Author Archives: Ellen

And I Think to Myself…

…what a wonderful world.

I’m so thankful for the wonders of the world that God has created for us to enjoy.

These were our views on the way home from our Sunday Drive to the orchard.

Crossing over the Columbia from west to east. The Columbia River Bridge at Kettle Falls.

The layers of mountains, the trees, the mighty Columbia River…so much beauty in our backyard. Thank you Lord for plopping us in this beautiful part of your world.

Communities around these parts like to brand their mountains. KF is for Kettle Falls. Our Colville mountain has a C on it and a cross.

Now we are about 5 miles from our Country Bungalow with more pastoral views. It was a beautiful day for a drive.

“I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.”  Psalm 69:30.

Sunday Drives

The forecast came true for Sunday and it was a beautiful day for a drive. After church we headed to Kettle Falls and enjoyed some lunch and then continued on across the Columbia to Sherman Creek Orchard.

 

Note to self: Next year go in early fall to see all the beautiful color this orchard affords. We bought 16 pounds of pears and enjoyed the drive home.

I will share more photos from the drive home on another day. My upload speed for photos has been slower than molasses. 🙂

We are entering a busy week for many here in the U.S.A. with preparations for our annual Thanksgiving celebrations. It was good to start the week off with a little time away from home and focusing on God’s creation. I’m thankful for Sunday drives and beautiful views!

Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee ~ Hymn

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Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee

Jesus, the very thought of thee
With sweetness fills my breast;
But sweeter far thy face to see,
And in thy presence rest.

Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame,
Nor can the mem’ry find,
A sweeter sound than thy blest Name,
O Saviour of mankind.

O Hope of ev’ry contrite heart,
O Joy of all the meek,
To those who fall, how kind thou art!
How good to those who seek!

But what to those who find? Ah, this
Nor tongue nor pen can show:
The love of Jesus, what it is
None but his loved ones know.

Jesus, our only Joy be thou,
As thou our Prize wilt be;
Jesus, be thou our Glory now,
And through eternity.

—Bernard of Clairvaux

God’s Artwork

I’m thankful for the beauty all around me. One morning this last week when I went out for a drive into town the Camry caught my attention.  The detail of the ice on the car was like beautiful artwork or carvings.

This Saturday morning we are already at 31 degrees but they are predicting a snow flurry this morning. Sunday and Monday are the warmest days this coming week but just above freezing. The rest of the week is at freezing and below. Hope our travelers do not have any problems coming over the Cascade mountain range.

We freshened up some rooms in our country bungalow and I’ll share some of those changes next week.

I’m itching to decorate for Christmas but I’ll hold off till after Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have a tip for you. I needed to send off some Thanksgiving cards to loved ones and popped into the Dollar Tree in Colville. Don’t forget that they have a nice variety of cards all the time and some are even 2 for a $1.00. That beats the $3.99 and up you have to pay elsewhere these days. Your welcome.

I’m attaching a few photos here just to keep up with family doings. Our grands are still enjoying time on the other side of the mountains at Uncle Josh and Auntie Lolo’s house. They are coming back home on Monday.

JJ is pulling himself up and standing and he’s so proud of himself.

Hi mommy, I can see you better from here.

New adventures await. Never a dull moment for his parents and sister! Soon he’ll be chasing Addy around.

Thank you, Auntie Lolo, for all these great photos you text us!

Aunts and Uncles

In this Thanksgiving focused season I’m thankful for aunts and uncles who love to spend time with their niece and nephew.

Last Saturday a trip to the Bellevue Children’s Museum included all Addy and Jaymison’s Uncles and Aunties. (Not counting Great Uncles and Aunties)

Uncle Josh sticking his head in and…

Jaymison enjoyed watching for a while…

Thank you dear Lord for Uncles and Aunties and Mommies and Daddies. Thank you that our grandchildren have so much love, nurturing, modeling, teaching and guidance in their upbringing. May they all know (our grands and our kids) that God loves them and cares for them. Thank you God that first and foremost you have shown us your love by giving us a Savior who died for our sins, Jesus Christ your son. Thank you that we can have forgiveness of our sins because of His sacrifice for us on the cross. And because of this sacrifice we have hope of new life in Him and with you when our sins are forgiven and we live in obedience to your living Word. Thank you God almighty in Jesus name I pray…

1 John 4: 7-12:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another; God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

1 Peter 1: 22-25:

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for

“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

A Shopping Day…

On Tuesday we decided since it was going to be a rainy day we would head to Spokane to shop. I’m thankful that we can travel south for an hour to Spokane and enjoy shopping at all the stores we enjoyed when we lived in the Seattle area. While we drove we enjoyed listening to a couple of sermons online. That’s another thing I’m thankful to be able to do on the road.

It rained most of the day but we were treated to some clearing on the way home as we approached Colville

In Spokane we stopped at The Home Depot, Trader Joe’s, HomeGoods, Hobby Lobby, Total Wine, At Home, and we ended at Costco for shopping and refilling our gas tank.

On our drive home we stopped in Chewelah at our favorite Mexican restaurant on this side of the mountains for “linner”.

This is the auto body shop that will be working on our car. Our car is scheduled for December 16th. They are in high demand at this shop.

I’ll be doing a fair share of shopping local in Colville for the holidays, too.

WalMart has already gotten some good business from us.

We bought our overpriced natural fresh free range turkey from this store. It’s our favorite grocery store in town. When we saw turkeys for 99 cents a pound at Costco we consoled ourselves with the fact that we had helped our local economy out. 🙂

This is the part of our road where I hit the deer.

Almost home.

At the mailbox.

Looking back towards town and enjoying the clouds.

We enjoyed a quiet evening at home after our day of travel for shopping.

Thanks Be to God…

I’m so thankful to God for giving us the joy of grandchildren. What fun it is to enjoy seeing them grow. Our earnest prayer is that God will call them and save them. That they will understand their need to confess their sins and be born again into God’s family. Oh how I love them…

Thank you to Laura for capturing this moment. Oh how I love you, too.

We are heading to Spokane early today for a day of shopping at our big box and other stores that we do not have in Colville. I’m hoping to find some Christmas gifts and stocking gifts. Dear needs some things for the shop that we will pick up at the Home Depot.

I haven’t had the time to share till now that I hit my first deer on Friday of last week. It was better than it could have been since the deer decided to turn and I didn’t hit her head on but grazed her on the driver’s side of my car. My brakes worked exceptionally well and my airbags did not deploy. Praise the Lord. I hit her on our road about halfway to our home. She was able to run off into the woods. I’m so thankful that my first encounter was one that ended so well. We are seriously considering some deer guards (brush and grille guards) to put on our car. You know you live in the country when you consider these accessories to your car!

All the Love

 

A week ago Sunday after we enjoyed the Sounders championship game Josh and Laura invited our dear friends over for dinner. Addy had so much fun with her friends. They enjoyed dress up and other games during the evening. We all ate together and Addy was sad when her friends had to go home. Some of my bloggy friends had the privilege of praying for David Daniel because of his very early birth and for all the complications along the way. He is such a sweet boy and we continue to pray for God’s touch on his life and for his whole family.

Hope you’ve all had a good weekend.

My Redeemer ~ Hymn

My Redeemer

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross He suffered,
From the curse to set me free.

Refrain

Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer,
With His blood, He purchased me.
On the cross, He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.

I will tell the wondrous story,
How my lost estate to save,
In His boundless love and mercy,
He the ransom freely gave.

Refrain

I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant power I’ll tell,
How the victory He giveth
Over sin, and death, and hell.

Refrain

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His heav’nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me,
Son of God with Him to be.

Refrain

Words: Philip P. Bliss, 1876.

 

7 Months Old

I’m waiting for the official 7 Month Old photos to be messaged to me but in the meantime here is our 7 month old 4 days shy.

We got the official 7 month old photos so I’m adding them here.

He’s enjoying rice cereal with peanut butter, squash and other pureed veggies. Applesauce is good, too. He is pulling himself up when there is something he can grip. His crawling skills are getting good and fast. Chords hold a curiosity that we all have to curb. His smiles are genuine and sweet. He can spot his mommy in a crowd. He loves singing, being sung to, and he’ll chime in with sounds that seem like he’s trying to sing, too.

Baba loves you, Jaymison Joshua!