I had the hymn on my mind the other day that says : “Leaning on the  everlasting arms” It comes from the bible verse Deuteronomy 33:27 which is 

 “The eternal God is your refuge, 

and underneath are the everlasting arms” 

  I was thinking about our loving Lord Jesus as a little baby in the manger at the stable, and he would have reached out His arms to his loving parents in love. Those little arms would again stretch out in love, but this time on a cross❤️Our Lord has His arms carrying us each day 💕

  Dad has played the piano and organ for sooo many Christmas services, programs and Christmas catatas over the time! Each service or program involved lots of enjoyable Christmas music for him to play and for people to listen to. His fingers must have got quite tired from all the playing! I think though that he really enjoyed playing the Christmas themed music that could especially be played at that time of year. It is very lovely to listen to and sing Christmas hymns and carols. They are special ways to praise our loving Lord for the greatest Gift of all!  We rejoice in our hearts❤️

 Last week, the U.S.A. celebrated Thanksgiving Day. It was a special time when families and friends gathered together to enjoy time with each other and a meal. It is a good reminder to us that we have  soooo much to be  thankful for.❤️We have the beautiful loving care and love of our Lord Jesus and our Heavenly Father, and the special love of all our loved ones both those who are still with us here and those who have passed away and are waiting to see us. May we continually give thanks!! 💕💖

   As it is nearing the end of November, I was thinking about the many years that Mum and Dad spent many days and weeks preparing for and buying for the Annual Strathalan Kiosk Christmas sale that was held every year at the end of November. They spent lots of time visiting lots of different shops to buy lovely Christmas products, biscuits, chocolates tins, sweets,decorations, etc at the lowest price so that the Residents had lots of lovely items to choose from and buy for their Christmas shopping at the cheapest price possible. It was sooo much fun when Mum and Dad would come home from their shopping and spread the bought  items out in our loungeroom so that I could enjoy looking at them too! 🎄They would them need to be priced with a tag and put in boxes, ready for the Sale day! They are very special memories  ❤️ Most of all, I know that Mum and Dad did the shopping because of their love for the Residents and wanting to bring them a touch of Christmas joy ❤️ May all that we do and say each day be done in love for our beautiful and loving Lord and in caring for all His loved ones💕 

 At the moment, we are getting quotes to have our roof gutters cleaned. We have been reading adverts describing each of the companies, and one specialises in removing birds nests! I feel soooo sorry for the birds and their little baby birds! The birds would have also put in so much special time and  work into creating a snug birth place for their little babies.  

  Our loving and beautiful Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father loves us and watches over us like a protective bird. Through the stormy weather of life, they are with us to comfort and encourage us. They are with us all the time and gently hold us close to them,in their arms ❤️

  I was watching a tv show the other day and someone was playing a calliope musical instrument. I hadn’t seen one before and it was very interesting! It has pipes which the music comes out of and is played a bit like an organ or a piano.

    There are lots of different types of musical instruments that we can play to enjoy making music! They all sound different but are all lovely. It is wonderful that our loving Lord has given us lots of ways to use music to praise and glorify Him. We can’t all play music very well, but we can all praise in in our hearts with tunes of love ❤️

 Dad had quite a job last week when buying a carton of eggs at Coles! Before buying the carton of eggs, he opened it up and found that 3 of them were already cracked, with yolk running out of them! He then opened other cartons up, and found that they had broken shell eggs in them too! Eventually he found a carton with 12 full intact, unbroken eggs! Dad was also telling me the other day about a lady who he had heard speaking on the radio. She had rang the radio program to say that she had bought a carton of eggs and each one of them was a double yolk! That was quite amazing!     We are nearing Christmastime now. But each day of the year we enjoy the special significance of both Christmastime and Easter in our daily lives. Eggs are a symbol of new life, and our lives are filled with the love of our Lord as we trust and rest in Him, as day by day  we live in  and for Him. He will protect us under His wings ❤️

  Dad was so very surprised the other day to find in our backyard a pot of little “Johnny jump up” flowers that must have self sown from last year, as Dad hadn’t planted any in a pot where he found them! Johnny jump ups are very little flowers that cause much cheerfulness to everyone who sees them. Sometimes when we are in pain or feeling a little sad or tired, we need  something to “jump up” ourselves. It is very special that our loving Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father have given us beautiful  flowers to look at, as a reminder of their precious love ❤️

  We have been trying out all sorts of varieties of apples lately! My usual favourite is Royal Gala, but over the last weeks we have also been “testing” out Modi, Envy and Eve apples! They all have their own special taste, bite and flavour. It is quite amazing that apples are still apples but they all taste a bit different. It is just like us. We all live together in this world and have eyes, ears, nose and bodies, but we are all different. We like different things, have different things that we are good or not too good at doing, have different ways of doing things, but we have all been lovingly created by our loving Lord. Our loving Heavenly Father and loving Lord Jesus uniquely knows us, loves us and cares for us, and has a loving plan in our lives day by day ❤️

  Butterflies are pretty. They are very colourful and bring touches of joy and delight when you see them. They don’t live a long life but spread beauty wherever they fly. It is special that our loving Lord knows all the days of our lives. We are secure in His loving hands. May we give out His love to others each day ❤️

 Daylight Savings starts next weekend. As the saying goes : “Spring forward, Fall back” which means that we put our clocks forward an hour.  Sometimes life feels quite hard, tiring and painful, but we are comforted that our loving Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father are with us and watching over us every moment and minute. One day there will be no time,hours or minutes. We will spend eternity in loving love with those we love so much❤️ 

        I was reading an encouraging story the other day. It was about a time during one of the wars, and a small amount of a Christian hymn book compiled by Ira Sankey called : “Sacred Songs and Solos” were sent to the battleground, where the soldiers were fighting. “ As soldiers met fellow soldiers that were members of another fighting company troop that they knew, they would say :   “Four-nine-four, boys; four-nine-four;” and the salute would invariably be answered with “Six further on, boys; six further on.” The significance of this was that, in ‘Sacred Songs and Solos,’ a number of copies of the small edition of which had been sent to the front, number 494 was ‘God be with you till we meet again’; and six further on than 494, or number 500, was ‘Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine’”  (Hymnal  article) 

   It brings much comfort and encouragement to our hearts that yes, our loving Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father are always with us, and we rest in the triumphant assurance that “Jesus is mine” and loves us ❤️

     Dad was telling me the other day about when dollars notes were introduced after the end of pounds, shillings and pence. He was working at the Commonwealth Bank and he was in charge of training the bank tellers how to hand out the new one, two,five, ten, twenty,fifty and hundred dollar notes. For practising they used “play money”,not the real actual money! 

Life is worth more than money. Love is the most important thing. To be loved by our loving Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father carries us through each minute of the day, through the joys and tears. May we rest in their loving care❤️

  Mum’s cousin (who passed away quite a few years ago ,but I have been especially thinking of her as it would have been her birthday this week ) has a son who is a sculptor. He is so artistic and creative! He has helped to run many art galleries and art exhibitions over the years, and runs classes now also to help young people who are wanting to learn how to sculpt.

   We are all creations of our Loving Lord Jesus and Loving Heavenly Father. They are sculpting our lives, through all the good, hard, tiring, happy, sad and painful experiences that our lives have held, currently hold, and will hold in the future. Until we are called to our love filled heavenly  Home, our lives will continually be sculpted by them❤️

 Next Sunday is Fathers Day. I ❤️ my dad! He is sooo funny, loving, caring,kind and step-by-step he is slowly become more “computer/internet tech” knowledgable! He is so proud of himself when he learns something tech related and can do it himself!

  I completely love my beautiful and loving Heavenly Father❤️There are not enough words to express our love for Him, all that come from His love for us, so it best said in the words: “Praise the LORD!” 

       

 We are getting some trees removed from back/side yard area. The trees are a bit dead, and do need to go. It was interesting and great that one of the tree removal services that came to give us a quote for the job took pictures of the trees in our yard, and sent us the pictures and the quote cost by email, after they left. On the pictures, there were red crosses to mark the trees that were to be removed. It was helpful. 

The most beautiful cross in the whole wide world is the cross that our Loving Lord and Saviour Jesus died for us on ❤️. Each wooden grain in it is full of love❤️

  We usually get our groceries from Coles, but sometimes Dad goes to Woolworths to get certain items that they only stock or if there are some good specials on items. When he went last week, he said that he “couldn’t resist” buying me something that he saw whilst he was there. It is serviettes with a fairy/princess with red hair! They are so cute! I hardly want to use them! Dad said that as soon as he saw the red hair, he just had to buy them!   

   There is such a large variety of colours of hair that people have right around the world. And our hair can also become greyer or whiter as we age. Sometimes we lose all our hair also. Our loving Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father loves each of us, whatever our hair colour or if we do or do not have hair. I don’t really know what hairstyle or colour hair our Lord had when He lovingly walked on this Earth, but I think that little children would have found comfort in touching His hair whilst He held them in His arms❤️

 We are now into August, the last month of Wintertime! Soon it will be Springtime, so that is great! My grandparents ( Mum’s Mum and Dad ) had birthdays very close together. One was at the end of August and the other at the start of September, then all at the same time was Fathers Day! There was so much to celebrate at that time! Each day, we can celebrate our loving Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father and their love and care for us. They know all that we are going through: the joys, the tears, the tiredness and the smiles. We are in their tender care ❤️

   My lovely Dad came home from shopping the other day, carrying into our lounge room a beautiful bunch of yellow daffodils! They certainly brightened up a cold Winters day! Daffodils sing a message of joy and hope.Much, much more though the love of our loving Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father fill our daily lives with joyful hope ❤️

  

      Dad and I were talking the other day about how  Arnotts has discontinued selling “ lattice biscuits”. They were a great biscuit to use when cooking  slices! They had a lattice look to them, and were like a pastry in a biscuit. 

 The word “ lattice” reminds me of a curved trellis or a pergola where you can sit outdoors on a nice weather day,and be protected from the sunshine, or from windy or rainy weather on other days. Our beautiful Loving Lord’s love is like a lattice over and around us. It lovingly protects and cares us in all that our day holds. We still have pain and tiredness but His lattice of love enfolds us in His care❤️.  

  We are now half way through Winter! That is great! Winter is not my favourite season, as it is cold and not sunshiny! It is lovely though that in the midst of cloudy skies and darkness, all of a sudden beautiful glimpses of sunshine still appear! Perhaps we appreciate the sunshine even more when  that happens then on a Summery sunny day. The love of our beautiful loving Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father shines through all the parts of our day. We rest in His love through our pain,weakness and tiredness ❤️

 There are many people who are heading for the snowfields these season to have fun in the snow! They may be skiing or building cute snowmen or just enjoying time spent chatting around a warm log fire having warm cups of coffee,tea or hot chocolate. It would be too cold though for me! I like the warmth of home!  

  Our loving and beautiful Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father express some of their power and majesty as they send the snow. Snow glistens in its whiteness, and each snowflake has been formed beautifully. The ground is covered in whiteness just like as we look outside through windows we see the touch of our creative Lord in all that we see in nature ❤️

     

 Our beautiful and loving Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father care so very much about us ❤️ They know when we are tired, or painful or feeling a little sad. They do know that we miss our loved ones that are now living with them in Heaven and they tenderly say to us: “ We’re looking after them and they continue to love you so much. We know and see your tears, and are lovingly  watching over you until the time when you will see them again”❤️

 Dad and Mum used to present a lovely slideshow program called : “Wintertime Wonderland.” It had lots of slides of Wintertime nature scenes that Dad had taken, and it was very beautiful and majestic. When the lights when out and everyone was looking at the slides, everything was very quiet and we could all give very much praise to our beautiful and loving Lord Creator as we looked at the lovely Wintertime slides. May we continue to give thanks for all the special Winter landscape that our Loving Creator provides ❤️

     We celebrated King Charles’ birthday last week. It seems so strange after so many years of the Queens Birthday holiday in June! The day will be the same but just have a different name.

 May we always, every and continually eternally praise the King of Kings, who is our loving Lord Jesus! He will reign forever and ever! ❤️❤️

  Wintertime is here and the weather is very cold!  Although we don’t have snow where we live, when I think of Wintertime I think of white snow. Just like snow falling from the sky, our beautiful and loving Saviour Lord Jesus came from Heaven to die for us on the cross ❤️It is very wonderous love ❤️

   It was “World Turtle Day” last week! Turtles move  very slowly and they look quite cute with their shell on their back. The shell though is quite hard and weighty, so it requires a lot of effort for them to move. That is reason why they move slowly. 

Our beautiful and loving Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father loves us very much and helps us to carry our load of pain, concerns and tiredness, just like a turtle. Sometimes the load feels very heavy, but we are so encouraged that  our Lord has us in His Hands and carries the load with us ❤️

  Money is important for food, clothing, and many essential items for our lives. It is good to know though that the real treasures of life aren’t bought with money. The love of our Loving Lord Jesus and Loving Heavenly Father is for eternity ❤️Our family is our treasure also ❤️

 I think that these pictures of frogs are so cute! They make me smile!  Frogs are not the most “prettiest” animals in the world! But our loving Lord Jesus and Loving Heavenly Father made them especially for the world. They made so many wonderful creatures and each animal has been so intricately  made, with their own special unique features and way of living. May we ever and always give praise to our wonderful creating Lord! ❤️

  It is Mother’s Day this coming Sunday. I send hugs to everyone as they remember their Mums. My Mum who is Heaven is so beautiful to me and her love remains with me everyday. It is comforting that our Loving Lord Jesus and Loving Heavenly Father know that we very much miss our Mums and gently say to us: “I understand”❤️🦋 Tears are unspoken prayers ❤️

  I could hardly believe when I looked on the coles online website the other day and saw that the Coles dark and light fruit cakes that we used to buy for and sell at the Strathalan Kiosk for $3.50 is now $6.50 to buy at the store! It is a big price increase!  Our life is like a “fruit cake”! It is made up of joys, sadness, laughter, and tears, all mixed together like the ingredients in a fruit cake. Throughout each day the beautiful love of our Lord blends all that happens in our lives together, and we know that He is always caring for us ❤️🌼

  I thought that this picture of lots of varieties of biscuits that was on the Arnotts website was great! They sell so many types of biscuits! Everyone has their favourite Arnotts biscuit whether it be plain, cream, chocolate, dry or savoury! When I think of Milk Arrowroot, Milk Cofffee and Marie biscuits, they seem to be comforting biscuits. They are plain, but also nice.   

When we think of our loving Lord Jesus, we give thanks that in our pain, He brings comfort as He promises to be with us through it. Our pain remains, but His loving comforting  presence is also there. I can hardly take in when I think of all the pain He lovingly went through for us ❤️

        This week is special Easter week when we are especially thinking of the very loving death and triumphant resurrection of our beautiful Saviour and Lord Jesus. Each day of the year though may we give heart -felt thanks to Him for what He did for us on the cross ❤️ He has died, He has risen. He will come again ❤️

 The Australian Grand Prix was held last weekend. I am not really “into” racing car contests, although I did enjoy watching the  “ Cars” Disney movie! For the people though who enjoy watching car racing it is a fun and exciting time for them.  The cars go a lot faster than the donkey who carried Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem for the loving birth of our beautiful Saviour. But what a special job that the donkey did! I can imagine that he stayed at the manger with Mary and Joseph whilst she gave birth, and would have smiled at the first loving cry from our Lord ❤️ Another  donkey and her colt  also had the very special privilege of carrying our Lord as He rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, as a King ❤️

  People were talking on the radio the other day about girls and boys names that are popular, and orders that have now “fallen out of fashion”. Some names seem to always be popular. The top 3 boys and girls name in Australia for 2022 were Charlotte, Amelia and Olivia, and Oliver, Noah and Charles. When I was at school, I didn’t know anyone with those names…although my special teddy is called Oliver! 

  The most precious name ever and ever is  Jesus our Loving Lord and Saviour! Just saying His Name is like saying Love! May we rest in His promise of always being with us whatever our day and life is holding ❤️

 The other day, Dad bought some pretty pansies and Johnny jumpups that we have in pots on the table outside our side glass sliding window door. They are  lovely to look out at see. Johnny jumpups are very tiny flowers, but are so pretty! We are just tiny people in the whole wide  world but it is so very special that each of us is much loved by our loving Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father❤️They care about each of us💖

   Yesterday was the World Day of Prayer. I could imagine people all around  the world meeting in all sorts of places, buildings, Churches, homes, and numbers of people, all praising, praying to, worshipping, and listening to the Word of our loving Lord Jesus and loving Heavenly Father ❤️ He hears every prayer and sees every tear❤️

    Autumn began this week.We may still have a few “Summery” weather days though. I have lovely memories of when I was a little girl, and Mum,Dad and I would go into the Fitzroy Gardens in Autumntime and I would really enjoy walking through the Autumn leaves and trying to catch the leaves as they fell from the branches! It was so much fun! Our beautiful and loving Lord Jesus and Heavenly Father paint the Autumn leaves their very nice colours,  and send their love continually. Leaves have veins on them, and remind us of our  Saviour’s hands of love on the cross ❤️