Thankful Me

I just love these old photos from the 1920's.

The visiting teaching message for August, found here , is all about Jesus Christ's role as the Messiah.  (I don't know about you, but whenever I hear the word "Messiah," Handel's classic music starts playing in my mind.) 

As I've mentioned once or twice, John and I are temporarily empty-nesters.  We've now completed week two of just-the-two-of-us. Life hasn't gotten boring yet, though:

As you may recall, my youngest daughter flew the coop.  Literally Figuratively Well, kinda really.  She got on an airplane last week and is now staying with my brother's family for the summer.  This leaves John and me alone with no supervision. 

Today's Thursday, which means it's time for another installment of old family photos.  I'm trying to post many of the photos my grandma gave me, so that other members of the family will have access to them. 

Did you see the supermoon this month?   Thanks for the moon. 

  original source

Who can resist the magic of hummingbirds?  They buzz around so quickly, their tiny wings nothing but a fluttering blur.  Their diminutive size is almost unbelievable.  

John and I do a great job of making time for a weekly date.  We occasionally get away for the weekend, and we've taken a handful of sans-kiddos vacations.  While the kids were growing up, they would occasionally be gone for scout camp or a church youth conference.  For all intents and purposes, though, we have had at least one child at home for the past 25 years.  Since 1989.  Since before the Berlin Wall came down.  Since the first Bush administration.  A long, long time.  Which was totally worth it, by the way, but still, a long, long time. That all (meaning the "at least one child at home" statement) changed this morning.  At least temporarily.  

I am very close in age to two of my cousins.  They are sisters.  One was born a few months before me; the other, about a year after me.  In looking through old photos recently, I came across photos of the three of us.  With their permission, I'm posting some today.

Remember how summers during childhood stretched out for so long?  We would amuse ourselves by playing games with neighborhood children.  In some ways, I haven't grown up yet.  My friend Carol, from An Oasis in the Desert , recently tagged me.  The rules of the game dictate that I answer her questions, then tag other bloggers to answer the same questions.  So watch out, I'm " IT !"

I think that sometimes the simplest dishes are the most tasty.  Such is the case with these layered summer berries.  

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That excerpt from the Declaration of Independence has been on my mind this week.  Those beautiful words set the course of this nation.  I'm thankful for the courage of the members of the Continental Congress to pen and approve such a course-altering document.  

I've never met my Aunt Bonnie.  I don't remember exactly when I learned about her, but I think it was when my mom told me not to play "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" on the piano for my grandma.

No, it's not a sea urchin.  It's an artichoke that got overlooked and bloomed. Thanks for artichokes, which are delicious to eat and produce beautiful blossoms.

This month's visiting teaching message focuses on Jesus Christ's role as an advocate.  He pleads with the Father for us.  He has taken upon himself our sins and weaknesses, and has given himself as a sacrifice.  Because He is perfect, we can trust him.  We can trust that all will be well in the end, and we can forgive others and leave the judgment to God.     Thanks for Jesus Christ, the perfect advocate.