Wednesday Update

 This will just be a  quick update! (When have I ever done just a "quick update"? But I'll try!).  

Thank you all for so many wonderful comments on my last couple of posts. Your words of prayer and encouragement are such a blessing to me. Thank you for taking the time to write and share your thoughts with me. 

Just to let you know, it is now a little after 7 p.m. Wednesday evening.  We've had mostly light rain all day long, and some light and gusty winds every so often.  The real storm isn't here yet. They have moved the time frame up to Milton making landfall on the coast around 10:00 p.m., and it seems to be moving more quickly, so it should work its way across the state by sometime in the morning tomorrow. The "cone" is still wobbling a bit, but it seems to be a tiny bit further south than it was originally expected to be. That is better for us, but not so good for our friends in southwest Florida, so please keep them in your prayers. Well, keep us all in your prayers, because none of us our out of the woods with this storm, but some will have a much worse impact than others.  

I took these pictures of Still Waters Pond this morning just after it started raining:

And here it is just a while ago, before it got dark...you can see that the water has come up some, but we are in no danger of flooding here from this pond. Our house sits up quite high, and the pond is not fed by any other lake or river or stream, so it really isn't a threat to us.  I am thankful we do not live closer to the St. John's River, as that is notorious for flooding when there is any bad storm, and streets in the city 15 miles from us are already having flood issues because of the high water levels there nearer the river.   

Please pray for our daughter in law Rose, who has to go into work early tomorrow morning  (at 4:30 a.m.!) at Home Depot!  Our son will drive her in his big truck so she doesn't have to drive her little car the 15 miles to work,  but still...really?  She is essential because she has to take care of the opening procedures for the store, and I guess they think people will need to come looking for things to repair their houses tomorrow once the storm lets up enough.  Seems like they could wait and open later, but no...they don't want to lose a dime!   Our Walmart actually closed today at noon! I'm not sure when they plan to reopen.

I was having a running conversation on Facebook Messenger with some of my extended family members today, and it was so funny to hear what everyone was doing while waiting for the storm.  

I won't put their names on here to protect the "innocent", but I thought you'd get a kick out of what everyone was doing today:

From one friend:

"Just finished all the property:contents videos, so I'm feeling like I'm all set. Have all the necessities: flashlights & battery camp lights / pumpkin pie / chocolate chip cookies / B&J's Cherry Garcia / roasted pork roast / potato salad / chips & dip / lots of coke / etc. ... I'll be fine." Oops, I forgot the most important thing ... a good book!!!" (and this person lives alone! LOL, But I think she is expecting neighbors or friends to pop in apparently!)

And from another family member:

"I did the same thing, probably stress cooking for me. I made an apple crisp, brownies and chocolate chip cookies."

From another:

"So far I've done 2 loads of laundry, one more to go. I'm in the middle of rearranging my pantry so I can find what's in there! Right now, ___is on a telehealth call making teeth impressions for a sleep dentistry study...Like silly putty! Lol"

Here's me...the most boring one of all:

"I’m making hobo stew and corn bread."

But I included pictures:

Here's hubby patiently waiting for me to quit playing around and dish up the cornbread:

I snapped these two pictures in succession. One of these things is not like the other, can you see the difference? LOL.

Yes, if you noticed above there was a mysterious hand reaching for the butter! LOL. I told you he was getting impatient! LOL.



So that is how I entertained myself this afternoon, "chatting" with family and friends, and it really was fun and special. We all connected and wished each other well and told each other to stay safe and that we'd be praying for each other. That's what matters most of all. We also talked to our son Scott, who lives a little ways north of us. He's made all the necessary preparations there...("I've got enough pizza to eat for a few days!") LOL.

If you are a Facebook friend, you may have already seen the beautiful sunset pictures from last night. I will include this one here, along with the verse that came up in my devotional reading for today:      

Psalm 57:1-3

1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!

For my soul trusts in You;

And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge,

Until these calamities have passed by.

2 I will cry out to God Most High,

To God who performs all things for me.

3 He shall send from heaven and save me;

He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. Selah

God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.

And with that I will close for tonight. If we lose power, I may not be able to write a post for a few days, but I will try to connect through my cellphone as much as possible...(just gotta keep it charged!)  And yes, please continue to pray for all of us here in Florida. It's going to be a very long night for so many, especially those closer to the coast(s). Both the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic Coast are affected because of the powerful winds as they go across from one coast to the other, so everyone is under a hurricane watch or warning with possible storm surges along the coast. Thank you for your prayers.  Good Night and God bless you every one!

Tuesday 4~ October Memories

 October Memories

I have been putting off doing this meme today because we had other things to do to prepare for Hurricane Milton. But now it is evening, and I feel like it will be a good distraction for me to do this rather than continual watching the news and storm updates, which are very stressful.  So here we go:

Welcome to October's first Tuesday 4 kept in memory of Toni Taddeo.
You are always very welcome here and your participation is much appreciated.

1. What memories do you have of Octobers past?
Oh so many memories...starting with when our grandson was born in October 25 years ago, we would go up to Maine to visit him for his birthday, and we'd always go to the Fryeburg Fair in Fryeburg, Maine.

Click HERE for a previous post that will tell all about October memories.

This picture was taken the last time we went there in October for Noah's birthday and to the fair.   This was October of 2013.  The following May our son Matthew died after a 4 year battle with cancer, and our annual October trips up there stopped, But then we started having Noah come down and visit us for his birthday, and he did that for a few years until he graduated high school, and then, well, you know how it is once they graduate, things change.  But we have so many wonderful memories of happier times together.

2. Besides here in New Jersey, some of the coziest neighborhoods I've driven through were in rural Ohio and Pennsylvania. The picture reminds me of those times. Does this photo bring any thoughts to mind for you?

Yes, that house reminds me of this house, which was in a small rural community in Nova, Ohio, which we rented while hubby was going to seminary.  We had some interesting adventures while living there!

You can read more about THIS house and those adventures HERE. 

Our three sons were having a lot of fun playing the the autumn leaves!  (Circa 1979)

3. As weather cools I do enjoy Pumpkin Spice and Pumpkin Latte flavors in my coffee. Do you like flavored coffees or teas? Which are favorites for you?
I am not a huge fan of pumpkin spice flavored tea, but  I will enjoy an occasional cup of Pumpkin Spice tea during this season just because.  I don't drink coffee at all, so no pumpkin flavors there for sure! 

I was actually drinking some pumpkin spice tea and eating a piece of my daughter in law Rose's wonderful pumpkin spice cake, and feeling very thankful!

4.An orchard near me not only sells apples but pies and their famous apple cider donuts in the fall.
What kind of pies, cakes and pastries do you like to eat?

I LOVE apple cider donuts and fresh mulled hot apple cider!  It's not something that you will readily find here in Florida, since we do not have any apple orchards here (boo hoo!), BUT, in a couple of weeks (Lord willin' and the creek don't rise!"), we will actually be in North Georgia in the mountains, and we will go to an apple orchard there and get some fresh apples and hot apple cider and apple cider donuts! That will be one of the highlights of our trip there, so I do hope nothing spoils that!!  And apple pie is my favorite pie.  I will eat pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, and I also love homemade cherry pie (made with the tart cherries that are meant for a real cherry pie...not that sweet canned cherry stuff!) I really don't eat a lot of pies and cakes and pastries anymore, as they just don't agree with me. I try to avoid a lot of sugar, and once you get used to not eating it, it's very hard to eat very much of anything sweet again! So I really try to limit what sweets I eat.  But I've always loved all of the above mentioned pies, and also my mother's homemade coconut cream pie with meringue. Click HERE for THAT story!

May God bless and protect our precious brethren in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and all impacted areas.   Yes, friends, we are praying and waiting and watching for Hurricane Milton to head our way, but as I've said before, where we live we are not in the high impact zone and we are not evacuating, but we still expect a lot of high winds and possible loss of power. So I may not be able to write again for a little while, but I will definitely try to let you all know how we are one way or another. Your prayers are very much appreciated for all of us down here in  Florida.

"I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you." Joel 2:25

Thank you, Annie, for sharing that verse with us above,  and also for the prayers. God bless you all, and good night for now!

Monday Monday~Time to Prepare

 Here it is Monday evening, and I haven't written anything yet!  We've had a bit of a busy day...prepping for Hurricane Milton, which is scheduled to arrive in our state sometime late Wednesday evening or overnight Thursday morning.  If you've been watching the news, you will see that it is currently a Category 5 storm, but it is still in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and moving slowly toward the peninsula of Florida. It is scheduled (at this time) to make landfall somewhere near Tampa Bay, maybe a little north, or maybe a little south, but hopefully by then it will have slowed down to a Category 3, which is still huge, and it will wreak havoc on the Gulf Coast with strong storm surges again in areas already hit hard by Hurricane Helene two weeks prior.  This storm is supposed to move across the state rather than going up the coast, which means it will come barreling in our direction. However, the current prediction is that it will slow down and be more of a Category 1 as it crosses the state, but it may move very slowly, which means it will have more time to dump more rain and blow high winds all around while it lingers over us.  Therefore, even though we are more inland and north of the main impact zone, we could still get sustained 60-75 mph winds, which most likely will do some major tree damage and we can expect to have widespread power outages.  (I'm beginning to sound like a weatherman! We spend so much time watching them, we are being programmed...)

So anyway, we went to the store this morning and stocked up on some food/paper goods items, and then came home and put things away again from the yard...bird feeders, wind chimes, small items that could blow away, etc.  Then we went to our Bible Studies this afternoon and did more talking about what's going on that doing our Bible Study very seriously. But we encouraged one another and prayed for our situation and basically prepared ourselves mentally and spiritually for what is coming.

Speaking of bird feeders, I put ours up on the back porch under shelter for now, but left out where the birds could still find them and eat, and also where we could watch them from inside the house.  I enjoyed just sitting and watching and snapping a few pictures for a while, which was very relaxing and calming:

Male Cardinal

Carolina Chickadee

Male Cardinal and Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse

Male Cardinal

Female Cardinal

Carolina Chickadee

Two Carolina Chickadees!

I enjoyed watching them so much! I hope you did too!

Yesterday was our grandson Noah's 25th birthday!  We tried to call him, but he had to work, so we just left him a message on the phone and sang Happy Birthday to him.  But happily, he called us back this evening and we had a nice long conversation.  Here's the latest picture of him, posted by his mother on Facebook yesterday.  Someone said he must be a James Bond fan because of his gesture.  But my son said, no, it would be an Austin Powers gesture...I don't know anything about that, but apparently he was just being funny and cute.  He reminds me so much of his father, our son Matthew, who was always doing something funny and cute. Anyway, I'm just so glad we were able to talk with him. That means so much to us, and hopefully it did to him as well.

Also yesterday evening our "kids" (Benton and Rose) came over and we had bratwurst with peppers and onions on it for supper.  Then we played some of that game, "Deer in the Headlights", and discussed Hurricane strategy.   If things get too wild and rough, we may go over to their house, as they have a solid concrete block home, whereas we live in a manufactured home.  However, we have a generator and they don't, plus we have city water and they have a well, so we would have water and electricity via generator, but they would have solid concrete walls, but no water or power.  We shall see what we end up needing the most. Praying mostly that we will all be safe no matter what condition our utilities are in.  

While the kids were here, of course the grandpups came over too. They were being their usual cute selves.

Here's Sugar...and this is her habit when she knows she is about to be fed:  She runs with her tennis ball in her mouth and goes to her "dinner mat" and waits for her food. It's really comical...she will run and find that ball as soon as she hears someone say something about coming to eat...

And here's Spice....She doesn't bother with the tennis ball, but she just waits for the food. Sometimes she tends to be very finicky  and doesn't eat everything, but Sugar will usually take care of any of her leftovers. Their personalities and little habits are such fun to watch.

Here is the link to our church service yesterday.  I am linking it because I wanted you to hear the choir singing "Let Us Break Bread Together". (it's at the very beginning).

Yesterday, our Pastor and wife were away on vacation. The sermon on this video was actually from a message he preached last year, since they were away this week and did not record a new sermon. (And we had a guest speaker preach for the service on Sunday.)  But the song we recorded during our choir practice last week.  Anyway, I tell you all of this because even though I am singing with the choir in this video, in reality on Sunday morning, I was directing the choir.  Our Pastor's wife is also our choir and worship leader, and since they were going away, I was asked to fill in for her.  So on Sunday morning I directed the choir when they sang this song.  Thankfully it was a very easy song to sing and direct, and everything went well.  I also had to lead the congregational singing and make all the announcements, etc., basically everything except for the things that the Pastor does, like pray and preach and lead the Communion service. We had a few little snafu's at the beginning when the sound system would not work properly, and our usual sound technician was also on vacation.  Another person had been trained to operate the system, but for some reason things didn't go exactly as planned, however we did manage to find a microphone that worked and the service carried on without a hitch from then on.  I give thanks and glory to God for getting us through it all, and I'm also thankful our Pastor and wife will be back next Sunday! LOL. It certainly made me appreciate everything they do every Sunday even more! And they truly deserved and needed to have a break!  (It also made me thankful that my hubby and I are now retired from the pastoral ministry, because we had to do all those things before every week as well for many years! But we were younger then and had a lot more energy!)  Actually, I am very thankful to God that I was able to serve in this way, and I really did enjoy every minute.  But my Sunday afternoon nap felt real good! LOL. 

 "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God..."

2 Corinthians 3:5

Well folks, "Lord willin' and the creek don't rise," I hope to write again tomorrow for the Tuesday 4 meme, and then I will be getting things ready for Hurricane Milton to make his way through on Wednesday and Thursday.  Hopefully I will still be able to communicate with you during that time, but please just be praying for everyone in the path of this storm. There are quite a few of us bloggers here in Florida, and I pray we will all be safe and sound and able to talk about our experiences when it's over.

"I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;

For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

Psalm 4:8  NKJV

Saturday Thoughts

 This was the sunrise yesterday morning...I love how the trees frame the sun to make it look as though it is entering the earth through a doorway...

And as the sun enters through the doorway...or a gate, perhaps...an "Eastern Gate"....it spreads its light around and dispels the darkness...

bringing us a renewed hope and peace for the new day...

I look forward to the day that The SON Himself, our Messiah, will enter through the Eastern Gate , and dispel all the darkness for us forever.  

Today is Saturday, a day to rest, play, clean house, cook, bake, get caught up on things left undone all week...prepare for Sunday, the Lord's Day...the true day of rest, worship. spending time with the Lord, with our friends at church, our family, a day to rejoice, a day to pray, a day to prepare our hearts for whatever comes next...For some, it will be another ordinary week...off to work or school, or whatever other appointments you may have...and for way too many it will be a week to continue to pray for deliverance from the mud and mire of the storms of last week...a week to try to put some semblance of normalcy back together if at all possible...for many, it won't be possible. Many have no homes to clean, no kitchen to cook in, no beds to sleep in, and still no electricity even if they do have their homes...And sadly, for too many, they have lost loved ones, they are still looking for loved ones who are lost, they are lost themselves, in sorrow, exhaustion, and the feeling that nothing will ever be the same again.  And it won't. Life will never be the same way as it was a little over a week ago.  Lives have been changed forever...and many will never be the same again.  

Ah, but then we look at the weather report, and there is another storm on the horizon! One that is headed straight for the Florida peninsula!  Thankfully, it doesn't appear to be headed back up to Georgia and the Carolinas, but it is definitely headed for the Florida Gulf coast, the mainland, and then across the state to the Atlantic coast, and most likely it will bring a LOT of rain and wind with it, so we all need to be prepared no matter what part of the state we are living in!

I don't want to sound like doom and gloom here...that's not my nature. But I am being realistic and facing facts...there's a whole lot of tragedy and sorrow going on around us. And it's not just here in this part of the country, but it is in many other places too, and especially around the world in Israel and Ukraine and other places of much unrest and sadness. 

More than anything, we need to pray for one another, for those in dire distress and need of much help...and try to do whatever we are able to do to lift up the fallen.  

Today we took a little walk and I noticed something in this location that I had not noticed before:

It is an old sidewalk, leading to a bare spot in a lot, where once an old house stood.

I just couldn't help myself. I had to walk down this path and stand in the spot where the house once stood.

I looked across the new 4-lane highway that now stands in the way of the once much grander view this house had of the little lake across the way. They had to move the house to make room for the highway.

I know you'll think I'm silly, but as I stood there in that spot, I thought about all the many years that grand old house had stood there, (over 100 years, I believe), 

This was the house that stood there, and this picture was taken when we happened to be passing by back in 2018 and saw them actually moving it to its new location.

And I thought about all the years families had lived in this very spot, living their lives, raising their children, going through all the motions of living from the time it was built in 1890...can you imagine? They must have had a horse and buggy here too!  And they probably didn't have electricity at first, and had to do everything the old-fashioned way! Right here on this very spot, people lived, loved, worked hard, probably had a nice garden, taught their children to be good citizens and hopefully to love God and their fellow man, then laughed and cried, maybe even birthed babies, lived and died. Right here in this spot.  And somehow I couldn't just walk away without saying something about that...it felt like hallowed ground.

This was the view out the other side of the house, which probably looks a lot different now than it did then. There used to be a train track right out there in the middle, and the trains would come and go every day into this little town. It was all a lot different then than it is today, and maybe even better then than it is today...but then again, maybe not. Progress can be a good thing...but that's still a matter of opinion.  

I wrote about this old house HERE, when it was literally moved from this location to a new lot when they widened the highway.  The house now belongs to the Florida Dept. of Transportation, and is still waiting to be sold or auctioned off of something. I feel sad that it is still sitting there, waiting for new owners, new people to call it "home", and make its walls ring with laughter once again.

I picked a little bouquet of flowers from the old house lot, and brought them home with me as a kind of memorial to the memory of that house and the life it once "lived".

I thought about all the people who have been displaced from their homes because of the storm last week...many will never see their old homes again because they were totally washed away. The places where they stood may be caked in mud or covered with rocks and boulders from the many mud and rockslides that took place in the mountains...or here in Florida they may be washed away from the storm surge of the ocean waters and totally destroyed...and lives are changed forever.

But the memory lives on in the hearts of everyone who ever lived and loved in those homes...the memory is something that doesn't just go away overnight.  Even when a person gets a brand new home to replace the one that was lost, for whatever reason, it's never quite the same. 

I guess I'm a bit nostalgic tonight, but I write this to honor those who have been through so much heartache this past week, and for those who have lost homes, and a way of life that will never come back the way it was, and then for those who lost loved ones, and life is changed forever.

May God comfort the hearts of those who are hurting, grieving, and still in shock.

May He give you strength to keep moving forward, to have the courage to keep trying and not give up.

Amen.