We survived!

Hi dear Friends ~ this will just be a quick note to let you know I arrived home this morning, took me about an hour to get here. Some traffic lights were out so I just had to watch and treat those intersections like a 4 way stop. I was so relieved to pull into my driveway.

Barn girls FINE! What a relief!  Some broken tree limbs barely brushing my cottage roof. They will stay there until help comes. Some fence damage, but not much. Lots of limbs and palm fronds and leaves all over. Everything got battered good. I’m so glad I didn’t stay here, I would have been freaking out.

An electric crew from Connecticut just hooked my power back up about 30 minutes or so ago. Bless their hearts. They were really nice. I don’t know how long PC was without power, possibly 48 hours maybe a little more. The fridge smells funky, so I need to clean that out.  I checked the chest freezer and things in there were still solid. I am thankful for that.

Ok, that’s it for now. Miss Tork and I are so glad to be back home. I am so thankful Plum Cottage and my barn girls survived the storm. It could have been so much worse. We weren’t able to see news about Naples and areas on the west coast of FL to see how they fared. It was really rough.

Thanks be to God for His protection for Plum Cottage.

Thank you all for your love, prayers and words of encouragement.

Time for some supper. Tomorrow will be more clean up of the property.

Love & hugs ~ FlowerLady

Good morning Folks,

I'm on my tablet. Feeder bands are giving us gusty winds of winter around 45 mph. Under a tornado watch.

I pray for my little place & my girls. I slept pretty good considering. Any time I feel fear I pray. My faith is being tested & strengthened. ;-)

Keep us in your prayers, thank you.

FlowerLady

Boarded up

Hi Folks ~ Thank you so much for your prayers and words of encouragement. I am exhausted this afternoon, almost 4 p.m. Worked for three hours with two nice guys from church putting up my plywood. It was HOT and very humid, and we were out there from around 10-1, right now it is 91 and feels like it is 104. It’s awful! We were sweating buckets. They did a thorough job with screwing it all down tight. I asked them their favorite cookie and both said peanut butter and I said with chocolate chips? They said yes, so they will both be getting a batch of these.  Before they left the three of us took hands and prayed, which was very nice.

After they left I cleaned up a bit to go to the grocery store for cat food and litter, and got some larger bottles of Fuji artisan water, the only water they had, 4 for $5. The store was packed with buyers but no water on the shelves. Although, I did see people going out with 5 gal. jugs. I wouldn’t have been able to handle those at any rate.  After hurricanes Francis, Jeanne and Wilma in 2004 and 2005 we still had water. With Wilma, we lost electricity for 13 days. Only God knows what will happen with this storm.

Continue to keep Florida and other areas in the path of this storm in your prayers. The last hurricane we had here was Wilma in Oct. 2005 and it was very scary. We’re praying that Irma will turn northward and stay out off land. Time will tell. I-75, I-95 and the turnpike are bumper to bumper with people leaving.

Here are three pics. My Dear Husband cut hearts into the plywood, to let in a little light and we could see out a little also. The two guys thought that was really a sweet thing to do, and I think so too. These plywood pieces have seen better days, but still doing the job.

Tomorrow would have been our 48th anniversary. I sure do miss my ‘one of a kind’ man.

Below is a picture of a watercolor I painted many, many years ago. Drawn free hand and I’m no portrait painter, but I love the quirkyness of the painting. I love the twinkle in my DH’s eyes. Painted from a photo. Painting was given to an eccentric wealthy artist who collected paintings from people for an art museum down south of here. He in turn let us pick out a couple of pieces of artwork in trade. DH painted a painting also, if I find the photo we took of it, I’ll post it later.

We were much younger then.

Ok, I’ve got more prep work to do, so that’s it for now.

Love & hugs ~ FlowerLady

I will close with the following from Grace Gems.

"Cast your burden upon the Lord--and He will sustain you." Psalm 55:22

The promise is not that the Lord will remove the load we cast upon Him, nor that He will carry it for us--but that He will sustain us so that we may carry it.
He does not free us from the duty--but He strengthens us for it.
He does not deliver us from the conflict--but He enables us to overcome.
He does not withhold or withdraw the trial from us--but He helps us in trial to be submissive and victorious, and makes it a blessing to us.
He does not mitigate the hardness or severity of our circumstances, taking away the difficult elements, removing the thorns, making life easy for us--but He puts Divine grace into our hearts, so that we can live sweetly in all the hard, adverse circumstances.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!" Philippians 4:13

Hurricane/s

Good afternoon Folks ~ It is Tuesday. After all of the coverage of Harvey, and seeing all of the devastation, which has been heartbreaking,  now FL is watching Irma, and then possibly another storm right behind.

I am trying to not ‘freak out’, and God keeps sending me verses about His care in different devotionals. All coming when I need the encouragement.

I miss my dear husband something awful. One day when I came home from work when he was sick and bedridden, he called out to me, “The verse of the day is, “Cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you.” That verse is found in 1 Peter 5:7. Wonderful, loving words of wisdom from my sweetie that I remember in times of stress.

This from Grace Gems was really good, from 3 Sept. was called “He Cares.”

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The object of God's tender, perfect and ceaseless care!

(James Smith, "Divine Care!" 1865)

"Casting all your care upon Him--for He cares for you!" 1 Peter 5:7

Our cares must be cast upon our God, or they will prove a burden too heavy for us--they will depress, bewilder, and make us wretched! (My underlining.)

WHO is it that cares for us?

It is the Lord Almighty--the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy!
It is He whom the angels obey, the seraphim adore, and all creation glorifies!
It is the Lord--who is so great, that we have no adequate conception of His greatness!
It is He who is so good--that it is impossible fully to set forth His goodness!
It is He who is so glorious--that no sinner can see His face and live!
It is He who created all things with His Word!
It is He who governs all things by His wisdom!
It is He who upholds all things by His power!
It is He whose resources are infinite!
It is He whose compassion is exquisite!
It is He whose patience is without limit!

But though He is so exalted, so happy, and so unspeakably great--He cares for you!

He cares for you--as base as you are.
He cares for you--as sinful as you are.
He cares for you--as depressed and discouraged as you are.

HE cares for YOU!

May I pass through the present world under the impression, "I am the object of God's tender, perfect and ceaseless care!"

"Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall." Psalm 55:22

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“Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He shall strengthen your heart.”

Friends will be helping me board up Plum Cottage once again, and I’ve places to stay, either with family or friends. I have 4 feline girls to think about too.

Keep us 5 girls in your prayers and I’ll keep you posted.

Thank you ~ FlowerLady