Love this photo taken last week of our guys. The three who carry on Dear’s family name.
We are busy around here for a few days and you might not see new posts pop up for a few days. I do have a recipe lined up and a Sunday Hymn.
Hope y’all have a great weekend.
It’s time to go around again with Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thank you Jo From This Side of the Pond!
1. July 25th is National Merry-Go-Round Day. Do you call it a merry-go-round or a carousel?
I’ve called them both. The collage above was from a family trip to Arizona a couple years back.
When was the last time you rode one? Did you enjoy that?
We enjoyed riding on one with the Grands at Disneyland back in January of this year.
Metaphorically speaking, what’s something in your life right now that feels like a merry go round?
Ugh, hate to even bring it up but the whole losing pounds and then gaining them back.
2. What word do you have a hard time pronouncing?
Fentanyl. It’s not fentanol it is fentanil. Dear is a retired pharmacist and he always corrects news people, etc., when they pronounce a drug wrong. Not only is it hard to pronounce correctly it is causing so many deaths and problems in our nation.
What word do you have a hard time spelling?
I used to have a problem spelling conscience but then I started pronouncing it con-science and it solved my problem with spelling. 🙂 License is another one that I have to always think about when writing it out.
What’s your favorite word in another language?
Right now I’m practicing saying, Sláinte. Sláinte means “health” in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It is commonly used as a drinking toast in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.
I’m looking forward to using that word in September.
3. What’s a phrase or cliche you use pretty often and find to be true?
Lord willing is one that is always true. I know our plans are always subject to change because of what God wills in our lives.
4. When it comes to grocery shopping what is your most dreaded chore-menu planning, the actual shopping and paying, or the unloading/putting away?
These days it is the actual menu planning that hasn’t come easily. When the meal is planned and agreed upon the rest of the tasks are pretty seamless. Might sound weird but sometimes an inspiration for a meal will pop into my head while I’m in the store and I find that fun to gather the ingredients and go for it.
How often do you shop? Do you use any of the pick up and/or delivery services?
Whenever I’m in town for other reasons I pop into the stores and do some shopping. I do not have a set day or times in the week to shop. I do not use pick up or delivery services.
5. Something you need or want to do before July comes to a close?
Pack for our trip to Dallas. We will be celebrating our youngest siblings turning 60!
6. Insert your own random thought here.
These two were a wonderful caboose to our family. We are looking forward to celebrating them as they turn 60. I was 12 when they were born and what a surprise they were to our whole family including our Pop because our Mom did not tell him or the rest of us that she was having twins.
Thursday last, one of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook and her hubby arrived for an overnight stay on our property. Judy and her hubby were at the beginning of a road trip from B.C. to Manitoba via a highway in the U.S.A. We had dinner together and enjoyed dessert, too.
Blintzes with huckleberries ( a new taste treat for Judy and Elmer) and strawberries and raspberry syrup.
After dinner we braved the heat and mosquitoes for some conversation on the deck.
Friday morning we had some coffee together before it was time for them to hit the road to their next overnight destination in Idaho.
Till next time happy trails!
During this same time our kids were all together on the other side of the mountains enjoying some special time with each other.
Summer at it’s best.
On Sunday June 25th our granddaughter Addy was baptized at the end of our morning service at First Baptist Colville. Our whole family and Addy’s Granny and Granny Great were at the service to witness Addy’s step in her new found faith.
Aunties and Uncles and brother all in a row. Gramps and Baba were across the aisle to have a better view of the baptismal pool.
Pastor David going over how Addy got to the place where she wanted to be baptized. First she was born again and then she wanted to proclaim it publicly through baptism. I love this sweet photo. We could barely see her whole head when she stepped into the pool.
Pastor lifted her up so everyone could see her.
Mom and Dad were looking on as were the rest of us.
We are so grateful for God’s saving grace and mercy on our sweet Addy May and praise Him for what He has done and will continue to do in the life of His little lamb. Baba and Gramps love you dear granddaughter of ours!
After the service we all gathered on Bayles Mountain for tacos.
Addy’s Mommy and Daddy bought her a sweet necklace with a cross, her initial and her birthstone. On the back of the cross the date of her baptism was engraved. I didn’t get a good close-up of the necklace. Auntie LoLo and Uncle Joshie got her a child’s version of Pilgrim’s Progress beautifully illustrated. Baba and Gramps also got her a cross necklace.
I’m trying out a new collage program and until I master it in my organization you’ll see some duplicate photos.
Addy and I were looking at her Pilgrim’s Progress Child version.
The kids stayed on at the Mountain but Gramps and Baba had one more event on this day to attend at church for our Pastor Candidate meet and greet. We were also in charge of the Ice Cream Social after the formal question and answer time Sunday Evening.
After the sunset walk the adults were able to get some card playing in while Addy and JJ crashed for the night. It was a long full day of excitement and celebration. Baba and Gramps crashed, too.
Katie and Andrew left on Monday morning to get back over the mountains and home.
On Monday before Uncle Joshie and Auntie LoLo hit the road for home at noon there was one more get together at a local park.
Another wonderful Family weekend that we do not take for granted.
I’ll leave you with this quote from a larger poem by Jean Ingelow, 1879. It was put to music by John Chadwick.
“I sought the Lord,
And afterwards I knew
He moved my soul to seek Him,
seeking me!
It was not that I found,
O Saviour true;
No, I was found by Thee.”
It’s time for Wednesday Hodgepodge and I’m recovering from a full to the brim extended weekend of activity. Joyce From This Side of the Pond has the questions ready and also let us know we will take next Wednesday off. Thank you, Jo!
1. What’s one thing you’re excited about in the coming month?
At the end of July we are traveling and joining several extended family members and friends to celebrate our youngest siblings’ 60th birthday. The party is at a ranch in Texas so we are getting our ‘yeehaw’ on and packing our boots and new duds for some line dancing and heat!
The picture above is of the twins at their 40th birthday celebration, a luau. That party twenty years ago was in Downey, California in our brother’s backyard.
My siblings and me twenty years ago in order of age. I’m in the middle in the dress. All of us but the brother in white will be traveling to Texas.
2. What was your life like when you were ten years old?
The Spring of 5th grade and beginning of 6th grade was when I was ten. I skipped 2nd grade. John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as president of the U.S.A. Things were a mess in the world as they are now, too. 5th grade was not one of my favorites. My teacher, Mrs. Helm, seemed to dislike me. I broke my first and only bone in the 5th grade at school and my mother had to get a taxi to take me to the doctor for x-rays and a cast on my wrist. My 6th grade teacher was kind to me. He got me a job as cafeteria helper and I enjoyed a free cafeteria meal each day for my service. He also noticed that I was struggling to see the chalk board and suggested that I get my vision checked. It was determined that I was nearsighted and the distant world became clearer to me with my first pair of prescription eye glasses.
3. What’s something from your childhood you still enjoy today?
Music, watermelon, a double scoop of ice cream.
4. What state (that you haven’t been to) do you most want to visit? Tell us why.
I think it would be lovely to explore Maine and cross the border into New Brunswick and on to Prince Edward Island. From what I’ve seen in photos it is a beautiful part of our world.
5. Do you like to drive? Tell us how you learned to drive.
Yes, I do like to drive. I honestly can’t remember who taught me to drive but it was probably one of my sisters. I was driving before I got my official license. After I had my license my brother, surprisingly, offered to teach me to drive a stick shift using his VW bug.
The VW above was the first car I purchased through my credit union and payed off over the course of a couple years.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
We are recuperating from a wonderfully packed weekend of events and celebrations. The highlight was our family being all together in church on Sunday to see our sweet Addy May get baptized. A full post with lots of pictures will be coming soon. On this weekend of her baptism we also had a Pastor candidate preach along with several meet and greet opportunities with him and his wife. Our church body will be voting on July 16th as to whether we will call him to be our new Pastor.
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.
Things were so full and busy for the end of May and beginning of June that I wasn’t able to keep up with posting about all the good times happening. I’m re-capping here.
My sister and hubby arrived on Memorial Day and left for Montana on Wednesday morning. We enjoyed meals together with them and our Colville kids. Brother-in-law Steve was curious about a riding lawn mower and ended up mowing the front and back lawns while my sister and I worked on this puzzle.
These two went boating with their mom and dad and Addy caught her first fish on June 1st.
I’m guessing this was the icky baiting the hook part.
It’s always fun to be on the water.
Addy’s Mommy created this collage to document that first fish experience.
Our tree was felled on Saturday the 3rd of June. In the late afternoon our friends Bob and Jan arrived for an overnight. We met up at one of the Mexican restaurants in town and then came back to our home and enjoyed conversation until our eyes wouldn’t stay open anymore. After coffee on Sunday morning Bob and Jan left for Idaho and we took off to church. We forgot to take a selfie!!
On Monday and Tuesday the 5th and 6th the clean-up and cutting of the rounds began.
Our son came over on Tuesday morning with our Grands and while Baba kept the Grands entertained Dan cut the rounds with his chainsaw and then he and Gramps loaded the first of many trailer loads (it took 4 loads) to go back to Dan and Jamie’s. They have a wood burning fireplace and once this wood is seasoned they will have enough wood for a few years. The tree was 92 feet and the cuts are 16 inches. I think they had at least 65 rounds!
These two ran me ragged while we stayed far from the saw and noise. I didn’t get soaked like they did.
A fun day playing with the water guns and the sprinklers. Good thing their mom packed a spare set of clothes for them. She’s smart that way!
On this Thursday we had more tree branch clean up and moved the larger branches to the burn pile. I mowed the front and back and when we were done we got cleaned up and enjoyed another Mexican meal out.
The mosquitoes are so abundant this year. We had to spray ourselves with repellent. Ugh! This is the worst we’ve experienced since we’ve moved here.
I’ll share photos of friendlier flying things tomorrow or Monday! 🙂
As I type this we are having a thunder and lightning storm with some high wind gusts. Glad we got the lawns done early this morning. I think I’ll schedule this now just in case the power goes out!
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’.
Me and my baby brother in 2020. Since today is National Brother’s Day, Joyce has included some questions about brothers for this weeks Wednesday Hodgepodge.
1. May 24th is National Brother’s Day.
Do you have a brother?
yes
Older or younger?
I have one older brother and three younger brothers. The photo above is of all my siblings in order of birth. I’m in the middle with the orange dress. This was taken twenty years ago. Our youngest siblings are twins and we were celebrating their 40th birthday with a Luau. Soon we’ll be celebrating their 60th birthday in Texas at a ranch.
I have a good relationship with all my siblings but one. Our older brother and his family do not associate with any of us anymore. I haven’t seen him or talked to him since July of 2009. Totally his choice and not ours. 
My brothers with our Pop at our Mom’s funeral in 2013.
Did you raise brothers?
Yes, our first born and second born are boys so we did raise brothers.
Tell us something about your brother or tell us something about your own children who are brothers.
Our sons are exactly two years apart in age. They love each other and are great friends despite some rough patches growing up. I’m thankful to God for their love for each other and how they watch out for each other. They are faithful brothers and friends.
In 2011 another brother was added to our family when our daughter married Andrew!
He’s been a wonderful addition to our lives.
2. A great book you’ve read or movie you enjoy that features brothers?
The Chronicles of Narnia, Peter and Edmund. Sisters play a role, too.
3. Something you think is overrated?
Self-esteem
Something you think is underrated?
Fidelity in marriage.
4. How much does your past shape you? What parts have shaped you the most?
God has shaped my past with the family he put me in and the experiences and relationships He allowed in my life. His calling on my life and my response of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ transformed my life. Following Christ as the Word of God instructs is still shaping me.
“But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
Ephesians 4:20-24 NASB
5. What’s your favorite simple pleasure?
Watching British murder mysteries like Morse, Inspector Lewis, Endeavour, Midsomer Murders and Vera.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
The yard is greening and growing and the Peonies are blooming here at our country bungalow. Happy to say things survived the epic thunder, lightning, hail storms we had over the weekend into Monday.
We are expecting some overnight company next week and we are looking forward to that. Memorial Day dinner is planned and company invited. Hope you all have a good Memorial Day weekend. We remember those who died to make our freedom possible.
Addy played Jesus Loves Me for her recital piece.
Auntie Lolo caught this shot of me and my buddy listening to the piano pieces.
It was wonderful that Auntie Lolo was able to be here for the recital.
Granny Great was back home from Arizona and able to enjoy the recital, too.
Happy Friday everyone. It’s been a busy week in the outdoors, mowing and weeding and pruning till it was hard for each of us to stand up straight. Things are looking better but there are miles to go before we can rest.
We are moving into Mother’s Day weekend here in the U.S.A. and Canada. We celebrated last weekend with our kids on the West side and this Sunday we will celebrate with our Colville kids.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s that visit here.
