On mornings like today this old Mother Goose nursery rhyme pops into my head and I say it again and say it again and say it again and again…
One misty moisty morning,
When cloudy was the weather,
I chanced to meet an old man,
Clothed all in leather.
He began to compliment
And I began to grin.
How do you do? And how do you do?
And how do you do again?
When I was a school teacher we had a training session on how important nursery rhymes were to a child’s language development and future reading skills. So take that baby on your knee and have fun with all the nursery rhymes out there. Sing them instead of just saying them. I remember bouncing my kids on my knee with this one, too.
Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady upon a white horse
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
She shall have music wherever she goes
There’s also a rhyme we would repeat in Russian that goes something like this…
Ладушки, ладушки
Pat-a-cake
Clapping Song
(Russian)
Ладушки, ладушки
Где были?
У бабушки!
Что ели?
Кашку!
Что пили?
Бражку!
Кашка масленька
Бражка сладенька
Бабушка добренька!
~
The loose translation into English
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake,
Where were you?
At granny’s!
What did you eat?
Porridge*!
What did you drink?
A little home-brewed beer**
The porridge is buttered,
The home-brewed beer is sweet,
Granny is kind!
~
The version we sang was a bit different at the end. I’ll need to talk to my mom today and update how we ended this rhyme.
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*In Russia porridge is very famous, it can be made from wheat (millet), oatmeal, buckwheat, rice, fine-ground barley, etc.**This probably means kvas, a Russian home-brewed non-alcoholic drink, or it means that Granny gave the children some beer to try, she indulged her grandchildren. (and actually if it sits long enough Kvas turns into an alcohol drink)
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I updated this post with photos from our trip to Banbury, England in July of 2014.
K is for our Katie. Katherine on her birth certificate.
Our Katie has an amazing amount of knowledge stored in her brain and I will show you some photos that might explain where some of that knowledge comes from.
At a very young age if Katie went missing this is where you would find her.
She was most drawn to books with words, not picture books. We had a few old school reading books and these are the ones she’d pull off the shelf and carefully go through.
As you can see she did not have a shortage of toys but she always seemed to go for the books.
We didn’t realize how well she could read until a trip to Meadowdale Beach Park with our friends the Spiro’s. Jody was walking hand in hand with Katie when they came to the tunnel under the railroad tracks that took you to the beach side of the park. As they approached this tunnel with this sign Katie said quite clearly to my friend Jody, “Caution Low Head Clearance”
We realized then that we had a little 4 year old who definitely knew how to read. Who knows how much she was reading without us knowing before this experience.
Well this is all about Katie so for my last photo to throw in another “K” word, here’s Katie in a Kilt that I bought in Scotland in 1973! It fit me once too 🙂
For more ABC Wednesday take a trip across the pond to Mrs. Nesbitt’s.
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!
While we’ve been in Washington (me for 2 weeks, Dear for 1 week), Dear has been gutting our basement. We need to take care of some water issues and do some structural strengthening. Today is the day for a very heavy steel beam to replace a wooden beam. Anyone free at 2:30 for some heavy lifting.
After all that hard work we want to eat hearty. We try to get everyone together to enjoy a meal. Yesterday I went to the meat market and they helped me pick out some very marbled meat to fulfill the workers cravings. Steak, baked potatoes, steamed cauliflower, salad with Persian dressing and sour dough bread. The meat was very tender and broiled to perfection by Dear. My dishwasher has been filled and emptied a lot.
At the end of some of my days here I’ve enjoyed views like this one from my bedroom windows.
Have a great Saturday. I’m meeting my walking buddies at 9:00 for our walk on the trail. I’ll post my average steps later for Lovella’s walking club.
*No walking post today. The walking club is taking the week off so we will resume next week. I did walk this week with two over 17,000 step days, a couple 6800 step days a 8646 step day and a 12,595 step day. So my average for the week was 11,532 steps. See y’all walking buddies again next week.
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.
Blogspot bloggers!! Please do all of us bloggers a favor and add the “Choose an Identity that lets you put in your name and url without a google account” feature to your comment page. It makes life easier for those of us who aren’t blogspot bloggers. Please, pretty please, with sugar on top!
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J is for
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Our Son Joshwho has brought lots of Joy to our lives! Click here to see him suspended in the air in China!
Johnson Bros. Dishes that I love to collect here and there if I find them at a bargain price.
And for your dining pleasure a lovely Applesauce Rasberry Jello Salad that is perfect for Spring and Summer and you can click here for the recipe.
For more ABC Wednesday Posts travel over to Mrs. Nesbitt’s.
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.
I decorate the show piece of our food celebration, the Kulich (Russian Easter Bread). I did say decorate. I didn’t say I baked it. That is still on my list to do before I die.
We will celebrate all day tomorrow with friends, family, food, hallelujahs and hosannas to our Resurrected King.
Blessings on all your preparations and celebrations…
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.
I’m adding some words this week. These are my parents at their first meeting with their new miracle granddaughter. Their last granddaughter (our Katie) was born 22 years ago. Their youngest grandson is 16 years old. This granddaughter, our niece was born in January to my brother and his wife, who are both in their 40’s. It is their first baby. We are thrilled with this latest addition to our family and you can see how thrilled my parents are to finally meet her face to face! Dear and I get to go meet her in May! Praise God from whom all blessings flow…
My kids are coming over for dinner, corned beef and cabbage. I’ll be making some fun green drinks and we’ll eat and celebrate being together and surrounded by green. I’ll post the people photos later! 🙂
I tweaked the table some more before my guests arrived.
My beautiful children, with one missing and Dear is in California till Friday, so dinner for four.
The meal was enjoyed by all…
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.
Today is my birthday and I decided to go down memory lane and post some older photos and show you a little of my history.
First I’ll surround myself with things I enjoy. I do know how to pamper me 🙂
I think this is my seventh birthday because of the candles on the cake which would make this 1958.
This is our dining room at 4635 Oak Street in Montebello Gardens. We lived here till I was in 5th grade. My brother Fred, sister Vera, me, my cousin Jim and my sister Kathy who got cut off when I posted this (sorry Kathy)
This birthday was either 1960 or 1961 because there’s my little brother Steve in the high chair and he was born in December of 1959. This is the kitchen and my cousins around me are Tanya, Valia, Vera, Johnny, and you can barely see Walter. These next 4 photos were taken just last Sunday when we ended up driving through Montebello to go to a family function in Whittier.
While we lived on Oak Street in Montebello Gardens (Pico Rivera) my 3 older siblings and I would walk to the Montebello library to check out books. We’d head to Whittier Blvd. and have to cross this bridge over the Rio Hondo River to get to the library. It was approximately 2 miles each way.
The library was located at Montebello Park. This is the building the library was housed in where I spent many happy hours looking at all those books and trying to choose just 4. Now it’s a senior center.
We moved from Montebello Gardens across the river to Montebello when I was in 5th grade. This is our house at 305 Los Angeles Ave. When we lived here there wasn’t a second story and there wasn’t a chain link fence. Although a chain link fence would have come in handy after the twins (escape artists) were born…
This was my high school. Montebello High home of the Montebello Oilers. It’s totally fenced in now so they can have Lock-downs. How sad is that?! That’s a reality of our times. No fences in the 60’s!
The football field that I spent most Friday nights at during football season in high school. It’s under renovation.
In my junior and senior year I was a Song-leader and part of the cheer squad. I’m in the bottom row on the right. Judy, my best friend from junior high and high school is next to me. Debbie next to her. The top row left to right is Kathy, Bet (yes we called her Bet), and Judy. You can see those same stands behind us. This photo was taken in fall of 1967. We’re seniors here and will all graduated in June of 1968.
These are the photos I had access to while I’m here at the condo in California. Tomorrow I fly to Seattle to see my kids and celebrate Easter with them. I’ll be there for a couple of weeks. I haven’t seen them face to face since January 1st so I’m really looking forward to my time with them.
This was taken last Easter in Edmonds overlooking Puget Sound at our good friends Dave and Jody’s. They started the tradition of eating fish on Easter because that is what Jesus ate after his resurrection to show the Disciples He was alive.
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Thanks for indulging me and I couldn’t resist the Beatles singing Happy Birthday to finish off this post. Thanks Myrna.
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.
Friday March 14th is my 57th Birthday. For my TT this week I’m choosing 13 very memorable years in my 57!
1. 1951 ~ My birth year. I was born in East Los Angeles, California.
2. 1963 ~ At Hume Lake Christian Camps in King’s Canyon, California God called me to become a disciple of Jesus Christ and I started a new life following him.
3. 1968 ~ Graduated from Montebello High School in Montebello, California
4. 1972 ~ Went on my first date with Dear in October of this year.
5. 1973 ~ Graduated from Cal-State Los Angeles with a degree in Home Economics and an Elementary Teaching Certificate.
6. 1974 ~ Got married on December 6th to Dear and have celebrated 33 years of marriage so far. We were married on a Friday evening.
7. 1979 ~ Our first child was born in January. Josh is our firstborn weighing in at 10 pounds. Born on a Friday.
8. 1981 ~ Our second son was born also in January, also on a Friday. Dan was 8 pounds and 1-1/2 oz.
9. 1985 ~ Our third child was born on a Friday, too but not in January. Our first daughter (and last) Katie was born at the end of December even though her due date was in January also. She weighed in at 8 pounds and 12 oz.
10. 1988 ~ We moved from California to the state of Washington so Dear could go to Pharmacy School at the University of Washington.
11. 1996 ~ We gave our dream home and all of our equity back to the bank because of a major landslide on the slope behind our home.
12. 2001 ~ Our first born son was married to our beautiful daughter in law, Laura.
13. 2006 ~ Dear took a full-time job in Southern California and he and I find ourselves living in Southern California again but without our children close by. They are all still in Washington. Dan and Katie are taking care of our home while we’re in Southern California in our Condo.
I’ll leave you with this party image of me way back in the 50’s. I’ve always been one to love a good time…
We got together on Saturday night at Moreno’s in Orange to celebrate my sister Vera’s bigger than the last big birthday party!
Vera the Birthday Girl and Me, Leticia my SIL and Tim my brother, The Mariachis, and the table conversation with David, Debbee (Vera’s kids) Noah, Melissa and my sister Kathy at the end of the table.
The Matriarch and Patriarch of the family…
There were these great old trees in the patio. The original part of this restaurant was a Friends church (Quaker) and built in the late 1800’s! Click here to read the interesting history.
And this joker on the right confiscated my camera when I wasn’t looking to take a photo of himself with the Birthday Girl!
Gotcha Ryan!
If you like non-spicy Mexican food that any Gringo can eat and enjoy this is the place for you. For us spicy hot Mexican food lovers this was fun for the history, fun being with family, fun with the mariachis, but not memorable for the food. 🙂
Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage. I’m working on updating my blog posts very slowly.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 