Friday Foto Friends: Looking Backwards and Forwards

Good Friday Morning Friends!  I am scrambling to find some kind of pictures to share with you today! I haven't been out doing a whole lot of exploring this week, and so my photo log is a bit empty.  However, I will share with you what I have and hopefully it will all come together into something worthwhile.

These first few photos are from our morning walks both this week and last week, in the same location. I like to wander off the beaten path into the woods and enjoy the fresh scents of pine trees and feel the soft carpet of pine needles underneath my feet as I walk. The sunshine dappling through the trees is always a source of inspiration for me.  Come along with me and feel the coolness of the morning...

One week ago

One week later (today) Same place, same time

One week ago, looking behind

Today...looking ahead

Last evening I was trying to put this post together, and fearing that I would not have anything new to share, I went back in time to see what I was looking at a few years ago at this same time.

Looking behind, November 2017, at our previous home in Salt Springs:

Oh, I loved seeing these deer from our front door at our previous home.  

And this bear crossing the road near our house...one of my favorite photos of all time...."Why does the bear cross the road? Because he's in the bear crossing zone!"  

Sometimes I get a little "homesick" for life in the forest, where the bears and deer roamed freely about us.  But as this verse in Philippians says:  

Philippians 3:13-14

13.  Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 

14. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

I must press ahead. Keep my eyes on the beauty that surrounds me still right here and now, and look forward to that which God has for us in the future.

Stepping out onto our front porch this morning, this is what I saw

A beautiful November morning sunrise...yes, a little cloudy, but full of promise for a beautiful new day.

Our sweet "Daughter in Love" brought this little bit of Christmas to us this week:

It's one of those "Norfolk Island Pines", which is an indoor pine tree that will grow and be a beautiful indoor blessing year round! (If I keep it properly watered, that is!) What a sweet and thoughtful gift!

That is our first Christmas decoration so far this year!  The rest will have to wait until after Thanksgiving.

So how are your Thanksgiving plans coming along?  Will you be entertaining at your house, or are you going elsewhere for your dinner?  Our Thanksgiving dinner will be a much smaller affair than the usual for us...just our immediate family who live here nearby...our "kids" Benton and Rose, our son Scott, and hubby and me, oh, and of course Lily Grace!  It will seem very strange to me to not have our extended family here for the day, but they each have other plans with their families.  After thinking about it, however, I am realizing that it is probably for the best for me this year. I thought about inviting in a few local people who don't have anywhere else to go for the day, but again, my hubby has had to kind of sit me down and give me a loving, but stern discussion about the fact that I am really not physically quite up to par yet since my surgery, and judging by my continued easily fatigued and needing a nap every day, I need to realize that hubby knows best.  One thing I've learned, the older we get, the harder and longer and it takes to get over any kind of surgery. On Thanksgiving day it will be exactly one month since I had my neck surgery. I guess I'm a little impatient...but I need to pace myself and behave.

Here's a few pictures from previous years Thanksgivings...

2018-Salt Springs... A LOT of family came that year!

This was the crowd:

2019: at our present home

And in 2020 also here:

the "kids' table"

So our table won't be as full this year and we will definitely be missing some special people, but we will count our blessings and be thankful for what God has done for us and we will look forward to brighter and better days ahead.

I remember learning this Psalm when we were in grade school and it seems as though we recited it for a Thanksgiving program or something.  I know that seems impossible today, but back in the 'good old days' we could still recite the Bible in school without fear or penalty. It would be wonderful if we could still do that today, but thanks be to God, we can still share God's Word here in our blogs, and I am very thankful for this freedom and privilege.  

A Psalm of Thanksgiving: 

The 100th Psalm

"1. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

2 Serve the Lord with gladness: 

come before his presence with singing.

3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; 

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: 

be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; 

and his truth endureth to all generations."

Amen

Have a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday 4- Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home

Welcome to Tuesday 4 where we ask 4 questions each with to get you thinking, blogging and getting to know your fellow Bloggers!
We do this in memory of Toni Taddeo who founded it and who was so beloved by so many.

This week, let's talk about your home town or home state.

1. What was your hometown like? Or home state or both!

This is a picture of the Main Street of my hometown in 1957, when we first moved there. On the right is the Doctor's office, Boulware's Drug Store,  Conner's 5 & 10 Cent store, Western Auto, and a saloon.

On the left is the old A&P Store, a Pastry Shop, and various other little stores, a barber shop, and eventually there was a newer more modern IGA Grocery store down the block and then the old A&P store closed. It was VERY small and had wooden floors.

My favorites places downtown were the drug store, where we could sit at the soda fountain and get ice cream, sodas, milkshakes, hamburgers, french fries, and all the good stuff. It was the place to go after school and hang out with our friends until our working parents came to pick us up to go home at the end of the day.

The other favorite place was Conner's 5& 10 cent store, where we could buy all kinds of neat stuff for a nickel or a dime.

2. Did you enjoy where you grew up? Why?

I loved growing up in my little hometown of Tavares, Florida. Back then, in the 1950's-1960's, Tavares was still a small town in the heart of Lake County, the county seat. It was a place where everyone pretty much knew everyone, and people looked out for one another. Although my family lived in the outskirts of town, about three miles out a long clay road that would get very muddy when it rained and hard to traverse, it eventually was paved and now today our neighborhood where my family home was built (by my father in 1957) is a very desirable and growing community. When I was growing up we had very few neighbors and lots of woods, bobcats, occasionally very large diamondback rattlesnakes,  and foxes.  Big Lake Harris was just a stone's throw away. If you liked to fish, large mouth bass were just waiting to be caught from your boat or dock. When I was a little older, we could water ski in the lake, and also there were many places to swim. Back then we rarely if ever saw alligators, but today they seem to be everywhere. To me, it was a perfect paradise.  My sister and I built little forts in the woods, and my older brothers also had forts in the woods where we were not permitted to enter. (but we tried anyway).  

This was how I liked to play when I was little...yes, I was a bit of a "wild thing". LOL.

I also often went home with different classmates after school whose mothers were at home, and who lived in town, since my mother worked, and then she would pick me up when she got off from work.  My older siblings were already in high school and they had lots of after school activities, and my parents didn't want me going home alone. Besides, it was a very long bus ride home and I hated riding the bus.  So it was nice of my girlfriends' mothers to put up with me on many afternoons!  We always had a good time!

Our town basically revolved around county government, school, church, and the citrus industry.  We were in the heart of orange grove country, and the major employer in our town back then was the Lake Region Packing Association., which was a co-op of citrus growers in the county where fruit was processed and packaged and shipped throughout the nation.  Sadly, after 98 years of business, the packing plant closed in 2004 due to the fact that after several big freezes the citrus industry in central Florida began to shut down and property was sold to developers for housing developments and other businesses.  Today our little town has grown into a hub for sea planes and local  tourism.   

My parents lived in the home Daddy built for over 50 years, and then once they were both gone to their heavenly home their house was sold to a local neighbor who loved my parents and was very happy to have the home that Bill & Dorothea built and loved.  Click HERE for a previous post that shows some recent pictures of my old family home.

HERE is another post written about that home.

Of course, I got married at the age of almost 19, and so never lived in this home again from then on. But it was always the gathering place for all holidays and family activities until the day the house was sold.

3. How much did where you grew up shape you?

I have to say probably hugely!!! I don't know how to measure the effect of a lifetime of growing up in a town where we had so many happy connections and activities and memories. Our teachers cared about us personally and made sure we learned not only our 3 R's, but the right way to live life in society.  Our churches played a very important role in our spiritual development as well as helping us to learn to live as good citizens in our community.  Even though I have not lived in this town since I was 19, I still have connections with school friends and even with some of our teachers over the years, until one by one they have mostly all passed away.

HERE is a link to a previous post I wrote about my home church .

And HERE is a link to a post about my school that I wrote recently.


4. What were some of the best and worst things about where you grew up?

When I grew up in Tavares, my mother worked at the Lake County Courthouse, in the Sheriff's Department as a secretary to the Sheriff.   It was quite an eye-opening experience for my "Yankee" mother, who was raised in Ohio and who just wanted to be a farmer's wife in Pennsylvania, where we moved from to Florida in 1956.  My Dad loved farming, but at that time farming was becoming very expensive to do and you either had to go big or get out, so they sold the farm and we moved to Florida for a better life. My Dad at first worked in a woodworking shop, building cabinets for new homes. He was a very talented woodworker, but just couldn't make a good enough living to support our family of six. So he took the Civil Service test and went to work for the USPS, where he continued working until he retired.

I remember going to visit my mother at her office many times after school, and would wait quietly somewhere until the end of her working day.  One of the worst things back in the 50's-60's was that in the deep south segregation was still a very major part of our culture and way of life.  It was probably most evident in this big county courthouse, where we still had water fountains marked "colored" and "white", and you had better know which one to use or you would be corrected immediately. Same thing for public restrooms. There were also different entrances into public buildings for "colored" or "white".  A colored person did not dare to enter a public building through the main entrance, or he/she would be quickly told where they were supposed to enter. There were two distinct parts of town as well...what was known as "colored town" was on the west end of town, and I remember as a child noticing as we often drove through that section of town to get to the road that would take us home that their homes were poor and old and not very well maintained and they did not have nice clean looking stores and buildings like what was in the other part of town.  They also had their own schools and churches.  As long as everyone knew where they "belonged", there was no problem.  But if someone dared to step over that proverbial line, they found themselves in trouble really quick.  As a child I did not fully comprehend all of this and just accepted these things as the way of life there in our town. We didn't know anything different. Although my parents, having been brought up in the north, had never experienced this before and it was a difficult thing to understand and accept.

With the "Civil Rights Act" of 1964, slowly things began to change. One of the first major changes was the beginning of integration into our public schools.  My class was the very first class in our school to receive any black students.  In our sophomore or junior year, five of the very best students from the local "colored school" were brought to our school, four girls and one boy. The school administration selected our class because they thought we would be the group that would be most accepting of these changes.  And I must admit that our class was indeed very welcoming to these new students. We tried our very best to include them in all activities and make them feel a part of our school. It didn't hurt that the boy was also an excellent athlete, and became a very welcome addition to our football team.  As I look back I can't help but wonder how these students felt at that time, being taken from the school they had grown up in and to leave all of their familiar friends, teachers and culture behind to embark on this new journey.  I believe they all assimilated very well and each went on to excel in their own future careers...except for the boy...I heard that he died in a fight of some kind as a young man several years after graduation. That was sad news to all of our classmates. I am still in touch with one of the women on Facebook today, and am very happy to say that after all these years we are still friends.

I think I already wrote about what was the best thing about growing up in my town. I have so many fond memories of growing up in Tavares, it would take a book to write about them all.

Here's just a  few fun pictures from my childhood and youth:

Halloween Party with my girlfriends. I am on the right end with the drum. We were "beatniks".

Campout in our yard with my friends. I am on the right.

This was a friend's birthday party. I am on the second row, next to the last on the right, with the attitude.

6th grade class. I am on the next to last row, in the back.

6th grade class picnic to Alexander Springs. I am the crazy one on the left. I think I have a candy cigar in my mouth. or maybe it's my tongue. I really don't remember...

A little more sane picture. My senior year.

Most of all, because it was a small town,  we had more opportunities to do things and participate in many school activities. When there aren't so many students in the school to compete with for positions, you are able to do things that you would never have had the opportunity to do in a much larger school. 

I loved my hometown, and even though we live about an hour or more away from there now, it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Our old High School Alma Mater says:

"In the heart of old Lake County

proudly likes our land;

For our school, Tavares Bulldogs,

we will ever stand.

For our dear old Alma Mater, 

we will sing our praise.

We will fight for greater glory

For her future days!"

Go Bulldogs!!

I hope you enjoyed this little walk down memory lane with me. I do thank God for allowing me to grow up in this special place. I know this place truly helped to make me who I am today...and that is definitely a gift from God.  

Now let us go visit our other friends on Tuesday 4 and see where they came from!

Also, thank you for praying for my friend Jimmy. He had the brain surgery today to remove the tumor, and I've just heard that he came through the surgery very well.  Next he will have radiation.  Very thankful that all went well, and thank you again for praying!

Saturday Wanderings

 Just a quick note to say hello this morning!  It was a foggy start to the day.

It's not too bad out there right now, (actually I just looked again and it is starting to rain) but we are supposed to start getting some colder weather again tomorrow morning.  We'll start having some high 30's for lows and mid 60's for highs for the next few days.  But then it will warm up again mid week to 50's and 70's. Typical November weather!

Oh, you might want to read what Lily Grace has to share today: https://adventuresoflilygrace.blogspot.com/2021/11/lily-grace-discovers-pilgrims.html

This will be her first Thanksgiving, and she had a lot to learn about it so she wanted to share it with you!

We are going to a potluck luncheon today at church, our monthly "Agape Lunch", which is primarily a time for fellowship and good food, and sharing God's love with one another.  

"Agape (from Ancient Greek ἀγάπη (agápē)) is a Greco-Christian term referring to unconditional love, "the highest form of love, charity" and "the love of God for man and of man for God".

I am taking a new dish I found on the back of the macaroni box.  It's a "Skillet Taco Mac", but mine will be in the crockpot!  (Sorry the recipe looks a little wrinkled...I had to rescue the box from the trash! LOL)

Here's how it looks right now. I'm thinking it needs some Paprika on top for color. I'll let you know later how it tastes...

I guess that's about it for today. I mainly wanted you to know that it's a beautiful day and

I am very thankful to be here! 

God is good...all the time, God is good.

I hope and pray you are having a good day today as well.

Thank you for being here too!

Bye bye for now. 

Gotta get a move on or we'll miss the potluck lunch!

 

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!!

 

Tuesday 4: November is Here

November is Here


Welcome to Tuesday 4 begun by our friend Toni Taddeo and kept up in her memory.
This week let's talk about November!

1. Besides Thanksgiving is there anything about November you like/dislike?

Besides Thanksgiving, well, I like that this is the season of "thankfulness"...remembering to count our blessings as we anticipate what Thanksgiving is really all about.  November is kind of the prelude to the Advent season...while planning our guest list and menu for Thanksgiving, I am also thinking ahead to preparing my heart for the Christmas season...it's kind of the "calm before the storm" of the busiest season of the year. If there is anything I dislike about November, it would be that Thanksgiving day is over all too quickly. We no sooner finish eating our desserts and people are ready to start going home and I am just getting ready to sit down and visit and relax. I wish people could just stay longer and linger over that last piece of pie with a cup of tea and not be in any rush to go home...

2. How is November weather where you live? Does it suit you?

November is usually cooler and drier, not so humid.  Hurricane season is finally over so we don't have to worry about that until next June. For us here in Florida, November is really the beginning of autumn weather.  Yes, that suits me just fine! We can finally bring out our long sleeved shirts and sweaters and jeans again and put away the summer clothes until next spring...We might even have a bonfire in the firepit and sit outside in the evenings and roast marshmallows and make s'mores.  Usually the mosquitoes are gone by then...That's always a happy time!

This was last year...looking forward to doing this again soon!!

3. When do you plan for Thanksgiving? Eat home or out? Menu?

I am planning right now...I am actually a bit behind this year since I just had surgery two weeks ago. I wasn't sure if we would try to have a big Thanksgiving dinner here at our house or not.  It's still a bit up in the air.  It may end up just being our immediate family for dinner, which would be really different for us. Our home is usually the gathering place for the extended family since all our parents have gone on to heaven. But as others' families also grow and expand, they realize that it is time to have their own family gatherings in their homes and it becomes more and more difficult to get us all together in one place at the same time. So we may be making some adjustments this year and in the years to come.

Menu? Well, the norm is of course turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, and from there it may vary...depending on who is coming and who is bringing what. Usually there is some kind of vegetable casserole (but not the green bean casserole!! No Thank You!) And of course cranberry sauce, a congealed salad of some kind, like a cranberry/nut/pineapple/apple jello mixture, relish tray, rolls, butter, and then of course the desserts: Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, and Pecan Pie

 are the norms, but anything anyone wants to bring is just fine.  I welcome other people bringing their specialties. I don't like to do ALL the cooking by any means, so that is one good reason for inviting guests so we get a variety of good food! LOL.  One thing is for certain, we never go hungry!

4. When do you begin your decor and plans for Christmas. 

I do not begin Christmas decorating until after Thanksgiving is over. I cannot handle more than one holiday at a time.  I like to linger over the last piece of pumpkin pie the day after, and then little by little the pilgrims and turkeys and fall decor disappears and the red and green replaces the browns and golds and orange colors. We usually try to put the Christmas tree up by the first weekend in December, and it keeps growing from there.

The most important part of this season is to be thankful...we are the most blessed people on earth, in spite of our current political or national situation...Regardless of whether or not we agree or disagree with the things that are going on, we are still more blessed than any other nation in the world.

I certainly don't want that to change, and so my thoughts would be that as we enter this season of thankfulness and preparing our hearts for advent and Christmas, that we remember to

PRAY for our nation, our leaders, our families and friends.

Don't take anything for granted...our health, our jobs, our homes, our families, our freedom...

Give thanks to God for all He has done for us, and stand strong in your faith in Him to see you through no matter what battle you may be facing.

And remember, I know I've quoted this verse often, but it bears repeating now again:

Isaiah 41:10

"Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

Have a Happy November!