Welcome to my "Open Window"...a place of hope, encouragement, and adventure as we journey down the road from "Closed Doors" to the new opportunities God places in our pathway. I hope you will take the time to go back and follow the trail of mixed blessings and fears, failures and triumphs from the past and side-trips in the present. Perhaps it will conjure up some of your own special memories, and be an invitation for you to share with others. I look forward to spending this time with you!
What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?
Remember: "When God closes a door, He always opens a window!" You never know what might be out there waiting for you!
Here it is Friday Foto Friends day, and I don't have any pictures worth sharing! What's up with that? Probably because I've spent most of the week just trying to get by with doing the least possible I could do. LOL. But, thank you everyone for the kind words regarding my headaches, new glasses, etc., etc. I have started on the medicine that was prescribed for tension headaches. It is actually an antidepressant in a lower dose. I guess it's supposed to make me feel really good about my headaches! LOL. Last night was my 2nd night taking it, and actually I am sleeping better, but it's still too early in the morning to tell if I still have a headache or not. I am working on not being "two tents" (if you read my last post you will understand that. If you didn't get to read it, click on the link so you'll be in the loop! LOL)
When I was at the doctor's office the other day they gave me this little pedometer and told me the goal is to work up to taking 10,000 steps per day! LOL. So here's where I left off yesterday...which actually isn't correct because I took it off to take a nap and if you leave it sit too long it wipes out your numbers, and then I didn't wear it at all after supper, and we did take another walk...so...it should probably be up around 4500 or more instead of 1500. I will try to do better today...but it may be a while before I reach 10,000 steps in a day!
Speaking of walks...when we did take our walk yesterday I kept hearing this sweet little bird song, and so of course I was looking to see what kind of bird was singing above me in the treetops. I actually managed to get a picture of it, and then another when he flew to the ground right in front of me!
These pictures on the ground aren't too clear because he was moving along pretty fast:
And then I realized there were actually two of them! I believe these are Pine Warblers., and I noticed that one of them had a long piece of pine needle in her mouth when she flew up from the ground, so maybe they are building a nest! That would be fun to see, but this is out in the woodsy area where we go walking, so I doubt I would ever be able to find their nest. It could be anywhere!
After our evening walk I did a little "porch sitting"...well, more like yard sitting in the porch swing. LOL. It was so pleasant out last evening, with a cool breeze coming across Still Waters Pond.
The only thing missing was you! I sat there thinking how nice it would be if our blogging friends could be our porch sitting friends as well...
You know, someone to actually sit beside and swing on the swing, or sit up on the real porch and enjoy a little tea party or just sitting and chatting in person. I miss that. My hubby stuck his head out the door and wondered when I was coming back inside. I asked him to come outside and sit with me! But he was busy watching a hockey game on tv...I've learned after over almost 53 years of marriage that porch sitting or swinging just isn't something a man seems to enjoy as much as woman! Once in a while he will come out and sit with me, but only until the first mosquito shows up and then he's "outta there"!
LOL. But I can't complain...he has many other wonderful qualities and we actually do our best chatting while taking a ride or a walk. I am very thankful to have him and at our age, I don't take that for granted.
But I sat there contemplating how times have changed in our society. People used to visit one another on their porches and that's where the best conversations could be had. Just relaxing and sitting and chit-chatting about this or that...drinking a cool iced tea or lemonade and simply enjoying being friends and neighbors.
There are "rules" for porch sitting, you know! Of course these mostly apply to when you are porch sitting alone, except for the "conversing" part on the list. One might think you are a bit touched in the head if you are "conversing" with no one...LOL.
However, I will say that I often have the best "conversations" with God while sitting out in my porch swing. It's kind of like the chorus to the familiar beloved old hymn< "In The Garden"...
1 I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
Refrain:
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
2 He speaks, and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing;
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.
[Refrain]
3 I'd stay in the garden with Him
Tho' the night around me be falling;
But He bids me go; thro' the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling.
[Refrain]
Well, friends, I guess I came up with a few things to share. I am thankful for you and that we do have this way of conversing with one another. It's almost as good as sitting in a swing together and visiting face to face. It would be wonderful to actually be able to do that someday, but until we can, I thank the Lord for this time of "porch sitting" that we do have.
Have a blessed and beautiful day! And thank you again for your prayers and kind thoughts! Oh, btw, my new glasses seem to be doing fine. I am adjusting to them better each day. And I am praying that my headaches will soon be a thing of the past. One day at a time! God is Good, All the Time God is good!
Earlier this week hubby and I decided to take a different morning walk than our usual through the woods walk. There is a very nice walking path down through the center of the historical section of our little town. It apparently follows what used to be the train tracks through town. It was a delightful, quiet beautiful walk, past some of the lovely older homes.
Like this one. I thought I had shared pictures of this with you before, but apparently I only showed them on Facebook in a group that I follow called "Old Florida".
So if you've seen these pictures before, pardon me. I get confused sometimes as to where and what I've been and done...comes with age, they tell me...
Like this lovely old home...it has some age on it...about 100 years to be exact. But I don't know anything more about it. It does not appear to be actively lived in, but I know according the the tax records that someone bought it about 10 years ago, and it is being maintained.
Can't you just imagine sitting up on that upper verandah, enjoying a nice summer breeze and sipping some southern sweet iced tea? (I prefer mine unsweet, with lemon, thank you!)
I really was tempted to walk up to that front door and knock on it, just to see if anyone was home. But my courage failed me. Maybe if one of you were here with me we could get up our courage together. Wouldn't that be fun? Maybe they'd invite us in for a cup of tea and some cookies or cake...
Yes, I would LOVE to explore this old house. I am going to keep an eye on it, and if I ever see anyone there, I just might get up my nerve to seek out an invitation...LOL.
Anyway, back to our walk...there is another lovely big house over across the way from that one above, but I was more interested in taking a picture of the wonderful sign in their yard, which stays up year round:
"Christ is Risen", and the other smaller sign to its right says, "And Coming Again".
I think that is a good reminder for us to ponder upon in these days of turbulence in our land.
I also enjoyed their lovely white picket fence and this nice park bench to sit upon when we got tired from walking:
I hope we will take this walk more often. There are more pictures I'd like to take along the way.
Meanwhile, this past week I had a little setback with my neck issues. Two weeks to the day from when I had the epidural in my neck for pain and inflammation, I had another major spasm that was very painful. That was very disconcerting for me, as I was hoping the epidural medicines would last a bit longer. There are no guarantees on this procedure, and so I must continue to persevere with my physical therapy and exercises and prayer. I did have PT that same day, and I came home with this lovely blue bandage. It is not an ordinary bandage...it is to help with nerve conduction or something like that in my arm. The therapist said I had something called double crush syndrome. After he manipulated and stretched and basically tortured me (not really, but it felt like it), he put this bandaid on it and said to leave it there all week and not try to take it off except with baby oil or something like that so it wouldn't pull off my skin when I remove it. Thankfully, whatever it is supposed to be doing seems to be helping, so I guess I'll do what I'm told.
Okay, this is a picture of a grocery delivery truck from our local grocery store. I just think it is cute and I wanted to take a picture of it. Signs of the times...grocery delivery trucks!
And this family stopped by for a visit last evening:
The Sand Hill Crane family came for hors d'oeuvres of some tasty bugs and grubs.
Now I will close with these photos. As I was sitting at my desk last evening I looked out the window and I couldn't help but see that heart in that tall pine tree over there across the pond. Do you see it?
I know the picture is grainy and not too good because it was dark and this was taken through the window, but can you see the shape of the heart in that tree? I had never noticed it before and last night it just stood out so clearly to me, I wondered why I had not seen it before.
But if you look at this picture below, taken the night before, it is there, plain as day...I just wasn't focused on it.
That heart was there all the time...much like God's love for you and me. It's there all the time, and we tend to overlook it when we are so focused on other things around us. We get to a point where we think God must not love us or we just don't think about Him at all. There's an old song I remember that kind of speaks to this:
He Was There All The Time
by Bill and Gloria Gaither,
Sung by Sue Dodge
Time after time I was searching for peace in some void
I was trying to blame all my ills on this world I was in
Surface relationships used me till I was done in
But all the while someone was begging to free me from sin
Chorus
He was there all the time
He was there all the time
Waiting patiently in line
He was there all the time
Never again will I search for a fake rainbows end
Now that I’ve found the answer my life is just starting to rhyme
Sharing each new day with Him is a breath of fresh life
Oh what I've missed He's been waiting right here all the time
Chorus
He was there all the time
He was there all the time
Waiting patiently in line
He was there all the time
I hope you enjoyed that song...and that it spoke to you today...Remember, Jesus is always there for us, even when we aren't even looking for Him...He's still there...waiting patiently in line!
Welcome to Tuesday 4 continued in the memory of Toni Taddeo, its original author
Let's do one of Toni's old questions this week.
1. What's your favorite thing to do when you have time on your hands?
Well, let's see... I love to take walks with my hubby each day. We try to go every morning after breakfast, weather permitting. On our walks I love to take pictures of anything and everything that looks interesting or pretty or unusual.
At first glance, what would you say this was?
If you said an owl or a hawk, you would be in agreement with my first impression. However, it turned out to just be a tree stump!!!
Or this little tee-tiny pine cone growing on this little pine tree...it was so cute...just had to take its picture! (Lily Grace saw it first)
Or this Great Blue Heron on the other side of Still Waters Pond:
I love to read a good book, or do some writing in my blog. Or I like to have little tea parties with whomever I can find...even if it is my dolly Lily Grace
Or I call an old friend or extended family member whom I haven't seen in a long time and just talk on the phone until we get caught up!
2. Company coming tonight for dinner what do you cook?
Well, it depends on who it is and how much time I have to prepare! If it is spur of the moment without much warning, it will probably be spaghetti! If I know you are coming it might be Lasagna, garlic bread and salad! Or grilled or baked chicken. I am not a fancy cook...it could be "pot luck".
3. The weather is perfect outside, how would you spend the day?
Again, I would love to be outside taking a nice walk through the woods with a companionable walking partner...looking for birds and other interesting "critters". Or just sitting in the shade in the yard or on the porch, visiting with a good friend or family member. If the weather is cool, a bonfire/hot dog roast/s'mores is always fun to do. BBQ, playing games in the yard with the family/friends. If I am by myself, just sitting in the shade watching the birds, maybe taking pictures or writing in my journal. I haven't don't that in a long time...usually I am at the computer writing, but I do love to sit in the "Secret Garden" with my Bible and journal open, and an old hymnbook, and let the Lord lead me in worship and prayer and writing. I have found that to be very comforting and renewing...I may have to "plan" that soon now that the weather is getting a little warmer and more spring like.
4. It's morning and you just got up, what do you have for breakfast?
I didn't cook this breakfast...this was at a restaurant last year on my birthday, but I thought it looked pretty good. I love bacon when I can get it, but I don't like to cook it, so I often order it when we go out to breakfast.
Normally, after my morning cup of hot tea, hubby and I usually have a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, and maybe grits and sometimes sausage. Some mornings we have waffles, eggs, and sausage. This morning I had oatmeal and cinnamon raisin toast. A lot of mornings we have peanut butter and jelly or apple butter on toast. (I like my peanut butter and apple butter on cinnamon raisin toast) If I have any fresh (not overripe) bananas, we will have peanut butter and bananas on toast. When the bananas get overripe I make banana nut bread,
and we have that for breakfast. Occasionally I make blueberry bran muffins
or often in the fall we have biscuits with homemade applesauce.
Mostly I like to start my day (before breakfast) with reading in God's Word and having morning devotions with my hubby. That is the BEST way to start any day. We use a little devotional guide to give us suggested Scripture readings for the day. We usually read something from the Gospels, The Psalms and the Old Testament or one of the Epistles in the New Testament. We recently read in Mark 8:1-9 about Jesus feeding four thousand men with seven loaves and a few small fish, and after giving thanks, He said to set them before the multitude. And so they ate and were filled and there were seven large baskets of leftover fragments. (see verses 6-9) I love reading these wonderful miracles of Jesus feeding and healing and changing lives. This encourages me in my own walk of faith to know that nothing is impossible with God if we only have faith to believe. (Believe is my "One Word" for 2021) I've seen God work such miracles in my own life, and I know He is able to do "exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think...according to the power that works in us..." Ephesians 3:20 So if you want to know about me, let me tell you about what Jesus has done for me...because that is why I am who I am. Knowing Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and having my sins forgiven is what really matters most of all. Without Him, I would be nothing...
Thank you for spending this time getting acquainted. I hope to visit with you as well and would love to hear all about the things you enjoy doing.
Also, if you can't find me here at Closed Doors, Open Windows, please check over at my other blog site, The Adventures of Lily Grace, to see what we've been up to. If you sign up to follow me over there you won't miss any of our fun adventures and seeing life through the eyes of a little child again...
This morning as I took an early walk, I headed to my favorite spot in the neighborhood...you guessed it, the little pond around the corner from our house. It was another foggy morning and I knew it would be a beautiful time to spend with the Lord as the sun rose above the waters. What I didn't know was that one of the nearby neighbors had left their radio playing loudly when they went back home from their weekend at their cottage. Thankfully, they left it tuned into a Christian radio station, and when I stepped onto the dock, this is the song that was playing:
What a perfect background music for my morning meditation with the Lord:
I hope you enjoyed this morning meditation. It was really a special time with the Lord for me. Praying it was also meaningful to you.
(Note: The Eagle and "Angel Cloud" pictures are from previous posts in the past, but I thought the pictures fit the message. All other pictures are from this morning's meditation on the dock)
