Wonderful Celebration of Life

Dear Blogging Friends:
It appears that I am becoming a "once a week" blogger these days. Seems like we have been staying so busy (in our retired life) that I just don't have the time I used to have to read and write.  Maybe that's a good thing, but then again, I miss my time with you! I do try to get around and read what you've been writing a little at a time, but it seems like I just can't keep up...so please know that I value each and every one of you and look forward to hearing about your events and projects as well...so please don't give up on me!

This past weekend we had the joy and pleasure of traveling north to North Carolina for a family reunion.  This is the second year in a row that we have made this trip to where my brother Clifford and his family lives within a mile or so of each other...and we have had such a great time that it may become an annual event...as long as us "old folks" can keep going!  It was fun to see the younger generation enjoying being together, so we hope they will keep it going even when we are no longer "available".

Here are some highlights from our trip and gathering:

The whole gang gathered together around the firepit (before the fire was lit...that came later...), and here was where we shared a lot of special memories...

A special part of our gathering was to have a "celebration of life" for my older brother Russell, who passed away this past April after battling leukemia for several months. This casual family setting is exactly what Russell wanted us to do. He knew this reunion was planned before he passed away, and he suggested that this would be the time for his memorial rather than some other time. And so we honored his wishes and gathered together to enjoy being family, doing the things that our family loves to do together:  (Warning: Lots of photos to check out!)

Making homemade ice-cream

Some people really get their whole body into the action...

 Everyone has to take a "turn", literally, if you want to eat some of the ice-cream!

We also celebrated my brother Clifford's 75th birthday,

along with a viewing of the old family slide show...a family tradition from way back when...

Where it all began... The Mursch Family circa 1953 (I'm the redhead in front) We were all dressed up in our Easter finery, having dinner with family after church

A Horseshoe Competition:

 Again, this is serious business and strong tradition:

And then a newer addition to the traditional competition is Corn Hole...

Something for all ages...ping-pong competition:

Also hammock "hiding"..

Hello!

Lots of visiting, preparing food, eating the food...

And of course, eating the ice-cream...

Firepit time and s'mores...

And time to let the fire burn down and say good night...

Yes, it was a celebration that my brother would have loved, and we truly missed his presence...but we felt his presence there with us in a way...in the way his children/grandchildren laughed and played...his wife relaxed and enjoyed the time with the extended family...everyone knew it was exactly right. 

Here's a few pictures of my brother enjoying life with us in the past:  Playing corn-hole (with my hubby); (2012)

Cooking the Christmas turkey in his smoker (2012)

And the beautiful boat he was building the last couple of years of his life...it was almost completed, but now Russell is sailing away in the glassy seas of heaven. 

Yes, it was a wonderful celebration of life. I found myself rather tongue-tied when it came time to share special memories, and I only told one silly story from childhood.  But in reality, I truly appreciated the man my brother became. He was a person who truly enjoyed life and accomplished many wonderful things. He was a man of integrity and what I'd call a man with "true grit".  He is truly missed by all who knew and loved him.  I look forward to seeing him again someday on heaven's shores.

I guess that is all for tonight. We've had some other special things happen this week, but I think I will save that for another post...maybe I'll actually write more than once this week!! Thank you for hanging in there with me in this very family photo'd post.   As you can see, it was a special time, and we are so thankful to have such a loving family. We don't always agree on everything...does any family? But when we come together, we know how to laugh, love and live like families should. I give all the credit to our godly parents, who set a very strong example of Christ-likeness in how they taught us and raised us.  They would be proud to see that we honor them in this way as well.

Good-night...and go hug your family while you can...

The Week in Review and Into the Future!

Hello Friends!! I hope your week has gone well since we last visited. Ours has been busy and interesting to say the least, but I won't go into ALL the details...just hit some of the more pleasant highlights.  Number one, I am very thankful to finally be feeling MUCH better and getting back to wanting to do things again. It seems as though the last few weeks have been a blur of illness, hubby also having some physical issues, and both of us just praying that we will regain our strength and be able to get moving in a more positive direction in our new home and life.   Praise God we seem to be on the upswing, and looking forward to better days ahead.

That being said, I wanted to show you a few things that have been going on.  

I acquired this lovely little wicker table from my son, who found it somewhere, and he and his wife were going to just try to sell it in their business or re-purpose it somehow...but I had a plan that kept bouncing around in my head and made them an offer they couldn't refuse...so now it is mine.  

This is in our kitchen, in an area that seems to be a kind of wasted space.

(This was my first option, between two regular dining chairs)

It is kind of a long narrow area on the other side of the sink/island, with not enough space for a big table or any real wall space because of the windows for any other kinds of furniture...so I've just kind of lined  up some extra chairs there and wanted some kind of little table to break it up a bit...

My first option was here at this end, and please note the needlepoint sign on the wall, created by my paternal grandmother many years ago, which says:

"Come into my kitchen and chat with me while I prepare a pot of tea."

And then at the other end of the area there is this favorite old painting of two sweet little old ladies, sitting in their chairs and visiting. There used to be an engraved title under the picture, which is worn off now with age, but it said "The Gossips"... one of my most favorite pictures which came from my maternal grandmother's home.

 I've always loved having a rocking chair in my kitchen, so that anyone who comes to visit has a comfortable place to sit and visit with me while I am preparing our tea or supper or whatever...and actually I find myself sitting there frequently while something is cooking on the stove that I don't want to venture too far away from...so it is a good spot to sit and read or drink  a cup of tea while I wait for the "pot to boil", so to speak...therefore I moved the little wicker table down beside the rocker, so that there is actually a place to put a pot of tea and a tea cup for my guest or even myself...and even though it may feel a little crowded in that space...it is a comfortable place that hopefully will be welcoming to whomever wishes to visit a while...

 I will leave it there for now and see how that works out. But don't you agree? It really needed to come home with me.  Yes, I know I'm supposed to be downsizing...but sometimes we have to compromise with our ideas...And this was all in the spirit of being more hospitable and practicing hospitality...

Speaking of words that are similar to hospital...hubby actually made a couple of visits to our community hospital this past week...well maybe more than a couple now that I think about it. Once for some x-rays because of some severe back pain (which has now subsided, praise the Lord, but may need some further investigation and treatment in the future), and then one evening via ambulance because of what felt like a heart attack...which turned out to be nothing wrong with his heart, praise God, but apparently some kind of spasm of the esophagus that very much felt like a heart attack...and caused his BP to escalate severely.  Folks, any kind of pain in the chest is worth checking out.  I'd rather have a false alarm but be in a safe place than to ignore the pain and find out it really was something bad and it be too late to get help.  And then the third visit was to have a scheduled colonoscopy:  Which turned out fine...here he is in pre-op waiting his turn.

 One thing we have both agreed upon this past week: we are thankful that our new home is within about 11 miles from our community hospital, and it is a very easy straight ride to get there.  We hope that we don't have to visit there quite as often as this past week, but we are thankful that when we needed it, it was easy and convenient to get to.   Our previous home was at least 25 miles from the nearest hospital. 

Switching gears a bit...this morning I was rejoicing in this beautiful new day, and then even happier when hubby was able to come out on the deck and enjoy the morning with me.  We are truly blessed and very thankful that the Lord has given us this time together. This is nothing to take for granted.

Switching gears once again, we had to drive into Palatka today (our county seat), and we parked near this old Coca Cola bottling building.  I know there are many such old Coca Cola bottling buildings in many cities throughout the south. This one is no longer used by Coca Cola...but the engraved signs still remain on the iconic brick building:

 The sign in the window above says Azalea City Brewing co., and I noticed some big vats in there, so maybe a brewing company is taking it over...not sure, but I just thought it was interesting.

We went into town to pick up a lease vehicle, because we are getting ready to go on a little trip this weekend for a family reunion.  We have discovered that we are better off to lease a vehicle when we have any long-distance driving to do than to risk our thirteen year old vehicle breaking down on the road somewhere.  We were pretty amazed at this fancy hi-tech vehicle...doesn't even use a real key...I know many of you have these already...but for us it was like something out of the future...it has so many fancy buttons and screens and things that I hope we can manage to drive it without flying into outer space...

So, now I need to concentrate on packing and getting ready to leave early in the morning.  Thankfully our kids are traveling with us so we have a spare driver if we need it.  These young "whippersnappers" understand these new-fangled modern vehicles better than us old folks from out in the sticks. LOL.

With these thoughts in mind I will leave you to contemplate and consider your blessings, as I have been doing mine. This week could have turned out very differently than we'd like, and I want to go on record giving thanks to the Lord for His gracious mercy and grace toward us, His children. None of us is guaranteed tomorrow, therefore we must be prepared for the future and eternity at any time.

Here is a verse that gives encouragement and hope:

"For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, 

plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Jeremiah 29:11 

Thank You, Lord, for Your great love and promises.

Amen!

Just Catching Up-Happy October!!

It's October!  Have you noticed any changes in your "neck of the woods"?  I am noticing subtle changes in the position of the sun as it rises and sets each day...I loved how the setting sun was glistening like gold on the pine needles beside the pond last evening...

It just really caught my eye...

And so did this tiny little green gecko (chamelion) as he worked his way around my patio table...

He wasn't too sure which way to go...

And he was very curious about me sitting there watching him. Eventually he climbed up the umbrella pole, and I lost sight of him...and I also got up and moved because I didn't want him to drop down on top of me from the umbrella...

So I came inside and decided to get into the October spirit by lighting a candle on the table...

I love these battery operated candles, don't you?  You don't have to worry about them burning your house down when you forget to blow them out...

Which is what could happen with this jolly jack o' lantern if I go off and forget him...so we'll just watch him for a minute...

While I tell you how decorator savvy I've become in my "old age"...  Remember when I showed you pictures of my kitchen HERE a few weeks ago?  Here's another picture taken today of this wall of hanging plates....Well...I did this several weeks ago, right?

And then THIS came in the mail this past week:  The November edition of "Country Living" magazine:

And I was astounded to see that even the sophisticated decorators from Country Living thought it was a great idea to hang blue and white plates on a wall! Of course, they suggested putting them in the shape of a wreath...which is fine if you have that much space to fill up and want to put that many holes in your wall, but the point is, I thought of this idea all on my own before I ever saw this magazine cover...and when it arrived I felt quite clever to have already done something very similar to what they were suggesting!!  I don't consider myself to be a very savvy decorator very often...I just use whatever I have to make do, and if I like it, and my family doesn't complain, then it works for me!  But it's kind of neat to see that my idea was magazine cover worthy!  (I just noticed something else on that cover..."Embrace that old brown furniture (it's baaack!)"  Well, that's a good thing, because that is pretty much what I have...old brown furniture!!! Especially the "old" part... Ha Ha!

Speaking of "old"....I did have another celebration last Friday with some friends and family to celebrate my birthday:   I know you are thinking, "why would she share such an unflattering picture of herself on her blog?"  Well, because it's a tradition...in our family you have to have a picture of you blowing out your candles on your birthday cake, (in this case, pie), and I was happy to be able to do it. I mean, when you get this old, you are quite fortunate if you can blow out your candles...even if there are only two candles to blow out! So there...I'm telling on myself how old I am too...so you know next year will definitely be an even bigger blowout! LOL.

Okay, so much for all that "old" stuff.  I haven't been around much lately because after my big birthday week last week I came down with laryngitis, which developed into a bad cold/virus something that knocked me for a loop for this past week...and I am just today really even beginning to feel  like doing something "fun" again.  Not sure just what that will be, but I'll think  of something.

Meanwhile, it's good to even feel good enough to sit here and write to you again, dear friends. I've missed you. You are a breath of fresh air and sunshine to me, and I am sorry for not being more attentive lately. These past few months have really been difficult for me since we moved...being this "old" really does take a toll on you when you undertake something as big as this move has proven to be...and I believe my resistance/immune system has gotten a little down...so hopefully over the next few weeks and months the cooler fall weather will help me get back into some healthier activities and more refreshing exercise...like walking again. We really haven't taken many walks since our move, and it has affected both my husband and I...so hopefully we will get back in the walking groove here real soon. We did discover a State Forest nearby with walking trails, and so I am eager to check it out as soon as we get a real fall day. (cooler, that is)

We were reading in our morning devotions this morning from the book of Nehemiah 8:1-12.  The Title for this chapter in my Bible says "The Great Revival Under Ezra, The Law read and explained."

The people of Israel had been in captivity for many years and the city of Jerusalem had been pretty well destroyed, especially the walls of the city.  Nehemiah had been sent (by his request) by the King of Persia, to rebuild the walls.  The people had not heard the  "Book of the Law of Moses" read to them in many years, and they really didn't know what it said.  So Ezra the priest brought the book of the Law to the assembly and read it in the open square to all the men and women who could hear it with understanding. (verse 2-9)  And when the people heard all the words  from the Law of God, the people began to weep and mourn...for they knew they had not been keeping the law as they should.  But in verse 9, Ezra told them not to mourn or weep, because this day"is holy to the Lord your God."  And in verse 10 he told them,

"Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

I want to close with that thought today.  Do not sorrow, for the JOY of the Lord is your strength.  When we are feeling sad or grieving for the loss of someone dear to us, or even the loss of something that was important to us...a home, a job, our health,  or a special treasure...we are reminded not to sorrow...but to remember that knowing the Lord and having His presence in our lives gives us strength and JOY.  These people, when faced with the truths of God's Word, grieved because of their sin, but they also, when Ezra blessed the Lord, the Great God, the people answered, "Amen, Amen!" (see verse 6)  and "lifted up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground."

Let us embrace this beautiful new season of autumn with JOY, knowing that we can march forward with the JOY of the Lord as our strength.  Whatever we may be facing in the future, God is already there...and He will give us the strength to do whatever we need to do...and He will also help us to have JOY in the midst of it all.  

Happy Fall, Y'all!!

Celebrating a Special Day

What a wonderful day!!  My birthday!! God is so good, He's so good to me! We started out the day by going to breakfast....but wait...this rose is still blooming after a week:

I couldn't believe it!  Some evenings it droops its head and looks like it is dead, but I've been snipping off the end of the stem each day a little and giving it fresh water, and it keeps reviving and blessing me every day! I first told you the story about this rose here, last week. It truly is a "heaven-sent blessing" for my birthday! In case you are wondering about this lovely green vase, that belonged to my mother, and she always kept it near her kitchen sink/windowsill, ready to receive roses from their flower garden too. This is the same kind of rose that my parents grew, "Don Juan" climbing rose, and I absolutely love it.

Okay, so back to the day.  Hubby and I took off for Palatka, the closest "big" town near us, our county seat, about 15 miles from here, (big, in that they have Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, stuff like that...) and we went downtown to their old revitalized downtown area and had breakfast at the Magnolia Cafe'

 We had a delightful table in the front windows, overlooking the street...

 Hello!

I asked for hot tea, and look at the choices!

It was a difficult decision, but I finally decided on Tazo Wild Sweet Orange.  I mean, it's my birthday...so why not be a little daring and wild?  It was very good...especially with lemon and honey.

 My breakfast was more than I should have eaten...but I did eat the whole thing...(didn't eat any lunch to make up for it...)

 Omelette with spinach, cheese, peppers, onions, sausage, and a side of bacon and home fries and toast. Wow...I was stuffed!

Then we stepped next door to the "Urban Farmhouse" vintage and farmhouse style furnishings.  Our son and his lovely wife, working as the team "Ben & Rose's Country Woodshop", create lovely tables and benches in the farmhouse style, along with refinishing vintage tables and dressers, etc., like this one below: and they sell them here on consignment...

And this one:

They didn't make this one, but actually I see one they did do on the corner of the picture and I didn't even realize it at the time:

They did build this one below:

When I told the lady who runs the store who I was, she told me that our son and daughter in law do great work and actually she had just sold two of their items the day before that they aren't even aware of as they are away on a little vacation!  So they will be excited to hear that good news...which helped pay for their vacation!!

For supper our other son, who lives here, grilled some delicious steaks for us...and that was a wonderful way to celebrate the day.  But then I decided I needed to do one more special thing "just for me"...I finally took a bath in my very own bathtub in my very own bathroom! I've been saving this little pleasure for a special day, and I figured my birthday was exactly that...so I filled up the tub, added some delightful bubble bath (lavender scented) lit a candle,  and luxuriated in the tub until the water got too cool...Such a relaxing way to end the day!

If you decide to come for a visit, you are welcome to take a bath too..."Hot Bath 25 cents, Soap and Towel Extra"....Ha ha...no you won't have to pay...it's just a fun little sign that my son painted for me some time ago...

To continue the celebration, some family and friends from out of town are coming over on Friday for lunch and to see our new house for the first time. I've still got some work to do before then, but have decided not to stress over it.  It's not perfect...but whose house is?   I know mine will never be perfect, but we are enjoying it and looking forward to sharing it with others as time goes by.

So I end this special day with a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord, for His great kindness and blessing in my life for all of these years...and yes, they are getting to be "many" years...but praise God, I have been blessed with good health, and a wonderful home and family and many friends. What more can we ask for?

I like what this little devotional calendar says for today:

"Don't let the abundance of God's gifts cause you to forget the Giver."

"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom 

and knowledge of God!"

Romans 11:33a NIV

Wonderful reminder. Sometimes we get so caught up in the blessings that we forget to thank the One Who made it all possible. I don't ever want to be guilty of that.  God has been so good to us...but even greater than all these "things" are the "depth of riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"...Our salvation in Jesus Christ is the greatest gift of all! Without Him...we would be nothing at all.  So I give thanks to Jesus for His love and saving grace...and for the abundance of life in Him that overflows in joy and gladness.  Praise God!

Have a blessed day tomorrow dear friends. I'm fully relaxed now and ready for bed! Tomorrow is another day to praise the Lord and serve Him with gladness!! 

A Dream Come True

For those of you who have followed along on this journey into a new chapter of our lives, you may have gotten the idea that we are pretty excited about our new life living "on the pond".   There are so many facets of this move that have brought us such joy and delight that I am only beginning to be able to list them all...and maybe I won't be able to list them all at all!! God has been so very gracious and kind to us, and we are extremely thankful and glad.

The picture above is a kind of fulfillment of many dreams and little answers to prayer...to finally be able to sit down beside our own pond (well, not really our own pond....we don't own the pond, but it borders our property so we feel like it belongs to us...) and enjoy the sights and sounds of pond living.

 (The male and female wood ducks were together above...but I am sorry this isn't real clear. They were pretty far away).

We frequently hear the keen shrill cry of the red shouldered hawk as he warns the other birds of his presence and stakes out his territory.  He is flying across the pond to the trees on the other side:

 And there he is, watching whatever is below.   Actually, I should tell you, that on the other side of those trees there is a highway...and we can hear the sounds of cars rushing to and fro to work each day...so it really isn't all peace and quiet here on this pond.  Some cars, trucks, and motorcycles just love to see how loud they can be as they take off down the road...and that can be a little disconcerting because it drowns out the sounds of the hawk and birds calling...but I've learned that after you live here a while the noise of the traffic kind of fades into the background when you focus on what is better and more pleasant rather than on the negative.

Like this little Chickadee who was visiting the bird feeder while I sat and watched him from my garden bench.  He was oblivious to the noise outside of our little sanctuary, and just went about his business of gathering seeds for his supper and making his high pitched "chickadee dee dee" sounds as he flew about calling to his family and friends...

And as the sun was setting across the pond, the sounds of the frogs and cicadas in the trees took over, and the bats began to wing their way about, drinking in the mosquitoes as they flew...which kept them from finding me as I sat and watched from my chair on the shore...and the sounds of the highway faded into the distance and I was taken away to a place of peace and joy and total relaxation and thankfulness that God has chosen to bless us in this special way. 

When I say it is a "dream come true" for me...let me show you a little of what I mean.  Several years ago I picked up this little book at the gift shop at Cracker Barrel.  I fell in love with its beautiful paintings by Darrell Bush, and the Psalms, Scriptures, quaint verses and poems, thoughts and reflections, and even recipes for lakeside living scattered throughout its pages.  Here are a few examples of what is in the book..."Beside Still Waters...Refreshing Moments to Restore Your Soul". (published by Harvest House Publishers)

You might recognize this picture from a previous post...this is my calendar, and the paintings in it are also by Darrell Bush, and many are similar or the same as the ones in this little book...just another example of my love for this kind of "life"...

 See any resemblance to my photo up at the top?  Yes, this has been a "picture" in my mind for some time of the kind of place that I wanted to live someday...Many times I would pick up this little book and read it through again and just kind of sigh and whisper, "some day, Lord?"

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "Thank You, that would suffice." Meister Eckhart

Well, tonight I want to say "Thank You" to the Lord, for hearing the dreams of my heart and understanding how this would be such a joy and blessing to me and hopefully to those in our family and our friends. 

The Bible says:

Psalm 37:3-6 New King James Version (NKJV)

"3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;

Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

4 Delight yourself also in the Lord,

And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the Lord,

Trust also in Him,

And He shall bring it to pass.

6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,

And your justice as the noonday."

Please don't think that if you "do good", that God will automatically give you what you want.  That is not what this means at all.  We should never be doing things to "bargain with God" or to try and influence Him to give us what we want.  No, the important part of this passage is to "Trust in the Lord...feed on His faithfulness...Commit your way to the Lord..."  In other words, live for Jesus, trust Him with all your heart no matter what comes your way.  Be faithful to God, bloom where you are planted ("Dwell in the land").  When you trust in the Lord and DELIGHT in Him...He will actually delight in you and take care of all your needs.  We should never say, "If I do this for God then maybe He will give me what I want."...That's a sure way to run into all kinds of trials and tribulations and temptations that will test your faith and cause you to sometimes question just where is God anyway!  No, we must TRUST in the Lord to give us exactly what is BEST for us...to lead us in the paths of His choice for us because He will never lead us astray.  When we delight in Him, we find that life takes on a whole new meaning.  Our desires of our hearts become Godly desires that cause us to serve Him with gladness no matter where He leads us.  This I know from many experiences in life.

However, for whatever reason we have finally reached this destination that has been a dream for a long time, we pray that God will indeed bless our home and help us to use this gift to share Christ with others and to love our neighbors as He would want us to do.   There are many lonely, unhappy people on the other side of that pond...as a matter of fact on the far side of the pond beyond the trees there is a bar, and we can hear the noise from there a little louder on Friday and Saturday nights. Thankfully, it isn't real loud, but enough for us to know that it is there, especially when the motorcycles drive in and out... But I thought about that today and said a prayer for those who are over on the other side of the pond...that God would guide them to a place of peace and trust in Him, and that they would find restoration for their souls perhaps as a gentle wind of the Spirit moving across the pond to blow across their hearts when they come outside for a breath of fresh air...God is able to do that, you know?  So as I sit in my Adirondack chair or on the Secret Garden Bench or on the deck overlooking the pond, I pray for those on the other side.  Maybe that is a reason why we are here...who knows?  God knows...

So now you know about my little "dream come true".  Sometimes it isn't everything it may appear on the surface, lest some may be prone to covet the beauty of this place...there is always a hidden purpose or cost or challenge...but that is life...especially when we choose to "Trust in the Lord, feed on His faithfulness, and Commit our way to the Lord." But He is right here with us to guide and lead and bless us, yes, even with the "desires of our hearts".  Praise God!!!