Category Archives: Grandchildren

Determination or…

…the many faces of mastering the marker pen lid.

I should have videoed this series because this little guys determination to take the lids off the pens was hilarious. He would yell when he finally gave up and wanted one of us to get the lid off for him.

Auntie Katie was a great helper.

Prayer for our sons and grandson and other young men in our lives from the third chapter of Proverbs:

The Rewards of Wisdom

1 My son, do not forget my teaching,
But let your heart keep my commandments;
2 For length of days and years of life
And peace they will add to you.
3 Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 So you will find favor and good repute
In the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your body
And refreshment to your bones.
9 Honor the Lord from your wealth
And from the first of all your produce;
10 So your barns will be filled with plenty
And your vats will overflow with new wine.
11 My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord
Or loathe His reproof,
12 For whom the Lord loves He reproves,
Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.

13 How blessed is the man who finds wisdom
And the man who gains understanding.
14 For her profit is better than the profit of silver
And her gain better than fine gold.
15 She is more precious than jewels;
And nothing you desire compares with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand;
In her left hand are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are pleasant ways
And all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her,
And happy are all who hold her fast.
19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth,
By understanding He established the heavens.
20 By His knowledge the deeps were broken up
And the skies drip with dew.
21 My son, let them not vanish from your sight;
Keep sound wisdom and discretion,
22 So they will be life to your soul
And adornment to your neck.
23 Then you will walk in your way securely
And your foot will not stumble.
24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Do not be afraid of sudden fear
Nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes;
26 For the Lord will be your confidence
And will keep your foot from being caught.

Stars and Stripes Weekend

How cute are our little grands sporting their 4th of July matching outfits??

On the Fourth this year we gathered at Jamie’s Uncle’s home for a potluck barbecue. I didn’t take a photo of the salad I contributed but it was from our Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog and here’s the link. A refreshing summer Watermelon Cucumber Salad from Bev.

Before we left to the 4th of July gathering I worked on our backyard planters weeding. Our front planters need a lot of work still and I hope to get to them this week.

A walk about the yard taking photos of all the pretty things and weeds that are blooming.

Our day lilies are in their glory right now as is this Clematis.

After a wonderful 5th of July service at church honoring God and country we took a Sunday afternoon drive up Aladdin Road all the way to the Washington US Border with Canada. On the way back we took a side road to check out Deep Lake. I’m not able to upload the photos from this spur of the moment road trip yet.

We are expecting some out of state visitors this week. Looking forward to that. What is up in your corner of the world?

Catching My Breath…

We’ve enjoyed some nonstop fun since Friday afternoon and I’ll need to catch my breath before I can share all the activity. So good to have our little family reunited for the first time since Christmas.

(Not in any particular order for this post)

Seeing Auntie Katie and Uncle Andrew for the first time in 6 months.

Enjoying a Baba and JJ tradition of singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat with hand motions.

Three generations.

We had a mix of weather this weekend, cloudy, wet, bright, dark, sunny, showers, thunder, warm, and dry. So far we are lower in Yellow Jacket and Wasp swarms and higher in mosquitoes.

Hopefully I can come around and see what you’ve been up to soon.

Father’s Day Celebration 2020

For our Father’s day celebration in Colville we gathered at Dan and Jamie’s Saturday evening. It was a small group with Dear, me, Dan, Jamie, Addy, Jaymison and Linda (Granny). I was happy to be able to get some snaps of the grands with their dear Granny, Jamie’s Mom.

Happy Father’s Day to our son. Let’s see how many shots I can get with everyone looking at the camera.

I think we did good with 3 out of 6!

And on the official Father’s Day we received this photo via text! Happy Father’s Day to our son, Daniel. We are happy that he is a hands on dad. He doesn’t even shy away from those diaper changes others would refuse. We pray that Dan and Jamie will always be a team in leading, guiding and teaching our grandchildren in the things that matter most.

This coming weekend we’ll get a photo of the whole family together. We are having a couple days with temperatures in the upper 80’s here! I mowed today and will try to do some weed wacking in the early hours on Tuesday. After Tuesday we’ll cool down some. Summer has arrived for at least a couple of days. We had a cooler Spring than normal and we were commenting on the fact that the wasps and yellow jackets are fewer in number. Hooray!

These Two…

They have fun together and they frustrate each other, too. It will be interesting to see how they interact as JJ gets older.

It was a lot easier to take photos when there was just one grandchild. Jaymison and Addy are on the move in different directions much of the time and Jaymison, when not on the move, wants me to hold him so taking photos is difficult. I will never complain that JJ wants me to hold him. Too soon he’ll be off on bigger adventures without his Baba…

June 19th on the kids’ driveway. We’ve been getting some nice sunshine here and there. I got some fun photos at our local Father’s Day celebration and as soon as I can upload them I’ll share them. Hope you all are enjoying some peaceful moments at the beginning of Summer. We have a fun weekend planned ahead with all of our little family together for the first time since Christmas here in our neck of the woods. Got to get busy freshening up the linens in our two guest rooms. It will be a wonderful way to finish off June.

A June view from our kids driveway on our way home. We never get tired of this great view.

Happy first week of summer to all of you!

Friday Fete

It’s not a hummingbird but it flies like one. What kind of bug is this?

Turkeys continue to visit here and there.

Fun to catch the fan.

This little guy is probably going to have a growth spurt. He’s eating everything in sight.

Addy is enjoying her bicycle and she got a bell and handle streamers this week. I think she likes them and riding with her new accessories!

I’m limiting social media at present. Many mean well but there is just too much noise. I need to protect my head and heart. I haven’t stopped praying. I’m reading my Bible which is the best Truth I can digest right now. The only dialogues I’ll participate in are face to face, one on one conversations. That way I can see and hear the tone of the conversation instead of trying to guess what is being communicated. I do have phone conversations with my “Coast” kids since I can’t see them face to face right now.

My morning readings this month are Psalm 19, Psalm 119, The Gospel of Luke and then I read a chapter in Proverbs that corresponds with the day. I finish up with a good dose of Spurgeon. Thursday was the 4th so I read Proverbs 4. These verses stood out to me;

Proverbs 4:13-18 (ESV)

Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
    guard her, for she is your life.
14 Do not enter the path of the wicked,
    and do not walk in the way of the evil.
15 Avoid it; do not go on it;
    turn away from it and pass on.
16 For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;
    they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness
    and drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
    which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

Hope you all have a good Friday and great weekend in your corner of the world.

Bubbles

Mother’s Day weekend was such a treat with not only weather but a chance for some of our family to finally be together again. We soaked up every minute! After tea time and brunch we had some sunshine playtime.

This collage above was from Saturday evening not Mother’s Day.

All hands on deck to entertain the little ones!

All the family but two were able to gather on Mother’s Day Weekend. Such a good sweet time for all.

Rotary Trail Walk ~ The People

On Mother’s Day weekend we met up at the Rotary Trail at the Golf course in Colville for a morning walk. Josh and Laura were part of the Virtual World Concern 5K to raise money to fight human trafficking, Free Them 5K.

It was a beautiful morning for a walk.

Addy walked most of the trail but she also was able to climb into “Bob” when she got a little weary.

Laura and Joshua’s Company were able to raise a good chunk of money for the cause.

Addy is telling Uncle Josh that this sign says, “no dog pooping here”.

Back to the car and it was time for a nap for this little guy. So nice to get snuggles! We all headed back to our house for Swedish Pancakes and Little Smokies, thanks Dear!

In future posts I’ll share the birds and other things we saw from the trail. We will definitely take advantage of this nice trail in the future.

Babysitting

Gramps and I got to babysit last week so that Addy and Jaymison’s mommy and daddy could have a much needed time away together. It was only 2 hours but I’m sure it was refreshing for them.

We were entertained by the two of them. Be forewarned this will be a photo overload!

They woke up from their naps and were not distressed that mommy and daddy were not home. That’s always a relief.

We stayed a little while after mommy and daddy came home and enjoyed some dinner together.

We figured out a short term solution to my uploading photo problem. I’m taking my computer to Dan and Jamie’s when we visit there and using their more efficient internet to get my photos onto my blog. I’m amazed at the ease of this process at their place compared to ours. They have line of sight internet whereas we are stuck with satellite for the time being. Hoping for a future tower with line of sight from our country bungalow.

Our county has moved to stage 2 guidelines and some restaurants are opening at 50% capacity, single use menus, disinfecting after each customer, etc. etc.  Our family’s stage 3 status is a personal move not a statewide move. Our Eastside family even when our daughter-in-laws people gather with us is just nine of us, not counting Addy and Jaymison. For the most part we will just be getting together with the six of us, Dear, me, Dan, Jamie, Addy and Jaymison. We feel comfortable with this.

Hugs Allowed!

Our little Eastside family went to Phase Three for gathering and hugging on May 2nd, 2020. We had Dan, Jamie, Addy and Jaymison over for dinner on that Saturday. First things first…we got a good hug from Addy after she was out of her car seat and up the two steps to Gramps and Baba’s house.

Jaymison came in with his mommy and I wondered if he’d be willing to come to me after the many times we had seen him without responding to his little arms lifted up for me to pick him up. I was overjoyed (to tears) when he came right to me and then laid his sweet head against my shoulder and stayed there until it was time to sit down for dinner.

We had a nice dinner and then it was time to get re-acquainted with fun in the playroom. Jaymison is getting the “lay of the land” at our country bungalow.

Addy is a pro about all things here already.

Such a relief and joy to be together.

Thinking about this separation time and distancing time we are all having this morning and wondering about how special, amazing, glorious it will be when we finally see Jesus face to face? To behold His glory in person. Will we hug? Will we hold back and be in awe or will we run up and give Him a bear hug. Maybe both? The longer I live the more I’m looking forward to His appearing.

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Titus 2:11-14 (ESV)