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!

Chag Purim

 

Every year, we remember the faithfulness of ADONAI by reading the book of Esther.  We also are reminded that we all were born for such a time as this.  He wants to use US for His Kingdom assignments. 

We'll be singing, dancing, making lots of noise, eating, and having lots of fun and fellowship.  Here's a traditional Purim song for you to enjoy:   Chag Purim

And here's a fun contemporary song by the Maccabeats, Purim Song

I'll tell you all about our celebration (with photos) next week.

 

Have a blessed week!

Thankful Thursday - Purim Pics, Blessings, & My New Book

Greetings to you all, dear Gail-Friends.  I'm so excited today because my new book will be published very soon.  Hopefully, it will be the first or second week of April.  I'll keep you posted.

The book is titled Golden Moments and is a compilation of inspirational stories about my answers to prayer and "aha" moments in my life.  Some are funny and some are deadly serious.  All are true.  I'm publishing them with the hope of inspiring the reader to pray about everything, no matter how small.

I promised you some Purim pics and to tell you about our special guest at our celebration.  Here you go:

We had fun with these photo cut-outs, made by a very talented synagogue member, Lisbet.  I loved how she added lace and jewels to the paintings.  Everybody had their picture made with them, and it was great fun.

Rabbi Jem doesn't look happy, but he really was.

Here he is with his puppet.  He loves to be dramatic and act silly.  This is his "oldest rabbi in Israel" get-up.

These are the members of the play.  During intermission, we had a Purim parade with singing, dancing, and lots of groggers, of course.

The show was put on by some of our teenagers.  The director, Taylor, is barely 13 years old.  She was really good at directing.

Taylor and Naomi with their puppets (made by them)

 Matthew made a great looking puppet.  This was the court jester, who told funny jokes.  (Not in the script, but we loved it.)  There was lots of ab-libbing, too, by everybody.  Hilarious!

I told you we had a special guest.  Well, here he is!

It was President Donald J. Trump!  So exciting to have him with us for Purim.  Matthew made this one, too.

Another of our talented ladies, LaVonne, made a pinata of Haman's head!.  It was so much fun watching the kids beat him with a stick till all the candy fell out.  We love to hate Haman!

He was ugly...even had hair coming out of his nose and ears!  Booo....Hisss....!

After the celebration, we ate!  You know the old saying,

"They tried to kill us.  

We survived.  

Let's eat!  

And of course, we had hamentaschen - a traditional sweet cookie shaped like Haman's hat.

I think it was the best Purim celebration we've ever had.  You can a few more photos of this year's celebration HERE. You can learn more about Purim by clicking on the link under subjects on the right-hand side of this blog.  Just scroll down - there are lots of posts.  You might even like to try my hamentaschen recipe.

I'm counting my blessings that we have such a loving congregation.  We are a family, really.  All loving and supportive of each other.

This is my beautiful amaryllis that always blossoms  this time of year.  I counted a dozen blooms that day.

And I'm thankful that the painted buntings are still here.  We've had the coldest winter I can remember in years.  Cold for us is 40's at night at mid to upper 70's during the day.  It's not bad, of course, but it's too cold to sit on the porch in the early mornings.  I've been using my fireplace dvd a lot.  I'm ready for spring, aren't you?  Still I'm so blessed to live in the place where people vacation.  We call it paradise.  Thank you, Father, for putting us here.

What are you thankful for this week?

Have a blessed week ahead, dear Gail-Friends.

~~~

 I sometimes share my posts with these friends:
  Spiritual Sundays  GRAND Social      Modest Mom Monday Link-up      The Art of Homemaking Mondays
   BLOGGING GRANDMOTHERS LINK PARTY     Share Your Cup Wednesday Wordless Wednesdays    Classical Homemaking Link-Up     
    Favorite Things Home and Garden Thursday at Delightsome Life  Paula's Weekend No Rules Blog Party Friendship Friday 
Sunday Thoughts Link-Up
 OVER THE MOON LINKY PARTY!
~~~

Sabbath Music - Chag Purim

Queen Esther (aka Amanda Wilson)

We're celebrating Purim tonight, along with our weekly Erev Shabbat service.  One of our young ladies has organized a Purim puppet show and we're excited to see it.  I'll have photos next week.

If you're not familiar with this fun holiday, be sure to see some of my past posts HERE
You can see some of the fun we have as well as learn about my famous hamentaschen recipe.
(just scroll down)

Every year, we remember the faithfulness of Hashem by reading the book of Esther.  We also are reminded that we all were born for such a time as this.  He wants to use US for His Kingdom assignments. 

We'll be singing, dancing, making lots of noise, eating, and having lots of fun and fellowship.  Here's a traditional Purim song for you to enjoy:   Chag Purim

And here's a fun contemporary song by the Maccabeats, Purim Song

I'll tell you all about our celebration (with photos) on Thursday this coming week.

CHAG PURIM!

~~~

 I sometimes share my posts with these friends:
  Spiritual Sundays  GRAND Social      Modest Mom Monday Link-up      The Art of Homemaking Mondays
   BLOGGING GRANDMOTHERS LINK PARTY     Share Your Cup Wednesday Wordless Wednesdays    Classical Homemaking Link-Up     
    Favorite Things Home and Garden Thursday at Delightsome Life  Paula's Weekend No Rules Blog Party Friendship Friday 
Sunday Thoughts Link-Up
 OVER THE MOON LINKY PARTY!

Purim Party & Cookie Baking Day

As promised, today I'm sharing photos from our Purim celebration.  Sherry, one of our talented young women did the planning and decorating for the party.  She, along with LaVonne, Jennifer, Amy, and Brenda did it ALL!  Rabbi Jem and I just showed up. Then when it was over, we were told to go home while they cleaned up!  What a blessing, and so much JOY!

Here are a few photos of the beautiful room:

Rabbi loved that scepter, as you can see below:

He had a great time horsing around with it all evening.

We had a full house for the fabulous meal.  We had hot dogs (Rabbi's favorite) with all the fixings, fresh fruits and vegies, hamentaschen and other goodies:

The play about the whole magillah (the story of Esther) was fabulously funny.  We never rehearse because that makes it more fun to wing it! (We use printed scripts.)  Part of the play is singing parts of the story to the tune of  tv shows and old songs.  We sang "The Purim Bunch" to the tune of the "Brady Bunch" and "Hang Down Your Head Old Haman" to the tune of "Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley". 

We wear costumes or funny hats.  It's always more fun when people dress up.  Here's Deborah's Queen Esther costume.

Hats off to LaVonne and these wonderful costumes she made:

Rabbi always wears this get-up!  He tells everybody he's the oldest rabbi in Israel.

You can click on this LINK to see more about our Purim celebration.  Scroll down and you'll see a video of our Purim Parade.

Every Purim, my grandson and I make hamentaschen.  Here are a few pics from our cookie-making day.

We made apple and blueberry ones this year.  They turned out so good.


Purim is a time to be silly and have fun, and celebrate G-d's great goodness and provision for His people.  Each year, we're reminded that we, like Esther, were born for such a time as this.  Rabbi Jem encouraged us to be brave and to stand up against antisemitism.  That evil spirit is active in the world today, as we are hearing more stories of attacks against synagogues and Hebrew schools.  Please join us in praying against that spirit, and in standing with the Jews and Israel.

I hope your Purim celebration was as wonderful, and I'd love to hear about it in the comments.
 **********

I sometimes share my posts with these friends:

Spiritual Sundays      THE SUNDAY COMMUNITY – #GIVE ME GRACE @SEE SPEAK HEAR MAMA 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        The Gathering Spot Link-Up 

MOTIVATION MONDAYS – @EMBRACINGHISWILL      SHARING HIS BEAUTY – @THEBEAUTYINHISGRIP

The Art of Homemaking Mondays
Monday of Many Blessings 

Titus 2 Tuesday     Share Your Stuff Tuesday    TITUS TUESDAYS @CORNERSTONE CONFESSIONS    

Wordless Wednesdays    Jennifer Dukes Lee Tell His Story  Teaching What Is Good Link-Up

Classical Homemaking Link-Up    Judith’s Wholehearted Wednesday     Raising Homemakers Wednesday     A Wise Woman Builds       Wake Up Wednesday     A Little R & R Wednesday     Wednesday's Prayer Girls & Link-Up Party Thought Provoking Thursdays at 3D Lessons 4Life     Thursday  Favorite Things 

 Home and Garden Thursday at Delightsome Life 

Friendship Friday