Great Things He Has Done!

 The other day I was wandering around the back yard and noticed something blooming in the Memorial Garden:

This is the Rose of Sharon bush that we brought with us when we moved last summer. It was originally planted in the Memorial Garden at our previous home, in loving memory of our son Matthew. This particular bush was chosen by his wife Nicole.

The plant was looking a little weak recently, after a spell of extremely hot and dry weather, and I was afraid we were going to lose it. But no! God revived this plant and it is finally blooming again. These are the first blooms since our move a year ago.

Here is another one today, after the rain! Just in time for our 51st anniversary tomorrow. Usually the memorial rose bush blooms on our special days, like birthdays and Mother's Day, and I always say a little "Thank you" to our son Matthew, for those heaven-sent gifts.  This time it is the Rose of Sharon instead of the rose bush. Maybe because the month of August is also he and his wife's anniversary month.  They would have been married 27 years on August 7th. I probably need to send a picture of this to Nicole.  Hard to believe it has been six years already since he passed.

But I don't want to dwell there today. The good news is, we will see Matthew again someday!

Thank You, Jesus!

I had a nice little tea time the other afternoon. I used our "good wedding china" teacup and dessert plate in keeping with our anniversary theme this week. I discovered some delicious Cranberry Orange Muffins at the grocery store, and decided to buy some just for me (hubby doesn't care for them). They were very good with a cup of Earl Grey Tea.  

I found out that our younger son who lives here with us also loves that kind of muffin! So, being a good mother that I am, I shared my muffins with him. I need to just bake some, but I never seem to have the orange zest/orange juice that is required to make them. I think they also are best with fresh cranberries, which can be hard to find this time of year. Maybe Craisins would work okay. I'll have to try. Anyone have any good recipes?

Speaking of recipes:  A dear friend from the past surprised me by sending me this cookbook in the mail! "Boston Tea Parties,  Recipes from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston."   I was totally shocked to receive this lovely gift, as I have not seen this friend in many, many years. She and her husband were members of a church in  New London, Ohio, when my husband was the Youth and Music Director there while attending Seminary many years ago. Now, her husband is a retired minister and is serving in that same church as their Associate Minister!  She saw on Facebook that I loved to have tea parties, and she said that she had been given this cookbook some time ago but really never used it and she thought I would enjoy it more!  

I just checked to see if there is a recipe for Cranberry Orange Muffins...and although there isn't one exactly like that, there are several other delicious sounding recipes that also use fresh cranberries..."Cranberry Lemon Bread", Cranberry Cookies, and Cranberry Crumbles. Oh, there is also a Cranberry Chutney  recipe that sounds really good, which can be used in Chicken Salad or on "either smoked turkey and provolone or ham and Swiss cheese croissant sandwiches."  Maybe I should share that recipe. It sounds good!

(Internet Photo)

Cranberry Chutney

1 pound cranberries, picked over and washed

1 cup sugar

1 cup honey

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon finely chopped onion

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped.

Combine all the ingredients, except walnuts, in a saucepan.  

Cook until cranberries pop open, about 10 minutes.  

Skim foam from surface.  Cool. Stir in walnuts.  

Yield: 4 cups.  

"The chutney may be made ahead and frozen"

Thank you, Sheri, for this lovely cookbook! I do believe I am going to get some good recipes from this!

This morning the skies were so beautiful. It looked like the sun was rising in the west over the pond, which isn't possible, but it was the reflection of the sun on the clouds.

So I went to look out on the east side of the house, and this is what I saw:

That's the moon and I think that little dot to the right is maybe Venus? Anyway, I thought that was interesting.  The skies were kind of mixed up this morning, but beautiful nonetheless.

These were the skies the other evening as we were driving over to take our usual walk after supper.

But, as you can see, there were soon raindrops on our windshield, so we ended up not walking after all.

And it is raining again right now as I am writing this.

We are planning to go out to eat in a while with our kids, over at our favorite restaurant beside the 

St. John's River., "Corky Bells". They are taking us out for our anniversary dinner.

I hope it stops raining in time so we can sit outside on the deck overlooking the river like we did before.

But, if not, we will still have a great time just being with our family for this special occasion.

Tomorrow is the real anniversary, but we plan to go to church and then will meet with our friends for brunch after church at the local restaurant.

So that will be enough celebrating for us two old folks. 

This morning we both mowed the yard. And then had to take a nap. LOL.

Switching gears for a minute...If you remember reading HERE a few weeks ago about our son and his wife's new workshop shed for their business, "Ben & Rose's Country Woodshop", I promised to share more as they were able to get things more set up. Well, they have been so busy with this business that they've hardly had time to set things up properly...just had to put tools in there and get to work. We stopped by yesterday and our son gave us the tour of how things look right now.  He apologized because it wasn't as organized and neat as he hoped to have it, but there's been no time to do all the things he intended to do. They've just been that busy! Praise God!!

So here is our son Benton, giving us the tour and telling us how each "work station" works for him as he constructs their tables, benches, shelves, and other custom pieces as needed.

Here he is demonstrating the hose that sucks the sawdust out of the tools into the container. Thankfully it wasn't turned on when he put it up to his eardrum. It might have sucked his brains out! LOL.

Such a tease!

And here he is explaining how he gets the wood from the one side and feeds it through to the saw, etc. Hubby is very interested and listening carefully.

Here's the grandpuppies, Sugar and Spice. They came out to check things out too.  

These are some examples of the types of furniture they build. These items are set up for sale on consignment in a new store called "Rustic Knots", which had its grand opening today, in St. John's Florida. (near St. Augustine and Jacksonville). 

Console Tables are very popular:

So are Kitchen Island Carts:

And this is a more rustic kind of Console Table.

They also have this Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BRCoastalRusticDecor 

Our son Benton does the carpentry, and his lovely wife Rose does the painting. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of her as well. She was busy getting ready to go to her other job at Home Depot. Very busy people these days! We are thankful to the Lord for blessing their business so wonderfully.

Can't wait to see them in a little while when we go out to eat. 

I'll have more pictures later for tomorrow's post.

This song pretty well sums up how I feel today. Won't you sing along?

To God Be The Glory, Great Things He Has Done! (By Fanny Crosby)

1 To God be the glory, great things He hath done,

So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,

Who yielded His life our redemption to win,

And opened the life-gate that all may go in.

Chorus:

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,

Let the earth hear His voice;

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,

Let the people rejoice;

Oh, come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,

And give Him the glory; great things He hath done.

2 Oh, perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,

To every believer the promise of God;

The vilest offender who truly believes,

That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

Chorus

3 Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done,

And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;

But purer, and higher, and greater will be

Our wonder, our transport when Jesus we see.

Chorus

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,

Let the earth hear His voice;

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,

Let the people rejoice;

Oh, come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,

And give Him the glory; great things He hath done!

Amen.