Author Archives: Ellen

November!

Can you believe it’s November already?

Lately when I sit at the computer I see this lovely burst of color on this bush in my neighbor’s yard. I had to zoom way in to get this shot because it’s across a drive and on the far side of her yard. That’s why the bush right outside my window is blurry.

I’m thankful for my view. I like to see neighbors coming and going, birds flying in and flying away, leaves falling, and the mail being delivered.

Boy did we have a steady stream of Trick or Treaters last night. We only have a few candies left and I bought a lot.  My sister called and said they ran out of candy and had to turn the light out. It was one of those years where the weather was great and more people decided to venture out. I loved hearing the stories from the little ones. “I get to have one or maybe 2 candies when I get home”

“November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.

With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.

The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.”
–  Elizabeth Coatsworth

Have a great Tuesday everyone.

As if…

…I needed it confirmed yet again, my name is Ellen and I’m horrible at crafting! I am real good at recognizing wonderful craft projects and appreciating wonderful craft projects. Not so fond of the mess and time it takes to create a craft especially when this is how my efforts turn out…

Please, go ahead and laugh because the 4 of us around the crafting table were rolling in laughter at my angry Matryoshka!

My sister Lana, Katie, Laura, and I had a great time laughing through our creating endeavors. We really had high hopes of making many of these little dolls but those hopes were dashed after 3 hours with only these to show for our efforts.

Even though we knew it would be easier and faster to create more after we worked through the process once,  we looked at each other and decided it just wasn’t worth it.

Just so you know that I can learn from my mistakes here is how my 2nd one turned out…she’s not as angry as my first one!

You might also find it cool that I did not pass on my crafting genes to our daughter Katie as you’ll see in the next photo of her Matryoshka.

Our time together was fabulous. We all needed that good kind of laughter that brings tears to your eyes. Yummy savory blintzes, pumpkin cookies, Monk’s brewed tea, and background music added a lot to our good time.

Earlier in the morning I took off for a 5.5 mile walk with a couple good friends of mine. When I returned home I was greeted with a new faucet in my sink that Dear installed.

His handy man skills are never in question! I’m looking forward to enjoying my new faucet especially since it doesn’t show spots like my old one did.

Hope you had a nice weekend. I’m thinking about my bloggy friends that might have lost power in that surprise snow storm back East. Hope you are all sitting in front of a cozy fire and drinking something hot!

I’m linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday . I think Mary might be one of the many people who have lost power. Hope you get power back soon Mary! Stay warm…

From the Cross to the Crown ~ Hymn

From the Cross to the Crown

Be strong and courageous whate’er may befall,
We know our Redeemer will answer our call;
Tho’ sorrow and trials are weighing us down,
Yet hope looks away from the cross to the crown.

Refrain

From the cross to the crown let us follow our Lord,
From the cross to the crown let us cling to His Word;
Tho’ sorrow and trials are weighing us down,
Yet faith leads us on from the cross to the crown!

His cup of affliction was filled to the brim,
And are we not willing to suffer for Him?
The robe of His glory for us He laid down,
To show us the path from the cross to the crown.

Refrain

This life is a conflict, a battle with sin,
Yet trusting in Jesus thro’ grace we shall win;
The world may oppose us, the tempter may frown,
Yet faith leadeth on from the cross to the crown.

Refrain

Tho’ friends that are dearest have gone from our sight,
’Tis only to enter the mansions of light;
Their warfare is over, their burdens laid down,
How short was their path from the cross to the crown!

Refrain

Words by Fanny Crosby

Wedding Creativity…

I know I’ve said this before but if you are new on my blog it bears repeating. Our daughter Katie got married to her Marine fiance last March at the Magistrate’s office in North Carolina before he was deployed to Afghanistan. She’s been living with us during his deployment. We are planning a wedding ceremony with our friends and family and Andrew’s family as witnesses this coming March on their one year anniversary in Seattle. We have a lot of the wedding plans taken care of. Katie’s dress had a huge train on it that she wanted cut off so she used some of the fabric from the train to make a flower girl basket and a ring bearer pillow…

Katie and I will be flying to North Carolina on November 28th to accept her and Andrew’s military housing and to set up their home as much as we can before Andrew returns from Afghanistan. Dear will be joining us on December 3rd. We’ll save any heavy lifting for when he arrives.

Katie and Andrew’s wedding will be in Seattle so she will fly back from North Carolina 3 weeks before the ceremony date and Andrew will arrive the weekend of the ceremony…

Katie’s had time on her hands for wedding creativity and besides the pillow and basket she is painting her cake toppers!

The Marine figure isn’t finished yet since we have to wait and see if Andrew gets any embellishments on his uniform post deployment!

Happy Saturday to you! Today we are having a craft get together to make these for Katie’s wedding shower in November. Thankfully some more crafty people than me are joining us for this endeavor. We are also sampling some shower recipes to see if they are worthy for our guests…

FFF ~ Cornucopia

My life has been filled to the brim, a type of cornucopia…

cor·nu·co·pi·a [kawr-nuh-koh-pee-uh, -nyuh-]

noun

1. Classical Mythology. a horn containing food, drink, etc., in endless supply, said to have been a horn of the goat Amalthaea.
2. a representation of this horn, used as a symbol of abundance.
3. an abundant, overflowing supply.
4. a horn-shaped or conical receptacle or ornament.
~
Susanne at Living to Tell the Story helps us join together in highlighting our blessings (favorites) from this past week. I was missing in action last week so my favorites are from the last couple of weeks.
~
My horn of plenty has been filled with family, friends, food, travel, and good fellowship.
~
1. I traveled to Sacramento for my friend Kathy’s memorial service and was blessed with time with loved ones and new friends. We cried, laughed, remembered, and ate good food together. I did some homework before I left for Sacramento because I knew I’d be on my own for a few meals. I was pleased with the spots I found online and that I could find them navigating by myself in the rental car.
~
2. We’ve been blessed with free hotel stays because of previous paid hotel stays. This really has come in handy. Because of a business trip earlier in the year I was able to get my hotel room in Sacramento for free. For an upcoming  trip in North Carolina our son Dan is sharing his points to give us 5 free nights. Since my daughter and I have to travel on the Monday after Thanksgiving which is costing a fortune, getting the free hotel nights lightens the blow!
~
3. Last Friday I was traveling to Canada and that’s why I missed FFF. The Mennonite Girls were participating at the West Coast Women’s Show in the Winks booth and on the Kitchen stage. I was blessed again and again the two days I was there. Anneliese shared her home and kitchen with me…such a blessing. Wendy from Winks gave us a lovely spot to sign books. We were well received by the ladies that paid for the show and watched our kitchen stage presentations.
~
4. When I got home from Canada my family room was full of family! Our son from across the mountains traveled to spend a few days with us. We had lots of good times together eating some of our favorite foods and enjoying each others company.
~
5. Our daughter Katie got the “phone call” telling her when she needed to be in North Carolina to sign for her and Andrew’s housing. After we all freaked out for several hours we made our travel arrangements and were able to breathe again and relax in knowing that God is always there helping us through the big and small things in our lives. It was a “reality” moment making it clear that soon our nest will really be empty. All the wrap up stuff before Katie leaves is happening. Dear and Katie had a few dancing lessons for the Father and Bride dance. They practiced in our family room last night and I totally teared up. Oye! Life marches on…
I want to be perfectly honest here and let you all know that there was a lot of freaking out stressful moments before God’s calm hit our hearts last Thursday in hearing the “let’s go to North Carolina news!” Thankfully the panic lasted just a couple hours!
~
Hope you had a week of knowing you are loved by God and He has his eye on you… “His eye is on the Sparrow and I know he watches me”

The Joys of Autumn…

A walk about the yard revealed some lovely fall color this week. Jenny at Alphabe-Thursday threw down the Fall challenge. This is the last Thursday to join in the fun so click over and leave a link.

One of the things that brings me joy in Autumn are the changing brilliant color on bushes and trees. The photos above are of our Dogwood tree and our blueberry bush.

Our Asian Maple which is more of a bush than a tree.

Sadly I forgot the name of this tree. It looks like a Golden Rain Tree. Part of the year its a brilliant green and at other parts of the year it has crackly pods on it. It really is flaming nicely right now.

Do you enjoy raking leaves? I usually vacuum them up with the lawnmower! I enjoy watching the leaves fall.

Papa Murphy’s is selling this Jack O’ Lantern pizza right now and I caved and bought one. Isn’t it cute?

Comfort foods and wonderful soups are way up there on my I like Autumn list. I also enjoy sweaters and coats.

What are some of your Autumn favorites?

Old Town Sacramento…

When I was in the Sacramento area for my friend Kathy’s Memorial service I had time before and after her services to explore some of the area. One of the stops I made was in Old Town Sacramento. The unique 28-acre National Historic Landmark District and State Historic Park is located along the beautiful Sacramento River.

I do not do real well walking around in heat and this day in Sacramento was in the 90’s. I would have explored more if it was cooler. I noticed this guy who looks like he was escaping the heat, too.

I was happy to finally see Old Town Sacramento. I can’t tell you how many times we have driven by the signs for this part of Sacramento traveling from Seattle to Los Angeles and never being able to stop. We are always in such a hurry to make our destination. If we ever travel that road again by car I’ll know about the great restaurants in this area and how easy the exit and re-entry onto I-5 is.

Ruby Tuesday ~ From Sacramento

There’s a new terminal at the Sacramento Airport with a lot of interesting “art”, like this Spider Man Rabbit…

I’m not sure what this big red rabbit is called but it just reminded me of Spider Man… I can see why some people think it’s kind of creepy.

While walking in Old Town Sacramento I spotted this t-shirt…

Thankfully my week is starting out slow. It was great to have a lot of good family time on Saturday and Sunday.  Monday was a day of just sitting around with son #2 before he took off for home which is 6 hours away. It’s Tuesday (I have to remind myself what day of the week it is) so I’m headed to Bible Study this morning.  Hope you are having a good start to your week…

West Coast Women’s Show

On Friday I traveled North to British Columbia to meet up with some of the Mennonite Girls for the West Coast Women’s Show. Anneliese offered me a room for the night so I headed to her house after I crossed the border. She showed me to my comfortable quarters for the night where I changed into my show clothes and we headed to Tradex next to the Abbotsford Airport.

The Mennonite Girls Can Cook authors were invited to be a part of the Winks’ booth at the West Coast Women’s Show in Abbotsford, B.C. Wendy the owner of Winks has a very generous approach to her business and her customers. Besides all her fabulous wares she decided to feature our book. We divided up the time to be at the booth between the girls that were available this weekend. Anneliese and I were on duty from 5 till 10 P.M. on Friday night.

Saturday we were on again from 10:00 A.M. till Noon. We met a lot of great ladies throughout the show and we signed a lot of books.

Part of our time there was spent on the cooking stage. We had 2 presentations. One on Saturday and one on Sunday. At noon on Saturday we headed to the kitchen stage to prep before our presentation.

We were happy to see a lot of friendly faces in the crowd.

Judy, Lovella, Anneliese, Julie, Marg and I were part of the kitchen crew on Saturday. We made Anneliese’s Waffles with Vanilla Custard Sauce and Mixed Berry topping. We also made Judy’s Ham and Egg cups. Chef Dez introduced us and joined us on stage.

After we were done I headed back home to the U.S.A. I drove for two hours in pouring rain. It was wonderful to finally pull into my garage and even better to walk into my family room to see our son Dan. He lives 6 hours away and I hadn’t seen him for several months. We all went out for dinner and came home again for some Rock Band and then we watched the Sounders Soccer Team play their last season game against Chivas on T.V.

Dear, Me, Dan, Katie, Laura, and Josh. (The only family member not in this photo is Andrew who is serving in Afghanistan right now)

It made me smile to see that Dan has really acclimated to his new surroundings out in the country. He’s really enjoying riding horses out into the wilderness and now he’s wearing these…

So another weekend filled to the brim with friends and family. Life is rich. How’s life treating you?