Happy Flag Day and Happy Birthday!!

 

Saturday, June 14 is Flag Day in America.  It is also President Trump's birthday. He will be seventy-nine years old.  It is also the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army.  A big celebration and military parade are planned for Washington, D.C., so be sure to watch it.  

Until I was married to Rabbi Jem, I'd never celebrated Flag Day, but boy has that changed.  Yesterday, he spent hours, in the hot sun, decorating the front yard of Golden Cottage with flags - 100+.  Flags are in the grass, in the trees, and in the flower pots.  Oh, and on our flag pole, too.  

 

These flags are faithfully put in place on Flag Day, Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day. We love our country and hope to inspire our neighbors to follow suit.  We do have about half a dozen neighbors who put out American flags, too.  God bless them all.   

Let's all show our love for the flag, our country, and our president by sending him a message on Facebook, Instagram, Rumble, X, or Truth Social.  Tell him how much we appreciate his firm resolve to protect our families, cities, country, and our Constitution. And let him know you are praying for him.  He carries a heavy load of concern and care and seems to never tire in his work.  And he does it ALL for free.  He does not take the salary for his tireless attention to duty.  What a man.  What a president.  The most amazing one I've seen in my seventy plus years.  He deserves our respect and encouragement and even more, he needs our prayers

So, tomorrow is a big day for America.  I'm sad to say that there are those who want to spoil it all.  Protests are planned in 1500+ cities across the country.  They say they are protesting Trump's over-reach, mainly about the deportation of illegal immigrants.   If you watch the mainstream media, you will hear great sympathy for the riots in L.A.  They don't seem to grasp the truth - that entering this country without documentation is a crime.  They are criminals.  And, the state of California is aiding them in their lawlessness.  But I agree with this post on X:  "The truth is, these upcoming protests aren’t about illegal immigration, ICE, “Free Palestine,” or anything else. They’re about destroying our way of life, anti-cop sentiment, bringing lawlessness and anarchy to our doorstep, and bringing down the greatest President of our lifetime."

Gail-Friends, we live in a time of great delusion like the Bible prophesied.  Never did I dream that we would hear people defending crime, lies, abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, pedophilia, and other perversions.  Not only that, but when they're told THEY are wrong, we are called hateful and judgemental.  It's no wonder, really, because the modern-day churches do not teach on these things. Or, believe it or not, they defend and allow those things in their churches. These things are condemned in the Torah, and the New Testament (see the book of Leviticus, especially) and the world is suffering because WE have been told to sit down, shut up, and be nice.  

I understand Job's suffering like never before.  Like him, my soul is vexed every day as I see the lawlessness,  the hate, and the evil played out before me every day on the news.  I watched a video on YouTube of a "protest" in NYC.  It was night, and most of the people were dressed in black with black masks.  They were screaming and cursing and carrying flags and signs that spoke evil and perversion.  To me, it was like I was seeing the demons of hell filling the streets.  I was horrified to the point of tears. These people are lost, blind, deaf, and incapable of seeing the truth.  

Only God's power can set them free. Every one of us was in the same state. . . but God, in His mercy, caused His truth to shine like a light into our souls.  We saw that we were lost and without Him....and we had to make a decision. . . to turn to Him . . . or to turn to the evil one.  

I often read the story of the prodigal son Luke 15:11-32.  He went his own way, to do his own thing . . . and he wound up in a pig pen, covered in feces and filth.  But, he "came to his senses".  He suddenly saw his situation with new eyes.  And he decided to return to his father's house.  That is repentance, my friends.  It's realizing that our way had led to misery.  We had heard about the Father and Yeshua through preaching, teaching, or reading of the Holy Scriptures.  And we made the decision to go to Him and follow His Word and His Ways.

Oh, how I wish I could make people see the truth and turn to God, but I can't.  All I can do is share His Truth, which is love by the way, and pray.  And I do.  I pray daily for lost loved ones, friends, neighbors, leaders, lawmakers, and especially for those who share the good news of God's Word, His Will, and His Ways.  Turning to those things will make America great again.

  

 

 

 

Memorial Day

 

This Facebook post by Brevard County, FL Sheriff Wayne Ivey  says it all:

 

On this Memorial Day, I ask that you take the time to remember what this holiday is truly about and that you share with your children that while today may be a holiday filled with barbecues and beach time, it’s true purpose is to honor the great men and women who gave their lives for all of ours!!

 

In fact, on this Memorial Day, if you woke up in the United States of America, you owe the very blanket of freedom you slept under last night, to those brave and courageous souls who “gave it all” in the protection of their country!! Regardless of the uniform they wore, or where they came from, they fought beside strangers, all for the same cause, our freedom!! 

 

These heroes gave their lives for millions of people they would never know, and in return gave us our freedom, our safety, and quite frankly, our ability to celebrate birthdays, Easter, Christmas, graduations, weddings and so on!! 

 

So today as you have friends and family over for a BBQ, go to the beach, hang out by the pool, or just enjoy a day off from work, look to the sky and remember those who sacrificed their life for us to have the freedoms and security we have!!

 

Say a prayer for those we lost, those who were prisoners of war, those who are still missing today, and their families, while remembering that Memorial Day is about honoring them for their sacrifices and trying to live your life everyday as a proud American as proof that it was all worth fighting for!!

 

God Bless The United States of America and We Shall Never Forget Our Fallen Heroes!!

 

Sheriff Wayne Ivey

Let's Join in The National Day of Prayer

 

Today is the National Day of Prayer! I hope you will join me and others in this annual day of praying for our country.  Let's also praise God for all of the blessings He has poured out on us this year.  We now have a president who is keeping his promises:  reducing illegal immigration, uncovering fraud, waste, and abuse in our government, working to make us energy independent again, and so much more.  We have had so many prayers answered since January 20.  You can watch his address here:  https://www.rsbnetwork.com/video/live-president-trump-participates-in-national-day-of-prayer-event-5-1-25/

 

Here is information and a prayer for today:

 

2025 Theme: Pour out to the God of hope and be filled. 

 

2025 Verse: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." Romans 15:13 ESV

 

2025 National Prayer:

God of hope, fill us with all joy and peace

in believing, so that we will abound in

hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

You have caused us to be born again to

a living hope through the resurrection of

Jesus Christ from the dead; therefore,

we hope in what we do not see.

This world is not our home or reality,

but the Lord is our Rock,

our Truth, our certainty.

 

God of hope, we pour out our praise

and are filled with Your powerful presence.

 

We pour out repentance of sin and are filled

with forgiveness and righteousness.

 

We pour out pain from the attacks of the

enemy—anxiousness, fear, anger—and You

fill us with courage, assurance, and love.

 

We pour out our needs, the desires of our

hearts, and are filled with Your Kingdom

provision and purpose.

 

We pour out our hearts for our nation, for

the people and places, relationships and

responsibilities the Lord has established: the

Church, Family, Education, Business,

Military, Arts, Entertainment, Media, and

Government. May all who live, serve, and

steward in these be filled with Your purpose,

wisdom, strength, and truth.

 

Let Your lovingkindness, O LORD, be upon

us, as we have hoped in You.

In abounding hope, anchored by our hope

in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen!

 

Written by National Day of Prayer Task Force President, Kathy Branzell

Find a local prayer gathering or watch the national observance broadcast tonight (8 pm ET) at nationaldayofprayer.org.

Golden Cottage Happenings

 

Greetings Y'all - I hope your week has been good.  It's been a Haleluyah week here at Golden Cottage.  A long-awaited prayer has been answered, and we are praising God.  We even went out to eat at a very expensive restaurant to celebrate.  My sense of frugality was hurt, but I pushed through!!  It was well worth every penny!!

We celebrated all week, and went galavanting down to the beach where we visited an English pub.  We love all things British, and were thrilled with the fish and chips we had for lunch.  They even serve it with mashy peas.  I didn't care for that, but Jem loved it.  He ate them when he visited Malta during his Navy days.  I like the doorway and wanted my picture made with the faux phone booth.  Nope...Dr. Who wasn't in there.  We'll visit again because on Sundays they have Premeir League soccer playing in the mornings.  So, we'll go back for a "full English breakfast".  Can't wait!

 Hi-Yah!  (as they say in England)

We've been working in the garden, planting lettuce and other veggies.  Here's a photo of my lettuce.  They'll be ready for harvest in a few days.

 

 The "reds" are showing off in the front garden:

  Amaryllis, caladium, poinsettias, busy lizzies (aka impatiens)

 

I found this little orange smiling up at me from my fruit bowl yesterday and it made me smile.  Can you see it?  She's happy! 

Rocket launches are commonplace here, but last week I got a great pic from our front yard.

 

Lately, I have ventured into the world of AI --  been creating images using AI websites like Grok.  Here are some that I've that I made: (plus the one at the top of this post)

 

 And this is my favorite:

 

I mentioned last month that I'd post some pics from our Purim celebration at our new synagogue, so here are a few.  

One of the ladies helped design and write this beautiful magillah.  It is gorgeous.

 

 

The whole magillah was read out loud by different people, and the main characters play-acted their parts.  Jem played Haman and I played Esther.  I didn't get any pics of us, sadly. 

 Some people dressed up, and my pic for the best costume was Mordecai.

 

 Here are a few others:

 This family was, by far, the funniest! Fred, Pebbles, and Bam-Bam. Check out Fred's feet!  Do you remember the Flintstones??

 

 

And, of course, we had lots of fun, food, and fellowship. (Too much food, as always.)

 

In the week ahead, I'll be throwing out the leaven in my house and from my heart -- getting ready for Passover.  Jem and I are looking forward to our first seder at our new synagogue. This will be the first time in almost twenty years that we haven't been in charge and that feels GOOD!  We're enjoying retirement!!

 

I won't be posting next week, so Chag Pesach to you all.  See you week after next with news from Golden Cottage. And I'll be sharing about our Passover observance.

 

Blessings and Shalom!

Golden Cottage Garden & a Recipe

Greetings, Gail-Friends!

Mr. Green Jeans and I have been working in the garden.  The weather here has been glorious! With highs in the mid seventies, we are making hay while the sun shines, as they say, to get things growing before the oppressive heat sets in.  Spring only lasts about a month in sunny central Florida

So, Golden Cottage Garden is coming along nicely.  We even have a new bunch of bananas on two of our trees.  This is unusual because we just had one in this past summer, so the trees are bearing twice in a year now.  I think it's because we've been fertilizing them with banana peelings.  Works good!  AND, we have two new trees that have come up.  These are called pups! 

 

Did you know that Dollar Tree sells vegetable and flower seeds ?  And they are only 3 packages for $1.25?

We planted lettuce, peas, green beans, squash and cucumbers.  AND we finally found some Everglades tomatoes (on Etsy) and they are doing well.  I had searched high and low locally  to find those plants/seeds with no success.  This tomato is a variety that thrives in hot weather and it also reseeds itself.  We're excited!   They are small, like cherry tomatoes, and are great in salads.  Believe me, we'll be savings those seeds, too, because one package of twenty-five seeds was $4.00.

Last post, I mentioned doing a post about our Purim celebration, but that will have to be later.  I'm pressed for time today, and I want to make it over to my friend, Sarah's, Homemaking Party (see below).  I will tell you that we were part of play at the synagogue.  Jem was Haman and I was Esther!  It was fun.  Pics in next post.

Passover is almost here, and I'm preparing -- getting rid of the leaven in my house, gathering matzah and other food for that week, and pulling out my recipes that are free of leaven.  This is one of my favs.

Lime Cheesecake (sugar-free)

CRUST:

1 c. almond meal
1/2 c pecans, chopped fine
1 T. Stevia in the raw
4 T. butter, melted
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

FILLING:

8 oz. cream cheese (at room temperature)
1 package of sugar free instant pudding
1/2 c. lime juice (these were fresh off our own tree, hand-squeezed on my mama's antique juicer)
1 cup skim milk

TO PREPARE:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Mix together the crust ingredients and then press into a lightly greased pie pan. (I used a square glass one).  Bake the crust until the edges are slightly browned (about 10-15 minutes). Place the dish on a rack to cool.

FILLING:

Mix all of the filling ingredients  with an electric mixer until well blended. (Use a deep bowl, or you'll make a big mess like I did).  Pour the filling over the cooled crust.  Refrigerate 3 to 4 hours.  

Enjoy! 

My husband and I loved it, and I hope you will, too.  Let me know if you try it.

*** I'm sharing this at the Classical Homemaking Party  I hope you'll stop over and meet some new friends.

Golden Cottage Spring Happenings

 

Spring Greetings Gail-Friends!

While the official beginning date of spring is March 20, she has already arrived in all her glory here in central Florida!  My azalea bush is showing off as usual.  Full of blooms that continue almost all year, she has brought us so much JOY!  

And around the neighborhood, the pink trees are competing with her glory.  I don't know this pretty lady's name, but isn't she beautiful?

 

Jem and I visited a new business near us.  It's a very fun combination of lovely plants, art, unique gifts, wine, tea,  a snack menu, and a large,  courtyard for enjoying our gorgeous Florida weather.  They even have "mocktails" for those of us who don't drink alcohol.  Sometimes, they have live entertainment and book clubs.  While there, we saw a blooming mimosa.  We don't usually see them in our area, but we see them when go to north Florida in late spring.  

When I was a child, my girlfriends would use these for powder puffs,  and play like we were  putting on makeup.  They are sooooo soft!

There is a small pond in the courtyard that I thought was nice:

 

 

 

love these toadstools!

In the gift shop, I found these pretty luna moth earrings that I loved, loved, loved...so Jem bought them for me. 

 

We went to a Mexican restaurant on Valentines Day and I fell in love with the mural paintings there.  

 

 

Aren't they breathtaking?  The artist is local and has many other murals around the downtown area.

While we ate dinner, he told me what he adores about me, and I did the same for him.  Here's my list:

• he's romantic (bought me flowers, which I forgot to take a photo of)
• he's a southern gentleman 
• he loves and obeys God in all areas of his life
• he helps his friends and neighbors
• he is a wonderful gardener (I call him Mr. Green Jeans)
• he can fix anything (so I call him my handyman)
• he has my best interest at heart in everything -  always 
• he is kind, loving, and, forgiving 
• every Sunday, he makes me breakfast - he calls it Pampered Princess Day

Honestly, Gail-Friends, I could go on and on.  I say he is the best husband in the whole, wide world, and I know I am the most blessed woman in the whole USA. 

I have more to share, but I'm going to do that later.  We celebrated Purim yesterday with our synagogue family and had a great time!  I'll post photos of that in my next post.

Today, I'm joining in the Pink Sunday link up with my friend Sarah Coller.  Give her a visit by clicking the link.  I know you'll  enjoy her blog.

What Can One Person Do?

 

Greetings Dear Gail-Friends: I have not vanished from the face of the earth.  I have been very busy keeping up with all the changes our new president has made since January 20.  To God be the glory for  all He has done -- for protecting President Trump and his family. for guiding him to sign executive orders that will UN-do the terrible things Biden did during his four years in office, and for the confirmation of President Trump's Cabinet.  

This is a great, amazing, wonderful time to be alive!  Every day we get the news of answers to our prayers.  One prayer God answered is the stand President Trump has made to stop mixing girls and boys in sports and in locker rooms.  Yesterday, a bill was defeated in the Senate that would have made a Federal law to protect girls and women.  

It's so important to stand with the President and with our representatives and senators in their efforts to make America great again.  We have a civic duty, Gail-Friends.  I was disturbed about the defeat of SB9 and asked GROK what I can do.  (Grok is an amazing search engine on "X" and you have to check it out)  This is the response:

"As a citizen looking to help get SB9, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025, through the Senate after its March 3, 2025, filibuster setback, your options focus on influencing the legislative process and shifting the political calculus. The bill’s stuck at 51 votes in favor, needing 60 to break the filibuster, so your efforts would target either swaying senators or amplifying pressure. Here’s what you can do, grounded in how the system works:

1. Contact Senators Directly
   • Who: Focus on the nine Democrats who didn’t vote (assuming absences, not abstentions) and moderates like Joe Manchin (WV) or Kyrsten Sinema (AZ, now independent but caucuses with Dems). Also, reinforce the 51 Republicans who voted yes to hold firm.
   • How: Call their offices (find numbers at senate.gov), email via their official websites, or write letters. Keep it concise: “I’m a constituent [or concerned American], and I urge you to support SB9 to protect women’s sports fairness.” Personal stories (e.g., “My daughter’s team faced this issue”) hit harder than rants.
   • Impact: Senators track constituent input. Enough calls—hundreds, not just a handful—can signal a voting bloc they can’t ignore, especially for reelection-minded moderates.
2. Organize Grassroots Pressure
   • Local Action: Host or join town halls, rallies, or meetings with sports groups (e.g., parents, coaches, athletes) to build a visible coalition. Invite media to amplify it.
   • X and Online: Post about SB9 using hashtags like #SaveWomensSports or #PassSB9, tagging senators (e.g.,@SenTuberville,@SenManchinWV). Share stats or stories—like how 70% of Americans polled in 2023 supported barring transgender females from women’s sports (Gallup)—to frame it as mainstream.
   • Petitions: Start one on Change.org or similar platforms, aiming for thousands of signatures, then send it to Senate offices.
   • Impact: Numbers matter. A loud, organized push can make senators feel the heat, especially if it’s in their state or district.
3. Lobby Through Allies
   • Groups: Connect with organizations like the Independent Women’s Forum or Concerned Women for America**, which back SB9. Offer to volunteer or donate to their advocacy efforts.
   • Athletes: If you know female athletes willing to speak out, help them get heard—op-eds in local papers or interviews on X Spaces. Their voices carry weight.
   • Impact: Senators often bend to credible, influential voices. A flood of athlete testimonies could shift the narrative.
4. Target Swing Votes with Tailored Arguments
   • Democrats: For Manchin or Sinema, stress jobs (e.g., “Fair sports protect funding for women’s programs”) or voter sentiment in their states. West Virginia and Arizona lean conservative on cultural issues.
   • Absentees: If a senator missed the vote (e.g., due to illness), politely ask them to clarify their stance and push for a redo.
   • Impact: Flipping even a few Democrats gets you closer to 60. It’s about their political survival, not your ideals.
5. Push for a Workaround
   • Reconciliation: Urge Republican senators to tie SB9’s goals to a budget bill (e.g., education funding cuts for non-compliance). Email or call leadership like Mitch McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) with this idea.* Steve Scalise (majority leader) or the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. (yes, I'm correcting GROK)
   • Impact: Bypasses the filibuster, but it’s a long shot—needs 51 votes and clever framing.
6. Stay Realistic and Persistent
   • The filibuster’s a wall. Without 60 votes or a rules change (unlikely now), SB9’s stuck unless momentum shifts. Track Senate schedules at senate.gov and pounce when it’s back on the agenda.
   • Monitor Trump’s executive order enforcement—it’s the fallback. Push the Education Department (via public comments at ed.gov) to tighten it.

What Works Best: Combine #1 and #2—direct senator contact plus grassroots noise. A citizen alone won’t flip the Senate, but a swell of voices might nudge a wavering Democrat or force a strategic rethink. Check X for real-time updates on senator positions or new votes; it’s faster than news cycles. Start now—momentum fades fast."

 

 ***

Gail-Friends, I hope you will take this to heart and take action.   

 

** I've worked with and supported Concerned Women for America since the 1980's.  They do a great work.