Wednesday Treasures?

 I honestly don't have anything in particular to share today. I missed the Tuesday 4 meme yesterday about going to the seashore.  I had a busy day and really didn't have time to focus on it and couldn't think of anything clever to say anyway. Ever have days like that?  I don't even think I have any new pictures to share with you since my Monday post. So why am I here?  I don't know...just thought I should check in before you think I've checked out...LOL.  

Right now I am waiting for some Blueberry Bran Muffins (Click HERE for recipe) to come out of the oven. I can smell them baking and they smell SO good. I have my extra timer sitting here beside me so I can hear it when they are done. If I rely on the timer on my stove, I most likely will not hear it from where I am now and the muffins will get "overdone".  So I must pay attention...

Well, they're done already!!   Just gotta let them cool for a spell while I write to you...

I went outside to check on my own blueberries...I found one to eat right off the bush:

And these are on a different bush, but not quite ripe yet.

We planted several blueberry bushes last spring, in hopes that this year we would have plenty of our own blueberries to eat. However, I apparently didn't fertilize them enough or give them enough water or something, because they haven't produced much.  

Thankfully, we have a very large blueberry farm here in our town and the berries are ripe right now, so I was able to go get some from them the other day to have enough for eating and baking, etc. I may go back and get some more today. There is nothing quite as good as fresh blueberries right from the bush!  And they are huge! And so sweet and juicy!

Here's all I have left of the 2 lbs. I bought last week:

I've been eating them with cantaloupe, on my yogurt and granola, and just at random. They are SO good. Yes, I must add that to the list of "things to do" today...

 (a little later)  And so we did make the trip about two miles south of town to the blueberry farm...

And we were met with a sign on the door that says they are now closed for the 2022 season, and they will see us next year!  What???? How did I miss that?  I thought they'd be going on longer than that!!  Well, "snooze, you lose", as they say.  I guess I missed the first part of the season and didn't realize it had already been going on for a while. Well, doggone it! Now we won't have anymore really FRESH blueberries to eat!!!! I'm rather bummed, can you tell?

Oh well, back to where I was when I started this post over three hours ago...

Speaking of "overdone".  Yesterday was a busy day, as I said. We started the morning out with me having to go the Dr. office to do labs.  That was uneventful enough, thankfully, and then we went out to breakfast at our local "greasy spoon", "Nana's".  It's one of those small local cafe's where you can get a good breakfast or lunch pretty inexpensively, and it's always good. It's not fancy by any means, but the service is good and the people are very accommodating.  I had a wonderful breakfast of one huge blueberry pancake (they actually used the fresh blueberries from that blueberry farm!), bacon, scrambled eggs and hash browns!  (I didn't take any pictures! But it was sure good!) However, that filled me up so much that we didn't need any lunch and also I totally forgot about laying something out to cook for supper.  Well, hubby to rescue...he said he'd go pick up a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store. Sounded good to me. However, when we opened up that chicken, it was the most pathetic looking thing I'd ever seen! I'd say it was about the size of a small pigeon instead of a chicken. The legs were so puny and the wings were so skinny I doubt that chicken could have even run or flown to get away! But worse than that, it was so OVERCOOKED it was totally inedible.  We couldn't find enough edible meat on that carcass to even fill one sandwich if you wanted to, nor would you want to, it was so dry and overdone! I felt really bad because our son Scott came home from work pretty tired, hot, and hungry after working out in the heat all day, and he certainly deserved a good supper!  Thankfully, he's a very talented cook as well, and found some leftover ham in the fridge that was still good (but we were getting tired of eating ham), and made himself a wonderful quesadilla with that. I had baked some potatoes and made a salad, and hubby and I weren't really that hungry, so we just ate the baked potatoes and salad and we were happy. But you can bet I called the manager of that store and told him all about that pathetic overcooked scrawny chicken in as nice of terms as I could manage. He said to come in and get our money back or a new chicken anytime.  I said we'd take the money, thank you.  And so we did that today after our disappointing trip to the closed Blueberry Farm. No problem. Got our money back and hopefully someone had a chat with the deli people about how to properly cook a rotisserie chicken! IF I ever buy another one there, you can bet it will be inspected before it leaves the store!

Okay, let's end this rambling post up on a more pleasant note!

I've been trying to get some decent pictures of this pretty red male Cardinal for a while. He's so quick to get a seed and fly away that I rarely can grab my camera in time.

But today he cooperated a little longer than usual, but I still had to be quick!

He's much more vibrantly red in person...but I noticed something odd about him. He seems to be missing his longer tail feathers!  

There...he turned around and gave me a closer look! Sure enough, he's missing quite a few feathers, but he seems to fly just fine. I don't want to think about what might have happened to cause that problem...but he seems to have survived whatever it was and is managing life just fine without them!

Must be a lesson there for us somewhere...

Meanwhile, I've been enjoying the beautiful magnolia tree across the street from us. It is in full bloom right now, and the blossoms are so large and gorgeous!

I actually picked this one this morning and put it in a glass bowl of water, and within an hour or so this is how it looked:

I was enjoying it sitting on my kitchen counter, but soon realized that the exquisite fragrance of this blossom was a bit overpowering and was contributing to my headache (which is much better, BTW, praise God, but I don't want to put it to the test too much...) and so, the magnolia blossom was relegated to the back porch table, where I can see it without having to smell it...

Is anyone else fragrance sensitive like this? I can't be in the room with gardenias, Easter Lilies, or other strong flowers or else I will get a powerful headache...

However, that was not the source of my headache that I've been having. We moved the pot of Easter Lilies to the back porch as soon as it started having more than one blossom at a time on it.

I am very thankful to be feeling much better and give thanks to God for His guidance and healing touch.

The issue is not totally gone, but it's manageable, and I am indeed most grateful.

Well friends, I guess I should wind this up. It's now lunch time.

What treasures did I share today for my Wednesday Treasures?

Well, treasures aren't always "things" we have in our china cupboards or other material items.

They are the delights we find in God's creation...the birds, the flowers, the berries...the little lessons we learn from nature about adapting to difficult situations and still flying high...

Even when things don't go as planned or hoped, we learn to "make lemonade" out of lemons and carry on. 

John 10:10

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

Yes, there are always those out there who want to steal our joy or cause disappointments or even try to "clip our wings" so we can't fly high, but Jesus reminds us that He came to give us life, and to have it more abundantly.  Regardless of our frustrations, disappointments, and even our "injuries" in life, through Christ we have hope, peace, and yes, even joy in the abundant life that He gives us when we put our trust in Him. That's the treasure I have that I want to share with you today.

Amen.

Abundant Life

John 10:10  "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, 

and that they may have it more abundantly."

Come worship with us today, and sing along as our choir sings

"Eat This Bread and Never Hunger"

(be sure to start at the beginning to find the song)

Refrain: 

Eat this bread and never hunger, 

drink this cup and never thirst; 

Christ invites us to the table where the last become the first.

 

Asking for a cup of water, 

Jesus touched forbidden ground; 

and the woman, with a question, told the world what she had found. 

Refrain 

Walking down a desert highway, 

Jesus healed a man born blind; 

soon the man became a witness to the truth we seek and find. 

Refrain 

Weeping for his friend at graveside, 

Jesus felt the pain of death; 

yet he knew God's power to waken: 

living water, living breath. 

Refrain

Have an abundantly blessed and beautiful Sunday!

Never Fear - UPDATED 2-6-18

2-6-18  UPDATE TO THIS STORY:  Thank you all for your words of kindness regarding the break-in at my MIL's house last night. Thankfully it appears that the robbers did not get anything from inside the house, even though they had broken down the door to the laundry room and left their crowbar inside. They did steal some items that were in the carport. It appears that they may have been scared off before they could take anything else. Praise God! And it also appears that they did not do any other damage inside the house.  My husband and I both said it is as though an angel may have guarded the interior of the home and kept them from moving forward.  We give thanks to the Lord for His protection over her home.  


I've been sitting here reading my blogging friends' various posts from today and over the weekend, and I'm thinking that I should be writing something, but it seems as though I can't get my brain in gear to say anything.  Stayed up last night and watched the Super Bowl, which is unusual for me, but hubby would have had to watch it alone if I didn't, and that didn't seem like much fun for him. Normally, or at least in times past, there would have been at least one or two of our sons here to watch with him.  But since one got married this past fall and the other works evenings on the weekend they aren't around so much to watch the games with him.  So, I actually got into it and enjoyed the game. I wasn't rooting for either team in particular, but was glad to see the Eagles win. They truly played the better game, and in my opinion, they deserved to win!

So that being said, as I was sitting here typing this, my brother in law called to tell us that he had just had a phone call that my mother-in-law's house has been broken into.  He was on his way to check it out and see what kind of damage has been done. Sadly, her house has been sitting there empty for sometime since she has been in the nursing home.  Due to circumstances beyond our control, we aren't able to sell her house yet, so this has been a major concern that vandals would discover it. We had removed most of the more valuable items from the house, but there was still quite a bit of furniture and appliances inside.  This is not good news.

Yesterday's sermon verses seem to fit here:

John 10:10

"The thief does not come except to steal, 

and to kill, and to destroy.

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

II Timothy 1:7

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

I John 4:1, 4

1.  "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets 

have gone out into the world."

4.  "You are of God, little children, 

and have overcome them, because

He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."

(Pictures from the beautiful camellia bushes that are blooming at the church)

When fears and disappointments come our way, we have a tendency to run and hide and throw up our hands in fear and surrender to the enemy. 

(For a little comic relief, I just had to throw this picture in, which is at a three way intersection on our way to the town where the church is that we attend.  It is someone's way of getting our attention so that we don't drive straight into the woods! )

But God has come to give us a spirit of "power, and love and a sound mind."  We need to remember that our God is able to deliver us from the hands of the evil one...

We need not fear what man may do to us, for we belong to Jesus...and "Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world."  

It is sad when things that are of value to us are stolen or damaged or lost...but they are just that...things. In the grand scheme of life, those things are not what is really important.

What is truly important is our soul, mind and spirit...and when we belong to Jesus,

no man can take us away from Him.

John 10:28-29

"And I (Jesus) give them eternal life,

and they shall never perish; 

neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

My Father, who has given them to Me, 

is greater than all; 

and no one is able to snatch them out of 

My Father's hand."

You Belong to Jesus? Never Fear!

Praise God!!

Abide in My Love

"I Am the true vine,

and My Father is the vinedresser."

"Every branch in Me that 

does not bear fruit 

He takes away;

and every branch that bears fruit

He prunes,

that it may bear more fruit."

"You are already clean

because of the word which I

have spoken to you."

"Abide in Me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,

unless it abides in the vine,

neither can you,

unless you abide in Me."

"I am the vine,

you are the branches.

He who abides in Me,

and I in him,

bears much fruit;

for without Me you can do nothing."

"If anyone does NOT abide in Me,

he is cast out as a branch

and is withered;

and they gather them and throw them

into the fire, 

and they are burned."

"If you abide in Me,

and My words abide in you,

you will ask what you desire,

and it shall be done for you."

"By this My Father is glorified,

that you bear much fruit;

so you will be My disciples."

"As the Father loved Me, 

I also have loved you;

Abide in My love."

"If you keep My commandments,

you will abide in My love, 

just as I have kept 

My Father's commandments and 

abide in His love."

"These things I have spoken to you,

that MY JOY may remain in you,

and that YOUR JOY 

may be FULL!"

"This is My commandment,

that you LOVE ONE ANOTHER

as I have loved you."

"Greater love has no one than this,

than to lay down one's life

for his friends.

You are MY friends if 

you do whatever I command you."

~Jesus Christ~

The Gospel of John

15:1-14

There is nothing more that I can add to these words of 

Jesus Christ...except believe in Him and you will

have abundant life!

"The thief does not come except to steal, 

and to kill, and to destroy.

I (Jesus Christ) have come that they may have life,

and that they may have it more abundantly."

John 10:10

Amen!

(All pictures are from our beautiful surroundings in our "Camp in the Woods" home. Thank  you, Lord, for Your abundance and abiding love! Amen.)