Tuesday 4 "Time To Pamper You" and Wednesday Treasures

 I am running a day behind since yesterday I had an eye appointment and had my eyes dilated all day, so couldn't spend much time on the computer.  It was an interesting appointment at a new eye doctor (to me).  He said I do have some cataracts forming, but not bad enough yet for surgery...probably next year he says.  However I am getting some new glasses as the old ones are obsolete for my current vision.  He also had a new piece of equipment that they were just figuring out and I was the first patient to get to see the inside of my eyeballs from pictures taken with this amazing new kind of "camera".  They said I could take a picture of the picture, so here you go:

Left eyeball

Right eyeball!

You can say you saw all the way inside my eyeballs right here! Pretty amazing stuff, huh? He said except for the small cataracts and a very small non-consequential amount of macular degeneration, my eyes are very healthy and normal for my age. He said not to worry about the macular degeneration. It's within the normal range, but they will "keep an eye on it" in the future. Praise God! I am very thankful, indeed.  Tomorrow we will make a trip to St. Augustine to an eye surgeon for my husband to have his cataracts checked to see if they are ready for surgery yet. Most likely he will need to have them removed soon, but we will find out for sure tomorrow.  

So, that's the medical news for now.  Now to the Tuesday 4 meme for this week:

Time To Pamper You...

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.

Let's talk about you personally.

1. Do you pamper yourself at all? If yes, how do you do that?

I'm really not too sure that I do too much pampering of myself. Aside from getting my haircut about every 6 weeks, I pretty much do everything else for myself that needs to be done. I have never had a professional manicure or pedicure, although I know I need the latter and have been thinking about having that done. It is getting increasingly difficult for me to cut my own toenails and they are in dire need of some attention. Our doctor's office will cut them for me if I ask them to, but I think I'd rather treat myself to a pedicure one of these days. 

2.What kinds of foods/dishes do you consider to be a real treat? Do you often pamper yourself by having them?

Now, a special way to pamper myself would be to have a little tea party. Although I'd prefer to have it with a friend, that isn't always as easy to do as one would think, so once in a while I will make myself a special little pot of tea and have a tea party and maybe a cookie or piece of pie or cake or whatever special treat is available.  Maybe I should do that right now...I have this piece of lemon-blueberry cake waiting to be eaten:

There's a story there.  Monday was our Ladies' Bible Study, and it was also one of our ladies' birthday. She is our church secretary/administrative assistant and does so much for our church in addition to her actual duties.  We don't always have desserts at our Bible Study, but once in a while someone will bring in something special, especially if we know it's someone's birthday. So, I had those fresh blueberries and thought that would be a good opportunity to use some. 

My sweet DIL Rose has made this recipe before and it is so good, so I thought I would try it. However, she usually makes it in a 9x13" pan. I thought I would try it in my Bundt pan. You use a lemon cake mix, and mix it up according to the directions on the box.  Then you fold in a cup of fresh blueberries. Well, the blueberries sank to the bottom of the pan, and with a bundt pan, when you dump out the cake, the blueberries should be nicely baked on top. However, in this case, they stuck to the bottom of the bundt pan, and I had to literally scoop them out and piece them all together again on top of the cake! What a mess!!!  Thankfully, the recipe also calls for a lemon juice/confectioners sugar glaze, so I made that and poured it over the top of the berries and the cake, and it actually ended up not looking so bad. And the best part was that it tasted really moist and good, and everyone enjoyed having a piece at our Bible Study! So that story has a happy ending. 

We can pretend this is my little tea party for today...this picture is on my Teapot Calendar for the month of May, which begins today!

And here is the quote from the calendar to go along with it:

yes, sometimes a pot of tea is a good way to just "pamper yourself" and put all your other "matters" out of mind for a while.

3. What luxury item/items do you consider would be very hard to do without? (like buying books, having your hair done.. just about anything you really could do without but prefer not to.)

Hmm, well getting my hair cut every 6 weeks...I'm not very good at cutting it myself. Getting books at the library...which reminds me, I need to go to the library today when I finish this post!  I don't "buy" books anymore, unless they are a bargain used book at a yard sale that I can't refuse. Then I give them away once I am done. I don't want to collect anymore books. I have too many already.

4. What kind of holiday or vacation would be a total luxury with which you might pamper yourself?

Oh my! This is just pretend, right?  I would love to take a trip somewhere like Prince Edward Island and go see the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery, who wrote the "Anne of Green Gables" stories.  Then I would love to take a trip somewhere where we can stay in a really nice old Bed and Breakfast and be treated like a really special guest...someplace really beautiful, with lovely gardens and  places for tea parties, etc.  That would be delightful! It would be really fun to do that with some blogging girlfriends  or some of my other girlfriends or my sister and maybe her daughter and my daughter in love and even my nieces...a real "girls only" kind of trip. 

This picture is on the Thomas Kincade calendar for May, and it looks like the kind of place I would enjoy visiting.  

That verse is perfect too!

While we are sharing May calendars, here is the picture for the John Sloane Country Seasons May calendar:

That would be a fun place to visit too! Maybe spend a week on a really sweet farm...maybe an Amish farm/bed and breakfast! (not when it is really hot, however, since they don't have air conditioning!)

Oh, here is the Susan Branch calendar for May...it's perfect for this little dream pampering too:

Speaking of birds...This Brown Thrasher was playing peek a boo with me yesterday morning as I went for my little walkabout on the lot next door:

You can just see his eyeball peeking at us...

And here's our Canada Goose couple, still patiently waiting for the babies to be born:

This is Mother Goose sitting on her nest.

Above is Father Goose standing watch and Mother Goose having a little break, standing up on the nest.

Close up of Father Goose...ever watching and guarding his mate...

And this is Mother Goose.  I'm not sure what was happening this morning. She actually went out for a little swim and then came back to the nest and it appears she is eating something.

I think the babies should be getting closer to making their appearance, but I really don't know for sure.

I will be sure to let you know when the big event happens!

I may not have an "English Country Garden", but here's the water lily garden on Still Waters Pond early this morning. Thought you might enjoy these water lilies and other little water flowers...

Okay, that's it for today and yesterday!  

Hope you are all doing well! 

Have a blessed and beautiful day!

It's 86 degrees here and very humid. Summer is upon us way too soon.

But still I am thankful for what God has given us to enjoy!

Let's go see how others are "pampering themselves" on the Tuesday 4 page HERE

Monday Monday, Birds, People, and Blessings!

 Happy Monday morning everyone!  I hope you have had a peaceful and blessed weekend.  Ours was somewhat busy, but all good. I'll start out with a few pictures from Still Waters Pond of a Brown Thrasher that landed in a tree and visited for a few minutes. We don't get to see them very often, and normally they are on the ground, "thrashing about" in the bushes and weeds, looking for a good meal. But this one decided to land in a tree to say hello, so here he is:

The Brown Thrasher

The weekend started out with one incident that wasn't so great.  We went over to our son and DIL's house to check on things since they are on vacation, and as we stepped out the front door a very long black snake slithered across the step just as my hubby was about to step down on the step. When he saw the snake he leaped across the step and almost knocked me down as I was in front of him headed for the gate. This all happened very fast, as you can imagine, and left us both a bit breathless at being taken by surprise.  We recovered from the "shock" and headed on home.  It wasn't until a day later that my hubby realized that he must have either pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve in his lower back when he made that giant leap.  And so for the rest of the weekend he was pretty much in pain, using ice packs and/or the heating pad and taking anti-inflammatory meds.  Thankfully today as I write this he is starting to feel better, but still hasn't totally recovered. We are just very thankful that he didn't fall or actually knock me down in the process either. It could have been much worse.  We are very thankful.

On Saturday I had the privilege of attending and helping out at a baby shower at our church.  This was actually a kind of a "mission project", as this dear sweet family does not attend our church, but they are the neighbors of one of our members, and she wanted to help them out.  They are a blended family and between them already have 8 children, and this baby will make #9!  

I know...they look so young to have so many children...but I must tell you they are the sweetest couple, and the three youngest children, all boys, came along with them, and they were so well behaved and precious.  The new baby is a girl, and she is expected to make her arrival in a couple of weeks.  

Some of our thoughtful ladies also brought gifts for these children to help entertain them while Mommie opened her presents.  That was a very smart idea!

I was very pleased so see that there were many wonderful gifts, including this adorable Care Bear Tricycle, made with diapers, bottles, booties, onesies, and various other necessities for a new baby. 

It was nice that we already knew the baby was a girl, so gift buying was much easier!

I hope we get to see the baby dressed in this precious little blue dress!!

This is my friend Norma, who planned the shower and is always looking for ways to reach out to our community and help children and families.  She is a blessing to all of us.

Here's a picture that hubby took of me before I left for the shower. I don't get to wear my flowered summer skirt very often, but felt like a baby shower was a perfect opportunity!

On Sunday morning hubby made it to Sunday School to teach our Adult Sunday School class, but was hurting so bad in his back that he really wanted to go home as he knew trying to sit still in a pew for an hour was going to be very painful. So we came back home and took it easy the rest of the day.

Thankfully, our son Scott came home to visit (and do his laundry, LOL), and he grilled some hamburgers for lunch. That was a real treat!

Scott's grilled hamburgers (or anything he grills) are always the best!!

This is little out of the sequence of events, but on Friday our "kids" Noah and Dawn came back from Maine after being up there for a couple of weeks.  They had originally planned to come back down here to work, but after a lot of consideration they have realized that they are better off back in Maine where they have more connections and opportunities.  We are going to miss them, but are so very thankful for the time we had together while they were here.

I would appreciate your prayers for them as they begin a new chapter in their lives. 

Their time here was hopefully a new beginning in many deeper aspects, and this verse from 

Philippians 1:6 really speaks to that hope and promise:

I found this song by Steve Green that also speaks to that promise.

I am dedicating this song to Noah and Dawn with a prayer for their future:

Lyrics

He who began a good work in you

He who began a good work in you

Will be faithful to complete it

He'll be faithful to complete it

He who started the work

Will be faithful to complete it in you

If the struggle you're facing

Is slowly replacing

Your hope with despair

Or the process is long

And you're losing your song

In the night

You can be sure

That the Lord has His hand on you

Safe and secure

He will never abandon you

You are His treasure

And He finds His pleasure in you

He who began a good work in you

He who began a good work in you

Will be faithful to complete it

He'll be faithful to complete it

He who started the work

Will be faithful to complete it in you

He who began a good work in you

He who began a good work in you

Will be faithful to complete it

He'll be faithful to complete it

He who started the work

Will be faithful to complete it in you

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Jon Mohr

Well, that's about it for today. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead. 

Numbers 6:24-26

24 “The Lord bless you and keep you;

25 The Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

26 The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.” 

Amen.

Friday Foto Friends-After Christmas Winding Down and Gearing Up for 2019

Hello My Friday Foto Friends.  Is anyone else feeling the "in between Christmas and New Year's slump"...?  Kind of like in a fog and trying to figure out what day it is and what should I be doing now that Christmas is over? I know I am kind of in "la la land"...from lack of sleep, adrenaline rush let down...whatever you want to call it...it's real. I saw others mentioning similar feelings on Facebook. (so it must be true! )

Internet photo

But we had a great Christmas...and we are expecting another big gathering this weekend, when my sister and her family come, along with some other special friends, and we have a pot-luck-finger food lunch and our annual "White Elephant Gift Exchange" party.  Always a good time full of laughter and fun.  I'd better get my act together before they arrive!  Meanwhile, here are some random photos from the week:

We took a ride and saw a huge  bear alongside the road, and I just had to take its picture:

Got a partial selfie in the process...do you see the bear? He's a quite a giant teddy bear, don't you think?  Actually he's made out of round hay bales...and I thought this was pretty clever!!

Also, I watched someone taking a bath this morning and thought you'd enjoy peeping along with me:

This is a Brown Thrasher, and he was enjoying his morning bath in the old frying pan of water that  we keep outside the kitchen window on the ground for the local critters to get a drink or a bath, whatever is needed.  Some birds prefer to stay low to the ground, like this Thrasher.  They rarely ever visit the other bird baths that are on a pedestal, so this is a good alternative for him after he "thrashes" about in the sand.

 He is definitely "thrashing about" in the water here...

 He looks up to see if anyone noticed...

Then he fans out his tail feathers to get them good and clean.  That was a refreshing little break from the monotony, wasn't it?

Did you have any particular favorite or fun gift that you received for Christmas?  I received several wonderful things, but just wanted to share one or two with you for now:

I love pretty calendars, and this year I treated myself to this gift: (actually, the whole family will enjoy this all year long...so it wasn't just for me)

My dream has always been to have a cabin someday on a little lake...and as we continue to dream and look for our next home (if and whenever our current house ever sells) it would be my fondest desire to have a place like that. I doubt that it will be a "cabin" as there really aren't many such houses here in this area of Florida, but there are plenty of little lakes...if you can find a place that is affordable that isn't already over-crowded by all the other dreamers of living on a little lake some day. So, this calendar with pictures of "Cabin View" living may be as close as I get...but a girl can dream, can't she?

It's interesting that one of the month's pictures above in the calendar was of a group of swans. My hubby surprised me with these two beautiful cut glass swans. I think they are so lovely, don't you? He gave them to me, he said, for two reasons: One, The swans mate for life and this was significant for him to give to me, which was definitely not unappreciated by me...and the other was that the swan is a part of his mother's family crest. Her maiden name is Martin, and apparently there is a swan in the Martin family crest.  This was something that was very significant to her, and this year being the year that she has left earth for heaven, it was a special way to remember her.

Here are a couple of other special gifts.  Our youngest son loves to make things out of foil candy wrappers.  Every year (and every occasion) he creates things for people...and this year was no exception.  This is an "angel" that he made for me, but he apologized for the face.  The red hearts were on the wrappers, but he says he's not happy for the way the face turned out. But the angel is special to me.

 It goes along with the pink and gold angel he made for me a couple of years ago that is up on the shelf above.  I've learned one thing in life...when your child, no matter what age they are, (he's an adult) makes you a gift...you treasure it. This particular son has kept his guardian angel very busy throughout his life (and even this very week, but that's another story)...and to me these little treasures are very significant.

This creation was made for my hubby...and it is a Detroit Redwings Hockey Player from the past, Steve Yzerman, who was one of my hubby's favorite players:

 Again, our son created him using foil candy wrappers...and he captured every detail right down to the skates...

Now, switching gears,  this is another "gift"...again, something that I purchased with the intention of sharing it with someone else, but I am going to read it first...(I know, I should have bought TWO! but I'm cheap...or broke...)

Here is a quote from Ann Voskamp's introduction as she is explaining to her children about how stars are created from "explosions and collisions of elements. Stars are made from a breaking at their center..."  Ann goes on to think about this further:

"Breaking--then blazing.

This is the abundant way of the universe.

Brokenness multiplies into abundance...This seems impossible...unlikely.

And this is the unfailing way of God.  Multiplication happens out of brokenness.

And the sum is abundant life..."

"Weak is the real strong.

Brokenness is the real abundance.

Breaking--then blazing.

Dying...then rising.

Trust the abundant ways of the universe, the ways of Almighty God."

(Ann Voskamp, The Way of Abundance..A 60-Day Journey Into a Deeply Meaningful Life)

This may be a new theme for me for 2019.  I am thinking about my "One Word" for the new year...and haven't really settled on anything yet...however this is speaking to me and may develop into something...but we will have to wait and see in the New Year when I make my final decision.  This usually comes after much prayer and soul-searching to see where the Lord leads me.  This past year my word was "renew", and that has taken me on quite a path to spiritual renewal and revival in my heart...and preparation for a new life in a new place hopefully in the new year.  It will be interesting to see how the Lord leads again in this search for His Word for me in 2019.

Okay, friends.  I think this is whetting my whistle for some great new adventures in the New Year...how about you? What are your hopes and dreams and goals for 2019?  Maybe we will all be sharing those adventures with one another throughout the year here in our Friday Foto Friends!  I look forward to going along with you on your adventures!!  Have a blessed weekend and a Happy New Year!!!

Let us journey over to Deb's place at Breathing in Grace and visit with each other!!  I know I am behind in reading what you all have been doing this past week.  Hopefully we can get caught up eventually!!