Thanksgiving Recovery Efforts

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving chock full of good food, good fellowship and memory making! We concluded our Thanksgiving festivities last night with our third and final -(thank goodness! I think I may start clucking!!) Thanksgiving dinner.

THANKSGIVING DINNER #1

We had our first Thanksgiving dinner early. We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Barfields' in Marianna the Monday before Thanksgiving. The Barfields'; that's David's girlfriend's family. They are super nice folks and their home was lovely. Their's is a rather large family and when you added our family, including my mother, there was a sizable crowd. It was nice spending some quality time and really getting to know them.

Helping with the crescent rolls

Getting ready to head out to Chipola for the Jazz concert immediately following dinner

THANKSGIVING DINNER #2

Then........Thursday, late morning, we were off to Graceville to partake of Thanksgiving feast number 2. We had this Thanksgiving dinner at the Miles'. This is the home of Jimmy's sister and her family. We always look forward to this dinner. It's good, old fashioned, down-home, the way "grandma" used to make it Thanksgiving dinner. The best food I've ever eaten since...........well............last year!! Melt in your mouth turkey, dressin' (not stuffing, but "dressin'", you know, that kind you can't even put a "g" on the end of!!), collard greens, turnip greens, butter beans, sweet potato souffle' (the kind with brown sugar and pecans on top~to die for - and dessert in itself!), potato salad, ham, corn, cornbread and rolls, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, sweet potato pie, pound cake, and blueberry delight! Wow, I feel fuller just talking about it.

Ok, enough of that. Here are a few shots from G-ville Thanksgiving................

The "men-folk" doing their outside thing

This is Jimmy's sister, Melissa and her family

Michael and his cousins, Kacy and Crystal

More "men-folk" stuff.

Jimmy and his brother-in-law, Eddie.

The Worleys' and the Miles'

THANKSGIVING DINNER #3

Yesterday evening we headed to our friends, The Eldridges', house. I took my homemade dressin', potato salad, baby limas, blueberry delight, cranberry sauce, chicken n' rice (mainly for Michael - he doesn't eat dressin'. Weird kid!), and a jug of sweet tea. When we arrived we added these items to their turkey, ham, mashed potatoes n' gravy, green beans, corn, deviled eggs, dinner rolls and chocolate cake. (Yeah, I'm starting to feel sick too.) I feel like we have eaten non-stop for three days. Everything was wonderful though. After eating our yummy dinner, we played Trivial Pursuit 80's edition. It was fun........but a lot harder than I expected it to be. (I guess the old girl's memory just ain't what it used to be!........who said that?!) Then the bad, no REALLY bad weather kicked in. The monsoons came! And there we were without an ark!

And......I must confess........by Thanksgiving dinner #3, I was, um, falling down on the job in the, uh, photo department. Sorry. I don't have any pictures to show you. I feel horrible about it! I really do. I'll try to do better in the future, I promise.

Hope your weekend is filled with, with...............everything NOT turkey!!!

Thanksgiving Blessing

Praying your day will be a feast of thankfulness.......

enjoying God's abundant blessings and perfect peace.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"We have all benefitted from the rich blessings He brought to us - blessing upon blessing heaped upon us."

John 1:16

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is quickly approaching. For 20 years we have done pretty much the same thing...............but not this year. Actually, this whole year has been rather, well, strange. Many, many changes have occured. Many "firsts" have taken place. I can certainly say this has been a "growing" year for me, my family, my friends, and even my country. OK, before I jump the track and derail my original train of thought, let me get back to Thanksgiving.......

For the past 20 years we have gone to my in-laws for Thanksgiving "Dinner" (which, in the country actually means lunch) and then I prepared Thanksgiving Supper at my house, where between 10 - 20 people come and "break bread" with us. I really like to, as they say, "Put on the dog"! I get out my fine china and my stemware, I use all my fancy silverware and serving pieces and I put out a HUGE spread. Always something for everyone. All the usual folks that attend enjoy good food and good fellowship. I look forward to Thanksgiving EVERY year. It's one of my favorite holidays.

But, this year....it's going to be......well.........very different. With me being laid off the end of October and still not employed (I'll explain more about that later) and with the in-law's health problems, we will all be going to my sister-in-law's house in Graceville. It will be fine. It will just not be the "norm". We will be going to their house for dinner and then off to Marianna to my very best friend's house for our supper meal. Again, very nice, but just different.

I am taking this experience and trying my best to learn the lesson the Lord has for me in it. He is providing not one, but two very nice, homey Thanksgiving experiences for my family and I am very thankful. He is putting us in the company of lots of people who love us, and for that I am very thankful. He is teaching me to relax and trust Him and I am VERY thankful for that.

I have SO very much to be thankful for this year. How about you? What things are YOU thankful for this year? And what are YOUR traditional (or even non-traditional) plans for Thanksgiving? I'd LOVE to hear about it.

Tag, YOU'RE it!

I've been tagged..
by Kim's blog. From what I'm understanding...my instructions for this tag are to: pick the 4th picture folder on my computer; choose and post the 4th picture; explain the picture; and tag 4 other people to participate. So here is my picture.

This is a picture of Jaelynn. She is such a cutie and so cuddly and sweet. She is the granddaughter of some friends of our. I got to babysit two days last week. She is so much fun. She is 7 months old.

While I had her, I took some "Thanksgiving" shots of her to surprise her family. They were very pleased. Oh...........what the heck......here are a few more I took of her........

Now the ones that I am tagging are:
1. Nancy
2. Andrea

3. Wanda
4. (sorry to do it to you again, but..........) The Cliftons
So now it is up to y'all to pick your fourth file and fourth picture and post on your blog.

Simply Beautiful

Watch this video and take a listen.

http://www.godtube.com/view_video?viewkey=ec59ef3f99da96c3ce78

Clear your mind and really listen to the beautiful words.

Ours is an awesome God!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Bella & Gilligan

A while back I posted about my kitties, Bella and Gilligan and told you their story. (You can scroll down until you hit that post to see what they looked like when I brought them home. They were precious. And still are!) Well, I finally got around to taking a few shots of them so you could see what they look like today. They are SO much fun. They richly bless our lives with love and laughter.

This is Bella. She's a scaredy cat! Once she warms up to you, she's fine, but for some reason, the slightest little noise or even if you enter the room too quickly, she'll scurry away. I don't know why she does that?! She's also a GOOD hunter. She is forever bringing us gifts, right through the doggy door into the screened in back porch. In fact, just this past Monday, I kept hearing this screeching noise. My first thought was, "Oh, brother! She's caught another bird and brought it onto the back porch." So, I went out onto the back porch to see if I could help the little birdie escape and .....................right there HANGING on my screen was...........a............SQUIRREL!!! She dragged a healthy (scared slap to death) squirrel through the doggy door and released it (or he luckily got out of her teeth) inside my screened in porch! I hollered for Jimmy and Michael and they came running. They got Bella inside and closed the other doggy door so she wouldn't come back out onto the porch and I bravely made my way to the screen door closest to the poor squirrel. He came right towards me as I opened the door. I could hear the guys ( you know, my brave MEN that left me out there with a freaked out squirrel!!) inside laughing as I said, "If this ends up like National Lampoons Christmas Vacation and that thing jumps on my back you better be ready to see me go through the screen and off the deck in a dive!!!" They were rolling! But, no, the squirrel waited until I opened the door and he scurried across the screen, onto the door, across the door and then jumped onto the deck and through the lattice and shot into the woods. Mama saved the day!!!! Hurray!!!

Bella did not seem impressed. I'm sure she thought I had thrown away her gift! I just loved on her and told her I appreciated it but she was plenty for me and she didn't have to "get me anything!" hahaha.



This is Gilligan. He's our goofy male cat. He is hilarious and very playful. Lots of fun to have around. He's also more affectionate than Bella most of the time. Well, when it suits him. He thinks he's a dog and will even chase thrown toys just like a dog. Never a dull moment with him around.





And this is how they like to spend their DAYS. After a long night of prowling for gifts for Mama, they spend their days lying around being....................well.............cats. Oh, the life!

Homegrown Fall Beauty

Lots of folks I know head to the mountains at the beginning of Fall to see the changing of the leaves. In an earlier blog I divulged that Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. And for many years I have been enjoying the changing of the leaves right here in Washington County. No, we don't have any "mountains" but we DO have some awesome hills. One of my favorite, especially in the Fall, is Orange Hill.

Last Tuesday morning after I dropped Michael off at school, me, with my coffee in hand, and the Lord took a long leisurely ride out to the very top of Orange Hill. The colors were magnificent! I was SO glad I had my camera with me. I really let myself get deep into the awe and wonder of God's beautiful masterpiece. He was really blessing me that day. I spent hours (literally four) riding, talking with Him and accepting gift after gift as He unwrapped them for me. As I rode to the top of Orange Hill, the song "Country Roads" by John Denver came to mind and as I sang my solo and giggled in His presence I realized I was singing about West Virginia (as the song goes) so I changed those words to Chipley, Florida. It wasn't quite the same, but it made me giggle even more. The Lord and I had a really good time talking, singing and giggling that morning. The views were breathtaking and I thanked Him every time I stopped to snap a shot. I thanked Him for the variety of colors, I thanked Him for letting me live in such a beautiful place, I thanked Him for letting me have some "time off" to be able to partake of His wonders and spend lengthy quality time with Him. (Yes, I am diligently still looking for a job - but I will have you know that I am also thoroughly engulfing myself in the blessing He has been giving me each day I am without one too. I am giving thanks even in my unemployment! He told me to!)

So, without further ado, here are the pictures I took out on Orange Hill. I hope you enjoy them too. And, like I said in prior posts, photos do NOT do His artwork justice. Yes, the pictures are nice, but it does not compare to the personal gift of seeing it with your own eyes.

Livin' in high cotton

These are some I took "in town"

For this shot I got under the tree and took the picture looking straight up

These aren't changing leaves. I also took some shots of farm life and a tractor and a few barns. Mainly things that really caught my eye as part of the beautiful country experience.

Hope you enjoyed the journey.