Monday the 22nd of March we all gathered for Swedish Pancakes at Baba and Gramps.
After breakfast we had the littles test out the obstacle course.
JJ is at the fearless stage.
He found a stick again!
The guys managed to get some drywall up between eating and playing. They got 5 pieces up before it was time for lunch and for the kids to go home for naps.
JJ enjoyed feeding his uncle some homemade chicken noodle soup.
We had such a fun packed weekend together. Till next time!
After church on Sunday March 21st everyone came over for Pelemeni (Russian Dumplings) with Spinach and fresh bread. After lunch everyone went out to work on setting up our new ninja obstacle course.
Testing…
Boys and sticks…
Mush baba, mush!
It was time for the littles to go home for their naps so we put off testing the course until Monday after breakfast.
Hope your weekend is going well.
A week ago nine of us met up in Spokane for my birthday dinner.
Three vehicles made their way to Spokane for our dinner reservation. Two from Colville and one rental car from the Spokane airport. My dear friend Jeanie sent me the 70 and Fabulous tiara and sash and I wore it happily. When we were directed to our table for 9 this beautiful bouquet of flowers was on the table.
Reading the card I was so surprised to see that they were from Lovella all the way in Canada. She arranged with our daughter in law to have them delivered to the restaurant by a local florist. A very sweet and thoughtful surprise. Thank you, Lovella.
Addy looked carefully at my tiara and then proceeded to draw a likeness of me with the tiara while we were finishing up our dinner at Churchill’s. I love it!
Laura’s mother sent me this apron for my birthday. How very thoughtful was that!? Thank you, Pat!
From the restaurant we all traveled north 70 miles back to Colville. We met up at Dan and Jamie’s and they had me sit down and get comfortable on the couch to watch a video of greetings from the 9 Mennonite Girls Can Cook in Canada, my siblings, Dear’s brother’s family, my nieces and nephews and some life long friends. I was overwhelmed and grateful. Jamie had the idea and Laura was able to contact everyone and put it all together. Laura added songs that my family have sung and she had recorded them a few years ago. I told my kids afterward that it was a lot nicer to view a tribute like this now instead of having that kind of video at my funeral. So remember no video at my funeral instead Sing together in worship, share the Gospel and then go eat!
When you are 70 you need posts like these to help you remember all the good times!
Thank you to Jo From This Side of the Pond for the Wednesday Hodgepodge Questions!
1. “Hope springs eternal”…discuss.
I’m taking the quote out of the realm it came from and putting God’s eternal twist on it.
From a mother’s perspective I always hope for our children to progress in their walk with the Lord, to be content, to stay faithful in their marriages and to look forward to their eternity with God.
From a grandmother’s perspective I ask the Lord continually to have mercy on and save our grandchildren and my hope is for their salvation.
This is my same prayer for any friends or family who are not born again.
For me personally, my hope is in eternity with my Lord and Savior.
2. Last time you needed to ‘spring into action’ or ‘spring to someone’s defense’…explain.
These days my springing into action generally happens around our grandchildren quickly diverting them from danger.
3. Tulips or daffodils? baby birds or baby bunnies? The cherry tree or the dogwood tree? Jelly beans or peeps? March madness or spring training? Peas or carrots?
Tulips, Baby birds, Dogwood Tree (see photo at the top of this post), Jelly Beans, Spring Cleaning no madness or training, Carrots.
4. I read an article here on the South’s best cities on the rise. They are-Baton Rouge Louisiana, Fayetteville Arkansas, Greenville South Carolina, Huntsville Alabama, Lexington Kentucky, Norfolk Virginia, Tulsa Oklahoma, Waco Texas, Wilmington North Carolina, and Winston-Salem North Carolina. Of the cities listed how many have you seen in person?
Katie and I drove to Airlie Gardens in Wilmington North Carolina when our Son-in-law was stationed at Camp LeJeune.
Which one on the list would you most like to see?
Waco Texas because of the Fixer Upper phenomena. Would be fun to visit Magnolia.
Have you spent much time in the southern states (USA)?
We’ve spent more time in the Southwest vs. Southeast being born and raised in Southern California. We’ve spent time in Arizona and New Mexico. We’ve visited family in Dallas, Texas. We’ve been to San Antonio (for a conference).We’ve spent time in North Carolina when our Andrew and Katie lived there during his Marine days. Katie and I traveled to Beaufort, S.C. for Andrew’s Marine Corps graduation. Dear and I spent a few days in Florida for a medical conference he attended. We’ve been to Atlanta, Georgia for another conference. On a road trip from Seattle to Jacksonville, North Carolina, Katie and I spent nights in Tennessee, Asheville N.C., Raleigh Durham.
Any spring road trips on your calendar?
Only a short one across the mountains to our kids home after Easter.
We are making plans for a longer road trip to North Carolina for a wedding in October. On the way we do plan a stop in Lexington, Kentucky after we visit The Ark. Our route home from North Carolina will take us through Dallas to visit my brother’s family. Looks like we could hit a few of those cities on the way to Dallas from North Carolina if we wanted to.
5. Tell us how your outdoor space needs sprucing up this spring?
We still have a lot of grassy bushes that need some work, pulling out the old to get ready for the new growth. Now our front acreage has a million small pine cones that the trees have shed. Those are a bear to clear.
Which do you enjoy more (or hate the least-ha!) yard work or house work?
I enjoy riding my lawn mower to cut the grass. Not a big fan of pulling weeds and less of a fan these days since it makes my back sore. The housework that I’m the least happy to do these days is to clean our shower. I’d love to have the unit replaced. There is calcium deposits that are impossible to remove that look like dirt. We are on well water here. So all that to say there are parts of outdoor work that I like and parts of indoor work that I like. Other parts are not pleasant both indoors and outdoors.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
We are catching our breath after a celebration filled weekend with our kids from the ‘Coast’ here. A belated birthday dinner for me on Friday and then our granddaughter’s 4th birthday on Saturday. We were all in church together on Sunday morning. We had all our meals together from Friday dinner to Monday lunch except for Sunday morning. The ‘coast’ kids flew home on Monday evening.
Our dear little granddaughter turned 4 on the first day of Spring and family and friends gathered to celebrate her! Warning: This post will have lots of photos. It was a hunting party.
The guests were instructed to wear camo or orange clothing to go with the ‘Hunting’ theme. And…yes, Addy chose the theme.
Our little Deer…
One with Addy smiling.
One with JJ cooperating.
Baba, Addy and Gramps
Granny and Addy
Great Uncle Scott, Rhonda and Addy.
Uncle Josh, Aunt Lolo (Laura) and Addy.
Auntie Katie and Addy. Uncle Andrew was busy with work responsibilities.
Addy and her friend.
Long time friends of the family.
JJ and Auntie Lolo. Another post is coming with all the activities at the party.
We enjoyed my birthday meal at the Wolf Lodge Steak House in Coeur d’Alene.
If you are a fan of meat this is the place for you!
The restaurant was dark inside so the photos taken with our phones are a bit muddled.
My birthday started out earlier than usual since it was Spring Forward time of year! First thing in the morning I was greeted with the sweetest video of our grands singing happy birthday to me on a video. A wonderful way to start the day. On the way to church our daughter called with her sweet wishes. Our church service was so good with lots of laughter and then a more solemn time of Communion. After church we drove to Idaho and the texts and phone calls continued. Both our sons called with their wishes. Another call from my brother with his family singing happy birthday to me. Another dear friend called and then my college roommate from the University of Redlands called out of the blue. I’ve been overwhelmed with the many wonderful birthday greetings I have received through phone calls, texts, and Facebook messages. And now that I’m in this new decade I need to document all these things so I can remember.
Thank you to all my blogging friends, too, who have left such encouraging words on my birthday posts!
Tomorrow is my 70th birthday, March 14th.
The fifth child of Russian Immigrants to the United States after World War II settling in the Los Angeles Area of California. Raised by parents who sought after God and taught us Christian values. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord at twelve, repenting and being born again spiritually. Married to a fellow believer for 46 years. Blessed with two sons and a daughter. Blessed again with two daughters-in-law and a son-in-law. Crowned in our old age with two grandchildren. Thankful to God for all He has done in my life, my husband’s life, our children’s lives and our grandchildren’s lives. Keeping on the straight and narrow until He returns or we are called home.
I’ve been so humbled and joyfully weepy over all the greetings, gifts, and flowers that have been delivered by friends and family via Amazon and USPS with postmarks from the USA and Canada.
The gift and flower senders! Top of the collage my dear friends since the 70’s Jeaneen and Heidi. The bottom of the collage my brother Leonard and his wonderful Mandy.
My brother’s family sent me this Borscht in a container. We are all curious how it will turn out. You just add broth and then meat if you want.
These ‘girls’ (Mennonite Girls Can Cook) are part of my tenship. They’ve only been in my life for a little over a decade. They have become the best of friends. We communicate almost daily and we share life together praying for one another and encouraging one another. We laugh and we weep together. Waiting for that day for the border to open so we can celebrate in person again! It was fun to get birthday cards for my 70th from across the line. Thank you girls!
As with my 60th birthday celebrations my 70th will be going on for as long as I can stretch out the fun. A lot of changes in a decade of life. There will be a photo in the near future with me wearing my Fabulous 70 crown and sash.
This bit of family history was shared by our brother Steve when he visited our Pop (Moisi) in 2014, February 28th.
“Spent some time with my Dad today (while my house was being inundated by a mudslide), and we talked about his oldest brother Fedot who died in WW2 after stepping on a land mine. He is buried in this mass grave in Rostov. Another one of his brothers (Mike) was in Siberia mining coal during WW2. This brother was in Siberia for 18 years (the joke being he had a two year sentence but it took 16 years for the paperwork for his release to go through). This brother, Mikhail, forever held a grudge against Americans whom he claimed stole Russia’s gold. He witnessed them loading it onto ships.”
Putting together the bits and pieces of history we’ve learned here and there.
The Timofey and Martha Bogdanov family (Our paternal grandparents). From top to bottom left to right…Ivan Voloshin, Oxahnya (Agnes Bogdanov) Voloshin, Uncle Mike, Aunt Anna (Nura), Timofey (our Dzedushka), Martha (our Babushka), Our Pop (Moisi), Uncle Tim better known as Jim, Uncle Bill, Alex Bogdanoff (our cousin). I do not know why Uncle Alex is not in this photo.
Our Aunt Oxahnya’s (Agnes) first husband did not come to Iran with her so she ended up marrying Ivan Voloshin. Our cousin Alex was her child from her first husband who my grandparents ended up raising after Agnes died. Agnes died after giving birth to her third child in Persia. The child also died.
This was taken in the first city in Persia where Pop’s family settled in for about 3 years. Mahshett (Holy Town). Pop said that people who lived here were called Mashti as a preface to their name. Our pop was called Mashti Moosah for quite a while (Holy Moses!) This would be in the mid 1930’s.
I’m posting this for the benefit of our kids and family history. It’s a small world as we found out after moving to Colville that one of Oxahnya’s grandchildren, our cousin lives just a few miles from us. She was named after Oxahnya. Her American name is Cindy. It has been fun to get together and connect some of the family history dots! We all grew up in Southern California and now both she and I have settled in Colville. It was Providence that we were able to connect.
We are in that time of year where our world is predominately brown and green with a little white here and there. We live in the evergreen state so we expect to see green all year round.
We call it our muddy season.
Our grands are blessed to have parents that aren’t afraid of a little mud.
Soon enough lots of pretty color will be added to our world.
Adieu to February. Looking forward to March.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 