Author Archives: Ellen

Fun in the Snow

Addy loves the outdoors in every season!

More snow on the ground since these photos were taken by our DIL.

Happy to report their power came back on, finally, last evening.

On Monday I shoveled a path to our satellite devices to clear them off of snow. Not sure I would make it into a snow fashion magazine especially with my choice of summer hat!

Snowy days project. The priming and painting of our master bath cabinets and ceiling. We still need to pick the grey shade for the walls and buy the paint.

On Tuesday we woke up to a couple more inches of snow on top of the 14 inches we have on the ground already!

Bible Study Fellowship was cancelled this morning due to the snow and driving conditions. Some of the ladies drive from miles away from small country towns around Colville. Our studies in the book of Hebrews continues. We were in Hebrews 8, 9 and 10. I’ll miss that discussion. Next week we move on to 11, 12, and 13.

The Full Assurance of Faith-

Hebrews 10: 19-25:

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Have a good day dear visitors!

 

The Calm

…before the storm.

This was our view on the way to church yesterday. We traveled on compact snow and ice but. Sunday is a good day to travel in the snow since the roads aren’t as heavy with vehicles. Overnight we added to our snow levels and our temperatures plummeted. Dear woke up to a power outage, I slept through it. The power came back on about 5:35 am. We measured our levels and it looks like we have 14 inches. We have some casualties from the weight of the snow. Branches have fallen and one of our bird houses is tilting. When I woke up we were at 10 degrees and we are suppose to have a high of 18 degrees. Brrr.

Our kids who live 8 miles from us on the other side of town are without power. Remember that when us country folk are without power it means we have no water, either. Our water sources are wells and they need electricity to pump the water to our homes. Our kids on the coast got 5-6 inches overnight, too. That will cause more havoc then our side of the mountains. The skies are bright right now and it is beautiful.

These are photos off my phone that I could upload from Facebook. My big camera photos aren’t uploading this morning.

Great day for snow shoeing and freezing our faces off.

Happy Monday everyone!

Not All the Blood of Beasts ~ Hymn

Not All the Blood of Beasts

Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace
Or wash away the stain.

But Christ the heav’nly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they.

My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of Thine;
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin.

My soul looks back to see
The burdens Thou didst bear,
When hanging on the cursèd tree,
And hopes her guilt was there.

Believing, we rejoice
To see the curse remove;
We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,
And sing His bleeding love.

Words: Isaac Watts, 1709.

Bungalow Updates

We’ve been on the lookout for a coffee table with no sharp corners. This nifty old Ethan Allen piece became available at a second hand store here in Colville. It has 2 drop leafs and will work perfectly for those over sized jigsaw puzzles. It’s also sturdy enough to put your feet up on. We are pleased with this addition to the living room and how it fills in the room.

We found this sturdy bench with a shelf at a antique/thrift store in Chewelah. It’s sturdy enough for Jaymison’s car seat and for people to sit on to take off or put on their shoes. After we added this bench the wall pieces seemed too small for the space.

We ordered this piece from Hobby Lobby. It arrived in bad shape with glass broken in the frames and all the frames had fallen off the back board. We got our money back and were told not to ship it back. We went to a glass shop and had new glass made to fit. We bought some super duper glue and glued the frame borders back on and voila for about $6 we had a new shelf.

We are pleased and once we have our family photo shoot (a present from our kids to me) in March I’ll order photos to fit the spaces. I did find temporary photos that are working well for now.

Our Master bath is getting a face lift. Dear is busy priming the cabinets and getting the walls ready for paint.

We’ve changed out the vanity lights and are pleased with the new fixtures in appearance and in the light they deliver.

Top photo are the new ones. Bottom photo are the old. Our bathroom is a mess right now with cabinet doors off and priming in the process.

The cabinets will be white and the walls will be grey.

It’s about time for me to remove all our Christmas cards and pack them away. Someone suggested instead of just tucking them away to put them in a notebook and take time in the new year to pray for each family or individual we received cards from. I think that is a very good idea.

This would be a good prayer to pray from Paul in Ephesians:

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:15-23

Amen.

And for my unbelieving friends I would pray that God would have mercy on them and that He would open their hearts and minds to the truth about who He is and what He has done for them through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is snowing here in Colville. We are predicted to get 6-8 inches. We are driving to friends later in the afternoon. Hope the roads aren’t too slippery for us!

Happy Friday to you!

Signs on Highway 2

A day late and a dollar short, as the saying goes. These were some signs that stood out to me while zipping along on Highway 2 in Washington State from Eastern Washington to Western Washington on December 6th, 2019. These collages will give me an idea of where along Highway 2 the Dr. Pierce barns were. Billy Burgers was in Wilbur.

We drove through several little towns like Wilbur that were established in the late 1800’s.

Between the little towns the landscape was for the most part pretty desolate.

It was just outside of Waterville going west that we saw the Dr. Pierce Barns.

Bottom right photo is between Orondo and Sunnyslope. We are on the east side of the Columbia river here. This area along Highway 2 is filled with apple and other orchards. We cross the Columbia river at Sunnyslope and start our ascent up and over the Cascade Mountain range through the Bavarian Village of Leavenworth and on into Western Washington.

I’m linking up to Sign2 with Tom The Backroads Traveller. Oops I couldn’t link up successfully.

Speaking of a day late and dollar short I’m way behind in visiting blogs. But I’ll remedy that soon!

First Mukilteo Ferry Ride…

Way back in November of 2019 the girls and Jaymison had a little trip to Whidbey Island on the Mukilteo Ferry. This was Jaymison’s first ride on a ferry but I think it might have been Addy’s 2nd ride.

Some time at the park and then a stop in the village of Langley…

…for ice cream!

Front row seats for the ride back to the mainland.

This is a catch-up post for future reference. Our blogs really are a great source of family history!

Dr. Pierce Barn

Thinking of Tom The Backroads Traveller in posting these barn advertisements.

Sallie at A Full Time Life also has posted one of the Dr. Pierce Barns in Oregon. There is another interesting post about Dr. Pierce on Peachridge Glass.

When I took these photos on December 6th of 2019 traveling to the Seattle area from Colville along Highway 2, I wasn’t familiar with the history of Dr. Pierce Advertisements on barns. You can google Dr. Pierce or click on the Peachridge Glass post to get lots of good information.

I’ll be adding this post to Tom’s Barn link party this coming Saturday. Thanks for your comment, Tom. It made me do a search about Dr. Pierce.

This is another part of road tripping that is so much fun to experience. History along the back roads…

 

Issues

I’m having some difficulty with uploading images to my blog today and these two are the last that I could upload successfully. These are from our road trip to the Coast at the beginning of December.

I’ll need to sort through some issues and see what I can come up with to remedy the problem.

So far it’s been easy to remember to write 2020 on checks and other documents. Hope the new year is starting well for you.

Standing At the Portal ~ Hymn

Standing At the Portal

Standing at the portal
Of the opening year,
Words of comfort meet us,
Hushing every fear;
Spoken thru the silence
By our Savior’s voice,
Tender, strong and faithful,
Making us rejoice.

Refrain

Onward, then, and fear not,
Children of the day;
For His Word shall never,
Never pass away.

I, the Lord, am with thee,
Be thou not afraid;
I will help and strengthen
Be thou not dismayed.
Yea, I will uphold thee
With My own right hand;
Thou art called and chosen
In My sight to stand.

Refrain

For the year before us,
O what rich supplies!
For the poor and needy
Living streams shall rise;
For the sad and sinful
Shall His grace abound;
For the faint and feeble
Perfect strength be found.

Refrain

He will never fail us,
He will not forsake;
His eternal covenant
He will never break.
Resting on the promise,
What have we to fear?
God is all sufficient
For the coming year.

Onward, then, and fear not,
Children of the day;
For His Word shall never,
Never pass away.

 Words: Francis R. Havergal, January 4, 1873.

Sledding

After Christmas we got enough snow to be able to go sledding. Jaymison isn’t convinced about the wonder of snow but Addy really enjoys it.

The contrast of delight and “I’ve had enough of this stuff”!

Love this snapshot of our grands with their mommy! And that was our snow event in the last days of 2019.

So far the snow that has fallen has not been an issue for getting around. The larger snowfalls quickly melted off because of temperatures over freezing.

I’m happy to report that I’m feeling a lot better. Happy to leave my only illness of 2019 behind! I’m thankful for a very healthy 2019!