Category Archives: Our Country Bungalow

Marching Forward Hodgepodge

Our back acres taken yesterday morning. It snowed much of the day.

Joyce From This Side of the Pond has the questions ready for Wednesday Hodgepodge. Marching forward…

1. Hello March! Is it coming in like a lion where you live?

We are having light snow showers so I’d say not so much like a lion. It’s typical for this time of year here.

How do you feel when it rains? It depends. If it hasn’t rained for a while it’s nice to hear the pitter patter on the roof. If it’s the 5th day in a row of rain I long for a dry sunny day.

2. What’s something you’d like to do differently this week than the last? Explain. 
We are supposed to avoid inflammatory foods so I’d like to cut out some of those and replace them with something healthier for us.
3. March 1st is National Sunkist Citrus Day…do you drink orange juice?
I do enjoy a glass of orange juice but not on a regular basis.
Orange, lemon, lime, tangerine, grapefruit…what’s your favorite citrus fruit?
As a fruit to eat it’s a toss-up between an orange or tangerine. Lemon is very versatile in baking and for salad dressings, etc. Limes for guacamole and a G & T. Grapefruit juice might just be my favorite to drink. One of Dear’s new medications has a warning for him not to have grapefruit anything.
A dish you love with a citrus fruit as one of it’s key ingredients? 
I really can’t come up with a dish but I do enjoy lemon curd.
4. What do you consider to be your culture. Elaborate. 
What best describes my culture is ‘Conservative Christian’. Being a follower of Jesus Christ has the most significant influence on the things I choose to do, wear, say, read, enjoy. Praying I represent my culture better each day.
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I could also say that I used to be a ‘city girl’ but in the last 4 years I’ve become a ‘country gal’ because of the huge difference in the area I live in now. My wardrobe has taken on more boots and snow appropriate clothes.
5. Sum up your February in fifteen words or less. 
Losing the same ten pounds again this year that I gained back last year, OYE!
6. Insert your own random thought here. 
I came across this little quote that maybe I should tape to my bathroom mirror…
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“Taste your words before you serve them.” 
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I’m looking forward to seeing some Spring green and color hopefully by the end of March.

Feather Variety

Wednesday Hodgepodge is taking the month of January off. It will resume on February 1st.

I’m going to speed up the rest of my England posts and finish them off in the month of January.

We continue to enjoy our bird sightings.

This was our first viewing of the House Finches this winter. The others have been daily visitors.

It was fun to see the red feathers thrown into the mix.

January has started very quiet around our Country Bungalow. That suits me fine. I’ve started another puzzle, much harder than the one we put together on Katie’s birthday. We enjoyed watching the Rose Parade on RFD TV. I found their coverage so much better than the major stations. The college games droned on in the background as I worked on the 1,000 piece puzzle.

Hope 2023 has started kindly in your corner.

Christmas Day 2022

On Christmas Day 2022 Josh and Laura were the first to arrive at our house in the afternoon having flown into Spokane Airport and renting a vehicle for the 2 hour drive to our Country Bungalow. Our Colville kids had brunch and presents at their home with Jamie’s family. After naps they drove over just beating Andrew, Katie and Willow arriving on their 6+ hour journey over the Cascades and through Central and Eastern Washington. Once all the bags and cat accessories were managed we took a family photos before we sat down to our meal.

Prime rib, creamed corn, roasted vegetables (carrots, asparagus and brussels sprouts) and Yorkshire Pudding.

After dinner we sat close to the tree and Dear read from Luke chapter two in the New Testament which chronicles the birth of Jesus Christ and the temple presentation of Jesus.

We let the young ones open up their gifts first.

This tea towel was a special gift from Josh and Laura with a handwritten (in Russian) recipe of my mom’s printed on it. So thoughtful.

This was a stocking gift year. The only presents under the tree were for Addy and JJ. Katie loved her cat socks.

After presents it was time was dessert. Jamie, Addy and JJ baked and frosted a Happy Birthday Jesus Cake. Jamie made the Chocolate nativity decoration for the cake, too.

 

And that was a Christmas Day wrap! These blankets were a gift from Uncle Joshie and Auntie LoLo personalized with A and J’s name in bold letters and the background of the blanket says Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo love you!

A day filled with the Joy of the Lord, love and good food.

Next up…Boxing day.

 

 

Deep Freeze

Winter has come in frigid.

We venture out for a very short time and only if necessary. Our faces start feeling the freeze almost immediately.

We did venture into town today to the post office and to the grocery stores. Since we were in town we decided that Chinese Food would be a treat and something different for lunch. Back home safe and sound. We have our interior doors to the bedrooms all shut including any other room that has a door to conserve our heat to our sitting areas. We continue to throw out seed for our feathered friends.

On Wednesday at dusk we were startled by a large bird landing on our deck and taking off quickly with a fat quail in it’s claws! It was a huge hawk. We were stunned. Birds of prey need to eat, too.

We are hoping our kids from the west will arrive safe and sound on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We’ve got some wrapping and a little baking yet to do. We’ll also mop and steam the floors that have seen the worst from snow covered boots here and there.

Hope you all are ready to enjoy this joy filled time of year.

All Creatures Great and Small…

 

 

What a treat to view this kind of critter wonderland out our window sitting on our couch and recliner on Sunday afternoon.

Earlier on this Sunday we enjoyed our Children’s Musical and Play, It All Happened in the Country, for our church service. The presentation was so well done and so much fun with the meaning of Christmas presented so well. My photos aren’t the best but they will help me remember.

 

We sat in the front row with our two little grands to enjoy the presentation.

It was a good day all around with God’s goodness showering down on us.

Our Entertainment and Lesson

Matthew 6:25-34 (ESV) “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,

yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 

 

This is a quiet weekend and mostly quiet week leading up to Christmas.

I’ll be linking up with Saturday Critters hosted by Eileen at Viewing Nature With Eileen.

Snowshoeing 2022

Our snow is getting deeper with no significant melt off so it was time to pull out the snowshoes and to practice getting them on and trekking through the deep snow to retrieve the mail.

Mail retrieved and heading back to the homestead. The only treacherous part of this journey is crossing the street to the mailboxes.

I decided to blaze some trails in the back acres, too, since the shoes were already on.

Snowshoeing is a great winter exercise and the only way we can walk on our property when we get significant snow like we’ve had this year.

Current tidbits: Woke up in the wee hours to temps at 9 degrees F, brrr. It’s in the teens now and the forecast is for a 26 degree high today.

Our Colville kids are coming for dinner. It will be nice to catch up with them. Pot Roast is going in the oven for a slow cook this afternoon. They’ll bring along a salad.

I’ve been watching World Cup Soccer and the championship game will be played on Sunday between Argentina and France. I’m rooting for Argentina along with our Russian Argentinian friends. The game is early enough on Sunday that I will be able to watch before it’s time to head to church because of the time difference between us and Qatar. They are 11 hours ahead of the Pacific Coast. Any other soccer fans out there?

Our church service this Sunday will consist of the Children’s Play. It is called It All Happened in the Country. The children have been practicing for a couple months. I’m looking forward to the story they present. Another round of snow is predicted on Sunday.

The days are ticking down to Christmas. Ten more days to Christmas and sixteen more days in 2022! Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

A Merry Hodgepodge to You

It’s Wednesday and time for the Hodgepodge. Thank you Joyce From This Side of the Pond for the questions!

1. What does Christmas mean to you? 

First and foremost that Jesus, the Son of God came to earth as a babe/man because we were all held captive and separated from God because of sin. Jesus was sent to pay the ransom for our sins so that we could be forgiven and freed from the bondage of sin. His death paid our debt to God in full. He could pay that debt because he was the perfect/unblemished/pure Lamb of God. Sin is the reason for the season and Christ’s worthy life and sacrifice is the solution and the amazing ransom gift of the season. This makes for the merriest reason to celebrate with joy and gladness and light. Be merry you who believe and have your sins forgiven completely and in full!! For anyone else believe and receive life in Jesus Christ the Lord, who was sent, who lived, who died for the sins of the world and rose victorious over sin and death. You can have new life in Him. The best gift of Christmas.

2. What’s your favorite cozy holiday activity? 

Dressed in my comfy clothes and having nothing to do but put together a jigsaw puzzle with Christmas carols playing in the background.

3. Is all your shopping-wrapping-baking done?

No…no…no.

Tell us about your holiday plans. 

Our kids from the west will travel to the east opposite direction from the Wise Men. Our Colville kids and our Westside kids will all be together Christmas late afternoon and evening for stockings, a prime rib dinner (tradition) and all things jolly and bright.

4. If you were Santa what treat would you like to have left for you (it doesn’t have to be milk and cookies!) What sweet or savory treat do you most look forward to indulging in around the holidays? 

My mom’s Roolyet (Russian nut roll)

5. Next Wednesday is the first official day of winter (in the northern hemisphere). How does that make you feel?

It’s makes me feel like we’ve been way ahead of the game since Winter arrived here early in November.

Tell us what you love most about winter? 

I love winter clothing over summer clothing.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

This photo from 2017 shows our sweet granddaughter (her first Christmas) with the best dog around children, Rayna. We got the sad news that Rayna died on December 6th. We were on the road at our breakfast stop in Cle Elum. I shed a good amount of tears and the waitress was probably wondering what was going on. I tear up even now.

Rayna checking out the new human that came home to her house.

Such a wonderful gentle dog that our grandchildren were safe around. Our daughter-in-law, Jamie, rescued Rayna when she was 9 months old. Our son married Jamie in 2015 and Rayna came along with that union.

Rayna on our deck a couple summers back while we doggy sat her when our Colville kids went away for a few days.

I think Ember is missing Rayna, too.

Rayna found a way into all our hearts. This photo above was in September with the new puppy Ember. Rayna was able to give some good doggy training to the new young pup. Rayna will be missed.

Joy and sorrow seem to always coexist in this world we live in.

Merry Christmas to all my Hodgepodging friends since the next Hodgepodge will be the Wednesday after Christmas. Hope you enjoy times of wonder and love and joy!

From our house to yours Merry Christmas!

A Slow Melt

Our snow is having a time melting off since our daytime temperatures are only getting above freezing for a few hours.

Our second bird feeder has been well received. I throw extra seed on the snow covered ground for the Quail that  come to visit, too.

Our Dish TV stopped working because of this build up of snow. That was a first for us. Happy that Dear/Greg is healthy enough to trudge out to the dish to clear it off and restore our TV signal.

We made it back and forth to Spokane on Monday for some follow-up appointments for Greg and all is well with his Carotid which is good news.

In between our two appointments we enjoyed a meal at The Park Inn conveniently located to the hospital complex.

A Cheeseburger chowder was the special soup of the day, delicious.

Our road and a few other roads we had to drive on were like driving on a washboard. Needless to say we have been driving well under the speed limit.

Always thankful to make it there and back again, safe and sound.

Call It A Foot!

Tuesday night into Wednesday we had a significant snowfall here. By the end of the evening we had at least a foot of new snow.

These photos were from Wednesday the 30th of November. The rest of the photos are from Thursday December 1st which turned into a beautiful sunny day.

We are going into a frigid 4 degrees Thursday night into Friday and we have nothing over freezing on the forecast for the next week. Yikes! We put out bird seed for our little feathered friends. The Quail were enjoying our Oregon grape plant gathering the berries from it. This chubby guy was the lookout and a few other Quail were in the plant finding the berries.

Dear’s occupational therapy is going well. Hope all is well in your corner.