Balancing the Hodgepodge

I think this cake could qualify for my plate of beige food!

A new set of Wednesday Hodgepodge questions have come our way From This Side of the Pond. Thank you, Joyce.

1. What do you make more complicated than it needs to be?

Answering some of the Hodgepodge questions! 🙂

2. What impresses you?

Hard working young people.

3. On a scale of 1-10 how picky of an eater are you? (1=extremely and 10=not at all)

I’ll go with an 8. No liver for me, thank you. Not a fan of raw fish, either.

If you had to eat a meal made entirely of one color what color would you choose?

Beige or light brown as in a Thanksgiving plate of turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes covered in beige gravy and a beige soft roll on the side. Also…see photo up top!

4. What does balance in life mean to you? Does your life currently feel ‘balanced’?

A good combination of home life responsibilities, keeping relationships at peace, and adding in some good adventures is a good balance in life. Giving freely and receiving graciously are important, too. Knowing the God who created me and having peace with Him through Jesus Christ gives me spiritual balance and security.

Currently things are seemingly balanced.

5. If you could travel the world for a year what would be your first destination?

The United Kingdom would be my first and my last destination. It would be amazing to travel all about that Kingdom with that much time. A whole year could be doable if our kids and grands and friends would meet up with us through the year.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

While we were away these three came by our house to water since we were having dry and warm days which isn’t typical for Spring.

This little guy was pleased as punch to find the snacks I left for him and his sister!

Adios April Hodgepodge

We’ve had some beautiful days as April ends.

May is coming and the Hodgepodge is here. Thank you, Joyce!

1. Are you feeling more reset, restart, or full speed ahead as we move into May? Tell us why.

We have to reset. A dear friend of ours passed away and we will now be traveling for his memorial.

Other opportunities have arisen this month, too, and we are shifting our plans to accommodate. We can plan but we do not know what tomorrow holds.

2. Painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, cinema, theatre, music…what’s your favorite form of art? Elaborate.

Music is at the very top for me but the kind of music is specific. Music that honors God is what I appreciate the most. I’m not a fan of music that yells or goes down roads I don’t want to follow. Story music isn’t at the top of my list, either.

I also appreciate painting, sculpture, architecture and literature. These forms are most appreciated outside of the modern realm. I’m not a fan of modern art in most of these forms. Cinema and Theatre are my least favorites.

These photos are from the House of Strauss in Vienna and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England.

3. What time is dinner at your house? How do you feel about leftovers?

These days we call it Linner. We tend to eat between two and three unless we are meeting up for dinner or having our kids over for dinner. If that is the case dinner is usually between five and six. I’m a fan of leftovers!

4.What’s the last thing you fell down a rabbit hole investigating?

When I research places to visit or have visited, I can go down many rabbit holes! I was doing some extra history searches for Český Krumlov this past week. In travels, you can’t learn all about a town in a four hour visit. I try to learn what I can before but when I work on a post, after the fact, there is so much more to learn! It always makes me want to go back to places we’ve been for a second look. 🙂

Vienna will be the next place I’ll go down rabbit holes for my research and my next river cruise post.

5. And now for a question from the book Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me…

At what are you ‘self-taught?’

Our mom cooked 99% of all our meals growing up and she did a lot of baking but it was never with any help from me. I didn’t do a lot of watching of this process, either. I ate all the good things she made but I had a lot of learning to do on my own. My mom’s efforts and her being open to try new things gave me confidence but the hands on learning came after I was married. Trial and error has worked well for me. Our sister Vera has preserved many of our mom’s recipes and I’m thankful for that.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I’m so thankful to the LORD for these two and the fact that they have so much room to roam and enjoy the outdoors!

They peddle to the end of the driveway to wave goodbye when our visits are over and we are heading home. See you soon!

Catching Up

Some things of late that I want to store up in my memories.

Turkeys have been strutting around our property this Spring.

This is the latest puzzle I put together and it was a delight except for the pictures of the puzzle on the box did not show a section of the right side of the puzzle or the very top of the puzzle.

This puzzle was found at Goodwill. It was a sealed puzzle that had never been opened so I was confident all the pieces would be in the box. A fun celebration puzzle to complete for the 250th anniversary of our country!

For the Friday night of our latest Birthday Weekend this recipe for Raspberry Lemon Bars was a hit. Click on the link to find the recipe from Reluctant Entertainer.

There were stories told and stories reenacted that made for lots of laughter during the birthday weekend and afterward. If you know you know. I know these next photos will be a hilarious reminder.

I’ve had some nostalgic days going through photo albums after the death of a dear friend of ours and it was uncanny to come across our sons combined 7th and 9th birthday party photos and to see the similarity to our grandsons party this Spring some thirty eight years later!!

Laura captured this beautiful photo of Colville mountain driving into town for the birthday weekend. She has a knack for capturing beauty around her.

Homeschool Co-op had their last session on Thursday. These three have done well and persevered. That doesn’t mean school is over for the year, though.

Working on the last of the limbs to maneuver to the burn pile on this sunny and windy Friday.

Hope you have a beautiful Spring Day in your corner of the world. If you are in a land below the Equator have a lovely Fall Day!

Our Extravagant Creator

We’ve been working on our own personal part of earth for earth day. God was extravagant when he created earth and all it contains for us to enjoy.

Another Wednesday on this earth and Joyce has a fresh set of questions for us. This is Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. April 22nd is Earth Day…what’s the most ‘out of this world’ place on earth you’ve ever visited? Tell us something about it.

Greg said, ” When I was ten it was Disneyland.”

In our adult years I’m going to say Yellowstone or Badlands.

2. A favorite quote, verse, or song lyric with the word earth in it?

3. What’s the most trivial thing about which you have a strong opinion?

Where to park at Wal-Mart.

4. What’s your most commonly used kitchen utensil or tool? What’s the last thing you made using that tool?

I’m going to say my Chefs Knife. I made roasted vegetables for our family meal last Friday and the onions and potatoes and carrots needed to be cut. I also used it to cut ham to throw into our breakfast egg scramble on Saturday. I love a good sharp Chefs knife! I like all sorts of knives.

5. Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me a great book of 3000 questions, and I’m going to try to use one in our Hodgepodge every week. Here is today’s –

What is your greatest extravagance?

Our trips lately have been extravagant. Extravagance to me is something above and beyond and luxurious. These days I don’t like to penny pinch when we are traveling.

Nice hotels and nice restaurants are my choice. That is not to say we don’t enjoy a nice pub or cafe mixed in during travel. There was a time when we penny pinched and stayed in some sleazy motels and I have stories to tell.

I also am quite happy to be extravagant with our family.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Speaking of the beauty of our earth. I’ll be getting back to our daily travel spots during our Danube River Cruise on Thursday, Lord willing.

Looking forward to your answers this week.

Tiny Tiger is Seven

All the usual suspects gathered for JJ’s Taekwondo/Korean themed birthday party on Saturday at noon. Another amazing cake with a green stripe belt in honor of JJ’s promotion that his mom created.

Two pros helped all of us tie our belts.

JJ showed me his moves.

The food was Korean themed.

JJ enjoyed opening all his presents and he didn’t forget to thank each one of us for his gifts.

There was a high kick contest! I won for low kick!

Last but not least, our Taekwondo pro taught us the 14 moves he is tested on. Everyone was a good sport but none of us got a prize for doing this correctly.

We had glorious sunshine and blue skies for our celebrations.

We moved on to our home for dinner and another birthday celebration.

We celebrated Andrew and by the way, he won high kick earlier in the day!

The weather was beautiful and there was a lot of fun playing ‘tag’ out doors.

We slowed down long enough for a family photo but then played games into the night. We all met up at church on Sunday morning and Addy played a special number during the service, Unashamed by Matthew West. I’m adding the chorus below.

I’m unashamedOf the gospel of Jesus ChristAnd the truth that changed my lifeFor the name above all namesI’m unashamedAnd I will live my faith out loudTake a stand and stand my groundFor the One who took my shameI’m unashamed

After church we all went to our own homes. For some that meant 5-6 hours on the road. Another wonderful weekend celebrating together. We don’t take that for granted.

The weather on this Monday is supposed to be unseasonably warm. We have a couple teens coming to help with our windstorm yard clean-up!

I hope your weekend was good and peaceful and that your Monday is starting out well.

A New Belt!

This week is JJ’s birthday week.

This past Saturday was a Promotion event with JJ’s Tae Kwon Do Group. The Grand Master arrived from Portland to do this promotion in person. The Little Tigers were the first group to show their knowledge and skills. They are first asked a series of questions by the Grand Master and then they show their moves.

At this point JJ has an Orange Stripe Belt.

Orange Stripe Belt off…

Promoted to Green Stripe belt.

Well done, JJ, Congratulations!

Saturday the theme for JJ’s birthday party is Korean and Tae Kwon Do. Korean Food will be on the menu.

Hope you all have a good start to the week.

Addy’s 9th Birthday Party

If you are a fan or have watched ‘Survivor’ or ‘Alone’ you will understand the challenges we enjoyed at Addy’s 9th birthday party. We all gathered on Saturday dressed to survive any challenges thrown at us by our challenge host, (Jeff Probst) Dad Dan.

Addy’s most talented mom made her logs on fire cake or campfire cake! The flames were made from jolly rancher candies!

Before cake and before our survivor challenges began we enjoyed lunch of chili and homemade sourdough and cornbread.

Fortified for the challenges Addy and JJ (the captains) chose their teams.

Team Addy on the left and team JJ on the right with Dan (Jeff) giving the rules and asking the bonus questions for extra supplies to build our shelters. Each team was given a set of supplies to begin and then had the chance to earn extra supplies. The shelters would be judged as to whether they could survive a rain storm (simulated with buckets of water).

If you’ve watched ‘Survivor’ you will notice that Dad Dan had Jeff’s look captured to a T! Here he is giving us the rules and the go ahead!

The Shelter making challenge was borrowed more from the TV show, Alone.

There was a time limit and everyone worked fast to get their shelter completed. JJ’s team had supervisors overseeing the work.

Team Addy’s shelter!

Team JJ’s shelter.

The Bucket test would be after cake and presents!

Time for cake before either Addy or JJ would get soaked or stay dry in the bucket challenge!

Time for presents!

From presents we moved on to the very exciting fire starting challenge with only select materials to get our fires going. The team who’s fire burned through the rope first would win the challenge. No matches only a type of flint, a little kindling and other elements plus wood to get the flames going.

The rope you see was what we needed to burn through to win. Not an easy task. It was a group effort from beginning to end.

We got a flame!!!

It was a windy afternoon and we had that challenge to deal with, too.

Team Addy for the fire making win! What an intense and fun challenge this was!

The final test was to see if team Addy or team JJ would stay dry in their shelter.

Team JJ won this event. Addy got the wet end of this challenge! Well done on your shelter, team JJ!

Thanks to Addy’s mom and dad for hosting such a fun 9th birthday for Addy and guests!

After all the excitement of Addy’s birthday party there were more gatherings for dinner and cake and presents for my belated birthday.

The March birthday girls got the hats and songs at the Mexican restaurant.

We then all gathered at our home. We enjoyed another cake that Addy’s mom made, a Persian cake, for my belated birthday celebration. I was showered with presents and kind words of encouragement.

It was an evening of reminiscing about years gone by and we talked about my mom’s last days and how we had visited her for the last time in person in August of 2013. Laura remembered she had photos from that day on her phone and quickly found this next photo which brought back the memories of our mom wanting to share this portion of Jude with all of us. This is my hand next to the verses that were important to our mom to share.

Here is part of the post that I published on my blog in August of 2013, after our visit with our mom/Baba. Our mom was received in heaven by her Savior on September 13, 2013.

After the beautiful wedding on Saturday we packed up and headed to my mom and pop’s apartment for a short visit before our flight home. We had a wonderful time around my mom’s hospital bed where she shared her favorite verses from the Bible with us with some added words of counsel. She was able to walk into the living area for a while to eat and watch the video of the wedding of grandson Caleb and sweet Marie that was recorded with my sister’s IPad during the wedding ceremony. By this point she had to go back to her bed and rest. Dear, Josh, Laura, Katie and I said our goodbyes knowing this would be the last time we would see her alive. Heavy…

Jude 17-25:

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. and have mercy on those who doubt, save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by flesh.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever, Amen.

It was a lovely way to end a day of joy celebrating our dear granddaughter and being celebrated by my dear family.

Thanks for surviving our 9th and 75th celebration!!

The First Day of Spring

Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo arrived early for the big birthday weekend. On Friday, Addy’s actual birthday day, we showered her with love. Preparations were already underway for her party that would be on Saturday. While cake making and other preparations were being started we also enjoyed revisiting the Rock Band days. Dan had pulled out the drums and Josh and Laura brought the microphones. Addy and JJ have enjoyed the drums for a while and with the microphones added, singing commenced. So many memories from years gone by with this interactive program. By the time we gather for JJ’s birthday party in April I won’t be surprised to see a guitar join the fun.

Friday night we had a table at a fundraiser for the local Rotary Club. It was an Irish themed event with a corned beef and cabbage meal included. The reason we were there was to see the special entertainment, the Haran Irish dancers that Addy is part of.

We all wore a little something to go with the theme of the night.

Besides the dancers there was a musician who played several Irish tunes.

We always enjoy seeing our favorite dancer, Addy May! They were the stars of the evening.

Our dinner table took advantage of the photo op before we all headed home to rest up for Saturday!

Photos from Addy’s Epic ‘Survivor’ party will be coming soon. It was so much fun!

Land Legs

“Land legs” refers to, the ability to regain balance and stability on solid ground after being on a ship, boat, or in motion for an extended period, essentially reversing the effect of “sea legs.” It is the process of readapting to a stable environment, which often leaves travelers feeling as though the ground is still rocking or swaying.

We are in the process of regaining our stability.

We made it home from Cambridge after a 2 hour bus ride to Heathrow, a 9 hour flight into Seatac (Seattle) and a 1 hour hopper to Spokane. Our son was waiting for us when we got off the plane a little after 9pm. The back seat of our car was decorated for a happy birthday greeting for me with crepe paper and balloons and there was a card for me from Addy and JJ. Such a sweet hello. Dan left his truck at our house so that he could drive us all the way home instead of us dropping him off at his house and then us continuing on home. Very thoughtful and very much appreciated since we were very tired after starting our journey 9am England time. (8 hours ahead of our Pacific Standard Time) If I’m figuring that out correctly, it means we were traveling for approximately 22 hours!

These are the sweet cards waiting for me when I got off the plane.

We got our hugs Sunday morning at church from Addy and JJ. It seems like they grew 6 inches since we saw them last!

We had a great trip but it is always so lovely to return to all the comforts of home and family.

Seventy Five!

Today is my seventy fifth birthday. God has been so good to me. We will be traveling all the live long day today. From Cambridge to London to Seattle to Spokane and then home again, home again, jiggity jig!

It will be good to be home again and to get our bearings.

Here are some birthday photos from the past.