Category Archives: Beauty

Catching Up

Some things of late that I want to store up in my memories.

Turkeys have been strutting around our property this Spring.

This is the latest puzzle I put together and it was a delight except for the pictures of the puzzle on the box did not show a section of the right side of the puzzle or the very top of the puzzle.

This puzzle was found at Goodwill. It was a sealed puzzle that had never been opened so I was confident all the pieces would be in the box. A fun celebration puzzle to complete for the 250th anniversary of our country!

For the Friday night of our latest Birthday Weekend this recipe for Raspberry Lemon Bars was a hit. Click on the link to find the recipe from Reluctant Entertainer.

There were stories told and stories reenacted that made for lots of laughter during the birthday weekend and afterward. If you know you know. I know these next photos will be a hilarious reminder.

I’ve had some nostalgic days going through photo albums after the death of a dear friend of ours and it was uncanny to come across our sons combined 7th and 9th birthday party photos and to see the similarity to our grandsons party this Spring some thirty eight years later!!

Laura captured this beautiful photo of Colville mountain driving into town for the birthday weekend. She has a knack for capturing beauty around her.

Homeschool Co-op had their last session on Thursday. These three have done well and persevered. That doesn’t mean school is over for the year, though.

Working on the last of the limbs to maneuver to the burn pile on this sunny and windy Friday.

Hope you have a beautiful Spring Day in your corner of the world. If you are in a land below the Equator have a lovely Fall Day!

 

Our Extravagant Creator

 

We’ve been working on our own personal part of earth for earth day. God was extravagant when he created earth and all it contains for us to enjoy.

Another Wednesday on this earth and Joyce has a fresh set of questions for us. This is Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. April 22nd is Earth Day…what’s the most ‘out of this world’ place on earth you’ve ever visited? Tell us something about it. 

Greg said, ” When I was ten it was Disneyland.”

yellowstone day one 174

In our adult years I’m going to say Yellowstone or Badlands.

2. A favorite quote, verse, or song lyric with the word earth in it? 

3. What’s the most trivial thing about which you have a strong opinion? 

Where to park at Wal-Mart.

4. What’s your most commonly used kitchen utensil or tool? What’s the last thing you made using that tool? 

I’m going to say my Chefs Knife. I made roasted vegetables for our family meal last Friday and the onions and potatoes and carrots needed to be cut. I also used it to cut ham to throw into our breakfast egg scramble on Saturday. I love a good sharp Chefs knife! I like all sorts of knives.

5. Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me a great book of 3000 questions, and I’m going to try to use one in our Hodgepodge every week. Here is today’s – 

What is your greatest extravagance? 

Our trips lately have been extravagant. Extravagance to me is something above and beyond and luxurious. These days I don’t like to penny pinch when we are traveling.

Nice hotels and nice restaurants are my choice. That is not to say we don’t enjoy a nice pub or cafe mixed in during travel. There was a time when we penny pinched and stayed in some sleazy motels and I have stories to tell.

I also am quite happy to be extravagant with our family.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Speaking of the beauty of our earth. I’ll be getting back to our daily travel spots during our Danube River Cruise on Thursday, Lord willing.

Looking forward to your answers this week.

A Celtic Hodgepodge

“May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, and may trouble avoid you wherever you go.”
Luckily, Joyce from This Side of the Pond, has a fresh set of questions for us to answer for Wednesday Hodgepodge!
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1. St. Patrick’s Day lands on March 17th. Do you believe in luck? Are there things you do thinking they’ll  bring good luck or  things you avoid because they’re considered bad luck? 
Nyet, nyet, nyet. 🙂
I believe in the sovereignty and providence of God. This is a deep subject.
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Here is a quote (Daily Doctrine pg. 97, Providence, DeYoung) that sheds some light on this belief;
“If sovereignty is God’s power to do whatever he pleases, providence is the wonderful good news that this power is pro-us. “Providence is the almighty and ever present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty–all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but from the fatherly hand.” Therefore, we can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and have confidence for the future that nothing will separate us from God’s love (Heidelberg Catechism Q/A 27,28).
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2. Forest-lime-sage-mint-olive-emerald…what’s your favorite shade of green? 
Of these shades sage is my favorites. I really enjoy the combination of pink and green.
Purple/lavender and green is a lovely combo, too.
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3. In Ireland the meal on this day is often a hearty beef or lamb stew served with colcannon (mashed potato mixed with cabbage and leeks). In the US corned beef and cabbage is the more typical St. Patty’s Day meal. Will you/did you mark the day with one of these dishes? Baked-fried-roasted-mashed…what’s your favorite way to eat a potato?

We have enjoyed corned beef and cabbage on this day and other days, too.

 

On Monday, because my creative energy levels are at minus something,  I bought a package deal for a slow cooker corned beef and cabbage meal. I just have to open the package and put all the ingredients in the slow cooker. Everything is washed and ready to go, corned beef, carrots, potatoes and cabbage with a spice packet, too. On Tuesday morning I put all the ingredients in the slow cooker and let it prepare itself. The aroma was wonderful during the day. We enjoyed the meal when it was ready to eat.

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4. What color of the rainbow best represents your personality/mood today? Tell us why. 

I’m going with a lighter answer here after my deep one in question one!

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Yellow is the color I’ll go with, as in daffodils and sunshine. I like to smile and share the light.  Daffodils and sunshine make me smile and tell me Spring is on the way. The photo is of  my sisters in a sea of daffodils, in the glorious sunshine from 2016 in Mount Vernon, Washington State!

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5. Which ‘lucky’ quote resonates with you. Elaborate. 

 ‘Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.’ E.B. White 

‘Diligence is the mother of good luck.” Benjamin Franklin 

‘Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.’ Seneca 

‘Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.’ Ralph Waldo Emerson 
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I’ll go with ‘Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.‘
We are just back from 16 days abroad and many good things culminated in the research that we made before we landed in all the places we visited. The preparation made the opportunities more meaningful and enjoyable.
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6. Insert your own random thought here. 

An Old Celtic Blessing

May the blessing of light be on you –
light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
and warm your heart
till it glows like a great peat fire.

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Thankful

Some things I’m thankful to God for on this Thursday…

We had some nice clear weather for our safe trip to Spokane and back again. It was also warm enough to shop without a coat to and from the car. We detoured from our usual route home and stopped in Elk for lunch. From Elk we drove on backroads to Loon Lake and then north again to Colville.

This stoplight in the town of Chewelah south Colville is the one light we encounter for over 50 miles as we traveled! Once we get to Colville we encounter one more signal before we reach our home.

One of our stops in Spokane was at Trader Joe’s. They had loads of tulips for sale. I chose the 10 stem option for $6.99. Twenty stems were $12.99. I love tulips! God created so many different flowers for us to enjoy.

We stopped at Hobby Lobby for Valentine Day goodies, HomeGoods to replace a large casserole dish, (One of mine got a crack in it) TJMaxx for a baby shower gift, and before we finished up at Costco for gasoline and some other necessities we went through the new car wash across the way from Costco. What a treat to have a clean car!

Our Winter Women’s Bible Study starts today. I’m looking forward to studying about Heaven, When Faith Becomes Sight, with other women in our church.

Posting this a little later than usual. What are you thankful for today?

 

Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands ~ Hymn

Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands

Amidst us our Be­lov­èd stands,
And bids us view His pierc­èd hands;
Points to the wound­ed feet and side,
Blest em­blems of the Cru­ci­fied.

What food lu­xu­ri­ous loads the board,
When at His ta­ble sits the Lord!
The wine how rich, the bread how sweet,
When Je­sus deigns the guests to meet!

If now, with eyes de­filed and dim,
We see the signs, but see not Him;
O may His love the scales dis­place,
And bid us see Him face to face!

Our for­mer trans­ports we re­count,
When with Him in the ho­ly mount,
These cause our souls to thirst anew,
His marred but love­ly face to view.

Thou glo­ri­ous Bride­groom of our hearts,
Thy pre­sent smile a heav’n im­parts!
Oh lift the veil, if veil there be,
Let ev­ery saint Thy beau­ties see!

Words: Charles H. Spurgeon, 1866.

Great Exchange Weekend #2

This great weekend actually started on a Thursday. I posted photos yesterday from all the Thursday happenings. Today I’ll share some Friday photos, mostly from Bayles Mountain.

This little guy looking down the hall, “Is she awake, yet?” Both Addy and JJ love to have Auntie Lolo around.

Indoor Crafts…

Time for some outdoor exercise…

First the Kung Fu kind of exercise…

Come join us, Auntie Lolo!

She is such a good sport!

And now for the cooling off kind of exercise…

Off the mountain for dinner in town on Friday evening…

…past the old barn. How long will she last?

The quintessential driveway evening view looking towards town and our great layering of mountains.

Friday was in the books and we still had two more days of interesting, delicious, fun, inspiring and challenging experiences to come.

 

A Foray into the Hodgepodge

We have daffodils in two different areas in our yard. These burst open later than the ones I showed before. It’s always a surprise and joy to see them pop up and open their heads without any effort on my part.

Thank you to Joyce for coming up with the Wednesday Hodgepodge questions each week!

1. The Hodgepodge lands on National Picnic Day…will you celebrate? Do you enjoy picnics? Dining out of doors picnic or otherwise? What are three or four things I’d find in your picnic basket?

Typically, I am not a fan of picnics or dining outside. The temp and bug situation has to be just right for outside eating. I do like to picnic inside. Avocado, salami, baguette, pickled vegetables would be in my picnic basket.

2.  A time recently where you felt ‘antsy’?

Sometimes when I wake in the night and can’t get back to sleep I can get antsy.

3. As the saying goes…’when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.’  Do you like lemonade?

I do enjoy lemonade.

When did you recently need to make lemonade out of lemons, figuratively speaking?

My meal planning and execution can fall into this saying. Making a meal out of limited supplies because I didn’t plan ahead.

4. Recently five ‘celebrities’ made a brief (ll minute) foray into space aboard Jeff Bezos Blue Origin rocket. Did you hear about this? Your thoughts? If money were no object is this something you’d like to do someday?
We know someone who works for this company. I should have asked him what he thought of this foray. I did hear about it. I would never want to do it. Their little foray was dabbling, more of a stunt.
5. Favorite thing about the ‘space’ you’re sitting in right now? 
I’m sitting in my morning space. The space I have my coffee and start the day with my Bible reading and devotional reading. My notebook is open and ready for any thing I feel like documenting. Then I transition into reading emails and blogs. I love the space because I can see part of our yard and the mountains in the distance and our books are all around me. The other thing that is close by are the recent artwork our Grands have created and photos of loved ones as prayer prompts.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

For April I’m challenging myself to an A-Z photo a day excluding Sundays and in addition to any regular posts that come to be.

Today is Wednesday April 23rd and we are on the letter T.

T is for Tea as in going out to a tearoom or friend’s home to enjoy tea or having high tea in the United Kingdom.

I have been fortunate to be able to enjoy some very nice ‘high teas’ and ‘tea times’. I’m going to have to do a separate post for my tea focus besides this shout out to the challenge here.

The lovely tea above was at the home of Lovella with most of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook several years ago.

Snow Fun

We finally got enough snow for our Grands to enjoy sledding on their driveway.

JJ told me he learned how to turn the sled, too.

Meanwhile at our Country Bungalow we enjoy the views from inside.

We try to figure out what animals are leaving what tracks in the snow.

When our kids come to our place they pull around on our drive before they park by the front door. This next photo shows the fun result their truck tires made. This is what I see from our office window.

Double hearts!

Are you enjoying a winter wonderland?

Scotland Travel Journal ~ Dunfermline 3

On September 21st which was a Saturday and our journey from St. Andrews to Edinburgh we stopped to visit the Dunfermline Abbey and Palace. Although I’ve posted the exterior and interior of the Abbey already we toured the palace grounds first on this day. The kiosk to pay for our visit was located in the palace ruins area. This part of our visit involved going up and down different elevations within and along the ruins of palace.

In the cellars with some great acoustics we had an impromptu moment of worship as Laura began to sing ‘Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow’. We all joined in and it was a sweet time together.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below, praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Amen.

The Abbey was obliged to offer hospitality to pilgrims and to other travelers whether rich or poor. The guest house was built here in the 1200’s and later became part of the royal palace. 

Not all overnight visitors would stay in this guest house; those of lower social rank would be given beds in nearby hostels. Because Queen Margaret founded the monastery and later monarchs chose to stay here, what you see is frequent alterations and additions to provide comfortable royal apartments. 

After the union of the crowns of Scotland and England in 1603, these buildings were abandoned and robbed of stone leaving the spectacular south wall with its windows overlooking the glen.

St. Benedict required the abbot dine with all visitors to the abbey. ‘Let the abbots table always be with guests and travellers’, he directed. However, when nobles knocked on the door, the abbot probably arranged for poorer pilgrims to eat elsewhere, while he enjoyed lavish feasts with his high-ranking guests.

This was such a worthwhile stop on our way back to Stirling to drop off our rental car and take a train to Edinburgh for the last few days of our Scotland Trip. Our sunshiny days were behind us.

Back to the present:

Today, January 20, 2025, in the United States is the inauguration of our 47th President, Donald J. Trump. We will be watching the ceremony. We hope for the best for our country and it’s people and our world. For us as believers, the very best is yet to come and it’s not happening here. In the meantime, we pray, we hope for the best, and we remain good citizens of our country doing our part as citizens. We acknowledge that we are not in control of the world and what is happening around the world but we know the One who is in control and who holds our world together.

As the song resounds, ‘This World is not my home I’m just a passing through, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue, the angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.’

VW’s and Smiles Hodgepodge

Thank you to Jo From This Side of the Pond for our fresh Wednesday Hodgepodge questions!

1. Monday was National Apple Day…did you eat an apple or enjoy something made with apples on Monday? Do you like apples? Do you prefer your apples raw, baked, or in cider? Do you have a favorite variety of apple? 

I did not eat anything apple on Monday. I do like apples but don’t have them often. I enjoy them raw, baked or in cider. I like the tart apples.

2. Do you think there’s any truth to the saying ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’. Of the following healthy habits which do you find easiest to incorporate into your life and which is the most difficult for you to adopt-

adequate sleep, a balanced diet, plenty of water, eat breakfast, don’t smoke, exercise, limit alcohol,  include fruits and vegetables in your diet, manage stress, limit screen time

There might be some truth to that saying as far as it being a part of more healthy choices.

The easiest for me is; don’t smoke, since I’ve never smoked. Unfortunately I did inhale a lot of second hand smoke in the 60’s and 70’s working in offices where smoking was still okay. The most difficult to adopt is a balanced diet.

3. Who taught you how to drive? Do you enjoy driving? Would you rather be the driver or the passenger?  Do you have a favorite scenic drive near you? 

My brother, Fred, taught me to drive a stick shift. He even let me learn in his VW Bug. I think I taught myself to drive an automatic. While I’m typing the answers here on Tuesday the 22nd, it happens to be Fred’s 75th birthday.

This photo of my siblings and me from 2009 is the most current photo I have of our brother Fred. Left to right; Kathy, Vera, Fred, me, Lana and Steve. My brothers Tim and Leonard are missing from this photo.

The first car I purchased with a car loan and the first car I owned that I actually liked was this VW Bug.

I do enjoy driving if it’s not snowing or raining hard. On a scenic drive, I prefer to be a passenger so I can take photos. On a shopping trip that involves navigating parking lots and getting to several different store destinations, I prefer driving. We are blessed with many scenic drives in our neck of the woods. Driving to Wal-Mart is scenic. Driving along the Columbia River is a favorite!

4. What small habit has had a big impact on your life? 

Smiling. Since early years I have found it easy to smile, especially to smile at people. Smiling has opened up some interesting opportunities and conversations.

5. Tell us about something nice that happened to you recently.

It is so nice living close enough to our grands that we can see them and get that ‘hello’ hug and that ‘goodbye’ hug and any snuggles in between.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We have been enjoying some beautiful fall colors on all our drives here in Colville.

The golden larches are my favorite!

I’ve figured out my photo issues and I hope my photo platform is slow in making any new changes for me to figure out!!

This is a quote I copied from an article I read this week.

“Discontent makes a wasteland of the greenest garden—-even Eden. But contentment bears fruit in any circumstance.” Andrea Hoglund

Happy Wednesday, Hodgepodgers, Faithful Bloggers, and readers. I’m thankful for you all.