a day at the beach with lucy

Yesterday was a gorgeous 80 degree day.

A perfect beach day for sure.

Lu and I grabbed some sub sandwiches on the way

and ate then sitting on the beach.

The sea birds came quickly and ate what we didn't.

The biggest surprise was that we got sand 

to replace the dunes that we lost to Matthew & Irma.

It is not nearly enough,

but we are thankful for what we got.

This big ship passed by while we were there.

As breathtaking as they are,

they come so close to the shore that the waves they create

cause as much beach erosion as the storms and the high tide.

That's Lucy down at the beautiful bend of the beach.

She has a bucket and a net and is looking for minnows.

She loves to beach bum with her gram.

A shrimp boat heading home with a catch.

Didn't see any dolphins this time.

Sandra Bulloch's beach house.

She seemed to have lost all of the foliage around her home

as well as the dunes.

Makes for getting a good look at it though.

No trip to the beach would be complete 

without a stop at the Sugar Shack for ice cream. 

Lucy got Key Lime Pie and I got Lemon Custard.

We sat on the porch and people-watched for a while.

@I love the beach

@I love my granddaughter

@I love ice cream.

Thank you Lord God for these blessings.

stump gone

Before...

grandchildren enjoyed standing here surveying the domain.

After....

flattened,

sun-dappled.

Smells so good!

The long shot over our just mowed, still very green grass.

The tree that Hurricane Irma blew over is gone too.

Now for fresh pine straw.

Bubba is already talking about where he will hide the golden egg this Easter.

Fall produce...

bell peppers almost ready to pick and eat.

Longest summer ever!!

Endless summer!

Table setting for dinner party tonight.

So thankful for all of God's blessings!

Watching for Jesus to come.

It could be tonight.

Are you ready?

roses & fire

Some Cathy musings on this beautiful Fall afternoon.

Bubba, the one who is always hot,

who always needs cold air blowing on him,

has just come out with his long, flannel pajama pants on.

I was shocked and made fun.

He mumbled a lame excuse...

"They will probably feel good in the morning."

In the morning the stump grinder is coming to our house.

You know the stump of the huge tree where we hid the golden egg at Easter?

It will be ground down and the chips will be spread on the lower 40.

The "lower forty" is the small forest behind our house.

Still no firepit.

Monday morning the pressure washers will come.

That should be a real show!!

Clean house ~ ready to be painted.

We'll see.

Thought that would happen last year after the pressure washing took place.

It didn't.

I bought some orange sweetheart roses and placed them around the house.

I love roses!

Me and the kids found most of those seashells.

Think I'll go to the beach on Saturday.

I love the beach in the fall.

Best thing I've read this week ~ 

"Jesus tears down what is false in us....

in our hearts....

and builds something pure and clean again."

Jerusalem's Hope ~ Thoene

I've been going through this process for a while now.

So thankful He doesn't leave us to ourselves.

finally fall

We had a big blow yesterday afternoon.

The winds just about equaled those of Hurricane Irma.

The rain was hard and steady.

The humidity was heavier than a winter coat.

The temps were in the eighties but felt like one hundred.

This morning all of that was gone,

replaced by cool, fall-like temps and no humidity.

Lo and behold, fall snuck in overnight on little cat paws,

catching us unawares.

I couldn't be more thrilled.

(except for the short days-long nights thing)

Here is the good news though...

"This is the message that we have heard from Him and declare to you.....

That God is light and in Him is no darkness at all."

I John 1:5

As I live my life....

been going for more than 69 years now,

I have to constantly abide in the "light" of God's Word.

In the world darkness is everywhere,

But, God is light!!

And this.....

Bubba was at Verizon taking care of something to do with his phone.

He needed to give the clerk some "security questions."

She asked,

"Who is your best friend?"

He said,

"My wife."

Forty seven years of being married to your best friend.

That is living in the light!

❤❤

a little thanksgiving

She texts me a little text in the afternoon to see how I'm doing!

She makes my favorite cookies.🍪

I love to shop with her for Ebay items.

I especially like it when I pick a winner!

She is not afraid to tell me when I pick a loser...

(something that would never sell)

She loves my decorating skills.

She listens well.👂

She tells me the truth.

She makes me laugh out loud.

She has to be on time....🕗

(her dad)

She senses when I go down.

She can usually bring me back up.☺

She is the fitness Queen.....

I'm not.

She is always encouraging me in this area though.

Always early to bed and up at the crack of dawn, like me.

She would rather do the driving.

Pedicures,

Hurricane parties,

Sweet tea without lemon,

Organization...

she says I'm the most organized person on the planet.

Thoughtful.

Kind.

Amanda

❤

a field of flowers in israel

I've never been to the holy land, but I read about it all of the time.

What an amazing place!

How I would love to go!

I have read most of the Bodie and Brock Thoene books.

From the struggles of the Jews in World War II of which I am obsessed,

right through until Israel became a state in 1948, three months after I was born.

I have walked the streets and fields,

hills and valleys with the fictional characters of these books.

I "feel" like I have been there in my soul.

In the Zion Legacy Series,

(there are six of them,)

three of the books are devoted 

to telling the story of the last few weeks of Jesus' life

 through the eyes of famous biblical characters.

 One of my favorites is Mary Magdalene.

Mary was a harlot who was saved and changed by our Lord Jesus Christ.

So interesting thinking about the perspective of the gospels 

as told through the characters whose lives were changed forever by the One.

Here is an example of what I mean.

Marcus is a Roman centurion,  Miryam is Mary Magdalene.....

"From the beach, the retreating sails of the three fisherman's boats

 stood out against the line of gray storm clouds gathering on the far shore.

The wind was up. A slight stirring only, but portent of greater force to come.

 Marcus could see the froth on the waves tipped by the approaching gale.

Jesus was in one of those boats, Marcus knew.

Miryam, perched on the belly of an upturned skiff, observed,

'A storm's brewing.'

'Where's He going?' Marcus asked.

She did not answer him.

Perhaps she did not know.

'Sometimes He just leaves.'

'Where?'

Marcus hoped to follow Him.

"I think it's maybe all the people.

Everyone needing so much.

It's unending....all the needs.

He goes away to the mountains....

to be alone beneath His stars.

He harvests the quiet.

Gathers peace unto Himself and remembers how it was.

Knows how it will be again.

He rests from us awhile.

Weeps quietly by Himself, I think, so He can stand among us without weeping.

Then He can gaze into the faces longing for His answers

and not break into a million pieces and tear the universe apart with the grief of it.

He loves us all.....every one of us.

And Oh! Love is such a heavy burden to carry sometimes."

Stones of Jerusalem

Thoene

I wrote these few words from this book here because I love them.

These words are so beautiful to me.

I don't want to forget.

Jesus was a man.

He walked on this earth.

He felt deeply.

He gave His life for us.

My righteousness is in Him.

Cathy

florida loves

We just got back from spending almost a week with

Amanda, Jake, and Eli.

Even though the trip was a whirlwind of fun and exhausting,

I came back home refreshed and happy.

So nice to go do something different and be with those you love.

Mark spent the week in India.

When we arrived,

Amanda had made her famous and delicious cookies for me.

They are definitely a labor of love and we enjoyed them all week.

She made her Dad a peach cobbler which is his favorite.

We went to the "Bins" which is always a hoot....

to Ikea for a day of shopping for things for her house,

Nordstrom Rack, which requires some serious  and extensive searching.

and various and sundry places in between.

We also got to go to most of our favorite restaurants.

Being with my daughter is so much fun!!

She restores me!!

I always have to include a picture of Norman, their kitty cat.

In this picture he had jumped up on the sofa and was sitting straight up on his hind legs.

Norman is always good for a few laughs.

One night Eli was doing silhouettes of Norman on the bedroom wall.

I got a few shots of his handwork.

Our grandsons are so much fun to be around.

Thank you God tonight for our safe trip

and for the fun times with these precious ones I love so much!

happy birthday gus!!

Today we celebrated Gus' seventh birthday.

What a handsome, smart, funny little guy he is.

He is in first grade.

Gus is everybody's friend.

The candles kind of add to it, but I think that he just glows.

Gus decided on a Ninjago birthday party.

He and I met in a secret council

and decided just the way he wanted it to be.

He chose this special shirt to wear on his big day.

Gifts abounded....

Legos and a box to keep them in,

brand new clothes,

a book,

a Ninjago flashlight.

So much fun opening them all.

Thank you God for these children.

So much fun to watch them grow, and learn, and become who You chose them to be.

Gathered from all over the world to be a family.

What amazing joy they bring.

winding creeks.....

....and a favorite place.

This is Tybee Island as seen from above.

Lots of winding creeks and the great big Atlantic Ocean.

Mostly marsh and water and some well placed human dwellings.

That open space to the left is

The Crab Shack...

a favorite for Lucy and I.

So thankful to own a tiny piece of this paradise!

Not yet....

Cool, Fall weather.

Still very hot and extremely muggy.

My thought is....

all of the hurricanes have stirred up the atmosphere.

Can't wait to have to throw a little sweater around my shoulders to keep warm.

I am decorating my house for Fall

even though it is still summer.

Lots of the color orange,

pumpkins, 

Halloween scenes,

pine cones,

mums,

etc.

Photo: Riverrat_productions via instagram

from my post last night.....

I couldn't resist sharing this.

@TobyMac

Eli Hollingsworth!!

By the way,

did you see the moon last night?

God hung it there you know!

my favorite lighthouse

Tybee Lighthouse....

(photo by tim tully11 via instagram)

Like I said in an earlier post,

I am always on the lookout for beauty.

Nothing is more beautiful than the heavens above us.

All we need to do is look up to be reminded...

There is Someone much bigger than we are, 

Someone who created the universe, 

the great light of the sun 

and the lesser light of the moon, and the millions of stars....

 each of which He knows by name.

I praise Him today for the order of things.

Even though the "world system" is in constant chaos.

His order never changes.

The sun comes up and goes down every day.

We have day and night without fail.

The seasons change.

Springtime brings new life to the grass and the trees,

In Fall the leaves die and the grass turns brown.

We live and we die.

"There is nothing new under the sun."

We serve the One who never changes.

God is eternal. 

His ways are perfect.

We can trust Him.

why?

What happened Sunday night in Las Vegas took my breath away.

I so much wanted it not to be true.

How does one understand such horror.

For a believer,

for a mind "set on things above,"

honestly, such terror is almost incomprehensible.

But yet,

as a student of God's word,

I know, beyond a shadow of doubt,

that evil exists in this world.

From the book of Genesis all the way through the book of Revelation

we are told of the existence of one called Satan

who is the adversary of every soul that spends time on this earth.

He is the evil one, 

the very essence of all wickedness and deceit.

For believers,

our hope is in Christ Jesus.

Jesus came to die,

 to defeat Satan, 

to put us back into a right relationship with God.

We pray daily for strength and power to not be led into the temptations of such a one as he.

God has given us everything we need to overcome our great foe.

Jesus won the battle for our souls.

That is why we worship Him.

The shooter....

No one knows of his final moments.

Did he "come to his senses" as did the prodigal son in Luke 17.

Did he recognize his sin and its terrible consequences?

Did he ask the Lord for forgiveness?

Did he accept Jesus' gracious provision?

We don't know.

The WHY is Satan.

The answer is Jesus!

October

This morning, when I stepped outside on the porch,

there was a noticeable difference.

There was a cool breeze,

a break in the hot, humid air that has prevailed for so long.

I could breathe!!!

I said out loud,

"Thank you Lord, Thank You!!"

The end of summer always makes me sad.

It's the light, you know.

I miss the light, the long hours of daylight.

But I never miss the humidity.

So we start a new season!!

It is good.

Fresh starts!

I love the touches of orange....

the smell of smoke wafting along in the air.

Speaking of smoke,

I am finally getting my fire pit.

Hope to have it in by Gus's birthday.

The man who came to install our new gas tank last week,

saw this pile of granite and,

come to find out,

he does that kind of work,

so, there you go.

One of Bubba's friends gave all of these to us.

The pit will have to be square,

but that is alright.

I just can't wait to sit around this fire in the evenings

and laugh and roast things with my peeps.

Such a blessing!!!