4th of July Celebration

Happy Independence Day from Lily Grace and Bailey and friends!

Since Mommie and Daddy have been sick all week, Mommie said I could write the post for today! I know some of you may not even know who I am, so you can read more about me HERE.    

And since we can't have a family party here today, Mommie said it would be okay if I had my own picnic with my friends.  Bailey (my doggy) and I went outside to take these pictures, but we soon found out it was just too hot to have a picnic outside...

so we went back inside where it is nice and cool and had an indoor picnic with my special friends.

Below are Rebecca, Valerie, me, Margie, and Anne of Green Gables.  We had a really nice time on our little picnic, and finished up with a delicious cake that Rebecca brought over and we had pretend home made ice cream, since Mommie couldn't make any real homemade ice cream this year like in years' past.  Here's a link to one such gathering many years ago with some very special people.

Oh, and my little friends over at Pamela's Victorian Cottage had their own picnic outside too!  I don't think it's as hot over where they live...(actually they are standing in one of John Sloane's special Country Seasons calendar paintings from July of 2020...it made the perfect place for their 4th of July picnic)

So that's what we've been doing here today. What about you? Are you having a special picnic wherever you are?  Are you celebrating the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave"?  What good food are you eating?  Hamburgers? Hot dogs? Chicken? BBQ?  Homemade ice-cream?  We are missing all of that today, but Mommie says maybe we'll have to have a special picnic later this summer when everyone is well and also when everyone is back home again, since my big brother Benton and Auntie Rose are away on a vacation right now.   

What else has been going on?  Well, Mommie said there has been some activity on the empty lot next door this past week.  One day she heard a big dump truck over there, and looked outside to see lots of piles of dirt on the lot!

It started out with just a couple of piles, and then over the next two days more and more pile of dirt showed up!  There were two big dump trucks that just kept bringing more and more dirt!

Mommie says they must be getting ready to spread them out and build a foundation for the new house!

That must mean that there's going to be a lot of activity going on over there in the next few weeks!  

Mommie said it's a good thing she's not a little kid anymore, or she'd be over there building roads and tunnels in the dirt with her trucks and cars!  I said, "Mommie, did you ever do that when you were a little girl?"  And she said, "Oh yes!"  She said that she and her big sister (my Aunt Doris) used to play in a big pile of dirt that was on their property one time, and they had so much fun building roads and tunnels for their little cars and trucks to drive through.  She said they would get all dirty and full of sand and have to get hosed down with the garden hose to get all that dirt off of them before they could go back in the house, but because it was so hot, it felt good to get hosed down!  I didn't know Mommie and Aunt Doris used to have fun playing like that when they were little girls! That sounds like something a boy would do!  But Mommie said they had lots of fun playing outside and in the woods when they were little.  They didn't always just stay indoors and play with dolls!

Now I wish I could go over there and play in those big piles of dirt!  I wonder where I could find some cars and trucks to play with?

OOOOHHHHH!   I just went inside my brother Scotty's room, and looky what I found!!!!

He has LOTS of cars!!!  Do you think he would mind if I play with them in the dirt????

Uh, yes, my Mommie said he would mind very much and I am not to go near those cars, and especially I am not allowed to take them outside and play with them in the dirt!  I guess I'd better not think about that idea again.  I don't want to make my brother Scotty unhappy with me.  But he doesn't live here anymore...just his cars live here...but still, I'd better obey Mommie and not go near those cars.  Besides, he's supposed to come home sometime this weekend, and I could ask him, but I know he won't let me do that. Besides, Mommie says we can't mess up the piles of dirt and they are not on our property so we cannot play in them.  She said she was just thinking about how much fun it was when she was a little girl, but she said it wouldn't be that much fun anymore because the dirt would stick all over us in this hot and humid weather,  and we'd be such a mess!  So, I guess Mommie knows best, but it sure sounded like a fun idea.  What do you think???

Well, I guess I'd better close this little story and go back and play with my friends. 

Meanwhile, here's a few pictures Mommie took when she was outside...the first two are of the island (she calls it "Goose Island") and the pretty white puffy clouds in the skies.

Mommie says we should celebrate all the beauties around us on this Independence Day.

And this is one of those big old Red Shouldered Hawks that live over there, and he was making lots of noise, so Mommie took his picture so he'd quit squawking at her. LOL.

Mommie said we can only see his silhouette because the sun was so bright behind him.

But he was sure big!  Here he turned his back on us:

Mommie said these are just some pretty little wild marsh pink flowers alongside Still Waters Pond. They are really pretty down there in the weeds, so she wanted to take a picture of them.

Mommie said we should close this special 4th of July post with a very special song, "The Star Spangled Banner", and it is being sung by a very amazing singer, Sandi Patty.  I wish I could sing like she does, but she is pretty unique and wonderful.  So please listen as she sings our National Anthem.

Happy Independence Day everyone!!

John 8:36 NKJV

 "Therefore if the Son makes you free, 

you shall be free indeed."

I hope you enjoyed this Independence Day post from me.  It's been nice visiting with you again.

Love, Lily Grace and Bailey

 

Memorial Day Thoughts and Blessings

"Oh say, can you see

By the dawn's early light

What so proudly we hailed

At the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars

Through the perilous fight

O'er the ramparts we watched,

Were so gallantly, yeah, streaming?

And the rockets' red glare

The bombs bursting in air

Gave proof through the night

That our flag was still there

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free 

and the home of the brave!"

Thank You, Lord, for so many who have gone before us, fighting valiantly for the safety and protection of our great nation, and the freedoms we hold so dearly.

Help us remember and honor them today in our hearts, 

and never forget what it cost those brave soldiers and pioneers so that we could have the blessings of 

living in still the greatest nation in the world.

May it ever be blessed by You, Lord, and let us not take these freedoms for granted.

Help us remember that freedom is not free. It was paid by the blood of those who loved this country so much that they were willing to fight and lay down their lives for our sake.

May we never forget their sacrifice.

Amen.

John 15:13 

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"

Have a blessed Memorial Day, dear friends,

and take a moment to honor the memory of those great men and women

who gave their lives for us.

Meanwhile, I wanted to share a few Bluebird pictures...Yes, father Bluebird is still busily feeding his young family. Mother Bluebird is as well.

These pictures were taken last evening, and the lighting was getting dim, so they are not as clear as I'd like, but they are great close ups of father bluebird with supper in his mouth...ready to feed his hungry brood.

However, I learned that as long as I was sitting there on the porch taking his picture, he would not go to the birdhouse and feed them.

He soon flew away because I had not left yet.

And because of this pitiful face looking out the window, hungrily awaiting his supper, I decided I'd best go inside and allow them to be fed.

Usually around Memorial day we try to plant something in our Memorial Garden in memory of our son Matthew. He passed away from his valiant battle with cancer on May 25, 2014, which was actually Memorial Day weekend that year. And so every Memorial Day brings back those memories to us.

Recently, my sister Doris had given me a lovely new azalea bush, which she intended for us to put in the Memorial Garden. I've had it for a little while, but we just hadn't gotten around to planting it.

So over the weekend our son Scott finally planted it for me. It was starting to get a bit stressed from the heat and needed to get planted.

It doesn't look like much right now, but it will soon perk up and begin growing, and by next spring we should have some lovely azalea blossoms on it. We planted alongside some other smaller azalea bushes that we had planted earlier this spring in the "Secret Memorial Garden".

(Secret Garden and Memorial Garden combined)

When we come and sit in this lovely cool spot beside Still Waters Pond, we know that Matthew would be very pleased to be remembered here of all places. If he were still with us, he'd be out there fishing in that pond every chance he could.

Okay, what are you doing today to commemorate this day of remembrance?

Our church family is going to have a picnic today at the church parsonage.  It is a kind of celebration of coming through the pandemic this past year without losing any member of our church due to Covid. We were extremely blessed and very thankful. Our congregation is made up of primarily senior citizens over 70 years of age. The only person we even know who was diagnosed with Covid was actually a younger person in his 30's, and he came through just fine.  We are counting our blessings for sure. God has been very gracious to us and we give Him much thanks.

Have a blessed and beautiful day today.

 

 

Freedom Isn't Free

"God Bless the U.S.A." by Lee Greenwood and the USAF

Some thoughts for the 4th of July. We have so much to be thankful for. We live in a free country, and we've been blessed beyond measure.

We have clothes on our backs, food in our stomachs, and a roof over our head...we have the freedom to stand and salute the flag, because so many fought and died for us so that we could live here in freedom. Or we have the freedom to kneel and not salute if that is what we think we should do, because we don't believe in what our flag represents. We have that right to make that choice because we live in freedom...because so many died so we could have that freedom...kind of ironic, isn't it?

We have the freedom to work, play, pray. Freedom to pursue our dreams, attend the colleges of our choice, freedom to worship, freedom to live in safety and peace. Or we have the freedom to protest when we don't like the way things are done so that we can make a point.

But all of our freedoms could so easily be lost if we don't realize the value of what we have.
On this 4th of July, Independence Day, May we take the time to be thankful for these freedoms and recognize what is at stake here. There is no greater country in the world than America. Even with all our problems, we still have the freedom to choose how and where we will live.

For those who don't appreciate what you have here, perhaps a trip to places around the world where others are wishing they could live in America would help. Go to Africa, Somalia, China, Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, just to name a few.
Spend time in the jungles, deserts, war torn lands where thousands of people are starving and dying everyday from government imposed sanctions against their own people. Spend a day in an African village where children are dying for lack of water and food, living in a mud hut in the middle of the heat of the desert, naked and swollen from famine. Then come back here and tell us we shouldn't celebrate our freedoms or that America is not a good place to live.

But let me just make this one suggestion, until you have experienced what it would be like to live in a country where there are no such freedoms, and where people are dying for just a drink of water and would
gladly come and eat the crumbs from under your table just so they could survive, please don't put down our nation. Please don't bite the very hands that have been feeding you and taking care of you since the day you breathed your first breath.

Please don't be so ready to destroy what so many have fought long and hard to protect for the sake of millions who do appreciate it...Take a moment to be thankful you were born in America, where at least you are free.

It could so easily have been you who was born in that mud hut in Africa, or that jungle in Asia or South America. It could so easily have been you who was shot down in a war ravaged village in the middle of the desert.

I, for one, am extremely thankful to be an American. I pray we never lose these freedoms that we have taken for granted and taken advantage of. We are so blessed beyond measure...even the poorest people of America are better off than many people in this world.
So count your blessings and thank God that you live in the U.S.A.

Postscript: I wrote the above this afternoon on my Facebook page, after reading someone's tirade about how we should not celebrate the 4th of July, and how ashamed we should be of our country.  The worst part of this is that the person who wrote it is someone who has had a life of great "privilege" and has been blessed more than many...but that person does not attribute that blessing to God...no, that person doesn't believe in God. That person lives in a home that was literally a gift, paid for by the hard work of generations of people who did not take their freedom so much for granted. People who would always stand for the National Anthem, and were proud to be Americans.  But this person believes there are far better countries than America in which to live. However, that person has never, to my knowledge, traveled outside of the eastern seaboard of the United States. If they had, they never would say these things about America being so terrible a place to live in. They would be kissing the very ground they were given to live on, debt free and paid for. My heart breaks to read the kind of hatred and vitriol coming out of the mouth of one so blessed. But this person thinks we are the problem. We are the ones filled with hatred.  

What is really sad is this person is just an example of what so many of that generation seem to think and feel. They are blinded to the truth of what is truly an injustice in our society today. But I don't want to go there and cause further division.

I pray for healing of our nation, our people, our hearts.  However, as most of us here already know, there can be no healing in our nation until there is first repentance in our hearts.  I know we all have our own personal issues and feelings about what is right and what is wrong with our nation today. But God gave us a way to heal our land.  It is found in 

2 Chronicles 7:13-15

13 "When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, 

or send pestilence among My people, 

14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, 

and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, 

and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 

15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place."

I know we've all read that verse many times, or have heard it preached upon often...but it is the only remedy for our current situation in our land. My prayer is that we will all think about these things during our Independence Day celebrations this weekend, and as we celebrate our freedom, let us humbly pray and seek God's face, repent of our own wrong-doings, and be a part of the healing and not a part of the division.  At least that's my prayer for me.  

Have a blessed and wonderful 4th of July weekend! Even if we can't be together with everyone we'd like to be with, try to do something special to celebrate our freedom!  

July Already? Wow!

This changing to the new month of July crept up on me! I didn't even turn the pages on my calendars until today...and here is what I am seeing now for July:

John Sloane 2020 Country Seasons calendar

I love this Red, White, and Blue garden and country front porch with it's American Flag waving in the breeze.  Love the dog too.  Just noticed the red, white and blue ball in the walkway...perhaps the doggy is waiting for his friend to come back and play with him.  What a good doggy.  

Here is my front porch and flag, waving in the morning breeze. Just don't have the doggy.  

Although a neighborhood dog did come through our yard this morning and even came up on our back deck. Not sure where it came from, but it soon moved on, after scaring the Great Blue Heron out of the pond and onto a post.

Speaking of "Still Waters Pond",

Look at this "bi-plane"...dragonfly. I spied him from a distance, and had to come and see him up close.

Isn't he neat?

I thought you'd like that. I love that he loves to eat mosquitoes, so he is welcome to stay as long as he wishes.

Back to changing the calendars, here is my TeaTime Calendar page for July.

"Crazy for Sea Shells" tea set.  

With our current restrictions in place due to Covid 19, sadly there won't be much seashell gathering this 4th of July weekend. All the beaches are closed again to keep people from spreading the virus.

Very sad indeed.

Do you have any particular plans to celebrate the 4th of July this weekend? I guess we won't be doing anything extra special this year. No one wants to travel or gather due to the current uptick in the "virus". Normally we would have a big family gathering and make home made ice cream and have a BBQ. Maybe we will just buy our ice cream this year and grill our own hamburgers just for us. Ann over at Cottage by the Sea suggested that we should read the Declaration of Independence.  (I am sorry I missed the weekly Tuesday 4 Meme this week. You can check it out Here. ) In light of our current nation's situation, that sounds like a very good idea. It is important to remember what this day is really all about.  Sadly our younger generations have no clue what this country has been through in the past 244 years. If we don't value our freedom, we are in great danger of losing it. 

As you prepare for the Independence Day celebration this weekend, I truly hope you will take time to pray for our country, for our President, and for all of our leaders.  Also let us remember to pray for those who are affected by the Covid 19 virus that seems to have made a comeback in activity.

We just came from a meeting at our church, where we are preparing to reopen this coming Sunday. However we will be taking all necessary precautions of social distancing and mask wearing, no congregational singing or choir. We will partake of The Lord's Supper, but again with safe procedures in place. May the Lord be honored and exalted by all that we do.

This will be a day celebration as we welcome our new pastor, and as we also welcome our members back who have missed being together for the past four months. Although we will not be doing any hugging, our spirits will be soaring and reaching up to the heavens together as we pray and worship the Lord with one voice.

 

"Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine

O what a foretaste of glory divine

Heir of salvation, purchase of God

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood

Perfect submission, perfect delight,

Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

Angels descending, bring from above

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest

I in my Savior am happy and blessed

Watching and waiting, looking above

Filled with His goodness, lost in His love

Chorus:

This is my story, this is my song

Praising my Savior all the day long

This is my story, this is my song

Praising my Savior all the day long"

On another thought:

The following picture doesn't do justice to what I was seeing in person, but the sun was shining on this little lake like sparkling stars.  This lovely view is actually beside our local grocery store.  

Here's a better view of that old oak tree. I don't mind going to the grocery store when we can park near this lovely tree and little lake.  I just had to stop and enjoy the moment and take its picture. 

We need to do more of that these days...look for the beauty around us and take a moment to appreciate what God has provided. 

I know this post has been kind of scrambled and jumbled. I've had lots of interruptions as I've tried to write, and keep losing my train of thought, so I hope it all makes sense somehow.

I will close with this verse, which I have claimed as a life verse because my mother shared it with me many many years ago and it has helped me many times to think before I speak. Sometimes I need an extra reminder:

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, 

O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer."  

Psalm 19:14

Amen.

Have a blessed and happy 4th of July weekend!

God Bless America!

A Special Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day. Of course it is the day that we are to remember our fallen soldiers and those that have given their lives in sacrifice for our country's freedom. It began after the Civil War, and was known as "Decoration Day", when the wives and loved ones of the fallen soldiers would go and decorate their graves.

Here is a link that gives some of the history of why we celebrate "Memorial Day".

(copied from Internet)

Over the years and following the World Wars and other major conflicts, Memorial Day became a day to honor the memories of all fallen soldiers from all the different wars.  It also became a day for families to decorate the graves of their other loved ones in the cemetery as well as the soldiers'. My mother in law was very faithful to put fresh flowers and a flag on the graves of her departed loved ones on Memorial Day.  I regret that we are a little too far out of the way to go and decorate her grave  now that she has passed on.  We need to make it a point to go and do that perhaps for her birthday later this summer, if at all possible.

For us, this particular Memorial Day has taken on a new meaning for remembrance. I know I've already shared this with you in previous posts, but today is the 6th anniversary of the passing of our dear son Matthew, who died from a four year battle with cancer at the age of 41.

A couple of years ago we were blessed to be able to travel to Maine for our grandson's graduation from high school, and we were able to visit our son's gravesite for the first time. It was not long after Memorial Day, and the fire department had placed a special flag on his grave because of his volunteer service to their local fire department.  We were so thankful to see that his memory was being honored in that special way by his community.

This is a picture of Matthew as we took one of our last walks together on his property in Maine. He loved the woods and often retreated there just to think and enjoy the nature around him.

Because our son lived in Maine and was buried there, we, as his family here in Florida decided that we would create a special memorial garden in his memory at our home so that we would have a place to just sit and pray and meditate and remember him.   This was how it looked at our previous home:

Well, as most of you know, we moved away from that home last summer, and we are still in the process of developing our yard and garden areas at our new home.  But one thing I had already determined was that I wanted to set up another special area as a Memorial Garden in memory of our son.

If you read the following post last week https://pamelasopenwindow.blogspot.com/2020/05/some-monday-meanderings.html, you saw that I was attempting to dedicate myself to spend more determined prayer and meditation time in this special area where my garden bench is located. Likewise, the family here has agreed that that would also be the ideal location for our new "Memorial Garden".  And so today we decided to begin that process.

Here are our two sons who live here locally, getting things ready for the garden...

Some of you will remember these items and signs from our previous Secret Garden and Memorial Garden:

This will be a combination of "My Secret Garden" and the Memorial Garden, overlooking Still Waters Pond.  The plants that you see in the pots are the flowers that we brought with us from the other garden...that wonderful rosebush that blooms for every special day, and the other is the Rose of Sharon Bush that our son's wife picked out for the Memorial Garden.  Now that we have determined where the Memorial Garden should be, I will try to get these planted in the ground and properly fertilized, etc., so that they can begin growing once again. I pray they will thrive here as they did once before.

Little by little we will do more landscaping...and pray that the rains will fill Still Waters Pond back up. Today was a great beginning for all of the above.

And as a perfect ending for this day...amazingly that rose that I picked last week from the Memorial Rose Bush is still blooming for today!  Just another of God's special blessings to comfort and cheer us along the way.

I do hope that your Memorial Day has been a day of special reflection and appreciation for those who have given so much for our freedom. We dare not take those freedoms for granted as they can so easily be taken away.

Long may our flag wave "'o're the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave!".