Favorite Five on Friday

The Lord is good to me and my family. Last Friday I flew from Seattle to Southern California to visit family and friends while Dear traveled to Chicago for an Oncology Conference. When I exited the plane in Santa Ana, California, my sister Lana was at the gate ready for her flight to Seattle. She is a beloved passenger on Alaska Airlines from John Wayne Airport and her friends at the gate decided I was special because I’m her sister so they booked me in first class for my return flight to Seattle. Yes and amen to that!

Here’s my baby sister with her sassy new hairdo. I’m so thankful that she shares her flying privileges with me. She’s a million mile traveler with Alaska Airlines and she doesn’t lord it over the airline employees but treats them with kindness and love and that trickled down to me.

My brother Leonard, Lana’s twin, and my sister Vera met me outside of baggage claim to take me to lunch. Yes…my family is always there for me. We had lunch at South Coast Plaza before Leonard and I headed out to Neuvo, California to visit another brother and his dear wife.

Spending time with my dear old Pop (93 years old) and meeting my sweet little grand niece (5-1/2 months) was a treasured experience while I was in Southern California.

I also spent a few hours over lunch with my Russian Baptist best friend, Heidi. Upper left hand photo from 2016 and the rest from the 1970’s. We were marveling at God’s goodness to us in allowing us to survive some crazy choices we made.

My flight home in first class was very nice. Beautiful views of the California Coast with a nice meal and more great views of Mt. Rainier when we reached Washington State.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig! We are working on a new phase of our yard project putting a border along our front planter.

While I mowed and weed whacked Dear worked on digging out the trench to add the blocks for our new planter border. Woohoo! Hard work with us now sitting and wondering how we can manage getting up and down with our aching muscles!

Thank you to Amy at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday and dear Susanne at Friday’s Fave Five.

End of May Five!

This is the last Friday in May and the beginning of the Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S.A. Monday is the day set aside as Memorial Day. We honor those men and women who have made the greatest sacrifice for our country. I will have more to say about that on Monday. Here are my Five on Friday for Amy’s meme and Friday’s Fave Five for Susanne’s meme.

1. Our old walkway out the front door of this old house was deteriorating so Dear broke it out with a sledgehammer and replaced it with pavers, making the path wider. We still have an edging to do and when all the phases of this project are done I’ll share the full before and after. I thank God for my hard working husband who has do it yourself talent.

2. A new pair of lamps in the living room of our house has helped to bring things up to date in that room. I bought the lamps at Homegoods for a very good price. We are enjoying the fresh look. I thank God for the little things in life.

3. A new wreath in a perfect spot that our son and daughter in love bought me for Mother’s Day. We share enjoyment of Chip and Joanna’s show Fixer Upper and this wreath came all the way from their store called Magnolia. Fun. I thank God for the thoughtfulness of our children.

4. My dear old pop turned 93 on May 25th. The photo is of him blowing out the candle on his Cherry Pie. Cherry Pie is his favorite. I thank God for my dear Pop who loves Jesus and who prays for us every night.

5. A new Traeger Grill for my Dear as an early Father’s Day gift. He’s been eyeing these for a while and when I was in Costco this week they had a display of them so we took the plunge and bought one. I thank God for my Dear who is a good father to his children and enjoys cooking.

Next Friday I will be traveling to Southern California to spend some time with my extended family. I’ll get to see my dear old pop in person. Hopefully I’ll be able to take him out for his favorite breakfast at Denny’s. He likes sunny side up eggs, hash browns, sausage, white toast and coffee. He’s a cheap date! Hope you all have a good weekend and for those of you who live in the U.S.A. hope you have a meaningful Memorial Day with some thoughts about all we’ve been given because of those who sacrificed for us.

Blessings!

Final Five Hats for Now…

It’s time for Five on Friday and Friday’s Fave Five again. Thank you Amy and Susanne for hosting these weekly memes.

Here are five more hats I’ve worn or continue to wear.

#1 Self Employed Business Owner of Fresh Start a house cleaning and office cleaning business.

I started this business when we moved from California to Washington State while Dear attended the University of Washington to complete his degree and enter the School of Pharmacy. It was a successful business for the years he was in school and during his residency. Our sons were in elementary school at this time and our daughter was just 3 years old. My mother in law moved to Washington with us and she watched our daughter while I was cleaning during the day. I was usually home by the time our sons got home from school. At night Dear and I would clean a medical clinic and a dental clinic while our kids were asleep and Dear’s mother was home with them. This was a hat I was very happy to hang up when Dear got a full-time job in his new Pharmacy field. Dear was 40 when he completed his studies and got his first job at a biotech company in Seattle.

#2 Homeschool teacher for our daughter Katie.

When our daughter Katie was in fourth grade she began to show signs of stress and anxiety about school. We discovered she was being persecuted by several girls in her “gifted” class. We decided to pull her out of school and I homeschooled her for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. It was a good healing time for her and after these years she announced she was ready to go back to school for the 7th grade. The rest of her schooling went well and she finished strong including being a National Merit Scholar.

#3 Soccer Mom and avid Soccer Fan

My love for soccer/futbol began in the 80’s when our sons and daughter started playing on club teams and school teams. It escalated with the 1994 World Cup here in the United States. I took our sons to the training ground for the U.S.A. team and to their hotel and they were able to get autographs from all the players. We were able to go to a few of the games in Los Angeles and one game at Stanford. Currently we are season ticket holders for the Seattle Sounders. When in Milan, Italy I attended a game and in England we got the great experience of a Man U. game at Old Trafford.

We purchased these two Newsweek Magazines that were published during World Cup and the boys were able to get the player featured to autograph the cover. Later I had them framed.

Understanding the development of the plays on the field are key to enjoying soccer. I realize Soccer is boring for many but not me and I’m happy it’s getting more popular in the United States.

#4 Blogger

In March of 2007 my brother Steve ~~forced~~ helped me start up a blog. I didn’t know how to upload, download, or attach anything. I didn’t know what a URL was. I was afraid to punch a publish button. Little by little, step by step, I learned some of the ins and outs of blogging. At the time I started blogging Dear and I were living in a condo in Camarillo, California. I had lots of time on my hands with a home I could clean in 45 minutes tops and no yard to bother with.

In February of 2008 I met my first bloggy friend in Camarillo, Willow from Willow’s Cottage. We met for coffee and after we figured out we were comfortable with each other we made a plan to start walking together. We walked 2 or 3 times a week for 1 hour until 2010 when Dear and I moved back to Washington State. Willow shared how she had been praying for a walking buddy. I still miss my great walking buddy, our conversations, our tea times, and the support we gave each other. You’ll find a link to Willow’s Cottage on my side bar. And I need to mention she’s a master knitter.

Bloggers I’ve met in person are Willow (California), Sara (California), Cori G! (California), Pondside (Vancouver Island), Jill (Utah), Ruth (California), and Wreathmaker (Millie) in Manitoba. Hope to meet more in the future.

#5 Cookbook Author with the Mennonite Girls Can Cook

This last hat is one of those surreal things that has happened to me because of blogging. While connecting to different blogs around the world I stumbled upon Lovella’s blog and noticed Paska (Russian Easter Bread) on her side bar. I wondered (note the name of my blog ~ The Happy Wonderer) why a Canadian who didn’t have a Russian name was baking Paska. Well come to find out this group of Canadian Mennonites had ancestors who settled in the Ukraine from Germany and through the years added Russian recipes to their heritage recipes and passed them down to their children. Lovella started a cooking blog and in time asked me to be a contributor to the blog since I am full blooded Russian and many of my mother’s recipes are the same as their mother’s recipes. In time our blog, Mennonite Girls Can Cook, became very popular and a publisher asked us to work on a cookbook for them to publish. The ten of us met all together face to face for the very first time to sign the contract for the book in September of 2010. Our first cookbook was published in May of 2011 and our second cookbook was published in Spring of 2013. All proceeds of our author royalties go to feed or help widows and orphans in the Ukraine and Africa and other countries. This was a decision the ten of us were most comfortable with.

The fun hasn’t stopped yet. We are now working on a Devotional with some recipes included. This book will be published later this year in time for a play (comedy) called Mennonite Girls Can Cook that hits the stage at the Blue Gate Theater in Shipshewana, Indiana. This one really caught us by surprise. More news on these events to follow.

Thank you for visiting and reading my hat posts. Hope you are all doing well. I just found out my neighbor Pat has stage 4 cancer (just diagnosed today). I caught her adult girls outside to ask if something was wrong with their mom. They shared with me about their mom’s diagnosis. Hug each other and love each other well. You never know what tomorrow brings.

Friday the 13th!

So happy I’m not superstitious. I still have to share 5 more hats I’ve worn or am wearing but my creative juices aren’t flowing these days but rather they are dribbling. I’ll get back to those hats at a later Friday. So here are five favorites from this past week.

#1. Mother’s Day brunch with my kids that are on this side of the mountains.

#2. A few hours with these girls on Tuesday in Canada. The tall blond on the left that you probably don’t recognize is a writer who is writing a play about the Mennonite Girls Can Cook that will be staged later this year in Indiana and possibly Ohio.

#3. Lovella opened up her home for our meeting with the writer and cranked up her oven to treat us to coffee and these delicious rhubarb rolls for our morning coffee time. Delicious!

Then Lovella and the B.C. girls that were free to come for lunch offered up these delicious salads and other goodies.

#4. Our new book is in the works and we got a preview on what it is going to look like. I’ll share more about this soon.

#5. Today (Thursday) Dear and I worked outside mowing and weed whacking and then we brought down our deck furniture and set it out for the season.

We are thankfully heading into a quiet weekend. We have been processing lots of emotional things this week in our extended family and quiet is good to look forward to. Of course we know that just because we think it will be quiet doesn’t guarantee it. The other thing we know is that God is in control of everything that is allowed into our lives.

I’m linking up with Five on Friday with Amy at Love Made My Home and with Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Five More Hats!

Five more hats that I have worn from college on…

# 1 ~ I was part of a Christian Rock group where I met Dear and we fell in love with each other and with Great Britain in the early 70’s.

“Hymns give way to Jesus Rock in morning assembly at St. George’s Church of England School, in Meadow Road, Gravesend yesterday. The concert was given by the Contemporaries, 14 musicians from the United States who are in the middle of a world tour. They have already completed a number of successful “gigs” in Liverpool. They are all professional musicians but they are giving their services free”…

Dear and I are in the center of the photo on the bottom row. 1974 was the last summer tour Dear and I participated in.

#2 – I was a bride and became a wife to Dear and changed my name in December of 1974.

#3 ~ I was an elementary school teacher in the Montebello Unified School District until our first son was born.

#4~ I’m blessed to be a mother to these three children and my mother in law sheet is complete with two daughter-in-laws and one son-in-law.

#5 I’m an auntie and great auntie to so many lovely human beings! I’m sharing a few photos so I can get all of the nieces and nephews and great nephews and nieces in. I haven’t met two of the latest greats in person yet.

Our family and Dear’s brother’s family from Katie and Andrew’s wedding in 2012.

Dear’s only brother’s family and our family in 2015 at Riverside National Cemetery (missing Jenna, Justin, Skylar and Travis).

My kids and nieces and nephews and grand nieces and nephews surrounding my pop at my mother’s memorial service in 2013.

Our kids plus my nieces and nephews with my youngest niece Hope and youngest nephew Andrew in 2015 at my brother-in-law Nick’s funeral. So let me count. 7 brothers and sisters. 7 brother and sister in laws. 19 original nieces and nephews. Many of those nieces and nephews are married now and I have 9 grand nieces and nephews. I have 4 nieces and 2 nephews who aren’t married yet.

I have one brother (out of my 7 siblings) whose family has estranged themselves from all the rest of us siblings and our families. They are not enjoying the love and support and comfort that the rest of us enjoy when we are together. I’m adding this truth here to let my dear readers know that things aren’t all rosy in my family relationship category. My brother and his wife have 4 kids and we know for sure 3 of them are married. We aren’t sure about our oldest nephew from this family. We have at least 3 grand nephews or nieces that I’ve never met. I also have never met two of my nephew’s spouses and the oldest niece’s spouse. They have chosen to cut off all ties and relationship with us. Haven’t seen my brother since 2009 and haven’t seen my sister in law since 2004. So sad but true. We pray that there will be reconciliation in the future. Gott Kann!

I have a few more current hats to share before I totally bore you to tears.

I’m linking up with Amy at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday and with Susanne for Friday’s Fave Five.

I’ll be on the road for most of Friday and hope to check in once we arrive at our son’s house in Eastern Washington for the weekend later on Friday. Blessings…

Five Hats I’ve Worn…

It’s time for Five on Friday with Amy at Love Made My Home and Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

I’m sharing five of the hats I’ve worn and continue to wear over the years. These are the earlier years before marriage.

Daughter to Moisi and Nadia Bagdanov, Russian immigrants whose families escaped out of Russia into Persia and immigrated to the U.S. after WWII.

Younger sister to Kathy, Vera and Fred.

Kathy, my mom, me in front of her, Fred and Vera. I was the baby of the family for 7 years before the siblings doubled!

Fred, my Pop, me, Kathy and Vera.

Older sister to Tim, Steve, Lana and Leonard (twins).

Student in the Montebello Unified School District. Schools I attended were Montebello Gardens, Fremont Elementary, Montebello Junior high and Montebello high school. I grew up in suburbs east of Los Angeles with many Hispanics and a fair share of Russian, Armenian and Jewish families, too. A great melting pot.

Mrs. Nicolaus my 1st and 2nd grade teacher was one of a handful of my teachers that I knew were fond of me. I was a voracious reader and she recommended that I be skipped from 2nd grade to 3rd grade. (Top Row left with my curly “do”)

Graduate: Junior high graduation with my little maternal babushka (grandmother) and High School graduation with my little babushka.

College graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Home Economics and a Elementary teaching credential. On the left me and dear before we were married and on the right me and my brother Fred. We graduated the same year and from the same college.

So daughter, sister, student, graduate and number five for this week is part-time employee. All through the end of my senior year of high school and through college I worked part time to save and pay for my college education. My parents could not afford to pay for my college education.

This photo is from the parts department of Montgomery Ward in Rosemead, California. I worked here during the years I attended Cal-State Los Angeles my last 4 years of college. College was 5 years for me as I had an extra year to earn my teaching credential. My first year of college I worked as a Teacher’s Assistant in the Russian department at the University of Redlands. In my high school years I worked as an office assistant at Link-Belt in Montebello. See the huge Icthus I’m wearing? I was never shy about the fact that Jesus Christ was and is my Savior. This was also the early 70’s when the Jesus movement was going strong in Southern California.

Thanking God today for how he’s been with me all these years leading and guiding and protecting me. All the way my Savior leads me…

Five Smiles…

Here are Five things from this last week that made and make me smile. I’m sharing at Five on Friday with Amy and Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne.

On Saturday Dear and I worked for several hours in our yard with chores that needed to be done. Things like pressure washing, cleaning out gutters, weeding, and washing my car.

Smile #1 is our very clean deck after being pressure washed that is ready for the covers to go up on our patio structures soon.

Smile #2 Our pear tree in full blossom with a closeup of it’s blossoms.

Smile #3 Beautiful apple blossoms on our apple tree.

Apple Blossoms

Of all the months that fill the year,
Give April’s month to me,
For earth and sky are then so filled
With sweet variety.

The apple-blossoms’ shower of pearl
Though bent with rosier hue,
As beautiful as woman’s blush,
As evanescent too.

On every bough there is a bud,
In every bud a flower;
But scarcely bud or flower will last
Beyond the present hour.

Now comes a shower-cloud o’er the sky,
Then all again sunshine;
Then clouds again, but brightened with
The rainbow’s coloured line.

Ay, this, this is the month for me:
I could not love a scene
Where the blue sky was always blue,
The green earth always green.

(Letitia E. Landon, 1802-1838)

Smile #4 Lilac Bush getting ready to show all it’s glory.

Smile #5 Camellia’s blooming away with Azaleas getting ready.

I love Spring and I’m always renewed in my attitude and outlook during this beautiful season. More plants in the yard are waiting to show their color and I’ll share those after they are in full form.

I have to say that our hard work on Saturday gave Dear and me the groans and moans every time we had to get up or sit down or climb the stairs. Thankfully our muscles aren’t screaming at us anymore but we still know they weren’t happy with our efforts. Never the less I’ve finally been able to get back to walking most every day this week. It’s time for me to shed some of my fluff!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Five Sister Selfies!

For Amy’s Five on Friday and Susanne’s Friday’s Fave Five I’m sharing 5 sister selfies from our Sister’s Weekend and a bonus selfie with my daughter and daughter in love.

We tried to take one at each stop we made. This first one is in Mount Vernon at Roozengaarde.

This one was taken at Deception Pass and I’m glad none of us fell off the ledge.

This one was taken in Langley above Saratoga Pass on Whidbey Island. I finally took my sunglasses off for this one.

This one is taken in my family room while we were watching episodes of Rosemary and Thyme after our long day away from home.

On Tuesday our sisters Kathy and Lana were gone back to Southern California so Vera and I had a little outing of our own. This selfie was taken in Kirkland at the waterfront on Lake Washington.

This bonus selfie was taken by my daughter in love Laura with my daughter Katie and me at the Seattle Sounders Soccer opener game on Sunday afternoon. My sister Vera was suppose to go with us (she loves sports of all kinds) but she woke up with her back out and couldn’t move. We pumped her with pain relievers and she was better by dinner time and she watched the game on T.V. We started the game out in wonderful sunshine and then a Spring downpour rolled through the stadium that had everyone ducking for cover. Thankfully our season ticket seats are mostly undercover…

My sisters and me and my girls were so thankful to God for how He smiled on us and our adventures this past weekend. Thank you Lord for your love and care over us.

I’ll be coming around to see your five. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Last Five in Feb

Happy last Friday of February to all of you! I’m sharing 5 flashbacks today from February past. These are memories that I like to remember. I will start with February of 2012. My sister Vera is a Leap Year baby so she only gets an official birthday every 4 years. In 2012 her kids threw her a Sweet Sixteen Party since it was her 16th actual birthday. It was such a fun party!

Since this Monday is another actual birthday for her I wanted to share this flashback.

Everyone who came to the party was encouraged to write their response to the I Love Vera because prompt on a white board and take a photo at the photo booth.

In February of 2013 my cousin and his wife came for a visit and I set a table for a meal together.

We gathered around the table to enjoy our visitors from California. My cousin and I are Russian and our moms would make Goluptsi for us so I thought it would be a special treat for our evening. Goluptsi are stuffed cabbages. You can see the recipe here. We had a wonderful salad with lots of goodies chopped in it and dressed with our favorite Persian Dressing.

Since I’ve seen that many of you enjoy knitting and working with your hands I thought I’d share some yarn bombing with you. We saw these yarn bombed trees in the Pioneer square area of Seattle in February of 2014.

“It’s a statement by artist Suzanne Tidwell. She uses a knitting machine, which sounds like a saw and looks like a giant harmonica, to make evenly-stitched striped panels. It takes two or three of these large panels to wrap one tree trunk. She climbs a ladder or sometimes rents a lift to wrap the tree, then hand sews the final seam up the trunk.”

In February of 2015 I set a Valentine’s Day Table for a meal with the family.

And last but not least is February of 2016.

Our beautiful and fun views on the way home from an early Valentine’s Day lunch on Friday the 12th. The upper photo is Lake Washington from downtown Kirkland and the bottom is from Kirkland, too. They decorate this cow and dog sculpture according to the times and what is happening. In March they’ll be decorated for St. Patrick’s Day and then for Easter.

I’m linking up to Five on Friday with Amy at Love Made My Home and with Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Hope your last weekend in February will be good. We’ve had some glorious sunny days and are now expecting some rain for the weekend. I’ve been able to walk without a rain jacket. Dear has a cold with a nagging cough that we suspect he got on his plane ride to or from Austin. I’m hoping he doesn’t share it with me!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Five on Friday