Author Archives: Ellen

Thankful Thursday

I have two new recipes up on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog this week. The Rustic Potato Salad has been enjoyed already on three separate occasions at this old house and the Chicken Tetrazzini Soup is also a new favorite. It has just the right amount of creaminess and the lemon zest adds a wonderful finish.

Last night my son, daughter in love and I enjoyed a beautiful shirt sleeve night at Century Link field in Seattle at the Seattle Sounders Soccer game. It was especially fun for us since our Sounders finally won a game with a 3-0 shutout. We’ve been on a tying streak and then we lost our last game in Salt Lake City. Winning is a treat and spending time with these two brings joy to me.

In 2007 and 2008 I participated in a weekly meme called Thankful Thursday. Here’s one of my posts from October 17, 2007.

I Will Always Love Your Name

Here I am and I have come

To thank You, Lord, for all You’ve done

Thank You, Lord

You paid the price at Calvary

You shed Your blood, You set me free

Thank You, Lord

No greater love was ever shown

No better life ever was laid down

And I will always love Your name

And I will always sing Your praise

You took my sin, You took my shame

You drank my cup, You bore my pain

Thank You, Lord

You broke the curse, You broke the chains

In victory from death You rose again

Thank You Lord

and not by works, but by Your grace

You clothe me now in Your righteousness

You bid me come, You make me whole

You give me peace, You restore my soul

Thank you, Lord

You’re making me to be like You

To do the works of the Father, too.

written by Paul Oakley (copyright 1997 Kingsway Thankyou Music/PRs/EMI Christian Music Publishing

I’m still thankful and always will be thankful for Jesus and what he’s done for me.

I’m thankful for Dear and the family God has given us to love and enjoy and grow alongside.

I’m thankful for good food and the Mennonite Girls Can Cook who have become some of my nearest and dearest friends.

I’m thankful for good bloggy friends. Some of you I have met and some I haven’t met in person but I cherish you nonetheless. You have encouraged me, prayed for me and my family, entertained me, taught me, inspired me and made me laugh out loud. I’ve traveled to places I’ll never be able to go through your posts and I’ve enjoyed your adventures. I’ve grieved with some of you as you’ve said goodbye to your spouses ad other loved ones. I’ve also grieved the loss and miss posts from bloggers who have died. Blogging has been a good thing in my life, thank you Lord!

And on the lighter side of thankfulness. Thank you Lord for my enjoyment of soccer! 🙂

Linking up with Michelle at It’s a Small Town Life for Thankful Thursday and tomorrow I’ll link up with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for Friday’s Fave Five.

Ode to a Pigeon Hodgepodge

1. What pets did you have while growing up? Tell us a little something about them.

When I was little my father decided to build a pigeon coupe in our back yard and he acquired several pigeons. Back then there were only four of us siblings and we each chose a pigeon for our pet. My pigeon was Green Neck because it had a lovely iridescent green neck. Creative name…not so much. We frequently fell on lean times back in the 50’s and during an exceptionally hard time my mother and father killed some of the pigeons to make soup. Oh the trauma the four of us siblings felt when we realized our pets were the base of the soup we were suppose to eat for dinner. We rebelled and would not eat that soup! My poor parents, it must have been hard for them to be forced to take such drastic measures to feed us. I’m not fond of pigeons anymore. We now call them rats with wings.

Other then these pigeons we really did not have pets growing up. It was hard enough to feed 8 children without adding a dog or cat to be fed.

The photo above is of me and my siblings before four more were added. These are the four whose pigeons were sacrificed for broth.  I was seven and the youngest when my next sibling was born and then another, rounding up to 8 when twin siblings were born when I was 12.

2. What is one thing you absolutely must accomplish today?

Putting the clean sheets, duvet cover and pillow cases back on the bed!

3. Where were you ten years ago? What were you doing there?

Ten years ago Dear and I were living in Camarillo, California while Dear was working for a company in Thousand Oaks. It was during the time that we lived in Camarillo that I started my blog.  Here’s my blog post from that day where I asked for prayer for our eldest who was in an emergency room in Tacoma after he became disoriented and had slurred speech. It was so hard being 1200 miles away.

4. September 26th is National Dumpling Day. Did you celebrate? Apple dumpling, xiao long bao (steamed Chinese dumpling), chicken and dumplings, pirogi, matzoh balls, or gnocchi…which dumpling on this list would be your dumpling of choice? Have you ever made homemade dumplings of any kind?

We did not celebrate dumpling day…

…But I have made Pelemeny with my family which I call Russian dumplings.

These are filled with a combination of ground chicken, lamb or beef. Recipe here.

5. ‘There are two kinds of adventurers: those who go truly hoping to find an adventure and those who go secretly hoping they don’t.’ William Trogdon

So which kind are you? I’m all for an adventure!

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Here’s a little color from the beginning of Autumn around this old house. This is our Forsythia Bush.

Linking up to Wednesday Hodgepodge with Joyce From This Side of the Pond. Thanks Joyce for coming up with the questions.

A Baker’s Dozen of Love…

11 Collages and 2 singles equals 13, a baker’s dozen.

On Thursday September 21st I left our home at 4pm to head to the airport to pick up our precious cargo from Seatac airport. Our usual 30-35 minute trip to the airport took 2 hours on this evening with traffic and then a major collision just a few miles from the airport. I left in plenty of time because I’m Moisi’s daughter and I had time to park and find the baggage carousel that our kids luggage would arrive on a few minutes before we met up.

I’m so happy to report that Addy May seemed to recognize me and she smiled and giggled when we made eye contact. I held her while we waited for the luggage and everyone that walked past her got a smile and she got lots of compliments. She seems to be pretty social. It took a lot less time to get home from the airport and Dear had his famous Tomato Rice Soup ready for our travelers. Addy enjoyed her new Baby Einstein Walker that Baba and Gramps bought for her, sitting in it and standing outside of it. We all learned colors and numbers in English, Spanish and French!

Addy is enjoying some soft food these days and she had her rice cereal mixed with homemade no sugar applesauce and a little of mommy’s milk for her meal. Uncle Andrew and Aunt Katie joined us on Thursday night for dinner and some Addy time.

On Friday morning Uncle Josh, Aunt Katie and Uncle Andrew arrived in time for some breakfast, a walk and then lunch at our local Mexican restaurant so Addy could meet our favorite waitress who has been seeing weekly photos of Addy since she was born. Auntie Laura had to work on Friday and was wrapping up two weeks with International workers at World Concern, the non profit she works for.

Addy lights up for her uncle’s and auntie’s and here she only has eyes for Josh.

Auntie Katie is making sure Addy doesn’t fall over as she lifts herself up to stand next to the couch and give it a taste.

Saturday morning jammy time and once again the uncles and aunties are over for meals and hands on with Addy May.

Auntie Laura got some looks of love from Addy in the collage above.

The reason the kids flew over for these few days were all about tickets for a concert that were purchased a year ago. This crew above all had seats together at Century Link field for a Coldplay concert on Saturday night. Jamie and Sarly are dear friends of both our boys and their wives. Jamie and Dan have been best friends since 2nd grade. Who could have guessed Dan would marry a Jamie, too. Josh came up with a vehicle that the six of them could travel in together. They had a wonderful time and little Addy May survived her first full night away from mommy and daddy. Not saying there weren’t any tears but we all survived and she did take a bottle from me successfully.

The morning after she was still smiling at me and was happy to come to me. I’m glad I remembered to snap a shot of the these three before they headed back to the airport Sunday morning.

Addy was a great little traveler, granted the flight was only one hour long, but it was still a good start for her traveling memories.

Our time was rich and now Gramps and Baba are recuperating from all the fun, bending down, lifting, chasing and feeding the ones nearest and dearest to us! Thanking the good Lord for all that we enjoyed.

Family Time

I’ll be getting around to reading your posts now that our kids are back home with little Addy. We had good times with yummy food and lots of laughs. Addy was the center of attention. I’m kicking myself for not getting a photo of the nine of us while we were all together. Addy survived her evening alone with Baba and Gramps and her parents had a wonderful evening out.

Break Thou the Bread of Life

Break Thou the Bread of Life

Break Thou the bread of life, dear Lord, to me,
As Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea;
Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord;
My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word!

Bless Thou the truth, dear Lord, to me, to me,
As Thou didst bless the bread by Galilee;
Then shall all bondage cease, all fetters fall;
And I shall find my peace, my all in all.

Thou art the bread of life, O Lord, to me,
Thy holy Word the truth that saveth me;
Give me to eat and live with Thee above;
Teach me to love Thy truth, for Thou art love.

O send Thy Spirit, Lord, now unto me,
That He may touch my eyes, and make me see:
Show me the truth concealed within Thy Word,
And in Thy Book revealed I see the Lord.

Words: Mary A. Lathbury, 1877. Verses 3-4, Alexander Groves

Moving Stuff Around

We’ve been doing some reorganizing at this old house and moving stuff around to better fit spaces. Before I could grab my camera for some before shots Dear was already moving stuff. The table that is under the mirror in these shots that used to hold the stereo equipment got moved up to our sitting area off our master bedroom to hold our printer that came out of the spare oom.

This is our living room. We put the matching black short bookshelves under the windows on either side of the fireplace. These cabinets were in two separate rooms in our house before. The large mirror got moved kitty corner from where it was before. The antique library table was moved under the mirror and now has our stereo equipment on top of it. The bookshelves remained in place as did the china secretary that you can almost see in this next photo.

Since our little crawler is arriving today we moved a lot of stuff out of the living room like the tea cart, coffee table and small side tables into the Blue room so Addy has more room to roam safely. We bought a safety gate to block off the stairs that lead down to the front door and the basement. These items will return after the weekend.

We put that antique white cabinet in the garage for now because it just didn’t make sense to have it in this spare bedroom. The two tall bookshelves were in two separate rooms before and we decided to put them in here on either side of the little desk. We also moved the big office chair out and brought in a small folding chair that fits the desk better. We call this room the Spare Oom. You can see the printer that got moved out of here next to the desk in the before photo.

The small bookcase that was between these two tall bookcases in our second guest room that we call Katie’s room or the Blue room is now in the living room with it’s match on either side of the fireplace. The black dresser was moved from our master suite to finish off the look in this bedroom.

We’re happy with the changes. If and when we decide to sell this old house there will be more changes to fake buyers into thinking there’s more room, I mean staging.

Right now the pilot lights are on again and we’ve even had the heat on for the last couple mornings. Fall has arrived a few days early. We are hearing we’ll have another warm spell next week, though.

I’ll be scarce around blog land the next few days. Hope you all have a good weekend. I’m off and running!

Goodbye Hello Hodgepodge

Goodbye to Summer, Hello to Autumn!

1. What’s something you’d rate a 10/10? Tell us why.

First and foremost being redeemed by Jesus is always something that is a 10/10 because I’m at peace with God and enjoy all His benefits. But here’s another little something that rates 10/10 these days.

Being a grandparent rates a 10/10 for me. We’ve only been grandparents for 6 months now but it has been delightful in so many ways. It’s fun to see our children step up in new roles surrounding this little one. So many new things to experience while watching her grow in the first year of life.

2. What job would you be terrible at? What makes you think so?

I do not think I’d be a good manager. I’m just tempted to do things myself instead of telling people what to do.

3. When did you last take a fall?

Thankfully it’s been a while since I’ve fallen. My last significant fall landed me in the ER for several hours. I met a few rainy, slimey cement stairs with my face and had to have x-rays and be put on an antibiotic because of the significant cut on my nose. It was not a pretty sight, for a very long time.

What’s something you’re falling for (in a good way) these days?

Having Dear (my husband) around all the time. Now if he could be around and get a paycheck, too, that would be grand!

4. According to the Travel Channel here are some of America’s best fall festivals-
National Apple Harvest Festival (near Arendtsville PA, close to Gettysburg), Harvest on the Harbor (Portland Maine), German Village Festival (Columbus Ohio), Wellfleet Oyster Fest (Cape Cod), and Wine and Chile Fiesta (Santa Fe NM)

Have you ever been to any of the festivals listed?  No

Which one appeals to you most?

I think I would really enjoy visiting Maine so I’ll pick Harvest on the Water in Portland, Maine.

Does your hometown have any sort of fall celebration, and if so will you make it a point to attend?

Seattle and some neighboring cities have some (Sausage Festival, Octoberfest, Autumn Leaves) but my hometown does not have any. These days I’m not a fan of navigating through crowds of people so I won’t be making a point to attend. I might take an Autumn drive to see some changing of the leaves.

5. What is your goodbye message to summer?

Adios smoky dry summer! Come back next year with less dryness and no forest fires, please. The air quality was so bad in Addy’s hometown that she had to stay indoors for a significant amount of time lately. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Our grandparenting skills will be put to the test this Saturday as our kids have their first evening out planned since Addy was born. They are flying in Thursday evening (Addy’s first airplane ride) and will join good friends for a concert in Seattle on Saturday evening. Addy will have a couple days to get used to seeing us again before she gets left alone with us. We get to put her down for the night. Here’s hoping she won’t refuse a bottle. She’s not a fan of bottles. Mommy is best. But…we have a saying in Russian that loosely translated says “by the time she gets married this will have healed”. She and we will survive whatever may come.

A big thank you to Joyce From This Side of the Pond for the Wednesday Hodgepodge questions.

Our World Tuesday

My daughter and I took a hike in a neighboring city this past Saturday. We are fortunate here in the state of Washington to have many beautiful forest hikes and trails to choose from that are in and about our cities. More photos from this hike are in the post before this one on my blog. Redmond Watershed Preserve is where this photo was taken. Redmond is across Lake Washington from Seattle.

I’m linking up to Our World Tuesday. If you’d like to see photos from around the world click over and check out other posts.

Family Divided…

…but not in a bad way! Guys enjoying their time and the gals enjoying their time.

On Saturday the guys were headed to a local shooting range to sight in their rifles for a family hunting trip in October so Katie and I decided to try out a hike close to us, the Redmond Watershed, that you can link to here. Since we didn’t have bear repellent we did a lot of talking and singing along the paths we walked on.

I wouldn’t mind having a bench like this.

There were trails that were open to horses, bicycles and walkers and then some that were only open to walkers.

We marveled that we could have a hike/walk like this in the middle of a city. It was a very pleasant area with level paths and a few elevations that were very easy to navigate. We put in over 10,000 steps and could have gone farther if my lower back wasn’t fussing at me from all the vacuuming and cleaning Dear and I had accomplished the days previous. We enjoyed lunch together and a trip to a Farmer’s Market in Redmond before coming to the hungry aid of our guys with a drive through order from Chick Fil-A.

Saturday was another smokey day here after several clear days. Today Sunday, we are promised rain and more rain and we are happy for this forecast for all the fires that are still raging. After church we did a quick mowing of the lawn to pick up all the pear and apple tree leaves that have fallen. We wanted a clean lawn for the rain. As I look out the window now I’m now seeing the rain fall and for that I am thankful.

Hope you all had a good weekend.