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 America The Beautiful. Show all posts
Showing posts with label America The Beautiful. Show all posts

Monday, November 10, 2025

Monday Monday~Veteran's Day Eve

 This was the sunset over Still Waters (still dry) Pond a few minutes ago!  This picture doesn't do it justice because I took it through the window instead of being outside.

It was too cold and windy to go out, so I had to make a choice to just do the best I could this way. It was really gorgeous!
Here's another reason I didn't want to go outside...Blackie was sitting right outside the window (from my Room with a View), and I didn't want to disturb him and make him move, which he would if I came out.   He was enjoying watching me work here at my desk  through the window, and I kind of loved having him there too.
Tomorrow morning is supposed to be down to at least 32 degrees, with a lower windchill.  I've been fretting over what to do about our porch kitties all weekend long.  Even though I know they have somehow survived cold winters before they became my porch kitties, I feel responsible for them now and I want to do whatever I can to make sure they have a warm place to go.  So early this morning I went out on the porch and turned it into what I hope will be a warm space for them:
These warm beds are under those chairs, which are covered with warm blankets...

They also have these wooden beds that my son made for them, and I turned them towards the wall, leaving space for them to go in and out, 
and put some warm blankets inside:
Blackie was definitely interested and curious about the whole setup...
And Sunshine was typically Sunshine...he doesn't get overly excited about new things and mostly spent the day laying in the "sunshine" and storing up warmth in his body I guess. LOL.  However, I did notice later that he was laying under the chairs and taking advantage of that warm spot out of the wind.
I've done the best I could with what I had to work with, and hopefully the kitties will take advantage of the places to keep warm tonight.  However they may opt to go crawl in a hole in the woods or under a house somewhere in the neighborhood for the night. As long as they are safe and warm, that's all I care about.  They are very independently minded and much like the proverbial horse..."You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink"....so we shall see where they end up for the night. At least my mind is at peace knowing I did what I could.

Other "excitement" in the neighborhood today...around noon we looked out the front window and saw this truck and trailer pull up in front of the house across the street.  It was loaded with aluminum roofing and framework, apparently for a carport. We thought they sure picked a cold, windy day to do this and it would probably take them all the rest of the day.  We finished our lunch and took a nap.  I was not feeling well after being out in the cold wind all morning...had a scratchy throat and was feeling kind of achey all over, and was concerned I might be catching a cold, so I decided not to go to the Ladies' Bible Study this afternoon as I didn't want to spread any germs.

About an hour or so later we woke up from our nap and looked out the window, and the carport was completely built, the truck and trailer gone, and we were amazed that it could be finished so quickly! Wow!
Also, note that there is a metal wheelchair ramp there next to the house. This was installed recently as well.  I don't know the man who lives there as he just moved in not very long ago, but he is elderly and I guess he felt it was time for a ramp.  That was also put together and installed rather quickly in one afternoon! It's amazing what can be done when you know what you're doing!  And actually our new next door neighbors in the new house next to us also just had a ramp installed the other day! The older man in the family is in his 80's, and the son, who may be in his early 50's, has some physical concerns, so I guess they felt it was time to have a ramp installed as well. We think about it here at our house because of course these manufactured homes are all up off the ground and we have to climb 5 or 6+ steps to get in our house.  I'd prefer a wooden ramp to match the deck, but I think they are more expensive, so we will just wait until we really need it. and probably have to get an aluminum one too.
Our neighborhood is starting to look like a  lot of "old folks" live here...oh! I guess we are! LOL.  


Now here's some young folks!  Our son Benton and our sweet daughter in love, Rose.  They came over for lunch after church yesterday, and we celebrated their 8th wedding anniversary, which is actually tomorrow, on Veteran's Day.   God was certainly smiling on the day He brought these two together...He knew what a blessing they would be for each other, and also what a blessing they would be together for us! We thank the Lord for them every day!!

Speaking of celebrations...Tomorrow is Veteran's  Day, and yesterday in church our Veterans were honored in a very special way.    
I took this picture before church, to show the stack of lovely quilts that were waiting to be bestowed upon our Veterans:

The flags are in front, signifying each branch of the service:

At the beginning of our church service, these ladies came up and to make this amazing presentation to our Veterans. These ladies are a few of the members of our Quilting Group that meets each week, primarily to make lap quilts for the Ronald McDonald house and also for Hospice patients.  But this past year they added a very impressive project to their group, making a full sized quilt for each veteran in our church:

One by one each veteran came forward and wa presented with his quilt:



Each quilt was uniquely designed for the branch of service. No two quilts were exactly alike.







This sweet man is 95 years old!







Some had to be delivered at home due to illness, and I don't have pictures yet of all of them,  but here's one special friend:

Here's a few pictures of the ladies who made the quilts...No, I am not a member of this group, but I truly admire them and appreciate all the hard work they do to bless so many. They make on the average well over 100-200 lap quilts a year for the children at the Ronald McDonald House and also those in different Hospice houses.





Here's pictures of the different quilts they made:



This quilt has many hands!  Signifying the many hands that went into creating each of these beautiful quilts!


Oh, this one has hands and feet!!  LOL and an arm!


Hey! That quilt has feet! (and fingers too!)


Aren't they all so amazing? I am so thankful for the hands and feet of  these ladies and the sacrifices each made to get all of these quilts done on time! That had to be no easy feat!
And I know the men who received them were all extremely humbled and blessed and thankful!
And we are thankful for them, the Veterans who sacrificed so much in their lives to keep our country safe and to help keep our freedoms alive and well.
May God bless all of our service men and women,  both active and retired, and may we never take our freedoms for granted.

At the close of our service we sang "America, The Beautiful".

It was a fitting end to a beautiful service,
and a fitting end for this post as well!

America the Beautiful

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

Amen!

To all our Veterans out there, Thank you! May God bless you each and every one!

  • O beautiful for spacious skies,
    For amber waves of grain,
    For purple mountain majesties
    Above the fruited plain!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    And crown thy good with brotherhood
    From sea to shining sea!

    O beautiful for pilgrim feet
    Whose stern, impassioned stress
    A thoroughfare for freedom beat
    Across the wilderness!
    America! America!
    God mend thine every flaw,
    Confirm thy soul in self-control,
    Thy liberty in law!

  • beautiful for heroes proved
    In liberating strife,
    Who more than self their country loved
    And mercy more than life!
    America! America!
    May God thy gold refine
    Till all success be nobleness
    And every gain divine!

    O beautiful for patriot dream
    That sees beyond the years
    Thine alabaster cities gleam
    Undimmed by human tears!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    And crown thy good with brotherhood
    From sea to shining sea!


  • O beautiful for spacious skies,
    For amber waves of grain,
    For purple mountain majesties
    Above the fruited plain!
    America! America!
    God shed his grace on thee
    And crown thy good with brotherhood
    From sea to shining sea!

    O beautiful for pilgrim feet
    Whose stern, impassioned stress
    A thoroughfare for freedom beat
    Across the wilderness!
    America! America!
    God mend thine every flaw,
    Confirm thy soul in self-control,
    Thy liberty in law!

  • O beautiful for heroes proved
    In liberating strife,
    Who more than self their country loved
    And mercy more than life!
    America! America!
    May God thy gold refine
    Till all success be nobleness
    And every gain divine!

    O beautiful for patriot dream
    That sees beyond the years


Saturday, July 5, 2025

Saturday ~ Holiday Revue

Happy Saturday of the long Independence Day Holiday weekend!  I wonder how many of you are still celebrating the 4th of July holiday with family and friends...or are you just relaxing and recovering from a busy day yesterday?  That's kind of what we are doing...unwinding and catching up on our "naps", since we didn't get any yesterday! LOL.

I'm still enjoying smelling those beautiful roses and admiring the zinnias...and look at those luscious little tomatoes my sweet dil Rose brought us yesterday from their very own garden!
There is nothing better than home grown tomatoes, no matter what size they are!  These were so sweet and good, I've kept them on the countertop where I can just grab one and eat it whenever I want!

I did have some yesterday with my salad, along with our bbq chicken, potato salad, deviled eggs, baked beans and rolls...it was all very delicious.  My thanks to our son Scott for grilling the chicken for us again. He's the expert!


As I had mentioned in my previous post HERE, I wasn't  sure what I was going to make for dessert the night before...but I finally decided upon one of our old family favorites, actually, it is my sister Doris' recipe, and she has often made it to bring to family dinners, but since they couldn't come to this one, I made it instead...this is an "Oatmeal Cake". (or what's left of it! LOL)

Here's the recipe in case you are interested. However, please change that 11 x 13" pan to a 9 x 13" pan. Not sure where that other came from and I'm not even sure a pan that size exists! LOL.
It is a very moist and delicious cake, and can be eaten alone or with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream if you so desire. (or a cup of tea or coffee!)   Just don't bring it to a gathering where my sister Doris will be, or we might have two cakes! LOL.

As promised, Benton and Rose brought a watermelon, so here he is cutting it up...it was so nice and red and ripe and juicy, but no seeds for a seed spitting contest this time! LOL.


Here we are enjoying our watermelon...while hubby was taking our picture...

And here he is...can you tell he seems to be feeling better?  He mostly is, but still seems to stay very tired. Hopefully some tests this next week will help us zero in on what is going on.
He definitely appreciates everyone's prayers, and so do I. Thank you!

I wasn't going to share both of these pictures, but I couldn't decide which one to use so I just went ahead and included both.  I hope you don't mind.

Now, this is a funny picture of Blackie. Why? Well, because we had gone to a lot of trouble to hang up that sheet over the bottom half of our glass doors so  that when the grandpuppies come over they wouldn't be able to see the kitties out on the back porch. They get so excited and just keep barking at the cats, and it becomes a real "issue".  Just before the family got here, we looked out and saw Blackie there staring back at us with those big green eyes as if to say, "Ha Ha, I fooled you! You can't keep me from looking in! I like to see the doggies too! LOL".   Well, we knew that would not work, so we had to do some more work on our curtain before the doggies got here.

It worked just fine, but sadly Sugar (below) and Spice (not pictured), were terribly disappointed to not be able to see the kitties and do their usual greeting of bark, bark, bark, squeal, squeal, jump, jump, etc. (if you have doggies, you know what I mean!)  So Sugar and Spice mostly just laid around acting very bored to be at Grandma and Grandpa's house, like a kid who says "I'm bored, I have nothing to play with", while surrounded by a room full of toys:    

Isn't she just pitiful? LOL.   We love our grandpuppies. They are so sweet.  But we also love peace and quiet while trying to visit with the family, so some sacrifices had to be made.  I'm sure they'll forgive us.

Oh, back to the 4th of July, I noticed that a lot of you were doing a "Saturday 9-Lady Liberty" theme for your posts yesterday or today.  I don't usually participate in that particular weekly format, but I wanted to add a special picture of "Lady Liberty" and "Uncle Sam" in honor of the occasion! This picture was taken yesterday (not taken by me, but it was on Facebook) during the annual Independence Day Parade in our historical downtown, and these are some very dear people to us.  "Lady Liberty" and her husband "Uncle Sam" are members of our church, and the lady, Kim, is especially special. She has been battling cancer for the past two years, and I want to tell you she is such a strong person and a real fighter! God has definitely been with her, and she is such a testimony to all of us of faith and perseverence in the face of a strong foe. I continue to pray for her every day, that God will help her to win this battle, and that one day soon she will definitely be "Lady Liberty", FREE from all cancer! 



This was our flag yesterday morning at sunrise. It was a bit foggy, but I couldn't help but think of and sing our Star Spangled Banner as I put out the flag.


O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, 
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, 
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? 
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; 
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? 


I know the reason we have fireworks on the 4th of July is to remember the "rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air..." and we  usually go see some fireworks in our little town. But to be honest, last night we were both just so worn out that we didn't feel like leaving the house. We could hear the "bombs bursting in air" from here, and if we had gotten up to look out the windows, I know we could've seen the "rocket's red glare" all around us, as many people in the area love to do their own fireworks show. But us old folks just decided to stay home and relax and get to bed early.  I've seen lots of pictures online from everywhere, so that satisfied me.  And we said our prayers of thanksgiving for our freedom, and for the privilege of living in this great country, where even with all of her flaws, this is still the greatest country in the world, and we are extremely grateful to God to be able to call this place our home. We pray that God will continue to "shed His grace on thee".

Here's another favorite anthem, not our "national anthem", but one that we sing with fervor and as a prayer of praise and thanksgiving.  
"America the Beautiful"
"O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!"

Amen.

I hope you and yours have had a safe and happy holiday. Let us remember to pray for those families in Texas who have been devastated by the horrific flash floods that swept away homes and precious children. My heart is breaking for the families of those dear little girls at that camp. May God give them comfort as only He can. Makes you want to hold your own loved ones a little closer and whisper words of thanksgiving to God for their safety, doesn't it?   Yes, may God be very near and dear to those families right now. Amen.