Category Archives: Mosaic Monday

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.

St. John Vianney Chapel ~ Kenmore

While I was “on the coast”, besides spending time with the Mennonite Girls in Canada, I was able to have some extended time with our Coast Kids. On Thursday afternoon my daughter-in-law and I were able to visit this chapel in Kenmore where she and her family have a lot of history. The chapel is now a part of Bastyr University which is an alternative medicine university. I’m happy that they have kept the chapel in tact. St. John Vianney church have built a new church further down the road from this location. The stained glass windows are amazing works of art. I hope they will always be preserved.

After we spent time in the chapel we drove past our former home in Kenmore and were a wee bit disappointed in the upkeep of the property. Laura’s parents have also sold their homestead in this past year and we had the same feeling when we drove past her childhood home.

Later on Thursday evening we had a tasty dinner at Josh and Laura’s with Andrew, Katie and my sister Lana and her husband Steve. I was so pleased that we were able to have this time of fellowship together while I was in town. On Friday I got some alone shopping in and when Katie was done with work we spent a few hours together and met up with Josh for dinner, too. My time on “The Coast” was filled to the brim with what matters most.

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

I’m catching up after being away from home and this will be a busy week into the weekend, too. Hopefully I’ll have some good pockets of time to visit my favorite blogs. Hope you all have a good week ahead.

Front and Back and the Shop Pad

I took some photos while Dear was removing part of our fence to get ready for the work force that would be prepping the area for his future shop.

The equipment arrived bright and early on Tuesday the 28th of May.

The pad is ready for further preparations for Dear’s shop. The structure will be next and the concrete floor is the last thing you do. We are really open now to the street on this side of our property. We haven’t seen any deer in the back acres yet with this new open invitation. They are creatures of habit and coming into our backyard hasn’t been part of their habit…yet.

I’ll be linking up later this weekend to Mosaic Monday with Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf.

Merry Month of May Mosaics

Our oldest flew in for the weekend to enjoy his niece and nephew while his wife was on an annual girls weekend away with her college roommates. Addy loves her uncle Josh and it’s fun to hear them interact and laugh.

Spring is greening and blooming at our country bungalow.

Some plants we recognize, others we have no clue. We aren’t even sure if they are a weed or flowers.

We have found at least 6 Peony plants on our acreage. I’m quite excited to see if the blooms are all alike or a variety.

We rescued this windmill from our kids property a couple years ago and moved it to our home in Kenmore and put it in our yard. When we packed up to move to our place in the country we dissassembled the windmill and moved it here. Dear reassembled it on Saturday and we set it in this spot.

We’ve had a couple days of rain and mowing was delayed. Tomorrow will be dry and I’ll try out our new grass catcher attachment on our riding mower. Hopefully using the catcher will help decrease the dandelion population.

Lots of times poop is the reason for prayer requests and this time it is literal. For my blogging friends who pray, could you please continue to pray for our little Jaymison, that he would be able to poop at least every 3 days. Thank you.

I’m linking up to Mosaic Monday with Angie from Letting Go of the Bay Leaf.

All Work and No Play…

…makes Jack a Dull Boy.

We gave a lot of good energy to our back acres on Friday and Saturday morning. I am so happy to have learned about the tarp trick for gathering and moving weeds and brush!

We found new places for some of our wall art that we brought from our home in Kenmore.

As the saying applies…we are all decked out.

Birds have been flying hard into our slider and practically knock themselves unconscious. Dear helped revive one with a warm cloth as it shivered.

On Friday evening we played with Addy while her folks went out on a date.

Don’t worry they had a nice dinner before they headed to Wal-Mart.

While we were playing on the east side of the state our Coast kids were out celebrating our favorite son-in-law’s 30th birthday! They went out for German food and Axe throwing.

Looks like they played bocce ball, too.

The Birthday boy deserves one photo all by himself. He landed both those axes in the center circle, throwing them both at the same time!

The Eastsiders sent a selfie wishing Andrew a happy birthday on the Coast.

We are thinking of forming a singing group called Crowns and Axes.

This celebration on the Coast made my heart sing.

Katie, Laura, and Josh fly in Monday night to be here for BBB’s birth. Andrew will drive over on Thursday to welcome BBB. Time will tell on what or when I’ll be posting next.

In other news: Our pastor is stranded in Dallas trying to get home from Florida where he was doing some teaching. His connecting flight was cancelled and he didn’t make it home Saturday as planned. Now we hear he might not be able to get a flight until Tuesday. The weather has been the problem. Two of our Deacons had to step in last minute and deliver a message this morning for Palm Sunday. They did a good job encouraging us to spend some time this Holy week in thought and preparation for our Easter Celebration.

Are you doing anything in preparation for Easter?

One of my readings by Spurgeon hit the mark with my heart…Even in the Face of Mockery…

O Jesus, “despised and rejected by men,” how could You die for men who treated You so badly? Here is amazing love, love divine, love beyond degree. We despised You in our pre-converted days, and even since our new birth we have given the world a place in our hearts, and yet You bled to heal our wounds and died to give us life. O that we could set You on a glorious high throne in all men’s hearts! We would ring out Your praises over land and sea until men would universally adore you just as they once unanimously rejected You.

Linking up with Angie for Mosaic Monday.

Spring is Coming!

Spring here in Colville starts out as the season of mud from all the snow melting. Hopefully rain showers won’t compound the season of mud.

This is an exciting week with the start of Spring coinciding with our granddaughter’s 2nd birthday. Our little BBB (Baby Boy Bayles) is growing as he should and mommy is healthy. We never take this for granted and we are thankful.

We have a new fun game at our house that Dear and Addy enjoyed while we watched her one evening last week. It’s a mini kind of handball using small bouncy balls in the hall. It caused such joy and belly laughs!

On Saturday evening we enjoyed a meal with Addy and her parents of Corned Beef and Cabbage with Lemon Meringue Pie for dessert. More handball in the hall and the traditional things Addy enjoys when she visits Baba and Gramps were on the agenda, too. We are taking in and enjoying these days with young grandchildren.

We are looking forward to this week and next weekend in particular as all our kids will be here for 2 birthday celebrations and a baby shower for our soon to arrive grandson. Trips to the airport and nonstop fun are on the schedule. I’ll have to get my visiting to your blogs early in the week before all my attention is taken up with the face to face interactions I’ve been missing with our “Coast Kids”.

Joining Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf for Mosaic Monday.

Mosaic Monday ~ Deer

We have a very steep slope at the back of our property and we were surprised to see these deer traversing the slope last weekend. This was the first time we’ve seen any animals on the slope. They arrived at dusk.

I had to use my long zoom lens to get the closeups.

It’s always fun to see wildlife on our property.

I’m linking up with Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf for Mosaic Monday.

Our snow is melting here in Colville. We are seeing more and more of the landscape that is not covered in snow.

For the Birds…

For Mosaic Monday I’m sharing some collages/mosaics of our backyard visitors.

Red-Winged Black Bird

These backyard Thrushes and Flickers have been the most fun to watch.

This next visitor surprised us along with the female eagle that I didn’t get good shots of as they came flying into the trees in our back acreage. We hope they were scouting a spot to build a nest. I’ll have a full post dedicated to the Eagles soon

Joining Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf for Mosaic Monday.

We woke up to frigid temperatures this morning. It got down to -6 before it inched up again. After church it was a balmy 27 degrees. The sun has a lot to do with that. The stars were amazing to see in the night sky and morning before dawn skies. Spectacular. We’ve never lived somewhere outside of the city lights so stars were hard to see but now we get an eyeful! While standing and looking up in the sky that song “In the stars His handiwork I see, on the wind He speaks with majesty, though he ruleth over land and sea, what is that to me” comes to mind. It’s an oldie but a goodie.

Mosaic Monday ~ Snowshoeing

We bought snowshoes at Costco last week and I’ve been walking around our property getting used to them. When you have snowy winters it’s hard to get regular walking routines in. At least that’s the excuse I’m going to use. Ice is also a danger and at my age a fall on ice isn’t recommended. We live in the country and there are no malls to walk in. I’m encouraged with my first three tries in the snowshoes.

Here’s hoping I can use this new form of winter exercise work off all those hibernating calories.

So far, Dear has to help me get them on. Getting them off is easier.

We had a full day yesterday and then in the evening someone was in the kitchen with me…

As ominous as this figure seems to be, she’s just my dear granddaughter, Addy.

Baba’s vest and Gramps’ hat.

Later she switched outfits and became Cinderella. Those photos will come later.

So thankful for the time we had together with Dan, Jamie and Addy on Saturday evening. They came for dinner. Also so thankful for my Dear who patiently puts my snowshoes on for me and tightens them just right.

Linking up with Angie for Mosaic Monday.

My Favorite Valentine

For Mosaic Monday this week I’m sharing photos and mosaics/collages of Friday last (2-15-19).

Before we left for the Spokane airport on Friday morning I had the table set and ready for our Friday evening dinner for 6.

We picked up our granddaughter’s granny at the Spokane airport and stopped for lunch in Deer Park on our way back to Colville. The roads were fine for us even with the snow falling in Spokane. We enjoyed a new spot to us in Deer Park called the Salty Dog. At the Salty Dog we took this selfie to send to our granddaughter letting her know that Granny and Baba love her.

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We made it home by 3:30 and began food preparations for our dinner together at 5:00. Filet Mignon, roasted vegetables, salad with Persian dressing and a Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake for dessert.

Addy was sporting some new clothes that Auntie LoLo (Laura) sent her in the mail.

Addy loved seeing all the hearts and was skillful in taking them off and putting them back. She has great small motor skills.

We’ve had more snow since Friday and I’ve been enjoying taking lots of photos of birds that have congregated on one particular bush in our back yard. For now I’m sharing these photos for Angie’s Mosaic Monday. I really appreciate you, Angie. You are a great hostess for this meme!