Time is flying by! One more day of April then it is May all over. I was just thinking We need to go to the nursery / greenhouse and get some May flowers!
But first I will recount my blessings of the week!
First of all, since I just got back from myself second therapy of the week, I will share that God is so good! He is helping me to improve each week. My main improvement is the strengthening of my posts muscle which help we stand up straight and give me stability! I am now working on endurance and more stability in the area of balance. It is a terrible thing to lose so much control of the body due to illness and accompanying lethargy! I have learned to keep fighting the good fight!
Last week while the kids were here Amanda and I went to Fleet Feet and I was analyzed for how to correct my feet and shoes. It was a very good thing to do and my new shoes help me so much. I cannot stress loudly enough... bite the bullet, go to Fleet Feet and get sized for good walking shoes. It will make a huge difference for you!! I actually could walk the track after getting my shoes. I need to g et back to the track and look forward to it now!
Last week, Amanda and her family went to atulip farm and the photos they sent are absolutely gorgeous! At the farm you pay a certain amount to pick some of the tulips ~ the girls deliberating on which tulips they loved the best!
They each choose one!
Our beautiful family!
With all the therapy exercises I have been doing I know my muscles are becoming stronger and I am looking better in my clothes. I am finding at the same time that my eating habits are changing without a whole lot of thought or decision.. I am finding I really am enjoying eating carrots and lots of fresh veggies. I would love to go down another size prior to our trip.
Yes, this summer we are planning a trip to Scotland with our daughter and her family. Actually, Joshua won the lottery to get tickets for the British Open at St. Andrews and invited us to go along for a 2 week trek about my dream country. Thus my big push to get into better shape. It was been fun thing about and planning the trip.. Since the kids are so busy they sort of left the choosing what to see up to me because I have always wanted to go to Scotland, but when our opportunity to go to Ireland came up 6 years ago that sort of took the place I my heart not thinking Id ever get to do both! So the next couple of months will be very exciting!
1. What does the word values mean to you personally? Where did your values come from? What are some of the values that have guided you throughout your life? To me values are in regard to the principles of the Bible, living a life pleasing to God, following His precepts and not what the world says is ok. Of course, the 10 commandments helped to form my value system as a child, but going to church, studying God's Word , meeting with other Christians to study, and discuss life's situations, surrounding myself with Christian friends, and dealing with non Christians in the family, the workplace, and day to day situations all help me to hone my value system!
2. Your favorite vanilla flavored something? I love Dairy Queen cones dipped in chocolate!
3. What's something you've seen/done recently that you found to be very difficult... the horrors of Ukraine, very confusing....some of the things our leaders try to say in public.... very helpful...some of the wonderful recipes I enjoy on YouTube , especially from Entertaining with Beth very interesting, Victory Channel Tulsa Live ...or very special....this photo of the girls hugging BABA as they were preparing to return to Boston over the weekend! Elaborate.
4. Something you own and love that is violet in color? This teapot I bought at a Highland games at grandfather Mountain many years ago!
5. Do you have vacation plans on the calendar this summer? Tell us more. I do . We will be vacationing with our daughter and her family to Scotland this summer.
6. Insert your own random thought here. I will be gladly sharing much about our trip when we get back. But it is super exciting!
Welcome back to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.. We are glad to have you here!
1. If you had one million dollars to spend only on yourself, what would you spend it on?Oh, my, I am in such a minimizing stage of life I cannot think of a thing... let's see. I suppose it would be to hire a Christian couple who would benefit from this job to move in with us and see us through the last years of our lives..
2. You can do it again. What decade are you going back to and why? What's the attraction?I suppose it would be the 8o's because that is the decade we adopted Amanda and became parents. ... the most joyous decade of our lives!
3. What's the last song that got stuck in your head? Alternatively, what's your current favorite song?
Things are back to normal now, thankfully, the house is clean, and things are looking in good order. Time to start thinking about spring chores and also getting back into the mode of painting the den,, our final room to paint! I have finally learned to stretch quite a bit before getting up. Working those muscles in the pelvic plate area.. the muscles that connect the spine to the hip and leg bones. Stretching those really help in the grand scene of things!!
💚💚On the breakfast plate💚💚
Coffee and oatmeal
💚💚On my reading pile💚💚
We are studying the book of Exodus in Church, The Connect Group is studying Ephesians, which I love!!! Lynn and I are doing a read through the Bible in a year systematic read .. one selection from both Old and New Testament!I also try to fit a devotional in daily, I just am not into fiction these days!!
💚💚On my tv💚💚
Various vlogs , HGTV programming, and Hallmark movies. I am enjoying When Calls the Heart. I am also watching a lot of YouTube news broadcasts.
💚💚Interesting youtube vlog I saw this week: 💚💚
I heard on tv on Sunday John Hagy shared about hearing the healing scriptures can bring about a miracle in your life
https://youtu.be/0gQILVCBH8k
Lynn and I are listening to this regularly!
💚💚What's For Dinner💚💚
Monday - Spaghetti and salad
Tuesday- leftovers
Wednesday- chicken salad on Hawaiian buns chips
Thursday - stir fry and rice
Friday- dinner with friends
💚💚Looking around the house💚
Outside, the brick wall around the garage had become compromised so Lynn pulled it down on the weakened side and started using a mason's hammer to knock the mortar off so we can reuse them . We want the brick on the wall to match the brick already there. He is almost finished and then a mason will come and relay the brick and do a bit of rework brick at the top of a chimney at the back of the house! we have been getting a lot of odd and ends down around here lately. How sweet our neighbor on his new riding mower come over Saturday and offered to aerate our whole yard.
💚💚On my to-do list💚💚
Devotions and Bible reading
marketing
Therapy once this week
Work hard on my exercises and do some walking
laundry
baking ~I need to bake a cake for a cake walk at a local school that our church serves
💚💚To relax I will:💚💚
Listen to soothing praise music and perhaps nap a small time
💚💚Prayer and devotional :💚💚
Ukraine, refugees, those still trapped in the country and also taken to filtration camps
Pray for the fear of the Lord to spread among all people.
Pray for common sense and not politics to come over our leadership
pertaining to our illegal invasion
change their ideas on fossil fuel during this inflationary time which would also favorably impact food and product prices.
The supply, food, and building shortage problem: may it not become
a huge crisis We say NO to the drear outlook some are reporting about our supply and the inflation .. may our leaders make changes which will stop the rise in inflation!
I am thinking now if the dire reports from farmers not only here but around the world. With the high cost of fuel farmers struggle to be able to produce as usual, plus fertilizer is scarce. This could create a worldwide food shortage worse than anything we have ever seen because of the huge population ..much more than during the Depression!
We pray for the places everywhere that persecution is taking place...
For healing of the sick,
salvation of the lost,
deliverance for the hurting,
Churches to arise and pastors to preach according to our times and
these days.. very vital! For the churches to repent and get straight
before a holy God. We have become too lax in our Christianity and
we need to be more persistent to seeking God and His Word! Lord, prepare your people to be ever minded that our work here is to lead others to Christ. Too often we fail to do this, I pray for opportunity and
Miss Beverly of How Sweet the Sound usually shares anything goes these days, but I will have quite a bit of pink in this post! It is, after all, the week after Easter, and our Easter was wonderful!!! First of all our daughter and her family joined us at church for Resurrection Sunday!!
Our Daughter and her family!
They came home for dinner!
I got to tell them the nifty story about how I got their Easter basket gifts.. I actually ordered special books from a shop in Pennsylvania! The author of the books actually sent signed copied to the girls!
1. When did you learn to cook? I came from a family of great country cooks. So cooking was an important thing in our family, both sides. But it wasn't until I was in the 7th grade that I relly applied my hand at actually cooking. I had sort of helped mom along the way before, but in Home EC. I really got into preparing a meal. I loved it so I took Home Ec every year I could because I was thinking very seriously about being a Home Ec Teacher.
2. How often in the week do you cook? Order in? Go out? I expect to cook every meal each week. We have no set day we go out to eat, but if we are out for some other purpose it is pretty easy to convince hubs to stop and grab lunch or dinner!!! Mainly, because he isn't that keen on doing the dishes when I cook!
3. Which foods are absolutely necessary at a cookout? Hamburgers, hotdogs, chili, usually Cole slaw, baked beans, chips and dip, and if we are very fancy, potato salad!
4. Do you have a meal you are especially good at making? or that people often request for you to make? I love to make Chinese stir fry, spaghetti, homemade vegetable beef soup, beef stew for a few!
We had a marvelous Easter weekend. Lynn and I went to a dinner theater
With our senior group at church. It was great to make new friends.. if .I can only remember their names. Amanda and her family met us at church today and came home with us for dinner. It was a great idea to get take out for the main part of the meal. Then I made deviled eggs, asparagus, and picked up a couple different desserts. We had a lovely day. The kids will be back Tuesday night to spend the rest of the week with us!,
💚💚On the breakfast plate💚💚
Coffee, and fruited yogurt
💚💚On my reading pile💚💚
We are studying the book of Exodus in Church, The Core Group is studying Ephesians, which I love!!! Lynn and I are doing a read through the Bible in a year systematic read .. one selection from both Old and New Testament!I also try to fit a devotional in daily, I just am not into fiction these days!!
💚💚On my tv💚💚
Various vlogs , HGTV programming, and Hallmark movies. I am enjoying When Calls the Heart. I am also watching a lot of YouTube news broadcasts. Pastor Allen Jackson’s Palm Sunday service was wonderful.
Highly recommended! Really, all Christians would benefit highly for hearing this amazing message. I think you would love Allen Jackson! He is a fabulous speak and the time will fly by!
💚💚What's For Dinner💚💚
Monday - ham sandwiches, corn, beets
Tuesday-
Wednesday- chicken salad on Hawaiian buns chips
Thursday - stir fry and rice
Friday- Five Guys
💚💚Looking around the house💚
We have been focusing on the yard lately. We had a brick wall that was compromised so Lynn has actually torn the bad portion down and cleaning the mortar from the brick with a mason’s hammer. He wants to reuse the old brick in the new wall so it will all match the house. Next week the mason is due to come and rebuild the wall. He will also check out the chimney and do any repairs needed there. I have some pruning to do.
💚💚On my to-do list💚💚
Devotions and Bible reading
marketing
Therapy once this week
Work hard on my exercises and do some walking
💚💚To relax I will:💚💚
Listen to soothing music and perhaps nap a small time
💚💚Prayer and devotional :💚💚
I know this is long but it all so important!
Ukraine, refugees, those still trapped in the country and also taken to filtration camps
Pray for the fear of the Lord to spread among all people.
Prayer about the influx of illegals into our nation, as the covid ban on immigration comes to an end, we pray that something can be done to quell the invasion of many at our border seeking entrance. and the possible spread of disease and covid..
Father, we rebuke the spread of covid and its attaching deviants.. even with this last new strain, we pray that it is such a weak one that when it attacks a body it will be more cold like and easily overcome. InJesus name!!
And Father even as I had written the above we do thank you for the apparent ceasing of mandates and pray that is due to a dramatic decline in the spread of covid! May it dissipate completely in Jesus name!!!
We pray for the places everywhere that persecution is taking place...
For healing of the sick,
salvation of the lost,
deliverance for the hurting,
The supply, food, and building shortage problem: may it not become
a huge crisis We say NO to the drear outlook some are reporting about our supply and the inflation .. may our leaders make changes which will stop the rise in inflation!
I am thinking now if the dire reports from farmers not only here but around the world. With the high cost of fuel farmers struggle to be able to produce as usual, plus fertilizer is scarce. This could create a worldwide food shortage worse than anything we have ever seen because of the huge population ..much more than during the Depression!
Oh, Father, this is such a dire possibility it truly makes one wonder if we are facing the end of. the end times. You told us in your word in Matthew 24 there would be wars, earthquakes, pestilences, starvation, diseases if many kinds. Besides that world events centered about Israel are aligned as well. Oh, Father, if the end of the end times is coming upon us, we pray for the lost
We pray for the church to awaken and be about your work in the world to save as many as will be saved according to your will!
We know that it is satan who comes to rob, steal, and destroy and we, by the power of Jesus name, say STOP NOW, You may not have the resources of the people.We also pray for godly wisdom to overtake our leaders that they will deal with the world circumstances with the USA's best interest in mind.
Churches to arise and pastors to preach according to our times and
these days.. very vital! For the churches to repent and get straight
before a holy God. We have become too lax in our Christianity and
we need to be more persistent to seeking God and His Word! Lord, prepare your people to be ever minded that our work here is to lead others to Christ. Too often we fail to do this, I pray for opportunity and
If you have questions about who Jesus Christ is and what He means to the world there is a serie3s of posts entitled Road to Salvation on my right side bar . Your questions might surely be answered there! If not, I would love to exchange some words with you to see if I might be able to help! In these perilous times, the only hope we have is a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ applied to our lives!!!
1. Do you celebrate Easter? If so what are your plans this year? Did you have egg hunts as a kid? I do celebrate Easter and look very forward to it!if you follow my blog you know our daughter and her family are coming from New England to spend the week with both in-laws. They will start with Josh’s parents as his mom is recuperating from a bad fall. But they are meeting us on Easter at our new church to attend with us, meet our new friends, and enjoy our wonderful pastoral teaching! Not wanting to get too involved with the cooking and all the mess we have ordered our Easter dinner from our favorite home style restaurant. I will augment that meal with deviled eggs, asparagus, and lemon pound cake, mostly which can be prepared on Saturday. I don’t want anything to interfere with our Sunday visit. The kids will return to the other in-laws til midweek, then spend remaining time with us! I’m sure the other grandma will want to dye eggs with the girls and their grandpa will enjoy hiding them. I bought some plastic eggs to hide here. I also purchased a couple of really cute baskets to fill for the girls. We have never had the girls with us on Easter. We’ve been with them a couple of years. In their home.So I want Sunday to be special!
2. What's your favorite bread to find in a bread basket? As I thought about this I decided it all depended on the meal. I love Italian garlic bread with Italian food; homemade biscuits for breakfast; soft rolls for a dressed up dinner, but cornbread when it’s a more rustic food!
3. Your favorite chick flick? Any version of Pride and Prejudice, most any Doris Day Movie, and one Amanda and I loved, Philadelphia Story with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant!
4.Tax day is rapidly approaching in the US of A...what's something you currently find 'taxing'? After all the debilitating struggles I had allowed myself to become pretty immobile. Fighting back to renew my strength , steadiness, and balance is daunting. My pelvic plate is the main area of distress. Bringing the psoas muscle back into working order is most difficult for it makes me want to stoop over, shuffle my feet when I walk, etc. Now as I have learned to stretch that muscle that connects my spine to my hips and leg joints I am improving with much less pain. But it is slow business.
5. Have you ever ridden in a taxi? Do you have a funny-scary-crazy-interesting taxi story to share? Do you use any of the newer taxi-like services such as Uber? Growing up our family had one car which of course dad used for work. Mom had a license mostly for her Id. When I had my doctor appointments with my pediatrician we would take taxi to the office and dad would stop by to pick us up and take us home. No stories!
6. Insert your own random thought here. I have to say I can not wait for Amanda to see how changed and pretty the house looks now. It really had gotten rather stale. I mean it looked ok, but my goodness it had been almost twenty years since it had changed. Now it is so fresh, and decorated for spring it truly is a breath of sunshine!
To be clear regarding my answer #1 below I in fact do not have pancreatic cancer. My wonderful endoscopy doctor proved it through the extensive exploratory ERCP procedure I had while in the hospital last fall. The mass the oncologists saw on the cat scan was a huge gall stone that since then had to be blasted twice . It was what caused me to be so terribly jaundiced at the hospital. My gall bladder was so badly beat up during this time I have to have stents placed in it periodically ,,praying it is healed once and for all. For my condition, I cannot have a simply lapropascopic surgery, but must be a very complicated, and ris major surgery, for some reason I’ve never understood, so hence my continuing ERCP procedures. To remove and replace stents. But I have learned not to be fearful of jbeing put to sleep. If something takes me out, I know i’ ll wake up in heaven,
Although in the last couple of years I have been laid up for a month with a horrible case of shingles, then soon after that I had excruciating gout which caused me to be basically unable to walk for several weeks, .Lynn pushed me to the bathroom in his office chair. A couple of months later I had a mishap and tore both meniscuses in my knees. This really laid me up.. Then I had an impinged shoulder and could barely move my arm! I have had 3 sessions of therapy since this and am actually doing another therapy now to build up my strength that has been in terrible decline lately! Before all this I have had two skin cancers on my nose that required skin graft surgery at UVA hospital. And just a month ago I had another biopsy on my nose.. a scare,,,that praise God was benign. Each of these things threw me for a loop, were actually pretty strange in succession, but God taught me so through them all!
Welcome to Tuesday 4 kept up in Toni Taddeo's memory.
Easter and Passover are coming quickly. Both are about life, so let's talk about life this week.
1. Is your life different this year? If so, how and what has changed? This has been a year of trial. Actually, more than a year of pain, suffering, and a season of learning to trust God. I have had one rather strange health problem after another, many which were painful and debilitating, but God saw me through and my faith grew. Last fall with the gall bladder episode I was tested when in the hospital every oncologist came into my triage room to tell me I had pancreatic cancer. I refused to accept that word spoken over me. I believe the enemy has been trying to take me out because as a prayer warrior I, as well as some other women in our prayer group had been tested and experienced crazy illnesses one right after another. Even though I continue to have to return to the hospital with procedures to help save my gall bladder, I know that the Lord is with me, and He has taught me so much about Himself and myself. Please read the amendment to this in post above, I believed there was some misunderstanding regarding this answer.
2. Are you satisfied with your spiritual life or could it be better? What do/will you do to make it better?I love my relationship with the Lord. He has given me spiritual experiences with Himself that have changed my life.He has also worked within me to cull out some deep rooted iniquity that I have carried around for a long time and I am finally taking self control over it, praise God!
3. What are you busy with today? I am working hard to get the guest room and the girls room in order for their visit next week. Mainly, it is an issue of my clothing which is in process of being separated and stored away by the season.Will this matter in 1 year? 3 years? 5 years? Unfortunately, this work is an ongoing process as the seasons change. It always seems to be a big deal for me.. this year I am purging a lot of clothing because of it’s condition, it’s style, and thankfully I am smaller!
4. Do you serve others in life? My life of service has changed over the years! In my church life I have always been a servant working as a deacon helper, which entailed serving as the social chairman. I planned and implemented the committee that provided dinners in the church from the time I was in my late twenties through my Forties How do you do that? As long as I was allowing the Holy Spirit to direct me it went like clockwork. But in my 40’s I was inducted into a teacher’s sorority for excellence and worked hard on our altruistic endeavors..but suddenly my work on those church committee became tedious! I would become so tired and frazzled I would cry coming home from events. Then I figured out what was happening. In the sorority we had a secret handshake and word we spoke as we entered our meetings. The word was the name of a goddess of learning. I didn’t bow down and worship this entity, but I began to realize God had taken a backseat as long as I was involved in that. He does not share himself with other gods. I quit the sorority and my spiritual life became better then ever. In fact, God promoted me out of the church kitchen to actually planning and providing a women’s ministry Conference Next , I was led along with 5 other women to develop Christians United To Pray which was a n outreach to other churches around our valley to join together to pray for the culture, nation, etc. we met in various churches with prayer warriors from over a dozen churches to pray twice a month for five years. That was about the time when our group of five ladies suddenly knew the time was over. One lady moved away, then there were issues that finally showed us it was time to bring it to a close about 5 years ago. At which time Lynn and I became active members of our local Intercessors for America prayer team.
Pretty good this morning! We had an amazing Palm Sunday yesterday. The sermon was awesome. It was on humility , the same humility Christ showed during his ministry and especially his last week! Last night we enjoyed an inspiringworship service! I absolutely love Easter music!
Coffee, fruited yogurt, scrambled egg and English muffin!
💚💚On my reading pile💚💚
We are studying the book of Exodus in Church, The Core Group is studying Ephesians, which I love!!! Lynn and I are doing a read through the Bible in a year systematic read .. one selection from both Old and New Testament!I also try to fit a devotional in daily, I just am not into fiction these days!!
💚💚On my tv💚💚
Various vlogs , HGTV programming, and Hallmark movies. I am enjoying When Calls the Heart. I am also watching a lot of YouTube news broadcasts.
I absolutely love Garden Answer videos.. This one I journalled because I am determined to start a perennial garden in our back yard which is full sun!
💚💚What's For Dinner💚💚
Monday - baked pork chops , mashed potatoes, and Caesar salad
Tuesday- tacos with all the fixin's
Wednesday- chef salad
Thursday - five guys
Friday- not sure
💚💚Looking around the house💚💚
I need you to chime in on this one.
We were going to paint the den the antique white of the kitchen and paint the bookcase wall a rich teal color., but as I sit in the den and contemplate the issue I am leaning toward painting the walls the same blue with the teal accent wall. some folks have said it is good to paint a whole level the same color but Hubs as well as others say you mean every room on the ground level will be blue except the kitchen boring
..
So here is the kitchen with the Antique White which I like with the Rolling Pebble which Is also the cabinet color. below you can see looking into the dining room with my Era blue on the walls. The hallway seen in both photos is now the blue with the off white trim.
So here is the den... our last room to redo. the sofa has been removed and sent to Habitat.. way too big ! So glad it to get it out! So this is where we live.. and it is not in designer shape here at all. ahahahah . I even got my finger in the shot but you might see wall paper border around the ceiling that has to be removed. The shelves have been cleared, praise God!! What a chore!Lynn has told me he will order plantation shutters for this room so the trim will remain white.
But the shelves, window seat, and rest of that wall which is all wood will be painted Winter in Paris!
Really I think the Era blue walls would look calmer than the antique white walls with this accent color! I would love your opinion!
The opposite wall is a gallery wall with art work and photos with rich deep color and the woods in here are rich in color!
💚💚On my to-do list💚💚
Devotions and Bible reading
marketing
Therapy twice this week
Clean and get the upstairs ready for our guests..
💚💚To relax I will:💚💚
Think about how my daughter, son in law and grands will be with us for Easter. They are going to church with us and will be here all week splitting time with their other grand parents!
I mean we have really only been together about 3 times since the beginning of the pandemic And they have grown so much!!!
💚💚Prayer and devotional :💚💚
I know this is long but it all so important!
Ukraine, refugees, those still trapped in the country and also taken to filtration camps
Pray for the fear of the Lord to spread among all people.
Prayer about the influx of illegals into our nation, as the covid ban on immigration comes to an end, we pray that something can be done to quell the invasion of many at our border seeking entrance. and the possible spread of disease and covid..
Father, we rebuke the spread of covid and its attaching deviants.. even with this last new strain, we pray that it is such a weak one that when it attacks a body it will be more cold like and easily overcome. InJesus name!!
And Father even as I had written the above we do thank you for the apparent ceasing of mandates and pray that is due to a dramatic decline in the spread of covid! May it dissipate completely in Jesus name!!!
We pray for the places everywhere that persecution is taking place...
For healing of the sick,
salvation of the lost,
deliverance for the hurting,
The supply, food, and building shortage problem: may it not become
a huge crisis We say NO to the drear outlook some are reporting about our supply and the inflation .. may our leaders make changes which will stop the rise in inflation!
I am thinking now if the dire reports from farmers not only here but around the world. With the high cost of fuel farmers struggle to be able to produce as usual, plus fertilizer is scarce. This could create a worldwide food shortage worse than anything we have ever seen because of the huge population ..much more than during the Depression!
Oh, Father, this is such a dire possibility it truly makes one wonder if we are facing the end of. the end times. You told us in your word in Matthew 24 there would be wars, earthquakes, pestilences, starvation, diseases if many kinds. Besides that world events centered about Israel are aligned as well. Oh, Father, if the end of the end times is coming upon us, we pray for the lost
We pray for the church to awaken and be about your work in the world to save as many as will be saved according to your will!
We know that it is satan who comes to rob, steal, and destroy and we, by the power of Jesus name, say STOP NOW, You may not have the resources of the people.We also pray for godly wisdom to overtake our leaders that they will deal with the world circumstances with the USA's best interest in mind.
Churches to arise and pastors to preach according to our times and
these days.. very vital! For the churches to repent and get straight
before a holy God. We have become too lax in our Christianity and
we need to be more persistent to seeking God and His Word! Lord, prepare your people to be ever minded that our work here is to lead others to Christ. Too often we fail to do this, I pray for opportunity and
this photo of the girls hugging BABA as they were preparing to return to Boston over the weekend! 
