Storms, Hobo Stew , Tea Party and Honey Bees and Pirates

Happy Sunday afternoon everyone! I hope you have been having a wonderful day so far! I sure have! Last night we had a big thunderstorm here with lots of thunder and lightning and even a tornado watch! It was kind of scary, but Mommie and Daddy prayed that the tornado would not touch down anywhere and that we would stay safe in our home, and you know what?  God heard their prayers! Even though it rained and rained and rained, and the lightning was really bright and the thunder was loud and noisy, nothing bad happened. Actually, Mommie said it was good that we got so much rain because it filled our pond back up where it was starting to get too dry!

Still Waters Pond looks a lot happier today

And "Little Duck" was bobbing around having a good old time...

She is so much fun to watch, like she's playing "Marco Polo" popping up and down in the water.

Mommie says she doesn't understand why she's still here alone, but she seems to be taking care of herself and is happy to have the pond all to herself today!

There she goes...skipping, hopping and flying across the water...and on to another spot to keep popping up and down again...

Mommie read to us from Psalm 147 this morning in our "de-vo-shuns", and these verses kind of remind me of last night:

7.  "Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;

sing praises on the harp to our God,

8.  Who covers the heavens with clouds,

Who prepares rain for the earth,

Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.

9.  He gives to the beast its food, 

and to the young ravens that cry."

Mommie said that all that nice rain also helps the flowers to blossom and the trees and grass to grow. Plus it warmed up enough today to take a walk without my jacket.  I am still wearing my pretty purple Sunday dress.  

Look how beautiful these flowers are now!

But Mommie warned me to be careful and not get too close, because with the sun shining and the warmer weather, the bumblebees and honeybees are out getting pollen from the flowers to make honey!

Looky what we saw on the plum blossoms!!!

I am glad my nose wasn't on that flower when those bees came buzzing around!!

There were lots and lots of bees, so we decided we'd better stay farther away from the flowers for now.

But I wanted to tell you about what else we did anyway!

Last night when that big old thunderstorm was coming Mommie said it was a good day for "Hobo Stew". It had been a cloudy, windy, rainy day all day long, and kind of cold too. Mommie said Hobo Stew is perfect for that kind of day.  I asked Mommie, "What's a Hobo?"

Well, she said a long long time ago there were men who traveled by hopping on the railroad cars from town to town, looking for work. They were usually homeless, very poor and were willing to work for a meal. Hence many people would give them a bowl of soup or stew. This particular "Hobo Stew" was something Mommie said she learned to make when she was a Girl Scout. They would make it over a campfire in a large tin coffee can.  It has ground beef,  onions, carrots, potatoes, canned tomatoes and chopped cabbage in it. It can also have a bit of bacon in it for flavor.  I helped Mommie chop the vegetables and waited for it to get all cooked in the big pot on the stove. Then Mommie said we needed to make some cornbread to go with it:

So I helped her mix up the cornbread, and then she put it in a real heavy iron skillet and baked it in the oven. It smelled so good!! I couldn't wait to taste it with my "Hobo Stew".

It was all very very good, and we even ate up all the cornbread! Mommie said if she'd known I would like it so much she would have made another skillet full!

I like these pretty dishes that Mommie put the Hobo Stew in:

There are people skating on a pond! I asked Mommie if we could ever skate on Still Waters Pond, and she said no, because it never gets cold enough here in Florida to freeze the pond. It has to be very very cold and stay that way for a long time for the ponds to freeze. I wish it could freeze so I could learn to ice skate.  Mommie said we might have to find a place where they have an ice skating rink so I can do that sometime. That sounds like a lot of fun!

I liked this pretty plate that we put our cornbread on too. Those people are putting "sheaves" of wheat together to dry for the harvest. I asked Mommie what "sheaves" are, and she said they are the stalks of wheat that will be sent to the mill eventually to make flour to make bread! "Like cornbread, Mommie?" I asked. She said "Well, cornbread has corn meal in it and some wheat flour too."  Wow! So many things to learn! I wonder if I will ever know as much as Mommie about these things. Mommie said that she's still learning a lot of stuff too, and that we never stop learning no matter how old we are. 

Today after lunch Mommie said she wanted to have a little tea party with me on the porch. Since I was still dressed in my purple Sunday dress, she said we could use some purple flowered tea cups and tea pot and things...

We even used a purple tea bag, which Mommie said was called Jasmine Green Tea. I asked Mommie why it was called "green tea" if it was in a purple bag?  Mommie said green tea is a special kind of tea and that she thought it was better for us than the other kind of tea. But she really didn't explain the difference. Maybe she was tired of answering questions...I do ask a lot of questions.

And actually the tea looked kind of yellow and wasn't green at all. I don't understand. But it tasted good. Mommie said the wind was blowing pretty hard and that is why her hair looks funny.

I liked my jasmine green tea that looked yellow and came in a purple box. 

My cookie was good too.

Well, Mommie said we need to go for now.  The Super Bowl just started and Daddy wants her to watch it with him.  We liked hearing the people sing America the Beautiful and The Star Spangled Banner already.  And then those big jets flew over the people! That was amazing...and there were red rockets going up in the air like in the song. That was pretty cool! She said one of the teams that is playing is in a city not too far away,  and that is also where they are playing the game tonight! The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are playing against the Kansas City Chiefs. I think we are rooting for the Buccaneers since they are from Florida. I asked Mommie "what's a buck-can-neer?" She just asked my big brother Scott, and he said it is a "pirate".  I didn't want to ask anymore questions because I think Mommie is tired of answering questions, but, do you know what is a pi-rate? 

I wonder if Mommie can find a costume like this for me? 

Mommie said no, she likes me just the way I am.

Mommie said that we've had a very good day, and God has blessed us with many special things to make it so nice and we are very thankful. And so we should close this now with some happy thoughts.

Back to Psalm 147:1

"Praise the Lord!

For it is good to sing praises to our God; 

For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful."

Amen.

Bye bye for now my friends!  I hope you have a pleasant night too.

Love,

Lily Grace

xoxoxoxo

P.S. Yay!! Our Team Won!! Those "Buck-can-neers" are pretty good! My first Su-per bowl!

I asked Mommie what kind of soup is in the bowl? She said it was football soup! I don't know if I'd like that kind of soup, but whatever it was, it must have been good, because we won the game!! Now I have to go to bed. Good Night everyone!!  

Love, 

Lily Grace