Thursday Thankfulness and Friday Foto Friends

Hello Everyone! Happy Thursday!

Morning's Sunrise

My current view out the window in "My Room with a View"

Sunshine and Blackie relaxing at the end of the day.

These signs were seen on the walls at our local "Nanna's Country Cafe" today. (more about that later).

 I wanted to thank you all for your kind and thoughtful comments on my last post HERE.  It seems like we've all had some experiences with negative commenters/spammers, anonymous and unknowns in the past.  The important thing is to always remember to be kind ourselves and be careful to always put our brain in gear before we put our mouth in motion!  Here is a Scripture verse from Psalms that is a good reminder:

Psalm 141:3 NKJV

"3 Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;

Keep watch over the door of my lips."

That, along with my "life verse" from Psalm 19:14:

Psalm 19:14 NKJV

14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight,

O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

If I could always remember to abide by these guidelines from God's Word, I know I would keep myself out of hot water with my tongue much better.  I've often had difficulty with "foot and mouth disease"...putting my foot in my mouth...and it is definitely something I've had to work on.  That's one reason I prefer to write instead of speak publicly.  I can edit and delete what I've written before publishing, but once the words leave my mouth there's no way to grab them back.  Sometimes I don't take time to proofread what I've written, and as soon as I hit "publish" I see my mistakes and then have to go back and fix it and pray no one was sitting right there ready to read it that quickly!   So yes, I know it can be difficult to always say the right thing and do the right thing, but spending time here in our blogging community has helped. You are all so kind and thoughtful and helpful...and that is a blessing to me every day! Thank you so much.

From Nanna's Country Cafe'

It's been a bit more of a quiet week. Today is actually our son's birthday, but we already celebrated with him over the weekend. Today he and his sweet wife had plans to go over and walk on the beach and then go into St. Augustine for lunch at a favorite seafood place. However, she woke up with a bit of a sick headache, and they got about half way there and decided to just stop at a local place and eat breakfast and then come back home.  Sometimes you just gotta listen to your body and do what is best. Thankfully our son is a sweet and thoughtful fella and he totally understood. He said he had plenty of things that needed to get done anyway in his workshop today, so he did that while she rested.  Hopefully Rose will be feeling better soon and they will have other opportunities to go do the things they had planned today.

From Nanna's Country Cafe'

Hubby and I decided to go into "town" this morning and do a little shopping. We went to Beall's Outlet and I actually found a a couple of fall tops at a very reasonable price. 

Perhaps my most favorite thing I decided to purchase were these hangers that have a kind of felt covering on them, so that silky tops and dresses won't slide off the hanger! I've been wanting these for a while, and so today was the day!! Now I just need to clean out some things in  my closet and rearrange stuff and use these on the things that need them most.

After we got back into our own little town from our shopping spree in "the big city", we decided to go out to lunch at our local "Nanna's Country Cafe'".  She's been telling us on Facebook that she's done some renovations and new decorations inside, so we decided to go check it out.  I thought this was the best "decoration" they had:

LOL.  I love this sign too:

Mooooove over...I want to see what she's eating!

I love the positive vibes they have going on in there. It made for a very "mooooving" experience. LOL. 

Well, as I was sitting here typing this post, I kept noticing that the skies were changing outside, and it just seemed like a good time to go outside and enjoy the cooler evening breeze before hopefully we get a thunderstorm.   I haven't been getting any good sunset photos yet because the sun is still setting a littler too far to the north west, plus Still Waters Pond is so dry that there's not enough water in it for any good reflections! But still the skies were looking interesting so I decided to go out and have a look. Here's what I saw and what happened next:

We had the grass cut the other day down along the shore, and because it is so dry, it just laid there in the sun and turned brown like hay.  Hay! Maybe it IS hay! Maybe we need one of those cows up there above to come eat some hay! LOL.

You can see that the pond is just a big mud hole basically right now. Pretty Ugly. (oxymoron!)

But if you look at the sun setting down behind the trees and focus on that and the beautiful clouds in the sky, it's still a lovely sight to behold!

We are supposed to be getting a thunderstorm right now, but so far I don't see or hear anything. It's been all around us this afternoon, but just seems to avoid us for some reason.

I love it when this happens...Sunshine decided to come join me on my little walkabout the yard...

Hello sweet Sunshine!!

I checked on the Zinnias, and there's still a few blooming, even though it's been so dry and I haven't been watering as much as I should...

We walked around to the front yard and could see the storm clouds forming in the east.  

By now hubby had come out to join me and then Sunshine decided to follow him back toward the house...

Blackie did not want to be left out, so he had also joined in our little walk, and then decided to take off and run and get ahead of everyone...I wish you could see how fast he was running in this picture!  It was like he was shot out of a cannon!  Sunshine is looking back to see if I'm still coming... I'm trying, Sunshine. I'm a little slow these days, but I'm coming!

Blackie beat everyone up the steps and then Sunshine ran up there to join him:

Then they did their usual checking each other over and making sure everyone is okay...and that was that. They are laying down out there now resting from their strenuous walk with us...and we are doing the same...resting in our chairs and thanking the Lord for a good day and so many blessings we can't count them.  The only thing that could make this day better would be some rain.

Oh, one more thing that made us happy this week...

I saw this picture of our grandson Noah and his mother Nicole on Facebook. They were on a "Mother/Son Day Trip" to Acadia National Park in Maine.

Since they live so far away from us we don't get to see them very often, so anytime there's a picture I'm claiming it! LOL.  And better yet, Noah sent us a nice long message bringing us up to date on his activities and happenings. It was really really good to hear from him and to know that both he and his mother are doing fine. That is an answer to many prayers.

Well, I guess that about sums up our week.  Here's a final thought, as we think about the horrific events in Minneapolis this week...we don't always understand why these things happen. There's so much sorrow, mental illness and hate in the world.  Our prayers are with those dear families who have lost sweet and precious children as well those who have been injured and hurt in their hearts because of this terrible event. May God be their comforter and healer. We can only put our trust in Him that He will be there for those dear ones and I pray that they will take refuge in Him. 

Amen.

An Inauspicious Beginning, OR, "Confession is Good for the Soul"...

The Steiner Family Saga continues...stories from "the good old days"

Proverbs 31:12 “She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.”

Yes, we had indeed “moved on up to the eastside”…the eastside of Cleveland, that is, to the region known as The Hills. What a beautiful place this was! Not only was the church a thriving, growing church in the suburbs, but it also had an absolutely gorgeous parsonage! We thought we “had died and gone to heaven” when we moved in! Especially after living in that big old house with the mice and the smelly cellar and the putting up with the alarms, sirens, whistles and bells…this would be divine! But we were soon to discover the truth of that old saying, “All that glitters is not gold.” (“The Merchant of Venice”, Shakespeare, 1596)

In our very first week I just about got us kicked out of that beautiful new parsonage and nice suburban church.

We had come fresh from the country, where people weren’t quite so “up-tight” about their “religion”. We were soon to discover that some of our new church people were the real puritanical, narrow-minded type, who had been schooled in some rather “pharisaical” teachings prior to our arrival. We had only moved sixty miles in the same state, so who would’ve thought that people could be so different?

This was back before contemporary Christian music was used or even considered acceptable in the church services. Once in a while during a youth rally or vacation Bible school or some other such program they might allow some praise choruses to be sung instead of the traditional hymns. Well, here was this dear lady, whom I will call “Eve”, who was immediately my kindred spirit.  “Eve” loved to sing and play the guitar, which I thought was just great! So she encouraged me to help her lead the singing on Sunday night and convinced my husband that it would be just fine. We stood up in front of the church, with “Eve” playing the guitar and me leading the people to sing choruses such as “Allelu, Allelu, Allelu, Alleluia, Praise ye the Lord!” Now, if you are familiar with this chorus, the idea is to divide the congregation into two sides, and have one half stand up and sing the first part, the “alleluia’s”, and then sit down, while the other side stands up and sings “Praise ye the Lord!” This goes back and forth rather rapidly until the end of the song when both sides stand up and loudly sing ‘Praise ye the Lord” together! Simple little song, full of the joy of the Lord, right? Sure! IF the PEOPLE are full of the joy of the Lord!

We sang a few more such songs, and I was wondering why some people just didn’t seem to be getting in the “spirit” of this singing, and were actually glowering at us from their seats with very squinty eyes and crossed arms. I was having too much fun and also too ignorant to realize that I had just stepped on some very prim and proper toes a bit too much! Ouch! The next morning my husband had a line of weeping and wailing women at his study door telling him that they did not like any such singing and that they would not “have a three ring circus” at their church and that I had better not ever do that again! Wow! When he told me what they had said I told him that I would NOT stay at a church where the people felt that way, and that I was too embarrassed to ever show my face again, and that since I hadn’t even yet unpacked all of our boxes we could just pack them back up and move on to someplace else right away! Poor guy! He really had his work cut out for himself at this place…both with the congregation…and with ME!

I wish I could say that I did every thing properly and correctly from then on…but it wasn’t too long after that we had a church social of some kind, and I was helping to serve the beverages to the people. As I went from person to person with my tray of beverages, I came to one of the Elders of the church, another rather “narrow” personage in my opinion, and for some silly reason the only thing that I could think of to say when I offered him a beverage was “would you like coffee, tea, or ME?” Now where did THAT come from? Some movie I had seen somewhere, I guess… I wanted to just fall through the floor and die right there! The look on his face was total shock and then much to my relief, he actually rather blushingly smiled and laughed and said “Wow! I guess I’d better have the coffee!” He kindly helped me get over my embarrassment by not making me feel too stupid. And for that I was very grateful.

I recently discovered a verse that I wish I had known years ago. It could have saved my husband and myself many embarrassing moments. “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.” Psalm 141:3.This verse coupled with my most unforgettable Psalm would make an excellent prayer for every woman when she awakens each morning. The unforgettable verse is Psalm 19:14…

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”

A woman who earnestly desires before God to say the acceptable words and think the acceptable thoughts will be more likely to do good for her husband (and herself!) and not evil all the days of her life.

Thank you Lord, for that reminder! I need to plaster it on my forehead or some place visible every day! Oh, and by the way, “Eve” and I have remained friends to this very day. I can’t even remember who the “weeping and wailing” women were! I think some of them have gone on to their “final reward” (maybe).

Now that I've confessed some of my most embarrassing moments...how about YOU?  Have you ever wished the floor would open up and swallow you? C'mon...'fess up!  It's good for the soul!!!  :)