Happy Sunday Morning

I keep this old postcard as a marker in my Bible. You can see it is getting rather worn with age, but it reminds me that Jesus tenderly cares for His sheep...and we are "the sheep of His pasture".

Psalm 100 KJV

100 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; 

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: 

be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; 

and his truth endureth to all generations.

And furthermore:

Psalm 122 KJV

 1 "I was glad when they said unto me, 

Let us go into the house of the Lord.

2 Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.

3 Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:

4 Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, 

to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.

5 For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

7 Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.

8 For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.

9 Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good."

This is a good way to start our Sunday morning...being happy about going to "the House of the Lord", and also praying "for the peace of Jerusalem..."  In these turbulent times, Jerusalem (Israel) definitely needs our prayers, as does our own nation and other places in the world.  And may we never forget the part of verse 6 that says, "They shall prosper that love thee."   May our nation always remember that and not forget to pray for the peace of the people of Israel. Amen.

I am still continuing to remember things to be happy about during this month of August "happiness" challenge.  There are so many things, I may forget to count them all. But at least I will give it a try!

This morning I am happy that my wayward kitty Blackie came back home. Yesterday he got a bit scared when we had a fellow here power washing the outside of the house. He didn't want to stay indoors with all that noise going on outside, so we let him out so he could go wherever he wanted to go. Well, not too long after there developed a very loud thunderstorm with some extremely heavy downpours of rain in addition to the exceedingly loud thunderbooms and flashes of lightning.  Our power washer fellow had to stop working and will finish the job later. But Blackie apparently was so scared he took off for parts unkown, and when he didn't show up for his dinner around 3:30 in the afternoon, I began to get concerned, because he NEVER misses a meal! I called and called, and checked the places where I thought he might be hiding (he likes to go under the shed), but to no avail.  I continued calling for him long after dark, thinking he'd show up when it got dark and he could run back home under cover of darkness and not feel threatened by someone seeing him. That's what he'd done before when he got scared away because of some big dogs running loose in the neighborhood. But by the time we were ready for bed he still had not shown up. As you can imagine, I was rather worried. I know we are not supposed to worry...but alas! I am still human, and I do worry sometimes!  Hubby kept reassuring me that Blackie would be back in the morning in time for his breakfast, and so we said our prayers and prayed for our wandering kitty and went to sleep.  I did wake up a few times in the night and wondered if he was out there, but I decided not to worry and prayed again and went back to sleep.

Well, you can well imagine my relief and joy this morning at 5:30 a.m. when I went to the back door to let him in to feed him like we normally do (yes, he does normally stay out at night and that seems to work best for his routines and habits), and yes! There he was,  waiting at the back door to come in for breakfast just like nothing was any different than usual!

Of course I told him he gave me quite a fright and that I really didn't like that, but I was so happy to see him I couldn't stay too upset with him.  He just looked at me with those big yellow eyes like Mr. Innocent and he really didn't know what all the fuss was about. "After all", he seemed to be saying, "I AM a Cat! What did you expect???"   

So, I am relieved this morning that Blackie is back home again safe and sound and back to his old tricks. And yes, he is still an indoor/outdoor cat, which seems to work for him just fine. I just wish he'd tell me when he's not coming home for dinner! LOL.  I suppose he picked up a lizard or some other little creature to tide him over until breakfast.  After all, he IS a cat!!! He knows how to survive on his own...but I do think God watches over him as well.

Speaking of creatures...I discovered THIS creature(s) on our deck railing yesterday afternoon.

This strange looking critter is actually TWO different creatures "together"...(as in mating).  It is a "Southern Two-striped Walkingstick", also known as a "Anisomorpha buprestoides".

"This species, and another in the same genus (Anisomorpha ferruginea, whose range is more west and north, but may overlap with A. buprestoides) is particularly well known for its very potent chemical defense spray which it deploys from a pair of glands which open at the front of its thorax. The "Devil rider" name for this insect likely comes from this defense, as well as the fact that they are most frequently encountered in the late summer and fall when they are active adults at a time when almost all of them are found in mating pairs, with the smaller male riding on the back of the larger female." (Wikipedia)

Thankfully they did not spray it's "very potent chemical defense spray" on me when I took its picture! Shew! That was a close one! LOL.  I am happy about that!

Some other things I am happy about...fresh peaches on cereal!

(hubby's breakfast)

Or mixed with my peach yogurt....I did add some organic granola to this after I took the picture, It was SO good!!

And I promised a  picture from when the kids came over on Friday night to make home-made pizza! Here it is after it sat and cooled. I forgot to take a picture when it was fresh out of the oven or when we were making it. It was SO good!  This was all that was left of two pizzas.

And we are always happy when our two grandpuppies come to visit:

This is Spice

And this is Sugar.  They the sweetest things! (But don't let Blackie cross their path! Oh no! That would be disastrous!)

Something else I am happy about...My friend Katheryn Masterson has written another book (actually there are more than this) and I just received this one from Amazon. Again, Katheryn has written such a sweet story about one of our favorite little creatures, the Ladybug! I am collecting these little books to send to a special little friend for Christmas.  I don't have any little grand or great grandchildren in my life to read these books to, but the stories are so good I want to share them with those who do.  They are well worth the money because the stories are so engaging and entertaining as well as educational.  I'm so proud of my friend Katheryn for embarking on this adventure in her own life!

One more thing...Today would be my Daddy's 108th birthday! He's been celebrating in heaven since 2011, and there's hardly a day that I don't think about him or am reminded of him in some way every day. Here's a family portrait of my family. I'm the little redhead on the front right end,  holding onto (or he's holding onto me) my Daddy's hand.  This was on our farm in Pennsylvania, many moons ago.

And here's my Daddy when he was a little fella, probably close in age to what I was in the above picture (give or take a year). He's standing there with his big sister, my Aunt Marion. You can't tell it in the picture, but my daddy was also a redhead. That's where I got it from.

And here is a four generation picture...My Daddy, "Grandpa Choo-Choo", in his train room, showing off his trains to his Great Grandchild and my grandchild Noah. Our son Matthew is holdling Noah, and I am looking on. I wonder if Matthew and Grandpa are playing with trains in heaven?  

Anyway, I couldn't let the day go by without remembering what a special and wonderful man, Daddy, and Grandpa he was. I was truly blessed to have such a good father.  He helped me to understand just how good our Heavenly Father is, by setting such a good and godly example. I am very thankful for that blessing.

And so, now it is evening. Sunday morning came and went...we went to church, came home and had lunch and a nice visit with our son Scott. It has been a very happy day.

Good Night and God bless you all!