Friday Foto Friends with Lily Grace

Happy Friday!  Mommie said today we are supposed to share some special photos from the week that we haven't already shared. Mommie said she might have already shown you this one of me sending out my Valentine cards, but she thought it was worth showing again!  I had SO much fun writing the little cards to my special friends and family. And I especially had fun with those cute little ink stamps with hearts and kisses  and hugs on them. All my cards and envelopes were stamped all over with lots of love!!! I wish I had enough cards to send to all of you too, but Mommie said this can be our special Valentine Card to everyone.

She said Valentine's Day isn't until Sunday, but it's okay to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day today too so they can feel the "love" all weekend long!!

And today I am SO excited, 'cause  Mommie and I are going over to my Auntie Pamela's house and have a little Valentine's Party today with her special friend Sunshine Joy! So Mommie said I could wear my party dress!  I am sure we will have a lot MORE pictures to share later, but this will have to do for now.

Yesterday morning Mommie and I took a walk around our yard, and we both wore our boots because the grass was wet! Mommie's boots are really "snazzy".  That's a word she taught me.

I was so excited to find some more pretty fairy flowers blooming in the yard, so we picked a little bouquet!

We walked around to another place where we could see the pond, but there were so many spider webs in the grasses that we decided not to try to walk through. It was a very foggy morning and the dew was heavy on the ground, so we could really see a lot of spider webs. 

Mommie said these are interesting, but we didn't wat to get tangled up in them...

That would be a real mess if I got it in my hair!! 

So then we walked around to another place and saw these pretty little yellow flowers blooming on a vine. 

Mommie said it is a Carolina Jessamine vine!  I said, "Carolina?" That's where my Auntie Debbi and Identical cousin Tracie live! That's where I came from!!!"

Mommie said, yes, that is true! We may have to name this a Debbi and Tracie flower to remember them by!  So Auntie Debbi and Tracie, if you are reading this, these flowers are for YOU!!

Then we took my little bouquet of fairy flowers inside and put them in the sweet little Lily of the Valley tea pot!  I love that this tea pot has my name on it!!  Well, the flower has my name on it! Mommie said that the Lily of the Valley is also mentioned in the Bible.  I asked her to show me where.

Mommie said there is a lot of information about the flower called the lily in the Bible as well as the term "Lily of the Valley". She said it would be better to attach this link for further information because there was too much to put right here: 

http://www.learnthebible.org/the-lily-of-the-valley.html

Now for some fun pictures from one of our walks in the woods last week.

There was lots of pretty green mosses growing on the ground: 

I called it "fairy moss", because I can just imagine little fairies frolicking around these pretty green patches of moss!

Mommie said it was interesting how the mosses were growing amongst some broken down fence posts and wire that was just laying there on the forest floor.

And then we found this rusty old bedspring tangled up in the brush

Mommie said it's amazing the interesting things we can find in the woods, but we have to be careful where we walk so we don't trip and fall over this stuff!  

Wow, so many different kinds of mosses and Mommie called them "fungi". She said they grow on old wood that is rotten, because they need the decaying material to "eat" so they can live on it. Or something like that. I don't think I'd like to eat decayed wood, but the fungi and mushrooms love it, and that is also a part of God's creation, Mommie said!

Wow! Look at this big old dead tree!! I bet the woodpeckers have liked pecking away at this one!! Mommie says they like to pick bugs and stuff out of dead trees...

And here's this one. I said it looked like a man with his legs up in the air!  Mommie and I both laughed at that thought!  You can see the woodpecker has pecked a lot of holes in this one too.

Well, Mommie says we need to get ready to go to our party, so I have to go. But here is the pretty sunset from over Still Waters Pond from last night! Isn't it beautiful?

Another of God's beautiful creation!!

God sure makes everything beautiful and interesting, doesn't He?

Mommie says we are blessed to live in such a wonderful world...and we should thank God every day for all the good things He does for us.  Sometimes we get upset at the news and when bad things happen, but if we stop and give thanks to the Lord for the beauty around us and the good things we find, it helps us to feel better and be happy.

So I hope this will help make you feel better and be happy today too!

Bye Bye for now.

Love,

Lily Grace

 

Stand Still and Consider

Hi Everyone! I am so happy you have decided to come and visit us here at my little blog, 

"The Adventures of Lily Grace."

We sure have been having lots of fun adventures every day, and Mommie says she can hardly keep up with me and all the exciting things that I want to do every day.  

Dear Aunt Debbi and my identical cousin Tracie, Mommie says you sure started something special when you sent me here to live! Mommie said she never knew how much fun it would be to see life through the eyes of a little girl again. She said it's been a LONG time since she was a little girl, and she had forgotten just how much stuff little girls love to do! But I think that Mommie is really just a little girl in a bigger body, and this little girl part of her has been just waiting to come out and play again! And so we are having so much fun exploring new things and doing fun stuff.  Daddy is a good sport and takes us places so we can have our little adventures. I think he has fun too, but he just doesn't want to admit it.  

Anyway, to start our day off, before it was even daylight and it was still kind of dark and foggy and maybe even a little bit spooky outside, we heard this loud "Whoooooooooooooo" sound somewhere out in the trees by Still Waters Pond.  Mommie went outside and took this picture of how it looked out there, but there was no way to see the owl in the dark.  Mommie thinks it was a "Barred Owl", because they have heard them here before, but she is not certain because it sounded a bit different.  Oh, and then the geese started honking on the other side of the island as if the owl had woken them up from their sleep!   It was all kind of noisy and exciting and little bit scary to me, but Mommie says we shouldn't be afraid, because these are all God's special creatures and this is where they live at night while we are sleeping.  

Then Mommie and I went out on the porch when it became daylight so she could drink her cup of tea.

Looky at today's teacup!  This is what is said:

"Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God." 

Job 37:14

And so we did just what the Bible verse told us to do:

We stood still and thought about all the wonderful things God had done for us, especially right there in front of us this morning!  First the owl hooting and the geese honking,

and then, Oh! Watch out! There is a BIG spider web right above our heads!!

Can you see it?  It's hard to see on this foggy morning, but I'm so glad we saw it before we got it tangled up in our hair!! That would have been a mess!  But Mommie said to look at how interesting and 

in-tri-cate it is. (Mommie says that means designed with fine details).  She said that only God could teach a spider to make his webs so perfectly...and so quickly! Mommie said if we knocked it down he would just build it again! So we left it alone.

And while we were standing there "considering the wondrous works of God", in flew this pretty little Goldfinch right before our eyes!  

Isn't he beautiful?  Mommie said they will get brighter and brighter yellow as the weather warms up and they fly further north in the spring. 

I wish I could see him all bright and pretty golden.  Maybe they will stay around long enough for me to see that. 

Then, this afternoon after lunch Mommie and I went outside again and sat on the pretty bench in the Secret Garden for a while. And this big old black Crow flew by and landed on the bird bath to get a drink!

He and his friends were making a lot of noise again and flying around like they didn't like something.

And then we heard this loud sharp call of this hawk way up high in a pine tree on the other side of the pond.

If you look really closely you can see his mouth is open and he is crying out really loud! I guess he was telling those crows a thing or two. Then he flew away and so did they, but it was really fun to hear and see them.  There are so many "wondrous works of God" to consider when we stand still and pay attention!!

Next we took a ride to the place where Mommie and Daddy like to take their walks.  They wanted to go before it starts raining, because there might be some bad thunderstorms later today they said.  So we went for a walk, and looky here what I found:

This looks like a little tiny cave in the ground almost big enough for me to crawl inside and explore it. But Mommie said she didn't think that was a good idea.  She said this is the home of a 

Gopher Tortoise.  And she said he looks like this:

(internet photo)

He might not like it if I invaded his house, and so I think I will stay out of there!!

After our walk Mommie and Daddy had a surprise for me to see.  They said, "Now mind you, Lily, we are just looking at this, and there is no plan to buy this, so don't get your hopes up!"  Oh, Aunt Debbi and Cousin Tracie, I wish you could come and see this darling little playhouse and porch swing! It is just right for little girls like us to play in!

Just look at how sweet this is!  It's made just for little girls like us to play in, but Mommie and Daddy said it is very expensive and there is no way they could ever buy it, but they thought I might like to see it and swing in the little porch swing!!

Isn't it beautiful, Aunt Debbi and Cousin Tracie?  Oh, couldn't we have SO much fun in this playhouse?

Actually, Mommie really wanted to look at it because she thought it was so cute, but she agreed there was no way we could buy it. But it was okay to look at it.

Oh, and looky!! There is a beautiful pink and white one too!!!

Which one do you like best?  I think I like the other one better because pink is so bright, but isn't it just adorable????

This is what it looks like inside:  There is a ladder that goes up into a little loft where we could sleep!

Oh, it would be every little girl's dream to have such a lovely playhouse, but Daddy said it costs as much as a great big shed and is really kind of "frivolous".  I am not sure what that big word means, but I think it means it is too much money for something that a child would grow out of pretty quickly. 

Oh, and look what else they have! This is a little chicken house!

I liked the little chicken house too. It would be so much fun to have our very own chickens and eggs, wouldn't it, Aunt Debbi and cousin Tracie?  We could feed them and gather the eggs every day and have lots of fun with the little baby chicks.  

This is the inside of the chicken house.  It looks like it could also be a fun playhouse.

So that was our little "adventure" for today! Wasn't that fun?  

And now Mommie says we are going to go cook some "Sloppy Joes" for supper! I have never had a "sloppy joe" before. I hope I don't get it all over my clothes, because this is my only outfit.

Oh, but Mommie says I might get a surprise in a few days...so we will have to wait and see what that is!

Well, friends and Aunt Debbi and Cousin Tracie, I hope you enjoyed our little adventure today. Even though I know I can't have that sweet little playhouse, it was SO much fun just to look at it and swing in that cute little porch swing. And I loved seeing the birds and the tortoise house and hearing the owl! So many wonderful things to consider that God has made all around us!

Thank You, God, for Your beautiful world that You have created for us to enjoy!

And that is what "The Adventures of Lily Grace" is really all about!!

Bye Bye for now!  

Love,

Lily

Lillian Grace

 

Lily Grace Learns about JOY!

I was so excited this morning when Mommie said I could go to church with her and Daddy because they were going to a meeting there.  After our morning walk in the woods (which I will show you pictures of later), they took me to the church!

Mommie said this funny little poem and showed me on her hands how to do this. She said most everyone knows how to make this little church and steeple.  Do you know how to do this, Aunt Debbi? Can you show my identical cousin Tracie how to do it so we can sing it and play it together when we see each other again?  

Mommie said it is supposed to go like this:

"Here's the church...

Here's the Steeple...

Open the doors...

And see all the people! "

But Mommie said today, since it is a Monday, there are no people here. So we could have said, 

"Here's the church, 

Here's the steeple, 

Open the doors,

and where are all the people?"

I would have loved to have seen all the people, but Mommie said because of this "Covid" thing, many people are still staying home from church on Sunday and watching it on their computers instead. She said we should pray for all the people to stay healthy and for this bad virus to go away so people can come back to church and worship together like we are supposed to do.

She said we should pray for all the people who are sick now, so they will get well very soon.

I am sad that so many people have been sick, and I hope and pray that none of my family gets sick.

I loved seeing all the pretty hymnbooks and Bibles in the pews.  Mommie said that the people in our little church love to sing and they are sad when they can't sing lots of songs together.  She said when this bad virus is over we can all sing lots and lots of songs again out loud, and without having to wear a mask over our face.  I pray that will happen really really soon.

OH look, Aunt Debbi and Tracie! Look at this beautiful piano!! Isn't is pretty? I wish I knew how to play the piano! Then I could play lots of nice songs and sing too!

Oh, and look at that big banner on the wall! It says:

"The JOY of the LORD is Your Strength".  

Mommie says that is a Bible verse found in the Old Testament, in Nehemiah 8:10.  

The Bible sure has lots of good things to tell us, doesn't it? Mommie says this verse means that when we are joyful in the Lord, we are very strong. Having God's joy helps us to stay strong.

Oh, aren't these windows wonderful?  They are so colorful and when the sun shines through them they light up with so many beautiful colors. They make me feel joyful too!

It's like God's rainbow of colors streaming into the church to make us all happy!

And here is a beautiful cross.  Mommie said the cross reminds us of Jesus, because He loved us so much that He died on a cross to save us from our sins.  Jesus never had any sins in His life at all, but He knew that all of us had lots and lots of sins, and if He didn't die in our place, we could never get rid of our sins.

Mommie said that when Jesus died on the cross, He took all of our sins with Him, and if we believe in Him, and ask Him to forgive all of our sins, we can live without those bad old sins in our hearts and go to be in heaven with Him when we die. That made me very happy and joyful.

After we saw all these pretty things inside the church, we went back outside and Mommie showed me some beautiful flowers that were blooming all around the church:

Aren't they gorgeous?  (Mommie said that's a big word for beautiful).

She said these are called "Camellias", and they only bloom at special times of the year, like right now.

It is a special time because it is winter here in Florida where we live, and most everything else has stopped blooming for a while, but then these pretty flowers bloom and make everyone smile.

Mommie said that pretty Camellia matches my pink lips! I like that! 

These pictures are not in order for our day, but this one below was early early this morning, when Mommie was having her morning cup of tea.

Today Mommie's tea cup said:

"Oh, sing to the Lord a new song.

Sing to the Lord, all the earth."

Psalm 96:1

I didn't know the Bible said so many things about singing, did you, Aunt Debbi? Her cup also had pretty birds on it, because they love to sing! I also love Mommie's teapot that has cute snowmen on it and lots of little birdies flying around in the trees and snow. It's a happy teapot.  Mommie said a good friend gave it to her for Christmas!  Mommie must have lots of good friends! They make Mommie smile a lot!

Mommie said to remember that "the Joy of the Lord is my strength!"  When we have joy in the Lord, we are a lot stronger! So it is good be joyful!

Oh guess what, Aunt Debbi and Tracie!!  I got to help Daddy put out the American Flag this morning. Daddy likes to put it out in front of the house every morning, unless it is raining. Today it was very foggy, but there wasn't any rain, so he said it was okay to put it out.

Mommie and Daddy are very proud to live in America, the land of the free! 

They said that we should always pray for our country and our leaders, and pray that God will keep our country free.

Next we checked Still Waters Pond to see if there were any geese, but it was too foggy and the geese weren't there this morning.

In a little while we took our morning walk.  

I loved these little tiny things that look like baby pinecones growing on the pine trees. Aren't they cute?

And then we saw this funny looking little pine tree that looks like it has really long funny hair sticking out all over it.  Mommie says this is a "long-needle pine tree", and the other one is a "short-needle pine tree".  I didn't know pine trees had needles! Yikes! I hope they don't prick me with them!!

Then Mommie showed me this funny looking tree that she calls "The Grinch Tree".

Mommie said she has told people about it before HERE.  She said that when she sees this "Grinch Tree" it reminds her to not let "the Grinch" steal her joy!  

So we finally came back home and what did I see? This tiny little lizard peeking at me!!

He was coming out from behind the skirting on the house to have a look at me. Mommie said they've been hiding in there all winter, and today is a much warmer day, so he probably wanted to come outside just like we did and enjoy a pretty day!  I thought he was cute, and I wanted to play with him, but he ran back inside and hid again.  Maybe next time he'll be brave enough to come out and visit with me.

Well, Aunt Debbi and Cousin Tracie, Mommie says it is time to fix supper so we have to bring this letter to a close.  Mommie said that you weren't feeling real good, so we are saying a prayer for you to feel better soon.  

Thank you again for sending me here to live with my new Mommie and Daddy. Mommie said that she thinks you knew that she needed a little girl to play with and that I help her have so much joy!!  That makes ME have joy too!!  

Bye Bye for now!

I love you.  Be joyful, because remember, "The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength!"

Love,

 Lily

Lillian Grace

xoxo