MONDAY SHOPPING TRIP

Up to greet a new day this morning . Thankfully I feel stronger with each day and my coughing is lessoning each day. The Elderberry extract seems to be giving me back my edge at least for a while. It also helps that the weather has moderated. Fighting the cold temps takes a lot of extra energy and with all the extra outside work hubbie and I are doing right now it surely is nice to have these 50+ temperature days.
G-daughter was still sleeping when I went outside to do the chores this morning but was waking up when I returned.
We all had breakfast then I started the weekly laundry. Hubbie and g-daughter played the morning away while I worked.
She is a happy girl and loves Sesame Street .....

She is still taking ornaments of the tree but I have managed so far to find all of her removals !!!

After lunch she needed a nap so we made a trip over to the WNC Farmers Market to check out the citrus fruit for sale. They still didn't have any Poncans and very little of hubbie's favorite Lees fruit.We ended up with only a small bag of tangerines. We stopped by the outlets to go in a store I needed some things for Christmas in for sure. We walked around a little more and g-daughter was singing and keeping time with the Christmas music as well as being awestruck with all the decorations.

We made one other purchase and headed home !!

Neither of us really enjoy the strong coffee at Starbucks but I do like some of their specialty drinks especially around the holidays. Today I had a Chestnut / Praline Latte and it was pretty good but didn't have the flavor I thought it would.
We got home just in front of d-in-love and had to start chores as soon as she left.
We had a salad supper and then rested for the evening.
If you have followed my blog you may have noticed hubbie and I have been doing animal feeding chores we don't normally do and I have been asked by some readers if we have gotten back into the cattle business. There is a very sad reason we have extra chores right now.
On Sunday Dec. 4  I got a very disturbing phone call from Aa telling me that Re's older sister's husband had shot and killed her and then shot himself earlier that afternoon. They have 2 daughters a five and three year old who witnessed this senseless event and are now without parents.

Aa and Re left for Ohio to help comfort the little girls and be with her mom and dad and family.
I didn't sleep much that night and have been haunted by this ever since that night. I met Rachel on several of her visits down here to see Re and her face stays pretty much in my minds eye everyday.
I can't even imagine what her mother and father are going through.
It is times like these that we as faithful Christians have to remind ourselves that GOD is ultimately in control !  He allows these terrible things to happen and He makes the life and death decisions for each of His children. Although it is times like these that we always asked "why" .
The answer to that reverberating "why" is not for us to understand at least while we still breath the air of our earthly homes. It is, I believe, always a test of our faith in Him as He already knows our hearts and there have always been death and pain since the serpent enticed Eve to eat that apple ! Time and our faith in our loving Lord and His comforting arms will get everyone through these trying times.
Details of who will take care of these precious little girls plus everything else that has to be worked out after any death are on going and need to be thoroughly bathed in prayer.
I covet your prayers for this family as they deal with the grief of this loss.
God Bless , Good Night and Merry Christmas