Wednesday Treasures

 Greetings from Still Waters Pond...

This was the sunset a couple of nights ago. Not as spectacular as some we've had recently, but still a peaceful and beautiful way to end the day, and always worthy of note. God's artistry in the skies is always beautiful and no two sunsets or sunrises are ever the same.

My plans for today were altered a bit this morning when I woke up with some G.I. issues, which happens occasionally, and sometimes more often than not.  My intentions were to attend the "Women in Faith" meeting this morning, but that just wasn't feasible under the circumstances. 

So plan B...stay home and do whatever stuff I can manage to do without overtaxing myself.  We do have company coming on Friday...my sister and her hubby and our kids are all coming for lunch and to celebrate hubby's birthday, which is actually on Sunday, but neither Saturday nor Sunday were going to work out for everyone, so thankfully Friday was a day that everyone could come.  We will celebrate Valentine's Day, Hubby's birthday, and my sister and her hubby's 59th anniversary all in one! I am looking forward to seeing Doris and Art, as we haven't been able to get together since last October. Thankfully Doris is finally over her pneumonia and feeling much better! 

 The plan is to grill hamburgers, hot dogs, and maybe throw some boneless chicken thighs on the grill too, so there's something for everyone's likes.  I hope to make the cake  and potato salad tomorrow, and Rose is making the Deviled eggs.  These are all things hubby requested for his birthday meal...plus baked beans and probably some cole slaw as well, which can be done on Friday morning.

So today I started working on some house cleaning...bathrooms, dusting, and washing the bathroom rugs. Tomorrow we will sweep and mop the floors.  Hopefully hubby will help with the floors. He usually does. Since we got rid of the carpet in the majority of the house, we find ourselves sweeping a LOT more, due to sand and dust balls that accumulate. I'm sure they were all there when we had carpet too, but we just couldn't see them as well, so we didn't worry about them as much.  So if you are thinking about replacing your carpet with hard floors, be prepared to do a lot more swiffering and sweeping and mopping! Especially so for us because we don't have a paved driveway or sidewalks leading into our house, so a lot of sand gets tracked in regardless of where we drop our shoes! LOL.

While I was working inside the house this morning, hubby had his own projects going on outside.  Actually, he had a friend from church here helping him re-organize and clean the shed. This is a job that is LONG overdue, and we were both happy when this younger than us man said he would be glad to come and help him get it straightened up and organized better.  I didn't get a picture of our friend, but here's John after they had worked this morning for a few hours.  It is still a work in progress, and I guess the fellow is coming back on Saturday to do a bit more work, but he got a lot accomplished today and we are very pleased and thankful. 

I probably should have taken a before picture so you could better appreciate what was accomplished. 

This end of the shed is mostly my stuff, like all the Christmas and fall and spring decorations, etc, and just general storage of STUFF. Some things need to be gone through and see what we can eliminate, but that's another job for another day.  Like I said, it's still a work in progress.

Speaking of work in progress...the Bluebirds are still trying to decide when to start building their nest in the birdhouse I guess. They were back today, looking things over still, and not really doing anything else that I could tell.  

However, I'm wondering if there was something already in the birdhouse, because neither one of them went inside today, and they were fluttering their wings a lot and flying around the door.  I know I've seen a Chickadee poking his head inside the house a few times, but I don't think he's started building a nest as far as I can tell.  So who knows? Maybe Mr. Lizard is living in there. He likes to camp out in there usually in between nesting seasons.   Anyway, they were acting strange, so I don't know what will happen next. Stay tuned.

Mr. and Mrs. Sand Hill Crane were over on the other side of the pond today, foraging around on this marshy/grassy area, and I thought maybe they might decide to build their new nest there this time.

I am hoping so, because I can actually see this location from our yard as opposed to the other place I thought they were building their nest over around behind the island.

They spent a good while out there this afternoon, but then left and when they came back at sunset, they flew over behind the island as per their usual habit.

So I thought I would "outsmart them again", LOL, and run around the pond and see them there on that little scrap of marsh that I've showed you before.  

It was almost dark, so these pictures are hard to see, but guess what?!  The Cranes weren't there at all again, but guess who was??? The Canada Geese were standing there, pretty as you please, like they own the place! LOL.  So that really blew my mind...and there was NO SIGN of the Sand Hill Cranes again! Where did they go this time??? They keep outsmarting ME!  

I would be surprised if the geese build their nest on this little piece of marsh. They usually like to be up on the island in a more protected spot under the trees on the side of the bank. But, I'm beginning to think that all the wild pond birds are going to surprise me this year and do something totally out of character.  By this time last year, I know the Cranes had already laid one egg on February 12th, Abraham Lincoln's birthday, which is why I named one of the "colts" Abe.  They laid the other egg on George Washington's birthday, Feb. 22nd, so I named the other colt George. However, only one of the colts made it to adulthood, and I think it was Abe, the older and stronger one.   And the geese had a couple of eggs in their nest last year as far as I could see, but something happened and their eggs did not hatch.  

It could be that the Cranes already have a nest in a spot that I cannot see at all, and they are going to surprise me one of these days with new babies that I never knew were coming! Time will tell, so again, stay tuned for further developments.

Meanwhile, Mr. Great Blue Heron comes and goes as he pleases. I don't believe he has any plans for building a nest here on Still Waters Pond, at least not that I am aware of! LOL.

And Blackie the neighborhood kitty that I've been feeding over at the neighbor's house continues to make himself at home on our porches. I was surprised to find him on the front porch this afternoon, lounging on the lower shelf of the little wicker table. 

 I guess it's cooler on this side of the house in the afternoon, and today it really got quite warm on the sunny side  in the back (84!), so Blackie was keeping cool out front!  And yes, I'm still feeding him and the other yellow cat, "Sunshine", 2x a day.  Sunshine doesn't always show up on time for meals, and I am afraid that Blackie is eating all of the food before he gets any, but I can't keep running back and forth to check on him.  Eventually I will probably figure out how to get them to eat over here at our house, but only when my neighbor lets me know that she really can't do it anymore at all.  Even though she doesn't "claim" the cats as her own, I think she has enjoyed having them come to her house to be fed, and I don't want to take that away from her unless she lets me know she's truly done with feeding them.

Boo! I see you!

Over in "Gnome Land", there's another kind of "nesting" going on...

I just discovered there's another door on the side of the old tree stump!

OH, and Mr. Gnome has found himself a wife!!!  Looks like she's busily knitting a blanket or something...I wonder if there's going to be a baby Gnome someday! 

Well, I wouldn't call him exactly a "baby"...maybe a teen-ager gnome...

Or maybe he belongs to this Grandpa Gnome.  I don't know, but everytime I turn around, there's new Gnomes moving in!   You just never gnome what will happen next! LOL.

All this talk about nesting made me think about this passage in Matthew where Jesus responds to one who said he would follow Jesus wherever He would go...

Matthew 8:19-20

"19 Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

This passage has a little subtitle saying something about the "High Cost of Discipleship".  For those disciples who were following Jesus during His earthly ministry, they soon learned that the cost was very great.  They traveled from place to place on foot, or sometimes in a boat, but you never hear of them having any nice hotels or houses or resorts to rest in.  Their life was pretty much on the road, camping along the way perhaps.  It's interesting that God provides for the birds of the air and the foxes and other wildlife who have dens or burrows or places to rest, but His very own Son did not have a home once He began His ministry.  Perhaps that is to help us understand that this world is not our final home either...we are just passing through.  

Jesus promised us in John chapter 14:1-3 that He was going to go and prepare a place for us to dwell in...with HIM, in His Father's House...in Heaven...

1“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 

2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 

I have always found this passage very comforting, especially the more loved ones I have waiting for me already in heaven. This world is just temporary, and the "treasures" we have here are also only temporary, we can't take them with us.  

Again, another passage where Jesus explains that the only treasures that will last are those that we have "layed up for yourselves ...in heaven..."

Matthew 6:19-21

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 

20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And what are those treasures that we are laying up in heaven? Perhaps the good deeds that we do for others here...the dear ones we lead to Christ, or those we have set a Godly example for by our own life and the way we live. Those are our heavenly treasures. The things we do here for Christ's sake...those are the things that will last.

It makes me stop and think when I read that passage...I'm really not sure just what to expect in the way of "treasures" when I get to heaven, but the most important thing we can do here is to live for Christ and follow Him no matter where He leads us.

And so, those are my Wednesday Treasures for today. It's been a busy day, but a good one. I feel better tonight than I did this morning, and for that I am very thankful.  Now I am looking forward to a good visit with our family on Friday. I may not write again until after that, but we'll see what develops!

Good Night my friends!!