Happy Monday After Mother's Day!

 Good Morning! I hope this Monday morning after Mother's Day finds you all feeling refreshed and ready for a new week! Regardless of whether or not you were overwhelmed with joy, or underwhelmed with not much of any kind of special activity over the weekend, today is the beginning of a new week! Each new day brings hope and new possibilties for blessings and also for being a blessing to someone else who may be struggling to find her joy.  So I thought I would start out this morning with some special little extra blessings, and hopefully some things that will bring smiles to your faces as well...

#1   Praise the Lord! We've been getting some much needed rain over the past several days, and the promise of more to come in the next few days! That is such a joy to my heart and to our land and pond! No, there still isn't any noticeable water in the pond, but it is like a big old sponge that is soaking up all the moisture it can, and one of these days it is going to overflow with pools of water once again!

And just look at how our garden is growing!!  Little squashes are developing!

And the tomatoes are getting bigger every day...

And some are even turning red!  Those of you who are experienced gardeners, should I pick it now, or let it get bigger and more red before I pick it?  And what are those lines on the leaves? Some kind of insect or worm?  The tomatoes appear to be healthy, but I don't know what these lines are on the leaves...I don't want to use any chemical pesticides...

Anyway, it gives me great joy to see these little gardens growing:

And my wildflower garden is sprouting up really well...probably too well as the seeds were all sown quite on top of each other...so time will tell what develops...plue I need to do some serious weeding around it and keep the grass out.

#2: And look what else sprouted up in my garden yesterday!  Son Scott showed up for Mother's Day afterall!

We had already agreed last Sunday that he didn't need to drive 2 hours back again this week since we weren't going to be having any big Mother's Day dinner because the other kids weren't going to be available and we were going to do something else with them during the week...which I already wrote about Here:Link to earlier post about my Mother's Day celebration at the Beach (in case you missed it).    But he decided he wanted to come on down anyway (he had more laundry to do! LOL) and so I went ahead and put some country style ribs in the crock pot and got some corn on the cob  at the farm market on Saturday, and we ended up having a really nice dinner together.  I was  thrilled, of course!  

We enjoyed a nice afternoon of just visiting and relaxing before he had to head back to Jacksonville...

Of course, he wasn't our only "guest"...Lily Grace wanted to get in the act and wore her "I'm Mom's Favorite" t-shirt.  This was a standing joke, when Scott and Benton each were gifted a similar t-shirt from their Aunt Peggy one year for Christmas, and so a friend of mine created this shirt for Lily Grace.  

(If you still don't know who Lily Grace is, you can check out her blog HERE, although it is sadly out of date) 

A certain Kitty named "Blackie" was surprised to see Lily standing there on HIS chair, and I also think he was surprised to see her t-shirt, because I'm certain that he thinks that he's Mom's favorite!

You will note that he immediately took possession of Lily...

I almost literally had to pry her out of his grasp...we probably won't try that again...Lily was a little nervous...

And then I think Blackie was a little nervous (look at those eyes!) when I took a selfie of the two of us!

The camera really isn't his favorite thing, but you'd think he'd be getting used to it by now...

So that was the excitement for Mother's Day!   Oh, but wait, it wasn't over yet!!  We did get a really nice rain...and guess who else showed up for a visit?

#3: If you are a Facebook friend, you may already have seen these...but for the rest of you, I hope you'll enjoy this Mother's Day visit from the Bluebird family! We never got to see the babies when they left the nest, so it was nice of them to come back for a visit, even if it was in the rain!  They were such fun to watch:

Daddy bluebird is checking to make sure the coast is clear and that it's safe to let the youngsters come over here to "visit".

Mr. Cardinal kept flying in, trying to get to the bird feeder, but Daddy Bluebird kept chasing him away...

Here Daddy is having a chat with one of the "kids"... 

And this "child" is hanging on to the trellis, waiting for someone to bring some more food... The parents do still bring some food to the babies, but they are also learning to hunt for food for themselves...

Here this one is waiting on the roof, trying to keep from slipping off...

Baby on top says, "Hey, Mom, I'm up here!!"

Here are two very hungry youngsters on the roof, telling Daddy to hurry up with dinner..."We're getting wet and cold up here on this roof!"

I think this is one of the babies flying off...

And this one is hanging on to a small branch on the tree...very well camouflaged...

PLEASE come feed me! I'm getting really wet here!!!

And I'm out on a very small limb here! 

I think I've been forgotten!

Hey! It's cooler and safer here in the shade of this tree!!

Hmmm, maybe my brother had the best idea...it sure is slippery and wet and cold here...

I'm hanging on for dear life...

Daddy, are you up there? Are you bringing me any food????

Calm down, child! You know I won't forget you! Just be patient and wait and I will take care of you...

Son, don't turn your back on me when I'm talking to you...

I wish you Bluebirds would hurry up and go away so I can get back to my bird feeder! I'm hungry too!

Son,  I'm  still talking to you! Turn around and look at me!

And so it went, until they decided it was time to move on and they flew away to the tree tops where they spend the nights in safety and away from the predators.  

Here are some verses that came to mind as I was writing this...like the little bluebirds, we sometimes get frightened in the storms of life, or we worry that we will be forgotten by those that we love ...or even by God Himself...But God has promised us that He will always be there for us, through all the storms and times of anxiety or worries about the future...

[Isaiah 41:10]: "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand".

[Isaiah 43:2]: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you...".

[Joshua 1:9]: "...Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go".

[Matthew 28:20]: "...And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age".

[Deuteronomy 31:8]: "The LORD Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged".

[Hebrews 13:5]: "...for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you'". 

And then there  precious words of Christ, reminding us not to worry about food or clothing or anything...

Matthew 6:25-27, 31-34 NKJV

Do Not Worry

25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 

32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 

34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Yes, if we will "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things shall be added to you."  He will provide all that we need, and even more...blessings upon blessings.   That is what I believe and have found to be true in my own life. I pray it is something that you are learning as well. 

I hope you enjoyed this little Monday after Mother's Day "celebration" with me!! Praying that your week ahead will be filled with little joys along the way. Watch for them! God wants to bless you with His love and care every day!!

Tuesday 4~Shall We Cook?

 

Shall We Cook?


Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 kept in memory of her.

Let's talk about food this week shall we?

Most people enjoy eating good food after all.


1.What is/are your favorite foods to eat ?
Lately that is becoming a more difficult thing to answer. My tastes and gastronomic issues keep changing.  The things I used to love to eat I really can't eat anymore...no sweets (or very little), no spicy foods and very little pasta/cheesy/tomato sauce dishes.   I find that I do better if I stick to eating about the same kinds of things every day...breakfast with eggs/buttered toast or grits. No jelly or biscuits, and I need to stay away from pancakes and syrup.  I don't like milk, so I don't eat cereal, but I do like yogurt and granola and fresh fruit, so sometimes I have that for breakfast, but if not, I will have it for a snack later. I also eat peanut butter with apple butter on cinnamon raisin toast (Pepperidge Farm brand) sometimes.

Lunch: I prefer a salad with lettuce and spinach, shredded cheese, maybe a little bit of diced deli ham or if I have cooked chicken I will put that on it. Marie's Cole Slaw dressing on top and also some craisins and a small sprinkle of Fritos. We usually also have some kind of fruit with our lunch, like cantaloupe, cherries, grapes or apples.  For supper: It varies. Hubby likes some kind of meat and potatoes or a one pot meal of some kind.  He also loves hot dogs and beans, so we have that at least once a week.

2.How often do you cook at home and what kind of meals do you make?
I cook at home every day. We MIGHT go out to lunch or breakfast occasionally, but not nearly as often as we used to. Just too expensive!  See above #1 for answers...we eat a lot of stuff made with ground beef, pork loin, or boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts. Hubby prefers potatoes or rice instead of  pasta. Vegetables vary according to whatever is fresh ...right now we eat a lot of summer or zucchini squash or broccoli.  Or  Carrots.  I would love to eat more fish, but it is expensive and I don't like to smell up the kitchen (LOL), so if I want fish we go out to eat it.

3. When you go out to eat what foods do you find yourself ordering most?

Depends on what kind of place it is. I like to order salads and seafood if available...salmon if affordable.

If it is a BBQ place, I will get BBQ pork, cole slaw, and either a baked sweet potato or fried okra. 

4. Can you recommend a restaurant in your area? Why do you like it?

Well, my favorite place for special occasions is Corky Bells, a seafood place on the St. John's River. I've shown lots of pictures from there over the years. But lately it seems they are always so crowded and the line is too long, so it kind of takes the joy out of going when you have to wait so long. It is about 15 miles from us.

Here's the last time we were there, with our blogging friend Terri from "Your Friend From Florida" fame, with her son Joey and our kids. We had a great time together, but we had to wait several HOURS to eat!  Still, it gave us time to visit, which was wonderful.  

It's a fun place on the river, and sometimes you even might see an alligator!  

Oh, and I mustn't forget, a few years ago we met another very special blogging friend there for supper...Debbi from Debbi's Front Porch, 

and we also brought our special little friends Lily Grace and her Tracie and AmyBelle, who are "cousins", since Debbi is Lily Grace's special "Auntie Debbi" who actually sent Lily Grace to me in the first place!

I don't think Corky Bell's was ever quite the same after our visit there! LOL. 

Other than that, we might occasionally go to Chili's for their lunch special deal, or the other day we picked up a great hamburger at a small local hamburger place, "Hog Wild Burgers and Shakes".  They are a subsidiary of the the former favorite Hog Wild Country Cafe' that burned and had to close, which made us very sad. They now own our local "True Grits" country diner, but it's just not the same. The other diner we have is Nanna's Country Cafe', but it is very small and doesn't have much atmosphere, but the food is okay and affordable. We may go there tomorrow morning for breakfast because it's time for me to have lab work done, and we usually go out for breakfast after that.

I guess that's all on this topic for now!

Thanks for joining in!

Matthew 6:25-27, 31-34

25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 

26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 

27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

This beautiful Snowy Egret landed in the pine tree right in front of our back porch this morning, on Still Waters Pond

They very seldom land in the trees close enough for me to get a good look at them, so this was a real treat!

He was God's special messenger of "Do Not Worry" for us today!

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 

32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. 

For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, 

and all these things shall be added to you. 

34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Speaking of not worrying, we were able to get another appointment for hubby this week on Thursday, back with our PCP, and THIS time we are supposed to see the one we had wanted to see last week. We hope to pursue some further referrals/recommendations this time, and hopefully we will start getting some answers.  Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement on my last post. You are all the best folks ever!!  Blessings to all of you!!

Thursday Thankfulness and Friday Foto Friends

 This will be the Friday Foto Friends post unless tomorrow brings us more photos to share! But for today, I will share what I have and also share some thankfulness with you along the way.

Today was a special day! My cousin Becky and her hubby Pat came to visit us all the way from Ohio, although they came by way of Punta Gorda, Florida, where they had been vacationing for a little while with family. They were actually on their way back home to Ohio, but still have some other stops to make on the way home to see their son and his family and be with some of their grandchildren for a few days.  So we were happy to be on the way to where they are going next!  

Since  they were just passing through, we decided to go out to lunch at one of our favorite places, "Corky Bells on the St. John's River".  

Becky is the cousin that I grew up with. We lived about 10 miles apart and were together for all family holidays, birthdays, and also to play with our Barbie Dolls, Monopoly, other games, and any other mischief that we could think up when we got together. We also used to put on a Thanksgiving play every year to entertain the folks, complete with pilgrims and singing Thanksgiving hymns, and taking up a collection! LOL.  We were very creative when we got together.

I felt honored and blessed that they managed to pass by our way on their way back home. It's always good to get together with family and remember the good old days.

Becky and Pat

Hubby and me:

As you can tell, it was a bright and sunny and warm day! Spring has sprung here in our neck of the woods! It was truly a beautiful day and we are very thankful to have had this time together.

Those clouds actually had a good bit of smoke in them. I figured there was a controlled burn going on over in the forest area, and I found out later that I was right.

Thankfully the breeze was blowing it away from us  and we weren't adversely affected by any smoke, since we sat outside to eat our dinner on the deck.  

Switching gears a bit...earlier this morning before our company arrived, hubby and I went for an early morning walk.  As we were passing by this old dead tree trunk, I suddenly realized that there was a monster on the loose!  Do you see his eye and legs?

Well, how about his smiley face???

I had noticed this particular tree trunk once before, but never got around to sharing it with you until I saw his "personality" shining through today. LOL.

I was mostly struck by the interesting texture and twisting of his trunk...Very unique, don't you agree?

Ach! Here's another one!  A very large walking stick with many extra legs! LOL.

You just never know what you will find out in the woods! Always be prepared with a good camera, and bring a good imagination with you to enjoy it to the fullest.

Back home at Still Waters Pond the Blue Bird couple were in deep conversation and consideration of the matter of building a nest in this house.  I think they may actually be starting to move in some furniture and are getting ready to set up housekeeping...

I saw them both going in and out of the house several times, although I didn't get a picture, but it looks like they are getting more serious about this nesting business.

Perhaps Mrs.Bluebird must've left to go get some more nesting materials and left Mr. Bluebird to guard the house.

I did see him chase away a Chickadee, so that tells me that things are getting more serious.

This is a Sparrow in the tree.  Sparrows aren't exactly the most beautiful of all the birds, but they are the ones that Jesus talked about in the Bible, so they must be pretty special, therefore I thought we should give this one some love and take his picture! He is rather handsome, don't you think?

Here are some words of wisdom from God's Word, The Bible, about Sparrows and the Birds and whether or not we should fear or worry in life...

Matthew 10:29-31

"29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? 

And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. 

30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 

31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."

Matthew 6:25-27

25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. 

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 

27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

Matthew 6:31-34

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 

32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

I am very thankful for these messages to us from Jesus. They bring great comfort in times of turmoil and conflict.  They are certainly worth remembering and storing away in our hearts so we will be able to recall them in the days of trouble.

I guess that's all for tonight. Perhaps tomorrow will bring something else to share, so let's just wait and see what develops.  

Until then, please enjoy this little bouquet of wildflowers that I picked for you today!  

They came directly from God's Garden, which takes me right back up to those Scripture passages I was sharing earlier...I've kind of mixed them up and haven't shared them exactly in order, so here's a section that was left out above:

Matthew 6:28-30

28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Some wonderful food for thought as we head to bed for the night.  

Good night everyone! May the Lord bless you with His peace and comfort. Amen.