On the letter R and let’s go back to remember better days when we could schlep about the muddy tulip fields during the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. The Tulip festival of 2020 had to be cancelled and the only way to see the Roozengaarde Garden is by a virtual tour.
Our very first visit to the tulip fields in Mount Vernon was a brief one in 1989.
This was in the late 90’s when my folks visited us in April and Katie was at least 10 years older. These photos were taken in the Roozengaarde Farm Garden.
We celebrated my mom’s birthday while they were here so we know they were here before and after April 8th.
The first time I met some of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook face to face was during the tulip festival in 2010.
That was the beginning of a incredible adventure.
In 2014 Katie and I visited the Roozengaarde again before she moved back to Jacksonville, North Carolina.
In 2015 as many of the Mennonite Girls who could, traveled down into the USA to meet me at Roozengaarde.
In 2018 we had a very muddy windy schlep through the fields with my sister, daughter and DIL.
We don’t live on the “Coast” anymore so a quick trip up to the tulip fields and to Roozengaarde Gardens is not easy anymore. I have lots of good memories and photos to remember.
Q is the letter of the alphabet that we are on for Monday April 20th.
We are always pleased to see a covey of quail show up on our property.
We are headed to Spokane today to buy some replacement tiles for our backsplash in the laundry room. One piece cracked when Dear was fitting the electric outlet. Oops. We are buying two pieces of the tile this time around…just in case. We are so close to that room being completed.
Questions for you since we are on the letter Q:
Do you know what day of the week it is without double checking?
Do you have a good supply of toilet paper and other paper products?
Do you know where you will spend eternity?
Do you have good internet service and cell phone service where you live?
What restaurant do you miss most?
What is the latest Bible passage you have read that gives you hope?
lf you enjoy sports what sport team do you miss the most?
What is something you have baked during COVID-19 for the first time?
Who do you miss hugging the most?
Do you have a prayer request for me? I will pray if you share.
We are on the letter P. Let’s Party! Be forewarned that this will be a photo overload since this is the best way I have right now to share all these photos with family and friends who could not join in for the fun.
Our daughter-in-law sent a text to 7 of us to invite us up to their mountain to help celebrate Jaymison Joshua’s first birthday. It was a conditional invitation with social distancing a requirement. The party was held on the front porch with no one going inside their home.
JJ’s party was going to be a big event on this day (April 18th) with a good crowd enjoying the Lumberjack themed festivities like ax throwing and log rolling but the Corona virus halted all those plans. Some had flights already booked.
Seated on his party throne for the duration!
Let’s start with paper…I mean presents.
The spectators and gift givers and happy celebrants. They are smiling behind those masks! Granny Linda, Gramps, Uncle Scott, Great Granny Florence, Grandpa Jim. Aunt Rhonda was on phone duty keeping other family who joined us on their phones up front seeing and listening to all the festivities. Uncle Andrew, Auntie Katie, Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo.
Time for cake!
This next photo is one to illustrate the pain this Baba feels when her little grands don’t understand Social Distancing.
That face, those hands, ugh…the pain is real.
Here are some other photos taken by JJ’s mommy on his birthday.
What a wonderful smile!
Sitting on his sister. It’s going to be fun to see their interactions in the future. Happy Birthday Jaymison. What fun it was to celebrate with you even at a distance!
On the letter O today and I’m using an old saying to show our tree service chopping or felling two trees we were concerned about on our property. Two Douglas Fir trees came down in a jiffy with the right equipment. The grinding of the stumps took a bit longer.
We didn’t like how this tree was leaning towards our bungalow.
Timber!
Our experienced tree service guy said it was a really good choice to take this tree out as the base of the tree was rotting on the side of the trunk towards our house. We were thankful for that decision. We were only going to have the one in the back taken down until the tree people offered to do this one for half the price since they were on our property with all of their equipment already. They got in a full day of work with good pay and we got two down for the price of one and a half! We are counting our blessings!
There are more photos I’d like to share from the grinding and the chipping but my country broadband is acting up again. I’ll have to also show the wide open spaces we now have with these two trees gone. Dear and our son chain sawed the logs into manageable rounds that have been hauled up to our sons place to be stacked to dry. Our son will have enough wood to keep his place warm next winter from these two trees and then some. We haven’t had to burn wood to keep warm at our country bungalow.
Today is Friday y’all. I know some of us need to remind ourselves each day about what day of the week it is!
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 (ESV)
Here’s our Number One Grandson, Jaymison. Today is his first birthday. Sweet boy won’t care that he isn’t getting a birthday party because of the pandemic. All the adults that love him dearly will miss watching him enjoy wrapping paper and and tissue. We’ll miss him enjoying cake and ice cream. Jaymison, Baba and Gramps love you so much. You are showing more and more of your personality and we enjoy seeing you grow. You are very talkative and we can’t wait till you can put into words what you want us to hear. You had a scary glitch in your first few weeks of life and we praise God that you are growing and learning well and on track now.
Jaymison Joshua (JJ). His middle name is given him in honor of his Uncle Joshua (Joshie).
Here is the closest photo I have to your first birthday so far with your mommy. Just 2 days shy. What wonderful smiles!
We enjoyed seeing you from a distance on Easter for a little while.
You can still be close to mommy, daddy and Addy.
Enjoy your in home small celebration with your mommy, daddy, and Addy!
Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear JJ, happy birthday to you!
We pray that God will bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you and give you peace.
I’m combining the A to Z with Wednesday Hodgepodge on this tax day that isn’t really a tax day. Our taxes were filed but we won’t be sending that big fat check until July 15th. How nice to have that delay! Hopefully we won’t have to delay the Hodgepodge and Joyce will have her internet up and running in time. For A to Z we are on the letter M and Music is my M in this Meme.
1. In Monday’s post I mentioned I would incorporate the word I was given for letter K into this week’s questions. That word was karaoke. On a scale of 1-10 how excited would you be to find out there was karaoke happening at your next gathering/outing with friends? 10=gimme that microphone!, and 1=I suddenly remembered there’s somewhere else I need to be. Have you ever actually done karaoke? If you had to perform karaoke what would be your ‘go-to’song?
I’ve only done Karaoke once. I have been on stages singing with a mic right up to my face several times, long ago and far away. If I was on stage doing karaoke with my friends it would be a 10. If it was a solo it would be a 1. The photo above is of the Christian “Rock” group Dear and I were part of in the 70’s. I’m the one on the right and Dear is next to me. I am not a soloist except for in the shower and in the privacy of my own home. I love the idea of Karaoke. My go to song would be…
2. How do you listen to music these days? Favorite app or do you listen the old fashioned way? Do you have music playing often in your home? Is there still a CD player in your car?
This is my old fashioned playlist and my CD changer. I’m so thankful to still have a CD changer that works and is connected to nice speakers so I can hear my music from anywhere in our country bungalow. We have a relatively new 2019 Highlander and I’m also thankful to be able to say it does have a CD player. I know most new vehicles do not have a CD player as standard equipment. On road trips we enjoy listening to books on CD.
3. The HP lands on US tax day this year. Or what used to be tax day before everything including filing your taxes was cancelled, delayed, postponed or extended. FYI- filing your taxes has not been cancelled, only delayed for a bit.
Besides staying away from anyone and everyone, what have you found taxing lately?
I have found it is hard to know what day of the week it is. Concentration has been taxing.
4. You’re without power so no oven, and you can’t open your frig or freezer in order to keep what’s in there from spoiling. And you don’t have access to take out. What will you make us for dinner?
I will go to the outdoor barbecue that is powered with propane and use the side burner to heat up a can of pinto beans, a can of black beans, a can of green chilies, a can of chopped tomatoes all together, add some chili powder and cumin. I’d serve that in a bowl with tortilla chips unless I had a fresh package of flour tortillas that haven’t been opened. I’d toast those tortillas on the grill. If I had an avocado and tomato in my fresh basket I’d cut them up to add on top. It you don’t have a propane powered barbecue you could do this over an open fire.
5. I’ve seen this exercise going around Facebook and thought it would be a good one to include in the HP…what are five things everybody seems to love and go crazy for that you personally don’t care for?
Don’t Judge!
Sushi
Cruises
Protein Drinks
“Facebook Chain Letters” example “If you love your sister copy and paste”
Women in Power (I could explain this better in person)
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Speaking of old school/old fashioned this is an album that some of our family and friends were part of.
The Russian Sacred Singers of Los Angeles are a group of California young people of Russian background. They sing in English and Russian under the inspiring leadership of director Leonard Wozniuk. The unique bi-lingual choir responded to our challenge to record their selections for radio use. Today, their joyful singing is heard world-wide over several short-wave radio stations and over local broadcasts in North and South America.
Hymns of Praise was recorded in stereo in the Lorin Whitney Studios with the creative accompaniment of organist Bill Fasig and pianist John Innes of the Billy Graham Association. Tom Keene on guitar and Paul Stilwell on bass add their distinctive sound to several selections. ~ Andrew Semenchuk, Producer.
The songs sung in Russian include: The Lord is my Light, Like a River Glorious, Jesus Name I Love, Hallelujah What a Saviour, The Good Shepherd, What A Friend, Glory in the Highest, Blessed Assurance, Submission, Let the Beauty of Jesus, Praise Ye the Triune God, Why Not Now, and Peace Perfect Peace.
Five of my cousins and two of my sisters sang on the album along with a future cousin-in-law and the director became my brother-in-law.
We now have the album on CD so we can listen to it more easily. We don’t have a phonograph anymore.
Music has been a big part of my life and it has enriched my life in so many ways. Being part of music groups I met some of the most important people in my life namely my dear husband. Music took me across the pond to Great Britain. I would have never traveled as extensively as I did were it not for music. Music that honors God and is true in lyrics moves me to worship my God and Saviour. I hope to be singing when my time comes to leave this earth. I know I’ll be singing when I get to heaven.
Thank you to Joyce for coming up with the questions! Click here to see more answers.
L is the letter for the day and my bandwith is low, low, low so I can’t upload any new photos right now. I’ll have to look to my archives and decide on a subject for the letter L. I chose my Labors of Love post from 2016.
I love Easter and all that it holds and all that it means. I like the idea of new Life, a resurrected Life. The greatest Love that was demonstrated on Good Friday and the Life that was resurrected on Easter Sunday.
Here are photos of our Easter weekend labors of love and celebrations 2016.
This was the end result of our labors on Easter Saturday 2016. Top left an Russian Easter sweet cheese spread called Seernaya Paska. The X and the B stand for Christ is Risen. On the right is the finished and frosted Russian Easter Bread called Kulich or Paska surrounded by Russian shrink wrapped eggs. The sign in Russian on the bottom left says Christ is Risen so you see where the X and B comes from. Now I’ll show you some of the process of getting here.
First you gather your labor force. This is my sister Lana who arrived early so that we could get the Russian Easter Bread (Kulich/Paska) started.
The rest of the laborers arrived and donned their aprons and head scarves.
At one point in the process of mixing the dough I thought I made a big boo boo so we prayed over the dough and Lana and I laid hands on the KitchenAid. I didn’t want to start over again. All turned out well…
Lana showing how her slippers match her apron.
The other photos in the collage are of kneading the dough and shrink wrapping the boiled eggs. While the dough was rising we enjoyed lunch together. Home made tamales and beans with guacamole, chips, and Dan and Jamie’s home made salsa.
After lunch it was time to prepare the cans and to punch down the dough after it’s first rise. The Peter Rabbit bunting was completed by Katie and hung by Laura and Katie. Josh and Laura gifted me the bunting kit for my birthday last week.
After the second rise we punched again and prepared the dough by hand for the cans pinching off enough or almost enough for each can we picked for this time around. Short, medium and tall.
The guys were busy outside in the sunshine solving several world problems.
The finished eggs and kulich on Easter day. I’ll show more from our Easter table in another post.
When the baking was done and the cheese mold was in the refrigerator setting up for our Easter Sunday meal the kids went out to dinner with their aunt and uncle. Dear and I stayed at home and crashed…
All of our kids together enjoying each other and extended family fills us with joy and not having to make dinner for them after a full day in the kitchen was a bonus!
We love and treasure these traditions and hope to carry them on through the years and pass them on to the next generation. I’m happy to report three of our nephews wives took on this labor of love alone in their homes and had very successful outcomes!
We are on the letter K and I’m choosing Keepsake for my post.
This is a quilt my mother in law made before Alaska and Hawaii were part of the United States. It was in 1959 that Alaska and Hawaii became states so Verna made this quilt well before 1959. Rex and Verna got married in 1945. Verna was a one room school teacher in Kansas during World War II.
Each of the 48 states were represented with the state bird and state flower.
Verna’s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren live in the states of Washington, New York, California and North Carolina as of this date.
Verna with my hubby long before we met. This is probably 1966 or 1967.
Dear’s Parents, Rex and Verna with their 4 grandchildren in 1982. Two more granddaughters were born in 1985 and 1991. Rex passed away in 1985 before they were born.
Rex, Verna, Dear, Josh me and Dan in 1982.
This photo was taken in 1988 or 1989 at our first home in Washington State. Verna was living with us at this time. My folks, sister and her girls were visiting from California.
This collage is of Dear’s only brother and him and Rex and Verna. I put this collage together to show the similarities the two sons have with their parents. Terry with Verna and Dear with Rex.
We had an unusual social distancing gathering on Easter at our kids home to exchange Easter meal goodies and to see JJ and Addy at their Easter egg hunt. It was a different but good Easter celebrating our Risen Savior! Later in the afternoon we had an extended family Zoom meeting sharing our highs, lows and buffaloes with each other. It was so good to see many of the family units from Texas, Indiana, California and Washington and sharing some prayer requests. I trust you all had a good day.
As soon as my broad band lets me upload my photos from yesterday I’ll share them.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 