Monday Monday~Father's Day and Storms

 Happy Monday evening!  I'm just getting around to sitting down here at the computer and trying to think of what to say!  Hope you have been having a good Monday, and that your weekend was special in every way.  We had a wonderful Father's Day get together with the kids yesterday.  Our son Scott came and grilled boneless/skinless chicken thighs for us. I made potato salad and corn on the cob, a tossed salad, and a blueberry pie at hubby's request.  Rose brought the deviled eggs.  I forgot to take a picture of our meal, but here's the blueberry pie right after it came out of the oven. You can see it was bubbling over with blueberry juice!

Hubby declared it was the best blueberry pie he'd ever eaten!

I was happy to hear that, because these were blueberries that I'd gotten fresh (already picked) from the blueberry farm last month and froze them. Unfortunately, they have a picking machine that tends to leave a bit of the stem on the berries, and I had to hand pick the stems off of almost every single berry! Imagine that when the blueberries were thawing and becoming a bit soft...yeah, it was a tedious job, but no one found a stem in their piece of pie! LOL.  Next year I guess I will have to go and pick my own blueberries so I can be sure there are no stems left on them!

Who knows, maybe next year I'll be able to pick enough blueberries off of my own bush to bake a pie! This is a bush I planted a few years ago, and this is really the first year it has had so many berries.

I just went and picked this little handful of ripe ones. Maybe not enough for a pie, but they will taste good in my yogurt or on some cereal. There's just something very satisfying about picking your own fruit and eating it!  I consider it a gift from God! I know I sure didn't do anything to make these grow, except water them when it was so dry. But God did everything else.

Anyway, I digress.  Back to yesterday...here's the "kids" with "Daddy"...

And here's the whole bunch of us.

This is one of my most favorite pictures of my hubby, reading Bible stories to our little boys in bed at bedtime. As you can see, Scott is just a baby, then Benton was about 5 &1/2, and Matthew was 4. These are very precious memories.

And here's a picture of "Daddy" and his boys and our one grandson Noah, taken back in  February of 2014 at the last time our whole family was together before Matthew passed away from cancer in May of 2014.    It's sad to me that we will never be able to have a "complete" family portrait again...but we will all be together again in heaven some day, and that celebration will never end!

And speaking of other great fathers...Here's hubby's father and my hubby John and his little brother Billy. This was taken at Daytona Beach back in the late1950's.  Notice the Studebaker car behind them. That was their car.  Our family had one of those too back in the day! They were built like a tank! LOL.

And here I am with my Daddy. This was taken on a Sunday afternoon. I think he had been reading the funny papers to me and we fell asleep.  I was pretty young. LOL.

So after our kids left we took a nap too.  Then when we woke up, there was quite a thunderstorm brewing.

The rain was so heavy at times it was like a "white out" on Still Waters Pond!

And yes, it did help to start refilling the pond! WooHoo! We are very thankful for that!

At one point, I could actually see and hear very small bits of hail hitting against the front picture window!

And although you can't see it here, we had two umbrellas open on the front porch, one on each table, which helps to shade our front window/porch on these very hot and sunny days. I usually try to put the umbrellas down when a storm is coming, but this one blew up so quickly I didn't have time, and the umbrella from the table on the left literally was lifted up by the wind and blown over the top of the other umbrella...

And landed on the other side of the deck outside of the porch railing on the ground!  That was quite a blow!!

Thankfully no harm was done to the umbrella or the tables, but it just shows how quickly things can change in a bad storm!!

But thankfully, when we know we have Jesus with us in this "boat of life"...we do not need to fear what the winds and waves and storms of life can do to us...He rebukes the wind and the "sea", and says, "Peace be still!", and the storms will cease...

Mark 4:35-41 NKJV
35 On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” 36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. 

37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. 

38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace,be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. 

40 But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” 

41 And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

Even though there are still times in life when I may feel fearful and anxious about things that are happening around me or in my family, (or in the world at large), I am reminded of this story where Jesus rebuked the disciples and asked them why they were so fearful..."How is it that you have no faith?"  He wanted them and us to know that when you have Jesus in the boat with you, there is nothing to fear.  The important question to ask ourselves is if we have Jesus in our boat with us.  If not, there's no time like the present to invite Him to join us in our life's journey. When Jesus is with us, we can sleep in peace while the storms are raging. God is in control. 

Like these porch kitties...Blackie and Sunshine...sleeping in perfect peace...

And just for fun...these were taken last night after the storm...Sunshine sometimes likes to jump up onto the porch railing and watch the world go by...

"Hey! I see you looking at me!"

"Am I yawning because I'm bored with looking at you? Or am I laughing at a good private joke?  I'll never tell."

"There's nothing too exciting in there to see, so I'll just lay down here on the this railing ignore you!"

And with that, I think I will close this for tonight.

Psalm 4:8 NKJV

8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;

For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Amen.