Friday Foto Friends~Winter in Florida!

"Season's Greetings from Still Waters Pond"

Some special friends have flown in for a visit:

Oh wait! I think The Canada Geese brought some other folks with them from way up north...the Ring Necked Ducks have arrived for the winter:

At first I thought there was just a couple of females and one male

But then the next day there appeared to be a crowd...

They must be multiplying already! LOL!

I could watch these little ducks all day. They just swim around and round in a circle and then when they are ready they dive down in the water and find food to eat and then pop back up again...kind of like they are playing a game:

It's so much fun to see what winter visitors, or "Snow Birds" we will have come back each year.

I wanted to thank you all for your kind words and prayers for my hubby and me this week as we were a little under the weather.  We both ended up going to the Doctor earlier in the week, and he gave my hubby a big old shot in the "gluteus maximus", along with some pills to take. Gave me some too, to help ward off whatever was trying to catch me. It seemed to work and thankfully we are both feeling much much better now. We are now pretty much back on schedule for all things Christmas...finished up our shopping and got most of the wrapping done today. Tomorrow we will make sure it's all done and maybe think about doing a little baking. However, I am hoping our son Scott will come prepared to do his annual cookie baking when he comes on Sunday. He's the best cookie baker in the family and loves to do it as a gift for the family. But we shall see what he is able to do. He's been working practically 7 days a week and he may just want to "crash" when he gets here. Either way, we are thankful to be ready for Christmas as much as possible.  Sunday will be a busy day, with Sunday School and church in the morning, including the performance of our choir's Christmas Cantata, "The Christmas Story", and then we will go back in the evening for a candlelight Christmas Eve service. I love that this will set the tone for experiencing the true meaning of Christmas, the celebration of the birth of our Savior!

These nativities are in the foyer of our church.

Because we had been feeling kind of cooped up all week we decided to take a little ride down to the Kenwood Boat Ramp again, to see how it looks now in "winter", as opposed to the way it looked a few weeks ago in "autumn".  This will help people who are not from here in Florida to see that yes, we do have a change in seasons...maybe not as pronounced as it is up north, but changes do take place, none the less.

Now:

Then:

Now:

Then:

Now...you can really see the tannins in the water from the decaying of the cypress trees in winter, plus also after that big rain storm we had last week...

Then:

Now:

Then:

Now:

I think there is a certain kind of beauty in every season, don't you? Kind of like life...many of us are perhaps entering the winter season of our lives...maybe some are still in the autumn or summer...I don't think there are too many of us still in the spring of our lives...when we were probably most productive, raising our babies or starting our careers, new beginnings...but regardless of what season of life we are currently living, as long as we have breath...we need to make the most of it...enjoy whatever God has given us to the fullest.  Perhaps all some can do is sit in a chair or maybe even a bed, and read or write...but if that is what we can do...we can share our thoughts with each other and encourage one another in our journey of life. We can pray for one another and help lift up the weary.

Hebrews 10:24-25 says it best:

"24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."

As we approach the end of another year, we aren't too sure what may lie ahead for each of us.  But one thing we can do is look for ways to encourage one another and try to do our very best to be a friend to others who may need a friend.  If you are looking for a gift to give here at Christmas time...perhaps that is the best present of all...your "presence", in whatever way that is possible for you.  I appreciate each and every one of you and your gifts of thoughtfulness and kindness and words of wisdom and yes, even your gifts of laughter and funny memes to make us laugh and smile on what might be a dreary day. You are each one unique and special. Thank you for using your gifts here in blogland. You are a blessing to us!

If I don't get back again before Christmas,

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!!

 

 

Friday Foto Friends

Good Friday Morning everyone! Hope it is a beautiful day in your neighborhood, wherever you may be!

I took this picture yesterday morning for Veteran's Day, thinking I would write a post, but never got around to it yesterday...but it's always a good thing to share pictures of our great American Flag and to honor those who have given so much for our freedoms. May we never take that for granted.

Freedom is never free! Someone has paid the price for us, so let us be thankful and always mindful of that fact. May God bless our veterans everywhere. We appreciate the sacrifices you have made on our behalf.

Yesterday was also another very special day...the 4th anniversary of our "kids" wedding day!

I took this picture of them yesterday morning when they stopped by our house on their way to a day filled with some fun and adventure. They took the day off from their work at the store, well, with the exception of making one big delivery of some furniture to a customer near Jacksonville, and also shopping for some things for their special "Sip and Shop" sales day coming up this Saturday at their store in St. Augustine, Dixie Cottage, well...anyway, they tried to take the day off...

And they made it to the beach and out to lunch at some nice little seafood place.  They sent us this picture to show they did get to have some fun!  One thing they are learning, when you are self-employed you gotta grab the moments when you can. Thankfully they have a couple of vendor helpers who can "man" the store for them occasionally so they can get away for a day. 

We are so thankful for this precious couple and especially for our sweet "daughter in love" that God has brought into our family.

Here they were 4 years ago:

Click HERE For the Story from Four Years Ago

May God bless them with many many more happy years together.

Now on to other things!  

In my wanderings around our yard I noticed that this variegated philodendron plant is growing wild all over our wooded lot.  It is lovely, BUT it is a bit invasive and is not good for the trees. 

I looked it up online and discovered that there are Etsy sites who are selling this stuff for hundreds and thousands of dollars! Yikes!! I may have a gold mine here! 

However, I would like to just get rid of it before it destroys our trees! 

So, if you happen to be in the area and would like to come and get some of this for your own houseplants, please come help yourself! If I were a very enterprising person, I might start putting it in pots and selling it...but that sounds too much like work to me. I'd rather just give it away.

So come and get it!

It probably all started with someone throwing out a houseplant that they thought was dead...and this is what happened here in our tropical woods!!

It is quite pretty...and grows quite large!

Okay, enough of that! 

Now, this past year our ladies' group at our church, the UMW, and our Ladies' Bible Study group, have been meeting in our church parsonage house for our meetings because it is empty, (our pastor has his own home), and it is a lovely big house with plenty of room. You may recall that we actually lived in that house for a couple of months when we were in transition from our previous home to this present home.

Anyway, one of the issues we have faced with using this house was that we have several ladies who some physical disabilities and must use a walker or a wheelchair to get around.  This house was not equipped with a handicapped accessible bathroom, so it was becoming an issue for them to participate in our activities at this house.  Finally, a member of our church who is also a builder/handyman, was able to install a wider door to the bathroom (32" wide) and add a grab bar by the toilet, (which was already high enough to meet ADA standards), so that now no one should have any difficulty being able to access the facilities!  Our ladies are all VERY thankful for this much needed improvement!

One of the projects our ladies work on is buying and wrapping Christmas gifts for the children of our community. Our little church (which averages about 60-70 people each week at this time) , manages to buy enough toys, underwear, socks, and school supplies each year to give to the 500+ students at our elementary school! Yes, you heard that right! We have done this consistently for many years!  They start collecting new toys for Christmas back in January and then start gift wrapping in August or September. Here is the current stack of gifts that have been wrapped by our ladies:

And it is still growing. However, we found out just this past week that the school really doesn't want the toys, etc., gift wrapped anymore, so they can make sure everyone gets equal gifts, etc., but they said we don't have to unwrap what we've done...just don't wrap any more!  That's nice to know...just too bad they didn't tell us sooner! LOL.

I am amazed at what these faithful ladies have been able to accomplish, with God's help. 

Okay, back to nature for a minute.

I noticed some different looking birds on Still Waters Pond yesterday afternoon, sitting out on a little sand bar in the water:

I had to zoom in to figure out that they were a couple of buzzards, sitting there enjoying life on the pond for a spell! Never saw that before...

This "Anhinga" was keeping a close watch on them from his perch in the water while he dried his wings.

And then these two crows were having a little tea party at the birdbath, visiting with Bobby the Squirrel.

One crow flew away, leaving this crow as the "king of the mountain", or the conqueror of Bobby the Squirrel...or maybe Bobby was just giving him a "piggy back ride". LOL.

One day I watched these Sand Hill Cranes out on the little sand bar playing with a discarded tire that some inconsiderate person threw onto the pond from the highway on the other side of those trees. I have not been happy about that, but the cranes seem to think this is their own little playground and they enjoy playing on it like it is their personal tire swing or something like that...

Glad they are enjoying it, because I personally would like to go get rid of it, but I can't get to it. 

Oh well, such is life. I just wish people were more considerate of our nature and land...

Okay, that's all I've got in the way of pictures for today.  

I do have some prayer requests:

  

Please remember our blogging friend Mildred Nalley from her blog that was called "Laurel Wood" (but it has recently been removed).  She is in Hospice care and is in the final stages of her earthly life. I know she would appreciate your thoughts and prayers on her behalf at this time.

And my friend Jimmy that I told you about last week will be having surgery next week to remove the brain tumor, followed by radiation. Then following that he will also be having colon surgery and further treatment, but the oncologists have assured him that his condition is very treatable and they have high hopes. I know he and his family will also appreciate your thoughts and prayers. 

And a praise report for me! I am feeling better and better with each new day. I was having some difficulty with swallowing, as a side-effect of the surgery...but finally this week that has improved greatly and hopefully I'll be able to eat a good Thanksgiving dinner when the time comes!  Praise God for His healing power!! And thank you for your prayers!

I like this message from the little devotional book, "Choose Grace"...

Perhaps some of us are having some "shaky knees" this week and needed this word of encouragement. I know God's Word always helps me when I am feeling shaky or discouraged...it's always like a strong hand that comes alongside to lift me up and help me keep going.  

Praise God!

Have a blessed and beautiful day, my friends!!

 

More Unexpected Blessings

 I am writing this on Wednesday evening, but it is intended to be posted for Thursday...we shall see...I may go ahead and post it tonight. Let's see what develops as I write...

This morning I reposted an old post from about 9 years ago entitled Unexpected Gifts.  It just seemed appropriate to share it again after so many years, and especially on a day when I think many of us were needing some encouraging thoughts.  I was listing some of the many ways God has surprised us through the years with "unexpected gifts"...blessings from "out of the blue" that were a total surprise to us.  The neat thing about most of them was the timing...in every instance it seemed as though these "gifts" were sent to us one way or the other at a time when we needed it most.  Only God could have orchestrated that because He was truly the only One Who knew what we needed and when. That is what made these events so significant in our minds.

Today (Wednesday, January 20, 2021), was another of those kind of days. This morning as we watched  our President and the First Lady bid farewell and walk up those steps into Air Force One for the last time, it was a rather emotional moment for us, and I expect for many of you as well. If not, well, then, just please just try to appreciate and respect the rest of this story because it was special for me.  

As I stood there watching them depart on Air Force One, it was a bit overwhelming in many respects. And I was at the point where I couldn't bear to watch another minute of the news broadcast as things were shifting from one story to another.  Right at that very moment my husband called my attention to the window to look out into the back yard at this sight:

Yes, Goldfinches all over the thistle seed sock that I had recently hung up in the back yard in hopes they would come.  And they chose this very moment to show up!

What a delightful and joyful time this was to watch! They were flying in and out from the trees faster than we could keep track of them.  

And then, almost as fast as they came, they were gone again...but they accomplished their mission. Not only did they help take our minds off of a very difficult moment, but they also gave us hope.

Here is what I believe God was telling me:

Do Not Worry  (Matthew 6:25-34)

25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

After this we decided to turn off the TV (news) for the rest of the day, and we went and took our morning walk:

It was so peaceful there, and I could hear many little birds twittering through the trees...possibly more finches and chickadees and Tufted Titmice.  They were going about their morning routine of finding insects and things to eat and singing happily as they flew about...without a care in the world. Again...God was taking care of them...and I know He cares for me...

I took a picture of this little oak tree showing off it's beautiful red leaves as a last nod to autumn here in Florida. The sunlight was shining through the leaves giving them such a glorious scarlet hue...yes, it is just a scrubby little wild oak tree, but it was decked out in its most beautiful dress and it seemed to want to be noticed, and so here you are...another unexpected "gift"...

We came back home and I stayed busy baking banana nut bread,

(had a couple of overripe bananas calling out to me that it was time to do something with them before it was too late!) 

Oh, and I already had made some blueberry bran muffins for breakfast

 because I had some blueberries that were starting to dehydrate in the refrigerator also calling out to me to do something! 

 And then, while the banana nut bread was baking in the oven, hubby was "calling out to me" and said something about cookies...and so I whipped up a batch of coconut pecan cookies. 

 (Recipe can be found at https://southerndiscourse.com/perfect-coconut-cookies-with-pecans/ )

I guess you could say these were "unexpected gifts", because I never expected to do all of that today, but the overripe bananas and blueberries and the need for cookies for the "cookie monster" all came together at the same time to inspire me to go on a baking spree. Doesn't happen all that often anymore, so gotta get them while they last!  Kind of looks like a bakery here!  (It smelled like one too, while they were baking! Yum!)

After lunch and our "afternoon nap" (yes...after all that work I needed one!) we took another walk. As soon as we drove down the little dirt road to our usual spot to park the car, I looked up in the top of a very tall pine tree and saw this beautiful hawk sitting up there watching us.

Because of the brightness of the afternoon sun the lighting is kind of difficult to see his full colors, but I believe he is a Red Shouldered Hawk, which is typical for that area.

Just as I was getting up and out of the car to step a little closer, he flew away...but I considered him another one of those unexpected gifts for today...because I was grumbling on my way over there that I wanted to walk somewhere different for a change because we rarely ever see many birds or other interesting things on this walk...and God just had to show me that I was wrong...He had this surprise waiting for me.

To top it off for this week, in one day I received two different messages from two people that I've never met in person...both bloggers...one that I've really only read a couple of times and made some nice comments, and the other has become a special friend who has very similar interests...anyway, they each are surprising me with something special coming in the mail soon! Totally out of the blue! When these things arrive I will be sure to share them with you...but wow! In one day to receive two such special "unexpected gifts"...well...all I can say is God is so good. He knows how to bless His children and sometimes He goes above and beyond to do so.

All I can say is, Thank You, Lord. I don't deserve such grace and mercy and love.

But Jesus loves to bless His children.

So, if you are feeling a bit discouraged or sad or disappointed...or worried about the future...keep looking up...up...up! Up to Jesus...because He has promised to take care of His children.  He knows what we need even before we do...and often the "unexpected gift" is already on its way before we even realize we are in need of being blessed. It's not always material things...it may just be a lift to your spirits...a touch of healing...a comforting warmth that comes over you when you need to feel loved or remembered...a word of encouragement or an answer to a prayer. 

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver." 

Proverbs 25:11

(internet photo)

Have a blessed and beautiful day today...and be sure to keep an eye out for those little "unexpected gifts" that God may be sending your way! I hope you will write them down when they happen and share them with us if you can.  Sometimes they may be too personal to share, but just the acknowledgement that something special blessed you is an encouragement to the rest of us!

Be Blessed!