Lily Grace Lets Her Light Shine Too!

Oh my dear friends! I had quite the adventure yesterday!  But, first, Mommie wants to apologize for not communicating yesterday because our WiFi was down all day! That meant no computer, no TV, and no blogging! So now she is way behind in visiting with you all and many other things so please forgive if she doesn't get around to visit right away!

Now, that being said, we want to tell you what we DID do yesterday that was so exciting for me!

I got to go to the UMW meeting with Mommie!  For those of you who do not know what the UMW  meeting is, it's the ladies group called "United Methodist Women" at our church.

Mommie was co-hosting with another lady, and so she had to be there early to take food and to set up for the luncheon part of the meeting.  She said since she was the co-hostess, she needed my help too, so I got to go along and help!!  Mommie was providing a fruit platter, and since it's also summertime, she was decorating with a summery fruity theme. 

But before we could eat, we had a meeting, and Mommie introduced me to all the ladies. There I am sitting in the middle of the table.

I asked if I could lead them in a little song, and the ladies were all so nice and happy to join in with me.

We sang "This Little Light of Mine".  If you read Mommie's post the other day, you know she already had this song on her mind, and so she taught it to me...the way she remembers it from her childhood.

Here is a video of all of the nice UMW ladies joining in as we sang it and put up our fingers to be the little light we are shining while we sing.  I hope you can watch this video below. Mommie apologizes for it because half way through the song she laid down her phone and forgot it was still recording, so you see a blank screen for a while but we are still singing. She didn't record the whole song, but you will get the idea that we were enjoying singing it together:

Here I am, letting my little light shine 'til Jesus comes!

Then we started the meeting with a prayer and we all recited the "Purpose" of the United Methodist Women.

Mostly the ladies talked about the needs of different people and groups in the church and community that we can help out with. They take up an offering that helps with special projects that we support.

We pray for the ones who are not feeling well or who have other problems.  The ladies are very friendly and loving and care about each other. I liked that.

One lady also read to us the Meaning Behind the 13 Folds of the United States Flag, in honor of Flag Day, which is June 14th.  You may enjoy reading that too, as it has a lot of special meaning both in a spiritual sense as well as patriotic. For example, here is what it says for the 13th fold:

 

"The last fold, when the flag is completely folded, the stars are uppermost, reminding us of our national motto, “In God We Trust.”'

That reminded me that we have a folded flag in a special case that my big brother Benton made for it. This flag was given to my Daddy's mother "Nanny Steiner", at the funeral of her husband, "Granddaddy Steiner". That is a picture of him above when he was in the Army in WWII.  Thankfully he lived through the war and lived to be 78 years old before he died.  I never got to meet him or Nanny Steiner, but I know my Daddy and Mommie and everyone loved them both very much.

Then after our meeting we got to eat the good food that Mommie and the other hostess brought for our lunch.  Mommie says that all the ladies take turns at being the hostess so no one person has to do it all the time.  

We had yummy little ham sandwiches and chips

Here some of the ladies are helping themselves to the fruit platters that Mommie brought:

Mommie didn't bake that beautiful carrot cake. The other hostess, "Miss Paula",  brought that and it was sure good! It is her own secret recipe and she doesn't share it with anyone!  But she likes to bring it to our special church dinners and UMW:

It is always a big hit, and the ladies beg her to bring it every time, but she said then it wouldn't be so special if they had it every time!

So that was our exciting adventure! It was so much fun to feel like a real "lady" attending a special meeting with all the other ladies! I hope I can go again sometime.

When we got home is when we found out that the internet was down, and so we couldn't watch anything on TV or do anything on the computer. So Mommie and Daddy decided to read a little book together.

It's called "Life in Elizabethan Days", and it is very old, but it's a little book Mommie found in a discard pile at a library years and years ago when she worked at a school library, and she brought it home because Daddy loves to read about old English history, especially during Queen Elizabeth I 's reign.

This book follows the fictional "Sir Walter Hollydean" and his family, and tells all about how they lived in the late 1500's-early 1600's. It's very interesting if you like to read historical stuff, and it has been a long time since they read it together so they thought yesterday would be a good time to try again.

Mommie reads it out loud and Daddy listens...and I listened too. It was kind of interesting. I am happy we don't have to live like they did, however.  They had to have lots and lots of servants to help them do everything!!!

Now that the internet is back up again I don't know if they will keep reading it or not. I just heard Daddy tell Mommie that he would like to spend a little time each day reading a couple of chapters...so I guess they will!

We also took a ride to check on Auntie Pamela's house because she goes up north for the summer. She has lots of blueberries ripening now and she said we could have them:

So we may have to go back over with a bucket in a few days and pick them! Yummy!

Okie dokie, my friends...that's about it. I hope you enjoyed this little post! Oh, the ladies of the UMW made me an honorary member!! Isn't that exciting?

Remember, be sure to let your light shine 'til Jesus comes!!!  

 

Bluebirds, Blueberries, and Birdhouse Blues!

Welcome to the latest adventure with Lily Grace! We promise to tell you about our adventures no matter how blue they may be!

You may remember back in February I told you about the "Bluebirds of Happiness" and how happy we were to have the bluebirds taking up residence in our birdhouse! It was quite a happy time, and for a long while they kept house, coming and going and building their nest and sitting on the nest, and we thought for sure that someday we would see little baby bluebirds.  Well, sadly one day we woke up and saw only the remains of the nest pulled out of the birdhouse and no sign of the bluebirds anywhere.  That was several weeks ago, and there was no sign of them ever again, until yesterday! And all of a sudden there they were again, checking out the birdhouse and starting to bring in nesting material to start a new nest. (Mommie had cleaned out the old nest).  

We were so excited to see them back again, because Mommie and Daddy had actually moved the birdhouse to a new location.

My big brother Benton and Auntie Rose brought us this nice metal pole so we could attach the birdhouse to it, and put it in a new place so the predators would have a harder time getting into the birdhouse.  It is a lot closer to the house and away from the trees more, although it doesn't look like it in this picture, but it is.

Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird checked it out thoroughly and seemed quite pleased with the new location and began setting up housekeeping right away.

That's Mrs. Bluebird inspecting the house.

It was quite an exciting day... there's Father and Mother Goose down in the pond having their morning breakfast while Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird are inspecting the birdhouse.  All so happy and serene. (that's a big word Mommie taught me that means peaceful).

Doesn't Mr. Bluebird look so happy and pretty sitting there?

Well, that was yesterday.  It rained a lot last night and this morning, and we didn't see Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird at all this morning. But we figured they'd show up after the rain stopped.

But then we looked outside and who popped his head out of the birdhouse but Mr. Chickadee!!!

(Could be Mrs.Chickadee...they are harder to tell apart)  And all morning after the rain stopped he was flying in and out of the birdhouse and acting like it was HIS house! Mommie tried to tell him that it was already taken by Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird, but he just chattered away at her saying "chickadeedeedeedee" and didn't pay her any mind at all.

Mommie was getting worried that the Chickadee family would take over the birdhouse before Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird came back with their furniture. 

Then all of a sudden after lunch we see Mr. Bluebird show up again, and he flew right inside like he owned the place.  I don't know where Mr. Chickadee was, but he wasn't around right then.

So Mr. Bluebird started flying in and out again, and Mrs. Bluebird was  flitting around in the tree too, and so Mommie and I were relieved that maybe the Bluebirds would be able to secure the house before the chickadee family.

Mr. Bluebird sure looked like he was ready to take over.  

But then he flew away, and Mr. Chickadee flew back in, and now we don't know who is going to end up with the house!

So stayed tuned for the next episode of the Birdhouse Saga to find out who wins!

Meanwhile, we've sure been enjoying eating those blueberries we got the other day!

Mommie made some blueberry bran muffins and also put some on her cheerios along with some sliced bananas. Yummy! I loved that too!!

Look  how pretty our own blueberry bushes are looking:

Mommie and Daddy bought some pine bark mulch to put around the bottoms of the plants like the man said to do. He said they like "acidic" soil, and the pine bark helps make it that way so they will grow better.

The man also said to cut the bushes down like in half so they will grow better,  but Mommie said not until we are finished eating all these berries first!

Mommie picks them off the bushes and we eat them right then and there as soon as they ripen! They are so sweet and juicy and yummy.

And there are a lot of them!

We also put some pine mulch around the little azalea bushes that Mommie and Daddy planted a few weeks ago. They like pine mulch too.

Now, back inside,  because it was raining this morning we decided it was a good time to bake some cookies because Daddy said he wanted some of those good coconut pecan cookies again.

Of course I helped! I love to help Mommie bake things. 

And I really like to help Mommie eat the warm cookies right out of the oven! That's when they taste the best, don't you think?

Then I played with my little fairy garden friends for a while.

Have you met my little fairy friends?  This is "Flora" and "Fawna".  You've already heard about "Flora" in that little story book I read to you.  "Fawna" is another special fairy friend. I named her "Fawna" because she is holding a little baby fawn in her arms.  Mommie said that sometime maybe we will see a real baby fawn in the woods where we walk. I hope so.  Meanwhile, I like to play with my little friends. They are very happy and helpful little fairies who like to do nice things for people. Remember the other story I read to you before about Lily's Lovely Garden?  Well, these are some of my little fairy friends from those nice stories.  Sometime we will have to tell you some more happy stories.

Here's a happy picture...this is a beautiful male Wood Duck swimming in Still Waters Pond.  Isn't he really pretty?

Now here's an interesting picture. We took our walk today in our usual place where we like to walk, and all of a sudden we saw this animal over in the woods.  Mommie thought at first it must be a little bear cub:

As we got closer it sure looked like a little bear cub, or maybe a dog...but mostly a bear cub. But it was sitting very very still:

Upon closer look, we realized it was just a tree stump!

But it sure "stumped" us!! How about you?

Didn't you think it was a bear cub too?

Well, that's all for today. I have to go help Mommie get supper ready. She said we are having hamburgers and corn on the cob. I LOVE corn on the cob, don't you?

You can CLICK HERE for another story about that if you don't remember me telling you about it before.

Okay, that's all folks.

Wanna sing a little song with me?

"Jesus loves me, this I know;

For the Bible tells me so.

Little ones to Him belong;

We are weak but He is strong!

Yes, Jesus loves me!

Yes, Jesus loves me!

Yes, Jesus loves me!

The Bible tells me so!"

Hope to see you in church tomorrow!! 

Bye Bye for now.

Love,

Lily Grace

 

It's Blueberry Time!

Guess what?!  It's Blueberry Picking time here where we live! Looky looky!! Mommie and Daddy turned into "Blueberry Run" street and we went to get some fresh blueberries!

I said, "Mommie, The sign says U-Pick Here Blueberries!  Does that mean we are going to pick our own blueberries?"

Mommie said that she thinks they also sell them by the pound, already picked, and if so, that is what we will do today.

We met this nice lady there, and yes, she sold us some blueberries already picked so we didn't have to go out in the hot fields and pick them ourselves. And guess what else?

They also sell blueberry plants here with blueberries already growing on them!

Mommie was so excited she bought 5 plants!! Mommie said they are only $5.00 per plant, and they even already have blueberries on them, so that is quite a good deal!

This blueberry farm is not too far from where we live, just down the road a ways.

I was really excited to be able to see the blueberries and the people who were going to go pick their own blueberries.  

I think it would be fun to pick your own berries.

When we got home, Daddy went and got the shovel out of the shed, and he started digging holes to plant the blueberry plants right away.

Then Mommie went to the lumber store down the road and got some stakes to stick in the ground to help hold them up nice and straight.

Looky here! These are the blueberries we bought at the farm, already picked. They are so sweet and BIG and juicy! Mommie said they are much bigger than the ones you can buy at the grocery store, and oh, so fresh and sweet and good!

So Mommie asked Daddy and my brother Scott what they would like for her to bake with them.

They both said they would like a blueberry pie.

So Mommie got out her very old cookbook that she has had ever since they got married almost 52 years ago.

Here is the recipe for Blueberry Pie that she used:

Of course I helped her get it ready to put in the oven:

And 35 minutes later, here it is! It just came out of the oven while I was telling you this story! 

It smells SO good!!

I want to eat some right now, but Mommie says we have to wait for it to cool. That juice is still bubbling hot and it would burn us if we tried to eat it now.

And so that was my big adventure for today!! That was a lot of fun!

And now we will be able to grow our own blueberries, and maybe next year we will have enough to bake a pie or two!!

(and Mommie said she might go back and buy some more blueberries now so we have some more for blueberry muffins and just to eat on our cheerios and stuff!)

(Did you see those Cheerios are shaped like little hearts? I thought that was really cute!)

Mommie said to remember our Bible Verse:

"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, 

nothing will be impossible for you."

Matthew 17:20

And also did you see that pretty Easter Lily up above? It's still blooming since Easter!

And it reminds us again that Jesus is alive!

By the way...we found a street here in our neighborhood that has MY name!! Isn't that exciting?

 

Okay friends, that's my adventure for today.

I hope you are having some fun adventures too!

Bye Bye!

Love,

Lily Grace

(I have to go eat a piece of pie now if it has cooled down enough...

Wish you were here to have a piece too!)