A Very Special Day!

 

Here's some words of Wisdom from God's Word for today:

Psalm 33, NKJV

"The Sovereignty of the Lord in Creation and History"

"1 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous!

For praise from the upright is beautiful.

2 Praise the Lord with the harp;

Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.

3 Sing to Him a new song;

Play skillfully with a shout of joy.

4 For the word of the Lord is right,

And all His work is done in truth.

5 He loves righteousness and justice;

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;

He lays up the deep in storehouses.

8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.

9 For He spoke, and it was done;

He commanded, and it stood fast.

10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.

11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,

The plans of His heart to all generations.

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

13 The Lord looks from heaven;

He sees all the sons of men.

14 From the place of His dwelling He looks

On all the inhabitants of the earth;

15 He fashions their hearts individually;

He considers all their works.

16 No king is saved by the multitude of an army;

A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

17 A horse is a vain hope for safety;

Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.

18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,

On those who hope in His mercy,

19 To deliver their soul from death,

And to keep them alive in famine.

20 Our soul waits for the Lord;

He is our help and our shield.

21 For our heart shall rejoice in Him,

Because we have trusted in His holy name.

22 Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us,

Just as we hope in You."

Amen!

Oh Wow! Today is going to be a busy day in our nation!  It's Inauguration Day!!! And it's also a holiday, Martin Luther King Day, so I think it's wonderful that schools are closed and so are many businesses and government offices, so that everyone can watch the Inauguration!  I'm thankful to hear that they have moved it to an indoor space because of the severely cold weather, but also I believe it is for security. Sadly, what should be a great day of celebration could easily turn into something terrible, so I pray for the peaceful transition of power and a day of joyful celebration for everyone. I also pray for our new President and his family and his cabinet and staff, that God will protect them and guide them in every way. Amen.

So, how are you going to spend this day? Will you be able to watch the Inauguration?  I hope to be able to, and if not LIVE, then later on YouTube.  Today is also our Bible Study day, which starts at 1:00, which would probably make it hard for me to watch it live. However, I am most likely not going to go to Bible Study today because I'm not really feeling quite up to par. Yesterday I had a difficult day with some "tummy issues", and had to stay home from church, and today, although that situation is mostly resolved, the aftermath has still left me feeling not too "stable" in that department, without going into details, and so I'm thinking it would probably be best for me to just stay home and let my body recover quietly.  

I wanted to thank everyone again for your prayers for my brother in law Art and my sister Doris. I did talk to them the other day, and although Art is very sore from that crazy and unexpected accident, he is very thankful not to have been injured much worse. He's almost 81 years old and already has back and heart issues, so it could have ended much differently.  So we give thanks to the Lord for His mercy and grace and protection.  And Doris is getting over her bout with pneumonia day by day, praise God!

Also, in my last post I shared with you about getting a new camera. Here's a picture of Lily Grace and me, both decked out with our cameras and ready to go taking pictures of anything and everything!  However, I have decided to return the camera and get my money back.  After trying to take pictures of all things great and small, I've determined it doesn't work the way I want it too and it doesn't have the same quality as my old camera.  And after changing the batteries in the old camera it seems to be working better, so I've decided to just stick with the old one for now, and if it dies on me I will replace it with another refurbished one just like it for about $25.00 bucks on eBay, and save ourselves a bunch of money. That's where I got that particular camera in the first place, which replaced the original refurbished one just like it that was given to my by my brother (who worked for Kodak), because he felt sorry for me for being the only person left on the planet who was still using a camera with real film and not a digital one! LOL.  So anyway, I have 30 days to return the new camera to Walmart, and so I've decided to do that and be thankful that my old one decided to resurrect itself with the new batteries! (It's very particular about the kind of batteries I use, apparently!)

Now, I must apologize for so many pictures of me...I hope you will indulge me for this next part of this post. On Saturday I received another special package! It was a total surprise, totally unexpected...this beautiful sweater was hand knitted by one of our very special blogging friends, who will remain unnamed but she knows who she is.  

When this package arrived in the mail I suddenly realized what it was going to be as this person had casually mentioned in one of her posts that she was knitting a sweater for someone as a surprise...and I never dreamed it could be for me!

In case you can't tell, my eyes were very teary eyed in these photos that I asked hubby to take so I could share them with this dear friend, so she'd know it arrived and how surprised I am to receive it.

I called my friend to tell her how surprised and thankful I was.  I really do not feel worthy of such a special gift. There's nothing that I've done to deserve such a wonderful blessing.  But you know, isn't that just like Jesus?  

Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us:

"8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 

9 not of works, lest anyone should boast."

Our Pastor has often used this little acronym to explain GRACE to us:

There's nothing we can do to earn God's salvation...it is a FREE gift, the unmerited favor of God. Why? Because He loves us...it's that simple. Christ died for us so that we could have eternal life...we can't earn our way to heaven...there aren't enough good works in the world that will ever make us good enough to cover our sins and make us pure and holy and righteous...Only a Pure and Holy and fully Righteous Savior can do that for us.  All we have to do is accept this gift and believe that Christ died for us, and we will be saved.

I am wearing this beautiful sweater right now, because it is only about 37 degrees here in Florida today, and it's going to be a very cold week!  Somehow my friend, who lives far away in a much colder climate, knew this, and wanted me to have this sweater in time for the cold weather! Wow! Isn't that just like our Lord? He knows what we are going to need even before we know it and He sends it to us with so much love.  I am still trying to get my head around this.  All I can do is say Thank you, to my friend, and Thank YOU, to my Lord.

While I was feeling so punky yesterday I drank a special cup of an herbal tea that was meant to help my situation, and I noticed this little tag line:

That kind of goes along with this verse from Luke 6:43-45~

"For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. 45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."

And this was another tagline that was on a previous cup of tea, but it got a tea stain on it, so I apologize, but it spoke to my heart as well...

Friendship is like a sheltering tree...something that covers us and gives us shade from the heat of the day, and gives us comfort.

I thank the Lord for this special friend (whom I've never met in person), and for so many others who bless me every day with your posts and your kind words and comments and the love that you show for others as well. Thank you for being such a loving and caring community of friends. I am blown away by the love I've received through this community over the years.  Wow!

Okay, dear ones, it's time to go watch the Inauguration activities...A very special and historic day.  

God bless America!!

Friday Foto Friends~Happy Thoughts and Blessings

 Where did this week go?  Wow! and what a week it was!! I know it has been a pretty exciting and nail-biting kind of week, but we all got through it, and now we continue to pray for our country and our new President elect and his family, and that all will go smoothly during this period of transition.  Regardless of which side of the aisle we are on, may we come together in unity and prayer for the good of our nation.  "One Nation, UNDER GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for ALL!" Amen!

I posted this picture of the sunrise yesterday morning on Facebook and said, 

"The dawning of a new day".

And then I shared this Psalm, which I think is very appropriate for our nation right now.  May we read it prayerfully and consider what God has done and is doing in our midst.

Psalm 33 NKJV

The Sovereignty of the Lord in Creation and History

1 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous!

For praise from the upright is beautiful.

2 Praise the Lord with the harp;

Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.

3 Sing to Him a new song;

Play skillfully with a shout of joy.

4 For the word of the Lord is right,

And all His work is done in truth.

5 He loves righteousness and justice;

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;

He lays up the deep in storehouses.

8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.

9 For He spoke, and it was done;

He commanded, and it stood fast.

10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.

11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,

The plans of His heart to all generations.

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

13 The Lord looks from heaven;

He sees all the sons of men.

14 From the place of His dwelling He looks

On all the inhabitants of the earth;

15 He fashions their hearts individually;

He considers all their works.

16 No king is saved by the multitude of an army;

A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

17 A horse is a vain hope for safety;

Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.

18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,

On those who hope in His mercy,

19 To deliver their soul from death,

And to keep them alive in famine.

20 Our soul waits for the Lord;

He is our help and our shield.

21 For our heart shall rejoice in Him,

Because we have trusted in His holy name.

22 Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us,

Just as we hope in You.

Amen!

And now, moving right along to what else has been going on around us here in our neck of the woods...

Not a whole lot. Hubby and I have been still a little bit recovering from that bad cold or whatever it was that hit us after our trip to the mountains.  We are MUCH better, praise God, but still have a little bit of a cough now and then and sinus issues, which I think are probably a kind of seasonal sinusitis that just comes with the season.  Hopefully, if the weather would cooperate and cool back down a bit and get rid of this warm, muggy, cloudy humid weather, we will feel a whole lot better.  I see that a cooler weather pattern is on its way next week, so that is encouraging.  

One good thing from this week (among others), our son Scott came home on Tuesday to vote and do his laundry and visit with us! I was so proud of him to take the afternoon off from work and make the hour and a half drive here so he could vote. This is still his permanent residence, but he stays in Jacksonville during the week, where he rents a room from a friend, so he can work in that area. It's always nice to see his smiling face come through the door:

Of course one of his first questions was, "Is there any Halloween Candy left over?"  LOL. Some kids just never grow up, and YES, I saved a bag of candy just for him because I knew he would be looking for it! LOL.

Scott wasn't our only visitor this week...this pretty young kitty stopped by and looked in our back porch door to see who was inside.

What a sweet face!  I've never seen this kitty before in the neighborhood, and she looks fairly young.

I took pictures so that if I see where anyone has posted pictures on our community lost and found pets, I can at least say I've seen her here in our neighborhood.

She soon took off and I haven't seen her since, but if she comes back I could be tempted to keep her! She just has such a sweet face!  But then again...no, I really don't need or want a cat...but then again...

Let's see, what else has been going on?  The kids (Benton and Rose and the grandpups) came over last night and we had pizza for supper.  We hadn't seen them ever since we came home from our trip, since we were sick, so it was so nice to see them all again.  I didn't take any new pictures, but you know what they look like by now! LOL.  Anyway, Rose brought me this magazine that she picked up in the mountains,

And inside were tucked all the leaves we gathered together while we enjoyed walking around the beautiful property where we stayed!  I was so happy she had done that!

These long leaves we had to look up to find out what kind of tree they came from, and I think they belong to a "sourwood tree"

Have you ever heard the song "Sourwood Mountain"?  I remember singing it many years ago...

Apparently the Bonanza fellas sang it one time, so you can listen to it in this video, and here's the lyrics below (their version may be a little different, but it's fun to hear)

Sourwood Mountain

Chickens a'crowin' on Sourwood Mountain

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

So many pretty girls I can't count 'em

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

My true love's a sun-burnt daisy

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

If I don't get her I'll go crazy

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

My true love's at the head of the holler

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

She won't come and I won't foller

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

Big dog'll bark and little one'll bite you

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

Big girl will court and the little one spite you

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

Chickens a'crowin' on Sourwood Mountain

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

So many pretty girls I can't count 'em

Hey Ho Diddle-aye-day

I sang this song while we were collecting our leaves together, at least the parts I could remember.  We had such a fun time.

We girls, including the grandpuppies, had a great time walking and finding the leaves...as you can see, there were many different kinds of trees to choose from!

It was a perfect time for leaf gathering...

I'm trying to figure out a way to preserve them better for the future, but haven't come up with any great idea yet...maybe you can help me?  

Maybe I could put some in a picture frame or something.  I don't know, but for now, we will just enjoy them there as is.

Oh, the Memorial Rose continues to bloom and smell so delightfully sweet. I did send our daughter in law Nicole a picture of it on her 50th birthday this week, and she did respond and appreciated it very much.  I wish I could've sent it to her for real so she could smell it, but I'm afraid it wouldn't have made the trip to Maine intact.  But she appreciated the thought behind it and we were able to wish her a happy birthday.  We continue to pray for Nicole and our grandson Noah, as they move on with their lives without our dear son Matthew,  who has been in heaven over 10 years now. (Still hard for us to believe that!)   That's why this rose is so significant, as it was originally planted right after he passed away.

Oh,  my goodness! I was looking for a good way to close out this post, and I turned to this little devotional calendar for today to see what it had to say, and would you look at this?

I think God had that planned all along! I never saw this until right now! Wow! Talk about God putting things together...

That leaves me rather speechless! So I will just say thank you all for reading along and for being such dear friends.  And may we always have "beautiful roses in (our) hearts".

Have a blessed and beautiful day and weekend.

Saturday Review

Let's start at the end of the day and work backwards, okay?

We had a surprise thunderstorm this afternoon and afterwards this lovely rainbow:

This was taken from the parking lot of our grocery store. After it stopped raining we headed to the store to pick up a few things that we need for tomorrow, like ice-cream...why? Well, because tomorrow is our son Benton's birthday!  And he and Rose and our other son Scott will be coming to our house after church for dinner! Thankfully Rose is baking the cake and also providing the steaks. I will take care of the potatoes and salad and of course ice-cream! Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures to share with you tomorrow night (or Monday probably as I'll be too busy/tired tomorrow).

After the rain the sun came out and just glowed on Still Waters Pond. It was so pretty and fresh and glorious.

Here are some thoughts from Psalm 33, which we've been reading portions of in our morning devotions this week:

Psalm 33:1-12

"1 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous!

For praise from the upright is beautiful.

2 Praise the Lord with the harp;

Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.

3 Sing to Him a new song;

Play skillfully with a shout of joy.

4 For the word of the Lord is right,

And all His work is done in truth.

5 He loves righteousness and justice;

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;

He lays up the deep in storehouses."

8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.

9 For He spoke, and it was done;

He commanded, and it stood fast.

10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.

11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,

The plans of His heart to all generations.

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

The people He has chosen as His own inheritance."

These last few verses in particular give me comfort when I listen to the news and see what is going on in our world these days.  Just something to think about.

So what did we do today? Well, we spent most of the day at Dixie Cottage, which is becoming our usual routine Tuesday-Saturday. Thankfully we had Thursday free this week to give us a chance to get caught up with other things.  I'm not complaining. I actually enjoy being at the store and meeting new people. It was very busy today.

I was enjoying looking at some of the fall decor that one of our vendors has in particular:

I like that! "Give 'em pumpkin to talk about." LOL.  

These wreaths are so beautifully made. 

These little crows are fun:

Now, on the other side of the store the lady who makes such beautiful vintage glass birdfeeders and birdbaths brought in a few new things:

Isn't that a fun and unusual birdbath?  

And speaking of fun...these are called Redneck Wine Glasses:

Here's the description:

This lady also listened to one of my suggestions and made a couple of teapot garden decorations:

Aren't they pretty and unique?  I'm trying really hard to control my spending at our own store! LOL.

But today I did give in to a little splurge and bought this wreath for our front door.  I prefer a smaller wreath for the door because we have a glass storm door and when you close it if the wreath is too big the door won't close properly. So this small wreath was just right, and it was on sale too!

So that is my first fall decoration that I've put up. I usually wait until after Labor Day to begin my fall decorations, but this was so pretty I just didn't want to wait.

And so with that I will say good night because it is getting close to my bedtime.

Tomorrow will be a busy and special day with Sunday School, Church, and then the birthday party for our #1 Son. (#1 meaning he's the firstborn!)  Hubby and I are also going to sing a duet in church so I need to get some rest so I don't sound too croaky tomorrow. LOL.

Here is the song we are going to sing:

1 I trust in God wherever I may be,

Upon the land or on the rolling sea;

For come what may, from day to day,

My heav'nly Father watches over me.

Refrain:

I trust in God, I know he cares for me,

On mountain bleak or on the stormy sea;

Though billows roll, he keeps my soul,

My heav'nly Father watches over me.

2 He makes the rose an object of his care,

He guides the eagle through the pathless air;

And surely he remembers me,

My heav'nly Father watches over me. [Refrain]

4 The valley may be dark, the shadows deep,

But oh, the shepherd guards his lonely sheep;

And through the gloom, he'll lead me home,

My heav'nly Father watches over me. [Refrain]

I hope that you know that your Heavenly Father is watching over you, no matter where you may be or whatever is happening in your life.  We can trust in God because He will always be there for us.  

And with that I will say

Good Night, and May God bless you and keep you always.

 

Nothing Special, But Maybe a Little Wildlife is Pretty Special After all...

Hello Friends...Nothing special going on...just wanted to say Hi!  I've started the week off with sinus issues...dizziness (yesterday) and headache today, so not doing a whole lot of anything that I don't have to do!  So thankful for being retired...and I don't have to do anything if I don't want to...well...that isn't totally true...but it sounds good...LOL.

I thought I'd scroll back through the most recent pictures that you haven't seen yet and see what there is to see. I know it isn't Friday Foto Friends yet, but there are a few bear pictures to share...

This fella came by for a drink a few nights ago...

I guess he was either very tired...or, I think he was actually watching something out there in the yard or on the road...

We can't see what he was looking at, but it seems pretty intense...

Still watching...and it looks like he has a little smile on his face, like "Ha ha ha...they don't know they're being watched...if they only knew...ha ha ha...wouldn't they be surprised???"

So then he gets up to get a little closer look...

Starts meandering over there...

And then he just sits right down to watch...I wish I knew what...

Still watching very closely...

And then apparently it wasn't anything exciting enough to hang around for, so off he goes back on the trail...

Now, the next night this bigger bear comes for a drink...(maybe this is who the other bear was watching the night before????

This one is definitely a bit fatter and bigger...

He/she sniffs the ground where the other bear had been...

Still sniffing around...and off he went...Definitely MUCH bigger bear, don't you agree?

Here's a couple of recent photos of the Sand Hill Crane babies...this was last week...look how big they've gotten!!

And they can swim!!

Here they are swimming over to meet their parents on the island, where the spend the nights together:

This Pileated Woodpecker came back to our back yard, looking for that old dead holly tree that we took down a couple of weeks ago...he pecked around in the dirt and dug up a few bugs there, and then went on to bigger and better things...

This Brown Thrasher was sitting up on the tippy top of this tree, just singing his heart out! I never heard them sing before...

Mostly they are just thrashing about in the bushes on the ground, digging up bugs and worms, and I rarely see them in the trees!  And they sing a lot like a Mockingbird...many different tunes! I was so surprised! But then I found out they are in the same family, so I guess that explains that!!

Spied this Red Bellied Woodpecker one morning, way up at the top of this old unused electric pole in our yard...(well, we use it, for our bear-house # sign and our flag, which wasn't up yet, and the bears use it as a scratching pole)

Here he is...must have found something interesting up there!

One afternoon as we were coming in from our walk, I noticed these two Mourning Doves sitting up in the sycamore tree, just soaking in the afternoon warm sunshine...

One sat up and took a better look at us...

The other sat there very smugly, as if she wasn't interested in us at all...or maybe they were having a disagreement about whether or not to fly away.  I guess they were too comfortable to care about us...so they stayed.

Speaking of things that fly...these seaplanes flew over our house one morning.

They can land on the water or land.

Hubby said one of them was from the Coast Guard...I'm not sure which, but they were interesting to see flying over our house.

Not sure if they were headed for Big Lake Kerr, or the St. John's River, or going all the way to the ocean, which is about an hour's drive from us, but probably closer as a "crow flies"...or a plane, in this case. 

Here's some thoughts for the day from our devotions this morning:

Excerpts from Psalm 33

1.  "Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous!

For praise from the upright is beautiful."

4.  "For the word of the Lord is right,

and all His work is done in truth.

5.  He loves righteousness and justice;

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

6.  By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

8.  Let all the earth fear the Lord;

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.

9.  For He spoke, and it was done;

He commanded, and it stood fast.

10.  The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.

11. The counsel of the Lord stands forever,

The plans of His heart to all generations.

12.  Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

20.  Our soul waits for the Lord;

He is our help and our shield.

21.  For our heart shall rejoice in Him,

Because we have trusted in His holy name.

22.  Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us,

Just as we hope in You."

Amen