Author Archives: Ellen

A Year of Preparations…

…calls for more than one post!

Hope you will bear with me as I chronicle the events of this past weekend.

On Friday I packed up my car trying to choose the right clothes for 4 main events that were scheduled for the weekend. Of course there was a little gift for each of the other girls that had to be packed, too. I always wonder if my car will be randomly chosen at the border to be searched. I think the agents would get a kick out of the things I pile into my trunk. When I approached the window and handed off my passport I again had a nice smile and was waved on with no problems.

I arrived to Judy’s Front Porch a little after four in the afternoon. She had planned a nice meal for us before we set off to our first signing of the weekend.

She made her delicious Santa Fe Chicken salad on page 60 of our first cookbook. If you haven’t prepared this dish yet I would highly recommend that you do. I’m sorry to say I didn’t take a photo of Judy’s lovely rustic rhubarb tart that she made for dessert.

Judy and I changed into our dresses and headed to Abbotsford for our first book launch event at House of James bookstore.

Everything was all prepared for us and they even had baked treats from our book that everyone who came was able to enjoy. The ten of us were happy to finally be together again and we took our seats ready to sign our books.  House of James has been on board with us since our first book and we appreciate their promotion of our book and support. They had drawings throughout the evening and we also had opportunities to speak about the mission work our Celebrations’ author royalties will be donated to. This next photo is of the Menno Media staff that has been part of our support team, Russ Eanes the director of Menno Media is in the center flanked by Ben Penner our marketing manager and Amy Gingerich our Editor. We were happy that they could travel to be a part of the weekend.

We left with thankful hearts to rest up for our next full day of activities.

Bright and early Saturday morning Judy and I headed out for a little walk on her country road before the rest of our nonstop day. Elmer, Judy’s husband was concerned that because I was a city girl I might not be able to stand the eau de perfum wafting off the freshly manured fields. I managed just fine by concentrating on the beauty that goes along with it. When in the country it’s good to just enjoy all you get!

After our walk we got cleaned up, donned our next outfit and headed off for the rest of the day starting with an early lunch at Planet Earth in Chilliwack just down the street from Winks where we would have our next signing. I’ll share more about that on another day.

I made it home from Canada later last night and am still just sitting around taking it all in. The lawn is several inches high and asking to be mowed but it will have to wait for another day yet. I wish high school kids were still of the mind to work hard for some pay. I would hire one today! I’m slowly making the rounds on what I missed while in Canada without my usual internet connections. Hope all is well where you are…

Bless the Lord,

…Oh my Soul.

But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,
 to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.

The clan…

My siblings.

My cousins on my dad’s side of the family.

Cousins on my mom’s side.

My mom’s nieces and nephews. My mom had one brother and a sister. Her sister did not survive her childhood. My mom is the only survivor of her immediate family and she keeps track of her brother’s kids and prays for them faithfully. At the party my cousins gave testimony about how much that has blessed them in this stage of their lives.

Here are the words to a song we always end up singing when we are together. My mom requested that we sing it again at their party. We also sang Great is Thy Faithfulness and another Russian favorite.

Bless thou the Lord oh my soul

Blessed art thou oh Lord

Bless thou the Lord oh my soul

Bless the Lord and forget not all his benefits

Bless thou the Lord oh my soul

and all that is within me bless His Holy name

He is full of compassion and mercy

Long suffering and great in goodness

He will not always be chiding

Nor keepeth He

His wrath his wrath forever his wrath forever

Bless thou the Lord oh my soul

And all that is within me bless his holy name

 Blessed art thou oh Lord

This link if it works will give you the tune although they use different text in a portion of the song.

My brother Steve had anyone who wanted to stand up and say whatever they wanted to my parents. It really was moving to hear how lives have been touched over the years by my parents. My mom and dad were a little overwhelmed and didn’t like all the attention. Some of the things said were…

“They just show up when you need them”

“They gave up all their comfort in the U.S.A. in their 70’s to go to Russia as missionaries.”

“They were never perfect but they keep open to growth in their lives.”

“They never gave up on us”

“They always had room at their table for one more.”

“My deda taught me a good work ethic”

“Thank you for praying for us and keeping track of us.”

They always tell us they love us.

They always talk about the Lord in every context of their lives.

They love the Word of God and you’ll see them reading their Bibles every morning.

My brother talked about walking past their bedroom and seeing them on their knees praying out loud together.

We have been blessed by good examples from my parents…not perfect but striving.

For the party we had street tacos with rice and beans and for dessert we had a delicious cake with whip cream frosting and fresh strawberry filling and topped with chocolate covered strawberries.

Even though this was a 90th birthday party celebration it morphed into a 70th wedding anniversary party also. One person started that rumor and it just didn’t quit so Happy 70th Anniversary Mom and Pop. (Their anniversary is September 13th)

The Reception…

Debbee and Lenny’s wedding and reception were both in Huntington Beach on opposite sides of Beach Blvd. We met up with my sister Lana at the reception venue before the fact to help Lana facilitate and do whatever we could to get things ready for the event after the event.

We worked with Lana as long as we could before the time we needed to be at the church for the family photos.  Thankfully we had enough time to get it all together.

We had appetizers and drinks while we waited for the newlyweds to arrive. They were taking photos at the beach after the ceremony.

The wedding party and bride and groom arrived with everything set up and ready to go.

The first dance happened as soon as the couple arrived and before dinner was served. The groom worked hard to find a caterer who would prepare gluten free options since his bride has a strong reaction to gluten. The caterer was great with delicious choices for all.

The flower girls being true to their title.

My father gave advice and a blessing on the couple and on the food.

It was so good to have my kids together and to have them catch up with their cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

The next family wedding will be in August when Marie (in the middle) marries our nephew Caleb in Santa Barbara, California. Marie is bookmarked by our nieces by marriage and her soon to be SIL’s who she also went to school with at Westmont College in the Santa Barbara area of California.

The father daughter dance left us all in need of a tissue!

We had a great time and headed back to our hotel knowing Saturday would be another full day of organizing and pulling off another milestone family event. More to come…

In the meantime here’s where I’ll be for the next few days!

Mennonite Girls Can Cook Book Launch for our new book Celebrations

The weather promises to be just as fine as this day last July!

Debbee and Lenny

The day turned out so lovely with the sun shining brightly.

Perfect for the bride who grew up in Huntington Beach and loves the beach and her flip flops!

These are 3 of my nieces. Debbee is the bride and Michelle and Melissa (sisters) were 2 of the 5 bridesmaids.

My niece Hope and grandniece Avery were the flower girls.

Brother and Sister, my nephew David with Debbee.

My sister Vera’s family.

My mom and dad with the bride and groom.

My nieces, nephews, grandniece and grandnephew.

The grandparents with their grandchildren and great grandchildren. 12 grands are missing in this photo.

The wedding party.

Mother of the groom, mother of the bride, and the groom’s sister helping Debbee to the bride’s room to wait for the ceremony.

Father of the bride getting ready for the walk down the aisle.

The rest of the photos I’m posting here are random shots of my family that I took before the ceremony began.

Here Comes the Bride!

The bride and groom are big sports fans. The ceremony was relaxed with lots of funny references to baseball and Debbee’s favorite team, the Angels and Lenny’s favorite team, the Boston Red Sox. At least both their teams wear red.

Next post will be all about the reception at Newland Barn in Huntington Beach.

My lower back is trying to freeze up on me so I did not mow the lawn yesterday. I did get some laundry done and have started on the “list” for my trip to British Columbia. The big news here in the Northwest is the glorious weather we have been promised for the next few days and into the weekend! I’m smiling…

Dear’s Side of the Family

The days here at home are short for me before I take off to Canada for our book launch so I’m going to try to capture the beauty of our time celebrating with family and friends in Southern California in my next few posts. There will be a lot of photos because a lot happened and a lot of people were together that aren’t together very often. So get your scrolling finger ready!

They arrived in waves to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana on Thursday. Katie had to fly into LAX and I’m happy to report that the freeways proved smooth sailing for my drive to pick her up. We arranged a meeting at the hotel to get together with Dear’s only brother’s family. The only one who was missing was our oldest niece Jenna who lives in New York with her husband and grandniece.

The restaurant at the hotel was very dark so you’ll have to excuse my photos!

We had such a good time together catching up and laughing. It was good to hug and console My SIL Christina as her mother Virginia Wicks just passed away at age 92. Chris shared some things she has come across while she and one of her brothers have been sorting through Virginia’s papers. You can read about the amazing roll Virginia played as a publicist and in the jazz world in particular by clicking here and  here. She was also one of the Goldwyn Girls and was featured on one of the covers of Look magazine in 1954.

Our beautiful nieces and sweet grandniece and more shots of our families together in the past year…

Happy to be Home Again…

No matter how much fun it is to go away and enjoy family and friends it’s always good to come home again.

Josh, Laura and I flew back to Washington from John Wayne Airport today and it is so good to be home again. We came home to sunshine and clear views. I’ll be sharing all about the celebrations we enjoyed while we were in California soon. In the meantime the lawn needs mowing and I need to catch up with the laundry. What’s happening at your house?

Great Is Thy Faithfulness!

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We’ve had many celebrations, an emergency room visit, dinners, breakfasts, lunches, birthday parties, singing, reunions, and there is more to come. It’s Sunday and I’ll be back to my speedier connections Tuesday evening and will share many photos of all our celebrations. Consider yourselves warned. For now I’m just chiming in to say as my dad would say…”we are praizing duh Lorrd for all he does to us” God is good. Blessings on your Sunday!

Apple Blossoms

Apple Blossoms

God might have clothed the apple trees
In scentless brown of gray —
Such frail and fleeting blossoming,
So soon to pass away —

Instead of this fair springtime garb
Of fragrant pink and pearl,
That flutters down like rosy snow
On every breeze a-whirl.

His goodness gives the pleasant fruit
On laden boughs down-bent;
His lovingkindness adds the bloom,
Its beauty and its scent.

He loads us with His benefits
Until no want we know,
And then He sends the little more
That makes our cup o’erflow.

He opens wide His hand of love;
He gives no stingy dole;
His tender mercies crown our days:
O bless the Lord, my soul!

Annie Johnson Flint (1866-1932)

California is back to it’s old ways of showing off it’s sunshine. All my family is slowly trickling in today. Two more to go. I got to see the Bride and Groom last night along with my folks and may brother’s family from Dallas. Their daughter will be one of the flower girls and she was quite confident about her task since she has gotten experience in two of her cousin’s weddings in the last year.

I haven’t taken one photo since I’ve gotten here but tomorrow is the wedding so my camera will be clicking away!

Hope all is well in your part of the world. We’re hearing a lot about droughts and floods. Hope things won’t be as bad as they are predicting.

Who Would Have Guessed…

…I left sunny Seattle and flew to overcast misty Southern California. I’ll leave you with something else that I left behind…

Our apple tree is full of pretty blossoms. I’ll share more later.

I’m in my hotel room in Costa Mesa and will be heading over to Huntington Beach for dinner at my sister’s soon. Tomorrow the rest of my family arrives. Let the celebrations begin…

Time to Pack it Up…

…this will be my last tulip field post for now. It’s time to pack and head south.

I’m always on the lookout for the odd one in the bunch…

I was so happy that I was prompted to stash my yard boots in the car before I headed to the fields because…

…here’s what I got to walk through to get to all the different colored rows of tulips!

Yes, I felt quite smug! I’ll admit it…

If you didn’t have boots on the Roozengaarde Garden was a good choice to see many beautiful varieties of tulips and to be able to buy bunches of tulips, too.

Packed fresh and ready to send to the stands to sell.

I managed to take the garden shots avoiding hundreds of people that were milling about. The later in the morning the worse it gets.

Tuesday will be my day to get everything organized at this old house for my absence. I will be packing the suitcases for a very early departure on Wednesday morning. Dear will be coming later in the week.