01.01.20 Reflections on God’s Blessings in 2019

Since we began publishing our blog in 2012 we’ve posted a Reflections on God’s Blessings each year. This year we did not travel at all. What we’ve done during this year is nothing remarkable but it is our life and I’ll share while I still can.

It’s all here but in no date order and there are no links to individual posts. There are links to the annual Reflections on God’s Blessings blog posts. I just can’t do the organization to put it in date honor or doing the individual post links any longer. My brain cannot now think through the process of doing all that.

We said goodbye to our sweet motorhome, Dora, turning her over to Patrick and Michelle Atherton in California where Dora now lives. It was a good move for us financially and I’m pretty sure Dora is loving living in California!

I don’t think there can be any doubt in our blog’s followers’ minds that WE ARE DIE HARD NEW ORLEANS SAINTS FANS. During the 2019 playoffs, our team, the New Orleans Saints was robbed when referees missed a critical call in the NFC Championship Game versus the Los Angeles Rams.

Because that missed call kept our Saints from the Super Bowl the Saints fans from the amazing city of New Orleans participated in many different events instead of watching the Super Bowl.  We’ve had an entire year to live with that stab in our Saints hearts.  In this year’s 2019 playing season, our Saints clinched the NFC South’s title with a few games to go in the season.

We cultivated and harvest a pretty good vegetable garden. This year we grew okra, tomatoes, eggplants, bell peppers, sweet potato, potatoes, corn, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts,  Not all did well but we learned a lot and will plant fewer types of vegetables next year.

I froze a lot of stuffed bell peppers, stuffed eggplant, smothered okra, sliced okra for gumbo and canned pickles

STUFFED EGGPLANTS BEFORE THE EGGPLANTS COOKED DOWN

STUFFED BELL PEPPERS

SMOTHERED OKRA

We’ve added one plum and one pecan tree to our fruit trees/bushes which include our 8 blueberry bushes and two fig trees.

We welcomed to our family a new grandpuppy, Samson. His mommy and daddy are Misty and Chip Chauvin.  He’s about as tiny as they get but he holds a big hold of our hearts.

We celebrated our first anniversary of moving out of Dora and beginning to live in our Amite home. We are enjoying slowly, very slowly, furnishing our little home!

We went to the Metairie Road St. Patricks Day, this time without Dora. It was a beautiful day and Chip’s family and we had a wonderful time!

We attended Madisyn’s 10th birthday party at the Big Red Barn! Yes, that is Grannie in the back corner!

We took care of making Roy and my final arrangements at Brandon Thompson Funeral Home in Hammond. So very happy that is taken care of!

We pulled up thousands of grass runners this year. I cleaned them up and broke them into small pieces with a root. They were mostly planted in the new picnic area but also in various places around our property. 

We enjoy a multitude of hummingbirds visiting throughout the year. We have four shepherds hooks and feeders. At times they all have several hummingbirds eating from each one! We love spending the morning and evening times on our front porch watching these tiny birds!

We had our first Harriett and Rosalyn’s family reunion with my sister, her children and grandchildren; and my children and grandchildren. It was wonderful having all of Mama’s family together!

We created a picnic area in the back part of our property. The picnic area includes a four-sided picnic table with four benches, a hammock and lots of landscaping around the area. Our hope is that this spring all the planting will be blooming and pay off all the hard work!

Part of the Create A Picnic Area involved Roy digging a long long trench for water pipe going from the RV space in the front of our property back to near the picnic area is.

Roy cut down a bunch of pine tree branches. I pulled the pine needles off all those branches to use around the garden. Madisyn helped me with them!

We became the proud parents of two Buff Orpingtons, medium-size domesticated ducks, with lovely fawn buff feathers, a brownish-orange bill, and sweet personalities.

Their names are Bo and Peep and I share their adventures from time to time. They even have their own graphic that I include when we sharing their adventures on our blog. We have our first renter of the RV spot where Dora use to live. He has two beagles that we enjoy helping him take care of them while he’s away at work

We purchased our first canvas pictures of cherished places we saw while traveling the United States, living in our motorhome. We got a three-panel picture of a picture I took when we were at Niagara Falls and one paneled picture of Roy and I sitting in the Coors Field dugout.

Our oldest granddaughter, Kallie, graduated from Ponchatoula High School.

.Roy and I spend a lot of time outside in the spring and summer caring for all the flowers, bushes and vegetables. We like improving the looks of our property and really enjoy everything starting to bloom every spring!

We got to spend some Saturdays watching two of our grand children play baseball. Loved, loved, loved it!

I am always trying to improve the quality of my rock painting art.  This year I purchased a set of fine point POSCA PENS and a set of medium point POSCA PENS.

Our church, Trinity Baptist, broke ground and got a lot of the initial construction done on our new Family Life Center. Roy took the aerial picture when the building frame was in progress.

Over the summer Madisyn attended cheerleading camp. On Fridays, the parents and grandparents were invited to attend and see a cheer they learned during the week. Madisyn loved the camp and we loved getting to see her perform.

We sold our Coast to Coast membership to a wonderful family. If we are not RVing we can’t use it and someone else can now.

Roy developed a back problem which at this time is still being addressed. He also developed an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He has seen three doctors and had several tests for both of those problems. We are hoping early 2020 will bring a resolution to that. This is a slide from one of the tests, MRI, that shows no constriction in the upper portion of his spine but considerable constriction near the bottom.

We went to the city where our four young grandchildren live to celebrate each of their birthdays.  Those were very special visits with us getting to spend some quality time with them!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our family at our house. We all got to enjoy the new picnic area.

We had Christmas with our family at Chip and Misty’s home. After eating and opening presents we all went together to Christmas Eve Worship Service at our church! My heart was so happy! One of our grandchildren was sick and had to stay home with her mom, our daughter in law.

We changed the name of our blog because our Dora no longer lives with us nor do we travel with her.  We chose the name “Because He Lives” because the words of that hymn mean so much to me.

Rosie Rocks Facebook group has over 200 members which represent the number of people who found my hidden rocks and posted a photo in the group!

My love for rock painting still continues. I am venturing into the world of decoupaging rocks and tiles. I think that the number of rocks I paint and hide each year is around 500. I plan to actually count them this year so I will know for sure.

I switched from clear spray for my rocks to polyurethane that I paint on at my rock table. Saves me from having to go outside for the spraying.

It turned out we had more happening in 2019 than I originally thought. I think every family should sit down and write the events in their past year, at the end of every year. It really opens your eyes to how full your life is and all that God blessed you with that year.

Hang on we’re roaring into the beginning of a new decade!