It's July!! God Bless America!!

Happy July! Yes, it is the first day of July, and you know what that means! It's time for the calendar roll-call! So let's begin with the one that expresses what we think of most when we think of the month of July:

Yes!!This year in particular, "The 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence!"

"America! America! God shed His grace on thee! And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea!" (America the Beautiful).   And I pray that God will continue to "shed His grace on thee!"  We are a nation that seems to be struggling with our identity as a "Christian nation"...but thankfully our nation's currency still states, "In God We Trust", and I pray that we never change that, or I fear that the freedoms and blessings we are enjoying now will cease to be.

Continuing on with our calendar, the Susan Branch calendar (see above and below) encourages us to read the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. I have not done that, and perhaps I should! Have you read it? Please tell us about it!

I also love this Thomas Kinkade picture for July...yes! 

We wave our flag proudly on the frong porch of our house every day!

(Those umbrellas are there to help shade the front window, as the sun is scorching hot all morning on the eastern side of the house. Someday I hope we can build a porch roof to help shade the windows and the door, but until then, this is the best we can do).

This is the freedom that is the BEST freedom of all...To be free from our sins because of the great sacrifice Christ made for us on the cross:

The Country Seasons Calendar by John Sloane shows this little boy on the farm doing his chores and day dreaming about life somewhere else someday...I wonder if he ever left the farm, or perhaps he realized how blessed he was to be living right there!

Love this picture and the quote by Billy Graham:

And this scripture verse on that calendar...yes, it is from God's abundance and grace that we can enjoy these blessings and freedoms that we hold so dear...

It would be nice to have a log (or stone?) cabin to escape to for the holidays, wouldn't it?

And the teapot calendar is a combination of things...there's a teapot, but you see ice cubes and lemons and iced tea, and a fan...That's the kind of tea we need to be drinking in July for sure! Sorry, I covered up the picture that was hanging on the wall in this one because it was a modern art depiction that was totally inappropriate in my opinion. So I placed the Bible verse over it, "Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom. All who obey His commandments will grow in wisdom."  Psalm 111:10.  Much better!

Yes, the teapot probably has been the center of many confidant type conversations...as well as the focus of some lovely tea parties and happiness of people coming together...however in the summertime, it mostly likely would be the pitcher of iced tea or lemonade. LOL.

Now just some random photos from the past couple of days...I picked a bunch of my zinnias, ("Old Maids") because they were getting heat-stressed and also a lot of them were bent over and stems broken because of a certain cat laying on top of them, so I brought them inside and gave them a chance to enjoy a few days inside to brighten our kitchen:

The flowers are very small, probably because I had too many crowded into once place and it's been SO hot and dry, but they are still pretty... 

We took a ride to the Kenwood Boat ramp yesterday, and here's a few pictures I took...love this lonely mushroom under the cool shade of the palmettos...

It was a clear and sunny day, even if very hot...

And God's special gift to me was this Great Blue Heron standing on the shore and fishing for his breakfast...

This morning we were blessed with a full moon!

And with this I will close...

John 16:33 King James Version

33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Amen and Praise the Lord!

Have a wonderfully blessed 4th of July!