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

 

Weekend Adventures with Lily Grace

Good Monday Morning!! Mommie said some people don't like Mondays because they have to go back to work or school after a nice weekend,  but since I don't have to do either one, I like Mondays just like I like all the other days!  And this morning it is pretty cold here in sunny Florida...39 degrees, Mommie said!  Brrr! That's cold!  But she said for some of you living up north, this would be a nice spring day. So we will enjoy this nice spring day no matter what the weather is!

If you read my post on Saturday morning HERE, I said that Saturday was going to be a cloudy, rainy, cold and dreary kind of a day, and so it was rainy...but we didn't let that stop us from having an "adventure"!

We decided to take a ride in the car to that pretty little town near us called Hawthorne again.

I love looking out the windows as we ride down the road, don't you?

We were on that road that they are still working on, and this big old crane was holding some of their equipment up in the air for the weekend so no one would steal it while they weren't there...

It sure was raining, and I was wearing my nice teal rain poncho that Auntie Pamela made for me, in case we had to go outside in the rain.

When we got to the little town of Hawthorne, the rain let up a bit so we could see some pretty things. We didn't get out, but we just rode around the town looking at the old fashioned buildings. (Mommie said if you click on that link for Hawthorne it will tell you more about the history of this old town, which is very interesting).

This place used to be a hotel way back in the day, but Mommie said she thinks they use it for apartments now, so people can live there all the time.

Here is the history of this hotel, known as the Moore Hotel,  if you'd like to read it. It's interesting.

Isn't it pretty?  I think I'd like to live there!

HERE in a LINK to a Facebook page about the Museum if you are interested in more about the history of this little town.

Mommie and Daddy always like to look at the pretty churches in these small towns. Here is the Methodist church.  Isn't it pretty?

I hope you enjoyed our little tour of the little town of Hawthorne.  Mommie said we need to show people that Florida isn't all beaches and Disney World. There's a lot of history and interesting and beautiful places all around us if we just take the time to look.  She said that when we take these little rides it is also to help me learn more about the history of our area, 'cause I need to know stuff and learn things!

When we got back home from our ride I helped Mommie bake some more of those good Coconut-pecan cookies that Daddy and my brother Scotty love so much:

Speaking of my brother Scotty...this is just another picture of that cool motorcycle he created from copper wire.  He said he keeps "tweaking" it to make it better.  Oh, do you see that copper angel behind it? He made that for Mommie for her birthday last year...isn't it beautiful?  He's very talented.

On Sunday it was kind of chilly, so when I got dressed for church I kept my pink striped PJ's on under my pink dress!

Here was our verse for the day yesterday:

Mommie said she already showed you this picture on her page yesterday,  but she wondered if you had counted how many birds were on this tree?

She said lots of people guessed on her Facebook page, but only a few got it right. She said you really need to look very carefully...as some of the birds might be just a bit blurry!! Let us know how many birds YOU see, okay?

This was our verse for Saturday, but I wanted to share it again, because it has my name in it! Do you see it? Right at the beginning it says "Grace" and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord".  

I said to Mommie, "Hey! I see my name there!! My name is Lily GRACE!"   And Mommie reminded me that my name GRACE means an undeserved blessing, or unmerited favor.  She said grace is when God gives us blessings that we have not earned, but He does it because He loves us so much.  She said the biggest gift of GRACE is His gift of salvation...because we can't earn it.  It is a gift of God.

We can find that in the Bible in the book of 

Ephesians 2:8-9

8. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 

9. not of works, lest anyone should boast."

I am trying to learn these things, and I want to share what I learn with you, so just in case you didn't know these things you can learn them with me!

Well, that sums up our weekend. I hope you had a wonderful weekend too!

Have a blessed and beautiful week. I can't wait to hear all about it!

Love Always,

Lily Grace

xoxoxoxo

 

Small Blessings

Hello to all my special friends!  I hope you are having a happy Saturday! I love Saturdays. It's kind of a "free day", when many big people don't usually have to go to work, unless they have a special job that needs them to work on Saturday, and kids don't have to go to school, and it's a day when sometimes families get together to have parties or just play together.  Mommie says it's a day to catch up on working in the yard or cleaning the house or just doing something you like to do for fun.

Mommie said we should always be thankful for the "small blessings" that come into our lives, as well as the BIG blessings.  She said sometimes the best things come in small packages and that we should never overlook the little ways that God chooses to bring a blessing into our lives. 

 

Mommie says that something (or someone), no matter how big or small, if it makes you smile and brings joy to your heart, it is a blessing and we should thank the Lord for it.

She said that's how she feels about ME!

 

Mommie says that I am one of those "small blessings" that came into her life unexpectedly, and that God used Aunt Debbi and my identical cousin Tracie to send her some special love in a package that was meant to be shared with everyone!

Wow! That's pretty wonderful!

So yesterday afternoon Mommie said that Daddy needed some more cookies!  And she said that every little girl needs to learn how to bake cookies for her family.  (Actually she said little boys can learn to do this too, because she taught my big brother Scott how to bake cookies when he was little and he still likes to do it today to make people happy!)

(Recipe for Coconut Pecan Cookies can be found on this post)

Mommie also said it was okay for me to lick the beater a little bit. She said every child  she ever knew has licked a beater and grew up healthy and happy to tell about it.  Not sure why she said that, but she mumbled something about big people out there saying it was bad to lick the beaters, but they probably just never had the opportunity to do so and so they didn't want anyone else to do it either...

We had so much fun baking these cookies together.  Mommie said I could have this little tiny mixer for my very own. (She said to tell you, No, she didn't go out and buy this mixer to spoil me...it was a gift to her a long time ago and it was just sitting in her cupboard...waiting for me to come along I guess!)

After we finished baking our cookies Mommie said we should have a little tea party to celebrate and sample our cookies!  After a very cold morning, the sun came out and warmed it up enough for us to go out on the porch for our tea party:

We are using a cute little teapot and teacups that a special friend gave Mommie for her birthday! The tea cups are small enough for me to use.  Mommie said again that special blessings come in small packages!

 Mommie says that is kind of like what God did for all of us when He sent His Son Jesus to us in a tiny package...a little baby born in a manger, and that He was sent to the world as a very special gift to bless the whole world with His love and salvation. But she said Jesus didn't stay as a little baby in the manger. No, He grew up to be a man who never did anything wrong, and He taught us all about how to live and love one another, and then people turned against Him and they crucified Him on a cross. But those people were wrong. They didn't understand who He was...the Son of God. And they missed the wonderful gift that could have blessed them and given them eternal life if they had only believed.

Mommie says that we need to always remember that, and never forget that sometimes God wants to get our attention through "small blessings.

Thank you again for being one of my special friends and visiting me here.  I do hope you will come back again.  Mommie says that we may have another special adventure to share later, so be sure to stay tuned.

Oh, and also be sure to look for those "small blessings" that God may be sending to you every day! Sometimes they come in unexpected packages that you don't recognize at first...but when you ask God to show you, He opens your eyes to see the treasure that is right there before your eyes!

Jeremiah 33:3

 ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’