Author Archives: Ellen

My Mom~

I wanted to give you all an update on my mom. She’s doing a lot better and is healing nicely. She even answered the phone when I called last night and sounded upbeat. So again thank you so much for your concern and your prayers. It means a lot. Oh and today is her actual birthday! I’m driving out to see her today to wish her a Happy Birthday in person and see for myself how her face is doing!

Happy 85th Birthday Mom!

My other update is that Dear and I will be flying to Seattle tomorrow for 10 days to celebrate Easter with our Northwest loved ones. I hope to continue posting but if I’m a bit slow you’ll understand why.

Outdoor Wednesday ~ Crosses…

I’m continuing my Easter/Holy week theme with Outdoor Wednesday for this week. I love to walk through old cemeteries where there are above the ground headstones. There are always the coolest crosses to be found.

Ventura, California

Santa Barbara, California

Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington. If you look closely in the background you can see the Space Needle.

Seattle, Washington

Cotswolds, England

Oxford, England

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (New International Version)

 Christ the Wisdom and Power of God

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

For more Outdoor Wednesday please visit Susan at A Southern Day Dreamer!

WFW ~ Luke 24: 1-6, The Resurrection

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Gallilee, …

A Blessed Holy Week  to you all and have a glorious Easter celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To see more Word Filled Wednesday please visit Amydeanne at the 160 Acre Woods!

Three or More ~ Crosses

All my posts this week will be relating to Holy Week and The Celebration of the Resurrection of Christ.

These are some crosses that I have at my home in Washington and at the Condo in California.

A prayer from Richard of Chichester (1197-1253) English bishop who fought to abolish the abuses common in the church of his day.

“Thanks be to you, our Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits that you have given us,
for all the pains and insults that you have borne for us.
Most merciful Redeemer, Friend, Brother,
may we know you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
and follow you more nearly,
day by day.”

To see Three or More Posts visit Tam at The Gypsy’s Corner.

 

Oh What A Saturday ~

The whole experience yesterday had the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream. What’s the word I’m looking for?

We woke up on Saturday morning and realized our modem had died in the night. Before the rest of the world woke up and we could call about getting our modem replaced we left for a hike in Sycamore Canyon. It was a great heart pumping hike and for the first time we heard some rattling noises. I was concerned it might be a rattlesnake but Dear was pretty sure it could be some kind of bird.

When we came home we called Verizon to let them know their modem died and what our options were. We were so pleased that John from Verizon arrived early in the afternoon and replaced our modem and gave us some great additional information about our T.V. options.

We had a tea in Pasadena planned for my mother’s 85th birthday. Nine of us were meeting for Tea at the Rose Tree Cottage at 4:00. When my sister Vera and mother arrived my mother was tripped up by an uneven sidewalk and landed flat on her face splitting open her forehead just above her left eye. She was bleeding quite a bit. We were all at her side and helping her get more comfortable on the ground and trying to stop the bleeding. My SIL Letty who is a nurse and the rest of us mothers realized by looking this was going to need stitches. You just learn those things over the years. We heard sirens and the paramedics arrived. My poor mother was so upset that she would miss the tea she asked the paramedics to just put a band-aide on her forehead. They were very sweet and told her they would have to do what was best for her. We also knew she’d need further tests because the split on her forehead was very deep. When the fire engine pulled up one of the firemen saw my sister Kathy and said hello Mrs. W. and gave her a kiss (we Russians greet each other with a brotherly kiss).  He’s the one in the sunglasses reassuring my mother. Our oldest sister Kathy went to the Emergency room with mom in the Paramedic’s van.

So what should the other 7 of us do…go ahead with tea or not??? Well we were going to have to pay for the tea if we enjoyed it or not so we decided to go ahead with the tea. It was really weird not having the guest of honor with us and we all felt a bit guilty my sister Kathy was missing out, too, but it was just what the circumstances handed us.

 

My sister Kathy gave us updates while we were at tea. When we finished tea we headed to the emergency room a block away. On the way I managed to back into a block wall and give my car bumper an owie! Sheesh! I never back into stuff…

It was finally determined my mom did not have any bleeding in her skull so after she got stitches they released her at 11:00 PM. I was happy to finally make it home and crawl into bed.

My mother is in a lot of pain. Her left eye is swollen shut. Please pray that all will go well and she will heal up soon and that the swelling and pain will subside. Thank you all for your prayers and concern for us. I really appreciate it :0)

Update on Monday night: My mother is doing a lot better! Thank you so much for your prayers!!

Blue Monday ~ My Blue Crystal Cross

Welcome to Blue Monday and Holy Week in the world and on my Blog. This is a cross necklace I’ve had for a few years that I enjoy wearing.

The Beauty of the Cross (Crystal Lewis)

King of my life I crown You now
You’re the ruler of my heart
I will wear it loud
I will tell the whole world about You
You died in my place
You suffered all for me
Just so I could live
You were broken and bruised
And I will tell the whole world about You

The cross, stained by blood
The beauty of the cross
Healing for the lost
The cross, stained by blood
The beauty of the cross
Healing for the lost
The cross

King of my life I crown You now
You’re healer I’ve longed for
Now of heaven I’m sure
And I will tell the whole world about You

Thorns on Your brow
Stripes on Your back
So innocent, You did it all for me
Nails in Your hands
Nails in Your feet
Sword in Your side, You did it all for me
You paid the cost
That’s the beauty of the cross

~ Crystal Lewis

I just noticed when uploading my photos that I’m missing a crystal out of my cross pendant. Will have to repair that soon :0)

Have a wonderful Monday everyone and visit our hostess Sally to see more posts about Blue!

Palm Sunday ~ Fairest Lord Jesus

Fairest Lord Jesus

Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature,
O Thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
Thou, my soul’s glory, joy and crown.

Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the blooming garb of spring;
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing.

Fair is the sunshine,
Fairer still the moonlight,
And all the twinkling starry host;
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
Than all the angels heaven can boast.

All fairest beauty, heavenly and earthly,
Wondrously, Jesus, is found in Thee;
None can be nearer, fairer or dearer,
Than Thou, my Savior, art to me.

Beautiful Savior! Lord of all the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, praise, adoration,
Now and forever more be Thine.

Have a wonderful Palm Sunday and beginning of Holy Week everyone…

Because of my very interesting day yesterday which I will share sometime soon I’m reposting my Palm Sunday Hymn from last year.  We have a new modem so my technical difficulities have been healed till the next time. Thank you to my sister Lana for posting such a beautiful explanation of why I haven’t been online.

All of my posts this coming Holy Week will be concentrated on the events of this week in history and all related to Jesus and the Cross and His Resurrection! This is a great challenge for me to incorporate Easter into all the weekly challenges I participate in.

Round Robin Challenge ~ By the Numbers…

This challenge is brought to us by the suggestion of Jill at South Bay Soliloquey, she wrote…

“How about something called “By the Numbers” as a topic? Anything showing numbers: signs, a child holding up fingers to show how old he is, a number on a shirt, house numbers, whatever…”
-Jill

So here are a couple photos from my archives from a trip to San Francisco and a photo I took this week right here in Camarillo.

This middle shot is from Camarillo, California.

So what say you Robins…Shall we all meet for a Pint after all this hard work running around town looking for numbers?!!

The Photo Challenge Blog can be found here!

Friday’s Fave Five…

This week for my favorites I’m showing 5 photos that are my favorites from this past week…

I’m already excited for next week. Easter is my favorite holiday and I love Holy Week and looking forward to Easter Sunday. I’m  looking forward to Good Friday’s Fave Five!

This sign, although theologically it is wrong in so many ways, initially it made me laugh.

The more I think about it the more it gave me angst. Try Jesus? As if He’s something you pick up in the grocery aisles?? Jesus is the Way the Truth and the LIFE. He is a Savior. He takes you from the kingdom of darkness into His kingdom of Light! God sent His only Son into our world to save us and restore us and make us new!

I’m glad we believe in Eternal Security and who in their right mind would turn away from Jesus!?

For more Fave Fives please visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story! Thanks Susanne for hosting this great weekly exercise…

 

Sweet Cheese Spread for Kulich ~ Seernaya Paska

My Russian heritage affords me some really good Easter eats. Every year we look forward to having our Easter Bread which we call Kulich in Russian and my Mennonite Friends called Paska.

We also make this yummy cheese spread to spread on this Easter Bread!

Seernaya Paska for Kulich (Russian Easter Bread) The X and the B are for Xpucmoc Bockpec (Christ Arose)

paska class 005

 

Seernaya Paska  (Сырная пасха)

Ingredients:

18 – hard boiled eggs /
3 pounds Farmers cheese /a dry curd cheese like a dry cottage cheese can be substituted.
1 pint whipping cream /
3 cubes unsalted butter (12 oz.) /
3 cups sugar /

Press the Farmers cheese through a sieve. (This is the hardest part of the recipe) If you find a very small curd cheese you won’t have to do this to the cheese. I usually use a wooden spoon and press it through a wire strainer a little at a time. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. (You will not be using the whites).

Press the egg yolks through the sieve. Cream the sugar and butter together. Beat in the egg yolks. Beat in the cheese. Add whipping cream and mix well. You will place the mixture into a strainer lined with about 3 layers of cheesecloth. You will need enough cheesecloth to wrap up and over the top of the cheese. Place the cheese mixture into the cheese cloth lined strainer or another container to mold into shape. Bring the ends of the cheese cloth up and tie the ends on top of the cheese in a knot. Place the sieve into a larger bowl suspended with enough room for the cheese to drain without sitting in the drained liquid. Place a plate on top of the cheese an place a heavy rock, brick, or other weight on top of the plate. Refrigerate over night.

I have used different shaped plastic flower pots to drain and mold the cheese into a higher domed result. If you choose to use a flower pot make sure there are enough holes in the bottom of the pot so the liquid can drain well.

This recipe is enough to feed an army. If you don’t have to feed an army here’s a scaled down version :0)

If you just want a normal amount, cut the recipe in thirds. (6 cooked egg yolks, 1-lb. cheese, 2/3 cup whipping cream, 1 cube butter and 1 cup sugar. Enjoy!

Farmers Cheese or Hoop Cheese can be hard to find. There are Russian delis that sell a dry curd cottage type cheese that will work. If you can find a dry cottage cheese at the grocers that will work too.

Here are examples of the Seernaya Paska I have made over the years.