Category Archives: Colville

Tips For You Hodgepodge

If it’s Wednesday it must be Hodgepodge. Click over to Jo’s blog, From This Side of the Pond to join in.

1. Do you have a word for the year (WOTY)? If so, and you’d like to share, please share. How do you decide on a word? If you don’t have a word are you still on the hunt for one for 2024? 

I did not pick a WOTY for the year but I did pick a phrase.

Love Jesus More in Twenty Twenty Four

2. January 23rd is National Pie Day…will you celebrate? Do you like pie? What’s your favorite? 

We don’t celebrate except for in November before Thanksgiving our church has a pie and praise night. We enjoy pie but don’t have it often. My favorite pies were the fresh Strawberry or fresh Peach pies from Marie Callender’s. Growing up in Southern California it was a special treat to have boysenberry pie from Knott’s Berry Farm.

I just remembered Chicken Pot Pie and the all the great savory pies in Great Britain, yum!

The photo at the top of this post is of a Pear Custard Pie. Click here for the recipe.

3. Tipping. What are your thoughts, expectations, as to who, when where? Do you appreciate a store/restaurant giving a ‘suggested amount’? Have you ever left an extravagant tip? 

We do tip and we try not to skimp. When service is over the top exceptional we tip even better. We have left large tips for some of our favorite waiters/waitresses but extravagant is in the eye of the beholder. Before we moved away from the Seattle area, Seattle instituted a set tip and service fee in their prices. That change was confusing and we stopped tipping in Seattle. These days we avoid driving into Seattle to dine.

Since we are talking about restaurants and trends I’m not a fan of using my phone or a table top device to order food. I like the personal touch of the waitstaff coming to the table to take our order. I haven’t mastered the whole take a photo of the thingie that looks like a weird puzzle piece (QR Code) so you can connect with your phone. (yes, I’m old)

4. Share with us one household ‘tip’ that works for you. 

We got a tip from a dishwasher salesman that it is good to run the tap till the water is good and hot and then start your dishwasher cycle.

5. Influencers on social media are people who’ve built a reputation for their knowledge and expertise on a particular subject. Do you follow any influencers online? Have you made a purchase or tried something new because of that ‘influence’? If there’s one you particularly enjoy tell us who they are and why you enjoy them. 

The type of influencers we follow online are well known and knowledgeable teachers of the Bible who have proven they believe and teach the inerrancy of the Bible for all areas of life. We regard them as the best influencers out there.

Grace to You, John MacArthur, Ligonier, R.C. Sproul, Master’s Seminary, Tim Challies, Sinclair Ferguson, Keith and Kristyn Getty,  just to name a few.

We have purchased books, commentaries and music influenced by these folks. Keith and Kristyn Getty’s music is exceptional.

There are many ‘false teachers’ that we avoid like the plague.

The other type of following we do are the ‘how to people’, like ‘how to replace the hot water thermostat’, or ‘how to smoke a brisket’, or ‘how to clean your oven racks’.

On the lighter side of things this granny is fun to watch…

https://www.youtube.com/@memesrecipessc  Meme is a hoot to watch and I love her closing line! She is a cooking in the kitchen influencer.

I also like the jewelry this young gal is creating for sale; Nicole Joy Jewelry Design

https://www.instagram.com/nicolejoyjewelrydesign/?hl=en

https://06e86a-2.myshopify.com/

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

These two get to enjoy the snow with joy and then their mom adds more fun with these frozen colored water balloons to decorate their snow castle.

It’s still winter out there!

Update on our Water Heater, the parts arrived early and we should have hot water before this post is published on Wednesday. PTL! And yes, we do have hot water thanks to Greg!

Happy Hodgepodge, I’m looking forward to reading your tips.

Finished!

It took longer than some and it was fun and satisfying to put in the last piece of this puzzle. Two more puzzles are on their way from my puzzle club present.

Another below freezing day here in the northeast corner of Washington State. Morning devotions, catching up on blogs (I always get behind from Friday through Sunday), washed bed linens, finished the puzzle, made a meal using up some stuff in the freezer (thankfully it was good), braved the freezing temps to throw out some food for the birds and that was about it. We didn’t have to trek out to the mailbox since it was Martin Luther King Jr. day here in USA and no mail was delivered.

That was yesterday. Today is our son Dan’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Dan!

Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

Birthdays and the Great Freeze

On Friday night we enjoyed an early birthday dinner for Dan and Jamie who have birthdays today and tomorrow. Josh has a birthday this week, too, and Laura sent a couple photos of them enjoying an amazing sunset on the other side of our state.

On Friday we served Lovella’s Arroz Con Pollo which was enjoyed by everyone. It’s a dish that Jamie orders most often at any Mexican restaurant. We enjoyed it with brown rice and both corn and flour tortillas. We also enjoyed Pico de Gallo with added chunks of avocado.  For dessert we had a family favorite, Applesauce Spice Cake.

We have been below freezing here for a few days. We stayed inside all day Saturday and I worked on my latest puzzle. I’m getting close to finishing.

 

On the way to church on Sunday our car was registering -5 degrees F outside.

We had a great Vision Sunday with a ministry fair. Our church theme for the year is Take The Next Step.

Colossians 2:6, Therefore as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.

We are now heading into another week of very cold temps and snow promised from Tuesday evening through Thursday morning. We always wait and see if the predictions are accurate. We have seen that many folks in many parts of the country are experiencing severe cold. How is it where you live?

Beatrix Potter

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Beatrix Potter and The Tale of Peter Rabbit and all his friends. For Christmas I received the sweet print above and the tea towel below from Josh and Laura.

Right now on our dining room table this puzzle is slowly, very slowly coming together.

It is very tough and I only have me to blame because I ordered it from my year long puzzle club Dan and Jamie gifted me for my birthday last year.

My collection of Beatrix Potter Figurines are here and here.

We had more snow and now we are having some frigid temperatures. We are celebrating our Dan and Jamie’s birthdays tonight. Making something new to me and I hope it turns out good for everyone! I’ll have to move that puzzle since it is on the dining room table at present.

Shoveling the Hodgepodge

Here are the latest questions Joyce From This Side of the Pond has come up with for Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. What’s a change you’d like or need to make this year? 

Physically, I need to be more active throughout the year, not just in fair weather. Mentally, I need to be less selfish.

2. Break the ice, on thin ice, ice skating, tip of the iceberg, ice cold...which icy idiom applies to your life right now? Explain. 

I’ll go with ‘tip of the iceberg’. I need to continue my efforts in getting rid of many of my possessions! Decluttering the storage areas in our home.

3. What’s a project you’ve been putting off? Will you get to it this month? This year?

See #2

4. Of the fruits that grow well in winter which ones have you tried? Which is your favorite? 

pomegranates, clementines, persimmons, passion fruit, pears, grapefruit, lemons, pomelos, kumquats

I believe I have tried all but a pomelo which looks like it’s pretty close to a grapefruit. Since I’m supposed to pick a favorite, I’ll go with lemons.

5. What do you think it means to be courageous? 

To fear God rather than man and have my actions, words and lifestyle reflect that.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We had 6 inches of snow fall Monday night into Tuesday. Snow Hats are in fashion…

First Weekend in January

The first weekend in 2024 proved to be a busy one. On Friday we enjoyed a last minute open house at the home of our friends and met some of their neighbors. On Saturday a big pot of borsch was cooked from scratch with broth from a seven bone roast. A few quarts of borsch will be shared this week. One small pot was delivered to our neighbor.

On Saturday evening we attended a Karaoke party for a friend from church who turned 50. We met another couple from our community and had a nice time getting to know each other. There have been lots of predictions of snow that didn’t materialize until Sunday in the wee hours. We woke up to a pretty blanketed landscape.

The following collage is photos of our ride into church on Sunday morning. Our series in Colossians continues to be excellent.

We didn’t have anymore snow on Sunday but they are threatening us with more starting Monday Evening into Tuesday. Time will tell if they are right.

Leftovers…

Before I jump right into 2024 here are some leftover photos from our after Christmas family time. Three of us were under the weather but we managed to have good times in the midst.

Thanks to dear Auntie Lolo for taking all these photos. It was a nice finale to 2023.

Our son-in-law treated our daughter with an elegant dinner date for her birthday after they returned home from our Christmas time together. Well done, Andrew!

New Year’s Eve was quiet here, as usual. We had a wonderful church service. We came home and enjoyed a steak meal and we were in bed before midnight on the West Coast. We also put a pork butt in the slow cooker to make the recipe I posted on Saturday. We’ll enjoy that on New Year’s Day. I managed to ring in the New Year with folks on the East Coast of the US!

On New Year’s Day I enjoyed sitting with my coffee watching the annual Tournament of Roses Parade that has taken place in Pasadena, California since 1890. The parade is always held on January 1st unless the 1st lands on a Sunday. When it lands on a Sunday the Parade and Rose Bowl game are moved to the 2nd of January. During my thirty seven years of living in Southern California I only managed to go to the Rose parade a couple of times.

This was one of the times with a friend from Buffalo, New York and a friend from San Francisco. This photo is from 1971 or 1972.

Our own Washington Huskies from the University of Washington played in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day and we watched that game since we have 3 graduates of the University of Washington in the family. Greg also earned his Pharmacy degree from UW.

Greg was at the University of Washington as an older student from 1988-1992. We were able to acquire Rose Bowl Game tickets easily since he was a student. During his time at the University the football team had some of it’s most historic players and wins. The Huskies played against Michigan on January 1st 1992. We and 102,000 other people were at the game and our team won!

I’m happy to report the Huskies won the game and are off to the National Championship Game which will be played on January 8th in Houston. The last 50 seconds of the game were intense but they managed to hold on for the win! Yikes.

Christmas Recital

Tuesday the 19th of December was the Christmas Piano Recital that Addy is part of. She is still the youngest student and always starts off the program. She has grown so much and her piano skills are growing with her.

Keep up the good work of practicing dear Addy. It’s good you are having fun, too.

 

The next photos are the last of our Christmas Decor that I’ll share this year.

This next Nativity set was purchased this year in downtown Colville at a shop that sells vintage and second hand decor. It is Italian and I thought that it was a good buy at $15.

It was so good to hear from friends and family near and far this year. Some new addresses in new states, babies on the way, beautiful family photos, and sadly a death we weren’t aware of.

Today is Saturday and we are expecting our first car load of kids to arrive this afternoon.

Tomorrow will be a good and busy Christmas Eve Day and Eve. Blessings on all who visit here.

A Grand Day

Our grands came over for a few hours on Monday afternoon. We had some fun activities planned. First off, they both were ‘hungry’ so we sliced some of their mom’s homemade sourdough bread and they enjoyed it with some honey on top. They also enjoyed some hot chocolate with marshmallows in their special Christmas mugs.

Then it was time for the dollar store aprons and cookie baking. I had to take photos fast because JJ was already unwrapping the butter.

We got everything mixed in with their help leveling the sugar and flour with very minimum spillage. Then it was time to roll the dough into balls and lay them on the parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Poking a hole in each round with the end of a wooden spoon was fun.

Ready to go into the oven.

Once they were out with lots of warning not to touch the hot cookie sheet we carefully helped each other put some melted semi sweet chocolate into each hole.

We didn’t taste test till after their mom came back from some alone time and we enjoyed dinner together. We all agreed this was a good recipe. I’ll add the link to Charlotte’s German Hazelnut Cookies here. We did not have hazelnuts so we substituted pecans in this recipe.

After cookie baking, Addy and JJ were given the task to set up a Christmas village with these pop up cards we have received every year from my college roommate and her husband. I told the Grands to be extra careful with them since they are paper and won’t last forever. Over thirty of these pop up cards have survived over the years.

On the day the kids were setting up the village this year’s card arrived in the mail.

A cuckoo clock. We had a fun discussion about Cuckoo birds with Addy and JJ.

The vintage angels were my mother-in-law’s. They are sweet but when I think of angels and the verses in the Bible that speak of angels, I never think sweet as a description. They startled and caused fear and were powerful and not easily described. I prefer my wooden angel on the left.

The three mugs in the back are Josh, Dan and Katie’s mugs. The two in the front I purchased for Addy and JJ.

Today we will pick up our food items for our Christmas Eve and Christmas day meals. Tomorrow our daughter and hubby arrive from the west side of our state and celebrations will continue. Hope all is merry and bright in your corner of the world.

Listening and Sipping Tea Hodgepodge

With gratitude to Joyce From This Side of the Pond for our last Hodgepodge questions of the year.

1. Did you do more talking or more listening yesterday? Was it by choice or by necessity? 

I’m happy to say that I did more listening than talking yesterday. Our grands were here in the afternoon for a few hours and it was fun listening to their banter. JJ had several stories to give us the details on. He talked about his dad’s work on the hot water tank, in detail. Addy filled in anything he missed. He chuckled while calling me, Baa bush Kah, in three separate syllables instead of Baba. Addy read out the instructions on the cookie recipe we made. During dinner together JJ had many things to share. I made the comment that he was quite the conversationalist!

2. Are you a tea drinker? Hot, cold, or both? Flavored? What do you like in your tea? Do you make Christmas tea this time of year? What time of day do you like to sip your tea?
I grew up in a tea drinking household where tea was served regularly and we enjoyed our tea with a sweet cherry syrup or lemon syrup that our mom made and canned in quantity.
At the church we grew up in we’d have meals where tea was served. My friends and I enjoyed making bridges of sugar cubes across the top of our tea glasses before we poured the hot water in. We broke the sugar bridge with the hot water. No tea bags, loose tea steeped. The glasses were hot so the tea was poured into the bowl and we drank the tea from the bowl. At our Russian wedding receptions, Чай не сладкий  (the tea is not sweet) ‘Chai nye slatki’ was a chant that was made while gently tapping our tea glasses with a spoon so the newly married couple could stand and give each other a kiss to sweeten our tea.
I think we mostly had tea in the afternoon or evening.
After I was married I transitioned to coffee and enjoyed tea as an event rather than daily consumption. When I drink tea I enjoy Earl Grey or English Breakfast Tea. No green tea for me. I do not make Christmas tea but I do remember having some in the past.
3. What’s an activity you won’t try, an event you won’t attend, or an athletic challenge you won’t take part in not even for ‘all the tea in China’? 
I will not try bungee jumping. I will not attend a Monster Trucks Show. I will not take part in a marathon.

4. What’s something most people seem to love but is not ‘your cup of tea‘? 

Owning pets.

5. How does your family celebrate New Year’s Eve? 

Hmmm. It has changed over the years and we do not have any set traditions for this eve. Lately we are in bed by 9pm and will hear the fireworks go off at midnight. I used to watch at least one of the countdowns (New York) that were 3 hours ahead of us. Here in Colville the Fourth of July is not a good time to shoot off fireworks because of the fire danger so many folks save their fireworks for New Year’s Eve.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I’m still relishing our Children’s Christmas Musical that was on this past Sunday and this song that the Children sang.

You can have my room, Jesus.
You’re always welcome here, Jesus.
I won’t turn you away to a cattle stall.
You can have my room, Jesus.
You can have it all.
Come in, Come in,
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.
You can have it all.

A Very Merry Christmas to Jo and all of my Wednesday Hodgepodge Friends!