Wednesday Treasures

Some words of wisdom from God's Word for this Wednesday:

Proverbs 8:34-36 NKJV

34 "Blessed is the man who listens to me,

Watching daily at my gates,

Waiting at the posts of my doors.

35 For whoever finds me finds life,

And obtains favor from the Lord;

36 But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul;

All those who hate me love death.”

Happy Wednesday!   This picture of "Sunshine" makes me think about that first verse above..."Blessed is the man who listens to Me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors...",  And although the writer of the Proverb was speaking about man listening to God,  it made me think about how our kitties are doing in this transition of moving over to our house from our neighbor's house for meals...  Sunshine has been listening for my call, watching daily for me not far from the porch, and then running right up the steps and waiting at the back door for me to bring out the food:

She is a pretty kitty, don't you agree?  

Whearas Blackie, on the other hand, has not been listening, nor has he been showing up on time for meals, and I'm afraid Sunshine has been gobbling down his and her food at the same time.  I have stopped putting out both bowls at the same time, and I wait for Sunshine to finish hers and leave for her daily hunt in the woods before I put out the other dish now, but still I'm not seeing Blackie show up since Monday.  Somehow the food does get eaten, and I don't know if it was Blackie, or if Sunshine came back and helped herself to some more (most likely, because I caught her at it once).

This picture was taken on Monday when they were both here, and although it looks like Sunshine is about to confront Blackie, she actually came over and rubbed cheeks with Blackie and they had a very sweet moment. But since then I don't know what Blackie is doing for meals, and I can't go searching for him. He knows where the food is, and hopefully when he gets hungry enough he will come. The neighbor's daughter, who is still here taking care of things at her mother's house, said she saw him the other night so we know he's still alive, but maybe he's found another place to eat. Who knows? Outdoor "wild" cats like to do their own thing, although Blackie is quite tame and has been well fed for quite a while. So I will give him a little more time to figure it out...there is a full moon, and I've noticed a lot of cat activity in the neighborhood with other "wild" cats...so that could explain everything...

I will keep you posted. I sometimes think one needs a degree in cat psychology to figure these things out. LOL.

I went to check on the Gnome House in the yard this morning because hubby was going to mow the grass and I wanted to make sure they were safely out of the way.  Click HERE for when this little house was first created.

When I arrived I was shocked to discover everything in great disarray and it looked like a war zone...

What on earth happened here?

 Help!

Oh No! What a disaster!!

Everything was blown to bits and the Gnome family was almost buried in the rubble.

The green Toad "toad" me the story of the huge monster that flew in and just started pecking away at their home, knocking off all the bark from the outside and boring big holes in the wood in search of bugs! He didn't care at all about the Gnome family or their belongings. It was just awful!

So I gathered everyone up out of the rubble and took them to the "hospital" and washed off their wounds, and then began the search for a new home for them, someplace much safer away from the giant woodpecker (most likely a Pileated Woodpecker! )

I decided to put them in the Holly trees in the Secret Memorial Garden, where they should be much safer since the holly tree is a healthy tree and no woodpeckers should be knocking on their doors!

The Gnome family has plenty of nooks and crannies to explore and build their little homes...

So hopefully they will be much safer here and live happily ever after:

Mr. Toad said, "I could've toad you so if you had just listened!"

Yes, sometimes it pays to listen to the little toads who may be much wiser than we are about things having to do with nature!

Oh, finally the beautiful old fashioned azalea bush in the secret garden area is blooming! 

This is the kind of azalea bush that seems to live forever and you will often see beautiful bushes of them blooming in old deserted house lots long after the houses are gone...

Here is a small example...the place where we walk used to have several old homes that had to be removed or torn down when the highway was widened, but it's interesting to see what little flowers are still trying to bloom there...

Those are azaleas at the foot of that old tree, small lasting remnants left behind from what was once a beautiful old home.  

Makes me think about what kinds of things will I leave behind when I am gone on to heaven? I hope it will be a lasting legacy of love and hope and joy and especially the love of the Lord...a fragrant offering of sacrifice to God...

One last thing...the other evening we had a most unusual golden sunset and rainbow after a very stormy day:

I thought those trees looked a lot like the burning bush!

This was looking across the street...do you see the rainbow in the clouds?

It really was gorgeous.  Sadly there had been a tornado earlier in the day at a city a couple of hourse south of us, close to where my sister and her family lives, but thankfully none of them were hurt or had any damage. We give thanks to God for that. My niece said the tornado was about 3-4 miles from where she lives. That's too close for comfort, if you ask me!  Thank You, Lord, for your protection over our loved ones!

Romans 15:13

"13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Amen.

P.S.  Great News, just after I posted this, I tried one more time to call Blackie home for supper.  He was across the street at the neighbor's house, and he saw me and ran pell mell all the way here so fast you'd think he had wings on his feet!

And true to form, just eating from his own dish wasn't good enough...he wanted to share Sunshine's dish of food too.  They are very compatible and fun to watch, and I am much happier now that I know Blackie is safe and sound, although I was a bit nervous as he ran across the street without looking...Thank the Lord nothing was coming!!  I think he knew that...I've noticed that they are both very aware of the traffic on the street and normally they stop and don't cross until the cars are passed.  Shew! I'm glad this story has a happy ending!

Praise God!

Tuesday 4~ Foody Questions

This picture reminds me of my mother in her 
kitchen...her mixer looked a lot like that too!

Foody Questions

Welcome to Toni's Tuesday 4..
Can we talk about food ?


1. What was your favorite suppertime meal when you were a kid or a teen? How about fav breakfast and lunch while you're at it.

I'm trying to remember...that was such a LONG time ago! LOL.  My mother was an excellent cook, but she also worked a full time job from the time I entered first grade. (I was the baby of the family).  So anything she cooked had to be done after 5:00 p.m. No such thing as Crock Pots back then.  I remember her Salisbury Steaks and Mashed Potatoes and gravy, and we probably had green peas for a vegetable.  Her salisbury steaks were really like hamburgers with onions and egg/bread mixed up like you would for a meat loaf. She would brown them in her electric skillet, which she used for almost every meal, Drain off the grease, and then add water and cover them and let them simmer until done, then make the gravy with the pan dippings. Her mashed potatoes were always good, and she used frozen peas, never canned unless they were those little LeSeur peas once in a while.  I still like to make this meal, but hubby prefers green beans instead of the peas.  Oh, and my mother used to make us "salads" of things like canned pears with cottage cheese or also a pear half with a dollop of "Miracle Whip" and some shredded cheese on top, on a bed of lettuce.   Or we'd have canned peaches or fruit cocktail or some other kind of fruit. Tossed salads were rare back then, but sometimes we'd get a wedge of lettuce with homemade French Dressing (Miracle Whip mixed with Ketchup). My mother always used Miracle Whip instead of mayonnaise.  I never had mayonnaise until I met my husband, and he did not like Miracle Whip, so I switched to mayonnaise.

Here's a picture of my mother in her kitchen, cooking up one of her wonderful meals!

Do you see the mixer in the corner?  Isn't this a lot like the picture of that young woman above in her kitchen? Just maybe a little more modern.

Breakfast when I was growing up was usually cereal because we didn't have time to cook breakfast before school.  Pancakes and eggs, bacon, etc., would be a special treat sometimes on the weekends, or sometimes for supper!  

Lunch...well, of course I ate in the school cafeteria, and we had really good "home-cooked" meals back then, with home made yeast rolls that you could smell baking when we walked down the walkway to the cafeteria.  I remember spaghetti probably more than anything else at school.  At home for lunch we would have sandwiches like ham salad or egg salad or peanut butter and banana. (I never remember having jelly with my peanut butter when I was growing up).  

 
2. How about now? What is your favorite dinnertime meal? And for breakfast and lunchtime?j

Dinnertime now?  Favorite?  Hmmm, I like to keep it simple...hubby likes one-pot meals, like different kinds of meat or chicken/rice or noodles (he doesn't realize it takes two pots to do that usually, plus a vegetable or salad).   Or soups or stews with beef or chicken, carrots, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, etc. 

For lunch I usually have a tossed salad with lettuce and fresh spinach and some shredded cheese and maybe some deli ham or chicken if I have any left over. I also usually eat an apple with my lunch.  

Breakfast, we rotate things around. I don't eat cereal nowadays. I don't like milk.  I sometimes eat yogurt with granola and fresh fruit like strawberries or blueberries in season. I cook eggs and toast and grits or make omelettes and sometimes we have sausage or ham or "Spam" with our eggs/toast. Hubby likes biscuits or waffles once in a while. I try to avoid anything with syrup or jelly anymore. I can't eat the sweets, but occasionally I will splurge and have pancakes or waffles or french toast, but I have to have a good helping of eggs or meat to balance out the starches.


3. How has your taste in food changed over the years.

I've learned to like a lot of new things over the years that we never had when I was a kid at home.  Things like Mexican food, Pizza, Lasagna, and seafood.  And I eat a lot more salads now.  And I can't eat hardly any sweets anymore.  I rarely want to eat dessert, and if I do, I regret it usually.


4. What's for supper at your house tonight?

Well, I am writing this on Monday night, and we had chili for supper.  Here's a picture of the leftovers: 

And we'll probably have more of it tomorrow night...sometimes I like to put it over lettuce and tortilla chips with some shredded cheese and make it like a taco salad, except it's chili instead of taco seasoning. Still pretty much the same thing. Or we will have chili dogs (hot dogs with chili on top).  

I didn't get around to doing a Monday post. It was a busy day. We went to the grocery store in the morning and then we had Bible Study in the afternoon, and then I made this chili.  Plus I am continuing the little walk across the street twice a day to feed the neighborhood cats  at my neighbor's house.  That may become a regular thing as I don't see her being able to keep it up. Eventually we may have to lead the cats over here to our house for feeding time, but one thing at a time. 

We had a nice weekend...nothing too major.  Our youngest son Scott came over yesterday after we got home from church and had lunch with us and got to use our new washing machine to get his laundry caught up!  He was pretty pleased with it too! LOL. Then he left and went back home over an hour's drive and realized he'd left his cell phone here.  We had found it, but had no way to contact him to let him know we had it. (He doesn't have a computer...just his phone!) Thankfully he had another old phone at home that he could turn on and connect it with his wifi and send us a message on Messenger. Couldn't call us, but we got the message and told him that his phone was here. He said he'd be back to get it today when he got off work.  Poor guy, had to drive another hour + to get here. Thankfully he works early hours and gets off by noon usually, so he didn't have to fight too much rush hour traffic.  We were at Bible study when he got here so we didn't get to see him, but that's okay. He'll be back on Friday because we plan to celebrate my hubby's birthday here on Friday with the family. My sister and her hubby are driving up almost two hours to be here, and then they will go back home that evening. I invited them to spend the night, but sometimes that's harder than just driving home.  I may just go ahead and prepare the guest room just in case they change their minds.  Oh, and Tuesday, today! (the 11th) is their 59th Wedding Anniversary, so we will be wishing them a Happy Anniversary too!!  

Just to change the mood a bit...it's time to gather "Fairy Bouquets" again from the yard:

I love to gather these delicate little purple wildflowers now before we have to start mowing the grass again, because once that happens, they will be gone.

And the Carolina Jessamine vine is starting to bloom again along the fence row and in the tree tops.

Oh, and I discovered something unusual happening in our yard:

What on earth?  

Oh! It really IS a Gnome Home!

And it looks like it is inhabited!

And this fella is ready to welcome us to come in and sit a spell...

Oh! What fun!! 

"Gnome Sweet Gnome"....LOL.

Looks like the Woodpeckers may have been helping to build some more rooms in this "Gnome Home".

This looks mysterious and interesting...I wonder where that crevice leads to?  Wouldn't you like to be tiny enough to find out?  

So fascinating to discover this little place out there in "Fairyland"!  I expect there will be more activities and adventures there in the future. We'll have to wait and see.

I love this verse:

Isaiah 55:12  NKJV

12 “For you shall go out with joy,

And be led out with peace;

The mountains and the hills

Shall break forth into singing before you,

And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."

Can't you just picture that in your mind?  When we follow the Lord, we do have joy and peace, and we cn actually feel the joy of all of God's Creation around us breaking forth into singing...and yes, even the trees of the field shall clap their hands!

These are some of the verses that precede that passage above, to give it more clarity:

"6 Seek the Lord while He may be found,

Call upon Him while He is near.

7 Let the wicked forsake his way,

And the unrighteous man his thoughts;

Let him return to the Lord,

And He will have mercy on him;

And to our God,

For He will abundantly pardon.

8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways,

And My thoughts than your thoughts.

10“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,

And do not return there,

But water the earth,

And make it bring forth and bud,

That it may give seed to the sower

And bread to the eater,

11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;

It shall not return to Me void,

But it shall accomplish what I please,

And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."

Some wonderful words to ponder as we settle down for the day and rest of the week.  Read them and then look for the ways God's Word is being accomplished  in and around you as you go through your days.  You may be amazed!!

Okay, friends, that's all for this post.  If you want to join in for the "Tuesday 4 Foody Questions",  click HERE and go see what good things are cooking with our other friends.  Be Blessed my friends!!

Friday Foto Friends~Better Late Than Never

In my last post HERE, I shared that we now had this tree stump left in our yard and I wasn't sure what to do with it:

Right away our blogging friend "Sparky", A.K.A. "My Thoughts Exactly", and who is also another Pamela and Facebook Friend, sent me this photo on Facebook for an idea:

I liked that so much that I started looking at some other ideas on Pinterest, and here's just a few I found:

That would be a fun project, if I can just get someone to help me with it. I may have to wait until it cools down a bit. It's too hot out there right now, even for the "gnomes". LOL.

Speaking of work in the yard, we had these fellas come and clean up the shore line of Still Waters Pond. It had gotten so overgrown with weeds that we were concerned about the possibility of snakes, etc.  Right now the pond water has receded quite a bit because of the hot/dry weather, but as the summer afternoon rains continue, it will start filling up again and there will be water all the way to those pine trees. So this was a good time to get it cleaned up while we could.

The finished product:

And it appears we have a new tenant in one of the birdhouses:

Actually, he's been there before, (or one of his ancestors), and he was just waiting for the birds to all leave so he could take it back over again until they return.  He's so funny. He loves to sit there in the window looking out just like the birds did.

And he probably feels safer in there so this Great White Egret can't get to him.  

Yes, there is still plenty of hunting ground all around the pond for the birds.  We just needed to clean up our part of the shore.

We took a quick ride over to see if there is any progress being made at the new Dixie Cottage store building.  The landlady is painting the outside of the building and has chosen a pale yellow for the walls, and I am not sure about the doors yet, but they won't be that pretty blue anymore.  Our kids were not consulted about what color scheme it should be. It's the building owner's choice, so whatever it ends up will have to do.  I'm sure it will end up looking nice, but it will be different!

Tomorrow is their last day at their St. Augustine store, and then they will be packing it all up and moving it here next week, with a target date of August 2nd for the grand opening. They have a LOT to do, so prayers are welcome for their safety in moving and for their energy to hold up! They are younger than we are, but still not that young!  It's a big job! And we really can't help that much. I will be having my scheduled colonoscopy on Monday, so I will be out of commission for at least Sunday and Monday. 

Oh, across the street from their new store there was this benefit rummage sale and BBQ going on today, to benefit a local fireman who has cancer.  So we went over and bought some BBQ ribs to have for supper.  The kids are going to stop in on their way home from St. Augustine and have dinner with us. So that is one way we can help the kids...and help support a worthy cause in the community at the same time.  I love the spirit of a small town...and I think having the store right there in the heart of town is going to be a real benefit and joy. 

Here's some encouragement from God's Word for us today:

2 Corinthians 9:8

 "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work." 

Have a blessed and beautiful day and weekend friends!