Category Archives: Count Your Blessings

Small Town Hodgepodge

Another Wednesday has rolled around so it’s time for Jo’s Hodgepodge questions!
~
1. What motivates you to work hard?
The hard part for me is not working hard but getting motivated to get started. Once I’m committed to a task, I work hard.

2. It’s been said “Ignorance is bliss”…is it? 

In the short term maybe, but in the long term it is more devastating to find out too late than knowing the hard truth from the beginning.

3.Would you rather be stuck on a broken elevator or a broken ski lift? Explain.

Neither really, but since you are making me choose, I’ll say ski lift because you can see around you and what is going on.

Have you ever actually been stuck on either? 

Yes, Greg and I were stuck on a ski-lift in Mammoth once. It was cold and scary. It didn’t last long enough for us to get totally desperate, though. The section we were stuck in was at a steep part of the mountain so no fluffy landing if we fell. 🙂

Of the common fears listed here what’s your #1-

heights-enclosed spaces-snakes-public speaking-the dark-flying

It’s a toss up between snakes and public speaking.

4. What’s something you like about the town or city where you live? 

It’s a small town with four distinct seasons and only two stop lights in the whole town. Traffic is pretty much non-existent unless there is an accident of some kind or road work.

The best thing about Colville is that we have family here. Our grandchildren live here and we get to see them on a regular basis and enjoy watching them grow. We know we can depend on our Son and Daughter-in-love no matter what. We have a strong Bible centered church which affords us another ‘family’ to love and depend on.

Here are more facts about our little town…

Colville is a mountain town in America’s forested northwest, a clean looking town that serves recreational, timber, and farm interests.

Elevation: 1,635 feet; population 5,084

Colville (pronounced “Call-ville”) is the county seat of Stevens County and lies in the Colville River Valley about one-half mile east of the Colville River and 10 miles east of the Kettle River and Columbia River.

Colville is located at the junction of U.S. Highway 395 (north-south) which runs completely from Mexico to Canada through the center of Colville, forming the town’s main street, and State Highway 20 (east-west), which runs from the Idaho-Washington border to the Pacific coast and Washington’s San Juan Islands.

5. Life is too short to_____________________________. 

withhold dessert, wear tight shoes, isolate at home, hold grudges. I’ll think of many more and enjoy your answers, too.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We have so many small town pleasures to enjoy with our grands in Colville. The collage below is from the parade on Main street for rodeo weekend a year ago. We also have the best corn maze to enjoy in October. It’s always a thrill for this Baba to be shopping in a local store and hear my grands call out ‘BABA!” when they spot me.

Back to the present: We are in the middle of a 4 day heat advisory here with a cool down happening come Friday. Pretty much we are staying indoors and enjoying our air conditioning. I’ve been working on a jigsaw puzzle while listening to some podcasts.

Hope all is well in your town or city!

Jesus Loves Even Me ~ Hymn

Jesus Loves Even Me

I am so glad that our Father in Heav’n
Tells of His love in the Book He has giv’n;
Wonderful things in the Bible I see,
This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.

Refrain

I am so glad that Jesus loves me,
Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me.
I am so glad that Jesus loves me,
Jesus loves even me.

Though I forget Him, and wander away,
Still He doth love me wherever I stray;
Back to His dear loving arms I do flee,
When I remember that Jesus loves me.

Refrain

Oh, if there’s only one song I can sing,
When in His beauty I see the great King,
This shall my song through eternity be,
Oh, what a wonder that Jesus loves me!

Refrain

Jesus loves me, and I know I love Him;
Love brought Him down my poor soul to redeem;
Yes, it was love made Him die on the tree;
Oh, I am certain that Jesus loves me!

Refrain

If one should ask of me, how can I tell?
Glory to Jesus, I know very well!
God’s Holy Spirit with mine doth agree,
Constantly witnessing Jesus loves me.

Refrain

In this assurance I find sweetest rest,
Trusting in Jesus, I know I am blessed;
Satan, dismayed, from my soul now doth flee,
When I just tell him that Jesus loves me.

Refrain

Words: Philip P. Bliss, 1870.

Hot on the Trail

Before all ten of us were together, the seven of us hit the Rotary Trail for a walk on Saturday mid morning.

 

 

 

 

 

JJ’s sunglasses were hung from his t-shirt just like Uncle had his.

 

Back at our cars we went our separate ways until gathering together for a belated Father’s day meal on Saturday evening. One vehicle went to the grand opening of a creamery in Chewelah while Dear and I went to Kettle Falls for a graduation open house. Katie and Andrew were traveling from the westside and arrived at our home three-ish. At five the ten of us prepared a meal. Dan cooking the meat on the grill outside, caramelized onions, beans, macaroni salad and toppings prepped inside.

Dinner was delicious and dessert was good, too. After dinner we used Nikkipolani’s idea for a conversation starter and each of us shared 3 objects that remind us of our fathers. It was a fun interaction. Addy and JJ had some fun responses, too.

The Fragrance of Summer Hodgepodge

Summer is upon us and Joyce has come up with questions to get us ready for this season. Thank you, Joyce From This Side of the Pond.

1. Hello Summer! In the northern hemisphere anyway. What’s something on your summer bucket list? Do you have an actual summer bucket list? If not, use your hypothetical list.

I don’t have a summer bucket list but since we are traveling to Dallas for our youngest siblings birthday party (twins), I’ll be checking off going to Waco and walking about the Chip and Joanna dynasty. That’s been something on my radar to experience. My hypothetical list would include keeping cool.

2. What for you is the defining scent of summer?

Fresh mowed grass and throw in a campfire!

3. What’s a (music, food, wine, or flower) festival happening in your part of the country that you would like to attend if tickets/travel/timing was no object? 

Hands down the Lavender Festival in Sequim. We’ve gone in years past and it is worth the effort.

4. Apparently a military whistle blower claims the US has a UFO retrieval program. What say you? Do you believe aliens are out there? 

Only if you count Angels and Satan’s minions.

5. Besides your wedding day and the birthdays of any children you may have, what are three of your top experiences in life? 

  1. Summer Camps in my teens. God was drawing me/calling me to himself and this time the Gospel became clearer to me and with the help of the Holy Spirit, I repented and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Hume Lake Christian Camp in King’s Canyon, Sierra Nevada mountains.

2. Singing on tour, bringing the Gospel to schools and churches across Great Britain the summer of 1973 and 1974. Not only did these tours add growth in our walk with Jesus but we got the UK travel bug. Dear and I are the singers on the right.

3. Grandchildren!! So thankful to God for letting us be close to our two, Addy and JJ. What a sweet cherry on top of our lives they are.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Speaking of lavender, when we were in England in July of 2014 we came across these lavender fields in Broadway (Cotswolds).

This coming up weekend all our kids will be here because our granddaughter is getting baptized on Sunday (that will deserve a whole post next week). We also have a candidate for our pastorate coming to preach. There are other events going on for us to get to know him and his wife and see if he will be the one who God has chosen to be our Shepherd. Exciting times and a very full weekend!

Double that Plus Two Hodgepodge

At the age of thirty-five in Ventura with our three kids. Double that thirty-five and add two years and that is where I am today but not in Ventura!

I missed the Hodgepodge last week but am on track for this week. Thank you Joyce From This Side of the Pond!

1. Tell me something you remember (or if you’re not there yet, something you look forward to) about being 35.

In my 35th year, which was 1986, I was nursing our third and last child who was our first daughter. We were living in Ventura, California. Greg was working in a quarry running a front end loader close to our home. He was taking night classes at Ventura College to see if a change of career path was right for him. Our boys were five and seven finishing up Preschool and 1st grade. We were in the busy time of parenting which would last for several years!

2. Last time you ‘burned the candle at both ends’? 

Last week was a burn the candle at both ends kind of week. Getting ready for a garage sale is hard work. A good distraction was our bookend overnight company at the beginning of the week and end of the week. It was wonderful to see them and get caught up. Thankfully those guests are the kind that take care of themselves and don’t need fussing. The kind you are ‘real’ with. My brother in law even mowed the lawns for me because he enjoys that. Saturday our 92 foot tree was felled while I was finishing up at the garage sale. Then on Sunday was a tearful send-off of our beloved Pastor Dennis and Miss Lori which made for some emotional tiredness. On Monday Greg started the demolition of our master shower! I’m fine, we’re fine, everyone is fine. LOL!

BTW: We made a significant amount of money at the garage sale which made the hard work acceptable. 🙂

Here is our granddaughter giving a going away picture she drew for Pastor Dennis and her beloved Cubby teacher, Miss Lori during their Going Away Open House.  Old and young will miss these two.

3. Are you someone with the ‘gift of gab’? Elaborate (which shouldn’t be a problem if you answered yes teehee).  

I have the gift of gab on paper (which you might have noticed when I answer questions here) but not so much in verbal communication.

4. Do you request a special meal on your birthday, and if so tell us what that meal is?

I enjoy going out on my birthday and having a special meal. That special meal depends on the menu offerings. If there is Osso Bucco on the menu I will probably order it.

Do you want the same kind of cake year after year or will any flavor work? Do you want cake at all?

Cake is optional. We might order some dessert off the menu and have bites around the table.

Growing up were birthdays a big deal in your house?

Birthdays were not elaborate at all but they were celebrated. It was hit and miss on how they were celebrated. My older sisters and I got birthstone rings on our 16th birthday from our parents. I honestly don’t remember many of my birthdays growing up.

Are they a big deal now? 

Our kids have made our birthdays of late a time to celebrate with a meal out which we have enjoyed. I don’t need a big deal and the best thing is being together enjoying a meal together. Our kids made a very big deal of my 60th birthday and my 70th birthday which was very special.

My 60th birthday with a limousine ride to the restaurant. Our daughter was busy getting married at the Justice of the Peace in Jacksonville, N. C.  before Andrew’s first deployment to Afghanistan.

My 70th birthday celebrated in Spokane and Colville. The decade between my 60th and 70th grew our family with a son-in-law and another daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.

5. ‘Age is just a number.’..agree or disagree? Tell us why. 

There are some significant numbers when it comes to age all through our lives. Turning one is a big deal and then turning 5 which signified the beginning of public education. Becoming a teenager at 13 is another landmark. Sweet 16 was special in our family and then there is 18, when some of my friends left home and some went to college, the age of independence. Twenty One was a popular age and the legal drinking age here in most of the states. After that the decades were noted, like 30-40-50-60-70! The age of retirement was 65 and now that is more fluid. And then there is that dreaded age when the car keys should be taken away and all ladders removed from our homes!

I’m surprised at how different sixty or seventy looks on different folks. Those who have had a very hard life and made many poor choices in life look older.

I enjoy being around older people who are ‘young at heart’ and who are content and at peace with their age.

Not sure I answered the question but I did prove I have the gift of gab on ‘paper’!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Photos from when I was thirty five years old and busy with these three gifts from God.

Thanks for reading my ‘gab’.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

They all made it to Gramps and Baba’s house for Christmas. This was no small feat this year. Josh and Laura’s flight did not get cancelled and there was a rental car (all wheel drive truck) for them. Andrew and Katie (and Willow) left their house as soon as they heard the Pass was re-opened and they made it to us by dinner time. The Pass was closed most of Christmas Eve day and all night! Our Colville kids came right after afternoon naps. We are so thankful for traveling mercies and safety all around! Thank you, Lord! More to come…

Cousins Christmas California

Because we have 3ish more inches of snow on the ground and we are below freezing (high of 16 degrees) and the next few days are going to be cold and brutal in our area and many other areas, I’m stealing all the joy from photos that our Laura and our nieces Debbee and Kristin shared on Facebook from their cousin time in California Sunday and Monday, where the sun is shining and there is no snow. (That is one long sentence and this is one photo logged post)

Our Josh and Laura are intentional in their relationship building and keeping. God has blessed them with the means to follow-through with the desire to use their discretional time wisely in the love and care of others. Here it worked out for them to fly to Southern California to be at the annual cousin Christmas time with some of our nieces, nephews, and grand nieces and nephew and spouses.

They bumped into Santa at the airport.

The party this year was at our nephew’s home on the beach where the cousins were treated to the extra bonus of the Christmas boat parade that they could watch from the deck. Dave and Kristin hosted our kids overnight, too.

Our kids, Josh and Laura. My sister Kathy’s daughters, Melissa and Michelle with Michelle’s husband and Jack and Avery (our grandnephew and niece). My sister Vera’s son and daughter with their spouses.

Our beautiful girls…we claim them all.

My brother Steve’s son, Tim, and his family arrived so they had a re-do of the deck photo.

Some of the crew gathered at Disneyland on Monday and had a magical time together.

All day and into the night at the Big D.

Josh and Laura made the most of their 2 day stay in Sunny Southern California. They are coming home to snow today on their side of the mountains.

These cousins have had so much fun over the years together. Now they are enjoying the added fun of the spouses that their cousins married. We are so thankful the love continues. My mom and pop would love seeing these times continue.

“Stay together, Love each other” Their Dzeda (grandfather) left them with that encouragement and they are doing a good job listening.

The photos above are from the 80’s in California.

And speaking of World Cup Soccer (Futbol), (That is a weird segue!), here we are arriving at LAX from Seattle in 1994 to attend some of the World Cup Games when Los Angeles hosted the games. My sister Kathy and her girls picked us up from the airport. Our sons were able to get tickets for some of the games in Los Angeles and San Jose. Brazil beat out Italy to win in 1994.

World Cup 2022 just ended this past Sunday and what a championship game it was. Argentina came out ahead of France in the end and are the World Cup Champions for 2022.  It was fun to see Lionel Messi finally add a World Cup Championship to his soccer accomplishments.

Congratulations on making it through this post. I like to document these special times to look back on as a kind of journal of life as it happened. Sometimes they flow well and sometimes they have diversions…

 

30 Days Hath November Hodgepodge

Here we are at the end of November Hodgepodge. Thank you Joyce From This Side of the Pond!

Our yards have been covered with snow since November the 7th.

1. Sum up your November in ten words or less. 

November had a scary start and a grateful, peaceful end.

2. Are you hosting any holiday parties this year? Attending any? Party pooper, party animal, or life of the party…where do you land when it comes to parties? 

No, we are not hosting any holiday parties this year.

We will be attending our first Christmas Party on Sunday December 4th in Chilliwack, Canada. Hopefully the weather will settle down a bit for our drive to Spokane for our flight on Saturday and then our drive from Bothell to Abbotsford on Sunday. It will be our first time back in Canada since the beginning of ‘you know what’. We are so looking forward to being with the Mennonite Girls Can Cook and their hubbies! We will miss our two girls that live in Manitoba for this event.

The last MGCC party we were able to attend was in early December 2019 and this was one of the amazing desserts we enjoyed at that party.

I’m not a party animal or the life of the party or a party pooper. I do like to decorate for a themed party.

3. Do you purchase holiday clothing of any sort (sparkly tops, Christmas jammies, Santa suit, etc). 

There is a festive holiday top or two in my closet. This year with limited time to shop and limited sources I have nothing new. The old sparklies are too snug for comfort, sigh.

Comfy jammies all the way!

4. What’s your go-to recipe when you’re asked to bring an hors d’oeuvre to a party? 

I like to bring a charcuterie board of some sort. This year I’m trying Charlotte’s Red Pepper Jelly Tarts (Mennonite Girls Can Cook) for a ladies brunch I’m invited to on Thursday.

5. December 3rd is National Play Outside Day…what might you do to celebrate? 

We are flying from Spokane to Seattle that morning and will hopefully celebrate our daughter in law, Laura’s birthday in some way that day or evening.

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

In World Cup news, the U.S.A. advances to the round of 16 playing against Netherlands on Saturday. It was a brutal 2nd half but in the end we eliminated Iran and we move on.

Wednesday Morning Update on our overnight snowfall which is still falling this morning:

As of 7am we have 8-1/2 inches of new snow. Our neighbor has already plowed our driveway before she heads into work. We are very grateful for her and her kindness to us. I did hop out in my jammies and Uggs and slipped her some cash for gas!

UPDATE at 11:15 A.M.: We have a total of 11 inches of new snow. PTL Dear is healthy enough to shovel snow!

Lots of cancellations in Colville today because of snow. Happy we can be home and today is baking day for my event on Thursday. Perfect weather to bake!