Monday Monday...Sweet Memories and More...

Oh my goodness! What a weekend it was! There was a lot going on in so many different "realms", but I will begin with these wonderful photos that were sent from one of my paternal cousins in Pennsylvania.  I had never seen these photos before. She found them in a box of old photos belonging to my Aunt Audrey and Uncle Paul. (R.I.P.)

These photos were taken of our family, probably back in 1957, I'm guessing.   In the above picture is:

L to R": My mother, brother Russell, sister Doris, Daddy, me, brother Clifford. 

In the above pic L to R:

me, Mom, Doris, Russell, Daddy, Clifford.

In below pic, I think  that is Doris in the front seat, my Dad, me in the back seat, and my brother Russell.

I'm not positive which is which between my sister and me...not that we look that much alike, but it is difficult to tell in this photo which is which. 

Anyway, the occasion was when we had gone back up to PA. from Florida to load up more of our furniture, etc., from my Uncle Paul's barn, where it was being stored since our move to Florida the year before. You will note in the above photos that we had a little cargo trailer attached to our 1955  4 door Chevy Belair sedan.  We also had a cargo box attached to the top of the car, with a canvas tarp over it, to help hold all our luggage, camping gear, etc., because, yes, we camped in tents all the way up and back on this trip (and many others each summer).  How all six of us ever fit in that car for such a long trip, without AC, I might add, I'll never know. But we did it, and we survived.  We made lots of fun memories playing different road games along the way, like the Alphabet game, The Horse Game ("Cemetery! Bury your horses!) among others to keep us entertained along the way.  There were no interstate highways back then, and we took the long,  winding, mountain roads through the Smoky Mountains, where we could find good campgrounds at State Parks, and roadside parks to fix our lunches on the way.  (and sadly, for me, places to pull over quick because I would get carsick frequently!)

These were special times for our family, times I will never forget.  My parents were amazing to organize and plan all of this so well, so that we always had food enough to eat and places to camp (without the aid of GPS to guide us...all my Dad had was the road atlas and a keen sense of direction, well, most of the time.  If he ever got lost he never admitted it and just made it more a part of the adventure!) Oh, and no credit cards back then either! If you ran out of cash, you were out of luck...which we almost did on the way home on one of those trips, because it rained so much we ended up having to eat in a restaurant (no McDonalds' back then) and that pretty much took the last dollar...but we still managed to arrive home safely even if on fumes! LOL. 

Now, this photo (below) was taken a few years before, while we were still living on our farm in Pennsylvania. This was in 1952.

L to R: Russell, Clifford, Daddy, me in my mother's arms, and Doris in front. That is our old farmhouse in the background:

That corresponds with this photo I already shared a couple of months ago. At first I thought it was taken at the same time, but after looking my sister's dress and mine, I decided this must have been a different Sunday afternoon, even though my mother is still wearing the same pretty sundress.

Also, in the photo above you see our dog Laddie.  Here is another photo of Laddie below:

Now back to the present...

Yesterday, July 23, 2023, was my sweet Mother-in-law's "heavenly" 100th birthday.  HERE is a link to a tribute I wrote about her several years ago.  

She was a one of a kind Mother in law, and I miss her a LOT!  

Well, yesterday, on what would have been her 100th birthday, one of her dear "cousins" (by marriage), joined her in heaven to celebrate:

Yes, our "cousin Jane" entered heaven's gates yesterday morning, and I am sure there was a real celebration going on once she arrived.

These pictures are of Jane and "Nanny" (Vivian) together in happier times.

Jane had just turned 93 a few weeks ago, and passed away rather unexpectedly yesterday...but it wasn't unexpected to Jesus...I'm sure He was there to welcome her "home", where she joined her husband, one of her sons, and many others that she was looking forward to seeing again in heaven.

We will miss Jane. She was one of those unforgettable characters that you love to know.

Here's a picture (below) of the last time we saw Jane, (with my hubby) when she came with other family members to visit us at "Dixie Cottage" earlier this year. At that point, she was still able to live in her own home alone, even though she was legally blind and practically deaf, but one determined lady! Not long after this picture was taken she became ill and it was decided that she could no longer live alone, so she went to an Assisted Living home. She was doing well there until this past weekend, when God said it was time to call her home to heaven.

Rest in Peace, Jane. You will be missed by all who knew and loved you here.

In other news this past weekend, we had an interesting day at church yesterday.  Interesting how things happen in twos...there was two different kinds of "bad news", and then two different kinds of "good news".  I'll go with the "bad news" first and finish up with the good to end up on a pleasant note.   The two items of sad or bad news was one dear lady recently found out that she has Stage 4 Cancer. That was very sad news to me, as I truly appreciate this dear soul and hate to see her have to go through all that she is going to have to endure in the near future. I am joining her in prayer for God's mercy and perhaps even a miracle on her behalf. I know God is still in the miracle business, and I am going to pray that way.  The other disturbing news was another dear friend announced that she and her husband were going to get a divorce. That truly was upsetting, because I know and love both of these people, and I pray that God will again work a miracle and save their marriage if at all possible. I know there are times that it seems that divorce is the only answer, but again, I pray God will intervene on their behalf and help them to work things out. 

Jeremiah 32:27

27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. 

Is there anything too hard for Me?"

And now for the good news:

We have a lady in our church who is a single older woman on a very fixed income. Her car basically died and had to be sent to the junk yard. She had no means of purchasing a new car.  One of the men in our church had an extra vehicle that he was not using since his wife passed away, and so he literally gave this vehicle to this lady free and clear...just because she needed it, and he didn't need it, so why should he keep it when she needed it? That was his attitude of true Christian love.  What a testimony of God's amazing grace!

And then, we were surprised when two teens who were here visiting their grandparents for a few weeks both decided that they wanted to be baptized!  And so there was a baptism of these precious young people as a testimony of their faith in Jesus Christ!  Here they are below with our Pastor and his wife and also one of their relatives who stood up with them...

And here with their very proud and happy grandparents:

What a joyous way to end a day that had its share of trials and difficulties.

Okay, that about wraps it up.  Oh, we had our house pressure washed over the weekend:

This was done by our DIL's sister and her son. They did a great job and our house is pretty and clean again!

And then our DIL and son brought over supper on Saturday night! What a blessing!! I forgot to take pictures of that, but we ended up the night playing Dominoes...and that was a lot of fun.

Okay, that's it for now.  I hope you had a blessed weekend and that you will have a wonderful week ahead.

And remember,

Luke 1:37

37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”

 

Friday Foto Friends: The Month of May and Memories

I cannot believe that the month of May is 3/4 over and I still haven't posted my May calendar pictures! It's just been a very busy month and I haven't done a lot of things I thought I'd do, but a lot of things I never dreamed I'd be doing!  But it's all good. I am very thankful for the ways that God is taking care of so many things and blessing us along the way.

I LOVE the verse on this Thomas Kinkade calendar below:

"For with God nothing shall be impossible." Luke 1:37  I am claiming that verse by faith.  

Oh, and don't you just love the painting of that beautiful garden gate and cottage?  The name of the cottage is "Hummingbird Cottage".  I guess with all of those beautiful flowers around the hummingbirds do love to come there. Do you see the cat sitting on the brick fence?  I hope he's not waiting for the hummingbirds.  Oh, look again in the background...do you see the deer and their fawn?   So many sweet details in this painting.  I see a swing hanging from the tree...and the sign on the gate post says this was established in 1958.  I would have thought it was much older than that! I guess it was created to look old, like it had been there forever.  I would love to live in such a lovely place, wouldn't you? (I would need to hire a good gardener, however! LOL)

The verse below is written on the bottom of the calendar...another wonderful verse to ponder and give God the glory for all the wonders He has done!

Okay, moving along to the calendar that hangs in my bathroom...a lovely blue picket fence with beautiful red tulips blooming in front! That's a happy little scene as well...

Now this Susan Branch calendar blesses my heart each month when I discover the new pictures on the new month:

"Blue skies smilin' at me, Nothin' but blue skies do I see..."  

I love the cute little red headed girl with her wheelbarrow full of beautiful spring flowers, and the birdie singing that song for her.  Oh! I do love this picture so much. (Thank you, dear friend, who gave this sweet calendar to me. You know who you are, and I hope you see this!)

And I love the little quote above as well.  These things make me smile!!

Now we come to the John Sloane Country Seasons calendar...and I LOVE this painting of the red covered bridge and the beautiful deer and her fawn crossing the stream on the rocks...May must be the season for deer! I know that out there in the woods the deer are giving birth to their fawns and if one is fortunate enough to see a sweet fawn in the spring, you are blessed indeed! I do miss seeing them. When we lived at our last house in the forest we used to see them all the time. 

And last, but certainly not least, is this beautiful picture from my Teapot Calendar...

Isn't that simply lovely?

I found this quote interesting..."...an artist should only eat good things, and should flee from ill food as much as from ill sights."   Not sure what he means by "ill food"...I guess food that is not healthy to eat and not prepared and served in such a way as to make us enjoy and appreciate the "art" of dining. I know I don't always take the time to arrange our food in ways that appeal more to the aesthetics of fine dining, except for on special occasions.  I do always try to set the table appropriately, but with our family/crowd that usually comes to eat here it is more an issue of making sure there's enough food for everyone and then just sitting down together and enjoying the fun and conversation of family and friends being together.  We do sometimes take shortcuts like using paper plates/plastic when there is a large group of us so that we are not stuck in the kitchen forever washing dishes afterwards. (I don't have a dishwasher anymore, but I do have some wonderful people who don't mind pitching in and washing and drying! That's a real blessing and help to me!)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed all the lovely photos on the May calendars. I enjoy looking at them throughout the month as I write down our many appointments on them so we can keep track of what, when, and where!  

Speaking of which, yesterday hubby had an appointment out of town, and I always like to take advantage of that opportunity to go out to eat afterwards.  So here we are:

It was mid morning and still too early for the lunch menu, but they did have a BLT on the breakfast menu, so that was my choice (above).  My only complaint was the bacon was way overcooked and was crumbling apart, but it still tasted good. The bun was their "home cooked" fresh bread, which made it all ever tastier.

Hubby had a more traditional breakfast...oh, here he is now! Hello!

No selfies of me. It was probably a bad hair day anyway. LOL.

Speaking of bad hair days, did you see this old photo on my FB page?

This was taken many moons ago at my brother Clifford's house in N.C.   probably around 1978-79.  My niece has been going through a lot of her parents' old photos and scanning them and sending them to family members. I had never seen this one before.  Look at all that hair!  I don't remember that dress, and no, I wasn't "expecting". It was apparently just a comfy, cool dress!  Hubby was nice and tanned as he had been coaching football and teaching elementary P.E., in addition to being a full time pastor at that time.

We were very busy with our three sons and a happy life:

Our three sons above with their cousins. 

L to R: Matthew, (always the cut-up!) Benton, Scotty, Leslie and Sandy, standing on the running board of a car that my brother Clifford had restored. He started restoring cars when he was just a teenager, and I think this was his masterpiece.  

Here's Matthew "driving" the car, while little Scotty looks like he wants to get out of there! LOL.

Some sweet memories of days long gone by...

These next two pictures were taken at the same place, but a year or two later. We used to pass through N.C. on our way back and forth between Ohio and Florida when we had moved up to Ohio for hubby to attend Seminary and later pastor a church up there.  So when we were able to come back home to Florida to visit the grandparents, we'd often stop at my brother's home in N.C. for the night.

Here below are our three sons being goofy, with a little help from their cousin Leslie...while "Daddy" sits there in the background doing what appears to be counting some money!  LOL. Probably making sure we had enough to get back home. LOL.

Benton, Scott on top of them, and Matthew, with Leslie doing the "bunny ears" in the background. Crazy kids! Happy days.

Here's another fun pose...I hope they all got out of that unscathed....LOL.  (And hubby is still counting his money. LOL).

Going back in time even farther... (below)This was another Mursch family portrait...circa January 1969. This was before I was married, although if my calculations are correct about the time, I had just gotten engaged! I was told this picture was taken on my mother's birthday, which was January 6th, and I think we got engaged on January 5th. (I'd need to go check my old scrapbook to make sure of that date...lol)

So here we are:

My Dad, My Mother, Me, my "little big sister Doris", (now you see why I call her that), my brother Clifford, and my brother Russell.  Another side note, my brother Clifford and his wife Caryl were expecting their first baby when this picture was taken, and she (Sandy) was born just 3 days later! That may explain the solemn look on his face in these next two picture. He had a lot on his mind about becoming a new father in a few days! 

Here we are again, standing in our "stair step order", the oldest down to the youngest. We used to be like stair steps, until I outgrew my "little big sister" Doris! LOL.  Another side note: I just remembered that my sister Doris had just given birth to their 2nd child, David, on December 1st. He was 2 &1/2 months early and weighed just 3 lb. 3 oz.   I am thinking that he must have come home from the hospital by the time this photo was taken and that is why she's smiling so big. He was definitely a miracle baby, and is a robust 50+ something years old today.  What a blessing!

Here's the original "stair step photo", circa 1953:

Well, with all of this reminiscing, I guess it's time to get back to the present and get a move on for the day. 

I do hope you are having a wonderful month of May...

and no matter what challenges or obstacles may come into your lives, remember:

"For with God, nothing shall be impossible." Luke 1:37.

God said it, and I believe it, and that settles it for me!

Amen.

 

Little Christmas Joys

Little by little, it is beginning to look and feel more like Christmas around our home.

I found those cute snowman plates at the Dollar General, and even though they are plastic, they are cute and make a fun little lunch or salad plate to use through the holidays, as well as adding a whimsical happy face to my kitchen display.

I decided to make this area a hot chocolate section, although my beverage of choice is  Hot Ovaltine, the original malt chocolate flavor.  

I know I already shared these two photos on Facebook, and visions of

"A Christmas Story" and the Ovaltine Secret Decoder ring came to mind for some of our friends...(excuse the naughty word if you watch this video)

"Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!"

Ha Ha, a little levity to brighten our morning...

Now, please excuse the messy look around this tree, but have to tell you this was the most beautiful sight I've seen in a long while...I've been struggling to get our Christmas tree put up, and somehow I pulled some muscles in my neck and shoulder in the process, and every reach and stretch became a painful chore. I managed to get the tree put together (ours is an older variety...you have to physically insert each branch into the trunk and fluff them out. No one else will do it but me. I'm thinking about watching for an end of the season sale this year and getting one of those new ones that just open up and have the lights on already and everything...but for now we still do it this way) 

So anyway, I managed to get it put together, but had no time or energy left to put the lights on the tree. (Saturday afternoon.)  So the tree sat there dark and dreary.

When we came home from church on Sunday, we opened the front door and stepped into the house and our son Scott jumped out from the kitchen and said, "Merry Christmas!" And that is when I realized the lights were on the tree! I literally stood there and cried, I was so happy.  Scott works at a golf course doing lawn maintenance and he has to work most weekends as well as the week, but on the weekend he mostly just does touch up work on the greens and then comes home, so he had gotten home a little earlier than usual and took it upon himself to to put the lights on the tree to surprise me. I was so blessed by this "gift", that I truly was overcome with joyous tears.

So now I could finish the job of decorating the tree, little by little, as the pain in my right side of the neck moved over to the left side and I am having to be careful what I do.  That is why I am also behind in reading your posts, dear friends...I have to limit my time on the computer as that is contributing to the pain...and I apologize for being out of touch...I see there are many good and interesting posts piling up and waiting for me to read...I will try to get caught up today now that I finally got the rest of the tree decorated yesterday:

Now I can begin to concentrate on gifts and baking and other things that make Christmas the most wonderful time of the year!

A little side note here, as I was hanging the ornaments on the our tree, I opened the box that had this particular little ornament inside, and I discovered that somehow his arm had gotten broken off:

And so I glued it back on with some Elmer's Glue (it is a wooden ornament) and then I had to stand there and hold it for a few minutes until it dried. But I didn't mind. You see, this little artist figure belonged to my son Matthew, our beloved son who passed away over six years ago from cancer. And as I stood there holding this precious little figure in my hand, the strains of "Silent Night" began to play on the CD of Christmas music I was listening to while decorating the tree.  So as I stood there, holding this sweet little guy in my hand tightly so his arm could mend, I swayed back and forth to the music, singing softly as the tears rolled down my cheeks, rocking this little guy in my arms and wishing it were my sweet son and that I could have so easily have mended him as I mended this little broken ornament.  But God had other plans for Matthew...plans that I still don't comprehend, but I trust in the One Who created him that His plans are right and good and someday I will understand. And I know that he is totally "mended" now in heaven, and that gives me great peace.

See, he's smiling again! And so was I.

And here he is on the tree, good as new.

My mother had given our boys these ornaments when they were young, and each one represented what they liked to do at that time in their lives. Yes, Matthew was an artist. He loved to draw and paint and was very creative. So that ornament was perfect for him.

Our son Scott at that time was playing soccer, and so his ornament was a soccer player:

And our oldest son Benton at that time was a football player, and so here you see his special ornament:

Do you have special ornaments that have particular meaning for you? I love to think about each and every ornament when I put it on the tree, and try to remember where it came from and who gave it to me. Many ornaments were gifts through the years from all the different places we lived.

Some speak for themselves

When we moved back to Florida, I have a dear friend who loves to "gift" me with pink flamingoes at the most interesting times and places, and so it stands to reason that she would also give me pink flamingo Christmas ornaments:

After my mother passed away, I started looking for special little angel ornaments playing a violin, because my mother loved to play the violin. She wasn't what you would consider an "accomplished" violinist, but it was something she always wanted to do.  I like to envision her playing the violin in heaven in God's magnificent orchestra:

These two birthstone angel ornaments represent my parents with their respective birthstones:

My sister likes to think of me as a little angel I guess, as she gave me this ornament:

Funny, she never thought that about me when we were growing up! LOL.

This cute pig ornament actually came from my husband's cousin Janice's home after she passed away a couple of years ago very unexpectedly.  We were helping my brother in law clean out her house and this was something I saw that I wanted to remember Janice by, as she collected pig decor items, so this ornament now hangs on our tree in loving memory of Janice:

This cute little vintage choir boy bell ornament was a gift to me from my Grandma Mursch when I was a little girl. So it is probably the oldest ornament I have:

And last, but not least, I discovered a note tucked in the bottom of this angel ornament when I was getting ready to hang it on the tree.  I didn't realize it was there before. My husband had written a note that says this ornament was a Christmas gift from his mother, "Nanny", when she was 90 years old. Somehow I had forgotten that. Nanny lived to be 95, but I am sure this was probably one of the last things she gave us for Christmas as she wasn't able to shop or give gifts much after that, even though she did live with us a good bit of the time and was a gift to us in many other ways.

So this was a special little angel to hang on the tree and made us smile as we thought of Nanny:

I guess this is why I have to put up a tree every year and pull out all the boxes filled with so many different old ornaments. There are many many more, but I won't bore you with all the stories.

To me they aren't boring at all, but are loving reminders of the people they represent and the places we've been, and the love that we've been shown throughout the 51 years of our marriage.

Oops! That thought triggered one last photo:

This humble walnut ornament hanging on our tree is a reminder of our very first Christmas together as man and wife.  We didn't have much money for ornaments and things as hubby was still in college and I was working at a low paying job just so we could survive, but we were very very happy.  I decided to be a little creative and so I made some ornaments out of walnut shells. (We ate the nuts first). I glued the shell back together with a little wire coming up out of it for a hanger, and glued glitter on them, and hung them on our first little Christmas tree.  Only this one has survived all these 51 years, and so it is a real treasure! 

I will close with a scripture reading from our devotions this morning:

Luke 1:37

"For with God nothing will be impossible."

Remember that when you feel you are up against the struggle of life in this season.

Enjoy your little Christmas joys!

For previous posts about Christmas JOYs and special ornaments, Click HERE

I have also linked with Sandi over at Rose Chintz Cottage for your Christmas "No Place Like Home" Party this week!  Please go visit and check out the other members of the party!