Wednesday Treasures

 It's about time I moved away from anniversary stories and posts to something new! However, we did have a wonderful anniversary, and I am so thankful that we lived to see another year together. I don't believe in waiting for the big ones, like 50 and 60, to celebrate. No one is promised tomorrow, so let's be sure to celebrate each day and give God thanks for His many blessings and mercies. Amen?

As I am continuing in the "Happiness Challenge" for the month of August, here's some things I am happy about...

Waking up to a brand new day, with the sun shining brightly as I put out the flag this morning...

Especially after the way the skies looked last night...our son Benton took this picture as he was leaving work around 6:00 p.m. not far from here...

Also, his wife Rose was driving home from her job at Home Depot 15 miles away in that storm. She literally had to pull off the road for a few minutes because she couldn't see to drive! 

And yes, those clouds brought in a humdinger of a thunderstorm at our house that lasted well over an hour, bringing us almost 2 inches of rain! Praise God!  

However, I was not too happy about the very frequent and powerful lightning and thunder that was relentless all during that time.  This picture was taken out our front door during the storm...I was trying to get a picture of the lightning flashes...

And although you can't see the actual flash of lightning, look at the difference in the color of the skies between the picture above and this one below, which was taken during an actual flash of lightning:

Yes, it lit up the skies like it was daylight! There was one flash so bright and so close I thought for sure it hit our house, but thankfully there is no sign of damage today.

Oh, but HERE'S something I was very happy about during the rainstorm...if you look out there beyond the tree, you can see an actual PUDDLE ON TOP of STILL WATERS POND!  Yes! The water actually puddled on top of the pond for while, which is a sign that the pond "bottom" is starting to get saturated with water, and if we had a few more days of rain like what we had last night, we just might begin to have our pond fill up again...(it's going to take more than a few days, but you get the idea...progress is being made finally!!)

However, here is how it looks this morning...there's no puddle...it's all soaked in, but if you look really closely there are some Doves out there on the pond having some breakfast of many some worms or other kinds of creatures that came to the surface during that storm!  And I bet there's more water back there where all that green vegetation is...so I'm very hopeful that little by little our pond is coming back.

As I walked around the back yard this morning, I noticed that my zinnias that I planted are getting taller and hopefully will bloom soon. These are new ones that I planted after the other garden bed of zinnias all died from the intense heat and dryness and a fungus of some kind. Hopefully these will do better.

And finally my Rose of Sharon bush has decided to bloom! I've been waiting all summer for it to bloom! It just needed more rain to help it.

And there's even more buds for more flowers! Hooray! It's little things like that that make me happy!!

And speaking of "little things" that make me happy...Having a lap full of my kitty makes me smile, even though he inhibits my progress on working on the computer...he doesn't like me to move my arms above his head and will often grab them and sometimes bite them, not too hard, but enough to let me know he doesn't like that. So that's when  I tell him that I don't like that and down he goes!  

I saw where the other day was National Black Cat day, and people were all showing their pictures of their black cats on Facebook. I may have shared a picture or two in one of the posts. I had no idea black cats were so popular!  Here's Blackie, enjoying playing footsie with me:

He loves my shoes and spends a lot of time grabbing them and biting them, thankfully not enough to reach my toes...He is a character and he definitely keeps us hopping. 

And here's one last Happy thing...I just got this copy of "The Little Squirrel"  on Amazon, written by my friend Katheryn Masterson.  I may have mentioned that I am saving them to send to a little friend for Christmas.  These books are so very well written and such delightful stories. I am so proud of Katheryn for embarking on this journey in her life.  She is the granddaughter of my friends Maura and Woody who passed away recently.  I know they would both be so proud of Katheryn's endeavors as an author.

Well, folks, I need to run along. To be honest, I haven't felt well the past few days...let's just say that all that good food I was eating to celebrate our anniversary finally caught up with me and my tendency to have IBS...and so this week my body is trying to recalibrate and recuperate before we go on Saturday to meet our extended family at a restaurant to celebrate all the August birthdays and anniversaries together...and then hopefully we will be done "celebrating" for a little while so I can get back to "normal", whatever that is...LOL.  But it's all good, and I am extremely thankful to have something to celebrate!

1. Great is thy faithfulness, O God, my Father;

There is no shadow of turning with thee.

Thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not;

As thou hast been, thou forever wilt be.

Refrain:

Great is thy faithfulness,

Great is thy faithfulness,

Morning by morning new mercies I see.

All I have needed thy hand hast provided;

Great is thy faithfulness,

Lord unto me.

2. Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. [Refrain]

3. Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine and ten thousand beside. [Refrain]

(Based on Lamentations 3:22-23)

Lamentations 3:22–23 (KJV): "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."

Amen...and have a blessed and beautiful day.