March Just Marched Right In!

 Can you believe it is March already?  Actually, my hubby was saying that he thought February seemed awfully long...I reminded him that it's the shortest month of the year, but there again, I agreed, it did seem long. It must've been all the crazy weather everyone was having. I'm sure many of you up north are happy to see February gone, and we all pray that March will be a calmer and kinder month.  Some of you have already seen these sunset pictures from the last night of February...but for those who haven't, here's just a sampling...

I was surprised to see those Muscovy Ducks perched in that pine  tree on the island in the Still Very Dry Still Waters Pond...

I guess they like looking at the sunset as much as I do. I noticed they flew away as soon as the sun was completely down...

And sadly, yes,  Still Waters Pond is still very dry. The wonderful rain that we got the other night did not last as long as it was supposed to,  and we got just a bit less than one inch of rain.  Every bit helps, but sadly there was hardly a puddle out there the next day...

Still, the sunset was beautiful, and I enjoyed watching it change as it descended from the skies.

With all of the turmoil going on around the world...I am definitely keeping my eyes on the skies.

Jesus said in Luke 21:25-28

25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

Yes, there's a lot going on...planets lining up, the blood moon, the fall of the Iranian evil leader and his cohorts...but I am no prophet, and I know that no man knows the time or the hour of Christ's return...but Jesus went on to teach the disciples a parable in Luke 21:29-33

"29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.
31 So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
32 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
33 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away."

It is a wise person who pays attention to what's happening around them and around the world, and makes sure of his own position and relationship with God...There's no time like the present to prepare our hearts and minds for Christ's return. I'd rather be early than too late.  Just some "food for thought" to start off this month.

Okay,  let's switch gears...on Saturday we had the joy of visiting with my cousin Becky and her husband, who were passing through on their way back home to Ohio:

We met them at one of our most favorite places to eat, "Corky Bells" on the St. John's River. It was a little too cloudy and chilly to eat outside, but we did take a little walk down on the pier after lunch to get a few pictures. Thankfully it had warmed up a little by then.

Becky and I grew up together and seemed more like sisters than cousins.  We were just nine months apart in age, and lived about 10 miles from each other, but we were together for all family holidays, birthdays, and especially in the summer time we spent a lot of time together playing with our Barbie dolls, building houses and making clothes for them, and playing endless Monopoly games and other board games. We often found some mischief to get into as well, but we mostly just had fun and enjoyed being little girls.

This was my 10th birthday, when I got my Barbie doll, and Becky got one not long after, so we shared many hours together creating a life for our dolls. It's always fun when we get together now and remember the good old days, as well as get caught up on our lives today. Thank you, Becky and Pat, for going out of your way to visit us again!!

There was a young boy fishing on the dock, and he caught this fish! I think he threw it back in, but not before pictures were taken by us and his family too!

 

Who remembers the first fish you ever caught?  I do! There were some sweet old folks who lived down on the lake in front of our house where I grew up, and they actually had some "pet bass" that they fed off of their dock.  I was about 11 or 12 years old, and Mr. Fred Jay let me use one of his cane poles to fish from the dock.  Lo, and behold, I caught one of their "pet bass"! I think he weighed about 2 or 3 pounds.  At this point I don't remember if I kept it and brought it home, or if we threw it back in. I think there may be a picture in some box somewhere of me with that fish. I really don't remember us eating it, so it probably got thrown back in, but I do remember the thrill of that catch!!  I've never really done any fishing since then. LOL.

Since today is the first day of March, how about the Calendar Roll Call?  

Here we go:   The Country Seasons calendar by John Sloane is up first:

Love that beautiful Amaish farm scene...looks so peaceful, doesn't it? 

Next is the Thomas Kinkade picture of "Foxglove Cottage"...beautiful!!

How often has Christ said to you and me..."My grace is sufficient for thee...for My strength is made perfect in weakness...?"  It's not always what we want to hear, is it?  No one likes to be weak...we want to stay strong...but sometimes we have to give in and let God's GRACE be our all sufficiency...His Strength will be made perfect when we just get out of the way and let Him do what He needs to do in our lives.  We have to take the humble road instead of the high road.  Not easy for those of us who like to be "in control".  But if I've learned anything in this life, it's to remember that God is in control,  and when I submit to that in my mind and my actions, things go a lot smoother.

This log cabin beside the water looks like a perfect retreat when you need to just 'get away' for a while and rest and relax...

And perhaps have some tea...although this is a child's tea set...very ornate and lovely!! Perhaps a bit too ornate for a little girl to play with? Well, maybe Mommy or Grandma needs to supervise just a little bit...

Here's my own little child's tea sets...

The Buster Brown tea set originally belonged to my Aunt Margie, and then she gave it to my mother, and my mother left it to me.

And this little white tea pot and cup and saucer belonged to my paternal grandmother...so these are all pretty special to me. I just need a little girl to come and have a tea party with me...

Oh my! Here's the Susan Branch calendar for March...with Irish Coffee as the featured beverage of choice.  Probably not something that I will be trying...but here's the recipe in case you are so inclined...I don't drink coffee or whiskey, so it doesn't sound too tempting to me...

But this is a funny little riddle:

And last but not least, who doesn't love a red barn?  Wow! That's gorgeous!  

And I love what Billy Graham said in this quote:

How appropriate for our current world situation and quest for "world peace".

"Christ alone can bring lasting peace...

peace with God, peace among men and nations, 

and peace within our hearts."

Amen.

That seems like a good place to bring this post to an end.  It's almost bedtime anyway and it's been a long day. We had a wonderful church service this morning, and then our sons Scott and Benton were both here for lunch. Rose had to work unfortunately.  I cooked a meat loaf and baked potatoes and we had a tossed salad.  Then Scott and I went to work on getting his taxes done.  I had already done ours this past week and we already got our refund deposited into our bank! That was quick!  Scott's had a few more complications to figure out, be we finally got it done and he'll get a tiny refund, but that's better than owing money! When you're single with no dependents and don't own a house or have any other big deductions, you are blessed if you can get a refund at all! I keep telling him every year if he wants to get a bigger refund, he needs to get married and have some kids! LOL.  He'll be 49 this month, so time's a wasting! Oh well, some things are better just left as they are. God knows best and Mama needs to mind her own business. LOL.

Okay, "let's say goodnight, Gracie!"  "Good night Gracie!".  Who remembers George Burns and Gracie Allen? I loved Gracie.      So "good night Gracie."  Good Night.  May you sleep in peace. Amen.

Friday Foto Friends Already?

It's been a rather busy week and Friday Foto Friends kind of crept up on me! Here it is Thursday night, and it just hit me that I really haven't planned anything for this post.

So I will start out with some photos of a few of the Christmas decorations I've been doing this week.

If you are a Facebook friend, you've probably already seen some of these.

As you enter our foyer of our house, this is what you will see. I want Jesus to be the focus of our Christmas decorations.

We've had some chilly weather this week, and our little electric "wood stove" has felt pretty good, especially early in the morning...

I absolutely love this cabin picture that lights up, with the deer standing on the snowy banks alongside the frozen stream.   I've said that I'd love to live there...but maybe just for a little while...not sure I really want all that ice and snow to deal with at this stage in life.

When you step up on our front porch, this is what you will see...our little wild grapevine wreath, made with our very own grapevines the first year we moved to this house in the forest.

Here is how it looks at night....

And again, "Jesus is the Heart of the Holiday"

Changing scenes a little bit...Just a few pictures from the week...

Out on our road someone put up this new sign below the speed limit sign.   Our road has a different street name now, but for many years it was known as Kerr Key Road, as it winds around through the woods out to a "key" into beautiful Lake Kerr. We live at the beginning of the road, not out on the lake.  But it is still beautiful, and I can understand why it could be called "Paradise".

Okay, on a different note, I may have shown this picture below before....it was an unripe persimmon:

Well, we visited this place again, and here is that same persimmon...looks like it is ripe for the picking now....

And I thought these azaleas were lovely...it may be a little early for them to bloom, but I believe these are the type that bloom throughout the year.

I've mentioned that we are anticipating selling our house sometime in the near future, and this week we have had some serious "lookers", but no contract yet. Someone will be here tomorrow (Friday) about the time you are reading this, so please say a little prayer that if they are they ones who will love this house like we do, then they will make a reasonable offer that we cannot refuse.

Because it is becoming more apparent that our house could sell all of a sudden and catch us with no place to go, we have been seriously thinking about what to do. We can't buy anything until our house has a solid contract on it.  We don't want to get the cart before the horse and get ourselves in a bind if things don't work out.  However, that doesn't keep us from "looking". There is one particular house that we have had our eye on for a little while...the same one where that persimmon is ripening and the azaleas are blooming... anyway, as we decided to take a little ride just to go look at the house again (from the outside), we noticed this big "X" up in the sky as we rode along.  Hubby and I both were remarking about it being "X Marks the Spot", and wouldn't it be funny if it was over that house?  Well, at first it appeared that it was way too far to the west of where that house would be, but as we got closer, we realized that it was pretty much right over the house...

Pretty interesting, huh?  Well, time will tell if this was truly a "sign" from God or just a funny "coincidence".  Gave us a good chuckle anyway.

Today we read in our morning devotions about "signs in the heavens..."  Luke 21:25-28 is where we were reading about the return of Christ to earth at the close of the tribulation.  We are not in the Great Tribulation yet, but there are many signs that would lead us to believe that the Lord's return could be soon. Luke 21:29-33 explains it this way:

"Then He (Jesus) spoke to them a parable: 'Look at the fig tree, and all the trees.

When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.

So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.

Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."

Now look back at verses 27-28:

"Then they will see the Son of Man 

coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Now when these things begin to happen, 

look up and lift up your heads, 

because your redemption draws near."

As we enter this Advent Season, we are focusing on the first Advent of Christ to the earth as a humble little baby in a manger. We remember how the Wise Men saw the star in the sky, and they followed that star until they came to the place where the Christ Child was born. Little did they know at the time that He would be the very same One, returning to the earth at the end of the age, coming in a "cloud with power and great glory", and that He would be the One Who would redeem our souls from death and hell.  Yes, we need to be watching the skies for the signs of the Second Advent of Christ's return...and to be sure that our hearts and souls are ready to meet Jesus.  That is what Christmas is truly all about...preparing our hearts to make room for the Savior to enter in, for eternity!

Is there room in your heart for Jesus this Christmas? Are you watching the signs for His return?

Some things to ponder as we prepare for Christmas...

Okay, friends...I do hope that you have had a wonderful week and that you will be blessed in every good way today.  Now let us travel over to Deb's place at Breathing in Grace and see what our other Friday Foto Friends have been up to this week.