Easter’s Coming Hodgepodge

It’s time to answer the questions of the week that Jo From This Side of the Pond has gathered for us.

1. Do you celebrate Easter? If so what are your plans this year? Did you have egg hunts as a kid?

Yes, indeed, we celebrate Easter, our risen Savior and what His death, burial and resurrection means to all of us. We will be in church Sunday morning and then gather at our kids home to watch the littles hunt for eggs and have a meal together. All of our family and our daughter-in-law’s family will be together and this year dear friends will be with us, too.

My growing up family did not have egg hunts. We did enjoy hard boiled eggs and hitting them on top of our siblings heads to crack them before we peeled them.

When our kids were little we had hunts of m&m’s and other candy in cupcake paper sleeves around the house before we went to church.

One Easter when our kids were married and before grandkids we had a hunt in the yard with a golden Easter egg that had $50 in it!

2. What’s your favorite bread to find in a bread basket?

Any bread that is fresh and soft. I have favorites that go with certain dishes. I love many kinds of bread, French, Italian, Rye, Farmers, Sourdough, Challah, Pita, Lavash, Flat Bread, Kulich, Paska, Pishky, Indian Fry Bread…

So thankful I’m gluten tolerant!

3. Your favorite chick flick?

Pride and Prejudice, the original BBC version with Colin Firth.

4.Tax day is rapidly approaching in the US of A…what’s something you currently find ‘taxing’?

There’s a thing I’m in charge of that is mostly out of my control. I just have to be there and make it work at the last minute. I’m in charge of other people who will show up and depend on me to tell them what to do for this out of my control event. That is not my comfort zone. I’m working hard to organize the un-organizable. I’m feeling taxed!

5. Have you ever ridden in a taxi? Do you have a funny-scary-crazy-interesting taxi story to share? Do you use any of the newer taxi-like services such as Uber?

Yes, I have stories. Dear and I had an awful, harrowing ride from O’Hare airport to downtown Chicago for one of his conferences. You know how you have to stand in line and wait for the next available taxi? Well we got a real doozie. We should have refused his ride and waited for another after he opened the trunk and there was no room for our luggage because he had a molded plastic outdoor chair in the trunk. What? Then the taxi smelled of tobacco. Ugh. Then his driving skills were horrendous. We think he might have lived in his taxi. Oye. We praised the Lord when we made it to the hotel.

When we were in D.C. for another conference I ordered a taxi to take me to a Hillwood Estate a Russian treasures house in the outskirts of D.C. When the taxi driver saw where I wanted to go he wasn’t pleased because it would take too much of his time instead of getting quick easy money making rides from the conference attendees. Short hops from the hotels to the convention center where the conference was being held. He drove me to the convention center stopped and had me get out. I was a wee bit shocked at this treatment. At least I was a little closer to the estate where I desired to go. The attendant they had outside the convention center managing all the taxis found me a willing driver to take me to the estate. I tipped him well.

We have used Uber services.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Last year’s Easter egg hunt at Baba and Gramps’. This year JJ’s 3rd birthday lands on Easter weekend which makes for a very full fun filled weekend.

Apologizing ahead of time if my visits are scarce this week.

Slim and Fluffy

We have feral cats that show up regularly and we have given them names. We don’t interact with them and when they see us they run away. They aren’t the socializing variety. They aren’t strays. They are feral. They live in a wild state.

Fluffy and Slim are regulars around here.

Since the birds have returned they are more regular in their visits. The were having a growling competition on this day and we watched for a long time to see who would win. I think it was a draw.

There are free spay and neuter clinics in our county to control the feral populations. You can tell if a cat has been ‘fixed’ because they put a tag on one of their ears.

The Caravan

It’s been a while since we have seen any deer in our back area so we were surprised to see several show up last week. We weren’t excited to see them go after all the new Spring growth.

There were six in our yard and then we looked up on the hill and saw a number of them in a caravan across the mountain.

We counted up to 16 deer hiking through missing some of the earlier ones.

Those on our side of the fence found a way to join up with the rest.

Holy Week all the way up to Easter Monday is filled with activities with family and friends. After Easter when we have some breathing room I’ll share all the activities.

Although I have posts ready to go for this special week my visits will be scarce. Hope all is well in your corners!

The Hawk

It’s always a treat to see hawks or eagles on our property. This Red-Tailed Hawk is a beauty.

Easter is coming and we are preparing for Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter. What are some of your traditions?

Not the Singing Variety

More of the squawking or chirping variety.

Whether they squawk, chirp or sing they are fun to watch, especially the swallows who are back in full company.

Open House in April

We had a very busy weekend and full to the brim Sunday.

Back in the end of 2021 we invited several folk from our church to come over for a Happy New Year get together on January 3rd of 2022. We had to cancel that event because of snow and icy conditions with a promise to reschedule when our front area would be safe for walking without anyone breaking a hip on the ice! Well that day finally arrived and we rescheduled the event for April 3rd!

Twenty Five folk from our church stopped by after church for food and fellowship. It was a houseful with all possible seats filled in three different rooms. The food was enjoyed and I forgot to take one photo of the spread! We had pulled pork sliders, coleslaw (Kathy’s recipe without mayo that you should try, delicious), Vinegret (Russian Beet Salad), baked beans, and Applesauce Spice cupcakes for dessert. Some folk went back through the buffet line for thirds so we knew the food tasted just fine.

Everyone left by 3pm and then our kids and grands came over for leftovers at 5:30. We prayed that our food would be enough to feed all and it did with lots to spare. Thank you Lord.

Not expected at all but fun to receive these hostess/host gifts from some of the folk who came.

From sweet Diana, my trusty helper in the church kitchen.

From Gene and Marilyn, a newer couple who moved to Colville from Southern California.

Soup cozies for Dear and me.

From Gordon and Christine long time residents of Colville who host our Monday evening Bible Study.

A good day with a promise kept.

Happy first full week in April everyone!

Fun With Gnomes

With the help of my daughter we finished this huge puzzle Saturday the 19th of March. I started it well before and worked on it for a couple of weeks. It was good to have the help of Katie at the end. It was challenging but fun. I like this scene and the shades of blue and green.

Forest Gnomes by Jeff Tift. Item no. 36510

Me and my puzzler.

Oh…the weather outside has been lovely. We even pulled out a couple patio chairs to soak up some vitamin D.

We have a busy week and weekend ahead. How is life where you are?

All Good Things

What fun it was to open up these gifts to me from our kids. It will be fun to add our family favorite in this new recipe journal.

It’s hard to see but there is a line to write down the speaker, the date, the message title and then lines at the bottom to add scripture verses that were referenced in the sermon. I’m looking forward to using this. Our DIL bought it from Target online.

I love the theme of these next gifts and am excited to hear England is totally open to international travelers without any restrictions!

I’ve been enjoying my morning cuppa in this beauty!

The snow has mostly disappeared with our warming temperatures this week. We have even been able to get out and do some clean-up in most of our planters. It feels good to look out the windows and see that job accomplished. Speaking of windows our window cleaner guy called and we are booked for clean windows on this coming Tuesday. We have a quiet weekend coming up before we move into busy weekends in April.

Thankful to God for the love shown to me and for the ability to do yardwork.

It’s been so good to be in a study of the book of Isaiah as we approach Easter.

Hope all is well in your corner!

Friday Smiles

When we were in Spokane on Monday we picked up a couple bunches of daffodils at Trader Joe’s. We enjoyed them on our table on Tuesday night at an early St. Patrick’s day dinner. Photo fail again as I didn’t take a photo of the St. Patty’s Day table I set.

Daffodils are such a happy flower. They make me smile. Another thing that is making me smile is that the snow is melting and it’s such an easy walk to the garage now. Watching the birds is making us smile, too. Photos coming soon.

Speaking of smiling, today our kids are arriving for the weekend and we have a special 5 year old to celebrate so I will be scarce on the internet. Hope you all have a great weekend and you find something to make you smile.