Author Archives: Ellen

Gathering the Long Weekend

The Long Memorial Day weekend gathered many of our family together in different environments in person and with the help of media. We enjoyed seeing loved ones near and far enjoying each other and growing together. Relationships grow intentionally with the help of God. We love each other, correct each other, sharpen each other, forgive each other and encourage each other. God builds these relationships on the foundation of His saving grace and His forgiveness. Because He has forgiven us much we can forgive and love others.

Some snapshots from Arizona where cousins got together for their annual Memorial Day Weekend in Surprise.

Our son Dan gifted Jamie with the weekend away while he stayed home and was Mister Mom. Our DIL’s enjoyed lots of ‘girl’ time with our nieces from California and Arizona.

Our oldest son and some of our nephews from California and Arizona had their annual golf tournament and for the first time it ended in a tie!

The cousins, original and by marriage! These are our kids, my sister Vera’s and my sister Kathy’s.

On Saturday our son Dan came over with Addy and JJ for fun and dinner with Baba and Gramps.

There was an inspection of the hole dug for the new hydrant.

A vehicle got washed and a couple kids got soaked.

Big Wheels were brought out of storage.

This year all the effort to get those wheels moving were up to Addy and JJ. We did not have to give them a push or carry the Big Wheels up to the top of the walkway.

There was a lot of exploring on our acreage.

Some searching of unsuspecting bugs commenced.

They know to not disturb the Bumble Bees.

After all this outside fun we all came in and enjoyed a crock pot roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli, more conversation, reading a story book and time to head home for bed. We are proud of our son for giving his dear wife the gift of a much deserved break from her constant excellent mothering.  He is a great hands on dad to Addy and JJ.

Our daughter and her hubby enjoyed some outside time on the weekend, too. We love seeing their smiling faces and that beautiful rhododendron in their front yard.

We were blessed with amazing weather over the Memorial Day Weekend. That is something we do not take for granted here in the Pacific Northwest!

On Sunday after church we took an hour long drive to Curlew Lake State Park to enjoy some time with several families from our church who were camping together. We had some long conversations, enjoyed dinner together and then headed back home. We crossed the beautiful Columbia River at Lake Roosevelt going and coming back home.

On Monday, Memorial Day we had some rain and thunder in the morning and I thought I’d have to move my mowing to Tuesday but the sun broke through and dried things up enough for my weekly mow. I’m happy for God to water my Spring planters! Our deep red peonies are the first to pop here so I’ll show them sometime soon.

Memorial Day 2025

Blades of grass and pure white stones
Shelter those who’ve come and gone.
Just below the emerald sod
Are those who reached the arms of God.
Buried here with dignity
Endless rows for all to see,
Freedom’s seeds in sorrow sown,
‘Neath blades of grass and pure white stones.
Blades of grass and pure white stones
Cover those who left their homes
To rest in fields here, side by side,
Lest we forget their sacrifice.
Buried here with dignity
Endless rows for all to see,
Freedom’s seeds in sorrow sown,
‘Neath blades of grass and pure white stones.
~
This was written by Lowell Alexander, Orrin Hatch, and Philip Naish.

The Viet Nam Memorial in Sacramento, California.

Korean War Memorial in Washington D.C.

Memorial Day, a solemn day to remember those who died serving our country.

By Faith in Christ I Walk with God ~ Hymn

By Faith in Christ I Walk with God

By faith in Christ I walk with God,
With Heav’n, my jour­ney’s end, in view;
Supported by His staff and rod,
My road is safe, and plea­sant too.

I tra­vel through a de­sert wide
Where ma­ny round me blind­ly stray;
But He vouch­safes to be my guide,
And will not let me miss my way.

Though snares and dan­gers throng my path,
And earth and hell my course with­stand;
I tri­umph ov­er all by faith,
Guarded by His al­migh­ty hand.

The wil­der­ness af­fords no food,
But God for my sup­port pre­pares;
Provides me ev­ery need­ful good,
And frees my soul from wants and cares.

With Him sweet con­verse I main­tain,
Great as He is I dare be free;
I tell Him all my grief and pain,
And He re­veals His love to me.

Some cor­di­al from His Word He brings,
Whene’er my fee­ble spir­it faints;
At once my soul re­vives and sings,
And yields no more to sad com­plaints.

I pi­ty all that world­lings talk
Of plea­sures that will quick­ly end;
Be this my choice, O Lord, to walk
With Thee, my guide, my guard, my friend.

Words: John Newton, 1779.

Tea ~ Three Cups of Tea

Welcome to Tea Time 2025. These posts will be about Tea Rooms we’ve been to, Teas we’ve given for friends and family, Church Tea events, and High Tea in restaurants from 2008 to the present. Tea in the U.S.A., Tea in England and Tea in Canada. Many of the Tea Rooms are no longer in business, which is sad.

This post is from December 6th of 2009.

The girls in my extended family have started a Black Friday tradition of shopping at Goodwill and then going to Tea. We were so happy to find this relatively new Tea Room in Bothell, Washington. Three Cups of Tea has a well rounded combination of great teas, really good food, and a wonderful ambiance. We would all highly recommend it!! Lea Miller, the “Tea-preneur” has the perfect personality to run this Tea Room.

There is a main eating room with gift items displayed all around in great cabinets and then there are two specialty rooms divided from the main area.

The back of the business card reads;

First cup of tea as a guest

Second cup of tea as a friend

Third cup of tea as family

This is the Alice in Wonderland room. So delightful. We took our tea in the more formal room with the fireplace and it was lovely.

Letty, Katie, Katy K, Me, Lana, Grandma Wilma, Pat and Laura.

This was close to Laura’s birthday so it’s fun to honor her.

The ladies with their tea. That’s my sister Lana in the center photo. She treated us all on this day. She is so generous. Thank you Lana!

We were all happy with our food choices. Everything was excellent. Our tea included fresh scones with clotted cream, jam, and lemon curd, Soup and 1/2 Sandwich of our choice, and a dessert. Most of us had to take our dessert home.

Three Cups of Tea is worth a visit. You can pop in for breakfast, quick lunch or plan a more formal get-together. We’ll be back!

Thank you Lea for treating us like family. We appreciated you and your great staff!

We had a second visit to this tea room with a smaller group on Black Friday 2010

Again we were close to Laura’s birthday and it is always fun to enjoy something special with her.

We enjoyed this tea room twice and I think Laura and her mom visited another time, too. It is no longer in business.

Tea ~ 9*1*1 Tea ~Pasadena

Welcome to Tea Time 2025. These posts will be about Tea Rooms we’ve been to, Teas we’ve given for friends and family, Church Tea events, and High Tea in restaurants from 2008 to the present. Tea in the U.S.A., Tea in England and Tea in Canada. Many of the Tea Rooms are no longer in business, which is sad.

This next post is from April 5th of 2009. I marvel at the energy and stamina my younger self had sixteen years ago! This post was titled ‘Oh What a Saturday’.

The whole experience yesterday had the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream. What’s the word I’m looking for?

We woke up on Saturday morning and realized our modem had died in the night. Before the rest of the world woke up and we could call about getting our modem replaced we left for a hike in Sycamore Canyon. It was a great heart pumping hike and for the first time we heard some rattling noises. I was concerned it might be a rattlesnake but Dear was pretty sure it could be some kind of bird.

When we came home we called Verizon to let them know their modem died and what our options were. We were so pleased that John from Verizon arrived early in the afternoon and replaced our modem and gave us some great additional information about our T.V. options.

We had a tea in Pasadena planned for my mother’s 85th birthday. Nine of us were meeting for Tea at the Rose Tree Cottage at 4:00. When my sister Vera and mother arrived my mother was tripped up by an uneven sidewalk and landed flat on her face splitting open her forehead just above her left eye. She was bleeding quite a bit. We were all at her side and helping her get more comfortable on the ground and trying to stop the bleeding. My SIL Letty who is a nurse and the rest of us mothers realized by looking this was going to need stitches. You just learn those things over the years. We heard sirens and the paramedics arrived. My poor mother was so upset that she would miss the tea she asked the paramedics to just put a band-aide on her forehead. They were very sweet and told her they would have to do what was best for her. We also knew she’d need further tests because the split on her forehead was very deep. When the fire engine pulled up one of the firemen saw my sister Kathy and said hello Mrs. W. and gave her a kiss (we Russians greet each other with a brotherly kiss).  He’s the one in the sunglasses reassuring my mother. Our oldest sister Kathy went to the Emergency room with mom in the Paramedic’s van.

So what should the other 7 of us do…go ahead with tea or not??? Well we were going to have to pay for the tea if we enjoyed it or not so we decided to go ahead with the tea. It was really weird not having the guest of honor with us and we all felt a bit guilty my sister Kathy was missing out, too, but it was just what the circumstances handed us.  My sister Kathy gave us updates while we were at tea. When we finished tea we headed to the emergency room a block away. On the way I managed to back into a block wall and give my car bumper an owie! Sheesh! I never back into stuff…

It was finally determined my mom did not have any bleeding in her skull so after she got stitches they released her at 11:00 PM. I was happy to finally make it home and crawl into bed.

My mother is in a lot of pain. Her left eye is swollen shut. Please pray that all will go well and she will heal up soon and that the swelling and pain will subside. Thank you all for your prayers and concern for us. I really appreciate it :0)

Update on Monday night: My mother is doing a lot better! Thank you so much for your prayers!!

Our dear Mom was called up to heaven on September 13, 2013. That was four and a half years after this tea time.

I didn’t write this in my original post but this was not a tea room I’d recommend. The owner wouldn’t let us take any photos inside (for security reasons). He said he’d take one photo of all of us. This tea venue is still open from what I can gather online. I read some of the reviews and the owner still has the silly no photo rules with weird explanations why…

We’re moving into the Memorial Weekend here in the U.S.A. I’ll have a Memorial Day post up for Monday. We have a very warm day in the forecast for Monday!

Truth for Today # 145

Thursday May 22nd

On Thursdays my posts will include verses that stood out in my readings from the Bible during week. One, two, three or maybe more. If you have a verse/verses that you read during the week and would like to share, leave it/them in the comments and I will add it/them to the post. Let’s dig deep in God’s Truth again this year!

The verses that you share are appreciated and so encouraging, I’m thankful for them and for each of you! 

Psalm 119:116-117

Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope! Hold me up, that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually!

From Vera:

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭41‬:‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

From Leonard:

Job 19:25-27

“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”

From Barbara:

“If a ruler’s anger rises against you, do not leave your post; calmness can lay great errors to rest.” Ecclesiastes 10:4

From Dianna:

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.

Psalm 30:4-5

‭‭

A Proverb a Day…

Here comes Memorial Day Weekend!

Time for Wednesday Hodgepodge with fresh questions from Joyce this week.

1. May 20th is World Bee Day…what’s something that’s kept you ‘busy as a bee’ lately? 

I see weeds everywhere. I should be busy weeding.

2. Do you like honey? What’s something you make or enjoy that calls for honey? 

My favorite honey treat is Peanut Butter and Honey and I like that combo on toast.

3. “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” Proverbs 16:24

What’s a proverb you love, or one that speaks to you or has helped you in some way? 

There were seasons of my life where I read through Proverbs in the Bible each day. There are 31 chapters of Proverbs and I’d read a chapter that corresponded with the day. There are those months without 31 days but that was okay. I think I’ll add that extra reading along with my scheduled reading through the Bible for the rest of this year. There are so many underlined verses from Proverbs in my Bibles.

How shall I narrow down my choices? Hodgepodge falls on the 21st of May. I will choose a verse from chapter 21 in the Book of Proverbs.

Proverbs 21:23 (NIV)

“He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity.”

Same verse in the ESV,

“Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.”

Another one from Chapter 21…

Proverbs 21:30

“There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.”

The Bible is full of Proverbs, a whole book in fact, if that helps with your answer. The word proverb is defined as ‘a short pithy saying in general use, stating a general truth or piece of advice’. 

4. Tell us about a ‘sweet’ moment in your life recently that filled you with joy, gratitude, or peace. 

So many moments of feeling grateful for the peace of God in our relationship with our kids.

I’m also grateful to God that I can have the joy of sitting with our grandchildren each Sunday at church worshipping our great God together.

5. When you were a child, what did you want to ‘be’ when you grew up? How close did you come to that? 

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When I was a child I played school and wanted to be a teacher. I did get a teaching credential and I taught elementary school for a few years until we had our first child. I homeschooled our daughter for her 4th-6th grade years. Later when our kids were in junior high and high school I did some substitute teaching.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

 

Proverbs 8:34-36

“Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”

Four Days on the Westside

On Tuesday the 13th of May we drove west across the state to Bothell to stay four days and four nights. Our niece and grandniece had arrived from Southern California the day before. They traveled to see our niece’s son, Jack, perform with the Master’s University Chorale on their West Coast Tour. The bonus was that we all had time together with them, too. The concert on Tuesday night was in Marysville at Grace Bible Church.

Jack hadn’t expected to see so many of us for this concert.

The music was exceptional and we were moved to tears and worshipped along with joy.

Jack’s rendition of Amazing Grace was performed and the director gave him acknowledgement for his work. The choir sang it beautifully. I’m sad I can’t add it here.

Jack’s mom is our kids’ cousin so Jack must be a cousin once removed? We are happy to claim him as our grandnephew.

We had some time together before the choir headed off to homes to spend the night before their bus took them south to their next concert on Wednesday in Gig Harbor. Their tour would take them through Washington, Oregon and California stopping at several churches along the way.

On Wednesday morning before it was time to take Michelle and Avery to the airport the ladies enjoyed brunch at The Rusty Pelican in Woodinville.

Everything we ordered was delicious!

I drove with Laura to drop Michelle and Avery off at SeaTac airport. It was a bonus to be able to ride in the carpool lane. Laura made tacos for dinner on Wednesday night.

On Thursday we spent a few hours at Katie and Andrew’s. Their cats entertained us. We enjoyed some Thai food together and had a short shopping run. Later that evening we had dinner with Josh and Laura at one of their favorites, Azul, in Mill Creek.

Friday we went to our old standby in Kirkland, La Corona, to say goodbye and cheers because we found out that the restaurant was changing hands at the end of May.

We had our finale dinner with Josh and Laura on Friday night at Emory’s in Silver Lake (Everett).

After dinner Katie and Andrew came over to Josh and Laura’s and we enjoyed playing the card game, Sky Joe. When we were done with cards we hugged and said our goodbyes. We would leave Saturday morning before anyone was awake.

We packed as much as we could on Friday night and then we snuck out on Saturday morning at 5:30 AM for our journey back home.

We are so thankful that we could enjoy this time with many of our loved ones. We are also thankful for safe travels there and back again. God has been good to us in small and big ways and we don’t take it for granted.

 

Over the River…

We drove to Bothell last Tuesday early and spent several days with our Westside kids and we had a bonus visit with our Niece and our Grandniece. We were able to see our Grandnephew, too, at a choral performance. We drove back home on Saturday. I’ll post soon about our time away.

The photo collage is from our drive home on Saturday as the sun was rising and as we crossed the Vantage bridge over the mighty Columbia River.

On Saturday after we got home and unpacked this beauty entertained us.

Then during our relaxing afternoon after church this hawk paid a visit probably looking for that chubby quail!

Happy Victoria Day to our neighbors to the north in British Columbia.

Like a River Glorious ~ Hymn

Francis Ridley Havergal is the hymnwriter of a favorite of mine from Russian Baptist Days. Like a River Glorious is so beautiful when sung with soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices. It takes me back to the times when we sang these beautiful hymns in four part harmony.

Like a River Glorious ~ Francis Ridley Havergal (1836 – 1879)

Like a river glorious, is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious, in its bright increase
Perfect, yet it floweth, fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth, deeper all the way.

Refrain:
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest

Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.

Refrain:
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest

Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the sun of love;
We may trust Him fully all for us to do.
They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.

Refrain:
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.