Category Archives: Colville

Black Friday

JJ took our group selfie with a little help from his mom.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal together with most of our family and Jamie’s family.

Andrew and Katie drove over the mountains and through the woods on Thanksgiving day and Josh and Laura are doing the same today.

I’m adding some great Thanksgiving quotes from Spurgeon’s Thanksgiving Gems.

“Our thanksgiving is measured by the depth of our awareness of what we’ve been delivered from, and of the glorious blessings which we shall soon partake of.”

“We are debtors to God’s saving grace, and the very least we can do is to give Him endless thanks.”

“He who has been forgiven much–loves much and thanks much. True gratitude springs from a deep sense of what God has done for us in Christ.”

So grateful for God’s love, mercy and saving grace.  Thankful for all of our loved ones!

Are any of you shopping today? I’m waiting till tomorrow to shop small local businesses. Have a great weekend!

Colville Catch-Up

It’s time to share some happenings right here in our neck of the woods. We had a Big foot sighting in early November.

Our Colville family all together on a beautiful fall day.

At our Country Bungalow we had our Monday fun time with JJ.  He enjoyed some time with marbles before our outdoor time pulling and running down weeds with his big wheel.

On their mountain both Addy and JJ had a time to climb up to the tree stand and see a different perspective of their property. Both were very brave.

On Saturday we enjoyed Addy’s Basketball game time in town.

While we were sleeping on Saturday into Sunday our higher elevations got a nice dusting of snow. Nothing stuck to the roads or lower elevations.

I took the photos on the way to our church service. On the 17th we had our first Sunday with two services. Our sanctuary has been overflowing so this was our only option for now. We gathered at the 8:30 am service. Our second service starts at 11 am. In between we have Sunday School. It will take a little time getting used to this new schedule.

Hope you all have a good week ahead.

The Last Week

On Mondays we have a set date with our grandson JJ. He gets dropped off for a visit with Baba and Gramps while his mommy takes Addy to her Irish Dance Class. Last Monday I snapped some photos of him.

On Tuesday we had lunch at the newest restaurant in Colville, El Patron. It took many months to open and we were happy to see that it finally did open. It passed our salsa test and our taste test, too. We will return.

On Halloween our bunny family got ready for the Harvest Festival Trunk or Treat at our church and then they came out to our place to get their treats.

 

Knowing they’d have a big bag of candy already from the Harvest Festival we had some fruit snacks, goldfish crackers, and a bag of change for their treat. Gramps cleaned out one of his piggy banks and they each got quarters, dimes and nickels.

Addy got busy counting out her cash!

On Friday there was something that I ate that turned my insides out and I suffered with nausea through the night and all day Saturday. I was happy to wake up on Sunday feeling like a new person with the nausea gone. It was good to be able to attend our Sunday church services and our Connection group on Sunday afternoon. I was so thankful to feel better.

Now we face the challenge of the Time change and adjusting our sleep back to a normal wake up time.

Today we are looking forward to our Monday date with this little guy.

Grace and peace to all of you as we face this new week.

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.

October Delights

Our Colville kids traveled over the mountains to visit the Westside Aunties and Uncles and oh boy did they load a lot of fun into a few days!

Thomas Family Farm in Snohomish was a great destination for a variety of activities!

A Monster Truck ride!

Sifting for treasures.

The epic Apple gun!

Pumping water for the duckie race.

Putt putt.

And some excavating!

Thomas Family Farms for the win!

I was sent many more photos of this packed long weekend that I will be sharing for my memories of the life and times of our family.

Northern Lights in October

We got a prompt from our son who was working nights that there were Northern Lights on view in our area. We walked out on our deck and I started taking photos on my phone to see what we could see. Later I walked out front of our home to capture some different views.

It was fun to capture these colors in the night sky outside our home.

These photos were taken on Monday night October 7th. We are supposed to have more views on Thursday the 10th of October.

My laser eye surgery went well yesterday and was so quick and easy, so surprising. Here’s hoping my eyesight will be improved and the glare issues will diminish.

We are still following the aftermath of Milton and Helene hoping for good response and help for all who were affected.

Marcus Ciderfest 2024

It was that apple time of year again and we headed out to Marcus on Saturday to enjoy the small town Ciderfest.

The kids had Jamie’s Thunderbird on display again.

We had another glorious sunny albeit chilly start to the fest.

The Grands enjoyed playing checkers before the parade began and while many folk came around to look at the Thunderbird.

Hi Baba!

Time for the parade!

Here comes Granny Great and Jim. Granny Great threw out a lot of candy for her great grands!

After the parade we stood in line for our caramel apples and a half-gallon of fresh apple cider and headed home.

The views of the Columbia were glorious again this year.

Hope you all have a good new week!

Here at Home

While we were in Scotland life was busy on the mountain. Our Colville family went out to their favorite forest location to down and prep firewood for the winter. The most exciting thing is that while getting more firewood they found the axe that they left behind/lost last season!

Awana had a beach night and the Grands dressed in style for the theme!

This little guy got a haircut. He’s always ready for a snack!

It is so good to receive photos and updates in real time while we are traveling.