Author Archives: Ellen

Wonderful Words of Life ~ Hymn

Wonderful Words of Life

Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life,
Let me more of their beauty see, wonderful words of life;
Words of life and beauty teach me faith and duty.

Refrain

Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life,
Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life.

Christ, the blessèd One, gives to all wonderful words of life;
Sinner, list to the loving call, wonderful words of life;
All so freely given, wooing us to Heaven.

Refrain

Sweetly echo the Gospel call, wonderful words of life;
Offer pardon and peace to all, wonderful words of life;
Jesus, only Savior, sanctify us forever.

Refrain

Words and Music: Philip P. Bliss, 1874.

Some history of this hymn from George C. Stebbins:

I car­ried that song through two sea­sons of evan­gel­is­tic work, ne­ver think­ing it pos­sessed much mer­it, or that it had the el­e­ment of spe­cial use­ful­ness, par­ti­cu­lar­ly for so­lo pur­pos­es.

It oc­curred to me to try it one day dur­ing the cam­paign in New Ha­ven, [Con­nec­ti­cut,] 1878 and, with the help of Mrs. Steb­bins, we sang it as a du­et. To our sur­prise the song was re­ceived with the great­est en­thu­si­asm and from that time on to the close of the meet­ings was the fa­vor­ite of all the hymns used.

As an il­lus­tra­tion of the hold it got up­on the peo­ple all about that se­ction of the coun­try, I re­ceived a let­ter from the Sec­re­tary of the Con­nec­ti­cut State Sun­day School As­so­ci­a­tion of­fer­ing me what seemed an ab­surd­ly large sum of mo­ney, if I would, with Mrs. Steb­bins, come to the State Con­ven­tion and sing that one song.

George C. Steb­bins
Mem­oirs and Rem­inis­cenc­es

Ht: Cyberhymnal

Relationship Building

It is so sweet to see the bond forming between sister and brother. Praying they can always be good friends and watch out for each other.

Addy kept her brother company until mommy was free. Sweet snuggles.

Today I found this book on our bookshelf and thought it would be fun to read it with Addy some time. The book is called First Steps For Little Feet in Gospel Paths.

I could not find that the book was copyrighted so I’m sharing some pages from the book.

Did you get the answers right? Smile. I have seen the moon sometimes during the day, have you?

Today is the last day of January 2020. Our yards are still snow covered at our house. Our streets are bare and clear.

Will you be watching the Superbowl game at your house with good eats? We don’t have plans yet.

Enjoy your weekend.

Master Bath Before and After

Oops, look away, I forgot to close the lid and pretty up this space before I took a photo. But in my defense I took this photo with my phone to get an idea of the space above the toilet for reference in choosing a piece that would fill the space better, decorator wise.

And the reveal. The walls are a light grey color called Quartzite. Do It Center paint manufactured by Sherwin Williams. We both have commented that Quartizite has a hint of lavender.

We are pleased with the new look. Hats off to my professional in house painter, Dear.

Yikes…he’s started in on the upper kitchen cabinets as I prepare this post so we’ll have some more before and afters in the future.

Tuesdays With Moisi

“Stay together, love each other.” This was one of our dear Pop’s encouragements to us all before he died. Our dear parents stayed together through thick and thin for 70 year before our mom died. Moisi practiced what he preached. This photo of Moisi and Nadia was taken at Julienne in San Marino.

A fun thing about Moisi was the fact that his checkbook always lived in the front pocket of his shirt with a pen ready.

I’m behind on my Tuesdays with Moisi posts and I still need to carry on with his history but I won’t beat myself up because Tuesdays come every week and sometime, Lord willing, I’ll carry on.

Moisi in the 50’s (lower left) at 4635 Oak Street, Pico Rivera. Moisi in the 60’s (upper left and lower right) 305 Los Angeles Ave, Montebello. Lower right is my graduation from Junior high. Upper left is crazy hat day for my high school cheer squad dinner at our house.  Moisi in the early 70’s (upper right) Arroyo Drive, La Mirada.

Our Master Bath renovation is just about done and I’ll share the before and afters soon. Have a great Tuesday y’all.

From our Pop’s (Moisi’s) favorite Psalm:

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

Psalm 103:13

Sunday Snaphots

Our “Coast Kids” sent this photo on Sunday prompting the rest of us to share our photos.

Dear and I obliged with a selfie taken on our way home from an impromptu lunch out after church with friends.

Dan and Jamie sent this photo of Addy and Jaymison. Cracking up at Jaymison’s new obsession with his tongue as witnessed in this next photo of him we received this week, too.

It was nice to go out to lunch with new friends after church today. When you re-locate later in life and leave long time friends behind it’s a comfort to know you can establish new friendships. There were 7 of us at lunch today.

Our meal at the Chinese restaurant yesterday was decent but not noteworthy. The owners and staff were very pleasant. Thankfully the Thai to Go in town is really good to our palates!

Quote for the week from Spurgeon:

“A house without prayer is a house without a roof.”

Father of Earth and Heaven ~ Hymn

Father of Earth and Heaven

Father of earth and Heaven,
Whose arm upholds creation,
To Thee we raise the voice of praise,
And bend in adoration.
We praise the power that made us,
We praise the love that blesses;
While every day that rolls away
Thy gracious care confesses.

Life is from Thee, blest Father,
From Thee our breathing spirits;
And Thou dost give to all that live
The bliss that each inherits.
Day, night, and rolling seasons,
And all that life embraces,
With bliss are crowned, with joy abound,
And claim our thankful praises.

Though trial and affliction
May cast their dark shade o’er us,
Thy love doth throw a heav’nly glow
Of light on all before us.
That love has smiled from Heaven
To cheer our path of sadness,
And lead the way, through earth’s dull day,
To realms of endless gladness.

That light of love and glory
Has shone through Christ the Savior,
The holy Guide who lived and died
That we might live forever.
And since Thy great compassion
Thus brings Thy children near Thee,
May we to praise devote our days,
And love as well as fear Thee.

And when death’s final summons
From earth’s dear scenes shall move us,
From friends, from foes, from joys, from woes,
From all that know and love us,
O, then, let hope attend us;
Thy peace to us be given;
That we may rise above the skies,
And sing Thy praise in Heaven.

Words: Henry Ware, Jr., 1825.

Woodpecker

I believe this is a Northern Flicker that comes to find bugs on this post in our back acres. I wish someday to get a photo of it flying in full wing spread to show it’s beautiful copper underside.

I’m looking forward to the time that our backyard is full of birds again. Soon enough.

Today is Lunar New Year and we are heading to the one Chinese Restaurant in town for Linner. This will be our first time to eat in this restaurant. As I finish up this post Dear is finishing up the painting of the walls in our master bath. Soon I’ll share more before and afters of that space.

Happy weekend everyone.

Living Vicariously Disneyland

Tuesday January 21st was Disneyland day for Josh and Laura with the three cousins who took the day off.

Some of the cousins have year long passports to Disneyland.

What a beautiful day in Anaheim!

So thankful my nieces and Laura have such a special relationship.

One of the newest attractions at Disneyland is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge with the Millennium Falcon.

Sisters!

Such a fun photo bomb by Chewbacca!

Josh and Laura ran into our favorite defender from the Seattle Sounders Soccer team who just retired this last year, Chad Marshall. They also met up with Laura’s best friend from college who was there with her family, too.

Dinner at the Blue Bayou with the crickets chirping from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Night time at Disneyland.

Oops! Captured!

An epic day of fun and laughter at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Thanks Kristin, Michelle and Laura for letting me copy and paste your photos from your day at Disneyland!

Living Vicariously Part 1

Our son Josh and our dear DIL, Laura, flew to Southern California for a few days to celebrate Joshua’s birthday. This photo is of our nephew David and his dear wife and our kids at Huntington Beach.

Our niece Melissa and niece Debbee with our kids at Huntington Beach. Debbee and David are siblings, my sister Vera’s kids. Melissa belongs to my sister Kathy. So grateful that many photos were taken and shared.

 

Newport Beach/Balboa where David and Kristin live.

The guys heading to the gun range. Nephew Tim and Dave. Nephews in law Ryan and Lenny. Our grandnephew, Jackson and our son Josh.

Seriously…

The girls making lotions and such while the guys were shooting. Niece Debbee, Melissa and Michelle. Niece in law, Kristin and grandniece Avery. Daughter in law, Laura. Melissa and Michelle are sisters.

After shooting and lotion making a dinner celebration with cake for Josh.

Breakfast at Juliene, a family favorite in San Marino, California.

And a rare treat to be able to get together with two of our nieces on Dear’s side of the family. Kacie was in Southern California visiting from North Carolina and our niece Annie is now living in Long Beach moving from North Carolina recently. Their sister Jenna lives in New York.

Our kids filled up their days in California enjoying their cousins. Their Dzeda, our pop, told them all before he died to “stay together, love each other.” It fills me with joy to see them doing just that.  I’m thankful for social media so I can see things like this and (steal) share the photos to memorialize them on my blog.

My next post will be all about cousin time at Disneyland with other encounters, too.