Author Archives: Ellen

Before the Rumble!

Yesterday we had a sunny and windy start to the day. This is a view of our Pink Dogwood from the kitchen window and then from the yard.

We have 4 mature Rhododendrons in our yard and they are getting to full bloom.

Closeups of the lilac and dogwood blooms. Those lilac blooms are filling our yard and deck with their fragrance. Of all these blooms they are the only ones with a strong fragrance.

Blooms from two of our rhoddies.

In the late afternoon the clouds got dark and grey and we had a loud thunderstorm that lasted for an hour. A lot of noise and a little rain. The winds continue today. In the meantime our house is still clean and organized waiting for that family who wants to buy our home.

Reflecting Back On May

British Columbia, Canada May 2018

The Seattle Japanese Garden 2017

P1060302

San Antonio River Walk 2016

Chewelah, Washington May 2015

Bellefontaine 142Bellefontaine Cemetery St. Louis, Missouri May 2014

British Columbia, Canada, May 2013

I’m still working through cleaning up my blog because of the Photobucket change of policy which resulted with them replacing 8 years of photos with ugly black and grey boxes asking for money to release my photos. I’ve made it to 2010 and have miles to go before I delete all those boxes. In the meantime I have these highlights from past posts in May. So much to be thankful for over the years.

We are in a warm weather pattern right now with just one wet day predicted this week. Right now a high of 75 degrees expected for Mother’s Day! We had a nice mostly quiet weekend here. The highlights of the weekend: time with Josh and Laura on our deck after the Sounder’s game, church on Sunday morning, and an afternoon meal on Sunday with friends in Kirkland. Hope you all had a good weekend.

When the Roll is Called Up Yonder ~ Hymn

When the Roll is Called Up Yonder

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound,
And time shall be no more,
And the morning breaks, eternal, bright and fair;
When the saved of earth shall gather
Over on the other shore,
And the roll is called up yonder,
I’ll be there.

Refrain

When the roll, is called up yonder,
When the roll, is called up yonder,
When the roll, is called up yonder,
When the roll is called up yonder
I’ll be there.

On that bright and cloudless morning
When the dead in Christ shall rise,
And the glory of His resurrection share;
When His chosen ones shall gather
To their home beyond the skies,
And the roll is called up yonder,
I’ll be there.

Refrain

Let us labor for the Master
From the dawn till setting sun,
Let us talk of all His wondrous love and care;
Then when all of life is over,
And our work on earth is done,
And the roll is called up yonder,
I’ll be there.

Refrain

Weekend Roundup ~ R

Starts with “R.” 

A Favorite. 

Red

Here are my choices from the prompts for Weekend Roundup.

Robin starts with R.

A Favorite: Reflections including some family members on Lake Roosevelt.

Red: Red tulips growing in a rather long row behind Judy and me in Chilliwack, B.C.

Parting Shot:

The raging Spokane River because of Spring runoff.

Cllick over to Tom The Backroads Traveller to see more selections from the prompts.

Today is mowing the lawn day and then I’m going to a soccer match with my adult kids on this side of the mountains. Happy Cinco de Mayo to all!

Round Trip to Canada

On Thursday Marg hosted eight of “the girls” who live out west at her home in Canada for brunch. This event was planned because of my and Dear’s imminent move farther away from the Frasier Valley MGCC’s. The trip that now takes me a couple hours or so will take upwards of six hours in the future. We all contributed to the meal and we were not lacking for anything. I did not get photos of all the dishes we enjoyed. We missed our two Manitoba girls.

Marg’s little granddaughters helped her set the table. They said “we are the little Mennonite girls”. After we got up from the table we went outside to enjoy our sweets.

The day was beautiful and after a little while we got so warm we had to move into the shade. Besides eating we had some heart to hearts and some good laughs sharing around the circle.

A few of us were able to meet up at the #tulipsofthevalley in Chilliwack to enjoy the last few days of tulips in their glory.

We enjoyed swinging with the tulips, too.

Girls just want to have fun!

I left Canada around three and at the border crossing I was picked randomly for a full car search. Oye. I still managed to make it home by 5:30 for which I was grateful.

Hope May is starting well for you.

The Merry Month of May Hodgepodge

1. April showers bring May flowers or so the saying goes. Is there a flower you associate with a particular memory? Explain.

We live in the Rhododendron state. Every May these beauties in the photo above bloom all over our state. They come in different sizes and colors. We have five different plants in our yard. They grow with extra care and they grow wild with no care. The yellow one below is our newest one. I’ll always associate Rhodies with our move to Washington state way back in 1988.

2. Last time you helped someone? Tell us how.

These two just attended the Aeronautical Engineering “Space Ball” last weekend. Andrew will be graduating soon and he has been offered an intern to hire job after graduation. And yes, Katie’s hair is a rich shade of purple. They needed to search for a new apartment and I helped them by driving them to five complexes to check them out. These two brilliant young adults hate to drive. I like to drive so I was happy to help them in this small way. I also needed to be out of the house since there was an open house going on at our home so it filled the time nicely.

3. It’s National Salsa Month (the food, not the dance) so tell us, do you like salsa? Hot, medium, or mild? Homemade, store bought, or from your favorite restaurant only?

We like the salsa at our local Mexican restaurant. It’s medium. Other than good restaurant salsa we enjoy homemade.

4. When I was twelve years old…

This is the junior high school I was attending when I was 12. When I was 12 I attended Hume Lake Christian camp. What I learned at Bible Camp was that the only connection I could have to God was through Jesus Christ and what He did for me on the cross. Being Russian and being a part of my father’s religion did not give me a direct link to God that I believed I had. In 1963 at Hume Lake while listening to a speaker talk about Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross to save sinners I was moved to step out and become a follower of Jesus. God’s plan of salvation was exclusively through his perfect son Jesus, who is fully God and came to earth to live a perfect life among us and be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. I knew I was one of those sinners and I needed a Savior. This decision began a journey of ups and downs, highs and lows, but a journey forward with my God and Savior.

Nestled close to Kings Canyon National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada is the Youth Camp that I was able to attend in 1963, 1965 and 1967. I was 12, 14, and 16 during these wilderness adventures.

5. It’s the first of May so let’s run with it-first things first, don’t know the first thing about it, first dibs on something, first impression, first rate, first cousin, first string, first come first served, at first light-which phrase can best be applied to something in your life currently or even recently?

Currently I’d have to choose at first light. Seems Dear and I are up before first light each day. We should have been farmers or milk deliverers.

6. Insert your own random thought here.
It’s the Merry Month of May and I’m happy that it’s here.
Joining Jo From Across the Pond for Wednesday Hodgepodge.
 

A New Week…

If you want to see fields and fields of tulips without traveling to Holland you need to come to Washington State in April.

Do you see the heart of pink tulips here?

We are fans of Roozengaarde in Mt. Vernon and always enjoy our visits to this beautiful garden and their tulip fields. Always make sure to have your mud boots with you when you visit the tulip fields.

We have had a weekend of keeping things clean and tidy and letting people traipse through our home at their whim. Sigh. Hope we sell soon so we can relax, a little. Hope all is well in your world.

He Leadeth Me ~ Hymn

He Leadeth Me

He leadeth me, O blessèd thought!
O words with heav’nly comfort fraught!
Whate’er I do, where’er I be
Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.

Refrain

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful follower I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.

Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom,
Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom,
By waters still, over troubled sea,
Still ’tis His hand that leadeth me.

Refrain

Lord, I would place my hand in Thine,
Nor ever murmur nor repine;
Content, whatever lot I see,
Since ’tis my God that leadeth me.

Refrain

And when my task on earth is done,
When by Thy grace the vict’ry’s won,
E’en death’s cold wave I will not flee,
Since God through Jordan leadeth me.

Refrain

Words: Joseph H. Gilmore, 1862.

As a young man who recently had been graduated from Brown University and Newton Theological Institution, I was supplying for a couple of Sundays the pulpit of the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia. At the mid-week service, on the 26th of March, 1862, I set out to give the people an exposition of the Twenty-third Psalm, which I had given before on three or four occasions, but this time I did not get further than the words He Leadeth Me. Those words took hold of me as they had never done before, and I saw them in a significance and wondrous beauty of which I had never dreamed.

It was the darkest hour of the Civil War. I did not refer to that fact—that is, I don’t think I did—but it may subconsciously have led me to realize that God’s leadership is the one significant fact in human experience, that it makes no difference how we are led, or whither we are led, so long as we are sure God is leading us.

At the close of the meeting a few of us in the parlor of my host, good Deacon Wattson, kept on talking about the thought which I had emphasized; and then and there, on a blank page of the brief from which I had intended to speak, I penciled the hymn, talking and writing at the same time, then handed it to my wife and thought no more about it. She sent it to The Watchman and Reflector, a paper published in Boston, where it was first printed. I did not know until 1865 that my hymn had been set to music by William B. Bradbury. I went to Rochester to preach as a candidate before the Second Baptist Church. Going into their chapel on arrival in the city, I picked up a hymnal to see what they were singing, and opened it at my own hymn, He Leadeth Me.

ht: cyberhymnal

Weekend Roundup ~ Q

Time for Tom’s Weekend Roundup

1. Starts with “Q.”
2. A Favorite.
3. Quiet.

Queen Victoria

Favorite: Mommy and daughter with baby quilt stitched with love.

Quiet

Parting shot:

Taken yesterday in Edmonds, Washington. One of these things is not like the others. A seagull atop a “sign quilt”.  After several sunshine filled days we are back to rain today. The clouds came in yesterday as you can see in the photo above. Have a good weekend everyone.

Thank you Tom for hosting The Weekend Roundup.

They Bloom…

…as if overnight!

Addy warmed up to Gramps and Baba with no problems. We are always pleased that she remembers us and lifts up her arms for us to pick her up. We were able to see first hand all the new skills that she has mastered.

She moves and entertains in motion.

Eating cheerios while walking.

Scooting on her (what animal is that?) giraffe?

Building…

She has the cutest way of saying she is done eating.

Trying to gather all the numbers from her number puzzle right side up and upside down.

We enjoyed our time again with our kids in northeastern Washington.

Meanwhile Spring is blooming in our western Washington yard!

Lilacs, Pear blossoms and apple blossoms.

What’s blooming in your corner of the world?