Lily Grace Makes Some New Friends!

Good Morning Friends in Bloggy Land!  It seems like it's been ages since I've shared any new adventures with you!

Well, maybe that's because I've been so busy enjoying getting acquainted with some new special friends!  I would like to introduce to you my beautiful little horsey, "Bella".

Bella was looking for a new home because she was unhappy living at the local flea market in a box out in the hot sun.  When Mommie saw her, she knew that she would be well loved and taken care of here at our house!! I was sure surprised when Mommie and Daddy brought Bella home and told me that she was to be my new friend!

Of course I fell in love with her at once!! She is so beautiful! That is why I named her "Bella", because the name "Bella" means beautiful in the Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and Latin languages! (Yes, of course I can speak all those different languages fluently! Ha Ha! Just kidding!  Bet I fooled you!)

I did try to ride Bella, but we decided that Bella is just a bit too small for me to ride.  But she is still my very special friend and I love her so much!

I wanted to introduce her to some of my other friends, especially the Teddy Bears and dolls in my room.  But then Mommie had another surprise for me!  

We like to read some of Mommie's old books that she's had since she was a little girl like me.  And when she found this book, "Ginger the Paper Doll",  Mommie had another surprise for me!  "Ginger" the paper doll was named after one of Mommie's special dollies from her childhood, "Ginger" the Ginny Doll!  Isn't she lovely?  Mommie said she is very delicate because she is so old...maybe more than 65 years old!! Wow! I guess that is why she is retired and lives in Mommie's antique china closet with Barbie and the Madame Alexander girls.  (That's another story for another time, Mommie said). 

 

Anyway, this little book was written many many years ago (1957 to be exact!), and it came with a paper doll that looked just like our Ginger, and it had lots of pretty clothes that you could cut out and put on the paper doll to change her outfits along with the story in the book.  Sadly, the paper doll and her clothes are long gone.  But the book has wonderful pictures and a great story to go along with them!

Ginger was a lovely ballerina, and could dance so daintily!! I wish I could be a ballerina!!

And then Ginger got to take a walk in the park in the snow, and she got to go sledding and skating on the ice!  Wow! That looks like a lot of fun! We don't get any snow or ice here where I live, but if we did, I sure would love to go out and play in it! Do you get snow and ice where you live?  Can I come and visit you?

Oh, now, this is more like where I live!  We can go to the seashore and play in the sand and jump in the waves.  And we can go to the park and swing on the swings...

And NOW, since I have a horsie named Bella, I can be a cowgirl too, just like Ginger! See her nice hat and boots?  I have a hat and boots too!!

Oh lookie!  Ginger has a lovely party dress and gets to go to parties with her friends!

I have a party dress too!  And I've had LOTS of parties with my friends!

Wasn't that a lot of fun?  I love making new friends, don't you?

I am happy Mommie brought Bella home to live with me, and also I am happy that we found this little book about Ginger and now I also have the real Ginger as my special friend!!!

I would say that's all quite the adventure! Wouldn't you?

And now it's time for me to put on my pajamas too, and go to sleep, just like Ginger the paper doll! 

It's been a long day, full of fun and play.

Good Night Friends!

Thank you for being my special friends!

Love,

Lily Grace

xoxoxoxo

Oh, here are some special thoughts about being a real friend to others...and also how to be a better friend to myself!! Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so!

 

Lily Grace and Hurricane Elsa!

Today we are having my very first hurricane ever! Her name is "Elsa".  

I've been sitting in front of the window all day long, watching the rain coming down on 

Still Waters Pond.

I was hoping Mrs. Bluebird would stick out her head and say hello, but she's staying inside her warm, dry, snug little house, keeping her new baby's eggs nice and warm.

Mommie and I went out on the back porch to listen to the rain coming down on the tin roof. It was really really loud.

Sometimes the rain was almost deafening, and we couldn't even hear each other talk! I bet it was noisy inside Mrs. Bluebird's house too. I hope she's not afraid of Hurricane Elsa.

Mommie said the birdies know just what to do in a storm.  God has taught them how to stay safe and to not be afraid, because they know God is taking care of them.  I said to Mommie, "Well, if God is taking care of the Bluebirds, then surely He must be going to take care of me too, right?"  Mommie said,

"Oh Yes, Lily!  God tells us in the Bible that 

"The very hairs of your head are all numbered. 

Do not fear therefore; 

you are of more value than many sparrows."

Luke 12:7

I asked Mommie if bluebirds are like sparrows? And she said yes, they are all God's special little creatures, and He watches over all of them, and even more so, He watches over you!

Then I remembered that my Auntie Debbi and Identical cousin Tracie sent me a little book about two girls named Anna and Elsa!  I knew I'd heard that name before!

So I asked Mommie if we could read it again to be sure if I was right about the little girl being named Elsa, just like the hurricane...and sure enough...there she is!  Right there in my book!!

Anna and Elsa are sisters, and they look after each other.  They are very blessed to have each other!

Mommie said that we have lots of friends, and we look after each other too...right here in "blogland".

When one of our friends is sad or hurting, we pray for them and try to cheer them up.

When one of our friends is happy, we celebrate with them! That's what friends are for! Like sisters, we look out for each other!

Mommie said that we are all stronger together.  Two are better than one.

"The Value of a Friend"

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

"9 Two are better than one,

Because they have a good reward for their labor.

10 For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.

But woe to him who is alone when he falls,

For he has no one to help him up.

11 Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm;

But how can one be warm alone?

12 Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.

And a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

After we read my little book about Anna and Elsa, I decided that today being such a rainy day, it would be a good day to play with Mommie's special dollhouse, "Pamela's Victorian Cottage".

My little friends were all so excited to see me. 

Even my little fairy friends were there waiting in the garden.  It wasn't raining in their garden.  We could play there all day long!

My friends invited me into their house for a little tea party, and we had such a nice time.

And then I went down the lane to the little cottage on the farm, where the farm family lives.

They were busy working in their garden and on the farm, but they were so happy to see me.

And so we had another little tea party in their yard!

Then Mommie said it was time to finish our story and put things away...but not before 

she had a cup of tea too!

And then we read a little from the devotional book that Auntie Opal gave me:

Mommie said this one fits right in with what we've been talking about:

Yes, we should thank God for our friends.  And I hope I can always be a "true and loving friend" too.

It looks like Hurricane Elsa has pretty well passed by. It is still raining just a little bit,  but we haven't had any bad winds or any kind of damage. Our pond is pretty full, but we are sitting high and dry.

We are very thankful and praise God for His lovingkindness to us. We pray that everyone else comes through this storm safely too.

Bye Bye for now!

Love,

Lily Grace

 

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!!!  

 

Lily Makes a New Friend and The Bluebirds Fly Away!

Well, Today has certainly been a very special day!! So much is happening, I don't know what to tell you about first! 

So we will start with the story of "The Little Engine That Could".  If you read Mommie's blog post yesterday "The Best", you know that we read this special little book to my little friends.  

And so today, Mommie and Daddy had a surprise for me.  We went to the park in our little town where there is a very special little train, just for little children like me! It's called the "Interlachen Express". I was so excited to get to go and play on the little blue engine and pretend I was on the "Little Engine That Could"...."I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."

I was having so much fun playing on this little engine, that I never saw or heard a little girl come around to say hello.

But all of a sudden there was this sweet little girl and she had a special friend with her:

She was very friendly and wanted to know my name and if I could play with her and her friend, "Frozen".

She said her name was "Isabella', and she was very proud of her little friend "Frozen", but she said we couldn't touch Frozen because she had special powers and if we touched her it would take her powers away.  But she was so nice, and she actually did let me touch her dolly.

We had such a nice time, and Isabella wanted to know if I could come back and play with her again sometime. She said she is out of school now and likes to come to the playground.

Mommie took our picture on the little train engine.  When Mommie said, "smile", we all smiled as big as we could!  I was so happy to meet Isabella and her friend Frozen. I do hope we can meet again someday and play.

Before we left the playground I wanted to get on the big sliding board, so here I am.  I wonder if Isabella ever gets on the big sliding board? Maybe not yet, because she is a little girl, but maybe someday she and I could slide down together. That would be so much fun!

So that was my very special adventure this morning...but wait, there's still more!

Oh, before I forget, Mommie wanted me to show you what came in the mail for her as a surprise the other day:

Our friend Auntie Pamela has gone back up north for the summer, but she said she saw on one of my posts that Mommie's "One Word" for this year is "Believe".

And so she found this pretty lapel pin online and wanted to send it to Mommie.  Isn't it beautiful?

Mommie said that even though it says it is a "Christmas" pin, Mommie thinks it is something to wear anytime.  It is very very special, and we thank Auntie Pamela for being so thoughtful. 

I believe God wanted her to send it to us, don't you?

And now for the rest of our morning's surprises and adventures:

On our way to the park we stopped by my big brother Benton's house to say hi to him and to Sugar and Spice.  They were so happy to see me:

And I wanted to see something extra special they have at their house right now. They had put a see through bird feeder on their front window where they could watch the birdies come and eat. But instead, a Wren decided to build her nest in there, and now there are baby birds in the nest!! How cool is that? They can actually watch them from inside the house!

If you look very closely, you can see a little head popping up in the nest. There are four tiny baby birds in there!  That is so exciting!

But there's more exciting news than that! Mommie says to hang on to your hat, because there are a lot of pictures and action in these next photos:

Today is the day our baby Bluebirds have decided to leave the nest and fly away!!

We noticed this fella sticking his head out further and further...

Then Mama Bluebird came and gave him something to eat and tried to encourage him to come on out...

Then Daddy came with a juicy grasshopper...look at that big mouth open wide!

Maybe he just teased him with it to get him to come outside, because he looks kind of grumpy below, like, "Hey! Where'd you go with that grasshopper? I'm hungry!!"

"Hmmmph! That's a fine how do you do! I'm getting my feathers all in a ruffle over this treatment!"

"Well, Maybe I just need to stick my head out a little more and see what it's like out here in the big world!"

"Hey! It's pretty neat out here!  And look at those big trees up there! Wow! Maybe I should take a leap of faith and try to fly!" "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."

"Look out world, here I come!!"

And with that he gave himself a push and he flew up on our porch roof, and then Mama and Daddy Bluebird coaxed him over to the tree...not sure where he is, but they were making lots of noises cheering him on...

("I thought I could, I thought I could, I thought I could...")

Not sure who this is, if it is the baby or mama...

"Hey! Wait a minute!! What about ME????"  "Don't Forget about ME!!!!"

And soon we saw #2 bird fly away too to join the rest of them.  We know there were at least 3 birds in the nest, but we didn't get to see all of them leave.  I think they are all out now, because Mama and Daddy aren't bringing anymore food for them.

This picture above show Mama with a mouth full of grasshopper, and a Tufted Titmouse sitting there on the gutter too, (Not sure where he came from)  but one of the baby bluebirds is up on the roof looking around at his new world.

And thus begins the new journey for our Baby Bluebirds....flying bravely into their new world of adventure!  I hope they stay around a while so we can see them , but Mommie says they may soon fly off to other places to join the rest of the flock.  We will wait and see what happens next.

It sure was fun watching them. I am SO happy we got to see at least two of them fly out of the birdhouse. 

Wasn't this a great day for adventure?  

I BELIEVE God wanted us to have this special adventure day today, don't you?

And I am so happy I made a new little friend, Isabella and her dolly Frozen.

I am very thankful to God for these special blessings today. 

This comes from the little devotional book that Auntie Opal gave to Mommie and me called 

"Choose Grace".  Mommie said she thinks it goes along very well with what we are talking about today.

I believe she is right, don't you?

Have a Happy Day, my friends!

God has many wonderful things yet in store for us!

Bye bye for now.

Love,

Lily Grace

xoxoxoxo