Author Archives: Ellen

New Presentation Up till December 26th!

 UPDATE: I encountered technical difficulites with the new header so I had to call Lana G! and she did this for me…Thanks Lana!!

Hello y’all I decided to change my presentation for the month of December. I’ll be going back to my other presentation on December 26th! I love Christmas time…

“Bless, O God, the little things

This Christmastide…

All the little wild things

That live outside.

Little cold Robins and Rabbits in the snow…

Give them good faring, A warm place to go.

Bless the little things who in

The forest abide

He, too, was just a little one

At Chirstmastide.

ht: Christmas Issue, Ideals, 1964

Photo Hunters ~ RED ~ Oxnard Santa

This is a huge Santa on a street that runs right along the 101 Freeway in Oxnard, California. I’ve seen it for years but was never tempted to stop by until now because I’m blogging and because the Photo Hunters challenge this week is RED! This Santa is behind a locked wrought iron fence and is maintained by local corporate businesses. There’s a large sign with all the corporate sponsors and you can see the shadow of the fence that it is behind in my collage below. There are cut-outs on the fence of reindeer and a S and a C which you’ll see in the collage below, also.

Fellow Photo Hunters! WordPress is sending my comments straight to Spam for some reason. I’ve commented on all your blogs but my comments do not appear. WordPress is working on the problem for me right now. Update: Yippee wordpress solved the problem!

I’m shamelessly recyling this post for Thursday Photo Challenge where the theme is red also. For more Thursday photo challenge click here.

To see more Photo Hunters click here.

 

Friday Feast #11 ~

Appetizer
What is your favorite carnival/amusement park ride?

I really enjoy several rides at Disneyland. My favorites are Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Carribean…

Soup
How do you react in uncomfortable social situations?

I generally try to ease the situation, change the subject. If I can leave the room I will. It depends on what kind of uncomfortable it is. If it too uncomfortable I would flee the situation…

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy discussing deep, philosophical topics?

Oh probably a 5 and that depends on whether the discussion is heated or just an exchange of thoughts…

I do not like mean debates.

Main Course
Did you get a flu shot this year? If not, do you plan to?

No I did not, never have, and I won’t be getting one this year. Maybe next year….

Dessert
Approximately how many hours per week do you spend watching television?

I watch Survivor, Amazing Race, Bones, Numbers and Project Runway so ….5 hours. Oops then there’s Seahawks football and any Soccer game that’s televised at the right time so add 5 more hours. Up to 10 hours!

For more Friday Feasts click here.

Christmas Traditions ~ Luke 2:1-20 and Swedish Pancakes!

There are so many Christmas traditions that we have enjoyed over the years. Today I’ll share a couple that have stayed with us since Dear and I were married. His Mother started the rich tradition of reading Luke 2: 1-20 at the Christmas Eve celebrations before everyone tore into their gifts. Over the years we tried different ways to incorporate this rich tradition. We started including it on my side of the families gatherings, too. One year while all the cousins were still young I made a very elementary coloring book with all these verses for each child in each family to color and help them to memorize this passage. At our Christmas Eve celebration I brought  several rolls of quarters and each child that could recite any of the passage got a quarter for every verse they remembered! It was loads of fun. Recently my brother dared his nieces and nephews to recite these in Russian and to whoever could he’d give big bucks. Ha! One of my nephews met the challenge and my brother gave him $100 and my father was so pleased he kicked in an extra $50.

 

This is the booklet I made with a picture and one to two verses on each page. I’m sure anyone out there can make a more artistic coloring book with the help of a computer. I made this by hand before I had a computer. This is the cover of one of the stapled booklets that I think was my son Josh’s.

The other tradition that my immediate family enjoys is on Christmas morning after we see what’s inside our Christmas Stockings, Dear cooks up Swedish Pancakes for us all to enjoy. Here’s Dear on Christmas 2005 cooking them up!

Do you have a tradition to share with us? You still have time to post it and join in the fun. To read about other traditions or join in the fun head over to My Quiet Corner.

Thankful Thursday ~ God’s Response to Repentance

Today I am reminded of God’s response to our repentance and for this I am so thankful…

Lamentations 3: 22-23 ~ “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Micah 7: 18-19 ~ “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry long but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”

2 Corinthians 12:9 ~ “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

I John 1:9 ~ “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

I am also thankful to be in my home in Washington for a month to spend some extended time with my children and to get things ready for our Christmas celebrations. I love this time of year. Blessings on all of you.

For more Thankful Thursday Posts head on over to Laurel’s.

Thursday Thirteen #11 ~ Moisiisms

 

Moisi and Nadia (my parents)

My parents aren’t fluent in English. They immigrated to the U.S. in the late 40’s from Iran where they escaped to from Russia. Here are some of the things they say that we get a kick out of…

1. Cellkular Phone~ for Cellular Phone

2. Razorblades ~ for Rollerblades “Lana had bad accident with razorblades”

3. Fire Hydrogen ~ for Fire Hydrant “The fireman is outside checking hydrogens”

4. Pie Alamo ~ for Pie A la Mode

5. Crackpots ~ for Crockpots  “Michelle got 3 Crackpots for wedding”

6. Mackadonian Macaronis ~ for Macadamia Nut Macaroons

7. They lived till they died.

8. He cussing us out!

9. Ah you ben drinkin? ~ for Have you been drinking?

10. Prayzz da Lowrd! ~ for Praise the Lord!

11. Whoorey! ~ for hurry.

12. Grills ~ for girls.

13. Shoezy ~ for shoes.

For more Thursday Thirteen click here.

WFMW ~ A Great Easy Meal

This is what works for me after Turkey and Thanksgiving…

To get over the Turkey doldrums and to kick up the B vitamins and iron here’s a great meal idea for you.

Buy a flank steak. Marinate it with any marinade that sounds good to you at the store and is on sale. I used a sesame ginger with mandarin orange juice Kroger brand. I put the meat in a ziploc bag and pour the marinade in the bag over the meat and give it a good massage. After a few hours or overnight hand it to whoever BBQ’s in your house and let it cook about 5 minutes on each side. (Dear cooks it for 2 minutes on each side on High. Then he turns off two of the burners and leaves the third burner on high and moves the meat off the flame and lets it cook for 5 more minutes. Perfect! Slice the meat very thin on the bias, against the grain.

This steak is great with Mustard Roasted potatoes using the recipe I posted here.

This is one of my families favorite salads. Tomato, Hot house cucumber and sliced onions salted and peppered to your taste. Simple and good.

Enjoy and don’t be afraid to barbecue in the winter. If you can’t bbq, this steak is great broiled, too. You can sear it on both sides first then stick it in the broiler…

For more WFMW head over to Rocks In My Dryer…

Tuesdays, In Other Words ~

“One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there.  Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete.  There is always time to do the will of God.  If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy.”~ Elisabeth Elliott ~

We have been studying I Thessalonians during Sunday worship and some lessons from these studies will fit with this quote. As believers the will of God for our lives will be found in His Word. Some of the key thoughts for us as believers found in I Thessalonians are to live in love, live a quiet life that reflects Christ to people who don’t know him, do our part to strengthen the body by encouraging our leaders, use wisdom as we serve our brothers and sisters in Christ, and take responsibility for each other. In order to live this way we need the courage to say no to other things in our lives that just don’t matter for eternity. We need to say no to schedules that make us run all day without accomplishing anything and without having anything to do with building Christ’s kingdom.

This quote is so timely for this Christmas season that is upon us! What a great reminder that the God who created us has time for us and He will give us the strength to do everything we truly need to do. I think the key thought here is that we are taking our daily needs and lists to God. When we truly are centered in this way our strength and reliance will come from Him and the things that do not get accomplished will not beat us down.

I Thessalonians 4: 11 ~ “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you,”

Mathew 6:34 ~ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

To read more thoughts on this quote go to Motherhood and Beyond.

Life in the Northwest ~

 

Life for me in the Northwest is very different from Southern California. In Southern California it is a lot simpler. I have myself and Dear to take care of and a very compact one bedroom condo. No yard, no plants, no children. I will be in the Northwest with my children and my house and yard until New Year’s Day! I will miss Dear and our companionship for 25 days! Yikes. I will be quite busy here though. Already this Monday morning I have a second load of wash in. The dishwasher is running. I have my list of last minute items to buy for Dear to take back to California before his 6 PM flight today. All of this happened before dawn. I was able to step outside and take the picture of this glorious sky that God created for us to enjoy this morning.

Before Dear returns to Washington on December 21st I hope to have finally memorized the following verses that have given my brain such a workout! Good ole Apostle Paul and his run on sentences. This section that I was suppose to memorize for my Bible Study in Southern California has been the most difficult for me, but I am determined to get my brain to remember it. I dare you to memorize it too….

II Peter 1:2-4 (ESV)

“May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

 Have a wonderful Monday, I’m off and running….