Faithful In His Promises

We are back from a great weekend at the lake. It was just the four of us this time - Keith, Lynne', Joe (the golden retriever) and I, but it seems like regardless of how many are there it's always my favorite weekend ever.

Today started especially great. I woke up before the other two, so I slipped on my shoes and went for an early morning walk. It is so quiet up there around the lake and so much beauty and wonder to see when we slow down for just a minute and look. Last night while out 4 wheelin' we saw 3 deer down by the lake, so we pulled over for a few minutes to watch them. I am thoroughly convinced that these are the same three babies that Keith and I saw when we spent a week up there in July. And like any proud mama I was so happy to see them growing up healthy and well.

I ended up at a small cafe to get a cup of coffee to go. I hadn't made any coffee earlier since I didn't want to be the party pooper and wake the other two up, but I sure do appreciate a beautiful cup each morning! The fun part of getting it at the cafe was chit chatting with the others there.

Finally left and went back to the house, where it was still filled with sleep. I got my Bible and Beth Moore study guide and went outside with my coffee and my God and spent some time in the word. So peaceful and so perfect - even to the point of seeing some butterflies nearby. What a fun blessing!


When the sleepyheads finally got up we headed out four wheelin' again and saw these flowers growing wild down by the lake. They were stunningly gorgeous, though all I had was my cell phone camera for pictures. The amazing thing is they remind me of something you'd find growing in Hawaii, not the border between Texas and Oklahoma! Another fun blessing today.


We ended up heading over by the boat ramp because I am here to tell you that a person's true personality seems to come out on boat ramps. It can really go between amusing to shameful to sometimes even scandalous over there. The one thing it never is though is boring. But today we pulled up and saw the above. Seems a big wind storm - they don't think it was a tornado - went through recently and basically wadded up one of the boat docks nearby. They'd pulled the boats out by now and they were all lined up on shore and we were just shocked to see them. One pretty large boat had a pole pushed straight through the hull! Not sure how it happened, but it was sobering to see. I'm just quite thankful that nobody was injured.

In the course of a 24 hour period we saw some amazing examples of God's beauty in nature, and also an example of how we need to respect the weather and nature.

And better still, my Bible study is Living Beyond Yourself - Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit and this week we are studying Faithfulness. The examples above surely point to how faithful He is to us:

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
The Lord is faithful to all his promises
and loving toward all he has made.
Psalm 145:13 (NIV)

AMEN!

Friday's Fave Five

Be sure to stop by Susanne's blog to read more Friday's Fave Faves. And here's a few of my favorite things from the past week:

1. Dinner Out With Friends - On Tuesday night our Bible Study group met for dinner and had such a nice time. Of course, any meal that ends in Blackberry Vanilla Cheesecake has to be good. :)

2. Y'all know there will always be a granddaughter entry! Taking Brooklyn shopping last Sunday was such a joy. Two year olds (her birthday is tomorrow!) enjoy such simple things and get so much pleasure from everything. She really thought throwing pennies in the fountains was funny and Pawpaw was right there to show her the best way to do it. By the time we were leaving the mall she would walk up to a fountain and turn to me with an outstretched hand to get pennies.

3. God's beautiful creatures - While we were out four wheelin' on vacation Keith saw this mama deer with her 2 babies. We stopped and watched them for a while, until we noticed that we were making mama a bit nervous. But it was such a special time to me because living in the city like we do this sort of thing is rare. And I think watching her with her babies makes a person realize that no matter who or what we are, babies are special.

4. My Daughter - Having Lynne' back home with us has been so much fun. I will admit that when she and her father get to going with the teasing and laughing they sometimes wear me out. :) But above all, it's so much fun to watch the two of them together. Last night I was laying in bed reading when they came in to tell me something. When I laughed it came out sounding really ridiculous and off they went. In no time at all Lynne' and I were laughing so hard we couldn't even talk. Good times. :)

5. My Husband - Having 10 days of holiday/vacation time together just solidified my love for this man. It doesn't matter if we're doing something exciting/fascinating or if we're just relaxing and not doing much at all, we just enjoy being together. He is such a blessing.

Friday's Fave Five

Susanne at Living to tell the Story hosts a meme every Friday where you look back on your week and talk about 5 of your favorite things. I *love* looking for the joy, so I thought I'd do it this week. Can't guarantee I'll do it every week as I tend to flit around so much, but we'll see. :)

1. Y'all might get tired with my tomato stories, but really I am just so tickled pink about the whole thing! I wish I'd known long ago how much pleasure I could get from growing my own produce. Who knew?



2. I can't say a lot about this project yet as it is a gift, but I have gotten so much pleasure knitting on it this week. The last few things I've knit have been more 'deadline' oriented and the joy wasn't there. As this is a gift I've gotten to spend a lot of time thinking of the recipient and praying for her.

3. A guilty pleasure - mini peanut butter cups from Sprouts! I adore chocolate and peanut butter together and am also a big fan of miniature things. When I saw these babies in the bulk food section my heart fluttered in delight. Helen asked if I was going to bring some on our retreat and I had to say no - if I brought these I'd eat like a piggy! So now I 'reward' myself when I go get groceries at Sprouts with a small bit of these wonderful morsels. ~ sigh ~

4. This Bible study is simply amazing. I am learning so much about the Holy Spirit within me - pages and pages of notes! Any time a study can get you excited and give you that 'I can't wait to do it' each morning is a very good thing.

5. OK, I didn't see her this week and the photo is from Easter, but this little girl is still one of my Fav's and always will be! :)