Spring at Our Country Bungalow

This very pregnant mama deer was lounging in our yard for a full day last week.

I think she’s going to have twins.

We see this hawk flying above our area regularly. I had to zoom way in to capture it sitting at the top of a tree.

Our resident swallows have returned.

The rhubarb bush has exploded!

The earliest of our peonies that will flower are the red ones.

It has been fun to see these Johnny jump ups appear all over our property. They are such a sweet flower.

Hope May is bringing some sweet blooms in your corner of the world.

Before and After

I took on a new to me ministry at our church this year and one of my responsibilities is the church kitchen. I’ve been slowly going through every drawer and cupboard and tossing stuff and organizing other stuff. This silverware drawer was out of control. While walking through Walmart I found these wooden drawer dividers that are on springs that stay tight where you put them.

I’m so pleased with the new look of this drawer!

Today this little guy is officially two years old. We’ll all be celebrating tomorrow and the theme of his party is fishing. Our Coast kids arrive today and we’ll enjoy Dear’s Famous Tomato Rice Soup together for dinner. Tomorrow we party all day long! Jaymison first in the morning and then a special birthday dinner for our son-in-law Andrew with an extra celebration on his new job.

Spring is Springing…

…and green is greening.

We are beginning to see green areas springing up around the yard. The grass has totally greened up.

These little blooms put a smile on my face.

Speaking of green and smiles…

Did I mention he’s turning 2 on Friday?

Hope I made you smile. Happy Day to you.

Common Cents Hodgepodge

Wednesday has popped up again so time for the Hodgepodge. Jo From This Side of the Pond asks the timely questions and we take a stab at answering them. Thank you Jo!

1. This week’s Hodgepodge lands on Ash Wednesday which signals the beginning of Lent. Do you mark this season in some way? If so tell us more.

We are aware of the season of Lent but we typically do not mark this season with ash on our foreheads or choosing something to give up for 40days. In the last few years I have used a few Lenten devotionals during the season but mostly stick to my daily Bible reading and meditation on what I’ve read in the Bible.

Did you grow up ‘celebrating’ Lent?

My first exposure to Lent was at the schools I attended in Southern California. There was a high population of Catholics and I was intrigued when I first saw some of my classmates come to school on Ash Wednesday with ash marks on their foreheads. Then to hear they couldn’t have gum or candy or cuss for 40 days gave me pause. The religion I grew up in distanced themselves from liturgical and Catholic traditions.

Is attending church part of your weekly routine?

Meeting together with fellow born again believers of Jesus Christ has been both my husbands and my practice since childhood which we have continued into our married life. The fellowship with other believers is an encouragement that we don’t want to miss. Worshipping God together corporately is a very important dimension of the Christian life.

Are churches open for in-person worship where you live?

Our church has been meeting since June of 2020. We still offer online services and we have a ‘mask only’ room at the church during services and we have a ‘social distancing’ room available, too. In our main sanctuary you will find those who wear masks and those who don’t.

We ceased meeting together from March until June of 2020 when the first mandates were instituted. When we returned to meeting again in June you could feel the corporate joy. It was overwhelming and good.

2. When is the last time you sat beside a ‘real’ fire?

In our son’s backyard sometime in the last year? Most of our fire experience since we moved to the country has been tending our burn piles in Spring and when the local fire danger is low and burning is permitted.

Do you have a fireplace in your home? Wood or gas logs?

Our country bungalow does not have a fireplace.

Favorite thing cooked over a fire?

I’m not a fan of smores so I’m going to say a hot dog.

3. Something that’s currently got you fired up?

All forms of wickedness. I’ll leave it at that because I don’t want to get anyone else fired up.

4. February 17th also happens to be National Cabbage Day. Who knew? Do you like cabbage?

Is cabbage on your menu Wednesday? Of the following cabbage dishes which is your favorite-coleslaw (mayo or vinegar?), sauerkraut, cabbage rolls, cabbage soup, kielbasa and cabbage, grilled cabbage, bubble and squeak, kimchi, or haluski?

Cabbage is not on the menu but if it was it would be Golupstzi (Russian Cabbage Rolls), or Borsch (Russian Cabbage Soup). I love these dishes now but growing up I’d pull the cabbage off the cabbage rolls and I hated the cabbage part of Borsch.

5. Do you hang on to pennies?

Not recently but back in Dear’s early years he started coin collections and we still have those.

He has pennies from 1918 to 1993 in this collection.

What do you do with them?

Nothing. Funny coincidence is that we just retrieved Dear’s coin folders from the filing cabinet in the garage on Monday before these hodgepodge questions were posted on Tuesday.

Last thing you purchased for $1.00?

A Valentine’s day card at the Dollar Store.

Last thing you purchased for $5.00?

A Costco rotisserie chicken for $4.99 last Thursday. One cent shy of the $5.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

Even though we don’t observe Lent with ashes or fasting we do read and meditate on God’s Word and read sections of scripture that lead up to the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus to fix our minds on what Jesus did for us and why we celebrate Easter, Christ’s Resurrection Day. Our Easter celebration is one of our grandest along with Christmas.

My photograph of the sculpture above (Jesus washing Peter’s feet) was taken at the Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks, California back in 2011.

The Little Things

I bought a couple of these pillows to add to our couch. Good reminder.

It’s been freeze your face cold here. The Quail are huddling.

And with the wind comes an added chill!

Do Not Be Anxious

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

…“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6: 25-27, 34

These bunnies are looking forward to Spring but are taking the Winter in stride enjoying whatever the weather hits them with.

We had a nice time with my sister and her hubby on Friday evening and Saturday morning. We had a good time at our dinner out. On Saturday morning our kids came over to see aunt and uncle before they took off to Idaho for a couple of nights. On Saturday evening we babysat the grands so their mommy and daddy could have a quiet dinner out by themselves. Our kids on the Coast are digging out from a major snowfall for that side of the mountains. Snow photos popping up all day Saturday in texts and on social media. It continued snowing on Sunday there, too. We didn’t get any snow just temperatures in the single digits and the teens. No outside work. My sister and her hubby will be driving back to the Seattle side of the mountains from Idaho and it sounds like they will have snow all the way home. Praying for their journey. We are supposed to get 3-6 inches of snow on Monday.

Hope you all have a good President’s Day here in the USA and a good Family Day to our neighbors to the North!

A Quiet Beginning

It’s been a relatively quiet start to the month of February at our Country Bungalow. The biggest excitement was this delivery we had from Home Depot on Thursday.

We would have had to make two trips to Spokane to be able to haul this material and we were thankful we could have it delivered for a $79 delivery fee. Forty sheets of drywall, some 2×4’s, primer, paint, drywall compound, tape, screws and nails! It would have cost Dear around $100 dollars in gasoline to do that trip to Spokane twice in his truck, not to mention loading and unloading. 2100 pounds of stuff. Dear’s truck is rated for 1500 pounds.

And…he doesn’t have a nifty forklift to unload all that drywall! We are so thankful for this delivery service and what it saved us in time and labor. The driver managed to set that stack of drywall inside the new shop with a little maneuvering. It was below freezing here for this delivery.

Earlier in the week we had a warmer than freezing day and we got this photo via text. So thankful to get texts with photos from our Daughter-in-law!

Today in Colville we are suppose to get up to 47 degrees!! Quite a change from the 20’s and 30’s we have been experiencing. As you can see from the photos most all of our snow has melted. Today is definitely a day to spend outdoors before the next snow pattern comes our way. While Dear takes advantage of not having his fingers frozen while working in the shop I need to come up with an outdoor activity to enjoy the warm 40’s and sunshine!

What’s new in your corner of the world?

Early Celebration

I set the table, I made the meal, made sure the presents were all ready for them, made the cake, but did I take a photo of the birthday guests? The answer is no. My photo taking has taken quite a hit these past 12 months.

Applesauce Spice Cake baked in a star cake pan this time around.

Presents from near and far were all wrapped and ready.

We had corned beef and cabbage with potatoes and carrots and some yams, too. Pumpernickel bread and a cucumber tomato salad. We made one of the corned beef briskets in the crock pot and the other one in the Insta Pot and we decided the Insta Pot meat was more moist. It also only took 70 minutes in the Insta Pot.

These are our three who have birthdays this month all within 5 days of each other. We’ll be celebrating with all of them later this week and I’m going to make sure to get photos this time around!

Missing Piece!

We finished this puzzle yesterday but one piece is missing and we’ve checked the floors and haven’t been able to come up with it. So frustrating.

If you find it, let me know. On the up side this was the first puzzle we’ve put together that was missing a piece. Hopefully it will be the last one we put together with a piece missing.

It was a good day to work on a puzzle since it rained all day and was gloomy outside. We took our car to the dealer and got a glitch fixed so we had to drive into town with two cars. It was too long of a fix to wait at the dealer. We came back home and while we waited we worked on the puzzle.

Just wanted to post a reminder that our Truth from A to Z Bible Verse Challenge will start back up on Thursday of this week. We will be on the letter O. Hope to see you then.

He’s Still Smiling…

Poor Ami!!

Ami our Amish snowman has fallen. The combination from the weight of the fresh snow that fell and then the rain and warmer days was too much for him. His nose is broken but he’s still smiling. We do love his attitude.

We have very icy conditions with the snow melt during the day and then freezing overnight. If I was 12 and had Ice Skates I’d give ice skating a try!

Here was the view on our way to church on Sunday morning.

Besides putting away the Christmas decor until next year things have been slow and lazy around here. There has been some puzzle progress. How are things in your neck of the woods?

Boxing Day 2020

We are all awake and Premier League Soccer is on the TV while Dear begins to make his Swedish Pancakes for us to enjoy for Boxing day breakfast. I can hear the false crowd noise while I create this post. All the photos are from Christmas Day 2020. Our Coast Kids arrived to our home shortly after noon and we enjoyed Dear’s Famous Tomato Rice Soup. Our Colville kids arrived to our home after the little ones woke up from their afternoon naps!