Author Archives: Ellen

Huntington Beach

Walking on the pier and looking South.

Looking North on the pier to Long Beach and Rancho Palos Verdes and beyond.

Another great view of Catalina Island to the West.

The last couple of days have been clean up days outside here at our country bungalow. I’ll share some photos of the work we’ve accomplished once I upload the photos. I went to Wal-Mart today and happened down the toilet paper aisle and saw that the TP buying frenzy is alive and well here in Colville. Empty shelves everywhere. Seems there was a run on dried beans, too. I got the last bag of pinto beans for the crock pot recipe I’m making tomorrow.

Hope you didn’t let your TP totally run out before this mass hysteria set in.

Be Anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6,7

Surfing

A beautiful day for a walk at the Beach…

On Monday March 2nd my sister Vera and I were able to enjoy a walk to the end of the pier in Huntington Beach. It was a decent day for surfing and several surfers were taking advantage. Winter days at the beach are my favorite and this winter day afforded us great views of Catalina Island, too.

 

I’ve never tried to surf. Have you ever tried? When our son was at Westmont College in Santa Barbara he enjoyed some surfing. He also enjoyed some surfing in Hawaii on a vacation there. Body surfing was something both sons have enjoyed. Water skiing was the closest I ever came to surfing and that was years ago before I had children. A little snow skiing is also in my past and it will remain there.

I’ll be sharing more from Huntington Beach soon.

Word Filled Wednesday

I’m home again and far away from the ocean. It was a good time to be in Southern California and to see four out of eight of my siblings and a few nieces and nephews. I’ll share more from Huntington Beach soon. Today is a recovery day at our country bungalow.

Here are a couple of quotes from J.C. Ryle (1816-1900) who I read about in Five Minutes in Church History and Grace Gems.

First on his conversion (1837):

Nothing I can remember to this day appeared to me so clear and distinct as my own sinfulness, Christ’s preciousness, the value of the Bible, the absolute necessity of coming out of the world, the need of being born again, and the enormous folly of the whole doctrine of baptismal regeneration. All these things seemed to flash upon me like a sunbeam, in the winter of 1837, and have stuck in my mind from that time down to this. People may account for such a change as they like, my own belief is that it is what the Bible calls conversion. Or, what the Bible calls regeneration. Before that time, I was dead in sins, and on the high road to hell. From that time, I had become alive, and have had a hope of heaven, and nothing to my mind can account for it but the free sovereign grace of God.

And this quote which is from the 1800’s but rings true to our time:

There is a common, worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have and think they have enough–a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and requires no sacrifice; which costs nothing and is worth nothing. The standard of the world, and the standard of the Lord Jesus–are indeed different. They are more than different–they are flatly contradictory one to another. Never be satisfied with the world’s standard of Christianity!

Today is my 13 Year Anniversary with WordPress and with blogging. 

Have a good day everyone!

Tuesdays With Moisi ~ Siblings

On Sunday the first of March my two older sisters and I went to visit our Aunt Anna who lives with her granddaughter close to our sister Kathy. Aunt Anna or Nura will be 95 on April 25th. She was thankful for our time with her and we decided to take this selfie. While there I also took a couple photos with my phone of her framed photos. The quality of the photos is not great since there is glare from the glass in the frames.

This is our Aunt Anna from many years ago with her husband Pete. Uncle Pete died in the late 70’s.

The photo above was taken when Moisi’s brother Mike was able to get a Visa to finally visit in the USA. This was in 1982ish. Uncle Mike is in the center of the photo with the dark jacket on. Uncle Mike spent several years in Siberia after he decided it was safe to return from Iran to Russia in the early 40’s. He was arrested upon entering Russia and sent to Siberia. His sentence was supposed to be for 2 years and ended up being several years. Our Pop and the rest of his family had not seen Uncle Mike for 40 years and this visit was a grand reunion of siblings and our babushka. She is seated with the head covering on. Aunt Anna is above her in the turquoise. Uncle Mike’s wife is seated next to babushka. The rest in the photo are all of Moisi and Nadia’s children and grandchildren as of 1982.

The photo above are siblings and sister-in-laws and a nephew and his wife in the 1990’s. This was a dinner my parents had at their home in Yorba Linda before they sold that home and left for Russia to do missionary work. Going around from left to right.  Nura who was married to Uncle Vasilli, our cousin Vera and Alex, Moisi, Uncle John and his wife Kati, our mom, Uncle Alex and his wife Ouliana, and barely visible Aunt Anna. Aunt Anna and nephew Alex are the only ones who are still alive from this photo.

Moisi and his siblings at our Mom and Pop’s 60th wedding anniversary celebration in 2003. John, Anna, Moisi, and Alex. Anna is the only family member still alive. Of these four siblings John is the oldest, then Alex, our Pop and Anna the youngest.

Aunt Anna has survived all three of her children and one of her granddaughters, too. She talked about the fact that she’s the last one left of her generation of friends and family. She is still as sharp as a tack! My sister Kathy reminded Aunt Anna that her mother (our babushka) lived to be 98 so Aunt Anna might live that long, too.

I’ll be on my way back home this morning. When I get back I’ll post the photos from Vera and my beach walk on Monday. A beautiful day.

Leap Day Birthday

We started celebrating early and continued all day.

We had breakfast at Babette’s in Newport Beach just across the street from the Pacific ocean.

After breakfast Vera and I did some shopping while Debbee and Melissa and my sister Kathy made some preparations for the evening dinner party.

The quote of the day was, “you only turn 18 twice!”

The top photo in the collage is my sister Vera with her two kids, David and Debbee. David opened up the evening with a beautiful prayer for our gathering and his mom.

Top photo are the siblings who could make it to the party in birth order. Kathy, Vera, Ellen, Steve and Lana.

Mom’s and their daughters, Aunts with their nieces.

Love our little grand niece, Avery, photo bombing this photo of our nieces and sister, Lana.

I leave you with our pop’s hallmark ending to all our phone conversations and farewells when visiting.

Above all, Love each other dearly!

Heavenly Sunlight ~ Hymn

Heavenly Sunlight

Walking in sunlight all of my journey;
Over the mountains, through the deep vale;
Jesus has said, I’ll never forsake thee,
Promise divine that never can fail.

Refrain

Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight,
Flooding my soul with glory divine:
Hallelujah, I am rejoicing,
Singing His praises, Jesus is mine.

Shadows around me, shadows above me,
Never conceal my Savior and guide;
He is the light, in Him is no darkness;
Ever I’m walking close to His side.

Refrain

In the bright sunlight, ever rejoicing,
Pressing my way to mansions above;
Singing His praises gladly I’m walking,
Walking in sunlight, sunlight of love.

Refrain

Words: Henry J. Zelley, 1899.

I remember singing this song as Heavenly Sunshine not Sunlight.

29th of February

Since this day comes but once every four years I’m adding C.H. Spurgeon’s thoughts on this day from my Chequebook of the Bank of Faith, daily readings by Spurgeon.

February 29

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Psalm 23:6

A devout poet sings~

Lord, when thou
Puttest in my time a day, as thou dost now,
Unknown in other years, grant, I entreat,
Such grace illume it, that whate’er its phase
It add to holiness, and lengthen praise!

This day comes but once in four years. Oh, that we could win a fourfold blessing upon it! Up till now goodness and mercy, like two guards, have followed us from day to day, bringing up the rear, even as grace leads the van; and as this out-of-the-way day is one of the days of our life, the two guardian angels will be with us today also. Goodness to supply our needs, and mercy to blot out our sins – these twain shall attend our every step this day, and every day till days shall be no more. Wherefore, let us serve the Lord on this peculiar day with special consecration of heart, and sing his praises with more zest and sweetness than ever. Could we not today make an unusual offering to the cause of God, or to the poor? By inventiveness of love let us make this twenty-ninth of February a day to be remembered for ever.

My California family will make this day special as we celebrate our sister Vera with a breakfast out and then a dinner party this evening.

I finally made it to Orange County at 10:15 last night after flight delays that caused flight changes because of heavy fog at Seatac airport in Seattle. Happy to finally land at my destination. Onward and upward! It’s a new day that only comes once every four years.

Happy Birthday dear Vera! Goodness and mercy have followed you in your life and God will continue to take care of you!

Sun and Snow

We still have some large patches of snow but the sun has been shining for a few days in a row and we are all trying to get our fair dose of vitamin D3.

Jaymison kept his sunglasses on all the way down the driveway and up again!

Jamie, in these photos I can see JJ’s glasses are orange. 🙂

I might be quite scarce while I travel to and from California the next few days. Looking forward to the month of March!

Braving Air Travel

The last big birthday party our sister Vera had was for her 16th birthday eight years ago. Vera is a leap year baby so her true birthdays only come along every four years. Her kids threw her a wonderful Sweet Sixteen party back then. Now they are having an 18th birthday party bash on Saturday. I’ll let you do the math to get to her actual age.

I’m hoping to remember to get all the sisters together for a more current photo. We all will be there, Lord willing.

In searching my archives for Vera’s Sweet Sixteen party I found this wonderful photo of Moisi (our pop) with great grandson Jack.

I’m leaving for Southern California on Friday and I bought a packet of disinfectant wipes for the plane. Don’t know if I’ll have time to check in with my bloggy friends during my travels.

Some quotes from readings of late;

“Wonders of grace to God belong” It is not a small gospel message for small sinners that he has sent us to preach, but ours is a great gospel message for great sinners.” ~Spurgeon

“God’s Word is the authority over religious tradition. Consequently, tradition must yield to Scripture, not the other way around.” ~Nathan Busenitz (We Must Obey God Rather Than Men: Scripture, Authority, and the Reformation)

Also, from the same source above:

“Post Tenebras Lux.” “After Darkness Light” The dark grip of religious tradition gave way to penetrating brilliance of biblical authority. (Mark 7:1-3) “We must obey God rather than man.”

More from Spurgeon:

“The Bible exposes our corruptions and lays bare our falseness, pride and unbelief. Do not quibble with God’s faithful Word.”

And the quote of the current week from Spurgeon;

“Leave distracting concerns to those who have no higher calling.”

Enjoy the last days of February!