“I’m An American” Hodgepodge

It’s Wednesday so it’s time for the Hodgepodge with thanks to Joyce From This Side of the Pond who delivers the questions.

1. Pantone’s color of the year for 2023 is Viva Magenta. Etsy’s color(s) of the year are indigo and honeycomb. Your thoughts? Would we find any of these three shades in your home or wardrobe? Is there a room in your house that needs painting this year? Will you do it yourself or hire out? 

Yes to these colors in clothing. Maybe on one wall as an accent. I really love indigo on dishes, as in the photo at the top of this post.

There are no rooms in our home that need a total paint job because in the four years we’ve lived here all the walls have been repainted by Dear. He also painted the exterior of our home in 2022. Dear was a house painter in his younger years so we do not hire out. We own all the ladders, etc. needed for any paint job. We just have to buy the paint. He has some trim to still complete in some rooms.

2. Something you had to do recently that could be described ‘as exciting as watching paint dry’? 

My phrase while Dear was in the hospital after his stroke was, “hurry up and wait”. Hours of waiting for a room to open up in the surgical ward, a surgeon to come in and discuss the surgery procedure, someone to bring the discharge paper work, etc. etc. All the waiting was done with no comfortable chairs for a loved one who was advocating to sit in.

3. Who would you most like to sit beside on a 10-hour flight? Tell us why? Have you ever taken a 10-hour flight? 

Not chatty Kathy but someone I could enjoy a meaningful conversation with like my sister-in-law, Mandy, who knows how to purposefully lead a conversation to what matters. That said, on a 10 hour flight it is helpful to be able to sleep for some of the hours.

We have taken 10 hour flights.

4. What’s something you did growing up that would get you into trouble? 

Hiding from my parents when it was time to leave for Russian school on Saturday mornings. When they found me I’d stomp my foot exclaiming, “I’m an American”! In hindsight I wish I would have been more diligent in learning Russian. Below is one of my school books that I still have. My name is written lightly with pencil in Russian.

Родная Речь ~ Native Speech

Book for teaching second level class beginners school

If you know Russian feel free to correct my translation.

5. According to Google the top searches in 2022 were- Wordle, election results, Betty White, Queen Elizabeth, Bob Saget, Ukraine, Mega Millions, Powerball numbers, Anne Heche, and Jeffrey Dahmer. Hmmm…what does this say about us? How many of these words did you search last year? What would you guess was your most ‘googled’ word/phrase/question.

Queen Elizabeth is the only one off that list that I googled and my most googled phrase was probably Colville Weather or WSDOT (Washington State Department of Transportation) conditions on Snoqualmie Pass.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I posted this on Facebook this week and decided to share it here, too.

“Let’s be cheerful! We have no more right to steal the brightness out of the day for our own family than we have to steal the purse of a stranger. Let us be as careful that our homes are furnished with pleasant and happy thoughts as we are that the rugs are the right color and texture and the furniture comfortable and beautiful.”

~~Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Kneelers ~ Woodstock

One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to walk through the older churches and cathedrals. This is the easiest when traveling in England because there are so many and they seem to be more readily open to visitors. One of the things that has stood out when walking through are beautifully stitched kneelers. At St Mary Magdalene in Woodstock there are over 200 kneelers! That is the most I’ve seen anywhere in my travels and visits to churches.

The brochure I picked up in the church about the kneelers was photographed so I could share the information easier for my record here. I was going to make collages of the kneelers that caught my eye but after reading about all the work involved in creating one of them it seemed to me they were worthy of being presented singly.

Here is the church tower kneeler, the Winston Churchill and one I think might be part of the Blenheim Connection

The following give honor to the Lord, the Bible and Prayer.

Then we move on to more community minded themes…

 

And from the state where Dear and I were born and raised. We were surprised when we spotted the California Kneeler.

 

That’s just a small sampling of the kneelers during our visit on Wednesday September 21st, 2022.

Do you enjoy needlework?

Back to the Present: On Sunday we enjoyed our Sunday services and made a stop on the way home to buy some Deli Salads to go with the 2 racks of ribs we put in the oven. The ribs were pre-seasoned from Costco and turned out fall off the bone delicious. We watched the first half of the Super Bowl game and then hit the record button. Since 2 racks of ribs are more than we could eat, we dropped a rack off at our Colville kids for their dinner before we headed to our Evening service at church. Back at home after church we watched the last 10 seconds of the game and saw that the Kansas Chiefs won. Congratulations to them. I’ve got to say that I really didn’t understand half of the commercials and we didn’t watch the half time show. We got a text with photos of our Grands enjoyed the ribs!

Ribs enjoyed in two households for the win!

Begin, My Tongue, Some Heav’nly Theme ~ Hymn

Begin, My Tongue, Some Heav’nly Theme

Begin, my tongue, some heav’nly theme
And speak some boundless thing;
The mighty works, or mightier name
Of our eternal king.

Tell of His wondrous faithfulness
And sound His power abroad;
Sing the sweet promise of His grace,
And the performing God.

Proclaim salvation from the Lord
For wretched, dying men;
His hand has writ the sacred Word
With an immortal pen.

Engraved as in eternal brass
The mighty promise shines;
Nor can the powers of darkness rase
Those everlasting lines.

He that can dash whole worlds to death,
And make them when He please,
He speaks, and that almighty breath
Fulfills His great decrees.

His very word of grace is strong
As that which built the skies;
The voice that rolls the stars along
Speaks all the promises.

He said, Let the wide heav’n be spread,
And heav’n was stretched abroad:
Abram, I’ll be thy God, He said,
And He was Abram’s God.

O might I hear Thine heav’nly tongue
But whisper, Thou art Mine!
Those gentle words shall raise my song
To notes almost divine.

How would my leaping heart rejoice,
And think my heav’n secure!
I trust the all-creating voice,
And faith desires no more.

Words: Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

St. Mary Magdalene Church ~ Woodstock

Much history of the church and of the photos I’m sharing can be found here.

The church was built during the reign of Henry II (1154-1189) as a chapel of ease so that local people, including members of the royal court, did not have to travel to the parish church at nearby Bladon to worship.

Later in the 13th century the church was enlarged and a bell tower and burial ground were added.

The only parts of that original chapel of ease to survive are a section on the south nave wall and a beautifully carved round-headed 12th-century doorway set into the south wall. The doorway is carved with two orders of traditional Norman zig-zag pattern separated by moulding. Unusually, the zig-zag carving extends all the way to the ground.

The above photo is of that ancient door from the outside and below from the inside.

Separating the church porch from the nave is a wooden screen, carved in the early 16th century. The screen was originally installed in the traditional place between the nave and chancel, but was moved to the west end of the nave in 1999 to make the high altar more easily visible.

This flying eagle lectern is like several others I’ve seen in churches in Great Britain. I think they are so cool.

The superb column capitals on the south nave arcade are one of the church’s best features. There are 23 carved heads incorporated into the design of the capitals, interspersed with foliage.

Each capital is different and the heads are all unique.

All of the stained glass is Victorian.

The angels at the top have banners that read: Let us love one another ~ For love is of God.

Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

Over 200 kneelers are in this church of which I photographed quite a few. That will be another post.

Inching along to complete posts about our last few days in Oxfordshire in September of 2022.

Back to the present here in the U. S. of A. Yesterday, Friday February 10th, we traveled to Spokane to do some shopping at places we do not have here in Colville. After our stops at Home Depot, T.J.Maxx, Costco, Hobby Lobby, and Trader Joe’s we tried a new to us Chinese Restaurant called the Red Dragon. We had the best Hot and Sour soup and some good potstickers. After we ate we made one more stop at Fred Meyer before we headed home.

Happy Saturday to you.

Catching Up

It’s time for a little catch-up with my two favorite Grands.

This little guy was under the weather and finally was feeling good enough to smile.

Homeschooling ‘hands on’ experience in learning, E is for Explorer. So thankful that our DIL is committed to this Labor of Love.

Hooray, it’s Friday. Have a good weekend everyone.

Truth for Today #42


Thursday February 9th

On Thursdays my posts will include verses that stood out in my readings from the Bible during the week. One, two, three or maybe more. If you have a verse/verses that you read during the week and would like to share, leave it/them in the comments and I will add it/them to the post. Let’s dig deep in God’s Truth again this year!

Luke 2:52

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

2 Peter 3:18

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity, Amen.

Ephesians 4:11-16

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

From Vera:

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭12‬:‭4‬-‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

From Karen:

Deuteronomy 4:39

Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.
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Love in Action Hodgepodge

It’s Wednesday and time for the Hodgepodge where Joyce From This Side of the Pond asks the questions for us to answer.

1. Something you’ve done recently that might be considered a labor of love? 

There are lots of obvious things we do everyday that are more routine and learned like Dear making me coffee every morning or me washing his clothes.

One recent thing that isn’t routine is helping at a funeral. There are a lot of behind the scenes tasks that need to be done. If you’ve never been part of these tasks you wouldn’t know about what they involve. For the service you need a memorial table set up. You need to be around to receive any flowers that are delivered before the service. You need to pick up and make sure the sanctuary is clean after the service. When a meal is involved for the family there are preparing, setting up tables, setting out the food, and then waiting till all the eating and visiting is over to clean up. Washing up, drying up, taking tablecloths home to wash, breaking down tables and putting them away, folding chairs and putting them away. Just an average assessment of the hours it takes for volunteers to help in this way is 6-8 hours. I think that qualifies as a labor of love for the grieving family who need extra care and comfort at this time.

2. What’s one thing you love about being the age you are now? 

Being at the age where grandchildren are a part of our lives.

3. What do you value more: careful planning or the freedom to be spontaneous? Elaborate.

My husband reminded me of all of our car purchases and how spontaneous they were. Yikes. No planning. Here’s how the ‘planning’ went; we need a car that will get us safely over the mountain passes, we like Toyotas, let’s look at Rav’s, the dealer has a couple good used ones on the lot. We pick one of the two. We drive away with it. All in one day with no serious planning and investigating, etc. etc.

For a trip with the two of us I’d say careful planning leads to more spontaneous freedom. If we know where we are going and where we are staying our brains are free to enjoy things along the way that haven’t been planned. Does that make sense? I can enjoy spontaneous freedom in small doses on major trips.

4. A home cooked meal or a fancy restaurant? pink or red? watch the sunrise or watch the sunset? wine and cheese or champagne and chocolate? 

There’s a time and a place for all of these choices. We’ve enjoyed home cooked meals and meals at a fancy restaurant when the timing is right. Sometimes pink and sometimes red and sometimes the two together. Starting the day with the sunrise is amazing and rounding a corner to see the sunset is glorious. Let’s start off with a little wine and cheese and end the meal with a chocolate and champagne.

5. What’s your definition of romance? Are you a ‘romantic’? 

Romance is more touchy feely and emotional to me and I’m not that. I do love deeply and my actions speak from that realm and not the romantic realm.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Even though I don’t count my self as a romantic, I do enjoy setting romantic tables.

Woodstock

On Wednesday morning September 21st, 2022 we checked out of our apartment in Oxford.

We had a taxi booked to drive us to Woodstock which was under ten miles from our location. We decided on a taxi instead of the buses that run regularly from Oxford to Woodstock because we didn’t want to shlep our luggage to a bus stop and onto the bus.

Goodbye Oxford, hello Woodstock.

Since our checkout was at 10am we arrived in Woodstock before our check in time of 4pm.

We booked 2 nights at the Feathers Hotel. We left our luggage at the hotel and took a stroll around the small town.

Woodstock Town Hall, a beautiful Grade II listed building which was built in 1766 and is now a major landmark in the town.

We were looking for a good spot to have a lite lunch during our stroll around the town.

The War Memorial next to the church. “To The Memory of The Fallen 1914-1918 1939-1945”.  War Memorials are easy to find in most villages, towns, and cities. There are over 68,000 war memorials in the UK.

We would return to the church after lunch since it was occupied for a service when we walked by.

We found a cozy spot at the Back Lane for a refreshment but they weren’t serving lunch until noon. We would be seeing a lot of Winston Churchill in Woodstock.

THIS STONE WAS RAISED BY THE PEOPLE OF WOODSTOCK TO CELEBRATE THE ARRIVAL OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM.

There were many tributes to the late Queen around town. (Remember we were in England during the mourning period for the Queen)

 

The Kings Arms looked welcoming for our lunch spot.

We enjoyed their lunch special beef sandwich and chips.

After our nice lunch we walked back to St. Mary Magdalene Church to see if it was possible to get a look inside. It was open and we were welcomed in.  We were still early for our hotel check-in time.

It’s a challenge to get the old brain back to Oxfordshire to remember some details of our last few days there. As challenging as it is the posts will be good to look back on.

Back to the present: We have a relatively quiet week and our temps have been above freezing so there is a lot of melting happening. Plants are emerging that have been covered in snow since November.

Quotes of the weekend:

“Sin is always a big deal.” ~ Dennis Wilkening

“If you want to be a wise person, you need a Bible.” ~ Alistair Begg

Have a good week everyone! If you need a Bible, I could send you one. 🙂

Baked Chicken Ranch Roll-Ups

I’m working on finishing up our travel to Great Britain posts so in the meantime I’m adding this recipe for a different way to enjoy some chicken and refrigerated crescent dough sheets. Hope you can find them in your local market.

I saw these chicken rolls using Pillsbury Crescent Refrigerator Dough Sheets and had to give them a try. I didn’t realize that the Crescent dough was sold in sheets that aren’t perforated. It makes this recipe a lot simpler as I purchased the basic crescent rolls and had to pinch all the perforations! Buy the sheets if you want to make this tasty dish.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups shredded baked chicken
  • 1/2 cup Ranch dressing
  • 3/4 cup shredded Italian blend cheese
  • 1 can (8 oz.) Pillsbury Refrigerator Crescent Dough Sheets
  • 2 tablespoons sliced green onions

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Prepare a 9 inch round pan with cooking spray.
  3. Mix together the chicken, ranch dressing and cheese in a small bowl.
  4. Unroll the dough sheet onto a large cutting board.
  5. Spread the chicken mixture evenly on top of the dough leaving one inch at one end of the long side uncovered.
  6. Roll the dough with the filling carefully toward the uncovered edge.
  7. Pinch the seam when you have it rolled.
  8. With a sharp knife cut 8 equal parts.
  9. Place the 8 rolls carefully into the prepared pan.
  10. Bake for 18-22 minutes until the the dough is golden brown.
  11. Cool in pan for a few minutes.
  12. Top with the green onions and serve with side of your choice.
  13. Serves 4 people.

Keep an eye on them so they don’t brown as toasty as mine did. Smile.