Come along with Lily Grace as she explores her new world with her new family in Florida. Lily has an Aunt Debbi and an identical twin cousin Tracie living in Charleston, SC, to whom she will be writing letters to tell all about her new friends and family and adventures. Come along and join in the fun!
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!!
Happy Sunday Morning to all my wonderful new friends!
Psalm 118:24
"This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it."
We woke up bright and early, and Mommie had her cup of hot tea in a different mug today! It says:
"The whole world is a series of miracles,
but we're so used to them we call them
ordinary things."
She said that today we will enjoy a lot of those "ordinary things" that are really miracles all around us.
Oh, Aunt Debbi and Cousin Tracie...look at what was out in the "Big Pond" first thing this morning! The geese were right there to greet me...and it was even raining, but they didn't even care! And they didn't fly away when we came out on the porch to say good morning! Oh, by the way, Mommie says to tell you that the real name for the "big pond" is "Still Waters Pond". Mommie calls it that because she says that God brought them here to live "beside the still waters", just like in that special Psalm 23 the Bible talks about...
I really loved seeing the geese out there this morning. I think that was one of those "miracles" that some people think is just an ordinary thing. What do YOU think, Aunt Debbi?
After de-vo-shuns (where we read about Jonah and the big fish and God giving Jonah a second chance to obey His commands and go preach to the people of Ninevah after the big fish spit him out on the shore...boy! I bet Jonah smelled and looked funny after being in the belly of that big old fish for three days! No wonder the people listened to him! Hey! That's another miracle, isn't it?)
Anyway, as I was saying, after de-vo-shuns and breakfast, Mommie and Daddy got ready for church. I wanted to go with them but they said that right now they aren't able to have any Sunday School for the children because of something bad called "Covid", and everyone has to wear a mask and stay far away from each other, and they can't even hug...and they thought it might be better for me to stay home and watch the church service online with my friends here. So that is what I did, but Mommie set up the computer for us so we could watch the service and sing along with the choir. Mommie is singing in the choir with the other people. Can you see her, Aunt Debbi and Tracie? My mommie is way over on the far left, and she sings something called "alto". Mommie said that means she sings with a lower voice than the other ladies, who sing something called "soprano". Those are big words, but I love music and I want to learn everything I can. So Mommie taught me this song so I could sing along:
She said if you click on that arrow on the picture below you can hear them singing and sing along too! And then, if you want to stay and listen a while, you can hear the preacher preach a sermon.
Mommie said a sermon is a nice story that the preacher tells from the Bible, and that we should listen very carefully because the Bible is God's Word, and God wants to teach us all about His Son Jesus and how to live here on earth, and how to get "saved" so we can go to heaven someday. I know I want to be saved so I can go to heaven. Mommie said we can talk more about that soon. I am so excited to know all about Jesus!!
These are the words to the song the choir is singing. It's kind of a happy song about going to heaven! I really loved singing along with them!
"Chariot's Comin'"
I’ve got a home waitin’ in the heavenly kingdom
Up where the streets are paved with gold.
And someday I know I’ll be headin’ for the heavenly kingdom
With a chariot to carry me home.
Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home
Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home.
Looked over Jordan, and what did I see
Comin’ for to carry me, carry me home.
A shiny golden chariot waitin’ there for me.
It’s gonna carry me home.
Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home
Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home.
My day is comin’ as sure as can be
Comin’ for to carry me, carry me home
I hear a band of angels callin’ out to me
They’re gonna carry me home.
Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home
Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home.
Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home
Swing low, sweet chariot, comin’ for to carry me home.
Chariot’s comin’ to carry me home! YEAH!!!
After church Mommie and Daddy came home and Mommie wanted to have a cup of tea and eat a grapefruit, so we went out on the porch so we could listen to the birds while she enjoyed her snack.
When Mommie looked at the tag on her tea bag, she laughed and clapped her hands because of what it said:
"Why not brew up a little ray of sunshine?"
She said that I was her "little ray of sunshine", and it made her really happy to see that sweet little message on her teabag just then! I am so glad that I can help make my Mommie smile. That really makes me happy too!
After she finished her cup of tea she took me for a walk around the back yard. The first thing we noticed was this sweet little fairy flower! That's what Mommie called it, and I thought about your little "Fairy Granddaughter", Aunt Debbi! And she has one of my special identical cousins, "Daisy". I wish they could come see these sweet little fairy flowers! I know they would love them just like I do.
Mommie said we could pick some for a bouquet before we go back inside the house, but first she wanted to show me some special places in the the yard.
I was so excited to see this darling little girl sitting in the garden, holding a flower in her hand. Mommie says we might need to clean her up a bit this spring as she is looking a little weary from sitting outside in the weather so long. I said I would love to help make her look prettier and happier.
And look, Aunt Debbie and Tracie! There are little bunnies everywhere!
And there is another cute little boy and girl standing in the garden. They are just about my size, and I hope we will become good friends!
Oh Aunt Debbi and Tracie, wait until you see where we went next!
Look at this little sign! Do you know what it says?
It says, "Wel-come to my se-cret gar-den"
A Secret Garden!!! Oh! I was so excited!!
My Mommie has her very own secret garden!!!
And look at this other sign that is hanging on the gate into the Secret Garden:
That is something really special, don't you think? The "Secret Garden" is a place where we can rest our minds and soften our hearts! I like that idea, don't you?
Oh, Aunt Debbi and Tracie, this next sign kind of made me very sad. I had to ask Mommie to read it to me and to tell me what it meant. Mommie told me that I have another big brother that I haven't gotten to meet yet, because he is already in heaven. She said his name is Matthew, and that he went to heaven almost seven years ago, because he was very very sick and Jesus took him home to live with Him. Oh, I am so sad to learn about this, but Mommie said the good news is that because Matthew believed in Jesus as his personal Savior, he was saved and went to heaven to live forever. And also she said that he isn't sick anymore and never will be sick again! And then she said that if we believe in Jesus as our personal Savior, we can also go to heaven and live forever some day. Mommie told me another special Bible verse called "John 3:16". And this is what it says:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
Mommie said that Jesus is God's "only begotten Son", and so if we BELIEVE in Him, we can go to heaven someday and live forever, just like my big brother Matthew.
That made me feel a little better to know that if I believe in Jesus I will get to go to heaven someday and see Jesus and also get to meet my big brother. But it still makes me kind of sad that he can't be here now so I can see him. Mommie said that he also has a wife and a son who live in another state far away from here, and that maybe someday I will get to meet them. I hope so, because I just know I will love them already!
Here's a picture of my Mommie and Daddy, their grandson Noah, and his Daddy Matthew and mother Nicole. This picture was taken a little while before Matthew went to heaven:
Mommie showed me this funny little Froggy sitting in a flower pot. She said that Matthew sometimes called himself Froggy, and so this cute little froggy is there to remind them of him.
That made me smile after feeling so sad.
Then look what I found! This is a very BIG BENCH in the Secret Garden, and it says:
"Mom's Secret Garden".
Mommie told me that my big brother Scott put this beautiful bench together for her one year for Christmas, and then my other big brother Benton painted the words on it to make it extra special.
I thought that was really really nice.
And so we sat down on Mommie's bench and listened to the birdies in the treetops singing.
And we sat really quietly, hoping they would come down and eat from the bird feeder, but Mommie said they probably were a little afraid of us sitting there so close, and so we decided to get up and go do some more exploring in the yard.
Mommie showed me this cute Bluebird house on the tree. She said that one time some Bluebirds were in the yard and she hoped they would come there and live, but they never did. However, she said a different bird called a "Tufted Titmouse" did come and make a next in there and had some baby birds there last spring. Oh! I do hope they will come back and have more babies in that cute birdhouse this spring! Wouldn't that be a lot of fun to see?
Next we walked around to a place beside "Still Waters Pond", and just enjoyed seeing the trees and water and places where Mommie said some wildflowers will be growing and blooming in the spring.
Springtime must be really special here. I can't wait to see it!
We went back and picked my little bouquet of fairy flowers, and then Mommie introduced me to "Bobbie the Squirrel", who lives in the birdbath. She apologized for the uncleanliness of the birdbath and said that we are going to have to come out and do some work in our garden and yard soon.
But anyway, "Bobbie the Squirrel" used to sit in my Daddy's Mommy's birdbath at her house. Her name was "Nanny", and she's gone to heaven now too, but we are taking good care of "Bobby the Squirrel" for her.
We finally went back up on the porch and Mommie told me about this beautiful wind chime that is hanging there. She said that it was made especially in memory of my big brother Matthew after he went to heaven. She said that he loved to fish and also he one time went on a "moose hunt" with his son Noah, and they really liked mooses up where he used to live way up north. There is also a dove of peace on this and a sunshine at the bottom. Mommie says that every time she hears the chimes in the wind she thinks of Matthew. I think that is very special, don't you, Aunt Debbie and Tracie? Now I will be listening for those chimes to ring in the wind and I will think of my big brother up in heaven.
It seems like there must be a lot of special people up in heaven.
I am named for one of them..."Lillian", and Baby Elva is named for one of them, and Mommie tells me there are many more wonderful people waiting for us there someday. She said it will be a wonderful day when we all get to heaven, but in the meantime we have to live our very best life right here and be very kind and good to other people.
Oh look! Another little bunny rabbit! There are so many fun things to see here. Even with the sad stories, there is a lot to be happy about too.
So back inside the house Mommie found this cute little tiny teapot to put our little bouquet of fairy flowers in:
And guess what, Aunt Debbi and Tracie? She told me that the little flowers that are painted on the side of this little teapot are called "Lily of the Valley"!! Oh! Can you believe it? These pretty little white flowers have my name? That made this even MORE special. Oh, and one more thing...Mommie told me that someone very special gave that little teapot to her for her birthday. She said that I have another special Auntie! Her name is "Aunt Doris", and she is my Mommie's big sister!! She said that she knows Aunt Doris is going to be very excited to meet me some day!! Oh! I can't wait to meet her! I hope it will be really really soon!!
Well, Aunt Debbi and Tracie, Mommie says it is soon going to be time for supper and that we should try to finish this letter. But it is so hard to stop, because it's just been such a wonderful day! And Mommie was right...what her tea cup said this morning was true:
"The whole world is a series of miracles,
but we're so used to them we call them
ordinary things."
(Hans Christian Anderson)
I think all these things we've seen today are really lots of miracles! And it is also a miracle that you thought to send me here, Aunt Debbi, because you wanted to do something nice for my Mommie...and you also did something so nice for me too! And you know what? I think sharing this story with everyone is something really nice and special too. I do hope we will make lots of new friends here and that they will write something nice back to us to let us know if they are enjoying this story as much as we are!!
