I'm fine. house projects, heat advisories, hibernating

Greetings Folks ~ the past few months have been full. We've had heat advisory warnings for over a month as the weather has been horribly hot and humid. Two more sections of fencing were put up just as this hot weather started so we took a break on doing more. Then my friend Sean who has been doing my fencing work, with my help, has a pulled tendon in his lumbar region from years of sports and heavy lifting with the job he has. So fencing is on hold for the time being until he can heal up. It's still too hot really, so hopefully it will be much cooler when he's ready to put up the next couple of sections of fencing. I am grateful for what has been accomplished. The last time he was here we just cleared stuff away from the old fencing. Stuff is growing back though with all of the rain we've been having. ;-)

Hurricane Idalia went up the west coast of Florida, I'm on the east. What a lot of damage has been done in FL, GA and the Carolinas. I just saw today that three typhoons converged on an area in China and there is great devastation there. The fire in Maui, just horrible. So much tragedy the world over.

There is another possible hurricane headed this way, hopefully NOT. We should know more this weekend.

House projects: laminate flooring was buckling in the kitchen, my dear BIL came to check things out. He took up flooring where we had cut a hole in the floor about 9 years ago when he repaired leaking water pipe under the house. Well, what he found had me in tears. A broken floor joist, but the worst thing he found was the caved in OLD cast iron sewer pipe. This house was built around 1950 - 1951 and cast iron is what they used back then. So, I asked at church is there happened to be a plumber in our church family. There is. He came to Plum Cottage, assessed the work, had two young plumbers from his company come out to do the work. They were here around 5 hours, one young man was doing the work under the house, cutting out the old pipe, grinding off connecting ends for the new PVC pipe, chipping/grinding out concrete. The other one handed down tools, etc. on his belly on the floor most of the time. They did a fantastic job. The owner of the business who came out to assess the job, did not charge me at all.  What a blessing that is for me!!

God sent a young man who does lawn work at a great price, for those who need help. He had seen me one morning as he drove by and wondered 'does she take care of that herself'. I had been out front working on my hedge. Later I found a note and his business card in a baggie tucked by my mailbox flag. For years, since my dear husband has been gone, I have prayed when I am out there working, that some lawn maintenance people would stop and see if they could help and give me prices.  No one ever did until now. This young man works for his dad, and they just live one street over. He has wondered who lived here for years, now he knows. He has spent 15 hours so far and done a great job. There is still more work to do, but I can only afford a little of his work at a time. I am so thankful to God for working this out for me. What a difference in how it looks around here with  the overgrowth being taken care. I felt like crying looking at before and after pictures as to how bad it had gotten around here, since covid happened. I lost my umph,  but with the work that Luis has done, I am feeling motivated to get back out into my gardens and keep on top of things as much as possible. Although, right now, I'm basically just keeping up with mowing until all of this horrible hot weather is over. It's been in the 90's and the real feel temps have been around 100-103.

I will post pictures later. This post is just to let you know I'm still alive, just hibernating.

I thought I had a horrible car problem, thinking it was the transmission, but what it was was that I had accidentally knocked the shifter over into manual.  I didn't even know you could do that. Anyway, that gave me quite the scare. Another nice young man from church helps out the elderly with all kinds of things and he works on cars and he changed my oil, put in a new oil filter, put on new wiper blades, air in tires, at No cost to me.

God is certainly taking care of this widow. I've now got to see about ripping up the floor and replacing the broken floor joist. Right now I'm basically tiptoeing around the area. Replacing the old sewer pipe was the most important thing that needed fixing.

I have termites also, so am going to look into the 'non-tenting' solution. Have heard it is good and you don't have to leave your house, take out all of your food, etc.

I have been stressed to say the least. Have been reading my Bible about not being anxious, listening to or watching devotionals about trusting God to work things out. Learning to 'cast all of my cares on Jesus, because He cares for me'. It is a 'daily' casting of cares. I am learning patience, learning that He is in control, that He knows what is best for me. I'm learning to be thankful in all circumstances. He's not done with me yet and still has plans for this widowed FlowerLady.

Ok, I think I've caught you up on all of what's going on down here at Plum Cottage. Thanks for checking up on me.

I am so looking forward to fall. This coming Friday will be the 54th anniversary of when my dear husband and I said 'I do'. I sure do miss him, the missing never ends, the grief is less, but can be  triggered at times. I watched a Hallmark movie the other night and when it ended I sat in my chair sobbing. Sigh! I miss the laughter, conversations, working/playing together, fixing our meals and making special ones for special times. I miss the twinkle in his deep brown eyes, his deep bass voice,  I miss his ways of showing me he loved me.

Friends, love your spouse, let them know how appreciative you are and how much they mean to you. Each day is a gift with many opportunities to show love and our loved ones need to know they are loved. We will be loved in return. We don't know if, how or when our lives could be changed in a minute. Be kind, show all of the love you can. Be thankful. 

It can be so easy to get discouraged, but faith in God, can lift us out of gloom. We have not been promised a care-free life, but we have been promised that He will never leave or forsake us. We are precious to Him.

Flowers are still blooming and giving me great joy. I am thankful to our awesome Creator for these gifts. I will close this post with the picture below of a lovely hibiscus and a bit of decorative rusty iron.

 

 Love, hugs and prayers, 

FlowerLady