Easter Saturday...While We Wait...

 It's the Saturday after Good Friday...the day before Easter...and the tomb is still closed...we wait for the sunrise tomorrow...or perhaps I should say, "we wait for the SONRISE" tomorrow! For those of us who know "the rest of the story"...that death could not hold our Savior in the tomb...we look forward to the dawn tomorrow...because we know that the stone will be rolled away...and the tomb will be empty...and the angels will proclaim that Christ is risen as He said...but today we wait...

Hear what Jesus said to His disciples before His crucifixion...

John 16:19-22

19 Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’? 

20 Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. 

21 A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 

22 Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.

At the time, the disciples did not understand what Jesus was trying to tell them...but once Christ was resurrected from the dead, it all made sense to them, and their sorrow was soon replaced with great joy!

So we who already know that Christ is risen from the dead can rejoice in this knowledge. There's no reason to be grieving now...we anticipate the remembrance of this joyous Easter morning and we can live our lives with joy and peace and much thanksgiving for Christ's amazing grace and gift of salvation! 

"Amazing grace (how sweet the sound)

that saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found,

was blind, but now I see."

And so today, while we anticipate the joy of the resurrection morning tomorrow, we have spent the day having another kind of celebration. Tomorrow is my sister Doris and also her husband Art's birthdays.  Yes, they were born on the same day, just 2 years apart.  I was thrilled when she said they would love to come to our house to celebrate...because they live 2 hours away, and it's getting harder and harder for them to drive all the way here and back home. We often choose to meet somewhere 1/2 way at a restaurant to celebrate different occasions, but it's always so much nice to be able to relax and enjoy being in our home together. Sadly, none of their or our kids were free today to come for a party, but they said they didn't mind that. They will have a party with their kids tomorrow after church to celebrate Easter and their birthdays at the same time.

So, I decided that if they were going to drive all the way here, we would make it extra special somehow. We decided to invite some mutual friends who live about a half hour away, and who used to always participate in our family parties when we lived in the same town before moving here. One of our dear friends has just very recently, within the past month, lost her husband of over 71 years! Yes, that's right!  They were married for over 71 years! So you can imagine how difficult it has been for her...but she was thrilled to be able to come and spend the day with us. Another couple from the same town brought her with them.  So here we go with some pictures to show you how the day went:

After a delicious (if I do say so myself) lunch of homemade chicken pot pie and salad, we had cake.Art prefers a coconut cake, and Doris prefers an angel food cake, as I've told you about before...with daffodils in the center of the cake per an old family tradition.    Since it's almost impossible to find real daffodils here in Florida at this time, I had to resort to using artificial ones, but it still looked good and she was pleased. We just had trouble making her candles stand up straight,  but other than that it was all good. LOL.  

Here's Art blowing out his candles...

And then it was Doris' turn to blow out her candles...

Then we all had cake and Blue Bell Ice Cream and some fresh sweetened strawberries. It was really good.

I was excited to give Doris this gift.  I found it at the Deep Creek Trading Post here in our town...it is a little wreath for the hair with flowers and tiny fairy lights entertwined. The best part was that the yellow flowers were daffodils!

Here's the back of it. Isn't it sweet? I know, she probably won't ever wear it again, but I told her she has to wear it tomorrow for her family party. She said she didn't think she would wear it to church since she sings in the choir...oh well...at least she's a fairy princess for the day!  I remember us making such little flower wreaths of dandelions and daisies when we were little girls on the farm in Pennsylvania.  Not that elaborate, of course, but just wound around through our hair. Somewhere there's a picture of us, but I can't find it and Doris says she doesn't really remember that...??? What??? Oh well...she's 80! Some things we forget I guess. LOL.

The other gift I gave her actually is a gift from Benton and Rose and us.  I commissioned Benton to build some kind of sign for Doris' garden, and this is what he made...

Doris is the gardener in the family, and she spends a LOT of time in her lovely garden. So I am sure she will find a place to put this.

Oh hello...here's hubby and I...

Here's our friends Marian and Chuck...

And they brought our dear friend Maura, who just lost her sweet hubby "Woody".  We all missed him being there too, but we rejoice that he's celebrating in heaven today. He was almost 91 years old when he passed, and had lived a wonderful life.

It was a lovely and perfect way to wait for the SONRISE tomorrow.

Oh, one more thing I've been meaning to share with you. Last week we took a little ride, and I noticed something amazing on the tops of these very tall pine trees...

If you look really closely you can see little crosses on the very tip tops of the new growth on the trees:

Here is some information that I found on Google about this annual phenomenon:
"AI Overview

In Florida, and across the Southern U.S., many pine trees (especially Loblolly) develop small, yellow, cross-shaped, or "X"-shaped, growths at their tops during early spring. These, often referred to as "[Easter Crosses]" or "candles," appear as the tree grows new branches, with the phenomenon often peaking around the Easter holiday.
Lakeland Ledger +2

Even though the tree "experts" don't consider it anything unusual, for those of us who see the significance of God's amazing creation all around us, we consider this just another way that even the trees in God's creation rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“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."

Isaiah 55:12

Okay friends, it's time to head to bed. It's going to be another busy, but joyful day tomorrow.  It's Easter~and our choir will be singing our cantata, "Embrace the Cross". After church our kids will be coming here for dinner. Thankfully Rose is baking the ham and doing some other things and I don't have to do too much. It will be a day of rejoicing and enjoying our family.  

Sleep in peace.  Tomorrow brings such Good News!!

.Good Night

Thankful Wednesday!

 Rather than wait until Thursday to write about our "thankfulness", I thought I should let you all know tonight just how very thankful we are for how God protected us throughout Hurricane Idalia.

I kept waking up during the night, expecting to hear the sounds of high winds and pounding rain on the roof, and it was just very very quiet.  But because I was so keyed up about my expectations, I really couldn't sleep very well, and so finally just went ahead and got up around 5 a.m. to watch the news and see the latest updates.  According to the 5:00 a.m.  updates, the storm had been upgraded to a category 4, which is very powerful, and had not made landfall yet.  However, the expected landfall was, thankfully for us, a little further to the north west on the gulf coast, and our location would be out of the worst of the impact. Still, we were expecting to get a lot of rain and some high winds and possible tornado warnings.  

At daybreak I looked outside at Still Waters Pond (below)...

And out the front side of the house looking east (below), and although it was very cloudy and somewhat windy, there was no real rain to speak of...just intermittent showers now and then...

And praise God, we never even lost power except for a couple of momentary flickers that quickly corrected themselves!  Wow! And that was how it was all day long! We have been thanking the Lord all day for His kindness and mercy toward us and our community and as far as I know all our family and friends throughout the different parts of the state.  However, the area of landfall in the "Great Bend area" and also places further south along the Gulf coast, did have some pretty serious damage and storm surge and coastal flooding. Our hearts go out to them and we pray that they have not suffered any loss of life or serious damages that cannot be repaired.  This was a very huge and powerful storm, and we are just so thankful that it didn't come inland anywhere too close to us.

Thank you all who prayed for us and sent best wishes.  You are the best kind of friends ever!!  

We mostly spent the day resting in our recliners and watching the storm news and doing some reading. I actually took a couple of naps to make up for my restlessness last night, and then we took a nice walk about an hour ago to stretch our legs and get some fresh air. I left my computer turned off until now, as I didn't want the power surges to damage it, as it is it is getting kind of old and the power switch is getting kind of cranky...so I'm thinking I need to do some more backing up of my files and be prepared for the inevitable day when it will finally shut down for good. I truly hope that's a long ways off, but like a good Girl Scout, I should always 'be prepared'.  LOL.

We've been singing this song at the close of our Sunday morning worship service  this past month...and I feel like it is an appropriate song to sing now and close this post...as you sing along with the singers below, look at the pictures of the trees outside here along the shore of Still Waters Pond. You can't see them moving in the wind, but it's like they are swaying with the music and clapping their hands with joy because they were spared in this storm!! So let us all rejoice together!

The Trees of the Field (Gaither Homecoming Family)

You Shall Go Out With Joy

And Be Led Forth With Peace

The Mountains And The Hills

Will Break Forth Before You

There’ll Be Shouts Of Joy,

And All The Trees Of The Field

Will Clap, Will Clap Their Hands

And All The Trees Of The Field

Will Clap Their Hands

The Trees Of The Field

Will Clap Their Hands

The Trees Of The Field

Will Clap Their Hands

While You Go Out With Joy

You Shall Go Out With Joy

And Be Led Forth With Peace

The Mountains And The Hills

Will Break Forth Before You

There’ll Be Shouts Of Joy,

And All The Trees Of The Field

Will Clap, Will Clap Their Hands

And All The Trees Of The Field

Will Clap Their Hands

The Trees Of The Field

Will Clap Their Hands

The Trees Of The Field

Will Clap Their Hands

While You Go Out With Joy

(Based on Isaiah 55:12)

Amen!!!

Friday Foto Friends ~ A Walk on the Wild Side

Greetings Friends! It's Friday already! I think I am glad for this week to come to an end. Had to get out and take a walk and enjoy some fresh air and listen to the birdies sing!

“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."

Isaiah 55:12

The trees in the woods were full of Tufted Titmice and Chickadees and Woodpeckers. I could hear them before I could see them. It was as if they were sending the message all over the woods: 

"An intruder is coming near...pass the word!"

Two Tufted Titmice in the tree above.

A Downy Woodpecker looks like he is caught in a cage, but he flew quickly away before I could get another picture.

The Red Bellied Woodpecker was finding something good inside that pinecone!

There was a lot of commotion down the street with these big old ugly buzzards flying all over the place:

They really did not like me invading their space because they were all in hot competition for the remains of an unfortunate deer that had apparently been hit by a car and was laying in the bushes:

(no picture of that...trying to keep this clean)

The buzzards were all over the trees surrounding me as I walked through, impatiently waiting for me to get on by so they could get back to their dinner.

I felt like I was in the movie set for "The Birds"...not a pleasant thought, so I hurried on back to join my hubby on our walk. Never did like that movie.

But I still enjoyed my walk and seeing some real bird activity for a change.  I haven't been taking as many walks as usual because of the holidays and the cold weather, and just being too busy (or lazy). Now I need to get back in the routine and keep my body moving! 

Speaking of wildlife and holidays, my son and his sweet wife, who comprise the company of 

Ben & Rose's Country Woodshop, were busily creating some special gifts for us this Christmas.  I've been asking for some extra shelving and/or towel bars/hooks for our bathrooms, and so they heeded the call and livened up my bathroom with some "wildlife":

If you've known me very long, you know that bears have played a big part in my "former life" before moving here where it is a little more civilized than our last home in the middle of the national forest. I do miss seeing our bears so frequently, so the kids thought they'd add a little reminder to my bathroom decor where I will see them every day!  I love it! 

 (I already had that towel...just needed a place to hang it!)

In case you didn't know me back then, here's just a little sampling of some of the wildlife that we had in  our front yard at our former home. Bears were frequent visitors during the night and sometimes during the day...and the deer were always frolicking around:

This bear wanted to know why we had our house up for sale:

The deer were always congregating in our yard and road:

I do miss these beautiful animals, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do...and we are very happy where we are living now.

Likewise, they made another little towel bar/shelf  so I'd have a place to hang other guest/hand towels and also a place to put some things... No, I didn't take that framed photograph. It was a gift last year from a friend. I love it as it is typical of our surroundings where we live now.

And they didn't forget hubby's bathroom. He also got a new towel bar and some hooks:

His weren't as "wild" as mine, but they are functional and that is all that mattered to him.

Yes, we have that same "wallpaper" in all of our bathrooms. It came with the house and it would be rather costly to cover or replace, so we live with it. It's a bit busy, but it kind of grows on you after a while. LOL.

So there you have it...a little taste of "walking on the wild side" for this week.  Sure beats what's going on in the news, which we won't discuss. I nearly had a meltdown last night when I listened to what people in the media are saying, so we are not watching the news and probably won't for the next four years. I may just retreat back into the woods for a while...

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.

Isaiah 55:10-11

So be it, Lord. Accomplish Your will through the sharing of Your Word...

that is where I want to be...

Have a lovely weekend, my friends. Might be a good time to get outside and enjoy God's beautiful world around us and stay away from the news for a while!