Look up, look down......

So much to be thankful for isn't there? This month of August has a plethora of perks & I'm loving it. Take ice cream. (Thank you I will!)

 It's  an all-time favorite summertime treat, whether it's in a cone, or a root beer float, a la mode, in a dish or on a stick. There are a number of ways to enjoy this delectable, frozen yet creamy delight to the tongue as well as the tummy! Although ice cream is savored any time of the year, summertime is the best time & for me, a daily 'must have' in the month of August! 🍨🍦🍨🍦🍨🍦🍨

Another favorite mouth watering, exquisite, juicy, sweet, fruit-of-the-vine (literally!) yield in August is watermelon! 

🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉

I think that I could eat my family's weight in watermelon!

I guess it's good that it only makes it's appearance for a (too short!) season of the year! 

"Tis the last (rhubarb pie) of summer....🎵")

😋

The days are sweltering here in South Dakota now, so hot that it seems like everything  has stopped breathing & I feel like melted butter. We have been going through a dry spell so I water the lawn, the flowers & the garden continuously. I've given thanks many times that we have an artesian well. 

The nights, however, are a different matter. The temperature begins  to wane as the sun sets & becomes very pleasant for an early evening motorcycle ride which is wonderfully refreshing at the end of a  'so hot you could fry an egg on a sidewalk' sort of day of  gardening, canning or both!  My husband & I discovered a very mutual love of motorcycle riding when we were first married. It is such a stress reliever, rejuvenator  & rich with therapeutics of mega proportions, for me anyway! After a day of canning, yes, 'tis the season, 

  

how cooling & relaxing to my body & aching back is a motorcycle ride with my sweetheart. 👴 (haha! Maybe not quite that old.💖) & later, a nice, cool bath in Epsom salts....ahhhh. 🛁

Almost every night we love to sit under a canopy of stars & play 'I Spy'.....a satellite, 'shoosting' (as Lisa of the old comedy show 'Green Acres' called them!) stars & believe me we have seen some magnificent 'shoosting' stars that have left dazzling, pixie dust trails! We almost hate to end our day in case we might miss something.  

Could it be a literal falling star?! The kind that you put in your pocket & save it for a rainy day?? 😮

 

So many soft, beautiful, opal moons to enjoy. My perk-o-later is so full that it's about to go on tilt!!! The Lord truly does give us so many blessings, "... richly to enjoy." (1 Timothy 6:17)                          I never want to minimize the crises of our days at the times that we are living in, but keeping my focus on Jesus lets Him give me His perception in these life happenings. & reduces my  'maximums' to their proper size as seen through His eyes. It keeps my heart open also to the daily blessings & miracles that He purposefully & intimately sends my way.  When we keep looking up, then we are able to look down & see our personal world through different lenses, not rose tinted, but 'He arose' tinted.

"And God raised us up & made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:6)

By, so to speak, counting our blessings, as I try to do every day, it keeps us in a perpetual state of gratefulness, thus keeping our hearts' vision clear. Remember the old hymn, "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus "?                                                                                                  "...look full in His wonderful face.

& the things of earth, will grow strangely dim,

in the light of His glory & grace."

So beautifully true. So, keep looking up. & then you can look down.  The proverbial mountain to molehill. Yes!

       ..

 Raintree Perk of the day:

"The Lord is my Shepherd..." thank you Jesus.