Thursday Thankfulness: Something to "Write Home About"

Happy Thursday! I hope your week is going well so far!  It's been fairly quiet here this week, with no special events going on, "nothing to write home about".    Do you ever wonder where such sayings come from? This one just struck me as I wrote it, and so I consulted my new friend "AI", and here's what he (or is it a she?) said:

"The phrase "nothing to write home about" emerged in the late 1800s among travelers and deployed soldiers. It comes from the idea that when away from family, you would only fill your letters with truly exciting or noteworthy news; therefore, an unremarkable event or mediocre place is "nothing to write home about". [1, 2, 3, 4]

The idiom became widely popularized during World War I, as troops stationed overseas routinely used the phrase to describe mundane or disappointing experiences in letters to their loved ones. The earliest known written record of the phrase dates back to North America in 1905, though the concept of being "worth writing home about" was used in advertising and literature as early as 1860. [1, 2, 3, 4]"

I kind of figured it had something to do with soldiers, but just didn't know how far back it went. Now we know! Do you ever use that phrase?  I feel like when I am writing a blog post it is a lot like writing a letter to home...and you are my family.  Sometimes I have exciting and interesting news to share, and sometimes I have to search for something noteworthy.  Today seems to be one of those days. Although I did do something interesting and special this morning, but I've promised not to share it until after the person for whom it is intended has been properly notified and surprised, so you will have to wait a week for that. Now I've got you wondering. LOL. Just stay tuned until next week.  

Thinking about having "something to write home about"...back in the days many years ago when we lived far away from home while serving in the ministry, I wrote a lot of letters to my parents, and I asked them to try and save some of them so that I would have them to look back upon and maybe use them to write a book someday. Well, my mother was diligent to save a lot of them in this little box, but I still haven't written that book:

There is a smattering of letters and cards  and pictures from many years ago, when our boys were very young (and so were we)...and these are a treasure trove of memories...

Here's one card/letter that I sent...that would be typical of me and the kinds of pictures that I liked on cards...

Anyway, back then I usually had something "to write home about" because we were young and our kids were little and doing something different all the time, and I wanted our parents to know what was going on since they were so far away.  Gosh, I just started reading some of these letters, and decided I'd better stop or I'd never get this post written! In one of them I even told my mother that I'd just felt my 1st baby move for the first time!  That was definitely something to write home about!  

So meanwhile, let's get back to this July Photo a Day Challenge.  I'm still trying to get caught up. 

I never did do the "shadow" picture for the 13th. We had such cloudy days and I just couldn't find anything really "shadowy" to capture in a photo.  Then finally when we took a walk yesterday morning I noticed the sun was shining behind us, so I called hubby over to me and said, "Stand still a minute and let me take a picture of our shadows!".  Thankfully he was a willing companion.   If his head looks kind of like he has long hair, it's because he's wearing one of those hats with a bug screen over his face. My hubby is so sweet that the bugs just seem to flock to him when we go outside, so this bugscreen hat is really a life saver for him.  The bugs don't bother me as much. Not sure why. Perhaps I'm just not sweet enough? LOL. Probably so.

This next picture was taken when we took a ride last evening. Although you can't really tell they are shadows, we were driving through the combined shadows of those trees over the road, also known as "shade", but you can see the sunshine in the distance where the trees have disappeared.

So I already did the picture for the 14th on my last post, but I haven't done the one for the 15th and 16th yet. So this morning I went around and took some pictures of some signs inside our house, and therefore they should suffice for both prompts...signs, and indoors.

Our son Benton used to make all kinds of signs and sell them. He doesn't do so many signs now, but I happen to have quite a few of them in our house. Here's a sampling of a few. 

This one is in my bathroom, above the bathtub:

Yikes, don't look too closely, or you will see our unmade bed reflected in the mirror. I did these when I first got up this morning before I got around to making the bed, so please forgive the untidiness of this picture. LOL.

Sadly I don't ever use this bathtub. It's too big of a risk for me getting in and out and it uses too much water that we have to pay for! But if you are a guest and wish to take a bath in the tub, I will only charge you 25 cents...however if you want soap and a towel, we'll have to discuss that! LOL.

This was the original sign at our entry table at the front door, where you are supposed to sign the guest book when you come to visit (if I remember to remind you, which I seem to always forget anymore!)

But then last year Benton and Rose made this sign for me for Christmas,  "Come in and Cozy Up", because I had seen one like it at a store and wanted one like it. So now it sits on that table.

OH, this sign hangs over the door to our laundry room:

And this one, that they both made for me, sits inside my "Room With a View", where I can see it when I am writing to you. It's a good reminder for me to remember why I write this blog...even if I don't have "anything to write home about", there's always the Good News of the Gospel to share with you, and to remind you that Jesus Loves You.

And with that I think I will close this post for today.  I am thankful for my home and family, and for my parents, who have been gone to heaven for many years now, but I love that they saved my letters and cards so that I could go back and remember some really special times in our lives. Oh, and I have a lot of their letters and cards that they wrote to us as well.  I really don't like to throw things like that away.

I am thankful for you, and I hope that you are having a memorable day in some way as well.  I hope that you have "something to write home about" that you can share with us!

One more sign, which is hanging above our bedroom door:

And here's the verse that goes with that:

Yes, the "greatest of these is love."  Amen.  

Have a blessed and wonderful rest of your day my friends....

 

Welcome February! The "Love" Month!

Welcome February!

It's time for hearts

And flowers...

 No matter how small or seemingly insignificant,

they each have their own special kind of beauty...

Kind of like people, huh?

And it's time for changing the calendars to a new month...(and I also finally changed the background of my blog...did you notice? Nothing fancy...just a little  color change for a while.)

(My Tea-Time Calendar always has lovely things to look at...

Thank you to my sister Doris for always remembering to give me this

as a Christmas gift for the new year!)

Perhaps where you are it still looks a lot like this:

President Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday we will celebrate later this month, had some wise advice:

As I look around my house I think things are already looking a bit like Valentine's Day is coming...

It seems like Valentine hearts, roses and tea time all remind us of this season for love...

Even "Pinky Flamingo" is sporting a red bow in honor of the Valentine Season...

Hearts are stretching out to spread the love all around...

Hmmm, this looks familiar... (testing...did you read my last blog post?) LOL.

Even these candle holders seem to be sharing a special message of love with us:

"Live as though heaven is on earth"; "Love Always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres"; "Laugh...Laughter is the shortest distance between two people."  

Sounds like some good words of wisdom to me!

Especially that one about Love...kind of reminds me of something I read somewhere else...

Oh yes...I found it:

I Corinthians 13:7-8a

"(Love) bears all things, believes all things, 

hopes all things, endures all things;

Love never fails."

I think we should rename February the "Love" month, because it just seems to fit the theme everywhere we look!  I don't think there's any harm in that, do you? We sure could use a lot more love and a lot less strife in this world.  

So, let me be the first to wish you and yours a

And remember this:

"Now abide faith, hope, love, these three;

but the greatest of these is love!"

I Corinthians 13:13

Happy First Day of Spring from Pamela's Victorian Cottage Fixer Upper!

Good Morning beautiful friends in blogland...Happy First Day of Spring!  I do hope and pray that this day is springlike and beautiful wherever you are!!  We have had some lovely cooler days this week, which for us, in Florida, is actually quite delightful!  Here's a few pictures of spring in my yard:

The purple wisteria is blooming like crazy this year.  I love that it is decorating my fence in our courtyard.  I wonder if you can see those two cardinals sitting in the tree above and beyond the fence?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.  The bees and butterflies have certainly been enjoying it. 

Oh, which reminds me, we saw our first Ruby Throated Hummingbird of the season the other day...she was feasting upon the one and only blossom on my bottlebrush tree (again)...just like at the end of the season last summer:  (this picture is from last September, but it could have been the other day because it was just exactly the same!)

So I have put out my hummingbird feeders and am waiting for the rest of the tribe to arrive...

Now, back to life in Pamela's Victorian Cottage!  Things have been quite busy there this past week.  I will try to keep it as condensed as I can, but I have a lot to share with you today!  I hope you don't mind going into this little imaginary miniature world with me...from the comments I've seen on other previous posts, you seem to enjoy it and many have expressed a desire to do the same thing.  I wonder what it is about miniature dollhouses and villages, and such, that seem to draw us into a world of "make believe" and peace and love...and we love to just be like a little child again when life was much simpler...  I think with all of the turmoil of the real world out there, we need some way to retreat and withdraw from the fray for a while to regain our sense of balance and inner peace. 

I do find that peace when I draw closer to the Lord, and spend time alone with Him, reading His Word, praying, singing hymns and choruses and just worshiping Him.  When I don't have that daily time of personal and private devotions with the Lord, I suffer.    Believe it or not, spending time "playing" also gives me time to refocus my thoughts and while I am trying to solve ways to fix this or create that, it is like God is wrapping His loving arms around me like a loving parent would, and soothing my troubled brow and helping me to get ready to go back out and play in the big world. 

So with those thoughts in mind, let me welcome you back to Pamela's Victorian Cottage.  We have some special visitors here today:

First, let me show you where we moved our house to since I had to get it off of the dining room table:

I found this special table/cabinet that my son had built a few years ago, and we were using it in the guest bathroom to hold towels, etc., but decided it could be put to better use here to hold the dollhouse.  I wanted to keep it in the dining room/kitchen area, where I spend a lot of time and where I would be able to see it often and enjoy it.  Even Baby Elva is happy to have it next to her....she would really love to get up there and play with it...but, well...maybe when she gets a little older...
Anyway, the dollhouse is sitting on a separate piece of plywood, that is covered with felt on both sides, so I can easily swivel it around on the top of the table to look at the back side.

The table is also sitting on double sided rugs, so the whole table can easily be moved across the floor if I want to work on it at the dining room table again.  I thought about putting castors on the little table so I could roll it, but that seemed a bit impractical right now, and this works just fine for my current needs.   

After I completed a few necessary new improvements, like putting lights in the house (battery operated "fairy lights"), and I touched up the paint in a few places...the cottage is now ready to receive guests:

You know the Bible tell us in Hebrews 13:1-2 the following words of admonition:

"Let brotherly love continue.

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have

unwittingly entertained angels."

And so it seemed appropriate that our first guests to our little home would be angelic visitors.
The first guest to arrive at the front door is "The Angel of Happiness"...(you will recognize these visitors from the Willow Tree collection)...And this angel brings a happy spirit to our home:

"Free to sing, laugh, dance and create"....

Our next visitor is the "Angel of Freedom", and she is holding a butterfly with the intent of setting it free.  She is "For Those with a boundless spirit of independence".... which gives us the freedom to explore our beautiful world and the will to keep moving forward even in the face of opposition...

As we walk around to the other side of the front porch, we have a little "Secret Garden" area,  which says: "Welcome Fairies"...Well...yes, in our little imaginary world, we welcome all the sweet little creatures that God has placed here for our enjoyment.  But this particular garden is like my own Secret Garden/Memorial Garden at my real house...a place to spend time alone with the Lord and meditate on His Word, and be comforted when feeling sorrow or deep concerns...

and so it is appropriate that our visiting angel is this sweet angel, holding a large conch shell to her ear and she says, 

"Thinking of you--Keeping you close in my thoughts."

Now as we enter the home, we find some other very special guests:

This lovely angel, holding a teapot, is the Angel of the Kitchen,

"Warm comfort between friends"

Which is what we always want to experience when we spend time with our friends...a time of warm comfort and encouragement as we share a cup of tea just enjoy one another's friendship.

As we go upstairs to the children's room, we find another special guest, 

The Angel of "Love of Learning"

"Open Books, Open Minds"

We want to always be learning good things in our home...and to share them with our children and loved ones.  The best book to read, of course, is The Bible, and to teach it diligently to our children.

Deuteronomy 6:5-7 says:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 

with all your soul, 

and with all your strength.

And these words which I command you today 

shall be in your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children, 

and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, 

when you walk by the way, 

when you lie down, and when you rise up."

Now as we go back downstairs to the living room we find our final and perhaps most special guest of all:

"Angel of the Heart"

"For those who love and are loved."

Love is the very heart of the home.

Without love, there really is no true home.

We want our homes to be filled with love first of all, and then all these other things will follow.

And so here are our special visitors inside the house:

And also those who are waiting outside to welcome us:

I do hope you have enjoyed visiting with us and our special guests today.  We just never know who may be coming to our doors...we need to be ready to welcome the stranger in who may actually be one of God's special ambassadors of 

Happiness, Freedom, Thinking of You personally, Warm comfort between friends, the Love of Learning with Open Books, Open Minds,

and the greatest of all is

Love...

"And now abide faith, hope, love,

these three,

but the greatest of these is Love."

I Corinthians 13:13

Please come back and visit with us again!

A "Soap" Opera for My Friday Foto Friends

Today is Friday Foto Friends Day...and as of last night I had no clue what I was going to post.  And then this morning as I was washing my face the most amazing thing happened!  My "soap" spoke to me!  Now before you get all lathered up and think I've been sipping on the suds...slip on over here and take a look for yourself!

I opened up a box of Dove Soap...and took out this lovely new bar...and look what it "spoke" to me:

What a lovely way to start my day! In essence...my bar of soap was suggesting to me to be "KIND"!

• Be KIND to myself...
• Be KIND to others...
• "Be KIND to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you"  Ephesians 4:32

I'll bet you never thought your bar of soap would be making positive suggestions or quoting scripture to you, did you???

Well, as if this wasn't amazing enough,  I decided to open up the other boxes in the package and see if they had anything else to say...

Lo! And Behold!  The next one I opened spoke to me again!  It said "LOVE"!  Oh Wow! Now this one truly speaks a mouthful!  (Almost like getting my mouth washed out with soap?)

• "You shall LOVE your neighbor as yourself!"  Leviticus 19:18
• "You shall LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."  Deuteronomy 6:5
• "This is My commandment, that you LOVE one another as I have loved you." John 15:12
• "LOVE never fails"  I Corinthians 13:8
• "And now abide faith, hope, LOVE, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE." I Corinthians 13:13
• "Beloved, let us LOVE one another, for LOVE is of God; and everyone who LOVES is born of God and knows God." I John 4:7
• "For God so LOVED the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16

That's probably enough examples of LOVE, but there so so many more I could list them indefinitely!

However, we need to move along to the NEXT box:

Another remarkable word...CARE....

• Take good CARE of yourself...Take good CARE of those around you...
• "Casting all your CARE upon Him (the Lord), for He CARES for you."  I Peter 5:7
• "Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28 (Doesn't use the specific word CARE, but it is certainly understood).

Okay, so were there any other messages inside my DOVE soap package?

Let me check....

Oh Yes! REAL!!! This is the REAL Deal!!!  This is not a spoof!  This REALLY happened today!

I hope you have enjoyed this little "Soap Opera"!  Who would ever believe that there could be so much beauty inside this package of Dove "Beauty" Bars?  In checking the packaging a little further I discovered that this is a limited special edition of engraved beauty bars.  Personally, I think it's a great idea!  It certainly made my day start out on a brighter note!  Thank you, DOVE Beauty Bars! You make my heart sing!

Now go over to my friends at Friday Foto Friends #40  and see what they've shared today!