Goodbye June!

Before we welcome July we have some major events that we celebrated at the end of June. Dan and Jamie celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary on Thursday (6-27-2019) and Gramps and I babysat while they enjoyed a quiet meal together. Before they left for their date I captured photos of JJ who only had eyes for his mommy. He cooed and baby talked and smiled at his mommy.

The next day on Friday the 28th of June we celebrated Dear’s retirement from his contracting job he’s had since last August. Our kids sent this great bouquet to congratulate their dad on a well earned retirement from many years of work well done and being a shining example of integrity in the workplace. This is the second time Dear has tried to retire. We are thinking this time will stick.

After we packed up and dropped off his computer/monitors/work cellphone and other bits and pieces at Fedex to ship back to the company we stopped at Colville Pour House for a celebratory pint. Cheers to Dear!

This sign arrived on Thursday. Our niece sent the sign with the farewell message our dear old Pop would always give us when we were ready to leave from a visit with him or end a phone call. Three times sets things in stone you see. “I love you, I love you, I love you”. Thank you dear Miss for having these signs made for us in memory of your Dzeda, our Pop. We love you, we love you, we love you!

A great finish to June included a meal out at El Ranchito on Saturday to celebrate Dan and Jamie’s 4 year anniversary. Dear and I gathered with Jamie’s family for lunch. The next photo is from the drive home from Chewelah to Colville after our lunch.

On Sunday we had our last service in our sanctuary at church which is being extended and remodeled to include room for 100 more seats and a baptistry. We will be meeting at the community college on Sundays until the sanctuary is done the end of August. We had a picnic in the park after our service and it was nice to meet some more folks and have conversations. After the picnic some of us headed back to the church to completely empty out the sanctuary so that it can be gutted this week.

And that’s a wrap for the month of June!

Happy Canada Day to our good friends to the North of the U.S.A.!

Can You Imagine?

Zephaniah 3:17 New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁷The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Can you imagine God singing over you?

Are you a child of God? Have you responded to His call to repent and be born again? Jesus died for our sins and rose again so that our sins can be forgiven and we can be saved and be born again. Is Jesus your Lord and Savior? Are you following and growing in relationship with Him?

If you answer yes then you are His child. You are one of His lambs. Stop and consider the fact that the God of the universe sings over you…

My daily readings right now include the Bible, Daily Readings by C.H. Spurgeon, The Pleasures of God by John Piper and Pray Big by Alistair Begg. In Piper’s book I’m in the chapter called “The Pleasure of God in doing good to all who Hope in Him”. The beginning sentence reads; “Can you imagine what it would be like to hear God singing?”

This chapter brought my thoughts to who I have sung over in my life. There is a simple song I sang over each of our children when they were babies. I made up the simple words to a simple tune and sang it when I held them or rocked them.

There’s a little boy I love, his name is Joshua, Joshua.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Joshua, Joshua.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.

I sang the same song over our second born son, Daniel.

There’s a little boy I love, his name is Daniel, Daniel.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Daniel, Daniel.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.

Then we had our daughter, Katie.

There’s a little girl I love, her name is Katie, Katie.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Katie, Katie.
She’s my little girl, I love her so.
She’s my little girl, I lo-ove her so.

Now 40 years later I’m singing this same simple song over our granddaughter and grandson.

There’s a little girl I love, her name is Addyson, Addyson.
There’s a little girl I love, her name is Addyson, Addyson.
She’s my little girl, I love her so.
She’s my little girl, I lo-ove her so.

and

There’s a little boy I love, his name is Jaymison, Jaymison.
There’s a little boy I love, his name is Jaymison, Jaymison.
He’s my little boy, I love him so.
He’s my little boy, I lo-ove him so.

Today I’m dumbfounded in thoughts about God singing over me. God singing over His lambs. I’m waiting on God for the day when He returns to gather his lambs. How about you? “Open our heart-eyes to see much further and see much better, to the riches of your eternity.” ~Begg

John 17:24-26 English Standard Version (ESV)

²⁴Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Ask God to make his name known to you…

A Week of Mosaics

Weekend last we had some precious time with our grands and kids.

On Monday the electric company sent tree trimmers to top some of the trees in our backyard that were encroaching on the transformer and wires.

On the first day of summer I took a walk about our country bungalow to document the plants that are growing and blooming.

These are the last of the pink peonies we have in our yard. The crystal vase on the left was a wedding gift from my little babushka. Some of you might recognize the Princess House vase on the right.

We can take no credit for planting anything you see in the collages/mosaics. We are enjoying the fruit of someone else’s labor in the planning and planting on our property. What’s left to us is weeding and pruning in the future.

Linking up with Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf for Mosaic Monday.

Do you have any traveling plans for the summer? Lord willing, we plan to take some day trips into Canada and around our area and we are hoping for visitors to our country bungalow. This is Dear’s last week of his part-time contracting job so he will be officially retired come Friday afternoon. I told him I’d like to celebrate by making an appointment for a massage for myself. He questioned my logic since he’s the one retiring.

Hello Summer!

Now that summer is here our temps have been lower. I’m not complaining. I much prefer temps in the 70’s instead of the 80’s and 90’s.

Addy is happy with a storage tub filled with some water to play in. Who needs a fancy blow up pool?

I don’t know if I’ve shared these quotes from Alistair Begg before but I’m posting them here for my benefit.

“Don’t erect a monument to all your disappointments.”

“There is a perverse sense of satisfaction in our feeling sorry for ourselves”

And some verses from Psalm 119: 133, 160, 175:

Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.

The sum of your word is truth and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

Let my soul live and praise you and let your rules help me.

Have a good Saturday everyone.

“Baba, Where’s My Rag”?

Our Father’s day table this year was Red, White and Blue inspired by Flag Day. There were 11 of us counting Addy and JJ. Addy’s chair is not in these photos. At all the meals we’ve had at our house when I set the table with napkins and napkin rings I’ve added one for Addy too, on her highchair tray. For this meal I overlooked doing that. Baba fail! When Laura helped Addy into her highchair Addy looked around at the table I had set and said, “Where’s my rag?”. I hurried to grab her a napkin ring and napkin. I love that she calls a cloth napkin a rag.

The photo below is Addy in her chair at her house but she has an identical one at our house. I did not take photos of everyone around our Father’s Day table or the delicious food we had. Blogger fail. Since Addy’s question was the quote of the day I wanted to include a photo of her in this post. In the future I will not forget Addy’s rag.

When Addy saw this banner (bunting) she said, “how cute”.

Reminds me of the song we used to sing…

The Lord is mine and I am His

His banner over me is love

He brought me to his banqueting table

His banner over me is love

I’ll keep our red, white and blue décor up through the summer.

It is staying light so late here in the northeast corner of Washington State. It was so light when we hit the sack at nine. Today we are heading to Spokane for an appointment. We’ll do a little shopping while we are there, too. Colville has a Wal-Mart, a Country Store, a North 40, a Builder’s supply, an Outdoor Sports store, a couple small décor stores, a few furniture stores, a Do-It Center, and a small independent Sears. When we go to Spokane we like to hit the Home Depot, Costco, Trader Joe’s, Hobby Lobby, Fred Meyer, At Home, T.J. Maxx and Total Wine.

More and more we are learning to do without the Spokane stores that we don’t have in Colville. I’m learning to appreciate Wal-Mart. When we lived on the Coast (Seattle area) I very rarely stepped foot in a Wal-Mart.

Today is the last day of Spring! Yikes! Enjoy the day dear bloggers and my other friends who visit here.

2 Months ~Jaymison Joshua

Jaymison Joshua’s 2 month mark has come and gone and before this time gets away from me I want to document it. He is nine weeks old today. It is so easy to concentrate on firstborns with no competition for attention. When you have a toddler around during the stages of life of the second born it’s easy to get distracted. That’s life and it comes with some good benefits for the second born, too. It’s not all bad to not be in the limelight all the time.

Here are our firstborn and second born. This photo was taken on Father’s Day 2019.

“Wait a minute Baba, this post is all about me so stop with the distractions.”

Saturday June 15th.

“I see you, Baba.”

Baba and Gramps love talking to you and watching you. We love you!

JJ, you have our full attention.

We thank God for you and ask Him to lead you and guide you to walk with Him.

“There’s Auntie Laura taking pictures of me and Baba.”

You and Uncle Joshua chillin on the couch.

Here you are with the guys on Father’s Day 2019.

Numbers 6:24-26 English Standard Version (ESV)

²⁴The Lord bless you and keep you;
²⁵the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
²⁶the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Say Cheese!

On Monday Dear and I headed over to our kids’ place to help out. My help was of the play and cuddly kind. Addy found this little camera in her toy chest and we had some hilarious fun with it. She gave me instructions on where to stand when she was going to take a photo of me. Too cute. She’s learned a lot from those who want photos of her.

She got her work clothes on and sun hat on so she could work in the garden with her mama. I stayed inside and watched and cuddled Jaymison.

After lunch Addy got to choose one small lollipop to enjoy. She got a stash of candy from the Kettle Falls Parade this past Saturday. Her first experience with candy galore! She wanted to see her red tongue so Dear took this photo of her.

I’m flying to the Coast today and will be in Canada tomorrow so if you don’t hear from me you’ll know why. Looking forward to seeing our Coast kids and the “Girls” in Canada.

Quotes of the Week

Little Sins

Catch the foxes for us,
the little foxes
that spoil the vineyards.
Song of Songs 2:15

A little thorn can cause much suffering. A small cloud may hide the sun. Tiny foxes spoil the vineyards; and little sins do mischief to the tender heart. These small sins burrow in the soul and fill it with what is hateful to Christ, and thus our comfortable fellowship and communion with Him is spoiled. A great sin cannot destroy a Christian, but a little sin can make him miserable.

~Spurgeon

They are not seeking truth but seeking to put forth their own point of view ~ Linda

It cannot end there for a true believer. One with genuine faith cannot hear the Lord’s words and walk away without acting on them. The faithful will be more than shocked, more than amazed, more than admiring–they will be obedient. They are building a structure on solid rock.

* Obeying the words of Christ is equivalent to building on solid rock.

Obedience is the inevitable manifestation of true faith.

The state of mind that refuses obedience is pure and simple unbelief.

Faith obeys. Unbelief rebels.

~Excerpts from The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur

Becoming a Christian is waging a war against yourself.

Are you willing to abandon the sovereignty you exercise over your own life and confess Jesus as Lord?

~From a sermon on Matthew 7:13-17 by John MacArthur

One man with God is a majority though there be a thousand on the other side. ~ Spurgeon

All these quotes came from my readings and what I listened to these past couple weeks. They are for my own benefit and hopefully yours, too.

We drove to Spokane yesterday to do some shopping and when we arrived at the kids house to drop off their items we enjoyed quite the noisy thunderstorm. Every time the thunder rumbled, Addy asked, “What’s that?” One of the times she wanted me to hide with her on the couch with a pillow in front of our faces. It seems JJ can’t sleep well when it’s too quiet. Jamie tried to have him sleep in his own room with the monitor on. He kept waking up. She finally brought him into the living area with music going, Addy making noise and the vacuum going and he fell right to sleep and stayed asleep. Hmm. I got some extra cuddle time with JJ while we were there, too. When we arrived home our power was out but came back on shortly after 9 PM. Glad that was a short outage. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Little brother content and asleep with all the noise a busy family produces!

“He’s Soooo Cute”

“Addy told me today that she LOVES her baby brother and he is just soooooo cute!”

Jamie posted this on Facebook yesterday and I had to ~~steal~~ borrow the photo and share. Addy is articulating whole sentences and her vocabulary grows every day.

And drum roll please….Jaymison pooped yesterday! That was on day 10 people, so we are thrilled with the news and pray that things will get a bit more regular now. Thank you for all of you who pray for big things and little things and in between things.

The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6 (ESV)