When I went to link up this morning for the Hodgepodge we had the news from Joyce that her dear Mama passed away earlier this week. Our hearts and prayers are with you, Joyce, and with your whole family.
1. How do you feel about the transition from lazy summer days to a busier fall routine?
I’ve always loved the transition from summer to fall. Even the years I was in school, I welcomed with excitement going back. These days I enjoy the fact that Ladies Bible studies will start up again and there will be more order in our days. I enjoy Fall weather and Fall events like cider fest and the corn maze.
2. Your favorite cookie?
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I like homemade Loaded Chocolate Chip Cookies with oatmeal, walnuts, almonds, and sometimes coconut!
I use the toll house recipe and load them up with extras.
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3. What’s something you’ve learned from a culture different than your own?
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I grew up in Southern California just outside East Los Angeles and the neighborhoods we lived in were multi cultural with Mexicans, Jews, Russians, Armenians, Japanese, Scots, and Heinz 57 Americans. I included Scots, although I only first heard of anyone who was Scottish in 5th grade when Karen’s parents moved to Montebello and she was introduced as a new student in our class. I was enthralled with her from the start and she taught me a few Scottish dance moves that we shared with the class for show and tell. I think we sang a song, too, The Bonnie Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomand.
Apart from the great food we enjoyed in the homes of my friends from these cultures, I learned about the Jewish custom of coming of age.
A bar mitzvah and a bat mitzvah are both Jewish coming-of-age milestones. A bar mitzvah (“son of commandment’) marks the religious maturity of a boy at the age 13, while a bat mitzvah (daughter of the commandment) marks the religious maturity of a girl, traditionally at age 12.
I was invited to one of my Jewish friends Bat Mitzvah and I was blown away by the lavishness of the celebration!
These are my multi-cultural Cheer friends from my high school at a Russian dinner at my house before a football game. (My Scottish friend from 5th grade, Karen, is the one with the rollers in her hair). We would have a meal at a different Cheer members home before Varsity games. They are eating borsch. That was just one of the food items my mother prepared for them. I think I see piroshky on the table, also. After the meal we would all get our cheer clothes on and head to the game for a night where we would work off every calorie we ate at dinner!
This is one of my best buddies from school days, Nanc. I spent a lot of time in her home where I learned how to make guacamole and we learned every popular Leslie Gore song by heart. Her parents brought me along to Mexican restaurants with them and to the downtown wholesale fashion district for shopping. Growing up, my family did not eat in restaurants so that was an eye opening experience all its own. Her dad drove a Volkswagon Square back and we spent many miles in that little car. One summer when she got back from visiting her uncle who was a jeweler in Mexico City she gifted me the ring below that he made for me.
While we were living in Camarillo for a short time Nanc and I reconnected online and we met up a couple of times for meals and to catch up on life. The photo above is of one of our meet ups. I hadn’t seen her for 40 years! There is a long story about that…
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4. Food critic, film critic, book critic, art critic…which hat would you most like to wear? Tell us why.
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Of these choices I’d choose the Food Critic hat because I love to travel and I love to try new restaurants and eat good food. I’d have a hard time writing bad critiques, though. I’ll just choose to be a traveler and enjoy trying new food in different places and being satisfied.
I’m not a film buff, or the reader of a variety of genres, and I’m definitely not artsy.
5. What’s a small, random thing from your childhood that you still remember clearly?
This will give you a little insight into my character. I remember hiding from my mother and father on Saturday mornings because I did not want to go to Russian School. When they found me, I would stomp my feet and say, “I’m an American!”. Well that didn’t work. In my latter years I was thankful to have learned the Russian alphabet and to learn to read and write in Russian.
To say “I am American” in Russian, use Я американец (if you are male) or Я американка (if you are female). If you want to say “I am from America” or “from the USA,” you can say Я из Америки or Я из США.
Я американка, Yah Amereekanka, I am American.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
These questions pulled up a lot of memories from my past.
It’s hot and muggy outside and there is not much to share here. We have a family wedding of a Grand Nephew coming up in October and I’ve been checking out their registry to see what we’ll pick to gift them. My thoughts went back to our wedding registry.
We were married in December of 1974 and these were some shower and wedding gifts we received. They are still serving us well. These high quality stainless steel bowls have been used over and over again for mixing anything from cookies to cakes and brownies and for savory things like egg scrambles. Fifty two years old and it is accurate to say, ‘they don’t make them like they used to’.
My tried and true stand mixer has been a faithful friend over all these years beating up ingredients for me and saving my hands and wrists and arms a lot of wear and tear.
My aluminum pans have made so many cakes, crumbles, breads, brownies, and other wonderful treats.
We don’t have all the Pfaltzgraff Yorktowne dishes anymore. I did keep a couple of the teapots, the sugar and creamer and the cookie jar. I use the cookie jar as decor. We do have a full set of Moss Rose by Royal Albert that we collected after we were married. I purchased the Moss Rose Tea Set in Oxford in 1973 on our summer music tour before we were married and that inspired us to buy the dinner set, too. My parents purchased service for 8 of our sterling. Since our wedding we added 4 more place settings.
In walking about the house to see what other wedding gifts are still visible this pewter oil lamp came into view.
We both enjoyed and enjoy pewter. This gift was from friends from my Bethany Russian Baptist days. And these pewter gifts below were from mutual friends.
Looks like I have some silver polishing to do on those sugar tongs!
This sent me way down a rabbit hole that I’ll continue closer to our anniversary in December.
Are you still using gifts from your wedding showers and wedding day?
Before we parked at the Spokane airport for our flight to Orange County we enjoyed our Linner at the Rusty Moose in Airway Heights which is just a hop skip and a jump to the airport.
We arrived at the Santa Ana Airport in Orange County on Thursday evening May 7th. Our brother-in-law picked us up at the curb and brought us back to my sister Vera’s home in Huntington Beach, where we would be staying for a week. Our sister Vera had been in Arizona and she arrived this night, too, and brother-in-law headed back to the airport to pick her up. BIL lives in Texas and he arrived the afternoon of this day. This Orange county airport had a total of 7 of our family members arriving at different times on this day. We all initially traveled to attend our friends memorial service on Friday morning but after that we filled the rest of our time meeting up all over the L.A. area traversing the freeway system for graduation ceremonies, Mother’s Day meals, birthday meals and farewell meals with different family groups and different venues. Whew!
Our Washington kids were able to attend our Great Nephew’s graduation from The Masters College in Santa Clarita. They drove across Los Angeles from the Memorial Service to attend.
That evening we were treated to dinner at Seasons 52 in Costa Mesa with two of my sisters and brother-in-law. I didn’t take any photos.
Saturday this crew drove from different areas of L.A. and Orange County to meet for brunch at Twoheys. Those of us who weren’t at Jack’s graduation were able to congratulate him in person at this gathering. Some of us were also meeting his bride to be for the first time.
This restaurant moved from it’s original location in Alhambra to this South Pasadena location.
Retro, family-friendly American diner known for burgers & hot fudge sundaes since 1943.
Our church youth group would end up at this restaurant frequently in the 60’s and 70’s. That was when they were still in the Alhambra location. We could down a burger and then have one of their famous sundaes. My choice for a burger was always the Stinko Burger. A plain burger with a thick slice of raw onion. I ordered the same on this day for ‘old times sake’.
Josh and Laura left the 2EE’s gathering and headed straight to the airport to fly home.
Saturday evening this crew met up in Huntington Beach at Mario’s Mexican Restaurant for dinner. My brother Steve and SIL Kelly were able to make it to this gathering, driving out from Moorpark. Our niece Debbee was turning 50 this same week so we celebrated her. The Brother in law who picked us all up at the airport is sitting next to Greg. Me and my two sisters are seated at that end of the table. My brother is next to me and SIL across from him sitting next to our niece Melissa. Our niece Debbee is to the right and her hubby is taking the selfie. There was a two hour wait time for a table at this restaurant (remember this was Mother’s Day weekend) but…our Lenny, Debbie and Melissa are good customers here and the manager of the bar came up with seating for us in 20 minutes! Muy Bueno!
On Sunday, Greg and I attended Beach Bible Church (formerly Evangelical Free of Huntington Beach) with my sister Vera. This was Mother’s Day. This was the same church Greg and I attended when we lived in Huntington Beach in the mid 70’s and mid 80’s. Both of our sons were dedicated in this church. It hasn’t changed much and it is still a Bible believing and Bible preaching church. The service with the worship songs and preaching was balm to the soul.
At some point during the weekend gatherings there was a last minute decision to gather at Vera’s home for a Mother’s Day meal. Our niece Melissa offered to bring the pies and our nephew Ryan made a special gluten free cake for the gathering. Vera and I made the decision to order a couple dishes from a Chinese restaurant close by to make the day easy peasy. The Beef Broccoli and Orange Peel Chicken with steamed rice was just right for everyone.
I wasn’t with any of our children on Mother’s Day but it was nice to be with all my sisters, a few nieces, nephews, BIL’s, one brother and SIL.
Monday was beach day and I’ll save that post for another day.
Our flight home would be on Wednesday morning so our last gathering was on Tuesday night with a skeleton crew. My sisters Lana, Vera, Greg and I had a wonderful meal at an Italian Restaurant in Newport Beach called Sapori.
It was a very nice finale to our time in Southern California.
Vera drove us to the airport on Wednesday morning. Thank you, Vera, for your hospitality and to all our family who drove miles for our gatherings. Thank you, Lana, for giving up your bed for a few nights and for the use of that amazing hair dryer! 🙂
This is personal and for my memory here on my blog. Our Daughter-in-love, Laura, put requests out to my friends and family to make a little video greeting for my 70th. She gathered them all and put them together in this 26 minute video and then surprised me with it after our family dinner in Spokane back in 2021. We all watched it together at Dan and Jamie’s house cast onto their TV. It is so meaningful to me and brings tears to my eyes as I recount the goodness of the Lord to me by giving me loving family and friends.
I’m finally adding it on my blog 5 years later!
Thank you, Laura and thank you to each one of you who took the time to deal with the internets and the recording and sending your clips to Laura!
My extended family will often sing when we are together and two of our favorites to sing are Great is Thy Faithfulness and Bless Thou the Lord. You’ll hear those songs at the beginning and at the end of the video.
But wait…that’s not all. This is another video put together from a very old reel to reel from Greg and my church wedding shower. My brother in law, Nick filmed it. It took place in 1974 at Bethany Baptist Church in Los Angeles. No one will love this video as much as I do. Our kids showed it to us at our Family 50th wedding anniversary weekend in Walla Walla in 2024. There is no sound and the quality is poor but the memories are priceless. Both my maternal and paternal grandmothers are in the footage and they both gave us their blessing and how I wish there was audio for those words. It was our little Russian Baptist church tradition to have this church shower with both the Bride and Groom present. This is where the wedding gifts were given, not brought to the wedding. Greg’s parents and my parents were present along with Greg’s Brother and his family. A few other men were present like my uncle Paul because they were the chauffeurs. My brothers were there and brother in laws. You’ll see them in the kitchen helping with the dishes.
So many of the people in this footage have passed away. The church is still in existence in Los Angeles.
Note: It was so much fun to watch this with our kids and to fill in some commentary on our own. Hilarious with belly laughs. Thank you, Josh and Laura, for sending off the reel to get it in a visible format.
Here are some stills from our shower which aren’t the best quality either.
My paternal grandmother in the background with the pink and my maternal grandmother in the blue.
Thanks for going down this rabbit hole with me.
I’m working on my posts from our trip to California and will share them soon.
I’ve been talking to myself since I finally stepped on the scale last week. Yikes! That number I saw was shocking to me.
Before I stepped on the scale, I had already planned and started a 1200 calorie a day eating plan. I bought a book for inspiration but my choices are personalized.
After a full week on 1200 calories a day I’m telling myself…
1200 calories is plenty of food to eat in a day.
Some days after dinner and being satisfied, I still have 200 calories left to consume.
It’s okay to eat the same thing over and over again if it is what I like.
Adding cucumbers to wraps gives you a delicious crunch and satisfaction.
That a single serving of oatmeal with a walnut, two teaspoons of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of blueberries was delicious and satisfying and under 300 calories. (I’ll be having that for breakfast again)
The varieties of good food I can eat is encouraging and doable.
A Costco chicken deboned chopped or shredded and frozen in smaller portions is a plus.
Shopping with a list of good things to buy is important. I need to have those items on hand.
Keeping an ongoing, daily list of everything I put into my mouth is necessary for me.
My math skills are being challenged in figuring out calories then adding and subtracting. 🙂
I’m reminding myself that things might be slow going but I’ll be pleased in a month, more pleased in 2 months, etc.
A huge help for me is knowing my ‘girls’ are cheering me on. They are praying with me for resolve to continue doing what is good for me physically and mentally. Accountability is key.
Because of my Plantar Fasciitis I’m not able to walk regularly for extra exercise but I have started chair exercises with a YouTube that is good and going well. Just 10 minutes in the session but still helpful and easy on my feet.
Another reality is that there will be special events where I won’t be counting calories and that is okay.
As my clothes feel less tight I will remember to take notice and be thankful.
You won’t hear any weekly reports from me about this journey but I will try to post something monthly or every six weeks for more accountability.
This ground turkey soup I made on Saturday ended up being 175 calories per cup (8oz.) and was very tasty per Greg and me.
Ingredients
8 oz. cooked ground turkey
1 can chicken broth
1 can Rotel original diced tomatoes and chilies
1 can black beans drained and rinsed
1 small zucchini sliced
2 mushrooms sliced
1 Carrot sliced
Method:
Combine all ingredients in soup pot.
Bring to a boil then turn down to simmer.
Simmer for 30 minutes.
Serve while hot.
Yield: About 5 cups
Note: This was spicy with the Ro-Tel but added some nice depth of flavor. You can substitute a can of chopped tomatoes instead if you don’t tolerate hot spice.
Some other meals I’ve enjoyed, just to name a few.
Low Fat Cottage cheese with pineapple
Cooked ground beef wrap with cucumbers and salsa
2 eggs on toast
Strawberries with a squirt of whipped cream
Avocado and egg on toast
Cheese melt on English muffin
Teriyaki Chicken breast with rice and brussels sprouts
Joyce From This Side of the Pond made this announcement; “ I’m hosting a link up here for anyone interested in sharing a Day In The Life post. These are always fun to read and help us remember all the ways we’re connected as we go about the everyday ordinary business of living. Hope you’ll join us!
Joyce’s plan going forward is to do these seasonally, so maybe four a year. Watch for the next date sometime in the early part of 2026.
This is the first she’s hosting and my first endeavor. I chose to share the events of my day on Veterans Day, November 11, 2025 which was Tuesday. I took a couple of the morning photos on Wednesday which show accurately what happened on Tuesday, too.
Up at 5am and my dear hubby makes my coffee when he sees my groggy face walk in.
Our Bunn coffee maker excels at a fast brew time.
Coffee in hand this is my morning first stop. Yep it’s still o’dark’thirty outside.
The rest of these photos were taken on Tuesday, A Day in the Life. 🙂
I had an early eye appointment in Spokane and we set out from our home at 7am. It was a foggy drive. It takes roughly 1-1/2 hours for us to get to Spokane. We arrived a little early for my appointment and since Trader Joe’s is across the street from the office we did a little shopping.
Check in and wait times were over the top on this day because the offices are introducing a new computer system, ugh. We did have a nice chat with a man who was waiting with us. Come to find out he had a connection to a couple who are part of our church.
With eyes dilated we stopped at Hobby Lobby (no purchase), Home Goods (2 small items purchased), and Costco for gas and to order new glasses (big purchase$$). We also bought a King comforter and some real maple syrup that were both on sale.
This is Master’s Brewery in Deer Park. We usually stop here on our way home from Spokane for a meal. Deer Park is about 20 miles north of Spokane and on our route home.
Stroganoff Soup was the soup of the day and we enjoyed it with a salad and bread stick. The daily soups at this spot are always excellent!
I’m adding many views from the road home from our lunch stop. We had about 55 miles more to go to get home.
These shots are from us coming down into Chewelah.
Chewelah is about 20 miles from Colville and it has the only stoplight we encounter once we are on Highway 395 from Spokane and before we reach Colville.
Coming into Colville. We love seeing the big C on the mountain along with the Cross.
Stopping to pick up mail even though it is Veterans Day and there is no mail delivery. LOL! That’s our home in the distance. We made it home at about 3pm.
We had a delivery to our front door while we were gone. It was a very heavy box. We drug it in and then emptied the contents in our entry and brought all the parts into one of our spare rooms. Assemblie will commence on Wednesday. Mystery will be revealed soon.
Greg had a meeting at church that started at 4:30. While he was gone, I worked on this tough puzzle. I’m a glutton for punishment.
Time to put my feet up and enjoy a little ‘Escape to the Country’ until Greg came home. I noticed that people all across the states were posting photos of an ‘Aurora’ event in the night sky. When Greg got home at 8ish, we went on the deck to try to capture some of the images.
This is one of my favorites. What an end to the day!
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” Psalm 19:1-2
Thank you for coming along for this day in my life.
On Thursday, reading along through the Bible using Paul Tripp’s, Everyday Gospel, A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of Life, we came to Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. This year the Bible that I’m using for my daily morning reading is the Church History Study Bible, Voices from the Past ~ Wisdom for the Present.
Unlike in other study Bibles, the notes in the ESV Church History Study Bible have not been written by editors. Instead, the notes have been compiled by a team of biblical scholars and church historians. The actual contributors of the notes are a varied group, stretching back from the first and second centuries and reaching forward to the twentieth century. These are theologians, pastors, poets, laity, all offering their perspective on God’s Word. In the ESV Church History Bible we escape the tyranny of the present to see the wisdom from the past.
In the introduction to Malachi this prayer by John Calvin (1509-1564) from his conclusion to his final lecture on Malachi was printed:
Grant, Almighty God, to help us onward in the course of faith, that we may strive to profit more from the helps that you have provided for us, so that the Law, the prophets, the voice of John the Baptist, and especially the doctrine of your only-begotten Son may more fully awaken us, that we may not hasten to him but also proceed constantly in our course and persevere in it until we shall at length obtain the victory and the crown of our calling, as you have promised us an eternal inheritance in heaven to all who faint not but wait for the coming of the great Redeemer. Amen.
I wanted to mark this significant day of completing the Old Testament and moving forward into the New Testament with Calvin’s meaningful prayer and another quote by R.C. Sproul.
Have you read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation? It is a good journey to take.
After posting, we heard of Voddie Baucham being called up to heaven yesterday. Another heralder of the truth is absent from our midst. Absent from earth but present with Our LORD.
Have a great Friday and last weekend of September!
This is a map of the Crown Creek Fire that is 0% contained in our area. Green means be ready, yellow means get set, red means GO!
Our home’s approximate location is the blue dot. We are not in eminent danger at this time.
For those of you who pray, please do add our firefighters and community to your prayer list. The work is exhausting, the air is unhealthy and the anxiety is high. Families from our church have been evacuated. Thank you for your prayers!
This isn’t the only fire burning in our state. The Katy Fire is another active fire across the Columbia river from us, in our neighboring county. The evacuation map for that fire has gotten larger this week, too.
I’m adding this map above to give you perspective of where Colville is located in the state of Washington. Canada is above the state. We are in the Northeast corner of the state.
Thank you friends for your prayers and concern. Hope all is well in your corner of the world.
From Spurgeon on Isaiah 43:2
Isaiah 43:2
I will be with you.
Fear not I am with you, O be not dismayed,
For I am your God, I will still give you aid:
I’ll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand,
1. The midpoint of summer (believe it or not) is August 7th. Describe a perfect summer day. Have you had one this year?
A nice clear blue sky with fluffy clouds at 78 degrees or less with no mosquitoes, yellow jackets, or wasps to bother me. Have not had one this summer.
2. What’s one thing you wish you knew before starting high school?
It was a waste of time, emotions and regrets to have boyfriends. It would have been good just to keep all relationships at the friend level.
3. What’s something that bothers you if it’s not done perfectly?
I think perfectly is a very high standard that has different opinions attached. I like events that are well planned and that have flexibility if things go wrong.
It does bother me when you arrive to help someone move and nothing is packed or that there aren’t boxes and paper and tape to get the job done.
It bothers me when an event is planned but then there is no one really in charge.
4. What’s the most overrated food you’re convinced people are just pretending to enjoy?
Green Juice.
What’s a trendy food you actually do enjoy and would say is definitely not overrated?
Thai Food
5. Wrapping it up this week with five fun this or thats…
personal stylist or personal chef?
Chef! dance like nobody’s watching or sing like nobody’s listening?
Sing like nobody’s listening! unlimited tacos or free pizza?
Unlimited Tacos!
bookshelf organization-by size or by genre?
By Genre and within the genre the authors. ten minutes late or ten minutes early?
Ten minutes early!
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Our younger summertime visitors from the animal kingdom.
These two were crying for their mother on Monday night when I got home from VBS. A sad cry I had never heard before.
Our church is having Vacation Bible School, Wonder Junction, this week. I’ll be selling t-shirts and hats each evening.
This past week I started and finished this puzzle that our daughter and son-in-law gifted me.
Katie and Andrew arrive here tonight for some frenzy filled activities.
It was a timely puzzle to enjoy while dreaming up a tablescape for our Ladies Tea which will be tomorrow at our church. I’ll take photos of the Tea Table I came up with and post them next week. Addy also has an Irish Dance Recital this weekend and I’ll share more about that in the coming week, too.
I stepped out on our deck to enjoy the night sky this past week.
Living out on a country road we get to see lots of stars.
When I see a sky full of stars, my mind always goes back to that song from the 60’s, He’s Everything to Me.
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? I will celebrate Nativity, For it has a place in history, Sure, He came to set His people free, What is that to me?
Till by faith I met Him face to face, and I felt the wonder of His grace, Then I knew that He was more than just a God who didn’t care, That lived a way out there and
Now He walks beside me day by day, Ever watching o’er me lest I stray, Helping me to find that narrow way, He’s Everything to me.
Words: Ralph Carmichael
Happy Mother’s Day weekend to all of you in the USA and Canada!
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 