Tuesday 4~ Summertime

 Summertime

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4...
Summer time is upon us.


1. What special memories do you have about summer when you were younger?

Between the two of these links below from older posts about my summertime adventures as a child, you will get the big picture of just about everything I can remember.  Let me suffice it to say that I have a lot of happy summertime memories of vacation trips through the mountains, camping in the State Parks (in a tent) along the way to and from Ohio to visit relatives. Those were the happiest times of my young life. In addition to these memories  there were day trips to the beach or the springs that are all around us in the Ocala National Forest. Some of these excursions  (to the springs) were with the school summertime program, and that was always a lot of fun. 

I hope you will take the time to click on these links and get the whole story of my summertime childhood memories. They are too numerous to repeat  writing again! LOL. (and my memory is fading. LOL).
Here's a link to some of my favorite summer memories

And HERE is another link to more summertime memories

2. What is the highest temperature you've experienced in summer? What about so far this summer? How do you weather the heat or humidity?

We've been having heat indexes of over 110 degrees, which means the actual temperatures were in the very high 90's, with humidity also in the high 90's. Last week we were under a heat advisory almost every day. So far this week it has been a tad cooler, only in the high 80's and lower 90's, which is a nice break. We've also been getting more afternoon pop up thunderstorms. We still need a lot more rain to fill  up our pond, but at least the grass and plants are being watered for me. LOL.   As far as in my whole life, probably the highest temperature I've experienced would be what we had last week, although I do remember times when the actual temperature was over 100.  I know some places in the country have hotter temps than that all the time, but they don't have the high humidity usually to go along with it, which truly makes it feel a lot hotter.  

When it is this hot we stay indoors with our air conditioning running around the clock. We avoid going out in the afternoon as much as possible, and try to get all of our errands and outdoor chores done in the early morning or after the sun starts going down in the evening.


3. What's been on your menu so far this summer?

Nothing extra special, I'm sorry to say. I try to avoid using the oven as much as possible, so very little baking is done or any kinds of meats/roasts that have to be cooked in the oven. However, yesterday afternoon was cloudy and rainy and a bit cooler, so I decided to cook a meatloaf in the oven. We can eat on that for a few days with sandwiches, etc.   We do eat more salads and fresh fruits in the summer.  

I had a root beer float last night. Does that count?

4. What is on your reading list this summer... anything to recommend to us? What's on your TV this summer. Any music you're liking this summer?

I have still been "binge reading" books from this author, Rhys Bowen. I am about finished with this stack, and will take them back to the library tomorrow, where there is at least one more waiting for me to pick up. I think I have a couple more on "hold", which means when they are available from other locations in our county they will transfer them to our library and I will be able to check them out. Ilove that we have this system so that we can order books online through their website and they keep me quite covered with good reading material.  I enjoy these mysteries by this author.  She is quite a prolific writer.

We were surprised to find this little book inside our mailbox last evening when I went out to get the mail. It was not something I had ordered, and it was literally just placed in our mailbox with a card on top addressed to us, but not sent through the mail. It was a gift to us from our Pastor, who apparently was passing by and put it in our mailbox.  We were surprised and blessed by the little gift, and we definitely called him afterwards to let him know how much we appreciated it.

The book is delightful. It is the story of the two ladies who were the original authors of the song "Jesus Loves Me".  They had written the words into a novel they had written, which was published into a book.

Here are the original lyrics:

The novel was entitled "Say and Seal", written in 1860 by Susan and Anna Warner. The Gospel Hymnwriter William B. Bradbury later read the book and the words to the song, and he added the chorus that we know so well and set it to the melody that we sing still today. Actually, we sing this little song every Sunday morning in our church when our children are dismissed to go to Children's Church.

The little book tells the life story of Susan and Anna Warner and their family. One thing that really stood out to my hubby and me (we read this out loud together last night...it's a short book and well worth the read...) was the fact that early on in their lives they had suffered some severe setbacks in their financial status along with other great sorrows.   This says below that "Anna Warner lived long enough to realize that had there been no black sheep (one of their brothers), no moments of bereavement, no stock market crash, no eviction from New York (city), no financial worries--if there had been none of those things, there would have been no books, no worldwide ministry, no thousands of inspired Cadets (West Point was across the Hudson River from their home, and the ladies did Bible studies with them in their home), and no "Jesus Loves Me."   (Page 91).

That little paragraph really spoke to us, because we have also experienced great setbacks and difficulties and sorrows in our lives, and yet God used those experiences to shape and mold us and literally make us stronger in our faith.  Oftentimes it's the things we fear the most ever happening that become the very things that help us become the people God wants us to become.  Those life experiences teach us to rely more on God and His faithfulness, and not so much on our own resources and strength. 

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV

"9 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 

10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Does that last verse above remind you of something?   How about the first verse to the song Jesus Loves Me?

"Jesus loves me, this I know,

For the Bible tells me so;

Little ones to Him belong,

They are weak, but He is strong."

And the chorus:

"Yes, Jesus loves me.

Yes, Jesus loves me.

Yes, Jesus loves me,

the Bible tells me so.

So yes, this was a great little gift to find in our mailbox last night. You know, I used to sing this song to my babies while they were still in my womb.  And I continued singing it to them every time I rocked them to sleep.  More than anything, I wanted them to know "Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so!"  If they never learned anything else from me, that was the one thing most important of all.

I guess this answered the question about what we are reading and what music we are liking this summer. 

As far as TV is concerned, hubby is watching the FIFA Soccer matches, and then together we watch things like "Maine Cabin Masters", "Castle Impossible", and the old Price is Right shows from when Bob Barker was still on there, among other things.  I am not into TV as much as he is. I enjoy reading and writing more than TV.

Well, friends, I guess that's all for now. It's been raining pretty hard while I was finishing this up. Another severe thunderstorm blew through.  

Oh, one last thing...I'm falling behind again in my photo-a-day challenge.  I never did do yesterday's "shadow" picture. It's been too cloudy!

And today (14), is "On the floor".  Let me take a look around and see what I can find...

Well, the only thing on MY floor is probably a lot of dirt and dust to be swept up, so I decided to look outside my window in my room with a view, and I saw this little Wren on the porch railing. 

Because it has been raining and is so cloudy, it's not very clear, plus I am taking this picture through a tinted window.

He was having a conversation with the Red Headed Woodpecker doorknocker.

And finally he flew down to the "floor" of the porch, although he is not very clearly seen here, but he is on the floor, so that should qualify for this picture! LOL.

And with that I will call this post finished!  I hope you are having a lovely summer day wherever you are! Blessings to all of you, and remember, "Yes, Jesus Loves Me (YOU!)... The Bible tells me so!"

Amen and good day.

Tuesday 4: "Bug Out!"

 Tuesday 4

Bug Out!

(The following was written by our friend Annie, who lives along the New Jersey shore, where they are currently enduring the effects of the remainder of Hurricane Ian, which hit the coasts of my state of Florida with a fury last week.  Thankfully, we here in north central Florida are now enjoying beautiful fall like weather, with low humidity, sunny skies, and this morning's wake up temperature is 56 degrees, with a high expected today of only 75! Near perfect weather I'd say.  But sadly so many to the south of us are still suffering from the devastating effects of Ian and it will be many months or even years before some places will be restored, if ever. It was truly a horrific storm in our southwest and coastal regions of the state, and our thoughts and prayers continue to be with them as they try to recover.)

Per Annie:

"High winds, tree splitting winds and buckets of rain since yesterday and more on the way. The wind has been howling here for 2 days straight. Ian is on the coastline and not playing nice.
We can play nicely though with Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 questions. Are you ready? Since the east coast is experiencing hurricanes and tropical storms let us explore the topic. Okay? Let's Go..."


1. Expert survivalists and weather experts say it is wise to have a bug out bag handy in case of evacuation, hurricane, earthquake or any emergency. You can see online how to create one. Do you have an emergency kit or bug out bag?  To be honest, no we don't have an actual "bug out bag". Fortunately where we live in this north-central section of the state, we have never had to evacuate because of a storm. However we do talk about what we would need to take with us if that were to happen and we know where our valuable papers are and it wouldn't take long to gather the essentials should we need to do so.

2. Do you have plans with your family on where to meet and what to do in case of emergency?

Again, I guess we really haven't discussed this that much with our family. It would have to be a decision made once we see which way a storm is headed because oftentimes the evacuation routes end up changing with the direction of the storm. As we saw with Hurricane Ian, it changed its course several times before it actually made landfall, and then it ended up crossing the state to the other side, so both coastal regions were seriously affected. Thankfully for us, it still stayed far enough south of us so that we were not seriously affected either way. 

3. Do you keep your phone well charged and your gas tank topped off ? Is your flashlight kept fresh with batteries? Do you have a list of what to go where to go?  

Yes, we do keep our gas tank topped off. As far as our phones well charged, that became an issue as our power did go off for six hours and we couldn't charge our phones. So once it was safe to take a ride, we rode around in our car so our phones could be charged.  We also ended up going to a restaurant here in our town that still had power and plugged in our phones to recharge while we enjoyed a good hot meal.  Regarding flashlights, yes, we made sure we had flashlights in every room with batteries, as well as candles and an oil lamp with oil.  We do have a generator, but we had some issues with it and it wasn't really ready for use. However, if the power had stayed off longer we would have figured it out to help with long term power for our refrigerator especially.  We now have a better plan for putting it into use should the need arise again.  Oh, and thankfully our temperatures during the storm stayed in the low 70's and even down into the 60's, so it wasn't so hot that we needed the air conditioner. That was a blessing! 
Although this picture of the tents is a nice thought, that wouldn't work here with the high winds and rain and trees crashing about.  Perhaps it would work after the storm has already passed by, but definitely not during the storm.  The only damage we sustained here at our house was to the plastic canvas carport that covered our son's car.  So you can see what would happen to a tent if you tried to stay in one: 

4. How about a little stash of emergency goods and foods to last a week or two? They say it pays to do this.. do you?  Yes, we have plenty of canned goods and other foods that don't need to be kept refrigerated so that we would not have starved. We also have a camp stove, a propane grill and our stove in the house is a gas stove, so I would have been able to cook if necessary. Thankfully this time we didn't need to do that, as the power was only off for six hours.  We bought extra bags of ice to put in the refrigerator and freezer to keep the food nice and cold as well.  

We are very thankful that this storm did not do serious damage to our area, but we know it could happen, so we do have a good idea for what to do next time.

I wanted to share these pictures of this little wren that was on our back porch yesterday morning:

If you know anything about Wrens, you will know that they are a very small bird with a very loud voice. You can usually hear them singing above all the other birds, and normally their song sounds a lot like they are saying "judy judy judy".    Well, yesterday morning I kept hearing what sounded more to me like, 

"Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!"  

And as I looked outside and saw this Wren sitting there on the porch railing, I noticed that every time he sang, he was looking up to heaven and saying

"Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!"

Do you see that above?  He was singing his praises to God and thanking Him for sparing us in that storm. 

At least that's what I think and believe...

Job 12:7-10  

7 “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you;

And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;

8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you;

And the fish of the sea will explain to you.

9 Who among all these does not know

That the hand of the Lord has done this,

10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing,

And the breath of all mankind?

Thank you Annie for these questions this week! If you want to join in, click HERE

Little Brown Wren, My New Friend

It's Friday Foto day, and I've been away most of the morning, so I didn't have time to sit down and write a new post until now, which is probably best because I didn't have any new pictures to share until now.  I was sitting out in my little sanctuary beside Still Waters Pond, enjoying some fresh air and rest after my morning trip to the doctor to have my staples removed. However, the staples could not be removed because there is an infection in the incision, and so antibiotics were ordered and I was sent home, staples intact, and will go back in two weeks. I knew something wasn't right as I haven't felt very perky these past few days and the incision was showing signs of a problem. So I am glad to have the medicine and pray that it will soon be healed properly.

Now back to that lovely view by the pond...
Actually, it wasn't the pond that I was enjoying, but a little brown Wren, who was noisily making his way through the trees and landed in the birdbath right in front of me. I will warn you, there are many pictures, but he was so cute I couldn't resist:

Don't you agree that he is cute?

He went through great gyrations to reach around and under his wings and to his tail feathers, giving them a good shake and cleaning...

Gotta do this side too:

He's very thorough. We could learn how to wash our hands properly by watching how long he took to get every nook and cranny of this feathers cleaned:

Watch me, Mom! I'm diving in the pool! 

Shake shake shake your booty...LOL

Well, that's it. I'm all clean!  And so he flew away. 

Actually the birdbath wasn't very full of water, so I am surprised he spent as much time there as he did. I think he liked showing off for me.  After he left I went and got the hose and refilled the birdbath with fresh water, so it will be ready for the next bather who comes along.  On these warm, sunny, rainless days we've been having I am sure all the birds appreciate having a nice clean bath to get the bugs off...

Here's a few words from God's Word to encourage our hearts as we continue in this current world "crisis":

Psalm 36:5-9

5.  "Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens;

Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

6.  Your righteousness is like the great mountains;

Your judgments are a great deep;

O Lord, You preserve man and beast.

7.  How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!

Therefore the children of men

put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.

8.  They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house,

and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.

9.  For with You is the fountain of life;

In Your light we see light."

Praying we will soon see the Light of God brightly shining through the darkness of the difficulties surrounding us.  So thankful that we can put our trust under the shadow of God's wings, knowing that He will abundantly satisfy us with the drink from the river of His pleasures, and give us overflowing joy and comfort from His fountain of life.   Our God is faithful, and He will preserve His children.  

Amen!!

Have a blessed and beautiful weekend, wherever you are. 

"When Morning Gilds the Skies"

"When morning gilds the skies,

(The early morning mist on Still Waters Pond)

my heart awaking cries;

May Jesus Christ be praised!

(Little Wren outside my window.  Picture taken through the glass/screen in dawn's early light)

Male and female wood ducks on Still Waters Pond

Alike at work and prayer,

To Jesus I repair; 

Did you ever see such beautiful ducks?  

May Jesus Christ be praised!

 (Little Wren still singing)

 The night becomes as day

(The sunset of the same day)

When from the heart we say;

May Jesus Christ be praised!

The powers of darkness fear

 when this sweet chant they hear;

May Jesus Christ be praised!"

Let all the earth around ring joyous with the sound:

 May Jesus Christ be praised!

In heaven's eternal bliss the loveliest strain is this:

May Jesus Christ be praised!

Amen!

"Why Should I Be Discouraged?" (Revisited for Friday Foto Friends)

I can't believe it's Friday, and I don't have any new pictures to share with you again! It was a busy week with Dr. appointments and other commitments, and, well, you know how it is! We all have weeks like that...no time for taking pictures when we are in the midst of "life"...so here is a post from a couple of years ago about a cute little wren who built a nest on our back porch.  The wrens still come and go, but I haven't seen any evidence of nest building on the porch yet this year...but it is still early...

This little wren is sitting in her nest, right out in plain view on my back porch. As I walked by the nest this morning on my way to hang up the bird feeders for the day, I almost missed the fact that she was sitting in there. She didn't even move as I swept by singing "Oh What a Beautiful Morning!" at the top of my lungs. I think she was afraid to move into the path of something so....noisy?! Anyway, I tiptoed in and out of the house quickly to get my camera, and very quietly tiptoed back to her nest asking myself, "Do I dare disturb this little wren just so I can have this wonderful picture that I know the world wants to see?" My hubby told me not to do it. But he should know better than to tell me that...you'd think he'd have learned by now... But anyway, I stood there very quietly for a moment while my camera focused and prayed that she wouldn't fly away...and this is my gift from God this morning to share with you! I quoted from the wonderful song, "His Eye is on the Sparrow, and I know He watches me." Yes, I know this is a wren, not a sparrow...but to my knowledge no one has written a song or Bible verse about a wren yet. And that message comes from the scripture found in Matthew 10:29-31:

"Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do NOT FEAR therefore; YOU ARE OF MORE VALUE THAN MANY SPARROWS!" 

I pray this little wren will bring a smile to your face today as you remember that not only does our heavenly Father watch over the birds of the nest...but that He IS ALWAYS WATCHING OVER YOU...AND YOU ARE VERY VALUABLE TO HIM! Praise God!

This is another picture of her nest...not very neat,
but it seems to suit Mrs. Wren very nicely!
I guess that is all that matters!
"Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home!"

Why should I feel discouraged and why should the shadows come?

Why should my heart be lonely and long for heaven and home?

When Jesus is my portion, a constant Friend is He, 

His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.

His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.

I sing because I'm happy; 

I sing because I'm free; 

His eye is on the sparrow (WREN!)

And I know He watches me.

Let not your heart be troubled; these tender words I hear; 

And resting on his goodness I lose my doubts and fears; 

Though by the path He leadeth but one step I may see; 

His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.

His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.

I sing because I'm happy; 

I sing because I'm free; 

His eye is on the sparrow (WREN!)

And I know He watches me.

Whenever I am tempted; whenever clouds arise; 

When songs give place to sighing; when hope within me dies; 

I draw the closer to Him; from care He sets me free; 

His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.

His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.

I sing because I'm happy; 

I sing because I'm free; 

His eye is on the sparrow (WREN!)

And I know He watches me...

(Written by Civilla D. Martin, 1905)

You can see this perky little bird has been a source of joy and delight for me for a while!

Rest peacefully little Wren...I'll try not to bother you anymore today!

To read previous posts about a similar story, click HERE, 

AND HERE!   and HERE'S ANOTHER ONE!   It would appear that this blog has gone to the birds!  But there are so many valuable lessons to be learned from God's creation.  I never get tired of seeing what God is going to show me next!  Certainly is a wonderful way to lift our spirits, don't you agree?

Have a blessed day my friends!  Go out and see what YOU can learn from God's magnificent world around you today!

Back to the present:  Now let's fly on over to Deb's place at Breathing in Grace and see what our other Friday Foto Friends have been up to this week!  Have a blessed and happy day!