A New Beginning ~ 2024 Is Here!

As the sun was setting over Still Waters Pond last night, we said our fond farewells to 2023, and prayed for a happy and healthy new beginning for 2024.

We counted all the blessings that God had rained down upon us in 2023, and gave Him thanks for His love and mercy and grace...

There were many blessings, as well as some trials and tribulations and disappointments...

But one by one, God saw us through them and restored relationships that were damaged, healed bodies that were broken or hurting, and filled our homes and hearts with joy and laughter and peace...

He gave us encouragement and hope that, just as He was with us all through 2023 (and all the years before that), He would still be with us in the New Year (and all the years that follow!)...

For me personally, it was a journey of learning to listen (my "One Word" for 2023) for His voice in all the sounds and noises around me...and even in the silence. Perhaps particularly in the silence, for that is when I could hear Him even more clearly, whispering words of love and forgiveness and affirmation of "this is the way, walk in it..."

Isaiah 30:21

"Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,

“This is the way, walk in it,”

Whenever you turn to the right hand

Or whenever you turn to the left." 

And so, this morning, the first morning of 2024, I have promised that I would reveal my new "One Word" for this year.  It's been an interesting journey over the past couple of weeks or so.  I thought God was steering me in a certain direction toward one word or another that kept popping up in front of me, and so I was feeling pretty good that I had it figured out already.  And then I looked back at my list of previous years of "One Words"  Link to One Word choices for previous years,  and realized that the two words I was kind of focusing on had already been used in earlier years in a little different variation of those words!  What?  How could I have forgotten words I had already focused upon for a whole year? Duh!  Apparently God wanted me to go back and have a "review" lesson, particularly in one of those words.  I must not have gotten the full message. So over the past week or so I've been praying about this and kind of putting the words to the test...how often did either of these words (or any other word??) come up in my reading or somehow placed before me...well, all of a sudden it seemed like one word in particular was popping up everywhere...in other people's blogs, on Facebook, in devotional reading, on billboards...I mean it was like God was saying: "Listen to Me, Miss Pamela! This is the word I want you to hear loud and clear and learn more of Me in the process this year!"   

So while I've been sitting here writing and making my final commitment to this word, before I reveal it to you and the world, I stepped outside on the front porch to see what the first sunrise of 2024 looked like.  God had some sweet surprises ready for me...

First of all, it was a beautiful sunrise...better than I'd expected:

And then! Coming up over the skies from around behind me where Still Waters Pond is...look who came flying over! Yes, this is our own Sand Hill Crane Family, Mom and Dad and Pat and Val...making an appearance at just the most perfect moment for me to see them and take their picture! How cool is that?

They flew right over me as if to say, "Good Morning and Happy New Year! It's going to be a great year!"

There they go, off to wherever Sand Hill Cranes spend their day, eating, walking, doing their thing, and then the usually come back here for the night to roost on the Pond.

What a blessing!! What a gift!!

So what has that to do with my new One Word?  Well, I had just committed myself to the new One Word for 2024:  Strength.  And I looked up and saw those beautiful big, very strong birds flying over me, much like how the eagles soar in the sky...and it confirmed the message God had been giving me over the past few days:

And then this....You've seen the little pillow on the right before that was made for me this past year by my now no longer granddaughter-in-law to be Dawn since she and our grandson have broken their engagement...but I still pray for her and ask God to guide her and show her His divine love...but this pillow, "The Joy of the Lord is your strength", Nehemiah 8:10, is what has been speaking to me for weeks about what my word should be. At first I thought it was going to be "JOY", but I used Joyful a couple of years ago...and so then I realized the word must be "Strength", and then discovered I had used the word "Strengthen" 10 years ago...But then, I was in the Dollar General store a couple of days ago and saw this other sign on the left, Philippians 4:13..."I can do all this through HIM WHO gives me strength."   And I snatched up this little sign and bought it right then and said, "That's it! That's the Word! Strength!!"

And then I started seeing it everywhere:

Internet 

Internet

And then a dear friend at church gave me this new devotional book for Christmas:

And on the inside flap for January was this verse:

I know it says "strengthen", which is the word I already used in 2014, but still it means the same thing, doesn't it?  God is promising to give me strength and help and He will uphold me with His righteous right hand!  What better promise could there be for 2024?

And here is the verse for the devotional for today:

Okay, Lord, I am ready!  Yes, I see it! You've already begun to make that pathway through the wilderness of my mind, and Your Word and Your Strength are flowing like rivers in the dry wasteland of my heart.

It's time for a new start...a new beginning...a new year,

and renewed strength.

God knows I need it, both physically and spiritually.

So here we go!!

Happy New Year!!

Postscript:  Just a quick note about today's plans:  Our family get together that was moved from Saturday to today has been changed once again. My dear sister has come down with a sore throat bug and isn't up to traveling here and needs to stay home and rest...and so we will reschedule when we can figure out everyone's schedules to get together again. That's fine with me. I am sorry for my sister not feeling well, but to be honest, I'm pretty tired myself...and I definitely need God to renew my 'strength' from all the recent activities of the holidays. So today we will have a quiet New Year's celebration over at our son and DIL's house...she was already planning to cook a ham and I will go ahead and make a smaller batch of "hoppin' John",  and we'll put stuff together to make a nice dinner. Our son Scott came down yesterday and would have spent the night here if we were having the family get together, but decided to go back to his place and crash since he's been working a lot of long hours lately and needs to catch up on his rest too.  So all's well that ends well...and I pray my sister will feel better soon and that no one else in her family gets it!   Hope you all have a blessed and wonderful New Year's Day, wherever you are and whatever you do! Be safe!!

Friday Foto Friends: Hold On!

Hold On!

(Anhinga, holding on to a small branch in the middle of the storm in the middle of the pond)

22 "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 

Juvenile Goldfinch?

24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works"

Hebrews 10:22-24

Male Eastern Bluebird

"Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

Great Blue Heron

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

Isaiah 41:10

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. 

I do not give to you as the world gives. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

John 14:27

Hello friends! I hope you enjoyed these pictures and the message  of hope above from Still Waters Pond today. These are some good thoughts to ponder on our Lenten journey.

Sometimes when things are dark and gloomy, and the news around the world is even darker and gloomier, we need to remind ourselves that God is with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us, and we need not be troubled or afraid.  Just keep holding on...God is faithful and He will see us through no matter what the storm may be. 

Speaking of storms:  It's been raining "cats and dogs" here since last night, with a few breaks here and there, but no sunshine to brighten the day. However we needed the rain. The pond was beginning to recede and needed refreshing. So did the flowers and trees and grass. We are very thankful for the rain. However, not so sure about the freezing temperatures that are supposed to be on the way this weekend! Yes, that's right, here in sunny Florida in the middle of March we are expecting a low of 26 degrees on Sunday morning...that along with the fact that we have to "spring ahead" to daylight savings time Saturday night should make for a very chilly start to our Sunday morning wake up.  We have to be at church for Sunday School at 8:30 a.m., which will feel like 7:30 to our body clocks, so I expect it will be a slow start to our class...thankfully my hubby is the teacher or else we just might be tempted to roll back over and snuggle down under the covers for a while...

It hasn't all been dark and gloomy the past few days. Yesterday the geese were enjoying congregating over by the island in the pond...

Canada Geese

They are fun to watch and can be very entertaining.

Once in a while they come into the yard and eat bird seed off the ground:

And when they hear anything that spooks them they start honk honk honking and take a running leap and up into the air they go:

And if you look really really closely you can can see them flying way over there across the pond:

And wow, just as I was typing this, I looked outside my window and saw two very large white birds fly in and land in Still Waters Pond. By the way, the rain has finally stopped and the sun is shining. It is almost 5:00 p.m....anyway, here's what I just saw:

These pictures look almost black and white because of the way the sun was right behind them. 

These are two gorgeous (but kind of "ugly" in the face) Wood Storks who must have noticed our nice full pond and decided to swoop down for dinner

But then they moved over to a spot where the lighting was much better. I thanked them for their consideration, and they stuck out their big black wings and waved at me:

Actually, they seem to use their wings for balance as they wade around in the shallow water with their beaks under the water reaching for whatever good stuff is there that they like:

According to Wikipedia the Wood Stork mostly eats fish, insects, frogs and crabs. I don't think we have crabs in our pond, but I am sure there are LOTS of frogs and little fish. So they should be getting a very good dinner. They are still out there as I write. I hope they stay around for a while. They are interesting to watch.

I am sure after the powerful rain storm that we had over the past 24 hours there must be a lot of stuff swimming around under the water.  These big storks have found a good place to eat with little competition! 

They have a face that only a mother could love, however! LOL.

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Wood Stork, for giving us quite a show!

Well, let's see, what else is going on?

It's been a good week for some porch sitting: (although on the day I took this picture it was quite warm and dry!)

Tea drinking either indoors or outdoors...

This was something different for me.  One of our blogging friends, Anne from My Tata's Cottage, mentioned something about drinking "London Fog Tea" one day. I asked her what that was and she sent me a recipe via email.

Here are the ingredients:

1 cup (8 oz.) strongly-brewed earl grey tea, brewed with 1/2 teaspoon dried lavender
1/2 cup (4 oz.) steamed milk (any kind)  (I microwaved the milk since I don't have a milk "steamer".)
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar, or more or less to taste
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract, store-bought or homemade

Brew earl grey tea and lavender together, and steep for 3 minutes (or according to tea instructions). Remove tea bag and strain out the lavender. Stir in remaining ingredients until combined. Serve warm.

Since I already had a box of Earl Grey Lavender Tea bags, I used that.  I am not a huge milk fan and rarely ever put it in tea, but I tried this. It was pretty good. I forgot to put in the vanilla, however, and I think it would have been even better if I had remembered it.  Next time.  

We are still praying for the people of Ukraine as well as the people in Russia. 

They say that Sunflowers are the national flower for Ukraine. These aren't sunflowers, but miniature dandelions or some other such wildflower that is growing in our yard right now. They are golden yellow and only bloom in the sun, so I think that's close enough. I picked them to remind me to keep praying.

Well, I guess that's it for today. I am writing this on Thursday night but most of you won't see it until Friday anyway, so this is my Friday Foto Friends offering for this week.

Have a blessed weekend...and don't forget to spring forward on Saturday night!

Tuesday 4: November is Here

November is Here


Welcome to Tuesday 4 begun by our friend Toni Taddeo and kept up in her memory.
This week let's talk about November!

1. Besides Thanksgiving is there anything about November you like/dislike?

Besides Thanksgiving, well, I like that this is the season of "thankfulness"...remembering to count our blessings as we anticipate what Thanksgiving is really all about.  November is kind of the prelude to the Advent season...while planning our guest list and menu for Thanksgiving, I am also thinking ahead to preparing my heart for the Christmas season...it's kind of the "calm before the storm" of the busiest season of the year. If there is anything I dislike about November, it would be that Thanksgiving day is over all too quickly. We no sooner finish eating our desserts and people are ready to start going home and I am just getting ready to sit down and visit and relax. I wish people could just stay longer and linger over that last piece of pie with a cup of tea and not be in any rush to go home...

2. How is November weather where you live? Does it suit you?

November is usually cooler and drier, not so humid.  Hurricane season is finally over so we don't have to worry about that until next June. For us here in Florida, November is really the beginning of autumn weather.  Yes, that suits me just fine! We can finally bring out our long sleeved shirts and sweaters and jeans again and put away the summer clothes until next spring...We might even have a bonfire in the firepit and sit outside in the evenings and roast marshmallows and make s'mores.  Usually the mosquitoes are gone by then...That's always a happy time!

This was last year...looking forward to doing this again soon!!

3. When do you plan for Thanksgiving? Eat home or out? Menu?

I am planning right now...I am actually a bit behind this year since I just had surgery two weeks ago. I wasn't sure if we would try to have a big Thanksgiving dinner here at our house or not.  It's still a bit up in the air.  It may end up just being our immediate family for dinner, which would be really different for us. Our home is usually the gathering place for the extended family since all our parents have gone on to heaven. But as others' families also grow and expand, they realize that it is time to have their own family gatherings in their homes and it becomes more and more difficult to get us all together in one place at the same time. So we may be making some adjustments this year and in the years to come.

Menu? Well, the norm is of course turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, and from there it may vary...depending on who is coming and who is bringing what. Usually there is some kind of vegetable casserole (but not the green bean casserole!! No Thank You!) And of course cranberry sauce, a congealed salad of some kind, like a cranberry/nut/pineapple/apple jello mixture, relish tray, rolls, butter, and then of course the desserts: Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, and Pecan Pie

 are the norms, but anything anyone wants to bring is just fine.  I welcome other people bringing their specialties. I don't like to do ALL the cooking by any means, so that is one good reason for inviting guests so we get a variety of good food! LOL.  One thing is for certain, we never go hungry!

4. When do you begin your decor and plans for Christmas. 

I do not begin Christmas decorating until after Thanksgiving is over. I cannot handle more than one holiday at a time.  I like to linger over the last piece of pumpkin pie the day after, and then little by little the pilgrims and turkeys and fall decor disappears and the red and green replaces the browns and golds and orange colors. We usually try to put the Christmas tree up by the first weekend in December, and it keeps growing from there.

The most important part of this season is to be thankful...we are the most blessed people on earth, in spite of our current political or national situation...Regardless of whether or not we agree or disagree with the things that are going on, we are still more blessed than any other nation in the world.

I certainly don't want that to change, and so my thoughts would be that as we enter this season of thankfulness and preparing our hearts for advent and Christmas, that we remember to

PRAY for our nation, our leaders, our families and friends.

Don't take anything for granted...our health, our jobs, our homes, our families, our freedom...

Give thanks to God for all He has done for us, and stand strong in your faith in Him to see you through no matter what battle you may be facing.

And remember, I know I've quoted this verse often, but it bears repeating now again:

Isaiah 41:10

"Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

Have a Happy November!