Friday Foto Friends

Happy Friday Everyone! I had to keep pinching myself to remember that it was Friday! It seems like I lost a day somewhere this week and I really didn't realize it was Friday already! So I am late again in posting pictures for Friday Foto Friends, but according to my clock I still have about 3 hours left in this day! LOL. So here we go:

My first tomato! LOL.  Try not to laugh too hard! LOL.  I am not a great farmer, but this is a start at least!

Remember I showed you a couple of days ago a strange picture of a kind of splashy whirlpool in the pond?  And I told you it was four Wood Ducks swimming around and round?  Well, if you look really closely at the above and below pictures, you will see more of what that really was!

I am counting a Male, Female, and three baby wood ducks above!

See how many you can find in these pictures. It's kind of like playing "Where's Waldo?"

But if you look at this one below, you will actually see two males and a female and some babies.

Not sure who the extra male is...maybe an uncle or a brother or just a friend! LOL.

Anyway, some of these pictures were taken this morning and some this evening, so I hope you can figure them out. You may need to enlarge them to see all the ducks.

Some of you may be saying "If you've seen one duck, you've seen them all..."

But I was excited to know that there were actually baby ducks and we never even knew it! I had a feeling there was a nest over to the left of our shoreline on the pond, because I would see the ducks swimming in and out of that area often, or flying off in a big hurry.  So I am excited to know that we have more wildlife growing and thriving here on Still Waters Pond!

Speaking of growing and thriving:  Here's tonight's picture of the Sand Hill Crane family out on their little marsh island getting ready to settle in for the night!  Now you can see why I say it is getting more difficult to tell them all apart!! Pat and Val are really getting so big! I expect to see them take off and fly any day, but really it will be a while yet. I understand they stay with the parents for about 10 months, and the 17th of May they will only be 2 months old! So we should be seeing them around for a while longer.

So what else is new?  Well, one piece of very good news...Our grandson Noah truly did get the job at the car dealership! After two days of extensive training, they had started out with about 25 people and ended up with only 9 who were actually selected to be offered the job, and Noah was one of them! So we are very happy for him! He officially starts on Monday!

Today I went to our United Women in Faith's "May Fellowship". Every May we invite ladies from several other churches in our community and surrounding towns to come for a luncheon and a special program/guest speaker.   Our theme was JOY...and there was much JOY in that place today! Here are some pictures of the happy ladies...oh, and the decor was for Cinco de Mayo, so it was very bright and colorful.

Here is my table. My sweet DIL Rose was beside me and my friend "Pamela" on the other side, and another lovely lady from our church, Kim, and then a guest from another church, Gail. We had a great time. I had hoped Dawn could be there as well, and she truly wanted to be, but she was a bit under the weather today and needed to stay home and just rest.

We all had a great time!  As I said, there was much JOY in that place today.

Well friends, it is getting late and I'd better call it a night or it will be tomorrow before I get this finished!

I do hope that you have the JOY of Jesus living in your heart!

John 16:24 NKJV

24 Until now you have asked nothing in My name. 

Ask, and you will receive, 

that your joy may be full.

 

Thankful Thursday And Friday Foto Friends

Wow! Would you look at that sunrise this morning?  I didn't even realize we were having such a beautiful sunrise until I saw someone else post a picture from her house about 60 miles south of here this morning, and I wondered if our skies looked like that too and sure enough...there it was in all it's glory!

If I hadn't have had that little nudge from God to go check it out, I would have missed it, because it didn't last very long and then it soon gave way to stormy skies and a lot of rain!

We were under a tornado watch almost all day, but thankfully no seriously bad weather developed here. I don't know about other places in our state, but we are very thankful that we only got some much needed rain.

Psalm 19:1

"The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmament shows His handiwork."

I am thankful for my "One Word" for 2022, "Delight". The other morning I was making my usual pot of tea and one of the Lipton Tea bags said "Delight in Deliciousness".  That one comes up every so often in the batch of tea bags, and I am always "delighted" to see it, as it reminds me of my One Word.  And this year I have delighted in so many things throughout the year. God has certainly given me many things to be delighted about, and I am very very thankful for that.

Now I suppose I should start thinking about my new One Word for 2023. No clues yet...but I still have a couple of weeks...God always seems to steer me toward the new word sometime around the last week of the year, just prior to January.  So I will be watching and waiting, maybe while having a cup of tea. That's when I found it last year, while reading in a devotional book that I got for Christmas from my sister. Maybe I should pull that book back out and read some more!  

Meanwhile, yesterday was our church ladies' annual Christmas fellowship, which is usually held at the parsonage.  Before the party began I noticed the beautiful camellia bush outside in the yard, and had to take some pictures.

Aren't they gorgeous?  Someone had to take notice of them, because God put them there for us to enjoy. 

This one looks different...that must be a different bush, even though it seems to be connected to the others...but it sure looks different. It's unique and lovely.

This bud that is starting to open on the larger flowers looks like some kind of giant fish about to bite. LOL.  Anyway, the parsonage is not currently lived in because our Pastor has his own home, so we ladies have kind of taken it over for our Ladies' Bible Study meetings and our United Women in Faith monthly meetings. 

It's a lovely home, and it seems so much happier when all of us sisters in Christ are there together.

Here's a collage I made of all of the women who attended yesterday. Don't you see how happy we are?

I am so very thankful for these beautiful women in the Lord. What a blessing! They are the ones who pray for us when we are sick or feeling down. They bring food when we are sick or coming home from the hospital. They provide funds for so many wonderful projects in our church and community...always giving for the glory of the Lord.  Beautiful women in Christ.

We always have a great time of fellowship in the Lord, and Christmas is the culmination of a year of many blessings. We pull on our Christmas sweaters and tops and bring a dish of some kind of food to share, and then we exchange little gifts.

I received this sweet necklace and bracelet and a cross magnet for the refrigerator.  I love them.

And here's what I was wearing yesterday...notice the earrings...LOL.  Are they big enough, do you think?  We have a vendor at Dixie Cottage who makes all kinds of interesting things from vintage jewelry, sea shells, mirrors, all kinds of fun stuff, and she had made these big Christmas earrings and they happen to be clip-ons, which I know I am the only woman on earth who doesn't have pierced ears, so they were just for me!  Yes, there I am, wearing my Christmas vest and pins, etc....stuff we only get to wear once a year so it lasts forever!  

 "Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Luke 1:45

Amen.

I will close with that. I do believe that God will fulfill His promises to me...

I am blessed.

How about you?

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Wednesday "Treasures"

Hello friends! Here it is Wednesday already. I missed the Tuesday 4 this week...sorry about that. I haven't even been around to say hello to all my friends out there in Blogland.  I am still adjusting to this new routine/schedule we are on and I don't have as much "free time" as I used to have.

I can't say that I've been just laying around like this lovely mermaid either...isn't she beautiful?

But today I did do something special...it was our church ladies' monthly "United Women in Faith" gathering.  The name of our organization has been recently changed to this new name. I like it a lot.

And here are the lovely ladies of our group:

We also celebrated the birthdays of two of our ladies...one was 93 years young and the other is a new "Medicare Mama", as her hubby lovingly calls her. She's our Pastor's wife and our worship leader as well. We were a lively and happy group today. It was a pleasant change for me after the past couple of weeks of working so hard helping get Dixie Cottage ready for action and then becoming a part of the action, which by the way, continues to be a wonderful new adventure for our family and our community. God is faithful, and we are so thankful!

This evening it was still 95 degrees around 6:00 p.m., so hubby suggested we go to the store and pick up some "Eskimo Pies".  I know, they don't call them that anymore, and I didn't see any anyway, but they did have these delicious Klondike Bars, which suited me just fine:

I never noticed the slogan "Making Squares Cool Since 1922" before. I guess I am now a "cool square". LOL.  

Now I know you want to be a "cool square" too, don't you? LOL.

I hope you enjoyed this refreshing little break. I have a feeling that is is probably hot wherever you are as well.  It is still summertime for sure, even if our kids in this area did start back to school today!

I know this isn't the greatest picture, but this Anhinga bird usually just sits out there in the middle of Still Waters Pond very still, letting his wings dry after he dives down in the water for his supper. But it's so hot he's been actually fanning himself by constantly flapping his wings as he sits there.  At least that's what I think he's doing.  Maybe I should offer him a Klondike Bar so he can "be cool". LOL.

Oh, yesterday, while working at Dixie Cottage, I was there alone for a little while when my hubby went home to get some lunch and take a little break. Wouldn't you know that would be the exact time that a rather unkempt man with a very long scruffy beard, pushing a blue grocery cart from our grocery store down the road a ways, would decide to come inside the store to "look around"?  I was immediately on guard, but I greeted him with my usual friendly "Welcome to Dixie Cottage" and he seemed pleasant enough as he kind of aimlessly wandered around the store looking at this or that and asking some questions about different things.  Thankfully I noticed a car pull up in the parking lot and a friend of mine from our church came into the store. I greeted her very warmly with a prayer of thanks to God for sending her just at that time so that I wouldn't be alone.  Then the man came over to me at the check out desk and asked if we bought used furniture from people, and I told him yes, if it was in good condition, and then he asked me if I would give him $20.00 for a "leatherman tool" that he had with him, as he needed some money to get home.  Well, I told him I was not the owner of the store and would not be authorized to make any purchases, (and of course that wasn't furniture anyway, but I didn't say that).  He still remained respectful but seemed to be a little more persistent in trying to make his case.  About this time I noticed my son and his wife and then my husband all pulling up into the parking lot and coming inside, and I gave my son a quick look that I know he understood meant "help me out here!".  Long story short, my son went outside with the man and talked to him and ended up actually giving the man some money for the tool, and the man thanked him very kindly and took his blue grocery buggy and went on his way across the highway to the McDonald's to get something to eat.  Wow...I was so thankful for God's intervention by sending His helpers at just the right time. Although I did not feel like the man was dangerous, it was still a very uncomfortable situation...but God had it all under control. However, it also made us all aware that we need to be on our toes and have a plan in place for handling such situations, especially if we are alone at the store.

This morning our devotions "just happened" to touch on this very subject. The scripture verses that we read  came from Psalm 112, in particular verses 5-9

1 "Praise the Lord!

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,

Who delights greatly in His commandments.

2 His descendants will be mighty on earth;

The generation of the upright will be blessed.

3 Wealth and riches will be in his house,

And his righteousness endures forever.

4 Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness;

He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.

5 A good man deals graciously and lends;

He will guide his affairs with discretion.

6 Surely he will never be shaken;

The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance.

7 He will not be afraid of evil tidings;

His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

8 His heart is established;

He will not be afraid,

Until he sees his desire upon his enemies.

9 He has dispersed abroad,

He has given to the poor;

His righteousness endures forever;

His horn will be exalted with honor.

10 The wicked will see it and be grieved;

He will gnash his teeth and melt away;

The desire of the wicked shall perish."

This Psalm helped me to look at yesterday's situation a little differently, and I am thankful for how God brought it all together in a positive way...and also especially thankful for His protection.  For all I know, the man could have been "Jesus in disguise" to give us that opportunity to serve Him in that way. 

It also reminded me of the passage in Matthew 25:31-46, about the sheep and the goats.  I won't quote the whole passage here, but this part in particular stands out:

37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 

38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 

39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 

40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

This was definitely some "food for thought".  

Well, friends, I need to get to bed. Tomorrow we don't have to spend the day at the store, although my hubby is going to help our son make a delivery of some furniture that was sold, but other than that I think we have a free day...so maybe I can get caught up with you all. Thank you for your patience. 

I pray you are having a blessed and wonderful week. Please take care and keep watching for those "treasures" that are out there where you may least expect them to be.