Moves".  I've written a few chapters here and there throughout this blog, mostly back in the earlier days of blogdom.   If you click on "Giant Leaps of Faith" in the list on the right side of the blog page, you will be taken to many of those stories. Here is one post in particular that kind of  sums up our life...it is one of our previous Tuesday 4 memes from a few years ago.  

"Wisdom" is my One Word for this year, and I think wisdom has taught me to keep my eyes on Jesus and put my trust in Him, and He will direct my path. Sometimes "daydreams" can be good, but they can also lead us astray if we aren't careful.  It is very important to stay focused on God and His direction for our lives...

Proverbs 3:5-8

"5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.

7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;

Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

8 It will be health to your flesh,

And strength to your bones."

And that's the Tuesday 4 for this week. Oh, I just remembered! Someone asked me about the recipe for the Custard Pie that I showed on my last post.  Here it is:

It came from this cookbook, which was a wedding gift almost 56 years ago!  My mother had one very similar (just an older version), and that is where she got so many of her good recipes for baking, and so I was happy to have this to help me figure things out when she wasn't always there to guide me anymore!

The pie was very good. I did not put coconut in this one, but did sprinkle it with nutmeg.  I used a Pillsbury roll out crust that you can buy in a box that has two rolls of crust in it.  I had already used one of them earlier for a pie at Christmas, and still had one left to use! They can be frozen and kept for a long time!

This week hubby is going to have cataract surgery on Thursday, so things might get interesting before this week is over...however, I may not be available to do as much reading and writing here for a few days.  Hopefully everything will be just fine.  

God bless you all, and God bless America!!