Author Archives: Ellen

Independence Day 2019

Hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July celebrating our country and all we can enjoy in freedom. Our celebration will be small and quiet this year. No fireworks since we are in a high fire danger time right now. I’m sharing my greetings for the fourth early. We’ll be all caught up in getting ready for Katie and Andrew to arrive tomorrow for a few days and we will be preparing our barbecue meal for them and Dan, Jamie, Addy and JJ. As usual with all the fun happening I’ll be behind in visiting and posting.

Oh dear, I’m really behind these days. 🙂

I’ll leave you with some fun photos gathered this past week. “Fearless” granddaughter jumping in a rain puddle. Her mommy captured her in mid-air.

And this was the wind-up! She’s generally fearless in physical activity but there are “noises” that concern her.

They live on their own mountain and traffic noises are few and far between. When she visits Baba and Gramps on their very busy road we’ve had to reassure her and point out the big trucks that are making those noises. “What’s that?” is a common question when she’s at our house.

Addy came to play yesterday at Baba and Gramps’. We were outside at her water toy when thunder clapped in the distance. She ran to me in a panic and said “what’s that?” I told her it was thunder and she started walking to the door into the house and said, “let’s play inside Baba.”

We are happy to report our little JJ is finally getting more regular and we are most thankful to God for that.

Baba is so thankful she lives close to Addy and JJ.

God Bless America

“While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free.
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer:

God bless America, land that I love,
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans white with foam,
God bless America,
My home sweet home.”

We have much to be thankful for…starting with our troops, veterans, law enforcement officers and emergency first responders. God bless America and all who do so much to keep our country safe and free.

From years past our celebrations on the 4th!

George Washington’s Prayer Journal

“O eternal and everlasting God, I presume to present myself this morning before thy Divine majesty, beseeching thee to accept of my humble and hearty thanks, that it hath pleased thy great goodness to keep and preserve me the night past from all the dangers poor mortals are subject to, and has given me sweet and pleasant sleep, whereby I find my body refreshed and comforted for performing the duties of this day, in which I beseech thee to defend me from all perils of body and soul.

Direct my thoughts, words and work. Wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the lamb, and purge my heart by thy Holy Spirit, from the dross of my natural corruption, that I may with more freedom of mind and liberty of will serve thee, the ever lasting God, in righteousness and holiness this day, and all the days of my life.

Increase my faith in the sweet promises of the Gospel. Give me repentance from dead works. Pardon my wanderings, & direct my thoughts unto thyself, the God of my salvation. Teach me how to live in thy fear, labor in thy service, and ever to run in the ways of thy commandments. Make me always watchful over my heart, that neither the terrors of conscience, the loathing of holy duties, the love of sin, nor an unwillingness to depart this life, may cast me into a spiritual slumber. But daily frame me more and more into the likeness of thy son Jesus Christ, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy favor, I may in thy appointed time attain the resurrection of the just unto eternal life. Bless my family, friends & kindred unite us all in praising & glorifying thee in all our works begun, continued, and ended, when we shall come to make our last account before thee blessed Saviour, who hath taught us thus to pray, our Father.”

I’m humbled by this prayer from the first president of the United States. I pray along with it as I ready this post.

The stained glass window with the sun streaming through casting it’s light and color onto the statue of George Washington was taken at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. in May of 2011. Dear had a conference in D.C. and I was able to tag along. The National Cathedral is a must see if you ever travel to D.C.

It is folly to say our nation was not founded on Christian principles. Some would like to blot out this part of our history and remove all evidence of our Founding Father’s faith in the one true God.

Have you ever seen or read the third verse of “The Star Spangled Banner”, our National Anthem?

 O thus be it ever when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, “In God is our trust.”
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Praising God this morning for preserving our nation to this point in history.

Give me this day almighty God the Spirit filled mind to serve thee in the righteousness of your dear Son, Jesus my Lord, who’s sacrifice covers my sin repented of and gives me the strength to live in your holiness.  God bless America and keep our land free to worship you in righteousness and truth.

Goodbye June!

Before we welcome July we have some major events that we celebrated at the end of June. Dan and Jamie celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary on Thursday (6-27-2019) and Gramps and I babysat while they enjoyed a quiet meal together. Before they left for their date I captured photos of JJ who only had eyes for his mommy. He cooed and baby talked and smiled at his mommy.

The next day on Friday the 28th of June we celebrated Dear’s retirement from his contracting job he’s had since last August. Our kids sent this great bouquet to congratulate their dad on a well earned retirement from many years of work well done and being a shining example of integrity in the workplace. This is the second time Dear has tried to retire. We are thinking this time will stick.

After we packed up and dropped off his computer/monitors/work cellphone and other bits and pieces at Fedex to ship back to the company we stopped at Colville Pour House for a celebratory pint. Cheers to Dear!

This sign arrived on Thursday. Our niece sent the sign with the farewell message our dear old Pop would always give us when we were ready to leave from a visit with him or end a phone call. Three times sets things in stone you see. “I love you, I love you, I love you”. Thank you dear Miss for having these signs made for us in memory of your Dzeda, our Pop. We love you, we love you, we love you!

A great finish to June included a meal out at El Ranchito on Saturday to celebrate Dan and Jamie’s 4 year anniversary. Dear and I gathered with Jamie’s family for lunch. The next photo is from the drive home from Chewelah to Colville after our lunch.

On Sunday we had our last service in our sanctuary at church which is being extended and remodeled to include room for 100 more seats and a baptistry. We will be meeting at the community college on Sundays until the sanctuary is done the end of August. We had a picnic in the park after our service and it was nice to meet some more folks and have conversations. After the picnic some of us headed back to the church to completely empty out the sanctuary so that it can be gutted this week.

And that’s a wrap for the month of June!

Happy Canada Day to our good friends to the North of the U.S.A.!

It Passeth Knowledge ~ Hymn

It Passeth Knowledge

It passeth knowledge, that dear love of Thine!
My Jesus! Savior! yet this soul of mine
Would of that love, in all its depth and length,
Its height and breadth, and everlasting strength
Know more and more.

It passeth telling! that dear love of Thine!
My Jesus! Savior! yet these lips of mine
Would fain proclaim to sinners far and near
A love which can remove all guilty fear,
And love beget.

It passeth praises! that dear love of Thine!
My Jesus! Savior yet this heart of mine
Would sing a love so rich, so full, so free,
Which brought an undone sinner, such as me,
Right home to God.

But though I cannot tell, or sing, or know,
The fullness of Thy love while here below,
My empty vessel I may freely bring:
O Thou, who art of love the living spring,
My vessel fill.

I am an empty vessel—not one thought,
Or look of love to Thee I ever brought;
Yet I may come, and come again to Thee,
With this the empty sinner’s only plea—
Thou lovest me!

Oh! fill me Jesus Savior with Thy love;
Lead, lead me to the living fount above!
Thither may I in simple faith draw nigh
And never to another fountain fly,
But unto Thee.

And when my Jesus face to face I see,
When at His lofty throne I bow the knee,
Then of His love, in all its breadth and length,
Its height and depth, its everlasting strength,
My soul shall sing.

Words: Mary Shekleton, 1863.

Saturday, Bath Day

It’s fun to see our birdbath in use from time to time. Sitting in our family room I have a clear view of the birdbath through the sliding glass doors that open to our back acreage. I keep a camera handy with a long lens on it to capture moments like these.

In for a dip and then it was all in.

All washed up and ready for church tomorrow morning.

If I recall correctly, growing up we only had baths once a week on Saturday evening so we were all nice and clean for Sunday church. Every morning we’d have to wash our faces but baths were once a week. Things changed when we hit junior high and high school. When we had kids of our own it was normal to have a bath a day instead of once a week. I wonder sometimes if our little ones are too clean and not able to fight off common infections as when we were little. I remember having the diseases like measles and chicken pox but I don’t remember having lots of colds or the flu and we were never on antibiotics. I do remember having pink eye. I also had some mystery ailment (kidney infection?) that landed me in the hospital when I was in first grade and I was in recovery at home for a long enough time that I had a teacher come to our home for studies. The reason I think it might have been a kidney infection is because I had to drink a lot of water and I wasn’t allowed to have salt. My parents probably didn’t really understand what was wrong with me because they were never really able to tell me when I asked them about my mystery ailment. On the subject of communicable diseases I recall standing in a very long line with my family at the local junior high for polio vaccinations when I was elementary age. We also got smallpox vaccinations in elementary school. That smallpox vaccination was pretty primitive and left an interesting scar. Since we are on this subject of communicable, thankfully I only remember having lice once, in elementary school. Oye! My mother worked very hard to eradicate them. When I was an elementary school teacher there was an outbreak of lice and it made me squirm.

Hope you have a nice last Saturday in June! Happy Canada Day weekend to our friends to the North.

 

Can You Imagine?

Zephaniah 3:17 New King James Version (NKJV)

17 The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Can you imagine God singing over you?

Are you a child of God? Have you responded to His call to repent and be born again? Jesus died for our sins and rose again so that our sins can be forgiven and we can be saved and be born again. Is Jesus your Lord and Savior? Are you following and growing in relationship with Him?

If you answer yes then you are His child. You are one of His lambs. Stop and consider the fact that the God of the universe sings over you…

My daily readings right now include the Bible, Daily Readings by C.H. Spurgeon, The Pleasures of God by John Piper and Pray Big by Alistair Begg. In Piper’s book I’m in the chapter called “The Pleasure of God in doing good to all who Hope in Him”. The beginning sentence reads; “Can you imagine what it would be like to hear God singing?”

This chapter brought my thoughts to who I have sung over in my life. There is a simple song I sang over each of our children when they were babies. I made up the simple words to a simple tune and sang it when I held them or rocked them.

There’s a little boy I love, his name is Joshua, Joshua.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Joshua, Joshua.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.

I sang the same song over our second born son, Daniel.

There’s a little boy I love, his name is Daniel, Daniel.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Daniel, Daniel.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.

Then we had our daughter, Katie.

There’s a little girl I love, her name is Katie, Katie.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Katie, Katie.
She’s my little girl, I love her so.
She’s my little girl, I lo-ove her so.

Now 40 years later I’m singing this same simple song over our granddaughter and grandson.

There’s a little girl I love, her name is Addyson, Addyson.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Addyson, Addyson.
She’s my little girl, I love her so.
She’s my little girl, I lo-ove her so.

and

There’s a little boy I love, his name is Jaymison, Jaymison.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Jaymison, Jaymison.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.

Today I’m dumbfounded in thoughts about God singing over me. God singing over His lambs. I’m waiting on God for the day when He returns to gather his lambs. How about you? “Open our heart-eyes to see much further and see much better, to the riches of your eternity.” ~Begg

John 17:24-26 English Standard Version (ESV)

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Ask God to make his name known to you…

Know Your Strengths…

The Greenhouse really does it’s job in encouraging things to grow, just look at these weeds.

We will probably sell the greenhouse or give it away to someone who will make good use of it.

It’s good to face the facts and the fact is we are not gardeners. The greenhouse is something that a gardener can make good use of.

We’ve been repurposing some planters and making areas of the yard more accessible to the riding lawn mower. We also continue to pull weeds.

If you had a greenhouse what would you plant in it?

 

A Week of Mosaics

Weekend last we had some precious time with our grands and kids.

On Monday the electric company sent tree trimmers to top some of the trees in our backyard that were encroaching on the transformer and wires.

On the first day of summer I took a walk about our country bungalow to document the plants that are growing and blooming.

These are the last of the pink peonies we have in our yard. The crystal vase on the left was a wedding gift from my little babushka. Some of you might recognize the Princess House vase on the right.

We can take no credit for planting anything you see in the collages/mosaics. We are enjoying the fruit of someone else’s labor in the planning and planting on our property. What’s left to us is weeding and pruning in the future.

Linking up with Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf for Mosaic Monday.

Do you have any traveling plans for the summer? Lord willing, we plan to take some day trips into Canada and around our area and we are hoping for visitors to our country bungalow. This is Dear’s last week of his part-time contracting job so he will be officially retired come Friday afternoon. I told him I’d like to celebrate by making an appointment for a massage for myself. He questioned my logic since he’s the one retiring.

When He Cometh ~ Hymn

When He Cometh

When He cometh, when He cometh
To make up His jewels,
All His jewels, precious jewels,
His loved and His own.

Refrain

Like the stars of the morning,
His brightness adorning,
They shall shine in their beauty,
Bright gems for His crown.

He will gather, He will gather
The gems for His kingdom;
All the pure ones, all the bright ones,
His loved and His own.

Refrain

Little children, little children,
Who love their Redeemer,
Are the jewels, precious jewels,
His loved and His own.

Refrain

Words: W.O. Cushing, 1856.

Malachi 3:17 New King James Version (NKJV)

 “They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts,
“On the day that I make them My jewels.
And I will spare them
As a man spares his own son who serves him.”

A minister returning from Europe on an English steamer visited the steerage, and after some friendly talk proposed a singing service—if something could be started that everybodyknew—for there were hundreds of emigrants there from nearly every part of Europe.

It will have to be an American tune, then, said the steerage-master; try His jewels.

The minister struck out at once with the melody and the words…and scores of the poor half-fare multitude joined voices with him. Many probably recognized the music of the old glee, and some had heard the sweet air played in the church-steeples at home. Other voices chimed in, male and female, catching the air, and sometimes the words—they were so easy and so many times repeated—and the volume of song increased, till the singing minister stood in the midst of an international concert, the most novel that he had ever led.

He tried other songs in similar visits during the rest of the voyage with some success, but the Jewel Hymn was the favorite; and by the time port was in sight the whole crowd of emigrants had it by heart.

The steamer landed at Quebec, and when the trains, filled with the new arrivals, rolled away, the song was swelling from nearly every car.

ht: Cyberhymnal

Hello Summer!

Now that summer is here our temps have been lower. I’m not complaining. I much prefer temps in the 70’s instead of the 80’s and 90’s.

Addy is happy with a storage tub filled with some water to play in. Who needs a fancy blow up pool?

I don’t know if I’ve shared these quotes from Alistair Begg before but I’m posting them here for my benefit.

“Don’t erect a monument to all your disappointments.”

“There is a perverse sense of satisfaction in our feeling sorry for ourselves”

And some verses from Psalm 119: 133, 160, 175:

Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.

The sum of your word is truth and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

Let my soul live and praise you and let your rules help me.

Have a good Saturday everyone.