"Twas the Saturday Before Christmas..."

(Our front door-mat)

And all through the house not much was happening...except for taking two naps already today, which tells me that my body is saying enough already...slow down and rest or you won't make it until Christmas!  I've had such good intentions this Christmas and have really tried to get more things done, but I've reached my limit and I have to know when to say stop and take a break before you break. However, there's still gift-wrapping to do and baking and...the list goes on...but what is most important will get done, and the rest...well if it happens it happens, and if it doesn't it doesn't. 

I had good intentions of going Christmas caroling with a group from our church last evening. They were going around to sing at the homes of several of our church members who are homebound either by illness or "old-age", and I really wanted to be a part of that.  But as the day wore on I knew I wasn't going to make it for various reasons, mostly physical.  So I stayed home and prayed for them to have a good turn-out and a happy time for those who would be blessed by their singing. I've heard that it was really wonderful.

I don't know that our group looked quite like these folks, but this was how I imagined it in my mind...

I found these vintage carolers at a consignment market this past week for a very very cheap price and I couldn't resist them.  It's a little early Christmas gift to myself. LOL.  

One thing I did do was go to the Candlelight and Carols service at the little church out in the country on Thursday evening.

It's always a highlight of our Christmas season. Our church choir sings a couple of songs and so does another church choir, and it's a wonderful time...

We close by gathering around the Nativity scene outside with our little candles and sing Silent Night. And then the church provides a delightful time of food and fellowship afterwards.

Another reason I am trying to just rest and take it easy today is because tomorrow morning at church our choir will be presenting this Cantata:

It requires standing and singing (with a couple of quick sit downs and back up again between a couple of songs) for at least a half hour, and although I love to sing and enjoy doing this every year, it can be quite exhausting if you aren't feeling quite up to par. So I am praying that I will feel MUCH better tomorrow morning and that God will give me the strength to get through this without any difficulty. I'm concerned that I may be getting a bit of a relapse either of the walking pneumonia or something since I am so tired...so please say a little prayer for me to be able to do this tomorrow without harm to myself or anyone else around me.

Here's a few photos of Blackie for the Blackie fans out there...I know some of you have become real fans and are hoping he will someday be able to move into our house where he will reign and rule...LOL...

Here's one of his favorite places to hang out during the day and watch the world go by...

He feels safe up there in that tree when there are loose dogs running in the neighborhood, like there were today...

But when I came outside to get the mail he saw me and came right down to see me.  

Like all cats, he loves high places, and that's one reason I'm not sure he'd do well in our house as we have a lot of things up on high places above the cabinets and other shelves, etc., and I can just imagine things going crash all through the night.  Time will tell who wins out...

I know some of you who have been my friends for a long time may wonder why you don't see much of "Baby Elva" anymore...well she's still here, "alive and well", so to speak, and here she is all dressed up for Christmas:

For those who don't know about Baby Elva, HERE is a link to her story from the beginning.

If you look at her older pictures in the link, you will notice here that her hair is a bit different. That's because over the past 15 years! (I can't believe we've had her that long!!) that we've had her, her hair started to kind of "rub off" and get thin. So I finally decided it was time to give her a new hairstyle, and I found this wig online for her. It really changes her looks to more of a toddler look than a baby, but that's okay since she's 15 years old now! LOL.  Anyway, Baby Elva is a special part of our lives and I wanted you to see her all dressed up for Christmas!

Oh, here she's sitting with my little "Bear Bear", which was a special gift from my hubby when I was in the hospital one time.  He's now also a special part of our lives...

And of course we can't forget Lily Grace and her dog Bailey...she wanted to be in the Christmas picture too...so here you go...Merry Christmas from Bear Bear, Baby Elva and Lily Grace and Bailey to you!

While we're at it, we might as well add Lily's friends, as they are getting ready to have their "Happy Birthday to Jesus" Christmas tea party:

And here's the Martin Sisters, ready for their Christmas tea...

And Santa and "Pammy"  Doll...

"Pammy Doll" was a gift from my mother many years ago. 

She made the dress for her to resemble the dresses she made for my sister Doris and me when we were little girls...

Doris on the left with her Bride Doll "Florence", and me with a baby doll on the right.

Here is the note my mother wrote in the little card when she gave this to me...

Not sure if you can read it and it's starting to fade, but it's pretty special to me to have this sweet gift from my mother.

HERE is a link to a very special TEA PARTY that I had with all the dolls a few years ago.  I hope you enjoy it as I had fun doing that. Actually, this was before Lily Grace came to live with us, so she's the only one missing from the group.

But here is the greatest group and celebration of all...Here is the reason why we celebrate and sing and rejoice...Jesus! The Savior is Born!!!  None of the rest of this means anything without Him.

Luke 2:14 NKJV

14 “Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

I believe! Amen.

Last Saturday of 2023

 Hey! Did you know this was the last Saturday of 2023?  Yep, it sure is!  And the other night I took a picture of the last full moon of 2023:

Yesterday morning hubby wanted pancakes for breakfast. I haven't made pancakes at home in a long time. We usually get pancakes when we go out to breakfast at our church community breakfast once a month, so I really don't need to make them! But we missed the last breakfast a couple of weeks ago because hubby wasn't feeling well, and well, I guess he just had a hankering for them, so here they are:

I also added blueberries from my stash of frozen blueberries from our local blueberry farm from this past summer.  They were pretty doggone good, if I do say so myself!

I also had a cup of "Gingerbread Joy" Christmas tea one afternoon...'tis the season for something a little more interesting than my normal plain black Lipton tea.

Let's see, what else has been going on this week?  Well, today is our sweet daughter in love Rose's birthday! Since our plans for our extended family "Christmas/New Year's gathering" was moved from today to Monday, we still wanted to do something special with Rose.  We left it up to her to decide where she would like to go out to lunch.  At first the plan was we would go to a BBQ restaurant in a neighboring town.  But Rose and Benton both have had a very busy and tiring week at work and neither one was feeling really great this morning, so we opted to just have a simple lunch here at home and have a low-key birthday celebration.  She didn't really want a cake, so I baked an apple crisp, and after a lunch of homemade broccoli cheese soup and deli meat/cheese sandwiches with lettuce and tomato, we had some warm apple crisp with whipped cream for dessert.  Here's the pictures from her birthday "party".

I know it doesn't look like there's very much apple crisp in the bowl. Well, the apples really shrunk when they cooked down, (and the bowl was too big to begin with). But it was plenty for the four of us, and it really was good on this very chilly day.

Yes, Rose has one more year before the big 5-0!  We'll have to plan something much grander for next year.

Her really "exciting" gift was some new "Pioneer Woman" dishtowels and utensils in a nice metal container.  The best gift was in the card/envelope. This was just something to wrap up and open, but I know for myself that I am always needing some new fresh dishtowels in the kitchen. I often use them until they are practically rags.

I thought this one was especially cute: I love you like biscuits and gravy". Here in the south that's a real thing.

In between lunch and dessert some of us took a quick nap as we were pretty tired...and it was nap time, after all!

Someone wanted to sit in Grandma's lap...

I'm sitting here holding Sugar in my lap and looking at the new doggie beds on the floor that were Christmas gifts for the grandpuppies, and thinking so much for that idea! LOL.   (Yes, that's Benton watching football and trying to stay awake).

And looky here:  Rose was napping on the couch and Spice was snuggled up next to her...

She'd peek her head up to look at her sister Sugar with me just to make sure that she wasn't missing anything, and then lay back down where we couldn't see her.

Yeah, they are a little bit spoiled, but we do enjoy them.  And kind of  like grandchildren...we enjoy them and spoil them and then they get to go back home with their "parents".  LOL.

Okay, this morning we took our last walk in the woods for 2023 (most likely).   It was 40 degrees, but at least the wind wasn't blowing so much and the sun was shining, so it wasn't too bad at all. Rather refreshing actually. 

Time for a nature lesson:  I've been noticing lately on our walks these little mounds of dirt spaced out all along the road.  They are too small to be a gopher mound, so I had to look them up to see what could be making these unusual mounds of dirt.

If you look closely in this picture, you will see the little mounds of dirt spaced out:

So I used my "Google Lens" app on my cell phone to take a picture of them and then search for what they could be.  HERE is a link to the story behind these piles of dirt.  And another link: They are the Florida Deepdigger Scarab Beetles.  If you click on those links you will get more information and a picture of what they look like.  Very interesting little critters that do this digging only during the winter months here in North Florida.  I didn't see any beetles on this walk, but I have seen them in the warmer months.  

Here's another interesting picture...this is Goldenrod gone to seed. I thought it kind of looked like it was covered in frost because we did have a frost warning this morning, but no, it's just  the was goldenrod looks when it is finished being 'golden'.  

And also there are signs of new growth already on our pine trees in the woods:  These little seed pods are full of pollen too...and so before you know it we will have yellow pine pollen to deal with again...

When I was taking a walk around our own little woods along the shores of Still Waters Pond, I saw some pretty mushrooms:

This one was actually a very pretty shade of purple, but the sun was shining on it so you can't really see how pretty it was.

And then there were these lovely orange colored mushrooms:

And here is an interesting crop of fungi growing on this dead branch which had fallen from a tree.

Funny thing, that evening hubby was asking me if I had any mushrooms to put in a salad. I said no, but I knew where I could find some in the woods, but he declined. LOL.  No, I would never attempt to figure out what kind of mushrooms in the woods are safe to eat.   Maybe if we were starving I might study up on it, but for now I think I will pass on that delicacy that could be deadly!

Safely back inside the house there have been some sweet little moments...Lily Grace (a.k.a. The Adventures of Lily Grace) received some very nice gifts for Christmas from her "Auntie" in S.C., (who is actually kind of like her "fairy godmother" who loves to send her fun things).  This same dear friend also sent me some nice little Christmas gifts as well, and one was that book you see on the left, "The Blessing of Friendship", which is truly a very lovely book between friends. I love it so much.

And also this book, "The Best Loved Doll", which is a very nice story about a little girl who went to a party where the children were told to bring a doll, either a very old doll, or a doll who could do some special things, or a very beautifully dressed doll, and there would be prizes given for the best of each category.  This little girl had several very nice dolls who could easily have won the prize in any of those areas, but she chose to take her favorite sweet old doll that was obviously very well "loved", based on her condition of a rather worn dress and some little bandages on her cheeks, etc.  When the lady who was giving out the prizes saw this doll, she realized that there needed to be a prize for "the Best Loved Doll", and of course this little girl and her doll won that prize. Sorry to be a story spoiler, but well, I couldn't help it.  

As most of you are aware, I have several dolls and they are all special and unique in their own way...and they have been gifted to me by wonderful people throughout the years of my life.  I keep them not because of their rarity or antiquity or particular beauty, but because each one has a history of some kind or another because of where it came from or who it may represent.  I know if you've followed me a long time you most likely already know the story of this doll seen below, "Baby Elva".  Here she is all dressed up in her Christmas outfit...

If you don't know her history, HERE is a link to the history of this sweet doll. and how she was originally sent to me, and by whom. That story in itself is quite amazing.

But HERE is a link to the story of why she is named "Baby Elva", and why her story is so important.  I neglected to write anything this past week on December 27th,  which would have been the 128th birthday of my Grandmother, Elva Sowers Smith Hill Mursch.  I did some extensive genealogical research into my grandmother's history a few years ago, in 2020, during the pandemic, and in honor of what would have been her 125th birthday. Because my grandmother was adopted as an infant, it was quite an interesting and eye-opening search...so if you click on that link just above you can read about that if you wish.  It's quite a story, and I am thankful for Ancestry.com and DNA research for being able to discover the real story behind my Grandmother's birth and life.

Well, it/'s time to wrap this up for tonight.  Tomorrow will be New Year's Eve, the last day of 2023, and the last Sunday as well.  We will be going to church and then plan to come home and rest up before the big gathering of family here on Monday. Our son Scott plans to come home and spend the night with us and maybe bake some more cookies...we shall see if he really wants to do that or not. We still haven't eaten all the cookies he baked last time and I had to put some in the freezer so they will still be good for Monday. 

Some have asked me if I have chosen my "One Word" for 2024 yet.  I think I have narrowed it down, but I was surprised when I went back and checked my words over the past 12 or more years of doing this that I have already used a variation of both words I was thinking seriously about using this year.  Maybe I need to go back and do them over again, because obviously I must not have learned everything I needed to learn if I can't remember that I'd already used them! LOL.  So I am still praying about this and trying to "listen" to God's voice telling me which way to go.

Isaiah 30:21 says: 

Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,”

The Bible tells us to Ask, Seek, and Knock...and "to him who knocks, it will be opened."

Matthew 7:7-8 says:

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 

8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."

(based on Revelation 3:6-8)

And so, as we await the beginning of another new year, the "opening of doors that no man can shut"...I pray for God's direction in many things...not just the choosing of a new word for the year...as that may seem a bit trivial in light of all the things that are most important in life,  but I seek His direction in how He wants me to live my life in the new  year...what things are most important to Him that He wants me to do?  Are there new steps of faith that I may be asked to take? Will there be challenges to my mind, my body, my life that will require me to walk even closer with the Lord each day than I have been doing?  No one knows what the future may hold.  Every day is a new day, every week a new week...etc....and all I know right now is that I must be willing to accept God's will and follow Him wherever He may lead me. I do not fear the unknown, because I know Who is leading the way.  So every day will be a new adventure with God.  Nothing can be better than that.

Okay, my friends, it's definitely time to close this post on this last Saturday of 2023. If I don't get around to writing again tomorrow, I will see you next year!  Until then, be at peace and be blessed. Amen.

Friday Foto Friends...Just Wow!

Dear friends, Here it is Friday, and I really didn't have any photos to share with you until a few minutes ago, when my dear niece Sandy in North Carolina, sent this old family photo to me that she found at her parents' home.  I am overwhelmed with joy and happy tears, to say the least.  What a perfect picture for Mother's Day weekend...

This is my family on our farm in Pennsylvania, many many years ago, probably circa 1952.  

Left to right: My brother Clifford, My brother Russell, our dog Laddie, My Mother Dorothea, my sister Doris, My Father Bill Mursch, and then last, but not least, little me!!! "The Little Redhead", as I was known by everyone back then.

How I love this photo.  I'm not sure what I'm happiest about the most...one thing, that it is my whole family and it is in color! That's a blessing. It is especially special because now three of those family members are now in heaven, my brother Russell, my mother, and my father.   And also, that our dog Laddie was in the picture with us! I don't know if we have any other pictures of Laddie, and I loved him so much.  I remember taking walks with my mother down the lane every day to the mailbox, and Laddie would walk along beside us or lead the way...

and then when we sold the farm, Laddie was given to someone else because we were moving to Florida and didn't have any way to take him with us.  I know I cried and my mother cried too. She and I both loved Laddie.   And my mother really didn't want to leave the farm. She married a farmer and always wanted to be a farmer's wife!  But in the 1950's farming was difficult.  If you didn't have lots of money to go big, you had a hard time keeping up.

And so a decision was made to sell the farm and auction off all the equipment and Black Angus cattle and other animals, etc.  I don't know all the details. I was only 5 at the time and I really didn't understand what was going on.  All I knew was we were leaving the farm and all our beloved pets and things behind.  We had to store a lot of furniture at my Uncle Paul's farm in his barn because we couldn't take much with us.  We were moving to a very small 2 bedroom apartment in Florida, which was to be temporary until Daddy could get a new house built. We actually moved a couple more times into little houses before the new house was built, and once the house was built we went back up to PA. and brought down some of the furniture we'd left behind, but there really wasn't much.  The only thing I remember looking for was the little green wicker doll buggy that my sister Doris and I played with, and for some reason it wasn't there anymore.  No one seemed to know what happened to it.  That's probably why when I found this wicker doll buggy in my parents' attic many years later, after they died, I brought it home to live with me:

Of course I already had a special purpose beyond just nostalgia for wanting the doll carriage...those of you who've been around for awhile have already heard the story of "Baby Elva", but just in case you haven't, here's a link to her history

So anyway, I guess I don't need to keep going down memory lane so far today, but I just had to share that photo of my family with you.  Also it goes along with the fact that this is Mother's Day weekend, so it's a good time to remember our mothers and the sacrifices they made for us for the betterment of our future.  Moving to Florida was hard for my mother, because she left behind not only the farm and way of life that she loved, but we moved farther away from her aging parents and all of her extended family. But because in the long run it would be better for our family to make that move, she acquiesced to my father's plans and made the most of our new life in Florida.

In loving memory and to honor my mother...

HERE's a link to a story I wrote about "Flowers for Mama" several years ago, that kind of tells a little more about her, and here's another link:"A Kiss From Heaven".

Okay, back to whatever you were doing.  Thank you for taking this little walk down memory lane with me. I am sure we are all thinking of special memories of our mothers this weekend. I hope you will share some of yours.

Have a blessed and wonderful Mothers' Day weekend, no matter what.

 

Monday Evening Christmas Vignettes

 Good Monday Evening!  December Mondays are busy days for us...since we are helping out at Dixie Cottage most every other day (except Sunday and Monday), Monday is really the only day we have to get caught up on things at home or otherwise. Today my goal was to get the Christmas tree set up and decorated. I started the day out full of vim and vigor and eager to get going. Hubby helped me get the tree in place and put together, and then he had to leave for an appointment. No problem. I am used to putting on the lights by myself. I've done it for years. Once in a blue moon our son Scott has taken that job over, but he's not living here anymore, and so I am technically on my own.  Things were going fine with the first strand of lights, and the second...and then from then on all of the strands of lights that we had, which were working just fine last year, were no longer working. I couldn't believe it...I had to throw away about 4 or 5 strings of lights!  I know, there's supposed to be a way to change a bulb or fix a fuse or something, but I've never had much luck with that and since lights aren't really all that expensive, I decided it was time to get some new lights obviously!  So that job of decorating got put on hold until hubby came home and we could go to the closest Dollar General store to get some new lights. Which we did, but they had very few boxes of the correct lights left. I guess everyone needed new lights this year! Must have been defective lights last year (although honestly most of mine were probably several years old).  So I purchased what they had and hoped it would be enough.  Therefore I spent the afternoon putting on the lights and by then I was exhausted and ready for a nap! (I'm still not 100% running on all cylinders yet from my bug of the past two weeks I guess).  Finally, after supper I was able to start putting on a few ornaments, but had to take a break from that to wash dishes and now my back is tired and I'm sitting down so I can write to you and read some posts from many of you.  The tree can wait until tomorrow to get finished...after we get back home from Dixie Cottage, if I am feeling energetic enough...this might end up being an all week project! LOL.  So here's what it looks like now, with mostly just lights and a few ornaments:

It does have plenty of lights now...that's for certain!  Once it is all finished we will cover the bottom with a white sheet and then one evening this week our kids Benton and Rose are going to come over and we will do our new tradition of setting up the train set and village together. We will miss having Scott here to help out as he is the most agile one of the whole bunch to get down there on the floor and put things together, but we will manage somehow.

So I named this post "Monday Evening Christmas Vignettes".  

vi·gnette

/vinˈyet/

noun: vignette; plural noun: vignettes 

1.a brief evocative description, account, or episode. "a classic vignette of embassy life"

2.a small illustration or portrait photograph which fades into its background without a definite border.

3.a small ornamental design filling a space in a book or carving, typically based on foliage.

So these pictures will be "a small illustration or portrait photograph which fades into its background without a definite border", but also a "brief evocative description, account or episode" of our Christmas decorations in our home, which I have also been working on and are pretty much done except for finishing the tree and the train village, which I will definitely share once it is complete. Once you see all of this you will know why my back hurts and I'm so tired. LOL.   

I will start with the most important one, which you've already seen on last night's post:

Everything else is secondary to this.  We could just put out the Nativity Scene and be done with it, and it would definitely be Christmas.

But there are other little places here and there throughout our house that are getting ready for Christmas.  Everything is decorated with the purpose of getting ready for Christmas...the REAL Christmas, the Birth of our Savior and Lord.  Everything else is in preparation for that all important event.

We'll start with the little family in Pamela's Victorian Cottage:

They have decorated their tree and there are gifts wrapped and ready. Some of the children are dressed in their Christmas outfits, and even the more angelic members of the family are in place and ready for their part in the grand event of announcing Christ's birth!

The woodland creatures and the Carolers are all getting ready to sing Carols of Praise

As they "Let Heaven and Nature Sing"

The Martin Sisters are gathered around the piano and are tuning their voices to sing along as well...

There are a couple of Santas preparing to join in the happy song...

The angels are gathered around the Tea Cup tree, tuning their instruments as well...

Oh, we mustn't forget the snowmen and reindeer and folks at the Cabin preparing for the exciting events about to unfold...

And here's Lily Grace and her lovely friends Rebecca, Valerie, Margie, and Anne (of Green Gables!) all gathered to celebrate Jesus' Birthday! They've even baked a cake!

Mustn't leave out our dear Baby Elva...She all dressed and ready for the celebration, and enjoying looking at the pretty tree...

Oh, I see the word "Believe" on the tree...do you? Do you Believe? I believe...I believe that Christmas is all about Jesus...it's all about His love reaching out to us when we were lost and without hope...and God saw our sins and fears and anxieties and confusion in life, and He knew there was only one way to rescue us...

He sent Jesus, His only Begotten Son, to come to earth as a little child, Who would grow to be a man, pure and holy and sinless...and He would be the only spotless Lamb of God who could take away the sins of the earth...

John 1:29 

"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

Revelation 5:11-12

11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, 

the living creatures, and the elders; 

and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,

12 saying with a loud voice:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain

To receive power and riches and wisdom,

And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

And that's what Christmas is all about...Jesus left the splendor of heaven to come to earth to rescue me and you and all who will believe. He was the precious pure and spotless Lamb of God, who came to rescue me,  a smelly and dirty lost sheep...because He loved me.

Yes, that's what all the excitement is about! That's why we decorate and celebrate and give gifts and sing songs of praise and joy!

It's all about Jesus...it's all about the Lamb.

Amen.