Author Archives: Ellen

Cucumber Salsa

Our daughter-in-law introduced us to this delicious fresh salsa with cucumbers and tomatoes as the main ingredients. You can increase or tone down the heat with how many jalapenos you include. This salsa is a great choice all year long.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cucumbers peeled, seeded and finely diced
  • 4 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
  • 1/4 cup diced jarred jalapenos or 1 fresh jalapeno, seeded and diced
  • 1/4 cup diced red onion
  • 1 handful of fresh cilantro, chopped, or a good squeeze of Cilantro Paste
  • 1 lime juiced
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Tortilla chips

Method:

  1. Mix all ingredients well and allow to rest refrigerated until ready to serve.
  2. Serve with tortilla chips.
  3. Increase ingredients for larger crowds.

For our jalapenos we used this jarred version that are really tasty. This salsa will be delicious whichever jalapenos you choose.

We Three Kings ~ Hymn

We Three Kings

We three kings of Or­ient are;
Bearing gifts we tra­verse afar,
Field and fount­ain, moor and mount­ain,
Following yon­der star.

Refrain

O star of won­der, star of light,
Star with roy­al beau­ty bright,
Westward lead­ing, still pro­ceed­ing,
Guide us to thy per­fect light.

Born a king on Beth­le­hem’s plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again,
King for­ev­er, ceas­ing ne­ver,
Over us all to reign.

Refrain

Frankincense to of­fer have I;
Incense owns a de­ity nigh;
Prayer and prais­ing, voic­es rais­ing,
Worshiping God on high.

Refrain

Myrrh is mine, its bit­ter per­fume
Breathes a life of ga­ther­ing gloom;
Sorrowing, sigh­ing, bleed­ing, dy­ing,
Sealed in the stone cold tomb.

Refrain

Glorious now beh­old Him arise;
King and God and sac­ri­fice;
Alleluia, Al­le­lu­ia,
Sounds through the earth and skies.

O star of won­der, star of light,
Star with roy­al beau­ty bright,
Westward lead­ing, still pro­ceed­ing,
Guide us to thy per­fect light.

 

A Winter Walk

On Saturday the 28th of December our kids and grands started the day off with a nice walk along the Rotary Trail in Colville. Andrew and Katie left for home right after the walk but Josh and Laura hung around for a few more hours before heading back west.

The resident eagles still grace the tops of the power poles.

She didn’t get those two front teeth for Christmas!

Thank you, Laura, for all these wonderful photos!

After the kids left I pulled out one more puzzle with a Christmas Carol theme and was able to finish it before the New Year rolled around. This one wasn’t tough and was fun to complete.

2025 has started quietly for us at our country bungalow.  On New Year’s day I made Eggnog pancakes with a Vanilla sauce that we enjoyed on that day and then we had enough left over batter and sauce to repeat that breakfast on Thursday. The recipe was good and you can find it here. I chose this recipe because we had a lot of left over eggnog.

On Thursday we pulled down all the Christmas bins so we could put Christmas away but then we got side tracked in the kitchen re-organizing several of our cupboards and our pantry. Our garage sale/donation pile is getting larger and larger! Several very outdated items got thrown out, too. Friday (today) will be put away Christmas day.

Enjoy your first weekend of 2025.

The Days Between

After Christmas day we had two and a half more days filled with full family fun before our Western kids made the trek across the state and over a major mountain pass home.

Thursday morning after Christmas day we had our traditional Swedish Pancake breakfast with little smokies. Greg is the cook for this meal and we appreciate his efforts!

It’s a nice casual morning for the rest of us. After breakfast the party shifted to Bayles Mountain for the rest of the day and evening. Usually there would be sledding involved on this day but for 2024 we didn’t get a white Christmas.

Many new ‘toys’ were enjoyed by everyone.

Hardy Boys books are the current favorites.

Gramps and Baba left for home before it was time for Some-mores.

On Friday we all met for lunch at the new Mexican Restaurant in town. Friday was Katie’s birthday so in the afternoon Greg made his famous Tomato Rice Soup for dinner and I baked a cake. Jamie baked three different loaves of Sourdough bread to enjoy with the soup, plain, rosemary garlic, and siracha!

This year the cake was a lemon cake with lemon curd filling and lemon frosting.

After dinner and cake a new game was played that had us roaring with laughter during some key moments!

Some teams of players were involved.

It was a full rich day and everyone retired with plans to meet up for one more hoorah before travelers headed home on Saturday morning and afternoon.

Hope you all had a good New Year’s Day. We laid low and watched the parade, some games and had some long distance conversations with family.

Happy New Year, Hodgepodge!

Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given;
While angels sing with tender mirth,
A glad new year to all the earth.
~Martin Luther

С новым годом!

Joyce has a brand new set of Hodgepodge questions for a brand new year. Thank you, Joyce, and Happy New Year everyone! Happy 2025!

1. Oxford’s Word of the year for 2024 is ‘brain rot’. Are you familiar with this term? Do you suffer from the condition? Ha! This is a term used to ‘capture concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media’. If you were choosing a word to capture 2024 (for the nation/world, not your own life personally) what word would you choose? 

I have to be honest and admit that I am suffering from brain rot because of smart phones, computers, and social media. It is easy to get into the habit of using my phone or computer for everything. I want to read more good books in 2025 and master some good questions to engage friends and loved ones into good conversations.

My pick for a phrase to capture 2024 for our nation would be ‘from downhill to hope’.

2. It’s National Polar Bear Plunge Day (January 1)…will you be participating in one of these events (or even your own)? How will you spend the first day of this brand new year? Do you have a traditional New Year’s Day menu? 

No plunging in the frigid waters for me but some of our kids do that more than just on the 1st. No traditional menus for New Year’s Day. Because I grew up in Southern California I got into the habit of watching the Rose Parade and and the Rose Bowl game on New Year’s Day. There were even years that I enjoyed both in person.

3. What’s something that brings you joy and how will you do more of it in this new year? 

Spending time with family whenever we can brings me joy and I will do as much as is possible in the new year.

4. Do you struggle with the January blues? What’s one thing you can/will do to keep them at bay? 

Thankfully, I do not suffer much from the blues. We have several family birthdays in January and I will concentrate on being thankful for these family members and celebrating them which will keep those blues at bay.

5. Will you choose your own personal word of the year for 2025? What about a goal, resolution, or maybe even a bucket list? Elaborate as much or as little as you like. 

No personal word but some of the same old goals like losing some pounds which means eating less and exercising more. A new devotional with a reading the Bible plan as part of it is on my desk.

Bucket list is always about adding a place to travel to. We already have airfare purchased for Dallas but where else will we go, LORD willing. Still pondering that.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Another antique postcard Happy New Year Greetings to you all.

Christmas Day 2024

On Christmas Eve after our Church service our Colville kids got ready for Santa’s arrival.

They enjoyed Christmas morning on their own before Jamie’s family arrived for Christmas breakfast and gift exchange.

We were at our home preparing for Christmas dinner and waiting for our westside and Colville kids to arrive for our festivities.

Our westside kids pulled into the driveway minutes apart at 2:13 and 2:26 on Christmas day.

Our Colville kids headed to our place at about 2:51. By 3:15 we were all together and ready for our Christmas Meal.

Gramps read the Christmas story from the Bible in Luke 2 while we waited for the Yorkshire Pudding to cook. After our prayer for our meal we served up our Prime Rib, Yorkshire Pudding, Creamed Corn, Roasted Vegetables, and Brussels Sprouts salad and enjoyed this once a year treat together.

Before dessert we opened stockings and presents.

After all the presents were opened it was time for dessert.

Jamie with some inspiration from Addy and JJ made a Happy Birthday Cake for Jesus with a chocolate creche and marshmallow and candy Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, Shepherd, sheep, shepherd crooks (candy canes), and the three wise men still on their journey.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

We also enjoyed the Russian Roolyet (nut roll) that we (Jamie, Addy, JJ and me) made on Monday afternoon.

After dessert we took photos and enjoyed playing with some of the gifts.

We enjoyed every minute with each other and we made plans for our traditional breakfast on Boxing day before our Colville kids headed home for the night and our household retired for the evening. It is always a treat to have our guest bedrooms full with our children from the Westside.

More posts coming for our Boxing day adventures, Katie’s birthday, and our Saturday finale before our westside kids traveled over the mountains for home.

Love Divine, All Loves Excelling ~ Hymn

Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Love di­vine, all loves ex­cel­ling,
Joy of Heav’n to earth come down;
Fix in us thy hum­ble dwell­ing;
All thy faith­ful mer­cies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all com­pas­sion,
Pure un­bound­ed love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy sal­va­tion;
Enter ev­ery trem­bling heart.

Breathe, O breathe Thy lov­ing Spir­it,
Into ev­ery trou­bled breast!
Let us all in Thee in­her­it;
Let us find that se­cond rest.
Take away our bent to sin­ning;
Alpha and Ome­ga be;
End of faith, as its be­gin­ning,
Set our hearts at li­ber­ty.

Come, Al­migh­ty to de­liv­er,
Let us all Thy life re­ceive;
Suddenly re­turn and ne­ver,
Never more Thy tem­ples leave.
Thee we would be al­ways bless­ing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee with­out ceas­ing,
Glory in Thy per­fect love.

Finish, then, Thy new cre­ation;
Pure and spot­less let us be.
Let us see Thy great sal­va­tion
Perfectly re­stored in Thee;
Changed from glo­ry in­to glo­ry,
Till in Heav’n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns be­fore Thee,
Lost in won­der, love, and praise.

Words: Charles Wesley, 1747.

Happy Birthday, Katie!

Happy Birthday to our dear daughter, Katie. We will be celebrating her today. She was a sweet surprise born in Ventura, California thirty nine years ago.

She is the avid reader in our family and loves to read out loud to others.

Her love of reading started very early.

She read this sign to our friend, Jody, when she was three. ‘Caution, low head clearance’

We are thankful to God that He surprised us with a beautiful daughter to love.

Dear Lord God Almighty,
“As she traces out the trails you put before her; may she pray and strive to follow straight and strong,”
“Give her wisdom at each turning, Lord we pray”
Give her grace and understanding and more love for You in this coming year!
~
and from Spurgeon:
“There are no dilemmas out of which you will not be delivered if you live near to God and your heart is kept warm with holy love. You will not go astray in the company of God.”
~
We love you, we love you, we love you!

Looking back at Christmas Preparations

On Monday afternoon Jamie and the Grands came over to do a little baking. I remembered to take a few photos.

First up was making our mom’s Roolyet, Russian nut roll.

Icing cookies and adding sprinkles was next on the agenda. We also made Russian Tea Cookies that look like snowballs.

I got some help with this puzzle while they were here and I had to finish it up on Christmas Eve since I wanted to set the table for Christmas dinner.

On Christmas Eve the table was set early for our Christmas dinner. On Christmas day our west side kids were driving over the mountains and through the valleys to meet up with our Colville kids and us for dinner and stockings.

Stockings were all hung and ready for Santa. He has to be creative to since we don’t have a fireplace.

We’ve enjoyed hearing from friends and family near and far!

Christmas Eve we attended the candlelight service at our church and had a quiet evening with our feet up anticipating lots of standing and prepping of the Christmas meal on Christmas Day.

It’s always a joy when we see the two cars from the west pull into our driveway along with the car from just 8 miles away in the East.

Hope your Christmas was filled with the wonderful reality of the Incarnation and the wonder of God becoming Man and being with us.

Happy Boxing Day!

Merry Christmas Day 2024

Child in the Manger

1 Child in the manger,
infant of Mary;
outcast and stranger,
Lord of all;
Child who inherits
all our transgressions,
all our demerits
on Him fall.

2 Once the most holy
Child of salvation
gently and lowly
lived below;
now as our glorious
mighty Redeemer,
see Him victorious
o’er each foe.

3 Prophets foretold Him,
infant of wonder;
angels behold Him
on His throne;
worthy our Savior
of all our praises;
happy forever
are His own.

Mary MacDougal MacDonald United Kingdom 1789-1872. Born at Ardtun, daughter of a farmer and Baptist cleric, Duncan MacDougal, northeast of Bunessan on the Ross of Mull, she was a Gaelic poet who lived at Cancan, Bunessan on Mull, Scotland. She never spoke English. She married Neil MacDonald and settled into a life as a crofter’s wife. While at her spinning wheel she passed time by singing hymns and poems, some of her own composition. She was a devout Baptist. Some of her hymns reached beyond her locality. The tune of her best known hymn (same tune as hymn: “Morning has broken”) was an old Scottish melody she attached to her lyrics that helped popularize the hymn, translated from the Gaelic in 1888 by Lachlan McBean of Scotland

Merry Christmas to all. I hope you are His own!