Hello Spring!

Isaiah 61:11 
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, 
and as the garden causeth the things 
that is sown in it to spring forth; 
so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
 to spring forth before all the nations.
~
Spring is such a welcomed season. It is even more special to me because our very first and only granddaughter was born on the first day of Spring. Today is her birthday. We will gather as a family and celebrate her tomorrow at her ‘Survivor’ party. Our Grands get to choose the theme for their parties. We will don our camo and other appropriate items to illustrate the theme. It will be an epic celebration of her 9th birthday!
Doubly blessed, our grandson was also born in the Spring. His celebration will be next month.
Addy we thank our Lord for you and how he created you. We are so thankful that we live close enough to watch you grow.  We love your willingness to try new things and to work hard at developing special skills like Irish dance and piano. You are storing up God’s Word in your heart with all the Bible verses you are learning at Awana. Those will come back to you to strengthen you. Gramps and I pray that you will always know how much God loves you and how close He is to you. We love you, we love you, we love you!
It is sweet that you have your Granny and Granny Great living in the same town as you, too.
And here are a jumble of random photos from the past 9 years…
You are dearly loved and you have a wonderful heritage from God.
Happy Birthday, Addy!

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.
———
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!

Sisters wknd 076

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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Seventy Five!

Today is my seventy fifth birthday. God has been so good to me. We will be traveling all the live long day today. From Cambridge to London to Seattle to Spokane and then home again, home again, jiggity jig!

It will be good to be home again and to get our bearings.

Here are some birthday photos from the past.

 

 

 

 

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

Thank You, LORD!

 

Weekend Recap

Hello Monday and hello to the last week of February!

I took this selfie on the way home from church on Sunday. We watched the USA-Canada Men’s Hockey game before church and we were happy for the historic win for the USA men. I decided to wear my USA jacket to church as a nod to the Hockey team. I love that Addy leaned over to get into the selfie!

Congratulations to all the participants in the Winter Olympics!

I’m adding a couple of photos from my archives taken in Milan in March of 2013.

The soccer stadium in Milan.

Have a great week!

Weekend Re-Cap

On Valentine’s Day, these two cuties arrived at our door with their mom to deliver some Chocolate Covered Strawberries. They were making the rounds to their loved ones. So very thoughtful. They were delicious.

Our family exchanged greetings via texts. Greg and I enjoyed steaks off the Traeger for our Valentine Day Meal.

These were some of our views on the way to church on Sunday morning.

When the interesting bank of fog/low clouds burned off we had a beautiful Sunshine filled day. We received photos from the Western side of our State and we reciprocated with photos from the Eastern side.

From Kirkland where sunglasses were a must to Colville where sunglasses were optional.

Being out of doors was a welcomed treat.

The blue sky and sunshiny views were so appreciated! Thank you, Lord!

Our daughter sent a photo of her latest hair color just in time for Valentine’s day.

It’s the start of the third week of February already. Time is flying. Five more weeks of Winter! Maybe I’ll have some snow photos to share this week if the predictions are correct.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

Super Weekend Re-Cap

On Saturday I pulled out a few Valentine goodies to decorate with, inside and outside.

Saturday afternoon we headed into downtown Colville to the yearly Awana Grand Prix.

Super Sparkle was Addy’s car.

The Bullet was JJ’s car. It’s the slick grey with gold tip. Both cars did better this year than last year in the races.

Addy’s car got a second place for design.

She was pleased.

On Sunday at church this handmade Valentine was in our box. Thank you to the anonymous giver! I appreciate the thought and encouragement!

Our family in Colville in the Seattle area and family in Texas were rooting on the Seahawks in the Super Bowl.

We watched the Seahawk/New England Patriots game live but for the halftime show we switched to Turning Point USA’s All American Half time show!

I’m using these flashback photos to say Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks for winning the Super Bowl in an overwhelming fashion!! Well done, Defense!!

Looking forward to this new week with some family time ahead and a special baby shower at our church on Saturday.

Tuesdays With Moisi ~Dzeda and Baba

A memory popped up on Facebook that our niece Michelle shared while our Pop was still alive. I wanted to make sure and add it to my ‘Tuesdays With Moisi’ posts. The last of that series of posts was in May of 2021.

Michelle was visiting our Pop, her Dzeda and she shared his words:

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“You know, it’s hard without your Baba. I have tears. But God is with me. And so I get up and go on again. God is love. And when His love is in you, you feel His comfort. I’m thanking Him for all He’s given me. He is good.”
~
And then when I talked to him on the phone he said,
 “I’m not going to lie, it’s hard.” We talked about how great it is that he has good memories. “Yes, he said, God has been good to us.”
Then he told me how he went to “Staplers” (Staples) to buy a board so he could put together a jigsaw puzzle that Ryan and Michelle bought him…
~
We love our memories of our Pop and our Mom. Our mom died on their 70th wedding anniversary in 2013. Pop lived 5 more years after her. He died at 95 years in 2018.

Throwback Thursday

1958

I turned seven shortly after our brother Tim was born in 1958. Today is his birthday so I decided to post some flashbacks that include him. After Tim, our parents had 3 more children ending up with 4 sons and 4 daughters. Tim and I are in the middle, number 4 and number 5. I was thrilled when he was born.

My four younger siblings, Tim, Steve, Lana and Leonard (twins).

We had fun times with Tim and Letty while we were living in Camarillo, California for a few years.

2013 at our niece Debbee’s wedding.

Tim and Letty visited us on many Thanksgivings while we lived on the Western side of Washington.

Tim was a huge help at Dan and Jamie’s wedding.

In October of the same year, Tim and Letty flew up to help our son Josh with their remodel of their first home.

We are trying to convince Tim and Letty to visit again this year! Letty has not been to Colville yet. Neither of them have seen our country bungalow.

Happy Birthday Tim! Still thankful for you. You are a good brother! We love you, we love you, we love you.

A Deep Hodgepodge

This photo from January of 2016 (10 years ago) was from a few days spent in San Francisco while Greg was at an Oncology Conference. The words below the first photo are about that day in 2016.

Alice day S.F 030

Today was a full day of sight seeing with an old friend from my college days who grew up in San Francisco. She happens to be Russian/Chinese and knows the city well. We had several stops and enjoyed lunch and shopping in China Town where everyone is getting ready for the Chinese New Year. I don’t think I need to tell anyone what bridge they are looking at in my photo…

mohai34

My friend, Alice, at our delicious lunch in Chinatown. She did the ordering. My friend passed away in 2018.

Back to…

…Another winter Hodgepodge with a flashback to ten years ago thanks to Joyce From This Side of the Pond.

1. Ice skating, skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, playing in the snow, or a snowy walk…which winter activity do you choose? Have you done any of these activities so far this winter? 

Nothing this winter. We have not had any measurable snow this season.

At this stage of life, the only winter activity I would choose are the walking kind.

When we have a good dump of snow I have gone out our door to snowshoe. This is from 2019.

This one is from 2022.

2. Everyone is posting pictures from ten years ago on their social media sites so let’s jump on the bandwagon too. Share one photo and one thought to go with said photo from the year 2016. And maybe everyone isn’t doing this, but many are and we’re going to be part of the fun. 

This was one of the best memories of 2016! This is the photo that was shared with us and I shared it on the Hodgepodge with the words below the photo.

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We have the best of news that we have permission to share now with the world. Dear and I are grandparents for the first time and will  be able to see our new little granddaughter for the first time in person sometime in March or April of 2017 depending on when she pops out. Even though our little granddaughter is not born yet we consider her our granddaughter already as God is wonderfully forming her right now.
~
At the end of 2016, this review of the year from July to December was published on my blog. What a year!
~

3. What’s a trend you hope disappears in this new year? 

Stalking, attacking and verbally assaulting Law Enforcement.

4. ‘They’ say there’s a day for everything and January 21st proves it. National Granola Bar Day. Do you like granola bars? How about just regular granola? Do you like bars of other kinds? 

I’ll have one if I’m desperate but they aren’t something that is purchased and available in my pantry. I do enjoy granola as a cereal with milk.

5.  A frozen lake, a trickling stream, a raging river, or a deep well…which one describes something about your life right now? Elaborate as much or as little as you like. 

A deep well. There is so much to learn that I do not know. So much to see that I haven’t seen. So much about God that I do not know. I believe the ache to know more, see more and do more comes from a deep longing from our inner being that wants to see God as He is. It is a hard thing to explain. Someday that will be a reality. Until then I’ll keep digging in God’s truth and in the world God created for us to enjoy and give glory to God in the discoveries along the way that show me more of Him. My deep desire will become reality when I graduate to heaven.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Speaking of 2016, this is another amazing memory and experience we had in September/October of that year.

shipshe-laughing

The “Girls” and most of our husbands have just returned from a seven day trip to Indiana and Ohio to see a production using our name in Amish/Mennonite Country. The Blue Gate Productions hosted us and treated us as VIP’s. All ten of the girls were together at the Blue Gate Garden Inn where we enjoyed “Faspa” on Sunday night before we had our cooking show and saw the production for the first time. As you can see from the first photo above we have fun together.

heritage-tour-179

We took this opportunity to get some photos of all ten of us since Betty and Charlotte live in Manitoba and miss many of our get togethers in British Columbia and Seattle.

blue-gate

I shared many posts about our time in Amish Country. This is the initial one here.

Happy Wednesday, Hodgepodgers and all who stop by here.