Fall Decorations and Monday's Prayer

Part of Pumpkin Festival is the decorating of homes, yards, and businesses.  There is a competition, but I don't enter it.  I don't go all out like some, but each year I have added more to the front porch.  I skipped the bales of hay and the corn husks.  They're expensive, messy, and a pain to get rid of.

 I don't care if the mums do eventually die; they're lovely while they bloom.  Flowers are happiness compacted into colorful blooms that send waves of cheeriness through me. Last year I was able to buy ones that I could plant and all three bushes blessed me with an overabundance of blooms from late July until now. This year I couldn't get to the nursery that sells the ones meant to last our winters. Her hours were erratic and I couldn't make it back from school in time.  So Walmart had to do.

  The decorations have to include pumpkins and gourds, but not carved pumpkins.  Scarecrows are also a huge hit.  Some people build massive displays on their lawns and porches.

 I don't have a lawn.  I'm in a home that goes like this: open door, walk about 7 steps to porch steps.  Walk down 2 steps and cross sidewalk in 3 steps max.  The next step will put you in an extremely busy street where the coal trucks come rumbling down a hill and whip around a bend throwing dirt and stones up on my house and my neighbors' houses.  So nah! You don't want to take that last step!

Anyhow here's how my porch looked.  I'm not a master decorator, but I have fun.

 We can't have bushes and flowers in the ground around the porch.  We have drains that have done well to keep our basement from flooding.  But having plants and dirt around the porch would work against the drains, so I use pots.

The one in the above picture still has its summer blossoms.  Almost all my summer flowers are still blooming.
The plants didn't grow as tall as they usually do, but considering the 90 degree weather that blistered this area for most of August, I'm pleased that they survived.

 My door:

 An old school desk from my in-laws basement.  Mike and I chose it, found it to not be sturdy enough to have around the grandkids.  One of his sisters suggested I use it outside to

decorate and I have for 2 years now.  It did have summery flowers in pottery

on it, but I rearranged so that the porch would be all fall.

He greets the mailman. Our mailbox is above his head.

 

So there's a peek my house during Pumpkin Festival. It's still looks like this because our weather has been summery and the flowers are doing well.

Here's the prayer to start the week:

Lord,

When I find myself in difficult or uncomfortable situations,

show me Your perspective.

Help me to see what's right and not all that appears to be wrong.

Where I have failed to recognize Your hand of goodness and blessing in my circumstances,

forgive me.

Help me to make praise to You my first reaction to every event in my life.

Deliver me from an ungrateful heart and help me not to complain when I should be

giving thanks.

I know You are a good God,

and I trust You completely with my life.

I rejoice in this day and every day because You are in charge of them all.

Amen.

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD

in the land of the living.

Psalm 27:13

from a Stormie Omartian prayer book.

Here's one of the mum bushes I planted last autumn by my back door.

Blessings to you all as you begin the week!