Life and times of a couple of lovebirds in a wild world
Author:peachandbatman
Hi!! Thanks for dropping in! We are just a couple of high school sweethearts married 36+ years, who love Jesus, each other, life, our family, our country, traveling, taking pictures, teaching people about guns, books, movies, music, British murder mysteries, and cooking! We have a little bit of everything going on! Come on in!
Peach here: I’m excited for our family’s Easter plans this year! It’s not an extravagant plan, but a fun, simple plan for getting together with our two sons and their families and celebrating the biggest event in history to date!
Since two members of the family work that day, (God bless them for the work they do!) we are getting together in the evening on Easter Sunday. Thanks to daylight savings time, it will be daylight and there can still be time for dinner and an Easter Egg Hunt!
In years past we’ve been blessed to get a whole bunch of family together on this special day. We hope to be able to do that again in the future. Can’t quite make it happen right now.
But, it got me thinking, will you be celebrating Easter this year? If so, how do you celebrate?
Just curious! I love hearing how others make special times…well, special!!!
“In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
And the angel answered and said unto the women, FEAR NOT YE: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
HE IS NOT HERE: FOR HE IS RISEN, AS HE SAID. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
And GO QUICKLY, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.” — Matthew 28:1-7
Peace and love, Y’all! Peace and love and hope and joy!!
Recent, beautiful, cool, sunny day with Batman, our youngest son and me working on clearing a spot for some family sporting activities!
“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” — Mark 11:23-26, KJV
Peach here: Reading these very familiar verses this morning got me to thinking. About forgiveness. Our mind is a funny thing. I have discovered that in my mind, (and I don’t think I’m alone) that I will tuck away, without even being conscious of it, little stacks of names that I need to forgive. I think I have forgiven them, but on occasion, when I inadvertently ‘bump into’ one of those names, I realize, there’s a stench, a lingering grudge, a savored offense, possibly, for some super special names, maybe even a touch of bitterness.
I quickly make the choice when this occurs, by faith, to purposefully forgive, and move on, to realize the grace I’ve freely received and also need to freely give. Not because the people who I need to forgive are worth it. That may or may not be the case. But, because Jesus and what HE has done for me, HE is worth it! And I’m worth that choice, too!
Forgiveness absolutely lightens our load. Unclogs the arteries of our hearts. It let’s His Sonshine into our hearts and minds.
It’s a choice. A decision. An act of faith. And when we choose it, it sets us free. sometimes, we have to choose, and decide, and choose again and again, (because it may come back to our remembrance every once in awhile).
But, it is always a choice worth making. A choice that we honor Jesus when we do so. Making this choice, this decision positions ourselves for freedom, for His light and peace, hope and joy to have room to move in our hearts.
It doesn’t matter the triviality or the bitter pain of the offense, when we grasp them, and hold onto them, they become poison to us.
We forgive because He forgave us. We forgive because keeping the hurt turns to bitterness, and causes unnecessary woundedness to take up space in our hearts, where creativity and hope are meant to reside.
Recently we’ve been working as a family to clear some space on a lot, knocking down the underbrush and taking out a few extra trees, to make some more open space.
Now there’s room to run and play, and see everything in all directions.
“Above every charge keep thy heart, For out of it [are] the outgoings of life” — Proverbs 4:23, YLT.
And that’s what our hearts need. Be gracious, because Jesus is, and we are His, and it results in a healthy heart and soul.
Today, I’ve been taking inventory, and letting the Holy Spirit guide me through my stacks, to make sure I throw them out, after CHOOSING to FORGIVE!
“So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, IF you abide in My word [hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them], you are truly My disciples.
And you WILL KNOW the Truth, and the Truth WILL set you free.” — John 8:31-32, KJV.
Diamond studded midnight blue skies! Please excuse my phone pics of the sky, I just couldn’t resist to try to capture sone of that fantastic beauty in our front yard!
Peach says: I feel like apologies are more than in order, because I just can’t get my stuff together to blog like I truly want to. If it counts, I write all manner of posts in my head as I’m doing life. Can’t remember much of them though!
Turns out my semi retired life is pretty busy! Who knew?
We have some of our family living with us and it makes life more full and lively in a lot of fun ways!
Work is challenging in some ways in this economy, but it goes on!
So many diamonds! I mean stars! 😍
After we got back home from our road trip last October, we decided to get a long wanted telescope for the family to enjoy. Which has led to many stargazing nights!
Batman is the driving force to it all! I get a front row seat and all the looking I want! He does all the hard stuff and I’m so grateful for his generous research and effort, which he so patiently puts into it, and then shares with us all!
Below is a beautiful picture he took tonight with the telescope of Orion! It was a perfect night to be out!
While he was working on the pictures, I couldn’t resist taking pictures with my phone. With so many bright stars looking down upon us, you just have to try!
Orion 📸 by: Batman on the telescope
I’ll be back this weekend with more, and more importantly for much needed visits around the blogosphere!
“He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.” — Psalm 147:4
Went fishing yesterday for the first time in the New Year. My kinda fishing trip, don’t have to go far and don’t stay long, just a couple miles and a couple hours. I’m that guy, most of y’all have seen him, he’s standing on the road side fishing in a ditch, and most people think he’s nuts. Well I am a bit “off” but that aside, I like my ditch fishing, I have honestly never gone and not caught something. Most times it’s a small bluegill (bream) or the like but I have caught largemouth bass up to 15” from a ditch you wouldn’t think a frog lived in. I get the horn toot and giggle to myself at the strange looks passers by give me as they drive past, I’ve had folks stop and chat in disbelief that I just caught that fish from there. Had people stop and talk about how they used to do the same thing when they were young and that this brings back memories. I encourage each one that does stop, to give it a try when they have a few minutes or even now as I always have an extra rod or two in my truck, I can almost guarantee they would catch a fish if they would but try. I don’t fish to keep them, I snap a picture and toss them back, to me it’s just fun to catch them. It’s something I remember doing as a kid, riding my bike to each of the culverts on that long country road and stopping and fishing, such fun. So when I retired I decided I would start going again and I’ve had a blast. Peach goes with me at times, but she’s busy with work and schooling and it leaves me to wander by myself. But yesterday was different, yesterday Jason our youngest son went with me. It was a hoot! We hit all the same spots I like to go and between the two of us we caught over 40 different fish. Copperheads (bluegill) Redbreast (sunfish) Spotted sunfish (Stumpnocker) and even Largemouth bass, all from ditches and all within 2 miles (as the crow flies) from our house. Fishing with the boys is always something I want time for and when they can go and want to, it’s a wonderful experience. I still have a small 10’ boat and electric motor for the ponds and pits people sometime let me fish (always looking for more ponds so if y’all know any where I can go, pass it this way) and I’ve gone with my oldest son James that way a time or two, but honestly my favorite is the ditch fishing, I can’t help it m! I’m hooked (pun intended) on it. Anyways, Jason and I hit each spot and caught fish until they stopped biting and then we moved on to the next, enjoying the day, the fishing and the company. We bumped into a fella at our last spot, who we chatted with a while, he had run out of bait and was leaving, as we talked Jason caught a good redbreast, which he gave to this fella as he was fishing for food and we were just catching and releasing. I showed him what we were using (pink trout magnet lures) and even gave him one, he stayed and fished more, he was still there when we left for home. At the end of the trip I realized that these are the days people wish for, maybe not fishing but just a nice few hours with family, with nothing else interrupting. Y’all try it sometime, and if you see a fella standing on the side of the road fishing in a ditch, toot the horn and wave, or stop by and chat. Who knows, you might find yourself fishing with him and enjoying every second.
First bass 2023Warmouth Stumpnocker Doubled redbreastRedbreastMe and Jason redbreast and bluegillRedbreastJason & RedbreastBassCopperhead (bluegill)BluegillRedbreastCopperheadBass
Above are just a few of those we caught, they are not giants but each one is a memory and cherished like it weighed 5 lbs.
The front view of the Hampton Inn, in Nashville, charming!
Batman here:
The stay in Nashville was as expected, very nice. We stayed at the Hampton Inn Nashville-Vanderbilt, 1919 West End Ave. in downtown Nashville. The hotel was once again, very nice, and clean with friendly staff, and on site parking for a $25 fee.
It was remarkably easy to get to, (which we did not expect arriving to a big city on a Monday), and their service was excellent, to include an excellent breakfast. Peach and I, although not really fancy, ate at Halls Chophouse, which was a short walk away from the hotel and it was EXCELLENT. Definitely, not something we are used to, as it was pretty fancy, and pricey, but it was worth every penny! The steak was the best I’ve had any place, ever, and the atmosphere perfect.
We will stay here again, if we come this way and probably eat at the same place.
Next, it was off to Columbia, Missouri, where we stayed at the Country Inn and Suites, 817 N Keene St. The hotel was very nice, and the staff friendly.
We did not eat breakfast there. We ate at Cracker Barrel instead. Never a complaint there from us! And then we were off again.
Peach here:
Our quick visit to Nashville was just right! The hotel was charming, and the staff very kind! But, Halls Chophouse was an unexpected pleasure, to be sure! Live music, quite the classy ambiance, wait staff who are extremely professional and good at what they do, which is help you navigate their offerings of delicious beef and wine!
Our waiter was a gentleman and the dessert (chocolate cake with fudge icing, and raspberry sauce) was scrumptious and more than Batman and I could eat together!
I loved that we could walk to it from the hotel!
Missouri was a quick shot and off again, as the travel ran long that day. More on that in another post!
Early on we had a great stay at a nice place, and we thought we’d share the information for anyone else in the Alabama way.
Hampton inn & Suites by Hilton
2590 Cobbs Ford Road Prattville Alabama 36066 334-285-6767
Really nice place to stay. If have any complaint, it’s the room was too quiet when the AC turned off, 🤣🤣.
Hampton Inn, Prattville, Alabama
It was clean, comfortable and the night clerk was very friendly. The day clerk was just as friendly, as well as several of the staff we bumped into during the stay. Breakfast was hot, tasted good and hit the spot. If we find ourselves in that area again we will certainly stay there again, on our way to other places.
Oh, my goodness! You may have seen Batman talking about us planning a little excursion! We’ve been counting the days until we could take a little time for some adventuring!
Today is the day we set out! We have a general destination and idea of what we want to do and see, with no particular tight time frame. And lots of opportunity to take rabbit trails! We’ve never done this, well, maybe back in 1996, 1997 on a couple trips with our sons!
But, this is just us! Some music! And more than a few pairs of boots and clothes! I should add here, that as we packed yesterday, it was very obvious who was in the military in years past, and who…was not! 😂😂
There’s nobody better to take a road trip with than my Jerry! He’s up for anything, we like the simple pleasures! He will stop for anything, anytime!
Now we are having stretch sessions at the rest areas! 😂😂 It really helps! Things you don’t really need or think about when you are in your 30’s! In our 50’s though, this is a big deal!
We will be giving updates for fun and memories to look back on in the next couple of weeks!
Peach says: Just a quick note to see how everybody is after Ian!
Batman and I, along with our youngest son and his son, rode it out safely and soundly and with much gratitude! And some large quantities of Snickerdoodle’s. As I like to bake on rainy days, and cool days. And it was definitely a rainy couple of days!
It was the first storm I got to weather with Batman! As all previous that came to our area, he worked of course! That’s what policemen do! Have I mentioned how grateful I am for these retirement years?
Ian will turn out to be discovered as a crazy strong storm from what I have been reading about from a local storm tracker, who road out the entire storm in a parking garage in Punta Gordy, with other trackers and also was able to connect with some very seasoned meteorologists, who had some absolutely ASTONISHING data on Ian.
It made me evermore grateful for how we were spared this time in our area. It was positively supernatural that this storm did not have near the impact that Matthew or especially Irma did on us here.
Going to be remembering SW Florida, and all of Florida in prayers for the foreseeable future as we figure out how to rebuild.
Lord, inspire us all how to help. Please lead the people who are bereft and weary and overwhelmed, show them whether to stay and rebuild, or if their season is to move. Grant them provision, wisdom, courage, peace and hope. Remind them and then lead them into Your joy, which is their strength and confounds the enemy of our souls. Raise up Your people who are to move into the torn up places and rebuild them! Let these places be remade and flourishing and grounded in You! Thank You for saving so many and the mercy we have experienced! Heal and comfort those whom are hurting and experiencing great loss. In all of this Lord, be glorified! May many, many, many be brought near to You! In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
You need the sound on!! I was actually too cold and we had to go inside! So not like me, as I LOVE THE COLD WEATHER!
Love and bon fires, Y’all! Love and bon fires! I think they can cure a whole lot!