Everyday Images #54 - Friday Photographs

I'm linking up with A Fresh Cup of Coffee for her photo challenge.  The prompts for this week are:  blanket, moon, square, logo, at home, on my plate.

Blanket I made awhile back.  I think I'll be gifting it in April to my expected great-niece. 
 Looks like I still have an end to tie up. 

Moon

Square My little cube space heater
in the office at work

Logo  A favorite for Tex-Mex

At Home

On my plate. This is from last May and it was delicious!

 Thanks for visiting today.  Hope you are having a great day!

Cathy

Tuesday 4 - Dream.. Dream.. Dream

 

Dream.. Dream.. Dream

 Words in black are Annie's and words in blue are mine. Link up is here.

Welcome to Toni's Tuesday 4 friends!  

It's up early due to a busy weekend.

Dream, when you're feeling blue
Dream, that's the thing to do
Just watch the smoke rings rise in the air
You'll find your share of memories there

So dream, when the day is through
Dream, and they might come true
Things never are as bad as they seem
So dream, dream, dream
                           ........by Johnny Mercer

1. As evenings are long, temperatures drop and we have more time to dream and ponder, are you pondering or dreaming of anything right now? No, not really.  Just enjoying life as it is.  Not perfect, but good.

2.  Day dreaming , singing, humming even, can lift your mood and change the entire state of your health.   Do you daydream or sing during the day ? Now that you know it can improve health will you try it? I don't daydream much, but sometimes I sing.  

3. Fess  up friends!   When you window gaze is it because you are nosy or because it's just so lovely outside?  We will still love you no matter what the answer. Both!

4.Daydreams can become reality if they stir us to action.    Were there any times in your life when dreams came true?  Marrying my husband and raising our girls was my best dream come true!

Cathy

Bits of This and That

 

Good Morning:

We had a nice weekend.  Mostly quiet, but good.  I'll start with Saturday morning.  We took Lucy to the groomer's at Pet Smart.  We left there and went to church so hubby could pre-record his Sunday morning sermon, which I'll share near the end of this post.  We received a call from Lucy's groomer that she was ready to be picked up.  We picked her up and headed home.  Our groomer, Kelly B does an awesome job.  It had been 2 months since her last grooming.

Before

After

We spent the rest of the day at home.  I did some laundry, watched some TV, read some, read some blogs and just had a good day.

Sunday we went to church and had a good service and then picked up some lunch and had a nice nap, and I finished the book I was reading and then we headed back for the evening service.  

After evening service we came home and watched a couple of shows that we are binging.  I made myself sort of a charcuterie plate for dinner. Sliced banana, apple slices with some peanut butter, and crackers with some vegetable cream cheese.  Delicious and so easy!

That was our weekend.  So many might think it was boring, but it was just the way we like it.  How was your weekend? I'm also linking up with Holly and Sarah at Hello Monday.

Cathy

Share 4 Somethings - January 2025

 

This is my January post of Share 4 Somethings hosted by Jennifer at My Joyful Life.  The prompts are:  some things I loved, some things I learned, some things that went well, and some things I let go of.  Link-up is here. 

Some Things I Loved:  One of my favorites is the extra time I've spent at home this month because of the weather.  

And we still have a lot of this snow on the ground.

I've enjoyed the 4 books I've read this month too.  You can see the ones I read in the sidebar. 

I also loved this blanket that I bought on Amazon.  We now have 5 of them and really love them.  

Lucy loves them too and so does hubby (He bought one for himself too.)

Some Things I Learned:  I made a hat on my knitting machine and I haven't done that for a couple of years.  I had to relearn completely how to work the thing.  Spent some time on YouTube watching videos and was finally able to do it. 

Some Things That Went Well:  We finally got our crochet group back together and we totally had a great time crocheting and talking together.  I missed that time the weeks we didn't meet up because of the holidays and then the weather.  Even more than the crochet I love the rich conversations we have and all that I learn from these girls.  

Doing a Bible study with my daughter again.  "Discerning the Voice of God" by Priscilla Shirer.  Totally enjoying it and loving discussing together what we're learning.

Some Things I Let Go Of:  I donated several bags and boxes of clothes and other things from my efforts to do some decluttering.  Have some more things I'm packing up.  I'm beginning to believe that decluttering is a constant activity and not a one and done thing.

Thanks for visiting and the link is in the first paragraph if you'd like to join in with Jennifer.  It's always on the last Saturday of the month and the prompts she gave for this month are the same she plans to use the whole year.  Thanks Jennifer for hosting Share 4 Somethings.

Cathy

Wednesday Hodgepodge

 

1. What's a winter memory you treasure (can be from any winter in your lifetime)? Going to the horse carriage parade in our town with hubby and the girls and my sister and her husband and their grandkids.  So much fun.  

2. Tell us about the last time or a recent time you were caught up in red tape.  When I was trying to get signed up for Medicare and all the retirement stuff. Does it send your frustration level off the charts or is it something you've come to expect when dealing with any sort of bureaucracy?  Mostly it just made me really nervous because I was afraid I'd make the wrong choices.

3. Do you eat/like fish?  I love white fish, like cod.  Do you cook fish at home? No, unless you count frozen fish sticks or canned tuna fish. What's your favorite fish dish?  Broiled Cod.  Ever been ice fishing? Nope.

4. Did you watch any of the US President's Inauguration coverage on Monday, Jan 20? Yes  On a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being not at all and 10 being very very) how interested are you in politics in general? Probably about 4-5 Do you follow/keep up with/ get involved with local politics? I do not get involved other than to vote.

5. What's the coziest thing you own and what makes it so? I don't know but probably the blankets we use when watching TV in the evenings.  What makes it so...just that I love to wrap up in a blanket.

6. Insert your own random thought here. Enjoying the Bible Study that Kelli and I are doing together on FACETIME.  "Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a good day.

Cathy

Tuesday 4 - Weathering the Storm

 

Weathering the Storm...

This color words are from Annie.  This color words are from me.  Click here for link-up with Annie.

Weathering the Storm

 Hello .. This is Toni's Tuesday  4 where we strive to get you thinking and blogging and connecting with others.

 The saying used to be on my blog as a description: "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain."

This was important to me when my spine went south on me.  I was born disabled  and became a dancer.  Now I am disabled again. Que sera, sera, whatever will be will be.   But we keep on going. and turn the lemons to lemonade...or we should I think.

Let's talk about it because we have all been there, done that.

1. What/who is your rock through the storms of life? God, My heavenly Father, Jesus My Savior.  My husband would be my earthly rock.

What beliefs do you have to stand on?  The Bible.  I believe it is the true Word of God.

2.  Do you take precautions for bad storms? Yes, when needed.  What precautions do you take?  If it's a tornado, we wait for the actual warning and then head into our laundry room (we live on a slab, so we have no basement to go to) and bring in chairs and our phones and iPad to be able to keep up on what's going on.  We also bring Lucy in with us.  We try to make sure we have flashlights available.  For snow storms, we stay inside and pray we don't loose power.  We have lots of blankets and we almost always have plenty of non-perishable items in our home.

In fact, here's us during a tornado warning sitting in the
laundry room  Do you see the water heater and water
softener behind us.  It's kind of a small area, but it works.

3. The Sheep are caroling in the snow... do you sing during the tough times?   Yes, sometimes.  Hubby and I have been known to start singing thankful praise songs when we are in a stressful time.  What things, what activities pull you through?  Reading Psalms, praying together, reading, watching TV together or pretty much doing anything together.

4. Whatever we do, we should be there for others in the difficult times.

What advice can you give to those who are going through a difficult time now?  If they want advice, I'm willing to try to help.  But the only thing I can really tell them is to seek God and spend time with Him.  I'm not sure how people who don't know Jesus make it through the many trials we all have in life.

I did not write a post yesterday about our weekend, because we mostly were just home.  I did laundry and picked up Olive Garden for lunch and we both had enough leftovers for our supper too.  Sunday was church and hubby preached the 3rd message from his series on the book of James.  Below is a copy of his pre-recorded message. And then on Monday we spent a lot of the first half of the day watching the Presidential Inauguration.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you are having a wonderfully blessed day.

Cathy

Everyday Images #53

I'm linking up with A Fresh Cup of Coffee for her photo challenge.  The prompts for this week are:  calendar, doorway, letters, chill, hidden, plans.

My 2025 Calendar in my office at church.

One of my favorite doors leading into the childrens' room of our local Library

Letters in the sand

There certainly was a chill in the air the morning of this photo.

Some of the Hardy Boy Books are hidden behind this plant.

My new journal for recording plans, etc.

Link up is here.

 Thanks for visiting.

Cathy

Thankful Thursday

 

This week I am thankful for:

Piano - In yesterday’s post I mentioned wanting to spend more time practicing the piano.  Well, this morning my husband decided to go into church to pre-record Sunday’s sermon.  While he was doing that I made the copies for the sermon notes and the bulletin.  When he finished recording, I finished decorating the bulletin board in the lobby. After that we still had a half hour or so before we had to leave to pick up our Kroger order. I remembered what I said yesterday so I went to the piano and got to play for 20-30 minutes. So fun!  I just need to find more times like that. 

Lunch - take out from New Moon and we both had Szechuan chicken and it was delicious 

Crochet Group - so good to get with these ladies again. We hadn’t been together since before Christmas. Lots of crochet and lots of great conversation. 

Nap - accomplished several things this morning and as soon as I finish this I’m going to take a short nap.

That’s all for now. Thanks for visiting. I would love to hear about something you are thankful for  

Cathy

Wednesday Hodgepodge

 

1. It's been said January is 'the month of opportunity, inspiration, and change." Which of the three do you need most right now? Inspiration  Elaborate. I feel like I want to spend more time practicing the piano.  I know I did that in December and I really felt like I was playing better.  Then with all the snow and being closed in at home, I have gone back to the only time I play is for our church services.  It seems I just stay so busy that I never sit down and do it.  I need to be inspired to drop some of the other stuff and give myself at least a few hours each week in order to keep my fingers more flexible.

2. Do you consider opportunity as something that comes to you or something you create for yourself? I think it can be both, but whether you create it or it comes another way, you still have to grab ahold of it and use it.  It does no good to get an opportunity, if you don't use it.

3. The British Museum opened on this date (January 15th) back in 1759. Do you like visiting museums? Yes, I do.  Do you have a favorite? In my area, I would say the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum in Dayton.

4. It's National Oatmeal Month (yes, apparently it gets a whole month as opposed to a single day). Do you like oatmeal? Yes, I do. How often do you eat a bowl of oatmeal? Once or twice a month maybe and then I won't have it for a long time and then I'll eat it multiple times in a week.  How do you like yours? With milk and raisins and cranberries, and other things. What about an oatmeal cookie?  Is that a sweet treat you enjoy? Yes, I do like them but rarely eat them. 

5.What's something useful you learned in high school? Typing and I've used it all my life.

6. Insert your own random thought here.  Just some fun stuff.

Thanks for coming by today and I hope you have a great day!

Cathy

Tuesday 4 - Winter Musings

 

Winter Musings

Words in black are Annie's and Words in blue are mine.  
 Hello and welcome once again to Toni's Tuesday 4. 

It's cold in these United States.  Everyone seems to be chilly and some have blizzard conditions to contend with.

But I think winter is a time for us, as well as animals, to hibernate and takes things slow and easy.  I think many find themselves a bit more sleepy than usual and maybe we are supposed to take the time to rest... Let's talk it over okay?

1. Do you find yourself a bit more lazy or tired as the nights get longer or does it not seem to do much to you? In general how are you doing this winter?  I don't feel like the longer nights cause me much problems. I feel like I'm doing fine, although, I think I've had enough of the snow.

2. Do you appreciate the extra hours of dark that allow for more sleep, more leisure, less travel and hurry or not?  I'm fine with things as they are.  Dark or light, we still don't go to bed much before midnight.

3. I know I love a hot drink on a chilly evening and the quiet of the streets outside as people stay inside more on cold nights.  I feel more relaxed in the winter.  How about you?  I love a hot drink in the morning or the nights.  And as far as being relaxed...I think I do okay most nights relaxing.

4. Do you ever gaze out of your window like Miss Kitty in the picture just watching the world go by? How do you find yourself relaxing on a chilly evening? I've been watching out the window quite a bit lately...watching the birds at the feeder and watching the snow getting deeper and deeper.  We relax watching TV and reading some and working on my blog, like right now.

Thanks for visiting.

Cathy

Bits of This and That - Snow!

 Good Morning:

We had a pretty quiet weekend.  We've mostly been staying home since last Sunday and Monday when we were inundated with almost 10 inches of snow.  We went out on Thursday to pick up our vehicle from the mechanic and to leave the other one for him to make a repair on,  It seems to me like our vehicles have been in the garage more than out recently.  Hope that trend is getting ready to change.  If not, we may be shopping for a new one.  We picked up lunch from McDonalds for us and for our dog.  She loved it!

On Friday we headed into church so hubby could pre-record the Sunday service to put on YouTube.  While the lot was cleared, it was still icy around the doors and we didn't want to take any chance of falling, so he'll record it on Monday and then post it to FB for anyone who's interested.  I'll try to remember to come back here and link it up,

  

Sunday's Sermon

We got about 3-4 more inches of snow on Friday evening. On Saturday morning I went out to shovel the drive and the neighbor next door came out and helped.  He did at least half of the drive for me and in no time it was done and the sun melted most of the rest of it.  Later that afternoon, I drove to Cracker Barrel and picked up some lunch for us.  I started a book Friday night in the middle of the night and read off and on throughout the day.  Saturday night we watched some TV and just relaxed.

Sunday we went to church and had a good service.  Hubby preached a good sermon from the book of James entitled How to Receive God's Wisdom. He encouraged us in 2025 to pray every day asking "Give me more of Jesus".  I think that's a great idea.  And since I had decided not to do a Word of the year, I've now decided to do a prayer of the year, asking everyday that God would give me more of Jesus.  I believe God will honor that prayer. 

After church, we picked up some lunch and came home, ate lunch and took a short nap and then I finished the book I was reading.  I wrote a post for Sunday and then wrote part of this post.  On the way to church Sunday evening there was another beautiful sunset.

Snow - I think I've seen enough for this winter!  How about you?  I mean I've enjoyed spending time at home instead of out running around.  But I could do that without the snow.  Anyway, it's been pretty and I've been blessed by our neighbors, but again, I'm ready for it to end.  However, hubby tells me we're supposed to get more on Tuesday and also some temperatures around zero and below.  Brrrr that's worse than the snow!

How was your weekend.  I hope we all have a great week.

Cathy

I'm also linking up with Holly and Sarah at Hello Monday.

Scripture and a Snapshot - The Heavens Proclaim the Glory of God

Linking up with "A Fresh Cup of Coffee"

Psalm 19

“The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun. It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding. It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race. The sun rises at one end of the heavens and follows its course to the other end. Nothing can hide from its heat. The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living. Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair. They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb. They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them. How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

Cathy