Tuesday 4 - "Let's Talk About You"

 Tuesday 4

So Tell Me....

This week's questions come from Sparky at "My Thoughts Exactly" I hope you enjoy doing them.

Let's talk about you...

(This was taken last year... I haven't been out in the kayak yet this year...but this is a pretty good picture of the "real me!")

1. Music. What kind of music do you enjoy? Are you musical?

I mostly enjoy gospel music, sacred music, hymns, contemporary Christian music (to a degree).  When I was younger I also enjoyed popular music of the 50's and 60's, but once I got married and started having babies I was more into singing lullabies and nursery rhymes. LOL.  Yes, I do enjoy singing and have done a LOT of singing throughout my life. Started out in Junior Choir as a child in church, and then graduated to the High School Chorus and then the adult choir at church.

I used to sing a lot of solos in church, but now my voice is better singing harmony (alto) in either duets, quartets, or choir. I never learned to play any instrument, but wish now that I had at least tried to learn the piano. I was too busy playing outside as a child and couldn't be bothered with piano lessons. No one told me that one day I would be a Pastor's Wife, and the first question that would be asked of me when my husband was being interviewed for his first pastoral position was, "Do you play the piano?".  And when I said no, I was told that "Our Pastors' wives have always played the piano."  I replied, "Well, unless you want to sing Mary Had a Little Lamb or Chopsticks, you don't want me to play the piano!"  My husband still got the job. LOL.


2. Travel. Where have you been? What's your favorite destination(s)?
Good question. We really haven't done a LOT of traveling in the vacation sense of the word. But throughout our years in the ministry we did a lot of traveling to our new destinations.  We started out in Florida, our home state, and from there went to Georgia (Toccoa Falls), back to Florida, then to South Carolina to Columbia Graduate School of Bible and Missions, (hubby) then to North Carolina to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary for a summer grad course, back to Florida, then to Ashland, Ohio to finish (hubby's) Master of Divinity degree and served in a couple of churches in Ohio before moving back to Florida and then back to Georgia, Ohio (to finish his doctorate), Michigan, New Hampshire, Kansas, Maine, and finally back to Florida for good (I think!) (I hope!)  We served in many different churches and places throughout our almost 52 years of marriage.   (This map was a part of our 50th wedding anniversary party)

 My favorite destination now?  Well, we still love New England, and since our grandson lives in Maine, we look forward to visiting there again whenever we can. I would also love to take a road trip someday up to Ohio and who knows where beyond. Hubby would like to see where Custer's last stand took place, Little Big Horn, so maybe we will take that trip someday.  

3. Occupations. Did you end up working at what you wanted to be? Do you wish you'd done something else, if so, what? etc.

To be honest, I didn't really know what I wanted to be.  When I graduated high school, I had plans to go to an airline stewardess school, but changed my mind and went to a community college instead, and there I met my hubby and the rest is history. My career became PHT (putting hubby through) and Mommy to three wonderful sons, and then on to become a Pastor's wife. I never dreamed that was what God had in mind for me when I started out in life, but He prepared me each step of the way and I was very blessed to serve in that way. I also did other jobs along the way, mostly in schools so I could have the same schedule as our children once they were all in school.  I took several courses in college throughout the years, but not enough for a degree. I ended up being a school bookkeeper and my final job before retiring was as a Church Administrator for a large church.  That seemed to use all of the years of training and experience that God had provided for me.

Our family around 1981

Our family 2014

Hubby being ordained to ministry

4. How do you keep from being bored?

Well, anyone who knows me knows that I love to take pictures of just about anything, anywhere. Nature, family, friends, just whatever happens to be happening at that moment. I also enjoy writing, reading, and taking walks with my hubby, spending time with family and friends, and going to church.  When we open our eyes to the beautiful world around us, we can never be bored.

And with that, I will say "Good Night!"

  

 Thank you for joining in each week. You have made this such a wonderful experience and I know Toni, in whose memory we continue, would be pleased as punch.

Tuesday 4 - All About Moving

 

Tuesday 4: All About Moving (No, I am NOT moving again).



Welcome to Tuesday 4 kept up in memory of our friend Toni Taddeo who began it several years ago. She would be so pleased to see people keeping up with it!

Let's talk about moving today.

1. How far away are you from where you grew up?

This is the front door to my parents' home, where I grew up. 

Right now we are about 69.8 miles, according to Google Maps, or about 1 hour, 22 minutes. We moved from a farm in Pennsylvania when I was almost six years old, to a small town in Florida.  I grew up in a little town called Tavares, Florida.  I loved growing up there. I lived there from the time I was in first grade and all the way through high school and until I got married and moved away. My dad built the house we lived in, and he and my mother lived there until they died, which was about 54 years from the time daddy built the house. Then, sadly, we had to sell the house, but a sweet neighbor lady bought it to have for her family to come and stay in when they came down for the winters, etc.   I miss our family home, but because my parents are no longer living there, to me there is no reason to ever go back. I would be expecting to see them waving at me from the front door, and it would just be too sad. I prefer to remember it the way it was...and I know my parents are in a much better home in heaven, waiting for me to come "home" someday.

2. Families sometimes move all over the country. Do you feel that a family should try to stay close together? 

Well, it depends on the family and the circumstances. Every family is different. In our case, my husband was called into the ministry, and that caused us to make many moves, to graduate school, seminary, and then to many different places to minister. It was hard to be away from our families back home, but we knew that we were doing what God had called us to do. It had many, many challenges and there were many bumps in the road, but again, God was with us and took  care of us in ways beyond our expectation and imagination.  And when the time came for us to change from the pastoral ministry to a different kind of occupation, we did come back closer to home so that we could be near our parents in their latter years and help take care of them.  That was a blessing that we were very thankful to be able to do, but we would never change all of the years that we were also blessed to travel and move to new places, and meet so many wonderful people and do what we knew God was calling us to do.

3. How many times have you moved in your life and would you like to share when and where you moved?

When we got married, our soloist sang the song "Whither Thou Goest, I Will Go" at our wedding. Although the song is actually quoting what Ruth said to her mother in law Naomi in the book of Ruth 1:16, the wedding song was intended to be the bride speaking to her husband:

"And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: 

for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: 

thy people shall be my people, 

and thy God my God"

Little did I know when I chose that song to be sung at our wedding just how often I would be saying, "Whither thou goest, I will go..."  It would take a whole book to tell the whole story of all of our many moves over the past almost 52 years of marriage.  As a matter of fact, that is the book that I have always wanted to write, but probably never will.  The title of my book would be "Giant Leaps of Faith and Other Crazy Moves" if it is ever written.  I've shared some of those stories in previous blog posts over the years.  I don't want to give you a number of the times we have moved, because most people would gasp and faint if they knew.  But there was a good reason for every single move, and God was with us in every situation. Some were for better, and some seemed to be for worse, but we were together and we were answering the call of God to serve Him in the ministry, and He was always always there for us and met our needs, oftentimes in mysterious ways.   Let's just sum it up this way:  

• We started out in Florida, our home state.  Hubby was finishing his senior year in college when we got married.
• From there we went to Georgia to work at a Christian college and boarding academy
• We came back to Florida and hubby taught school and also became a Florida State Trooper, something he'd always wanted to do,  and we started our family.
• We felt the call of God to prepare for the ministry and so we moved to a graduate school to study the Bible in S.C. and also in N.C. for further study.
• We came back to Florida and began our pastoral ministry
• We moved to Ohio for further Seminary and so he could eventually complete his M.Div. all the while pastoring in churches and/or working bi-vocationally by teaching. I worked in schools or did whatever I could to help out financially, while raising our three children.
• We went back home to Florida and then to Georgia and then back to Ohio, where he completed his Doctor of Ministry degree, also while pastoring churches...
• We pastored a church in Michigan
• We pastored a church in New Hampshire
• We moved to Kansas for hubby to teach in a Christian College and I managed a bookstore, but that did not turn out to be what we thought it was going to be and we moved back to New England where our kids were.
• We lived and worked in Maine for a little while and then eventually moved back to Florida to care for our elderly parents.  Two of our adult kids moved back with us. Our middle son was married and stayed in Maine with his wife and eventually his son was born there.  Sadly, our middle son died after a four year battle with cancer.  We tried to move back to Maine to be near him during that time, but could not find work or any way to make that move. It was a very difficult time for all of us.  But at the same time, we were needed here in Florida to take care of our parents, and there really wasn't anything else we could do.  And God took care of our son in ways that we could not.  He knew what was best for all of us, and we did visit him as often as possible.  I wish we could now be closer to our grandson, who is now 21, but again, God knows what is best and we trust Him to take care of our grandson as well.
• We are retired now and still live in Florida.  Our elderly parents are all in heaven, waiting for us someday, as that will be our final move to our eternal home.

4. What brought you to where you are living now and are you happy there?

We now live in a small town in Florida, and our two remaining adult sons also live in this town. We moved here because our oldest son met a very sweet young woman who lived here, and married her and moved here. We fell in love with the little church where they were married, and longed to be settled somewhere where we could be a part of a small town church and community. And so we sold the house we were living in, which was about 30 miles from here in the middle of a national forest, and out in the boonies away from everything.  We moved here to this house on Still Waters Pond, which is lovely, and we are much closer to church, stores, doctors, hospitals, etc., and is exactly what we need for our "golden years".  Life on Still Waters Pond is very pleasant to us, and we have our two sons and daughter in law near, and we are very content and happy. 

 Even with all the moves and changes in life, I do not regret one minute of it. We have lived quite an exciting adventure, and have met so many wonderful people along the way that we could never have met if we had stayed "home".  We answered the call of God to serve Him, and He took care of the rest.  

"Then He (Jesus) said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Matthew 4:19

"Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” 

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Isaiah 6:8

Thanks for joining in!!

Now MOVE over to the Tuesday 4 page and see what others are sharing today about their moves in life!

It's About Time I Wrote Something!

I know, it's been a long time since I wrote anything...and I apologize for not being more attentive to everyone else's posts as well.  All I can say is, if you've ever moved, you will understand...and if you've ever moved at this stage in life...(late 60's early 70's, 50 years of marriage) then you should understand even better.  It's slow moving...literally...our bodies just can't do what they used to do, and the struggle to figure out where to put things, how to move them, what to do with many things, waiting for others much younger and stronger to help...the struggle is real...moving is NOT for old folks or sissies!

All that being said, I guess it's about time I give my dear blogging friends a sneak preview of what's been going on here...this is an exclusive just for my blogging friends.  Most of these pictures have never been seen before on Facebook or elsewhere...they are brand new, hot off the "press" so to speak. So where should I begin? Let's see:

Well, I do spend a lot of time looking at the pond, and that is probably another reason why this settling into the house is taking so long...I'd rather sit outside and look at the beauty surrounding us...the reason we bought this particular house...So here's a lovely look at the lilies on the pond as they opened up their blossoms to the sun...

And this is a lovely female wood duck seen paddling around on the pond early in the mornings and in the evenings...

This is the silhouette of our resident hawk who keeps a "hawk eye" on everything that goes on around here...

Today this Downy Woodpecker was pecking its way around the pines...

They are so small and quick, I was fortunate to get these photos...

These are "phragmites" on the island in the pond.  If you don't know what that is, here is a link to some information: https://www.fws.gov/gomcp/pdfs/phragmitesqa_factsheet.pdf

I think they are pretty waving in the sunshine, but I guess they are a bit invasive and apparently not a desirable thing to have. Oh well...I still think they are pretty.

My view from the "Secret Garden" bench...no I haven't exactly established the "secret garden" yet, but this is the closest thing to it for now, and I love to sit here in the evening looking at the pond.

This evening while I was sitting there I noticed something large fly in across the pond:

It was this giant blue heron...

See how tall he is when he stretches out his neck?  I guess he was looking for his supper...

The following pictures have already been shown on Facebook, but many of you haven't seen them...this rose is a blossom from the Memorial Garden rosebush that I dug up and brought with me when we moved.  I have been nursing it along all summer in its pot of dirt, and this week it rewarded me with this lovely blossom.  For those who may not be familiar, the "memorial garden" was established in memory of our son Matthew, who left this world for his eternal home five years ago.  We built a special Memorial Garden at our old house and planted special plants there in memory of him.  I brought this one with us and also the Rose of Sharon bush that we planted. It is also doing well, but no flowers right now. They usually only bloom in June and July.  I hope to plant these in a new "memorial garden" here at our new home, once I figure out where is the best spot to put it.

The wonderful blessing of this particular blossom is that my birthday is next week, and it always seems that this rose bush has bloomed on or around special days of our lives. I consider it a gift from heaven from our son...and I feel extremely blessed and thankful. God knows exactly what we need...

Switching gears a bit, many have been asking and waiting to see what the inside of our new house looks like.

I should have warned you that this post would be photo overload! But this makes up for the last few weeks that I haven't posted anything! Thank you for hanging in there with me. I don't know when I will be posting again, so might as well enjoy it while we can!

These pictures are of our kitchen cupboards.  I know many will say it's too cluttered. Others wonder why I didn't get rid of all this stuff.  I've been trying...I actually have gotten rid of quite a bit...but, well, what can I say?  I asked my hubby if it was just "too much" and he said "No".  "It's our home and these are things that make it special".  So there...he actually made me feel so much better. But I am still trying to eliminate quite a few things...it's just not as easy as one would think...

Having all glass door upper cabinets does make it look a bit busy, but actually I am enjoying them now that they are filled.

Since I had to leave behind my big white china cabinet where I was able to store and display so many special dishes, these cabinets have helped to provide a place for the special dishes and tea pots, tea cups, etc. (Even a place for the Pink Flamingo cookie jar..that was supposed to be a "joke", but it's still hanging around...it may become a gift to someone else one of these days...)

The Tea and Coffee station

I forgot that my blogging friends haven't seen this new pantry cupboard that my son built for me.
I really needed a place to put canned goods and some large items that wouldn't fit in these smaller cabinets. Plus, I am too old to get down on the floor to look for canned goods anymore. This has been a life saver.

Here's my sweet son and his wonderful wife. They do have a furniture building business in their home, so this was a natural thing to do...(after I presented the idea with a big "please, please please?")

Here it is filled up:

Welcome to the foyer...please be sure to sign the guestbook when you arrive...

And the buffet has to be in the living room/great room. This house does not have a formal dining room, so we are innovating...

Here's the dining room table, trying to look like fall...

Around the corner in my little den...yes, the doll house made it without too many bumps or issues!

 These cabinets are all in my little "den"/office/tea room...it's a bit crowded, but there was no other place to put them...and I can't get rid of "Nanny's Hoosier Cupboard" or the lovely hutch cabinet that my son built for me at our old house...

Remember, "the room with a view"? 

(my view on a sunny day:)

But all this stuff had to go somewhere...so as I twirl around in my rolling office chair, these are the things I see around me..."Nanny's China Cabinet" (remember the one I broke the curved glass in when we moved into our other house?  Thankfully the remaining glass survived this move).

Now, on to my bathroom...yes, "my bathroom"...I've never had my very own bathroom before that I didn't have to share with my hubby...but this house actually has two bathrooms in our master bedroom...one with a shower, sink/vanity and toilet, and the other with a large soaking bathtub, sink/vanity, toilet (remember the three toilet story HERE?) and then an additional bathroom for our guests on the other side of the house.  But here in my bathroom (the one with the tub) I hung the picture of the "Angel of the Woods" that I took back at our old home...I thought she would enjoy living here and watching over these "woods" too....

 Our living room is still a work in progress. We haven't been able to hang too many pictures, etc., yet, as I am still trying to make sure the furniture is where we want it before we start hanging things. But I think we are about ready to get pictures hung...it's just so time consuming and you have to be so careful to find the studs and line things up straight before you poke a hole in the wall.  So I am taking my time with this...

The other side of the living room, looking back toward the foyer and front door.

I probably should have cleaned up a little before taking pictures.  But if you have to wait for me to clean up you will never see any pictures...

So, let's go back outside before we close for the night...Last evening our kids came over and helped us set up the new patio tables and umbrellas.  We got an extremely good deal  at Home Depot on their end of the season patio furniture sale. We were able to purchase two round tables and umbrellas basically for the price of one...and now we are ready to start entertaining on the back deck...

as soon as these pesky "lovebugs" go away.  (You have to live in the south to understand just how nasty these things are...we are definitely ready for them to leave...usually here for the month of September and May...)

And the front deck is decked out for fall and ready to welcome guests...

So here we come to the end of this day and time to say good night...

But like Motel 6, "We'll keep a light on for you"...if you want to come and stay a spell...

(Just let me know in advance...the guest room is one room that is NOT ready...but I am working on it a little at a time...it's just a kind of catch all room right now for things that we don't know what to do with...and there's still a lot of that...but if we know you are coming we will get it ready asap!)

So thankful that the Lord always keeps a light on for us too...His guest room is always ready and He will never turn anyone away empty...

Here are some thoughts from the Psalms as we close for this evening...(actually this is what we read in our morning devotions this morning)

Psalm 111

"Praise the Lord!

I will praise the Lord with my whole heart,

in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.

The works of the Lord  are great,

studied by all who have pleasure in them.

His work is honorable and glorious,

and His righteousness endures forever.

He has made His wonderful works to be remembered;

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.

He has given food to those who fear Him;

He will ever be mindful of His covenant.

He has declared to His people the power of His works,

in giving them the heritage of the nations.

The works of His hands are verity and justice;

All His precepts are sure.

They stand fast forever and ever,

and are done in truth and uprightness.

He has sent redemption to His people;

He has commanded His covenant forever;

Holy and awesome is His Name.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;

A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.

His praise endures forever."

Amen.

Here is a little worship song we have been singing as our "call to worship" at church lately, and I find myself singing it over and over again as I enjoy the beauty of each morning out on the deck overlooking the pond...

All that we have is a gift from God to give back to Him in honor and glory.  Our home is to be a place to honor Him as we open our home and hearts to encourage others.  We are just the caretakers of God's house here on earth.  Our real home is in heaven, where neither dust or moth can corrupt or destroy. (Matthew 6:19-20). 

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of our new home on the pond.  We are loving our new community and church and being so close to our kids...who are such a blessing to us. We are thankful and blessed beyond measure.  Now may we give back to the Lord all that He has invested in us for His glory and kingdom.

Have a blessed and wonderful weekend my friends. I hope to get caught up with you all very soon.