Wednesday Treasures

Might as well start this post with something "interesting"... what is that, you say?  Looks like an upside down umbrella! Yes, that is exactly what that is!  And why is it upside down on the ground?  Well, because a couple of days ago a very big wind blew through here and literally picked it up out of the table on the FRONT PORCH, and carried it UP AND OVER THE TOP OF THE HOUSE and dropped it in the back yard beside the BACK PORCH!! I kid you not!  The wind came up so suddenly that we didn't have time to go close the umbrellas on the front porch.  I heard a loud bumping noise and knew it had probably gotten blown out again, because that happened a few weeks ago in a storm.  So I went out front to look for it and couldn't find it anywhere! I thought to myself, "Wow, that was some kind of wind! It must've blown it down the street somewhere!"  Then my hubby said "Look out in the back yard...there it is beside the back porch!"   The only way it could've gotten there was to be lifted up and over the roof of the house!  That's pretty amazing!!   Yes, we had quite the thunderstorm with a lot of wind, but thankfully no other damage was done here.

A little while after the storm was over we decided to take a little ride into town. I told hubby that I'd like to drive by our church and see if they ever put the new sign up, because it was supposed to have been done over the weekend and for some reason it never happened.  So as we turned onto the street where our church is, we could see that there were people there actually installing the sign right then! That was a surprise, and I was so happy because I was suppposed to try and get pictures of it being installed for our church Facebook page, but I had been sick over the weekend and didn't get out of the house, and they didn't do it then anyway.  So God's timing was perfect! He gave me that little nudge to go see if it was done yet and there it was being completed right before my eyes! I love it when God brings a plan together like that, don't you?

We are excited to have this new sign because since the highway out in front of the church was four-laned, it is difficult for people to see where our church is and where to turn.

This sign has an electronic billboard so we can put messages about services and special programs, or even a Scripture verse on the sign.  I can't wait to see it all connected and working...but the weather has been bad the past couple of days and they haven't been able to finish setting it up yet.

I didn't get a picture of this, but something else happened at this same time. When we turned on the street beside the church, we noticed power trucks down on one side of the street, and a police car next to a little house on the corner that belongs to one of our church members. Then I noticed that a large tree had fallen on top of her house, and had pulled down the power lines, so that is why the power was off on the street.  Thankfully, the 99 year old woman who owns that house is now in a nursing home and she wasn't at home when this happened.  However, her daughter lives here in town, and so I called her to see if she'd been notified about the tree on her mother's house, and no, she had not! It had just happened during the storm, and most likely the police wouldn't have known to call her since she's not the owner of the house. Of course she was very upset about it happening, but so thankful I had called so they could get someone over there to check it right away. Again, this was God's perfect timing! If I had not been "nudged" to go check on the church sign, I wouldn't have seen the tree on the lady's house, and with the rainstorms that we have had the past couple of days, there would've been a lot more damage done to the inside of her house. Thankfully her family was able to get over there and put tarps on the roof and boarded up a broken window. They said that it was a blessing that their mother wasn't still living there because where the tree hit the window and broke it was right beside the chair where she would normally be sitting! 

Wow!  I tell you all of this because it is an example to me of the ways that God works.  We may never know all the ways that God uses His little "nudges" to get us out of harms way in time, or put us in a place to help someone else.  

Here are some words of wisdom and treasures from God's Word for today that goes along with what I am trying to say!

Proverbs 2:1-9

"1 My son, if you receive my words,

And treasure my commands within you,

2 So that you incline your ear to wisdom,

And apply your heart to understanding;

3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment,

And lift up your voice for understanding,

4 If you seek her as silver,

And search for her as for hidden treasures;

5 Then you will understand the fear of the Lord,

And find the knowledge of God.

6 For the Lord gives wisdom;

From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;

7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;

8 He guards the paths of justice,

And preserves the way of His saints.

9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice,

Equity and every good path."

Yes, yesterday was a total washout day weatherwise.  It rained and stormed pretty much the whole day. And I woke up with a bad case of vertigo, and so I ended up pretty miserable and "out of it" for the day. I was actually thankful for the rain and clouds so the house stayed dark and quiet and I could rest.

But I woke up this morning feeling much better, and when I went outside at 7:00 a.m. to feed the kitties, I did a little walkabout the yard to look at Still Waters Pond and to see how nice it looked after so much rain had fallen to help fill it up.

Eventually all of that green grassy area you see along the shore will be under water. That's the true shoreline for the pond, so we still have a ways to go, but every raindrop counts!

Oh, and look at this great big "bird" that was drinking in the bird bath! I believe that is what they call a "cat bird". LOL.  

Sunshine was reminding me that I had neglected to refill their swimming pool after the guy came and mowed the grass the other day.  He prefers to drink from the pool rather than the bowl of water that I keep refilled for the cats on the porch.  He would rather drink the dirty pond water or kitty pool water than the clean water I give him.  Probably because our water has chlorine in it. I don't blame him. I don't like it either! I always drink filtered water, so maybe that's what I need to give the cats too. They're pretty smart.

His little pink tongue was just a lapping up that bird bath water. Thankfully it was clean from all the fresh rainwater.

Yes, I see you, Sunshine! You are definitely a character!

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine 

 You make me happy when skies are gray

You’ll never know dear how much I love you

Please don’t take my sunshine away!"

Well, I guess that's it for today.  The storms have pretty much gone further away,  although as I look out my window right now I see some storm clouds gathering in the west, so maybe it's not quite over after all. That's fine. Still Waters Pond says "Thank You, Lord!".

And I say "Thank You, Lord," as well.  Thank You for the rain, thank you for the sunshine, and thank you for giving me strength and healing today.  And thank You for giving me little nudges to do things in Your perfect timing. These are truly my special treasures today. Amen.

Wednesday Treasures

Some words of wisdom from God's Word for this Wednesday:

Proverbs 8:34-36 NKJV

34 "Blessed is the man who listens to me,

Watching daily at my gates,

Waiting at the posts of my doors.

35 For whoever finds me finds life,

And obtains favor from the Lord;

36 But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul;

All those who hate me love death.”

Happy Wednesday!   This picture of "Sunshine" makes me think about that first verse above..."Blessed is the man who listens to Me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors...",  And although the writer of the Proverb was speaking about man listening to God,  it made me think about how our kitties are doing in this transition of moving over to our house from our neighbor's house for meals...  Sunshine has been listening for my call, watching daily for me not far from the porch, and then running right up the steps and waiting at the back door for me to bring out the food:

She is a pretty kitty, don't you agree?  

Whearas Blackie, on the other hand, has not been listening, nor has he been showing up on time for meals, and I'm afraid Sunshine has been gobbling down his and her food at the same time.  I have stopped putting out both bowls at the same time, and I wait for Sunshine to finish hers and leave for her daily hunt in the woods before I put out the other dish now, but still I'm not seeing Blackie show up since Monday.  Somehow the food does get eaten, and I don't know if it was Blackie, or if Sunshine came back and helped herself to some more (most likely, because I caught her at it once).

This picture was taken on Monday when they were both here, and although it looks like Sunshine is about to confront Blackie, she actually came over and rubbed cheeks with Blackie and they had a very sweet moment. But since then I don't know what Blackie is doing for meals, and I can't go searching for him. He knows where the food is, and hopefully when he gets hungry enough he will come. The neighbor's daughter, who is still here taking care of things at her mother's house, said she saw him the other night so we know he's still alive, but maybe he's found another place to eat. Who knows? Outdoor "wild" cats like to do their own thing, although Blackie is quite tame and has been well fed for quite a while. So I will give him a little more time to figure it out...there is a full moon, and I've noticed a lot of cat activity in the neighborhood with other "wild" cats...so that could explain everything...

I will keep you posted. I sometimes think one needs a degree in cat psychology to figure these things out. LOL.

I went to check on the Gnome House in the yard this morning because hubby was going to mow the grass and I wanted to make sure they were safely out of the way.  Click HERE for when this little house was first created.

When I arrived I was shocked to discover everything in great disarray and it looked like a war zone...

What on earth happened here?

 Help!

Oh No! What a disaster!!

Everything was blown to bits and the Gnome family was almost buried in the rubble.

The green Toad "toad" me the story of the huge monster that flew in and just started pecking away at their home, knocking off all the bark from the outside and boring big holes in the wood in search of bugs! He didn't care at all about the Gnome family or their belongings. It was just awful!

So I gathered everyone up out of the rubble and took them to the "hospital" and washed off their wounds, and then began the search for a new home for them, someplace much safer away from the giant woodpecker (most likely a Pileated Woodpecker! )

I decided to put them in the Holly trees in the Secret Memorial Garden, where they should be much safer since the holly tree is a healthy tree and no woodpeckers should be knocking on their doors!

The Gnome family has plenty of nooks and crannies to explore and build their little homes...

So hopefully they will be much safer here and live happily ever after:

Mr. Toad said, "I could've toad you so if you had just listened!"

Yes, sometimes it pays to listen to the little toads who may be much wiser than we are about things having to do with nature!

Oh, finally the beautiful old fashioned azalea bush in the secret garden area is blooming! 

This is the kind of azalea bush that seems to live forever and you will often see beautiful bushes of them blooming in old deserted house lots long after the houses are gone...

Here is a small example...the place where we walk used to have several old homes that had to be removed or torn down when the highway was widened, but it's interesting to see what little flowers are still trying to bloom there...

Those are azaleas at the foot of that old tree, small lasting remnants left behind from what was once a beautiful old home.  

Makes me think about what kinds of things will I leave behind when I am gone on to heaven? I hope it will be a lasting legacy of love and hope and joy and especially the love of the Lord...a fragrant offering of sacrifice to God...

One last thing...the other evening we had a most unusual golden sunset and rainbow after a very stormy day:

I thought those trees looked a lot like the burning bush!

This was looking across the street...do you see the rainbow in the clouds?

It really was gorgeous.  Sadly there had been a tornado earlier in the day at a city a couple of hourse south of us, close to where my sister and her family lives, but thankfully none of them were hurt or had any damage. We give thanks to God for that. My niece said the tornado was about 3-4 miles from where she lives. That's too close for comfort, if you ask me!  Thank You, Lord, for your protection over our loved ones!

Romans 15:13

"13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Amen.

P.S.  Great News, just after I posted this, I tried one more time to call Blackie home for supper.  He was across the street at the neighbor's house, and he saw me and ran pell mell all the way here so fast you'd think he had wings on his feet!

And true to form, just eating from his own dish wasn't good enough...he wanted to share Sunshine's dish of food too.  They are very compatible and fun to watch, and I am much happier now that I know Blackie is safe and sound, although I was a bit nervous as he ran across the street without looking...Thank the Lord nothing was coming!!  I think he knew that...I've noticed that they are both very aware of the traffic on the street and normally they stop and don't cross until the cars are passed.  Shew! I'm glad this story has a happy ending!

Praise God!

Wednesday Treasures

 Happy Wednesday "Hump Day"!  Hard to believe this week is already 1/2 over, and next week will be Thanksgiving already! I'm still trying to figure that out and who's coming and what am I cooking, etc., etc., but I know it will all fall into place as it always does and it will be a lovely day of Thanksgiving and blessings.  To me it is an important time to set apart from the rush of the upcoming Christmas holidays and just pause and give our thanks to the Lord for ALL HE has done for us, and not only that, but just for Who HE is! We are so blessed and thankful to be His children and to enjoy all that He has provided. Then we can fully enter into the Christmas season with hearts full of praise and joy as we anticipate God's greatest gift of all, His Son, Jesus Christ, the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, surrounded by the animals that He created,  sleeping under the light of the moon and stars that He literally hung in the heavens to give us light in the darkness...and He IS the living LIGHT in the darkness for our lives...oh wow, I could go on and on here and I haven't even gotten started...so maybe I'd better move on to what I wanted to share with you today!  (I think God had better ideas of what needed to be said than what I had planned here!)

So, having said all of that, even though I traditionally don't do anything Christmassy until after Thanksgiving, today I am breaking that rule and doing something to break open the Christmas season with some fun and joy!

The "Kids" and hubby and I are going to go see this movie!!

Sorry these pictures from the Internet are a little bit fuzzy, but you get the idea I hope!

As soon as I heard about this movie, I told the family that this was what I wanted for Christmas, to go see this movie in a theater, and to eat popcorn and have a happy time together!  So my sweet DIL Rose looked it up and found out that it was playing right now, but that TODAY would be the last day in the theaters nearest us, so we'd better hurry up and go!

And so today is the day, and we will be going to the matinee' this afternoon.

Why am I so interested in this movie, you may ask?  Well, one of my friends at church mentioned that she and her husband had gone to see it last week, and they really enjoyed it. When she told me the name of the movie, it rang a little bell somewhere deep in the recesses of my brain..."I've heard of that story before!" 

  

If memory serves me correctly, I knew that I had a copy of that book in one of the drawers of our buffet'...and it has been there for probably 38 years! (I know...I probably should clean out those drawers...), but it was a "gift" to our youngest son Scotty, when he was about 9 years old from his Sunday School teacher.  I know I probably read the story to him because he wasn't really into reading all that much...unless it was a comic book or something he was interested in...but anyway I remember thinking what a great story it was and that it would make a great play or movie or something...and so now here it is...a movie! And I want to see it. I wish "Scotty", who is much older now,  could come and go with us, but he has to work and I doubt he'd really want to see it all that much anyway...LOL. 

So anyway, to make a long story short, I went and found the book right where I thought it was...

and this morning in my zeal to make a Christmassy background for the picture of the book to show you here on this post, and since I don't have any Christmas decorations out yet, I remembered that I had just purchased some Christmas gift bags and things the other day, and I could use that as a background for the book...

and in my excitement to get around the bed in the guest bedroom where I am putting all things Christmas for now as a staging area for when I start getting things ready for Christmas, I tripped over something that was sticking out from under the bed (my fault, I had pushed something under the bed on one side, and didn't realize it had poked out from under the bed on another side), and I fell really hard on my knees and almost hit my face right into the antique sewing machine cabinet on the other side of the bed! Ouch! But thankfully I was able to get up on my own strength (maybe God's strength was lifting me up) and shake myself off and determined that nothing was broken...just a bit stoved up now in all my joints...but Praise God! I am OKAY, and the show must go on as planned.  What's that old saying they'd say to people before going on stage, "Break a leg!" *(see origins of that below)...well, thankfully I did NOT break a leg or knee or anything else, and barring unforeseen circumstances we WILL go see that movie today! LOL

*“Break a leg” is an idiom that means “good luck” and is often used to encourage performers before they go on stage. It's an example of figurative language because it's not meant to be taken literally.

Here are some possible origins of the phrase:

Stage leg line

In early theater, actors who weren't performing had to stay behind the “leg line” and wouldn't get paid. The phrase may refer to an actor breaking the “leg line” of the stage.

Superstition

Performers may have believed that saying “good luck” would bring them bad luck, so they used “break a leg” instead.

Curtain call

The phrase may allude to the practice of bowing or curtsying during a curtain call, which breaks the line of the legs.

You can use “break a leg” in other situations where you're performing, such as a job interview or speaking exam. For example, you might say “Break a leg Sam, I'm sure your performance will be great”.

(Source: AI Overview on Google)

I will be sure to tell you all about it later and give you a review of the movie from my perspective.

Now, back to other things...Thank you all for praying for hubby's eye appointment yesterday. He had a good meeting with the ophthalmologist, but it does look like he is going to have to have surgery in the new year. First he will have cataract surgery on that eye, and then once that is healed, the plan is to do  cornea surgery due to a condition he has in the eye known as "Fuch's Dystrophy".  It is apparently progressing more rapidly than before, so the eye Dr. feels that it will be in his best interest to have the surgery. I'm not sure yet if it will be the full cornea transplant or another procedure first to see if that will take care of it. We'll know more after the cataract surgery is complete. Right now it is just for one eye, but the doctor said he does have the same condition in both eyes, just not as bad in the other right now.  So thank you for your continued prayers.  Thankfully he can still see, but we don't want him to get to the point where he can't see.

I did take a few pictures yesterday on the way to the appointment as we traveled along:

At one location along the highway we pass by the St. John's River in Green Cove Springs. I was able to get these pictures as we "flew past" the inlet...

I thought the clouds were as pretty as the water was!

It was a beautiful spot, and I can see why people like to live there, especially if they like to go sailing...

These next pictures were taken at the parking lot of the Dr's office.  The last time we were there  there were Canadian Geese out in that pond (and also in the parking lot), so I was looking to see if they were still there...

It's a very pretty place, much like our own Still Waters Pond!  But there was no sign of any geese on this day.

Still, it was a beautiful place and I enjoyed looking for them!

And actually, when we got back home the geese were out in our pond! But I didn't get a picture of them as we were in a hurry to get some lunch and take a nap after our early morning excursion an hour away to the eye doctor and back.

Well, that's going to be all for today. I need to take care of some things before we take off for the afternoon movie date. The kids will pick us up after lunch, and we will travel about an hour to the theater. After the movie we plan to go get some supper before coming home.

Remember, "Jesus is the Reason for the Season!"