A Casual Comfortable Meme

Songs 4 Worship
Time Life Music

Today I'm taking a cue from blogging friend Linda's casual writing style that feels like we are sitting at home over our personal beverages of choice, relaxed, just being ourselves. Click here to see her blog. Her form of writing may be her own meme; I like it.

my "office" today on the lanai

Addressing random topics with my usual incorporation of perhaps more snapshots than verbiage may seem like a cop-out for a self-described writer/self-publisher, but as my good friend Diana shared with me in all honesty years ago, she likes a lot of pictures. Actually, I'm in agreement with that as I have a lot of blogs to follow and photos make keeping up so much easier. 

Currently

Approaching mid-afternoon, too soon after a wonderful lunch for a snack, I'll be making a cup of caffeine-free green tea in a little bit. The music featured in my first snapshot is softly playing in the background. Gary has a wonderful collection of CDs, cassette tapes, and even vinyl records that he and Edith collected over the years. 

How grateful I am to be able to listen to the kind of church music I prefer here at home. Like so many of my generation, I grieve the scarcity of hymns and more melodic style of music that blessed my faith in years gone by. But that topic has been beat to death and is pretty much a lost battle so I will move on to other subjects. 

Weather

Summer is slipping in a little earlier here in North Central Florida than usual, with nods of the sun visor to 90-degrees in some towns. This is our dry season, I'm told, and now that I've been here for seven years, I see the truth in that. The rainy season will be here in May and beginning June 1st there will be wary attention to tropical storms moving across the Atlantic from Africa to threaten our eastern coastline. 

selfie of our shadows

Wearing

While the above selfie was taken on a morning cooler than what we have today, right now I'm enjoying a striped short-sleeve crew neck T-shirt, blue jean Bermuda shorts, and Croc sandals. We walk most mornings shortly after breakfast, amassing at least two miles, and often twice as much. Gary's recovery from major surgery is going very well but he's been advised to not return to bike-riding until June. 

And yes, we hold hands for the entire walk. People comment on that as they pass. More people should do this (hold hands, I mean. Comments are optional 😉).

Food

(such a fun topic!) As I've probably said before, Gary prepares us a hot mug of something wonderful as we sit to watch church on-line on Sunday mornings. For a while it was a caramel-flavored coffee in the Keurig, but now that has morphed to hot chocolate with large marshmallows. 

yesterday

While some parishioners pull mints out to share with those in their church pew as they settle in for the sermon, we have hot chocolate!

And lest you think I'm not aware, I am sure some of my readers are reading that last paragraph with critical thoughts.... we're not attending the service in person. Yes, I am well versed in Hebrews 10:25 ("not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together...") 

I won't go into that except to say since the attack of COVID and serious losses many of us have experienced, one of the many lessons I've learned is to not judge stop judging others. We have no idea what their reasons may be but the matter is between them and the Lord. 

I see where I have been judgy much of my life, so I'm preaching to myself here. The Lord deals with us in His way and with His timing. Let's allow Him to deal with people as He sees fit. He sees the hearts of people. If or when they need to be steered in another direction He will do so.

the menu at Red's

But to get back to the subject of food, we had lunch the other day at a local "old Florida" type of place, well-known to my readers (and bloggers) who live in my area. Gary had the meatloaf and I had the marinara meatball sandwich -- both excellent choices.

outdoor dining on the deck at Red's

One of the unique aspects of Red's is the sound of gators somewhere below the outside deck as they groan in search of romance. I've yet to actually see an alligator any time we've been there because they prefer to be reclusive in the willows and weeds but they are easily heard.

Continuing with the topic of food, we enjoyed meeting Joline and Don for lunch at Bob Evans on Tuesday. On Thursday Jersey Girl took me to Southern Pig and Cattle to celebrate my birthday (a late celebration but that's fine with me and any excuse to dine with her will do!!)

the last of Gail's Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Our snowbird neighbors were prepping for their departure to spend the summer in Michigan, so Gail wanted to empty out her pantry. She shared her homemade Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies, which filled this plate. I just happened to remember to take this snapshot before the last two disappeared!!

Health

actress Judy Garland in "The Harvey Girls"

My health is very good. Well, I did have a bug and/or a pulled muscle this past week that seemed to come out of nowhere, making the refuge of my recliner in front of the TV a comfort. Not sure what that was all about, but it's past now. And as I said earlier, Gary is doing very well. For this we are both so grateful. 

Reading

I finished the book of Corrie ten Boom's story (The Watchmaker's Daughter) and now Gary is in the middle of it. We both tend to prefer biographies. I've been leaning a little more into war stories and movies because they help me to better understand Gary's military and government service experiences. 

a daily read that blesses me every morning

For years a daily devotional book has helped to get my mind in the right place before life has a chance to slam [whatever] in front of me. I've greatly enjoyed this one by Joyce Meyer since its purchase last summer at Barnes and Noble.

colored pencil emphasis

As I've shared before, one of my study helps is the use of colored pencils so I can later review the pages and tell at a glance the following:

general instructions or statements

what God is saying or doing

avoid doing this

specific directives for me

I do this in my Bible and in just about anything I read that will not be shared with others.

pen pocket

Another very useful "tool" is this method to keep a pen handy. Terri D (from the blog Your Friend From Florida) gave this to me a couple of years ago and I've found it indispensable for this devotional book. I'll mark salient phrases in the book with this pen that is always handy, and later when I have more time to review, the colored pencils are put to use.

Watching

TV news. Obviously, it's not the most comfortable activity, but even though we want to focus on what is "true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy" (Philippians 4:8), we need to be informed. Choosing our news sources wisely is important. 

Feeling

profound truth from FaceBook

In spite of so much bad stuff, good counsel can be found on social media. The illustration above and this one, below, are samples of how I've been able to move through the most sad and challenging time of my life to where I am now. 

also from FaceBook

So to answer the question about how I am feeling: better. Better all the time.

Thinking

Recently one of my granddaughters shared this phrase, 

"His sovereignty is my security"

When we really believe that God loves us and He knows all that concerns us, then we can trust Him to do (and allow) only what is best for us. Yes, bad things happen to us, but when God is in control (and He is!!), the final outcome will be good. That outcome may not be realized until much later, and possibly after we've entered Heaven, but in retrospect, it will be absolutely the best.

Making Me Laugh

This is the last "prompt" on Linda's meme that I'm following today. In all honesty, I get to laugh every single day. Sometimes my laughter is like Santa's belly that jiggles like a bowl of jelly and other days it's just a chuckle. But there is merriment to be had if we look for it.

Us
photo by Jersey Boy

Until next time, grace and peace.

from one of our neighborhood walks

A Week in the Life Of

close-up of Magnolia next-door

It's been an engrossing week here, but in the process I managed to collect snapshots, "blog fodder," as I like to call them. I'll begin with nature because when it involves flowers, the words flow out of my fingertips easily.

our neighbor's Magnolia tree

The Magnolia's have read the memo, "It's time to bloom!" and they are, all over our community! From a distance the flowers look to me like popcorn on nearly every branch but up close, the milky blooms are large and graceful. They don't last long at all, but even as they are fading, the petals become a pleasing shade of goldy-brown.

Vanity plate at a car show

Not to be outdone by the Magnolia trees, purple-pink field flowers grow wild alongside our North Central Florida highways. They make a carpet of deep blush that softens the reality of our increased traffic. It seems everybody wants to move to Florida! Or I should say, Floridahhh! (I have no picture of them from our moving vehicle.)

glass-topped table on our lanai
overlooking the red Hibiscus bush

We spend some time almost every day on the lanai with our books, puzzles, sometimes music, and just enjoying the peace of this retreat. As I type this afternoon, I am sitting at the table with a fan blowing toward me. We're at just about 90 degrees this afternoon.

car show in Dunnellon

Both last Saturday and again today, we've gone to car shows. These have been our first since trading in the 2002 Ford Thunderbird for a small pick-up truck (2023 Ford Maverick). 

2002 Ford Thunderbird with only 16,000 miles
photo by Terri D of Your Friend From Florida

The truck has been more practical for our needs, but the T-Bird was like a special jewel in our garage. Those who know our story will remember that Gary acquired the car and me the same week, so wonderful memories are wrapped up with that. He likes to say, "I had to get the car to get the girl," which is absolutely not true, but the car did add some fun magic!

brand new Ford Maverick 2023

Yes, we've seen the news story on TV that our truck has yet another recall by Ford. It's the 3rd one since we bought it last fall, so we're not happy about that. 

Gary bought this shirt for me as an early Mother's Day gift. We spent several hours at the Ford dealership getting a recall matter fixed, along with a routine tire rotation and an oil change.

As they say, "I digress." Getting back to the car shows, there's a lot of crazy stuff at these events. But admission is usually free and on a pleasant day, it's good entertainment with plenty of sunshine and free Vitamin D on the skin. Here are some of the wild things we saw today:

Gary knows the makes and years of the majority of what we see, being quite the car buff himself. Me, I just like to tag along and enjoy the time with my fella!

This last vehicle is an Econoline truck similar to what Gary drove in his USAF Air Police days. The ones he drove were dark blue with a red light on top that the fellas dubbed "the bubble gum machine." 

By the way, once a security cop, always a security cop. This man knows the rules and he follows them!

sign is a recent purchase from 
Hobby Lobby with a birthday gift card 😊

Moving to other events of this past week, our kitchen has demanded unplanned attention with a water puddle on the tile floor. To condense the story, the water line to the refrigerator was fine, but something deep inside the inner workings of the 17-year old unit was awry.

out with the old (a Kenmore Elite)

We agreed it was time to shop for a new one. As my late husband liked to say, "Money -- there's more where that went!"

new refrigerator just unpacked from the truck

Gary, who is excellent at product research (he takes a lot of clues from Consumer Reports magazine), narrowed the choices down and we made our final decision with a purchase at Lowe's. 

in with the new! (Whirlpool)

Features I love about this new appliance:

-- the easy-clean stainless steel that accepts refrigerator magnets

-- ice bucket inside the freezer drawer

-- water dispenser inside the refrigerator 

-- deep door pockets

-- freezer drawer below refrigerator

Since it's been my lot in life to move many times, I have definite opinions on refrigerators. When I began cooking in Gary's kitchen I recognized that the refrigerator was not what I would have chosen, but it came with the house when he bought it and at the time it was operating well. Now we have a model we both like and I've added just a few magnets to the door:

Colorado Columbines

skyline of Boise, Idaho

Denver's skyline

Old Faithful

reminder magnet

We don't use ice much, so the ice bucket inside the freezer instead of outside on the door is my preference. I bought a scoop at Walmart and keep it in the bucket. I've done it this way before in a previous house and liked it just fine. There is also an easy-access inside water dispenser.

Gary's decorating style is less "busy" than mine, and that's okay. I've got a box of many more magnets, but these 5 will suffice, representing history from each of us.

my homemade cookbook binder
sits on the counter full-time

Before we leave the subject of the kitchen, we ended up making one more purchase this week -- another refrigerator! Gary's habit is to keep batteries in the fridge so they last longer. Also, when we combined our households, we both had a lot of ice bags of useful sizes that we wanted to keep. Of course all these non-food items take up valuable space! 

retrieving refrigerator 
at Best Buy

An "Insignia" brand, this little cutie fits perfectly at the end of the kitchen counter for easy access AND a little more counter surface when I need it.

Yes, we have two microwaves and they serve us well. 'Nuff said.

Pam and John
Closed Doors Open Windows

Our week also included some medical matters (all routine, all good), calls and an appointment regarding financial matters, walking in our neighborhood as time and weather allowed, and most fun of all, a drive one hour north of here to visit Pam and John. 

Gary met these wonderful people about 18 months ago when their kids accepted into their consignment shop many of the knick-knacks and some furniture from when I was selling my house. Last week Gary told me he wanted us to go see them again, so the four of us met at a small country cafe for a wonderful lunch. 

John and Gary have been employed by the government in law enforcement, so they have that in common. And of course, many of my readers know Pam and I met through our blogs in about 2017. 

The Watchmaker's Daughter
another recent purchase from 
Hobby Lobby with a birthday gift card 😊

As time allowed, I have been entranced with this book on the life of Corrie ten Boom. The movie of her story came out in the mid 1970's but I am only now reading the book. It is hard to put down and full of lessons on good character in the worst of times. I'm not done with it yet but I can sum it up this way:

ALL OF MY PROBLEMS ARE QUITE SMALL

Lawrence Jones, far left on
Fox & Friends

Another public figure I've come to appreciate of late is Lawrence Jones. In looking him up regarding his faith, I found this quote that spoke well of him, also illustrating feelings many of us have had:

"You start getting tested... For me, the faith walk became real when life became real, and when you're alone and you don't have that support system being with you every single day.

Part of the Gospel itself is understanding that Christ paid it all because I'm imperfect. Anytime that we try to project ourselves as these perfect beings, I think we take His glory away, because .. if we have it all together, then He wouldn't need to pay it all on the cross for our sins." Faithwire.com

morning flowers on our golf course

This past week has been full with mostly the requirements of keeping up with life. I thank the Lord for His provisions, protection, and personal relationship with His people. I hope you can say the same.

Until next time, grace and peace.

Snapshots of Goodness and Mercy

 The days come and go, all of them full of graces I recognize and many that I don't even notice. Surely many of my readers will agree this is true of them, too. Yes, there are bumps along the way, but when we trust in the Lord, He helps with that.

daughter-in-law's Peregrina
(also known as Spicy Jatropha)

I'm sharing recent snapshots and resulting observations that design a diary of God's hand upon me with those I love.

Michael, me, and Gary

Since Gary has come into my life, I have more "children." I've gained a couple of sons and their wives, more grandchildren, and in the past 18 months I've become a "step great-grandma" -- three times!!

We have not yet been able to visit the great-grands in person, but one of our sons flew in from Minnesota to see us this past weekend.  It had been a year since the last visit; but the real impetus was so he could check on his dad, post surgery. He came to see for himself that Dad was doing well, and indeed, he is!

Michael

We took him to Barberville Yard Art Emporium. It's an interesting destination for out-of-town guests located about an hour's drive east from us. 

Reminiscent of the 1988 movie, Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss, this place sells giant animals, the Statue of Liberty, the Shoney's Big Boy statue, many other animal statues both life-size and smaller, as well as lots of pottery (most with a south-of-the-border theme), benches, fountains, heavy rustic furniture, and more. With that said, we bought nothing but enjoyed the scene and then headed for lunch.

us by the Hwy 40 draw bridge over 
the St Johns River 

Lunch was at Drifters, which is a very casual biker-bar type of place sitting alongside the St. Johns River, just to the side of a draw bridge. 

I've lost count of how many burgers I've had there with visiting family. One of my very favorite things to do in all the world is to eat within view of water. When there is the added attraction of boats and a draw bridge, you'll find me claiming a window seat.

Gary and his son Michael

On another day of his visit, we braved the I-75 and Turnpike traffic into Orlando for a post-op visit for Gary. Michael came away assured that ol' Dad had weathered surgery just fine and is recovering well. 

While the traffic to Orlando was not bad, returning home through Leesburg was a stop 'n go test of patience until we got to our lunch destination at Longhorn Steak House. This was a hearty meal that the re-routing of Gary's digestive system handled very well. That was a true indication of the success of his surgery!

Tony, Gary, Mary, and Bailey

After depositing Michael at the curb at the Tampa airport, we traveled deeper into the metro area to find the home of another son and his wife. Neither of us had been to their house before and what a treat that was!

fountain in back yard corner

As Mary gave us the tour of their back yard, the first topic of conversation was this fountain. Stunning!! And then she flattered me with a question of what I thought she should plant behind the highest point of the rocks, to help obscure the view beyond the fence. While I know much less about such things than she does, I think it was generally agreed that Bamboo would grow fast, fill out, and provide some privacy.

sign at one of the seating areas

Their yard is essentially a long rectangle that parallels the back of the house. The fountain is in one corner and on the opposite end is a covered seating area where, had there been more time, I would have, for sure, "kicked off my shoes."

Their yard is like something out of a "feel good" movie. I loved every detail and the resourceful use of space. I could have spent hours there, had it been practical that day. Mary says she likes to read and pray in the serenity they've created.

us

Beside the pool and spa we took several snapshots. In this one Gary was giving me his mock frownie face when I told him I didn't want his sun glasses in the pictures.

us again

Although he likes to tease me, I always get his cooperation and this was one of those times.

view of the guys from an upstairs window

The photo session was followed with a tour of the house, which I loved, and then the kids took us to a wonderful diner for brunch. Gary had a traditional pancake and eggs plate while I enjoyed the veggie omelette with sausage and rye toast. All too soon we needed to get back on the road for the 2-hour drive back to our town.

Gary on our back patio

Of course the big news the following day was the eclipse. We didn't get excited about it since our area expected to see only 50 to 60% of the event through some high, thin clouds. I turned on the TV to watch it.

me on the back patio

But then Gary remembered that he had some of the required eclipse glasses tucked away in his office from years ago. He surprised me with them and that's what took us outside to watch. While it was not the stunning event those in the Midwest witnessed (Sister was in Indianapolis!!), it was a marvel to observe even a partial eclipse.

As I close out this post, thoughts about a "blended family" are once again speaking to me. I never thought life would take a turn for me like this, putting me in a place where I get to enjoy not only my own birth children, but also those brought to me in a second marriage. I am blessed with good people in my life. 

Until next time, grace and peace.