Monday Monday~A New Week

Happy Monday Morning! I hope this Monday finds you all happy and ready to begin a new week full of joy, blessings, and pleasant surprises!  We never know what each day or week will bring...it's kind of like turning the page on a new chapter in an interesting mystery/adventure/romance book, and we can hardly wait to see what will happen next! My prayer for each of us is that each day will bring us only happy adventures.    

I posted these pictures on Facebook yesterday, along with this verse:

Psalm 118:24 NKJV

24 "This is the day the Lord has made;

We will rejoice and be glad in it."

I also shared the words to this familiar old song, "Morning Has Broken" (written by Eleanor Farjeon back in 1931)

1 Morning has broken

like the first morning,

blackbird has spoken

like the first bird.

Praise for the singing!

Praise for the morning!

Praise for them, springing

fresh from the Word!

2 Sweet the rain’s new fall

sunlit from heaven,

like the first dewfall

on the first grass.

Praise for the sweetness

of the wet garden,

sprung in completeness

where God’s feet pass.

3 Mine is the sunlight!

Mine is the morning

born of the one light

Eden saw play!

Praise with elation,

praise every morning,

God’s recreation

of the new day!

Such a beautiful way to start our week, don't you think?   

We did go to church yesterday, and it was a wonderful morning filled with praise and worship and learning from God's Word. That's the BEST way to start out the new week!  After church our son Scott came down from Jacksonville to have lunch with us and do his laundry. No, I don't mind that at all. He works hard outside in the extreme heat all week, and his apartment doesn't have any laundry facilities, so if he wants to drive over an hour to come do his laundry here and visit with us for the afternoon, I'm quite happy with that. We always enjoy his company.  Yesterday I didn't do anything big for lunch. We actually stopped off at our local grocery store and picked up some fresh fried chicken and some stuff to make a salad, and that was it! We didn't have to cook and there wasn't a lot of dishes to wash up, so that's just fine with me.  I also did make some Rice Krispie treats after lunch so Scott could take some home with him.   

Here's all that's left now! LOL. They were good!  I make mine a little different. In place of the 3 tbsp. of Butter, I use only 1 tbsp. butter, and 2 tbsp. of creamy Peanut Butter. (melted together). Then I also add to the Rice Krispies one cup of cheerios and 1/2 cup of lightly salted peanuts. (Adjust the amount of Rice Krispies to 5 cups instead of 6).  Mix all of that into the melted 10 oz. bag of mini marshmallows and butter/peanut butter mixture, and then pat into a buttered 13" x 9" baking pan, let cool and enjoy!  It's an easy treat to make on a day that is too hot to use the oven for baking something!

Well, I'm still trying to keep up with the July Photo A Day Challenge, but I tend to do them every other day since I don't write a post every day.  So where did I leave off?

The July 11th challenge was for a fruit and/or vegetable...so here you go:

I went outside to check our garden, and we still have some tomatoes growing!  Now, are they a fruit or a vegetable?

I checked my "trusty resources on AI" (ahem!) and this is the answer I found:

"A tomato is both, depending on how you look at it. Science says it is a fruit, but the law and culinary tradition classify it as a vegetable. [1]

• Botanically, it is a fruit: Because it develops from the flower of the tomato plant and contains seeds, it meets the exact scientific definition of a fruit. [1, 2]
• Culinarily, it is a vegetable: Chefs and dietitians treat it as a vegetable because of its savory flavor profile and the way it is used in cooking. [1, 2]
• Legally, it is a vegetable: In a famous 1893 Supreme Court case (Nix v. Hedden), the U.S. government ruled the tomato was a vegetable in order to apply specific tariffs and import taxes based on how people commonly eat and buy them. [1, 2]"

So now we all know!! It can be either or. I prefer to think of it as a vegetable, and I'm sure most of you do as well. I mean, you wouldn't put a tomato in a fruit salad, would you? 

Now, this is definitely a fruit! This extra sweet cantaloupe was so juicy and sweet, it was like eating candy!  It was really good!

I cut them up like this, and then we can have a small bowl full with our meals until it's all gone. How do YOU eat your cantaloupe? My Mom and Dad always cut them up into wedges and ate them right out of the rind with a spoon, much like you'd eat a piece of watermelon. It was usually considered something to eat with breakfast.  But I prefer my method, and I can eat it anytime!

Now, for the photo challenge for July 12, something "Soft"....

Yes, Blackie is quite soft and mostly sweet. (He has his moments...) LOL. And he likes soft places to sit; mostly in one of our laps, but this morning he chose this chair with a cushion and a pillow with Scripture Verses. And no, that verse there that says "Be still and know that I am God", is NOT referring to Blackie, although there are moments that I do believe he thinks it is! LOL. 

As for today's photo challenge (13), it is a "shadow".  Right now the sun is not shining and I don't see any good shadows around, so I will have to wait on this one and see what develops later.

Meanwhile:

One last thing!Click this LINK to more exciting news from my friend Katheryn Masterson, the author! This link is from Facebook, so if you are not on Facebook it may not pop up, so let me see if I can do it another way.   Here we go:

"I'm so excited to share that The Little Ladybug is now available!

This is the second book in my We Read Together series, designed to help children build confidence while enjoying storytime with a parent, grandparent, teacher, or caregiver.

Follow one curious little ladybug as she follows a butterfly into an unexpected adventure and discovers that the greatest wonders were waiting close to home all along.

Thank you to everyone who has supported my journey as an author. Every encouraging word, comment, share, and book purchase means more than you know.

If you know a young reader who loves nature, ladybugs, or storytime, I'd be so grateful if you'd share this post.

The Little Ladybug is available now on Amazon! "

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H8C4QQ8J

I had no idea that my friend Katheryn was going to be such a prolific writer! She is truly talented and these little books are so great for young children...and for parents and grandparents to share with them! I haven't ordered this one yet, but I do intend to soon. But meanwhile, please check it out on Amazon and perhaps you can share it with others also who might be interested.  It's just so exciting to see such talented new authors out there!   I know Katheryn's grandparents would be SO proud of her! I know I am!

Okay, one last thing for sure this time: I saw this little meme on Facebook yesterday, and I thought it described me pretty well:

For those of you who know me, or have followed my posts here in blogland for a while, you will have to agree that it is describing me pretty much to a "T".  And I hope I never change.  And I give all glory to God for all these things that HE has created and done for us all to enjoy.

Isaiah 25:1 

"O Lord, You are my God.

I will exalt You,

I will praise Your name,

For You have done wonderful things;

Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth."

Amen.

Now, let's go have a wonderful day, shall we? Talk to you later!

 

Early Saturday Morning...

Today started out with an interesting sunrise...

It made me think about this song that I'm sure most of you will recognize..."Morning Has Broken"

Morning has broken

like the first morning,

blackbird has spoken

like the first bird.

You can't see them, but the black crows were flying around and singing this morning while this was going on!

Praise for the singing!

Praise for the morning!

And then Mr. (or Mrs?) Crane flew in for breakfast...

So we threw out some bird seeds for him/her?

Praise for them, springing

fresh from the Word!

He?she? was most grateful.

 Sweet the rain’s new fall

sunlit from heaven,

like the first dewfall

on the first grass.

Praise for the sweetness

of the wet garden,

sprung in completeness

where God’s feet pass.

And then, much to my surprise, these two Muscovy Ducks flew in from the pond and landed on top of our back porch!  I'm not too sure if they really intended to land there, because they seemed rather confused about where they were as they waddled back and forth across the roof.

Hello! Anyone down there?

Could you send us up some of those seeds you are having, Mr. Crane?

Hello!  I think they flew in to the Rooftop Cafe' on Still Waters Pond expecting some breakfast! LOL

And after a while of going back and forth, watching the Crane below them eating his breakfast, I think they gave up on ever being served and they flew back off into the pond...can't see them in this picture, but they were rapidly departing and Mr. Crane was watching them go...

I think I should name the Rooftop Cafe' "Castle Craneycrow", which is the title of one of my favorite old books in the George Barr McCutcheon collection...a very old book copyrighted in 1902!  After this past Tuesday 4 meme,  where we were asked if we had a name for our home, throughout the week as I watched the Sand Hill Cranes come and go this name kept floating into my memorybooks, and I thought it would be a great name for our home! We certainly have had the Cranes living here on our pond ever since the beginning, and there are also many many crows living here in our trees as well. I just don't take pictures of them because they tend to annoy me, but they are very interesting birds (and very intelligent as well) if you pay attention to them. 

So maybe our home should be called "Castle Craneycrow on Still Waters Pond".  LOL.

Oh, the song is still playing!!

 Mine is the sunlight!

Mine is the morning

born of the one light

Eden saw play!

These Goldfinches have been having quite a feast time at the finch feeder. These pictures were actually taken Friday morning, and then I had to go buy some more finch seed at the hardware store to refill the feeder!

Be sure to look at each picture closely to see all the birds flying in and out and scrambling to get their place at the feeder...

Like this one:

And this one:

Praise with elation,

praise every morning,

Aren't they amazing?

God’s recreation

of the new day!

I could sit and watch them all day...as they are still at it today, especially since I refilled the feeder. They will only be here for a short while, and then they will be heading back up north to their spring/summer breeding grounds, so we will enjoy them while we can.

God's beautiful creation, new and fresh every new day!!!

Today we had other things to do, and now here it is mid afternoon and I still don't have this post written and published!  I had hoped it would be a nice "morning devotional",  but I guess it will have to do for whenever you receive it!

Last evening the "kids" came over and we made pizzas for supper. Here's Benton with Sugar, and I think Spice is on the other leash, but didn't make it into the picture. I mainly took this picture to show how Benton's truck is all loaded up with the items he's been building this week to take to the Deep Creek Farm Market today here in our town.   It was just funny to see all that stuff piled up in his truck and ready to go.

Here it is all set up at Deep Creek this morning:

We went over to check on him this morning, and I found a few things that I just needed to buy, like this little bag of several "home brew" tea bags along with that sweet little heart shaped tea infuser:

I don't know if you can read the names on these different tea bags, but they sure are interesting:  
Liverroot Brew, Fearless & Focused, Lavender Mint, and Mint to Be.   I'm trying to decide which one to try first...I'll let you know how it goes...

Another thing I bought was this loaf of home made "Milk Bread".   I thought it would make wonderful Toasted BLT sandwiches, because I also bought some beautiful big tomatoes and lettuce. Unfortunately we did not have any bacon, but we did have ham, and so that was almost as good, and yes, it was a wonderful sandwich!

I didn't take a picture of the sandwich, but here's how the bread looks. I may just have some with butter later...  (that's why I don't make or buy homemade bread very often...I will keep eating it and eating it...)

Yesterday we stopped at the hardware store and I picked up these packets of seeds to plant in the butterfly garden. Now I just need to get some good soil before I plant them...

Something else has happened in the past few days...you know I've been feeding the neighbor's "neighborhood cats" that she had adopted, but because she has not been well I have been feeding them...and sadly this week she fell and now is in the hospital and most likely will not be coming back to her home to live.  She's just not strong enough and really shouldn't be living alone. I actually found her when I went over to feed the cats the other evening. She had been laying on her bedroom floor for several hours she said. Her cell phone was too far away (and the battery had died).  Thankfully, she had left the back door unlocked for me to come in and bring her the mail, and when I stepped inside I could hear her calling me.  So long story short, I called hubby over and between the two of us we could not move her so we called 911. She was still coherent, etc., and she refused to go to the hospital, but she was very weak and could not do much at all and had not eaten and didn't want to eat, etc., so I called her daughter who lives a couple of hours away, and I stayed with her until her daughter arrived and then she ended up taking her to the hospital that night.  Please keep my neighbor in your thoughts and prayers, and also her daughter while she figures out all the details of where her mother should go. The daughter is single and still works full time, so she can't really take care of her mother at her house. This is one of those difficult decisions that has come to many of us who have had elderly parents that eventually needed more care than we could give them on our own. It's never an easy decision.  My heart goes out to both of them. And there are no other siblings to help out either.  

So now I will definitely be figuring out how to get the cats to follow me over to my house to eat from now on. Hopefully they will figure that out and it won't be a problem.

Well, I guess that's all the news and pictures I have for you today. 

Mark 9:23-24 NKJV

23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, 

all things are possible to him who believes.”

24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”