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?

 I honestly don't have anything in particular to share today. I missed the Tuesday 4 meme yesterday about going to the seashore.  I had a busy day and really didn't have time to focus on it and couldn't think of anything clever to say anyway. Ever have days like that?  I don't even think I have any new pictures to share with you since my Monday post. So why am I here?  I don't know...just thought I should check in before you think I've checked out...LOL.  

Right now I am waiting for some Blueberry Bran Muffins (Click HERE for recipe) to come out of the oven. I can smell them baking and they smell SO good. I have my extra timer sitting here beside me so I can hear it when they are done. If I rely on the timer on my stove, I most likely will not hear it from where I am now and the muffins will get "overdone".  So I must pay attention...

Well, they're done already!!   Just gotta let them cool for a spell while I write to you...

I went outside to check on my own blueberries...I found one to eat right off the bush:

And these are on a different bush, but not quite ripe yet.

We planted several blueberry bushes last spring, in hopes that this year we would have plenty of our own blueberries to eat. However, I apparently didn't fertilize them enough or give them enough water or something, because they haven't produced much.  

Thankfully, we have a very large blueberry farm here in our town and the berries are ripe right now, so I was able to go get some from them the other day to have enough for eating and baking, etc. I may go back and get some more today. There is nothing quite as good as fresh blueberries right from the bush!  And they are huge! And so sweet and juicy!

Here's all I have left of the 2 lbs. I bought last week:

I've been eating them with cantaloupe, on my yogurt and granola, and just at random. They are SO good. Yes, I must add that to the list of "things to do" today...

 (a little later)  And so we did make the trip about two miles south of town to the blueberry farm...

And we were met with a sign on the door that says they are now closed for the 2022 season, and they will see us next year!  What???? How did I miss that?  I thought they'd be going on longer than that!!  Well, "snooze, you lose", as they say.  I guess I missed the first part of the season and didn't realize it had already been going on for a while. Well, doggone it! Now we won't have anymore really FRESH blueberries to eat!!!! I'm rather bummed, can you tell?

Oh well, back to where I was when I started this post over three hours ago...

Speaking of "overdone".  Yesterday was a busy day, as I said. We started the morning out with me having to go the Dr. office to do labs.  That was uneventful enough, thankfully, and then we went out to breakfast at our local "greasy spoon", "Nana's".  It's one of those small local cafe's where you can get a good breakfast or lunch pretty inexpensively, and it's always good. It's not fancy by any means, but the service is good and the people are very accommodating.  I had a wonderful breakfast of one huge blueberry pancake (they actually used the fresh blueberries from that blueberry farm!), bacon, scrambled eggs and hash browns!  (I didn't take any pictures! But it was sure good!) However, that filled me up so much that we didn't need any lunch and also I totally forgot about laying something out to cook for supper.  Well, hubby to rescue...he said he'd go pick up a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store. Sounded good to me. However, when we opened up that chicken, it was the most pathetic looking thing I'd ever seen! I'd say it was about the size of a small pigeon instead of a chicken. The legs were so puny and the wings were so skinny I doubt that chicken could have even run or flown to get away! But worse than that, it was so OVERCOOKED it was totally inedible.  We couldn't find enough edible meat on that carcass to even fill one sandwich if you wanted to, nor would you want to, it was so dry and overdone! I felt really bad because our son Scott came home from work pretty tired, hot, and hungry after working out in the heat all day, and he certainly deserved a good supper!  Thankfully, he's a very talented cook as well, and found some leftover ham in the fridge that was still good (but we were getting tired of eating ham), and made himself a wonderful quesadilla with that. I had baked some potatoes and made a salad, and hubby and I weren't really that hungry, so we just ate the baked potatoes and salad and we were happy. But you can bet I called the manager of that store and told him all about that pathetic overcooked scrawny chicken in as nice of terms as I could manage. He said to come in and get our money back or a new chicken anytime.  I said we'd take the money, thank you.  And so we did that today after our disappointing trip to the closed Blueberry Farm. No problem. Got our money back and hopefully someone had a chat with the deli people about how to properly cook a rotisserie chicken! IF I ever buy another one there, you can bet it will be inspected before it leaves the store!

Okay, let's end this rambling post up on a more pleasant note!

I've been trying to get some decent pictures of this pretty red male Cardinal for a while. He's so quick to get a seed and fly away that I rarely can grab my camera in time.

But today he cooperated a little longer than usual, but I still had to be quick!

He's much more vibrantly red in person...but I noticed something odd about him. He seems to be missing his longer tail feathers!  

There...he turned around and gave me a closer look! Sure enough, he's missing quite a few feathers, but he seems to fly just fine. I don't want to think about what might have happened to cause that problem...but he seems to have survived whatever it was and is managing life just fine without them!

Must be a lesson there for us somewhere...

Meanwhile, I've been enjoying the beautiful magnolia tree across the street from us. It is in full bloom right now, and the blossoms are so large and gorgeous!

I actually picked this one this morning and put it in a glass bowl of water, and within an hour or so this is how it looked:

I was enjoying it sitting on my kitchen counter, but soon realized that the exquisite fragrance of this blossom was a bit overpowering and was contributing to my headache (which is much better, BTW, praise God, but I don't want to put it to the test too much...) and so, the magnolia blossom was relegated to the back porch table, where I can see it without having to smell it...

Is anyone else fragrance sensitive like this? I can't be in the room with gardenias, Easter Lilies, or other strong flowers or else I will get a powerful headache...

However, that was not the source of my headache that I've been having. We moved the pot of Easter Lilies to the back porch as soon as it started having more than one blossom at a time on it.

I am very thankful to be feeling much better and give thanks to God for His guidance and healing touch.

The issue is not totally gone, but it's manageable, and I am indeed most grateful.

Well friends, I guess I should wind this up. It's now lunch time.

What treasures did I share today for my Wednesday Treasures?

Well, treasures aren't always "things" we have in our china cupboards or other material items.

They are the delights we find in God's creation...the birds, the flowers, the berries...the little lessons we learn from nature about adapting to difficult situations and still flying high...

Even when things don't go as planned or hoped, we learn to "make lemonade" out of lemons and carry on. 

John 10:10

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

Yes, there are always those out there who want to steal our joy or cause disappointments or even try to "clip our wings" so we can't fly high, but Jesus reminds us that He came to give us life, and to have it more abundantly.  Regardless of our frustrations, disappointments, and even our "injuries" in life, through Christ we have hope, peace, and yes, even joy in the abundant life that He gives us when we put our trust in Him. That's the treasure I have that I want to share with you today.

Amen.

Wednesday "Treasures" and Delights

 This is truly a "Wednesday Treasure".  This is the 2nd blooming of these Amaryllis plants this spring!

These are a few of the things in which I delight! (My "One Word" for 2022)

Fresh "real chicken eggs"...a gift from a lady at our church we lovingly call "The Egg Lady". She brings several dozens of eggs to share with people at church every time her hens are happily producing. These look like beautiful Easter eggs to me:

Our blueberry bushes are producing! Not quite as many as I would like, but at least they are trying!

These are two different varieties of blueberries.  Maybe I will have enough for some blueberry muffins. Or just eat them fresh on my cereal and yogurt! 

Now here's something extra special:

This comment below just popped up from 12 years ago on my Facebook Memories, right when I needed it most! 12 years ago when our son Matthew Steiner wrote this he had just been (very sadly) diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer. He asked his then 10 yr. old son to pray for him, and this is what he prayed (see full message from my Facebook memories below).

Matthew posted this morning: "Last night, I asked Noah to pray that God would calm my nerves. He prayed, "Lord, yesterday dad was a teepee. The day before, he was a wigwam. Help him tomorrow to not be two tents".   That's our 10 yr. old grandson Noah...what a sweetheart! He knows how to keep things in perspective! "

What I found so wonderful about seeing this memory pop up today was that I'd just been to the Doctor this morning, after having a CT Scan for some constant headaches that I've been having lately. Thankfully, nothing serious showed up on the scan, but the Doctor said my headaches are most likely being caused by "tension". Apparently I am being "two tents", as our grandson Noah Steiner called it when he was 10. So I am claiming this prayer for myself today. Lord, I'd rather be a teepee or a wigwam than two tents! Thank You, Jesus, for this blessing today, out of the "mouth of babes". Noah Steiner is 22 now...and I don't know if he's on Facebook because he's traveling somewhere out in the desert of southwest USA, camping out...but he has a camper, not a teepee or a wigwam or "two tents". LOL  

I am very very thankful that the diagnosis is a tension headache rather than something else more serious. The doctor is prescribing some medication that is more specific for this type of headache, so I'm praying that will help.  I didn't realize I was being "two tents".  So please pray that I will be able to relax and just rest in the Lord.  Of course, recalling this memory about our son Matthew brought back some unhappy memories, but I know he is completely healed today and enjoying the peace of heaven. There is no need for him to ever be "two tents" again.    

This is a picture of Matthew with Noah, probably right about that same time.  They both took Tae Kwon Doh together until Matthew had to start chemo.  He fought valiantly for four years until the Lord called him home.

Switching gears on to a little bit of happy news from here at Still Waters Pond:  

I am having to deal with a bit of "empty nest syndrome".  We noticed that the Mama and Papa Bluebird were no longer coming back and forth feeding the babies in the birdhouse. After a full day of no action I realized that the babies must have left the nest sometime when I wasn't looking...Here's what the inside of the birdhouse looks like now:

Apparently they must have made it safely out of the nest and on to their new life in the treetops.  I saw no signs of any traumatic issues around the nest or on the ground, so I am thankful to know they are on their way! But I do miss all the daily activity surrounding the birdhouse.  Hopefully the parents will come back in a few weeks and start another brood. Last year they did three times!

I wasn't sure if this was Daniel Boone (a.k.a. "Bobby the Squirrel") wearing a "coon-skin hat", or our neighborhood squirrel pretending to be "The Thinker". He sat in this pose for quite a while, so of course I figured he wanted me to take his picture. After this he left and was off to the treetops again.

Thankfully our Sand Hill Crane family are still hanging around, and we get to watch the antics of "Colt" as he continues to grow and grow and grow...

However, they are spending more and more of the day wandering around the neighborhood and not as much time in our yard.

We mostly see them in the early morning as they come ashore from their night on the island, and then again in the late afternoon, as it appears "Colt" is taking his evening bath, splish-splashing around and cooling off before they head back to the island for the night.

Other major news:

I got some new glasses after I don't know how many years:

(don't look too closely... I was having a bad hair day as well as a headache)

Here's what they look like on the "arms":  

They are rather plain and simple, if you ask me. I liked my older ones better, but didn't have that option this time. The important thing is to be able to see better. I'm still adjusting to that as well! LOL.

But here's some good things to think about as we close this out for the night:

This came from this little devotional book that I love to quote from now and then:

I need not be "two tents" about my future or my present...when I place my trust in the Lord, I can be confident that He will take care of every need I may have, and I know He will never disappoint me.

Thank You, Jesus, for this promise. I can rest confidently in You.

Amen.

 

Nature's Calling...

We had a special visitor while out walking the other morning...actually there are two of them...

I always am thrilled to have a close encounter with nature...especially when they are graceful creatures like these deer.

We haven't seen them too often lately, so this was a rare treat, and I was most grateful to God for allowing us the privilege of seeing them, even if for a moment or two before they took off back into the woods to get away from us.

Habakkuk 3:18-19

"18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will joy in the God of my salvation.

19 The Lord God is my strength;

He will make my feet like deer’s feet,

And He will make me walk on my high hills."

(I almost thought that said, "and He will make me walk on my high heels"!  I'm glad it didn't say that...I haven't walked on "high heels" in a long time, and I sure don't want to try it again now! Whew! That was a close one!) 

Thank You, Lord, for giving me strength...and for giving me much joy in my salvation as well as in just being Your child.  AND for giving me this beautiful scene in which to delight!! Amen!

Speaking of delight...(my One Word for 2022, remember?)...Well, I truly have been seeing so many beautiful things that delight me this past week.  The Bluebirds have been very entertaining to say the least...there have been two couples fighting over the two birdhouses...or maybe they are fighting over their mates...I'm not sure, but they have been very active. I tried to get a video of them one day when they were literally "air-boxing" with each other in the trees and all around the birdhouses...I guess the "turf wars" have truly begun...but anyway...here are a few pictures that I hope you will enjoy:

It seems as though they are staking out their claims on the two birdhouses, and I don't know which couple is which and who's taking which house...but I do hope we end up with two couples to watch this spring.

This is the male (on the birdbath) and the female on the birdhouse, staking out their claim on the house on the left.

But here we have a couple, not sure if it is the same couple or the other...she is on the birdhouse that is on the right and he is on the birdfeeder angel who is blowing her trumpet...

And this male is looking inside birdhouse #2 (the one on the right)  He did go inside too.

And this male is on birdhouse #1 (the one on the left)

And the female is sitting on the bird feeder hook, just watching and waiting on the male to tell her which way to go:

Now, this was fun. The two couples were flying back and forth in the trees, and to the birdhouses and all around, like I said above, "air-boxing" at each other and fighting for their territory:

You can only see three here, but there were all four of them having this "conversation"":

I don't know if they've settled anything...time will tell:

Ah, one good picture of the male caught in flight...and female just landed:

This female has staked out her claim on house #2:

And Mr. Bluebird is keeping watch:

Then he goes back to house #2 and looks inside again:

I think they are making up their minds:

He turned to me and said, "You'll just have to wait and see what develops, so stay tuned!"

Meanwhile, while all of this was going on with the Bluebird colony, there was a lot of other action taking place on and around Still Waters Pond:

Mr. Bull Goose stake out his territory by standing on the tree stump and daring anyone else to come near:

And the Bluebirds weren't the only "blue birds"  in the trees.  There was a flock of Blue Jays fly in...there were four of them  too, but I only see three here. They were chasing each other around in the trees too:

And this Male Cardinal flew in to get some birdseed, but didn't stay long. There was just too much commotion going on. And the picture is a bit fuzzy, sorry. It's the best I could do. I was having to snap pictures left and right.

There's the rest of the goose flock down in the water;

and Mr. Anhinga was standing out on his perch in the water, drying his wings and enjoying the morning sunshine:

He didn't seem at all bothered by all the commotion on the shore.  I think he was looking down at a fish or something in this picture. He had his mind on his own business:

Or maybe he was looking at this little group of Ring-necked Ducks swimming and diving around the pond. There were two males (black and white) and two females (brown and tan). They spend most of their time diving under water and having a good old time bobbing up and down. They were out there all day playing Marco Polo! LOL

It's hard to get a picture of all four at once because they keep bobbing up and down faster than I can snap the picture!

Ah, there they are:

I love watching them. A couple of years ago there were a lot more of them, and then they didn't come back last year (must've been because of Covid).  But this year there's only 4. But I'm so happy to see them again, no matter how many!

Now, I know y'all think I'm just a terrible "Mommie" that I haven't taken Lily Grace on any adventures lately. Well...I've been busy. But she did pick some sweet little "fairy flowers" and also some Carolina Jessamine the other day, so we put it in her pretty little "Lily of the Valley" tea pot that Aunt Doris gave her for a vase. She and her dog Bailey have lots of fun every day.

I guess this is a good place to stop.  I know it isn't Friday yet, but I may be busy the next couple of days and not have time to post anything, so I wanted to share these photos before they get "stale". 

I've mentioned this little devotional book before.  I love its quick and to the point devotions that point us to a "grace-filled life".

Well,  I was thumbing through it and came upon this one below...and I think this is a good place to close this post for today:

Sometimes we just need to be reminded that God is still working on our behalf behind the scenes, even while we are sleeping.  We can "sleep in peace" and "relax in His grace", knowing that God is in control and He knows exactly what is best for each of us.

So good night my friends. 

Sleep in peace.