What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?

What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?
Remember: "When God closes a door, He always opens a window!" You never know what might be out there waiting for you!
Showing posts with label "All Creatures of Our God and King". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "All Creatures of Our God and King". Show all posts

Monday, April 13, 2026

Monday Monday! Praise The Lord!

It's Monday morning, and a beautiful day so far!  I was just outside walking around and watering my plants, and I could hear the birds singing in the treetops so sweetly!  I love how they always lift up their voices in praise to their Creator every morning! It's truly a wonderful sound!! 

I don't have any new bird pictures to go along with this, but I will just post the pictures that I did take while I was outside...

All Creatures of Our God and King
(St. Francis of Assisi originated this song in 1225)

1. All creatures of our God and King,
Lift up your voice and with us sing
Alleluia, alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam,
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Our small bottlebrush bush finally blooming after about 4 years of watching it grow!


The Zucchini and Yellow Squash plants are growing, but I think they need some fertilizer. I thought the potting soil we bought had some in it, but apparently not much.  But still, they are growing. I have to water them every day.



The "Beefsteak" tomato plants are growing also...

2. Thou rushing winds that art so strong,
Ye clouds that sail in Heav'n along,
O praise him, alleluia!
Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice,
Ye lights of evening, find a voice.
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

It's a sunny, breezy beautiful day! God Bless America!!



3. And all ye saints of tender heart,
Forgiving others, take your part,
O sing ye, alleluia!
Ye who long pain and sorrow bear,
Praise God and on him cast your care:
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Blackie and I enjoyed some "Secret Memorial Garden" Bench time together. It was so pleasant this morning.

This picture was taken earlier this morning...Even though I put my purse on that chair to keep him from getting on it, he got up there anyway.  He definitely has a mind of his own, but I keep trying to teach him. Not long after this picture was taken he woke up and was sweetly "removed" to another location.



4. Let all things their creator bless,
And worship him in humbleness,
O praise him, alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
And praise the Spirit, Three in One:
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

This rose was blooming in the garden, but it needed to come inside where we could enjoy it. It will last much longer in here, and I love to "stop and smell the roses" every time I pass by.


Another thing to praise God about: The Blueberry Farm is open and they have beautiful lucious blueberries!  This was our first batch. I will go back and get more to freeze, but I wanted to enjoy these while they are fresh picked right from the farm...


And so we had homemade Blueberry Muffins this morning:




Along with some scrambled eggs and cantaloupe:

I went outside and checked on my blueberry bush that I've had for a few years, and it is really loaded with berries too! I really wonder about this drought we are in...and the cold winter we had...some things are actually growing better. Of course, I do water them almost every day...

This is the whole bush. It is loaded with berries that are still ripening! What fun!

Now I have another story to tell you that is really strange... The other day our AC started not cooling properly...Yes, we've had days warm enough to need the AC already. This is Florida.  We've often needed AC on Christmas day!  Anyway, it was actually Easter Sunday, after everyone had left after a lovely afternoon, and I noticed that our thermostat was registering a temperature that was several degrees higher than it should be.  So I sent a text message to our AC repairman asking him to call us in the morning, which he did.  He came over Monday morning to check it out, and couldn't quite figure out what was going on with it, and said he would have to come back later in the week when he had more time to take it apart and look it over really well. Thankfully it is still under warranty, but he did remind us that we would have to pay the labor charges.  We understood that, but we were concerned about  him having to "take it apart" and needing more time to figure it out...but he assured us he would be fair. He's a good man and is always fair, so we weren't too worried.

So you may wonder what this towel is.  Well, on the day that he came back and took apart the the unit, he found this towel in the bottom of the outside air handler...


Yes, down inside this unit:

That was pretty astounding.  He said that somehow it had been sucked through the ductwork into the outside unit! What????? How could that happen?  He said he's seen some pretty strange things before in AC units, but this was pretty unusual.  After I thought about it, I remembered a day when I was changing the filter on the AC unit inside, and I had a little "accident".  This shelf unit below sits beside the cold air return/filter...

Do you see what is on those shelves? Yes, Towels. Those are mostly old towels that our son uses when he comes home and is dirty from mowing or working on his car, or we use them for dirty clean up jobs, etc.   Do you also see that gallon of bleach on top of the shelf? Well, here's the story that I figured out must've happened  to somehow get that towel inside the ductwork:

One day I was going to change the AC Filter. In order to do that I have to pull that shelf unit out away from it so I can open up the grill in front of the filter.  On that particular day I was in a hurry I guess, and I neglected to remove the gallon of bleach from the top of the shelf (along with the other items up there) before I tried to move the shelf.  When I did that, the shelf shifted in my hands and the gallon of bleach fell to the ground and burst open, splashing bleach all over me and everything around it. Thankfully this is the laundry room and there was nothing of any great value that could be harmed, but it just made a huge mess as you can imagine. I was grabbing those towels and mopping up the bleach (you should see the outfit I was wearing...talk about a tie-dye look with unusual bleach splash patterns all over me. Thankfully I was wearing my old house clothes...nothing good!)  Anyway, apparently I had already opened the grill over the filter and big cold air return duct before this happened...I don't totally remember all the details because it was such a big mess! But apparently one of those dry towels fell into the open duct, and it was eventually sucked all the way through to the AC unit outside.  This happened over a year ago, and so it took that long to travel!  There are some small bleach stains on the towel, so that was my clue as to what must've happened!

Anyway...thankfully it didn't do any permanent  harm to the AC unit, and once it was removed everything started working properly again. And thankfully all we owed was a service call amount, which wasn't too bad all things considered! Whew!!! Praise God it didn't do damage to the unit, because that most likely would NOT have been covered by the warranty!!  

UPDATE:  Someone reminded me that I may have blogged about the bleach spill before, so I looked it up and sure enough, HERE IT IS!  Thank you, Martha Jane Orlando of Meditations of My Heart, for having a good memory!!

So now we are nice and cool as a cucumber and thanking God for His mercy! And I will be more patient when changing the filter from now on for sure!!!!!


Psalm 150 NKJV

Let All Things Praise the Lord

1 Praise the Lord!

Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament!

2 Praise Him for His mighty acts;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!

3 Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
Praise Him with the lute and harp!
4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
5 Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with clashing cymbals!

6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord!







Monday, November 24, 2025

All Creatures of Our God and King...


I don't know how to begin this post, but somehow I need to put this into words...


Our sweet sweet Sunshine went over the "Rainbow Bridge" last night.

I like to think that just as he loved to lay down in the shed in front of the cross and the Nativity scene that we stored there for Christmas, maybe he's laying down at the feet of Jesus now. I don't know where our beloved pets go when they die, but somehow I think there's a special place for them in heaven.

This was Sunshine and Blackie, watching the sunset just a few evenings ago.  
This was last week. Little did I know these would be the last photos I would be taking of sweet Sunshine.
A few weeks ago he seemed to be losing his appetite for the dry food we fed him and Blackie all the time. So we started them on some canned food to see how they would like it, and I think I already told you they loved it.  But as the days went by, Sunshine lost interest in that food as well.
I thought he looked a bit sad in this picture, but I didn't realize he was telling me good bye.


The last couple of weeks he stayed mostly on this straw doormat outside our glass doors. He rarely left it except to go potty or eat, but then he just lost interest in eating altogether, and on this past Saturday and Sunday he didn't eat a bite of food, and barely drank water.  Of course it was the weekend, so there wasn't much I could do. 

All day yesterday he barely moved, but when he did move, he took himself to the woods where he always loved to lay under the cool trees near the pond.
I knew in my heart that he was going there to die, and although my heart was breaking, I knew he was where he wanted to be.

Tearfully, I sang this song to him...

"You are my Sunshine, my only Sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray, you'll never know dear, how much I love you, please don't take my Sunshine away..."

Remember when I took these pictures of him with this ceramic cat we have that looks just like him? He was so funny about looking at that cat...

Anyway, as the sun was going down in the west, I knew that Sunshine was breathing his last breaths. 


I didn't know what else to do, so I just wandered around, praying for him, and taking pictures of the beauty of the evening...
The Sand Hill Cranes were out there on Still Waters Pond, settling down for the night:

And this morning when I woke up and the sun came up, I went and checked to see if Sunshine was still in the same place, and yes, he was. He had not moved an inch, so  I knew he was gone.  


I couldn't reach him because of all the underbrush. So we called our son Benton to come over and help us get him out of the woods and bury him, which he did so very kindly.

Blackie knew something was up...he was comforting me and himself by clinging to my legs...



Benton took care of the burial, and I found something appropriate to put on his grave...


I am sorry to start this Thanksgiving week off with this sad news. But I am thankful for the almost a year that we were blessed to have Sunshine and Blackie here with us. Thankfully we still have Blackie, but Sunshine is going to be missed by all of us.  

I will close with this hymn of praise to our God and King...



1. All creatures of our God and King,
Lift up your voice and with us sing
Alleluia, alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam,
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.


2. Thou rushing winds that art so strong,
Ye clouds that sail in Heav'n along,
O praise him, alleluia!
Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice,
Ye lights of evening, find a voice.
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.


3. And all ye saints of tender heart,
Forgiving others, take your part,
O sing ye, alleluia!
Ye who long pain and sorrow bear,
Praise God and on him cast your care:
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.


4. Let all things their creator bless,
And worship him in humbleness,
O praise him, alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
And praise the Spirit, Three in One:
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Amen.

Thursday, August 8, 2024

Thursday Thankfulness and Friday Foto Friends and a little whimsey


Remember when I first told you about this Purslane/Portulaca plant HERE and HERE and HERE?

Well, I also found this Pink Purslane growing in various places throughout our yard, and so I pulled a few little plants up by the roots and stuck them in the same pot with the other plant, and they are growing very happily together!


The original yellow Purslane is doing fine still even after the disaster of the Sand Hill Cranes rooting it out of the pot.   And so I enjoy seeing these happy little flowers blooming in the pot on our front porch, away from the prying and prodding beaks of the Cranes.  I just have to get out there while the early morning sunshine is making them bloom because they will hide their faces once the sun gets too hot and bright until the next morning.  Again I want to thank Sandra at Madsnapper for encouraging me to pursue the Purslane!  

Speaking of the Sand Hill Crane family...they still love moving about the sand "dunes" on the property next door. I caught this picture of our young Abe wandering over the dunes this morning. His family was nearby.  

And speaking of the property next door...that is as much progress that has been made since the last time I talked about the new house next door.  Unfortunately, Hurricane Debby interrupted the progress being made until things are safe and dry again to get back to work, which ought to be very soon.


Speaking of Hurricane Debby, yes, someone asked if we were okay and safe from the effects of the storm, and yes, we are very fine and very thankful that all Debby left in her wake for us was a lot of fresh new water in Still Waters Pond and a few branches blown down from some trees, but nothing serious. We are VERY thankful indeed.  

Oh, and all that rain from Debby did cause a few more "toadstools" to pop up in various places both here in our yard and next door in that yard.  If you remember my post last week  where I mentioned about the toadstools all lined up so the toads could play "leapfrog" on them...and I also mentioned that one of my Facebook friends, Connie,  who also used to blog HERE at Nonnie's Random Thoughts, had said that she used to think that fairies lived under the toadstools when she was a child, and I had replied to her, "You mean they don't???  Well, guess what?  When I took a little walkabout in the woodsy areas around our house and the next door lot, you'll never guess what I found there:


Oh my goodness! There were little fairies everywhere!


They were sitting under every toadstool (mushroom) in the woods!


Little ones...


And even some very big ones large enough for a picnic on top!

Or maybe taking a little nap underneath...

They certainly were having a lovely time out there in "Fairyland"...

I sent our friend Connie some of those photos so she would know that she was right about the fairies living under the toadstools when she was a child, and this is what she sent back to me:

Isn't she lovely?  I absolutely love everything about this photo.

And lest you think that I am the only one that's a little bit bonkers about the fairies....wait until you see what my other friend Debbi over at Debbi's Front Porch posted today HERE, totally unbeknownst to me, nor did she know what I was doing either!  Debbi just came through Hurricane Debbie as well at her home in the Carolina's, and she discovered all those toadstools and fairies in her yard as well! 
LOL.  

I know you you think I've totally lost it by now!  Not really...just having some fun in my second childhood! LOL. After being cooped up for a few days with all the rain and storming going on, something had to break loose! LOL.  

Sing along with me: All Creatures of Our God and King


1 All creatures of our God and King,
lift up your voice and with us sing,
"Alleluia! Alleluia!"


Thou burning sun with golden beam,
thou silver moon with softer gleam,


O praise Him, O praise Him!
alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!




2 Thou rushing wind that art so strong,
ye clouds that sail in heav'n along,
O praise Him! Alleluia!


Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice,
ye lights of ev'ning, find a voice,
O praise Him, O praise Him!
alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

3 And all ye men of tender heart,
forgiving others, take your part,
O sing ye! Alleluia!
Ye who long pain and sorrow bear,
praise God and on Him cast your care;
O praise Him, O praise Him!
alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

4 Let all things their Creator bless,
and worship Him in humbleness;
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
and praise the Spirit, Three in One;
O praise Him, O praise Him!
alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!


Well, that concludes this post for today.  I hope you enjoyed the little bit of whimsey and our journey into fairyland, but also the journey into singing praises to our God and King for ALL the wonderful things HE has done for us.  We survived a storm this week, and we survived many other assaults on our world and in the realms around us that we cannot see with our human eyes.  God is with us every day, guarding us and keeping us safe.  We have so much to praise Him for!  Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!


The kids are coming over tonight for spaghetti and more of that card game "Deer in the Headlights". We share the preparation of the food and enjoy having a good time together, so I need to get cracking because they will be here in a few minutes and I've not done a thing to get ready!  Thank goodness it's family! LOL.