Purple Haze Hodgepodge

1. ‘Hurry less, worry less’…what’s your strategy for making that happen this holiday season? How’s it going so far?

Well, we threw in an overnight getaway to La Conner to celebrate our 43rd anniversary and that included lots of country roads less traveled instead of the interstates. It was good to take the time away from our renovations and decorations. Our leisurely walk along the waterway in La Conner was relaxing. So far so good.

2. Do you have a list of to-dos that need accomplishing in order to prepare your home and/or property for the winter season? What are some of the jobs on your list? Are you a do-it-yourselfer or do you hire someone to accomplish these tasks?

Winter is not that harsh in the Puget Sound area. Generally all we need to do is lock the windows so they are shut tight and disconnect the water hoses so they don’t freeze. Sometime after Christmas and before Spring we need to prune the apple and pear tree. We do all these things ourselves. I still need to cut back my lavender plants!

This is what the apple tree looks like before pruning and all the branches that are growing straight up need to be cut. After pruning it looks more like this with still a few more branches to cut. Ignore the evergreen in the background.

3. According to dietitians surveyed, the most popular health foods for 2018 will be -turmeric, sprouted foods (bean sprouts, breads with sprouted grains, etc), veggies in place of grains, dairy free milk, and pulses (lentils, chickpeas, etc).  What’s the first thought that ran through your head when you read this list? Of the foods listed which one might you add to your regular diet? Also, can milk really be dairy free? Is it still milk?

The first thought I had was healthy trends aren’t my thing. Maybe I’ll add more veggies.

4. The Pantone Color of the Year for 2018 is Ultra Violet. According to the Pantone site ‘Ultra Violet communicates originality, ingenuity, and visionary thinking pointing us to the future.’ What say you? Do you like the color purple? Did you see the movie or read the book-ha!?  Is purple a color you wear often? Describe for us one purple item in your home without using the word purple.  If you were in charge of such things what color would you select for 2018?

I don’t mind the color purple. I did see the movie. We have three University of Washington alums in our family and we live in Husky country where slogans like “let purple reign again” are alive and well.

Purple evokes passionate pride. It’s the color that stands out as most quintessentially to our University and is therefore the dominant color in our communications. Gold symbolizes excellence. It’s a sophisticated hue that speaks to our extraordinary standards and immense quality. And when you combine the two? That’s the UW.

Sometimes I wear purple. The little girl with the W on her shirt is now an alumnus of Udub and her husband will soon be a graduate of the Udub, too. I helped put my Dear through the UW school of Pharmacy so I wear my purple with pride.

We do have some walls at this old house that remind me of lavender sprigs . Not the vibrant variety.

You can see that color in what used to be my master bathroom?

If I was in charge of such things the color of the year would be China Blue.

5. Favorite book read this year?

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

Today I’ll be mailing our Christmas cards. We’ve received a few already and I always enjoy being brought up to date on what is happening with friends from far and wide. We still do not have our tree and that’s the last purchase we need to make for Christmas. Once the tree is up I’ll start thinking about wrapping the presents that will be going under it.

Thank you to Joyce From This Side of the Pond for asking the questions for Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thank you to whoever takes the time to read the answers.

Angels From the Realm of Glory

Angels from the realms of glory,
Wing your flight o’er all the earth;
Ye who sang creation’s story
Now proclaim Messiah’s birth.

Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.

 

This little one continues to delight us. We were texted a video of her taking steps already. The video showed her taking three steps. Yikes! She’s not even 9 months yet. Mommy and Daddy are going to have to be on their toes to keep track of her.

All our Christmas decor is up now and all that is left is the purchase of our mystery tree and decorating that mystery tree. In the meantime Dear and I are escaping  for a night away to celebrate our anniversary. Hope you all have a good week and that you are enjoying holy nights with the bright lights of Christmas.

O, Come, Little Children

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Oh, Come, Little Children

Oh, come, little children, oh, come, one and all,
To Bethlehem’s stable, in Bethlehem’s stall.
And see with rejoicing this glorious sight,
Our Father in heaven has sent us this night.

Oh, see in the manger, in hallowèd light
A star throws its beam on this holiest sight.
In clean swaddling clothes lies the heavenly Child,
More lovely than angels, this Baby so mild.

Oh, there lies the Christ Child, on hay and on straw;
The shepherds are kneeling before Him with awe.
And Mary and Joseph smile on Him with love,
While angels are singing sweet songs from above.

Words: Christoph von Schmid, 1794

A friend of ours faxed me the music and words for O Come Little Children in the Russian language. I learned this song by heart in Russian and it’s been fun to sing it this week. We have started the Advent Season and I’ll be posting Christmas Music for the rest of the month. Some of the words in Russian translate different than the English version.

Be Merry…

Things have finally settled down enough in our kitchen renovations so I could start decorating for Christmas.

I’ve acquired a few new nativity sets over the last few years. I’ve had a conversation with myself and have agreed to not purchase any more.

Looks like the theme this year at this old house is to Be Merry!

You can see my neighbors lights out the window. They really light up the night! We have not purchased our Mystery Tree yet.

My extra motivation for decorating was our small group Christmas Appetizer potluck. I made Lovella’s Cocktail Sausage Wreath again.

I’ve been real slow in catching up with visits to blogs. I hope to come by soon.

Slowly and surely with long work days things are getting done. The kitchen backsplash is all done and the last thing to do is the new trim around the window above the sink.

Anniversary Hodgepodge

1. What title would you give this current chapter of your life?

Preparing for Change

Today is our 43rd wedding anniversary and we are preparing for another major change in our lives. We were married in 1974 and in 1975 we bought our first home moving to Huntington Beach from West Los Angeles. In 1976 we moved to our second home in Huntington Beach where our two sons were born. The photo above is from our first Christmas in that home. In 1984 we moved from Huntington Beach to Ventura, California with our two young sons (our hearts and minds are with the people of Ventura during the latest Thomas Fire). In 1988 we made the huge move from California to Washington State with our two sons and 3 year old daughter so Dear could go back to school (University of Washington) to become a Pharmacist. We settled into Washington State nicely but in 1996 we experienced a major landslide behind our dream home and after many setbacks and huge costs mounting on saving our home we walked away and gave the home and all our equity to the bank. We lived in 3 rentals. A month after moving into our 3rd rental home in 1998 the owners told us they needed to sell the home even though we had a 1 year lease. We could not face another move and offered to buy the house and were surprised that the bank would give us a loan since we had defaulted on our landslide home. We have been in this old house, the only house we didn’t really choose to buy for almost 20 years. I’ll need to add that because of a job change we moved to Camarillo, California for 4 years from 2006-2010. We did not sell this old house but left two of our adult children to live in it and to care for it while we were gone. Now we are making some extra improvements on this old house to get it ready to sell in Spring of 2018 and make a major move across the mountains to a small country town in northeast Washington. I have to say that change at this stage of life is a little more scary then when we were in our twenties, thirties, forties, or fifties!

But…the consolation is that we will be close to one of our sons, daughter-in-law and little miss Addy!

2. December 6 is National Microwave Oven Day. Who knew? Besides popcorn and coffee reheats, what’s the most common thing you microwave? Could you get along without a microwave?

Frozen entrees like lasagna or corn on the cob or artichokes. Yes, I’d be able to survive without a microwave.

3. If you could insert yourself into any Christmas carol and experience the lyrics in real life, which Christmas carol lyric would you choose and why?

Away in a Manger

4. Describe the most beautiful drive you’ve ever taken.

We’ve experienced so many beautiful drives that it’s very hard to choose one. I’ll choose drives in the Cotswolds on narrow lanes that were so scary but beautiful.

5. What’s something on your Christmas list this year? (an actual list or figuratively speaking, either one)

I went with actual. Gift cards to nice restaurants in Seattle. We are moving to a very small country town 6 hours from Seattle and I want to get my fill of the restaurants I’ll miss.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance,
baptism without church discipline,
Communion without confession….
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Thank you to Joyce From This Side of the Pond for providing the questions and to all of you who take the time to read our answers.

This morning we see that there are multiple fires in Southern California fanned by Santa Ana Winds. A few freeways have been shut down. I’m sad to see the fires near the Getty Center, Santa Clarita, San Bernardino and of course Ventura. Prayers are up for the people in the paths of these fires and all those who have to evacuate. So frightening, thinking of all my family and friends down there. Go outside and water down your roofs! Be wise about evacuating!

Merry and Bright

We met at Herb and Anneliese’s home this year for our annual Mennonite Girls Can Cook Christmas dinner party. We were greeted to their beautiful home and enjoyed many well thought out details of the season.

We all contributed some dishes for our gathering from appetizers to main course and dessert. Julies gluten free roll-ups were a big hit.

It had been a while since this many of us were together and it was good to catch up with one another.

Anneliese went the extra mile with veggies, fried potatoes, cucumber salad and home made rolls along with her Rouladen.

It was Dear and my first time enjoying Anneliese’s Rouladen and Bev’s Spaetzle and both dishes were delicious. Judy’s salad was a great starter to our meal.

For our exchange we decided to each bring one gift from our kitchen or something gathered for our kitchens to share with one another. We brought one gift and left with one gift.

We roused the guys to help take our annual Christmas shot and Lovella’s beloved captured both sides of the photo shoot.

Lovella’s Black Forest Torte and Marg’s Hazelnut Roll topped off the evening.

Dear and I headed for the border at 9:30 and were safely home by 11:10. We had two great border crossings and safe roads. We are in recuperating mode here at this old house. No decorations here yet so it was really nice to enjoy Anneliese’s home all decorated and ready to go.

First Christmas Party of 2017

Dear and I traveled to Abbotsford, Canada yesterday to start off the Christmas season with these “girls” and their husbands. Herb and Anneliese opened their festive and warm home to the 16 of us for the evening. We missed our two Manitoba girls and their husbands. I’ll share photos from our evening together soon. Today I’m recuperating from all that good food and the drive to Canada and home again.

The Prince of Peace Is Come ~ Hymn

The Prince of Peace Is Come

The Prince of Peace is come,
Ye nations shout and sing;
Let men and angels join their songs,
To hail this glorious King.

He takes the servant’s form;
He lays His glory by;
His heavenly Father’s bosom leaves,
And throne of majesty.

Light of the world He comes,
The blind receive their sight;
The mind now feels His gladdening ray,
And all within is light.

Physician blest He came,
And well employs His art;
With ease He makes the bruisèd whole,
And heals the broken heart.

His tears, His sighs and pains
Ease to the wounded give;
The kind physician dies to make
The dying patients live.

The great Redeemer comes,
And sounds a jubilee:
He burst the prison doors, and bids
The captive souls go free.

Evangelist divine,
He makes the Gospel known;
The poor the joyful tidings hear,
And their great prophet own.

Whilst gracious God I hear
Thy Gospel’s joyful sound,
May my glad heart, my tongue, my life,
Be all obedience found.

Words: John Needham, 1768.

This and That…

It’s still a little messy around here but we are enjoying running water and a cook top again.  The backsplash should all be on the wall sometime later today and then tomorrow or Monday the grouting can be done. It’s nice to know that for sure it will all be done well before Christmas.

Our little Addy is enjoying new foods introduced into her diet. Our DIL sent us this latest photo. It makes me smile. She’s eating pumpkin, chicken, and pear. Jamie makes Addy’s food instead of using overly processed baby food from the store.

Last night we had a little birthday party dinner for our Daughter in law/love, Laura. We enjoyed Lovella’s Cocktail Sausage Wreath as an appetizer and it was a big hit! I’m going to make it again on Wednesday for our Small Group Christmas gathering. Click on Lovella’s name to head over to Mennonite Girls Can Cook to see the method.

I’m learning so many new things from my SIL Kelly’s Advent in Art series. Today is Day 2 Mosaic in Chora Church, Turkey. I’m getting an art history lesson that I’ve never had before.

Happy first Advent weekend everyone!

Sneak Peek

So happy to announce that our counter tops were installed on Wednesday by noon. We are still miles away from a fully functioning kitchen. Our cook top is connected to gas and ready to go. Our sink and dishwasher still need some plumbing parts to get things running well. The new sink is deeper than the old one so we have to make adjustments. Dear started the layout and planning for the backsplash and as soon as the sink and dishwasher are up and running he’ll start on the subway tile. Last but not least will be the window trim. Good thing he’s retired!

When it’s all done I’ll do a full before and after post. We are pleased with the quartz! It’s called White Peppercorn.

I’m off to a Seattle Sounders Soccer game with my kids tonight that will determine if we go to the finals again this year. Go Sounders!

UPDATE:

We won! The Seattle Sounders are Western Conference Champions again this year!

The Sounders will play Toronto in Toronto on December 9th.

These two booked their flight to the game and now all they need are tickets for the game!

What a fun time celebrating together and now we are looking forward to watching the final.

My Sister-in-law Kelly has been an educator for many years and she’s posting an Advent Series called Advent in Art. It’s free and you can sign up to receive the daily prompts by following the link. If you are homeschooling this will enrich your art history program.

The Advent Season has begun and it’s snowing on my blog again. Thankful!