Friday, April 28, 2017

Sabbath Music - Toda!




Happy Preparation Day, sweet friends.  I'm getting ready for Shabbat, and preparing the music for our Erev Shabbat service.  As you can tell by my weekly posts, I love music.  I recently learned that there are seven Hebrews words used for music.  Here's one of them:

TODA –   תודה   (pronounced “tow-dah”)

Toda literally means, an extension of the hand in adoration, avowal, or acceptance.  It is used for thanking G-d for things not yet received as well as things already at hand.

 Offer thanksgiving as your sacrifice to G-d,
pay your vows to El Yon - The Most High.
 Psalm50:14

Here are some other verses:  Psalm 50:23
Psalms 42:4; Psalm 56:12; Jeremiah 17:26; Jeremiah 33:11


Shabbat is our set-apart day to praise and worship ADONAI.  As I look around me, I find so much to be thankful for.  How can I not praise and worship Him?  I challenge you, Gail-Friends to do the same.  Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, look around and make a list of all you are blessed with.  Your heart will overflow with praise.

I've shared this song before, but am sharing it today because it used the word "toda", and I hope you enjoy it.  Toda by Benny Friedman  I dare you to watch this video and not get up and dance!  Well, maybe you won't, but I guarantee you'll be tapping your toes!

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I sometimes share my posts with these friends:

Spiritual Sundays     Kathy’s Return to Loveliness at A Delightsome Life     GRAND Social       The Beauty in His Grip Link-Up   
Modest Mom Monday Link-up         Growing Homemakers Link-Up       



Thursday, April 27, 2017

Thankful Thursday - Tadpoles and Rocks






Don't you just love this verse?

Always be joyful. Pray regularly. In everything give thanks, 
for this is what G-d wants from you who are united with the Messiah Yeshua. 
(I Thessalonians 5:16 - 18)

I like the verse because it gives me a check-up from the neck-up as Zig Ziglar used to say.

Am I full of joy today?  

Am I praying regularly?

Am I giving thanks in everything?  

A tall order, right?  But this is a recipe for happiness.  I've tried it and the results are wonderful.  


These are some of the  things I'm thankful for this past week:

Time with our grandson, daughter, and son-in-law love.  We enjoyed a rock painting session:

He painted a golden potato.

His daddy joined in. (Mommy had to go to Zumba)

He and PawPaw painted frogs.  I did a ladybug, but  I gave it to his Mommie and forgot to take a picture.

Recognize this????

You can read about the national movement to paint (and hide) encouragement rocks in my previous post  HERE.

The tadpoles are growing and some have all four legs:

Sorry for the bad picture. They don't still for long.  I had to snap fast.

Some have begun to climb up the side, so off to Golden Pond they go:


Freddy the frog was the first to be set free. Here he is swimming away:



Two more were ready on Tuesday, and our grandson helped them dive into Golden Pond:


I think I heard Freddy singing yesterday afternoon.  Or maybe it was Frank..or Fredrica.  Anyway, he/she sounded happy.  :)

Speaking of Golden Pond, I am so thankful for my gardener aka Rabbi Golden.  I call him Mr. Green Jeans.  As I've said before, you have to have grown up in the fifties to understand that.  You can Google it!!!


And just look at his handiwork:



The elephant ears are tall enough to stand under now 

No, that's not Freddy there by the pond.  That's a ceramic frog I bought recently.  His name is Ferdinand.  And there's Debbie the Duck, and Flo the Flamingo.  Oh, by the way, Gail-Friends, would you believe people are stealing flamingos from yards around here?  We're keeping ours in the backyard.


As always, I'm thankful for the birds.  I caught a short video of a male cardinal singing yesterday.  I don't know if you can hear it, but another bird is calling back from a distance away.  They sang back and forth for about five minutes.  I've been teaching our grandson how to identify birds by their calls and he's getting good at it.


I'm full of gratitude today, and I hope you are, too.  My favorite thank you prayer is this:

"I thank you, Father, that I can see, and hear, 
and walk, and talk, and think, and that I have strength to work for Your Kingdom." 

 I learned that from one of my gratitude mentors, Carmita.  You can read about her HERE.

What are you thankful for this week, Gail-Friends?

Thankful Thursday is my day of the week to focus on and be thankful for all the good things in my life.
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I sometimes share my posts with these friends:

Spiritual Sundays     Kathy’s Return to Loveliness at A Delightsome Life     GRAND Social       The Beauty in His Grip Link-Up   
Modest Mom Monday Link-up         Growing Homemakers Link-Up       


Monday, April 24, 2017

Wisdom Wednesday - Gates

photo courtesy of MiYah Music

I read this online quote a few days ago and thought it was worth sharing.


"Think of yourself as a city. You have four magical gates: the Gate of Seeing, the Gate of Listening, the Gate of Imagining and the Gate of Speaking.
Magical gates, because an Infinite G‑d enters your finite city through these gates. An infinite G‑d who cannot be squeezed within any place or boxed within any definition, but chooses to dress neatly in a wisdom called Torah—and these are your gates by which wisdom may enter.
That is why all the world competes to storm those gates. They want you to see the ugliness they see, hear the cacophony they hear, imagine the nonsense they imagine and speak without end. And then, you will desire all they desire and no room will be left in your city for that Infinite G‑d.
You only need master those gates and the city is yours."
(from Maamar Shoftim 5729)
As I meditated on this writing, I thought of the Scripture in the graphic above.   Yeshua said the gate to Life is narrow.  Here is the passage in the *Tree of Life version:

 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.  How narrow is the gate and difficult the way 
that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

 Something to meditate on, Gail-Friends. 

*The Tree of Live Version of the Scriptures can be viewed on www.biblegateway.com
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I sometimes share my posts with these friends:

Spiritual Sundays     Kathy’s Return to Loveliness at A Delightsome Life     GRAND Social       The Beauty in His Grip Link-Up   
Modest Mom Monday Link-up         Growing Homemakers Link-Up       

Friday, April 21, 2017

Sabbath Music - The Cure


Greetings Gail-Friends.  Don't you feel like running through fields of flowers?  Well, I'm assuming your weather is as good as mine.  Here in Central Florida, it has been gorgeous with temps in the low 80's and a warm sea breeze.  The Golden Cottage Garden is bursting with color:





Life is good in the Golden neighborhood!

We had a wonderful eight days of Passover and I posted photos of our seder in yesterday's POST. In another POST  I shared my recipe for sugar-free Latzah Matzah Chocolate Bark.

Today is preparation day, so I'm getting ready for the Erev Shabbat service tonight and a restful Sabbath tomorrow.  I'll be painting more rocks to spread joy and happiness to the people who find them.   You can read about that HERE.  

We'll also be out in G-d's beautiful world enjoying His creation.  There's nothing like nature to rejuvenate us physically, mentally and spiritually.  I might even run through a flowery meadow, or two.  

Here's a song I heard on the radio recently.  It's a bit different from the type of music I enjoy, but the lyrics speak volumes:  The Cure by Unspoken.

Gail-Friends, I pray you have a blessed, restful and worshipful Sabbath.

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I sometimes share my posts with these friends:




Spiritual Sundays     Kathy’s Return to Loveliness at A Delightsome Life     GRAND Social       The Beauty in His Grip Link-Up