Tuesday 4~So Tell Me

 

So Tell Me....



This week's questions come from Sparky! I hope you enjoy doing them.


Let's talk about you .....


1. Music. What kind of music do you enjoy? Are you musical?

I mostly enjoy Gospel music, Hymns, some contemporary Christian music, Old Sacred classical music, and then of course the oldies from the 50's & 60's (my generation!).   I am musical in that I love to sing. I do not play any instruments, but my voice is my instrument. However, sadly, with age, it isn't as strong as it used to be, but I still love to sing in our church choir and will continue to do so as long as I have any voice at all, Lord willing.

Psalm 95: 1-7

1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;

let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving

and extol him with music and song.

3 For the Lord is the great God,

the great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,

and the mountain peaks belong to him.

5 The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Come, let us bow down in worship,

let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;

7 for he is our God

and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care.

2. Travel. Where have we been? What's your favorite destination(s)?

We are not big travelers. Never really have been.  But in our years of ministry we moved a lot to go to Seminary, etc., and then on to different churches throughout the eastern/southern United States. Right now our favorite destination would be the mountains of north Georgia in the fall, but I would dearly love to go back to Maine and New Hampshire some day, where we used to live and where our only grandson still lives.  It's just a long and expensive trip for us, so I don't know when it's going to happen.


3. Occupations. Did you end up working at what you wanted to be? Do you wish you'd done something else, if so, what? etc.

I really didn't have any great aspirations for a career. I worked at the occupation God wanted for me...a wife, mother and then a Pastor's wife.  However, I did quite a few jobs along the way to supplement my hubby's often rather meager income in the ministry, but my main "job" was being a wife and mother, and that is what I really wanted to be. HERE is a link to a fairly recent post about my "Jobs"for a more in depth look at this subject.

4. How do you keep from being bored?

I've never really truly been bored. I try to keep busy with enjoying my home, reading, writing, and most of all observing God's Creation in nature.  I can stay pretty well entertained just watching the birds outside our window.  And then taking rides and walks and enjoying whatever I happen to see along the way.   Like this huge staghorn fern up in this old oak tree beside the restaurant we went to on Monday to meet my hubby's brother and wife for lunch:

That thing is huge!  Apparently it has been trimmed most likely due to having some dead leaves from the winter time...but it is coming back beautifully, and it is HUGE!

Of course, no trip to the Mason Jar restaurant would be complete without a picture of my favorite bear:

He's all ready for the 4th of July, I see!

And I always love to get a picture of this longhorn bull on the wall inside the restaurant...with the reminder to "Eat like no one is watching".  LOL. We did.

And here is who we went to see, my hubby's brother Billy and his lovely wife Peggy:

And here's the three Steiner men:   

Our son Benton was our driver. Rose wasn't able to go with us due to her work schedule.  And there was a picture of me, but it is on my brother-in-law's camera/phone, and he hasn't sent it to me yet, so that's okay. You know what I look like. LOL.  And actually, I was looking a little funny because I currently have an infection of the tear duct in my right eye, which makes the eyelid look puffy and red. My brother in law noticed it right away even though I was wearing glasses and I though it was camouflaged. The first thing he said to me was, "Pam, what's wrong with your eye?" LOL. I said "Gee thanks, Billy. Leave it to you to notice my only flaw immediately!" All in good fun. LOL.   I ended up going to the eye doctor yesterday and he prescribed some antibiotics for me, so hopefully it will start feeling better soon.  I said with as much crying as I've done lately, I can't imagine how my tear duct got clogged up and infected! 

I guess that's all I have for this week's Tuesday 4.  I'm sorry I'm late. The last couple of days were busy, as you see from above.  The rest of the week isn't looking much better. There will be that Yard sale at the Quilter's Shop on Friday, and they had to cancel it on Saturday because we will be having the Memorial Service for our friend Opal, who passed away on Sunday.  Oh, I do pray this is the last Memorial service for any more of my friends for a LONG time.  It's really been hard to see so many go on before us...but I am thankful that I know where they are, and I will see them again someday. That is our great comfort and hope and prayer.

Thank you for joining in each week. You have made this such a wonderful experience and I know Toni, in whose memory we continue, would be pleased as punch.

Tuesday 4~Things About You

 Things About You

Hi dear friends and welcome to Tuesday 4.. Toni Taddeo's invention and our pleasure to continue in her memory.

This week you are the topic.

1. What is something you are proud of that we don't know about?

I will have to think about this. I think you know just about everything there is to know about me, including what I ate for breakfast yesterday! LOL.  I'm not sure "proud" is the right word...how about thankful?  I am thankful that I have been married to my wonderful husband for going on 57 years, and that we were blessed with three amazing sons. I am thankful that our sons have turned out to be wonderful adults.  One of our sons is already in heaven, but I am thankful that I know that is where he is and that we will see him again someday.  I am thankful that he left us with one amazing grandson, and that our grandson called us recently to tell us about his current job and the things he's been doing.  He's 26 and lives in Maine, so we don't see him very often, and so it's always a blessing when he calls us.  I am also thankful that I have two wonderful daughter in laws. The one who was married to our son who passed away took such good care of him when he was dealing with cancer, plus she held down a very good job and raised their son to be a fine young man. She also trained to become a firefighter during that time and continues to volunteer in their local fire department. She is a hard worker and a wonderful person. We just don't see her often either because they live in Maine.  My other sweet daughter in law Rose is right here close by, and you all hear about her quite often. She is such a blessing to us, and I am so thankful God brought her into our son's life and ours at this time in our lives. She is also a hard worker and someone who is always looking for ways to help others.  So, yes, I am proud of my family, but mostly I am thankful to God for them.

2. What subject or things are over rated or talked about too much in your opinion.?

Politics for sure.  We have gotten to where we don't even want to listen to the news anymore. But we pray for our country and it's leaders every day.

3. What things and topics should be talked about more often or are under rated in your opinion?

Our faith in God is something that we should be free to share anytime, anyplace.  Not "religion", but faith, and what God has done for us through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. I am thankful for this blog forum where we can share our own personal beliefs freely. It is my hope and prayer that sharing my faith will be an encouragement to others and not something they wish I'd just be quiet about.

4. Are there any things you've changed your mind about in the last few years?

Cats.  I never had much interest in cats or having a cat in the past. If you had asked me if I were a cat or a dog person, I would've said dog, even though we didn't have one. We love our two grandpups and enjoy it when they come to visit.  But then God arranged for me to take over the feeding of two neighborhood kitties that our neighbor was feeding until she became too incapacitated to do so any longer (and is now in a nursing home most likely permanently).   You've all seen the stories about Blackie and Sunshine...and how much it grieved me when Sunshine suddenly passed away.  Now Blackie has captured our hearts and right now is sitting in my hubby's lap, which I never dreamed I would see happen a few months ago!

I believe it's one of those things that God arranged for a reason...He knows what we need deep inside...and sometimes having a small furry animal depend upon us for care and love is a good thing...and to see how he responds with love back to us is even better.  

So that's the Tuesday 4 for today. You can join in HERE if you wish.

One more thing, those fires I was telling you about in our town are still going on. Here is a picture of the smoke in the skies last night:

NO, that is NOT a sunset! That is the smoke in the west at the time of when we should be having a sunset.  At that point we could not smell it here at our house, but when darkness came the smoke surrounded us and became quite noticeable. When I stepped outside for just a minute to bring Blackie back inside for the night (he was sleeping in his chair on the porch and I had to wake him up because freezing temps were on the way. And yes, he spent most of the day outside because it was a bit warmer and that is where he wanted to be), immediately my hair and clothes smelled like smoke and I had to change clothes. I would've washed my hair too, but I had just taken my shower and didn't want to start over.  It is still smokey out there this morning, which means the firefighters are still at it. This is the 4th day.  May God protect them and give them reprieve from the fire soon.

Here's some thoughts and prayer for the day from Psalm 25...

Psalm 25:1-5

"1  To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

2 O my God, I trust in You;

Let me not be ashamed;

Let not my enemies triumph over me.

3 Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed;

Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.

4 Show me Your ways, O Lord;

Teach me Your paths.

5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me,

For You are the God of my salvation;

On You I wait all the day."

Amen.

Twas' the Day AFTER Christmas...And Savoring the Sweet Memories

 

Hello friends in Blogland...Merry Day AFTER Christmas to everyone! If you're like me, you've probably been recuperating, restoring, reclaiming your space and trying to put things back into some kind of order on the day after Christmas, especially if you hosted Christmas at your home.  And even if you went somewhere else for Christmas day, there's always a sense of trying to get things back in place and put away on the day after.   I don't mean things like taking down the tree or decorations...I hope no one is doing that already, although I know there are some who do...I can just barely move and breathe the day after Christmas, so to even THINK about taking things down and putting things away is like one of those "no way Jose'" kind of thoughts...I need to time to rest and savor the memories before I can start dismantling everything.  That, plus the fact that I am still recuperating from this bad cold or flu or whatever it was has left me with little energy to go on.  I am VERY thankful to the Lord for giving me the extra oomph I needed the day before to get through the wrapping and baking and preparations for our family celebration, but I did have to miss the Christmas Eve service at our church. I was still having too many coughing fits to be in close proximity to people, so it was another disappointment that I had to miss, but my body said "thankyou" for not being pushed to go. (And I'm sure the people appreciated the fact that I was not there spreading germs).

We were SO thankful our son Scott came home Wednesday afternoon and spent the night...and that he baked cookies for the family!! Hooray!

This is my mother's special Orange Cookie recipe that she always baked anytime she knew the family/grandkids were coming to visit.  Thankfully now Scott does this for our family gatherings as his gift to the family. Click HERE for a link to another story about this and the recipe)

Christmas morning was sunny and beautiful...A perfect day to celebrate the Birthday of our Savior and Lord!

And when I went out to put out the flag, look who came to greet me! Blackie was watching for me from the tree and came down out of the tree and ran up on the porch as soon as he saw me come out the door! I love that he went to the doormat that says: Believe!  A happy way to begin our Christmas morning...

And even though there are no pictures, I did scoop him up and took him inside to greet Daddy and wish him a Merry Christmas!  And then after he had a little tour of the living room all ready for our Christmas morning to begin, he was sent back outside to enjoy the day and keep out of harms' way.

Primarily because the two Grandpups, Sugar and Spice were coming to spend the day, and we don't think having them all in the same space at the same time would be a good idea!  Here they are opening their new toys...some squawking rubber chickens, which I tried to make the "parents" take home with them, but they said no, since I bought them for them, the toys should stay HERE! LOL!

They did have fun trying to figure out how to make them squawk!

They also had fun helping Grandpa open his gifts...

It was so wonderful to have our family gathered here together...here's Rose and Benton...

And Scott...

And your's truly sitting on hubby's lap...which involved a lot of hooting and hollering when I sat down on him and we laughed about the chair feeling like it was about to break...but I managed to stay there until the picture was taken...

And then there were some very special gifts.  I am so thankful for our talented family...

Here Scott is opening a wonderful gift created by his brother Benton for him...it's a collection cabinet for his Camaro car collection, and he put pictures from some of Scott's old Camaro calendars  in the background.  Scott loves Camaros and has had several over the years, so it's something that he will definitely treasure...

And hooray, I was given one of Benton's Nativity scenes that he builds and sells.  I was afraid I was going to have to buy one if I wanted! LOL.

And this is another special project.  I will tell you more about this in a future post, but it's something I've been waiting for for a while and he finally got around to doing it.  You may recognize those as old sewing machine cabinet drawers. Yes, that's what they are. But you will have to wait until he finishes the WHOLE project before I can show you the rest.  It's a work in progress.

And Scott shared more of his art talents with Benton and Rose.  These little paintings are some that he did  as "fingerpaints", using leftover screen printing ink when he used to work at a screen printing shop.  They are very uniquely created, and he wanted family members to have some of his original artwork for when he becomes a famous artist someday...You just never know what the Lord may have in store...

And it was fitting that Benton and Rose gave Scott some Bob Ross socks! LOL.

After gifts were opened it was time for dinner...ham, scalloped potatoes, butternut squash and green peas... Rose did most of the cooking. (I microwaved the frozen peas...does that count?)

Well, I did make both of these jello salads...hubby wanted the green one that has pineapple, cottage cheese, nuts, cherries, and other stuff in it to make it good, and the kids wanted a red jello with fruit (to which I also added some whole berry cranberry sauce).  They were both good. 

And Rose also made deviled eggs...

I took a picture of Scott's plate because he had it arranged so nicely...

And then there were the family photos at the table when they wanted to start eating...

Okay, pictures over. Now we can eat!

There were some other very special little gifts...I had ordered this tree ornament back in the fall, before our sweet Sunshine went over the Rainbow Bridge, and wrapped it up to give as a gift to hubby and myself...So when I opened the package and put it on the tree, it was one of those moments that kind of caught us all off guard and we remembered our sweet Sunshine while I shed a tear or two or three...

And then Rose gave me a gift that really got to me...she had ordered this special Tervis tumbler with photgraphs on it of Sunshine and Blackie and also the Grandpups Sugar and Spice...

So of course this picture really got me.  I love the gift truly, and I will remember all our sweet furry family members when I use it. (and I'll try not to cry!)

It really is a sweet gift, and it's interesting that she and I both had similar ideas. I also gave them an ornament similar to ours with Benton and Rose  and their pups. But I forgot to get a picture of it.

There were so many special moments and gifts, also from some dear friends...And Lily Grace was not forgotten:

She received a beautiful new Christmas dress and some special toys from her sweet "identical cousin" Tracie in South Carolina...

And Lily Grace and Baby Elva enjoyed watching all the Christmas festivities together...

At the close of the day the family gathered on the front porch for a group photo before the kids had to go home...

It was certainly a day to rejoice in the birth of our Savior, and there was much JOY in the place!

I set the new nativity up on the back porch as the sun was going down on Christmas day, and I just gave thanks to the Lord for His goodness and mercy and grace...

John 1:14 KJV

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

And for God's most amazing GIFT of His Son, Who came to earth to seek and to save all who would BELIEVE.

John 3:16  KJV

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

I believe. Do you?

Before I close this post, I just want to say something. There was a comment left on my previous post by what I assume was a spammer. It was another "unknown" commenter, and whoever it was left a whole page of a statement written over and over again, probably 100 times or more, and it said "I want to die", over and over and over again. Well, my first thought was it's a spammer, and I deleted it. However, my other thought was, what if it's a real person, and that's how they really feel? And so I prayed for this person or whatever it may be, because it made me feel very sad that someone had written that actually on Christmas day. I don't know if anyone else has received this message from a spammer, but yes, it was a bit unnerving. I am still praying for that person, whoever it may be, that for whatever reason they found it necessary to write that statement over and over again on my comment page, I want you to know that I am continuing to pray for you, that you will find peace in your heart, and that you will come to know my Savior, Jesus Christ, as your Savior and Lord too. He will make your life worth living. He is Emmanuel, God With Us...the Child who was born to be our Savior and Lord written about in Isaiah 9:6~

"6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

Amen.

And if it is some kind of robot spammer, well, shame on whoever created it. I'll pray for you too!

Good night everyone, and may God bless you each and every one with HIS peace and love and everlasting joy!  

Thursday Thankfulness

It's Thursday afternoon and I want to give thanks to God for some blessings today...

This is the beautiful rose that Rose and Benton gave me for Mother's Day! This is the first blossom, and isn't it glorious?

There a several more buds getting ready to open...so delightfully unique and lovely!

It's name is "Double Delight", and yes, I am doubly delighted to have this wonderful gift that keeps on giving! Thank you, Rose and Benton, for this very thoughtful rosebush gift!

Well, today is the day that Blackie Sue is going to her appointment to be "fixed".  Actually she will stay with one of the volunteers in charge of this "operation catnip" tonight,  and they will take her to the clinic tomorrow and bring her back home here on Saturday.  

When the lady came to pick her up and put her in the carrier it was a bit of a struggle to get Blackie to go, and here's my memento to remember her by while she is gone. Thankfully it's not very deep and really doesn't hurt, but it will remind me to say little prayers for her throughout the next couple of days as she goes through this bit of "trauma". (and yes, I did wash it thoroughly).  And also to pray for those who will be taking care of her, that they will treat her with kindness. I am sure they will.

Sunshine is kind of moping around on the back porch since she left.  This picture was taken a few minutes ago, looking down through my window in my "room with a view"...He is laying down right outside this window where it is cool and shady, but also about as close as he can get to me without being inside the house.  I wonder if he realizes I am right through that wall? I think he does. 

I've been outside a couple of times to reassure him, and he had a LOT to say to me! 

"Meow, meow, meow! Where did they take my friend Blackie Sue? Is she going to come back? Why did you put her in that cage and send her away with a stranger? Meow, Meow, Meow!"   I gave him some extra little treats and petted him some more and talked extra sweetly to him.  He rubbed my legs and didn't want me to go back inside the house...and he really wanted to come inside.  But then he settled down there in this spot outside my window and he's taking a nice nap. He'll be fine, and Blackie Sue will be back before we know it.

I did have the lady look at him (which surprisingly he allowed her to get near him and lift his tail), and in her opinion he has already been fixed!  He's quite furry and it was hard for me to tell, but she is quite certain. So that made me happy that we don't need to go through this again with him!

These were some fun pictures I took of Blackie Sue and the Duck yesterday...

Yes, that duck thinks he's one of the family and isn't at all afraid of the cats. As you can see, Blackie Sue just turns her back on him, and then scoots out of his way:

Oh, do you see Trumpet in the background, and Mother Crane down there keeping an eye on Mr. Duck?

No one wanted to pay him any attention up here. So finally Mr. Duck decided to take off and fly away to the pond. 

There he goes!

I managed to get a picture of the full moon early in the morning yesterday. It's been too cloudy at night to get a picture.

I am thankful for so many things...my family, our home, our church and friends, our health...things we should never take for granted.  God has been very kind and gracious to us, and we are very thankful. 

This is a verse that we would be wise to remember when things might catch us off guard or take us by surprise...

So if you are facing uncertainties in your life, health concerns, family issues, financial matters...remember that there is NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING too difficult for God!!

Amen.

Have a blessed and beautiful rest of your week, my friends.

Thank you for being here!