Happy Halloween 2023

Throwback to a few years ago.

I think Lucy made the best Hermione from Harry Potter.

I'm off to the Cleland's house to walk the streets with Walter and the rest of the gang.

Hoping for some good candy and maybe some pictures.

🧡

I found another oldie with all five kids...

Can't leave Jake and Eli out!

 

Chamaco's Tacos~ Tybee Island

The absolute best time to go to the beach in Savannah is October.

All of the crowds and the hot, humid weather depart.

Indian summer settles in.

You can breathe again,

walk for miles,

still put your feet in the waves.

Last Friday afternoon some of us packed into my van and headed east.

Harry had to work.

Here is what we found...

A ship from Germany headed up the Savannah River to the port.

Some wildflowers that had almost taken over the walkway to the beach.

Gus in neon green!

What a joy this one is!

This very fat condo kitty resting by the dunes.

A very low tide.

This guy was waiting for a fisherman to toss him a fish.

My beach condo was full of guests.

A bed of marsh grass trying to grow at the water's edge.

A great big mass of light and energy called the sun.

The picture of us is taken in front of Chamaco's Tacos on Butler Ave.

Best grilled shrimp tacos I've ever eaten.

🌮🌮🌮🌮🌮🌮

 

3 ~ 8 ~ 2/29/2020

Bubba,

Planning ahead for Thanksgiving and Christmas,

Looking forward with much anticipation to the upcoming cruise,  

 Remembering you won't be present at any of those events.

I'll never get used to the loss of you in my life.

Wishing you could be right here with me doing what you always did best...

Holding everything together.

I will always love you,

Cathy

💖

 

my first passport

Yesterday Lucy and I went up to the courthouse to apply to get myself a passport.

I have lived 75-plus years without needing one

Last March I booked all twelve of us on a seven-day Norwegian cruise.

On October 6th, a few weeks ago, I paid for it in full.

It is real now.

That is our ship in the picture above.

Jake and Lucy are graduating high school seniors...

Class of 2O24.

This family gathering will be in their honor.

My travel agent strongly suggested that I get a passport.

I am giddy with excitement.

Cathy has a passport.

Who would have thought?

It won't arrive for five to eight weeks.

A nice Christmas gift!

Who knows, this may open up a new world of travel for me.

My cabin is at the back of the ship.

I've always wanted to be there.

The views will be amazing from the balcony.

*If you look closely you can see where my cabin is located.

 

fake fire in a fake fireplace

The gas-burning logs that they put in my new house never worked.

They only burned with blue flame.

The heat was not adjustable.

They burned too hot.

I was never able to use them.

I fought for new ones for a while.

That never happened.

Today I got a new set.

They are everything the others were not.

I am so excited to have a winter with a fire in the fireplace even if they are fake.

I always loved our real fires and our real fireplaces...

so cozy and warm. 

The smell, 

the crackling.

I miss that so much.

But, I'm glad there is an alternative...

A semblance of the real thing.

And,

 I have a remote control

 that is easy to use

 and the nicest service guy

 that will come help me when I can't figure something out.

So much to be thankful for!

Here's to all the real fires everywhere.

I sometimes smell them outside in the evening.

Meanwhile,

this is going on outside my bedroom window right now.

I hope whoever buys this one fares better with their gas logs than I did.

🔥

ps...I hope that guy doesn't fall off the roof!

 

fall inside

I'm at it again...

decorating my home for Fall.

This is my second Fall season on Hope Lane.

This is the front entrance to my house.

People always comment 

on how when you open the front door you can see all the way to the backyard.

My sunroom...

my favorite room in the house.

You can find me right here early every morning soaking up God's word.

It's pitch dark outside but filled with the light of truth.

A few shots of the house across the street that is being built.

This is the last one.

Herb River Bluff is complete.

There is lots of activity outside my window,

 but I enjoy watching the progress.

Last week they came to lay the cement for the foundation.

I think the driver of the cement truck looks so cute doing his job. 😊

Then they delivered the lumber,

Today they started framing.

Amazing!

Hope you are enjoying the cooler weather 

and soaking up that gloriously slanted angle of the sun.

Everything is golden.

The grace gifts of God abound.

Thank You for everything You provide for us.

 

fall lights in the house

Yesterday was family pizza night here at Gram's house.

Everybody could come.

No one was working or partying somewhere else.

Along with the pizza David picked up a huge salad and breadsticks from Bella's...

one of our favorite meals.

In order to make everything festive,

I lit every orange candle holder I could find with small white votives.

They made quite a glow.

When everyone left to go home, these were still burning brightly.

I brought them over to the fireplace, 

bunched them together,

 and finished cleaning the kitchen.

They were still burning went I went to relax in my chair.

I'm just sharing this picture because I thought they were beautiful.

I'm always searching for lovely things to look at and think about.

Thinking about lovely things is in the apostle Paul's list you know.

Today I went to a fashion show with three friends.

It was outdoors.

The sky was so blue,

tiny little golden leaves were floating down on us,

and a sweater was needed to ward off the chill.

So much to be thankful for!

Look for beauty!

It is everywhere!

🧡

 

training your anxious thoughts (it's very hard)

Whenever you catch your mind wandering back into the forbidden territory, 

(you can be sure that it will)

immediately change the direction of your thought.

This will happen more frequently at first until you retrain and discipline it.

Do not allow yourself one conscious moment of an anxious thought.

 Instead, ask God to help you refocus upon those things that fit into Paul's list recorded in 

Phillippians 4:8-9. 

The attitude must grow within you which says: 

"So, if I have a fear experience, so what? 

It's unpleasant, it's disturbing, but I'll live through it...at least I always have before."

When you honestly can think this way without becoming anxious, 

you will know that the change has been made.

Jay Adams

Paul's list...

"Finally brethren, 

whatever is true,

whatever is honorable,

whatever is right,

whatever is pure,

Whatever is lovely,

whatever is of good repute,

if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise,

let your mind dwell on these things."

Thank you, God, 

that your Word contains all that we need for life and godliness.

 

the rice story

Along with the broccoli chicken casserole that my grandkids love,

I always make a big pot of rice.

Eight cups of water ~ four cups of rice.

Green onions sauteed in butter.

Cook for 20 minutes.

It's easy and good, and rice is a filler.

I have never used this brand before.

I've always used Mahatma from my earliest days of marriage.

The commissary was out of Mahatma so I chose Blue Ribbon instead.

It advertised #1 Quality. 

You can't go wrong with that, right?

I cut the new bag open and measured out four cups.

In the minute that I turned around to get the clip,

the counter around the measured-up rice was crawling with bugs.

At first I was shocked.

What are those?

Where did they come from?

Could they have been in the new bag of rice?

What should I do?

David, Erika, and the kids were due in 30 minutes for Gus' birthday party.

The onions were sauteed.

Surely they all came out and there are no more bugs in the rice!

I panicked and guess what?

I poured the rice into the pot and cooked it for 20 minutes.

It looked delicious.

When they arrived,

I told them what had happened.

Erika took one look at the cooked rice and spotted many little black bugs fully cooked.

Unedible!

Of course!

What was I thinking?

My dinner was ruined!

Solution?

David went to the Chinese take-out restaurant around the corner

 and bought 10 dollars worth of plain white race. 

He saved the day and my delicious meal.

I'm questioning my decision to cook with tainted rice.

Momentary insanity?

Are my cooking days over?

Very hard questions.

We ended up having a lot of laughs about the whole process.

And, I'm never buying Blue Ribbon rice again.

😊

 

happy birthday Gus #13

Gus as a baby at the pumpkin patch.

Gus on Saturday night at Gram's house celebrating his 13th birthday.

Gus is now officially a teenager.

He loves soccer and playing flag football with his school friends.

He is smart.

He loves to read.

He loves his people.

He is helpful and kind,

an all-around guy who everybody loves.

He proudly wears the uniform of Veritas Academy.

He used the "You are Special" plate at his dinner party.

He got my famous chicken broccoli casserole made especially for him.

I made a huge pot of gourmet rice.

There is a story about that rice.

I will tell it later.

Crazy!

For dessert, he requested a delicious pumpkin roll from Fresh Market.

Weather permitting, we like to play lawn darts in the backyard.

These darts are not sharp.

There are four of them.

You throw each one separately toward the two yellow circles,

aiming to get it inside the one that is furthest away.

This was the very first time any one of us had ever gotten three in one circle.

Gus did it Saturday evening.

We hooped and hollered with excitement.

Gus won the first prize!

He is the champion!

Hooray!

Happy Birthday Gus!

You make me happy!

13

 

Peace be upon Israel

"The Lord 

expresses His determination 

to make Jerusalem a lighthouse for the world."

The Macarthur Study Bible

Notes on Isaiah 62:1

"Peace be upon Israel."

Psalm 125:5b

Very interesting times for those who are lovers of God's word.

His word and His promises never fail.

* correction in picture verse above...

"until her righteousness goes forth."

 

ready, set, go

Last Friday evening,

under the low-hanging moss on the Country Day School campus,

I got to watch Harry's team and the rest of the high school cross-country teams run their race. 

All were pumped and excited to begin.

Which one of these highly competitive young men would win?

No one knew.

Seventeen minutes and fifty seconds later,

we found out.

Lucy got this picture of Harry crossing the finish line.

It took him about 5 minutes to recover.

We were astonished.

Victory is sweet!

We decided to go to Bow Ties on Waters to celebrate.

I told him he could get whatever he wanted.

He chose a huge Bar B Que sandwich with a skillet of cornbread on the side.

You can tell by the look on his face that he loved it.

Yesterday as we were leaving church I asked him,

"Harry, how did you win the race at your best time ever?"

His response made my heart happy.

"Gram, I did a lot of praying."

💙

 

fall sun...

...there's just something different about it.

It is brighter, more intense.

but not nearly as hot.

It comes from a different direction.

🌞

Seasons bring changes...

Welcome changes.

It's like we couldn't take one more hot humid summer day.

It's God's way of saying...

Take a breath of fresh air and a nice cool breeze.

Sit on the porch and watch the trees sway back and forth.

Count your blessings.

God is good all the time.

Soon we'll need sweaters and coats.

We'll have to put away our sandals and much-loved linen clothes.

but right now the weather is almost perfect.

A reason to go dine on the river and eat fresh fried shrimp.

Don't miss The Wyld.

That's where my picture was taken.

I love how they combined pumpkins and fall flowers.

Thank you for loving me so much God.

Thank you for taking such good care of me.

Thank you for watching over me when I sleep.

I am never afraid of harm.

Thank you for the season of Fall!

 

a few more baby shower pics

Carly Sue, Jenna, Lincoln, Millie holding baby William, and Lucy.

Anna, Becca, and Sonya

Prayer time.

Teenagers with Gram

This was the day before the shower.

Lu and Walter were engaged in folding the baby blue napkins.

tying them with pretty pink tulle bows,

and placing them in a wicker basket.

Walter really wanted to come to the shower.

We had to tell him no it was just for girls.

Actually,

he would have really loved it.

💗💙

 

faces and decorations

Antique folding chairs and Little Golden Books.

Lots of candles ~ Lace and tulle.

Erika and Rosie.

The finished balloon arch that fell apart just before the guests arrived.

Late afternoon sun flooding the sunroom.

The guests of honor Heather and Casey.

One of the seating areas we created.

These girls were the honored ones at our last Hope baby shower back in the spring.

Sonya with Millie.

Sarah with Lilly.

Brooke with William.

All of the babies are around 6 months old now.

New babies are such a blessing from God.

"For Thou, God, formed my inward parts;

You weaved me in my mother's womb.

I will give thanks to You,

For I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

And my soul knows it very well."

Psalm 139 13 & 14

 

baby shower prep work ~ balloon arch

First, we had to blow up a plethora of balloons.

Then we had to tie the knot to keep the air inside.

Then we had to design the arch,

attach it to the wall,

stick the balloons to each other with tiny little glueballs,

and stand back and admire our handiwork.

When I went to bed that night it looked like it does in the picture above.

When I got up the next morning, the day of the shower,

about four balloons had fallen off and onto the floor.

They fell randomly all during the day until about half of the balloons were on the floor.

Those glue balls didn't work.

Lucy came in the late afternoon before the guests arrived and put it back together.

In life, nothing ever goes smoothly,

but somehow things usually turn out in the end.

A special thank you to my Lu for spearheading this project for me.

Literally, I couldn't have done it without you.

You saved the day!

🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈