Still Playing Catch up!

 We'll  start out this post with some scenic views on the St. John's River from today...but more about that later...

Thank you all, for your kind and encouraging words on my most recent post about my experience in the hospital, etc.  It's been an interesting journey, but one that I am so thankful to God that it really wasn't as bad as it could have been! I am still playing "catch-up", both here in Blogland in reading your posts and trying to keep up with what's been happening in your lives, as well as here in my own little world and trying to keep up with what's going on in our own family/church/friends, etc., as well as trying to regain my strength and energy so I can keep up with daily routines.  

It reminds me of this song, which I'm sure many of you will remember from back in the day..."One Day At A Time"

Linda Randel, Gaither Homecoming

One day at a time, sweet Jesus

[Chorus]

One day at a time, sweet Jesus

That's all I'm asking from You

Just give me the strength to do everyday

What I have to do

Yesterday's gone, sweet Jesus

And tomorrow may never be mine (Ooh)

Lord, help me today, show me the way

One day at a time

[Verse 1]

I'm only human, I'm just a woman

Help me believe in what I could be and all that I am

Show me the stairway I have to climb

Lord, for my sake, teach me to take one day at a time

[Chorus]

One day at a time, sweet Jesus

That's all I'm asking from You

Just give me the strength to do everyday

What I have to do

Yesterday's gone, sweet Jesus

And tomorrow may never be mine (Ooh)

Lord, help me today, show me the way

One day at a time

[Verse 2]

Do You remember when You walked among men?

Well, Jesus, You know, if You're looking below, it's worse now than then

There's pushing and shoving, and it's clouding my mind,

So for my sake, teach me to take one day at a time

[Chorus]

One day at a time, sweet Jesus

That's all I'm asking from You

Just give me the strength to do everyday

What I have to do

Yesterday's gone, sweet Jesus

And tomorrow may never be mine (Ooh)

Lord, help me today, show me the way

One day at a time (Ooh)

I am very very thankful to have been given the blessing of another day to keep living and praising the Lord, and celebrating the good things in this life...like our 56th Anniversary, which was Saturday.  I'm sure many of you already saw the pictures on facebook, so I will spare you the details from 56 years ago...Here's a link to last year's anniversary, which has a link to previous years, so you can go back and look as much as you want. LOL.  In looking at last years', I just realized that we did the same thing then as we did today, and I even wore the same top! LOL.   Here's what we did today to celebrate belatedly since I really wasn't feeling quite up to par on our actual anniversary on Saturday. (but we did do something then, which I will get to in a minute).

We went to our favorite restaurant on the St. John's River, Corky Bells!

Here's hubby...(which again, I am very thankful that he is feeling better these days as well, and he was willing and able to take us out to lunch)

And here's your's truly today:

 

And here I was last year...yep, same top, necklace, glasses...just had shorter hair, which, if I recall, was a mistake by a new hairdresser that I never went back to! However, in both pictures, it was a windy day, and you really can't tell much about my hair as to how it should look! (I think I was also a few pounds lighter last year...something I need to work on)

This was my food today...broiled shrimp and grouper, baked potato, and coleslaw (which I had already eaten when this picture was taken, and it was sure good!) Oh, and hush puppies, which I probably shouldn't have eaten, but they were so good!

And here's hubby with his food...same fish/shrimp, only he prefers fried.

I didn't spend much time down on the deck/dock today as it was too hot, but I took this one selfie mostly because I wanted to get the blue skies and clouds in there too. That one cloud looks like a big duck! I should've worn a hat...that hair! LOL.

I couldn't stay long because I was unsupervised. Hubby had already gone back into the building, and as you can see, some of us need more supervision than others. LOL

We are very thankful indeed that we were able to go out today and do this, as it is our tradition, and last week things were so crazy I wasn't sure if we'd ever get to do this again! Yes, I am very thankful.

On Saturday, our "real" anniversary day, our sweet kids came over and brought us some supper...

Rotisserie chicken, salad, and some boiled potatoes that we buttered and smashed with our forks and added cheese and sour cream.  

I had actually decided that we needed some dessert, since it was our anniversary,  so I made a peach dump cake, which is so easy. You just take a white (or yellow) cake mix, and I melted a stick of butter and poured it in a 9"x13" pan, dumped the cake mix on top, added the 3 eggs and instead of the cup of water I used the juice/syrup from the large can of peaches. (I drained the peaches first, reserved the syrup, measured out 1 cup to use). I also added a teaspoon of cinnamon and a teaspoon of vanilla.  I stirred it all up until the mixture was completely moistened,  and then added the peaches and stirred them around. Then I baked it at 350 for 30 minutes.  We put whipped cream on top, and it was so good.

That was the extent of my activity for the day! I was still kind of weak and wobbly from my hospital stay, and just had to pace myself and do things a little at a time.

We don't usually buy gifts for each other on our anniversary, but the Lord provided these flowers for us from our own garden of zinnias. 

On Sunday we did go to church, and it was so good to see people and get hugs and thank them for their prayers, and also to give thanks to the Lord for His protection and healing.

On Monday I had an already scheduled appointment with my PCP for a follow up, and so it turned out to be perfect timing so she could hear the whole story of what happened to me last week. She checked the records that were sent over from the hospital, and gave me a good check up and said she really thinks I'm going to be just fine, but she is referring me to a cardiologist for further monitoring of this condition, which appears to be very mild and in the early stages, praise God!  Here's a passage from Psalms that gives me hope and encouragement.

103 

Psalm 103:1-5

"1 Bless the Lord, O my soul;

And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits:

3 Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases,

4 Who redeems your life from destruction,

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s."

I like that part about "your youth is renewed like the eagle's".  Wouldn't that be nice? 

So anyway, this is the latest update.  Thank you all for your friendship here. May God bless each and every one, and may He "satisfy your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles!" Amen.

Here's another link to a previous anniversary (51), and it shows me wearing the same top on our 50th anniversary!! LOL. I guess when you like something, you wear it until it wears out!  There's also a lot of OLD memories from our wedding, etc., if you want to go back down memory lane, for those of you who are new here.  I like to add these links so I can go back and find them again myself. The older we get, the more help we need. LOL  Good night!

Tuesday 4: Books, TV, Movies and more...

 This week the Tuesday 4 meme was all about Books, TV,  Movies.  I didn't participate in the meme yesterday because I just couldn't come up with any interesting answers. But I enjoyed reading everyone else's thoughts on the topic.  You can check them out at the link above.  But the first question was...well, what the heck. I might as well play along. Better late than never...

"Hello Friends.. welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4. Just 4 questions each week. So glad you are joining in and the more the merrier!"

Books.. TV.. Movies are the topic of the week.

1 A movie theme song will play every time you walk in the room.. what is it? (consider asking family or friends)  I finally came up with a song as I was looking out my window at the little Bluebird house in our yard...

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

My, oh, my, what a wonderful day

Plenty of sunshine headin' my way

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!

Mister Bluebird's on my shoulder

It's the truth, it's "actch'll"

Everything is "satisfactch'll"

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

Wonderful feeling, wonderful day!

Yes, sir

2. What movie, book or TV program could you live in?

Anne of Green Gables....

Most of you have heard that I was named after Anne of Green Gables...my middle name is Anne, spelled with an "e", because I was a redhead and my mother loved this story, and when she saw me for the first time she knew she had to give me that name...

3. Is there a book/movie/TV quote you often think about or that effects you in some way?

Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music

4. OK friend, its your turn to organize our Blogger Movie Night where we get together as a group for snacks and movies! What movies have you planned for us tonight and what snacks are we going to have?

Well, based on all of the above answers, I guess we will watch those three movies:  The Song of the South (zippity doo dah!), Anne of Green Gables, and The Sound of Music.  Snacks...We will have fruit cake and cherry preserves and raspberry cordial, in honor of the famous tea party that didn't turn out so well that Anne of Green Gables had with her best bosom friend Diana...well, maybe we won't have that exactly, but we will have popcorn for sure because I think we should always eat popcorn while watching movies. And maybe a delicious homemade pizza.  Drinks? Well, probably sodas and/or iced tea or coffee if you prefer. OR how about a Root Beer Float??? Haven't had one of those in ages!!

Okay, I did it. Sorry I was so late. I just needed some inspiration from the rest of you.

Speaking of bluebirds, Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird have been quite busy lately...apparently the babies have arrived and the parents are coming back and forth with juicy bugs for them all day long.  It's hard to get a good picture because they are in and out so quickly, but here's the latest today of Mrs. Bluebird:

Maybe she is singing "Zippity doo dah!"

On another note, I started my physical therapy yesterday for my neck.  I will be going 3x a week for three weeks, and then we will re-evaluate my progress. I am also scheduled for the epidural in my neck later this month. Praying that will help.   Yesterday at the PT appointment I was being asked to think about all the things I can no longer do because of this pain and discomfort in my neck.  I guess I hadn't really thought about it that way. But when faced with the question the reality hit me...there are things that I have not been doing or find difficult to do because of decreased strength in my arms, which is caused by the pressure on the nerves in my neck.  One thing I've noticed is that it is very painful/difficult for me to lift a full pitcher of iced tea and to put it back in the refrigerator:

Lifting a gallon of bleach or milk or anything that size is also very difficult:

Even lifting this teapot full of hot water to make a pot of tea is difficult because I can't use two hands on it when it is hot:

The therapist also asked me about reading..."Can you sit and read a book?"  I hadn't thought about it like that. I just knew that I have not been doing much reading at all in quite a while, and when I do try to hold up a book I have to hold it up in front of me at eye level so I don't bend my neck down to read, and that is why I am finding it difficult to sit and read anymore for any length of time.  

It is also why I sit at a desktop computer rather than try to use a laptop. Thankfully that is what I have and what I prefer anyway.  I've tried to use my hubby's laptop, and I find it very difficult.

But the thing I thought about the most that made me kind of sad was realizing that I no longer feel like inviting people over for gatherings at our house, which is something I've always loved to do. Our house has always been the gathering place for family holidays, etc., and now, with the exception of our immediate family here for a meal now and then, I just don't feel like going through all of the work it takes to clean/cook/ and clean up after for larger groups.  That actually makes me sad. But in reality, since last year's pandemic, no one really wants to travel and come anyway so I guess it doesn't matter. If we get together we have to find a place half way where we can meet at a restaurant or something. Or someone else has to do the cooking and cleaning...which is a nice idea, don't you think?

So, my goals in getting better is not to focus on what I can't do, but what I can do.  I don't want to be a person who just says I can't do this or that anymore. I want to be a person who CAN do.  Even though with something like degenerative disc disease my neck and spine will probably not really ever get better, but with proper exercise and PT the goal is to hopefully strengthen the muscles that support those areas and fight this thing and not let it define what I can and cannot do or who I am or will become. That is my hope and prayer.  

Remember this song?  Maybe this should be my theme song:

"I'm only human I'm just a woman

Help me to believe in what I could be and all that I am

Show me the stairway that I have to climb

Lord for my sake teach me to take one day at a time

One day at a time sweet Jesus that's all I'm asking from you

Give me the strength to do everyday what I have to do

Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus and tomorrow may never be mine

So for my sake teach me to take one day at a time

Do you remember when you walked among men

Well Jesus you know if you're looking below it's worse now than then

Pushing and shoving crowding my mind

So for my sake teach me to take one day at a time

One day at a time sweet Jesus that's all I'm asking from you

Give me the strength to do everyday what I have to do

Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus and tomorrow may never be mine

Yes just for my sake teach me to take one day at a time"

Thanks for sticking with me here friends.    Oh, one more thing.  Our dear blogging friend Martha Jane Orlando from "Meditations of My Heart" lost her dear mother this week after a prolonged illness. Please remember her in your thoughts and prayers.  

Also, another dear blogging friend, Mildred from Laurel Wood is having some health concerns and I know she would appreciate your prayers as well.   Thank you dear friends. You're the best!