Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus ~ Hymn

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a king,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Words: Charles Wesley

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.

Christmas Decorations 2022

Our tree is the same fake tree we’ve had the last couple of years. This year I held back and only put a few ornaments on it.

I was supposed to hang a couple starts on those exposed nails that fit the other artwork we have up in this space the rest of the year. Oops.

We bought this ornament from Blenheim Palace this past September.

We had another several inches of snow over the weekend. Thankfully the snow has ceased for a while. If our grands come over we’ll have to watch them carefully so they don’t get lost in a snow drift! They love the snow!

We’ve received several cards already and our cards are being mailed today. I always feel relieved when I drop those down the mail slot!

How are preparations in your corner coming?

Let the Earth Now Praise the Lord ~ Hymn

Let the Earth Now Praise the Lord

Let the earth now praise the Lord.
Who hath truly kept His word
And the sinners’ help and friend
Now at last to us doth send.

What the fathers most desired,
What the prophet’s heart inspired,
What they longed for many a year,
Stands fulfilled in glory here.

Abram’s promised great reward,
Zion’s helper, Jacob’s Lord,
Him of twofold race behold,
Truly came, as long foretold.

Welcome, O my Savior, now!
Hail! My portion, Lord, art Thou.
Here, too, in my heart, I pray,
Oh, prepare Thyself a way!

King of Glory, enter in;
Cleanse it from the filth of sin,
As Thou hast so often done;
It belongs to Thee alone.

As Thy coming was in peace,
Quiet, full of gentleness,
Let the same mind dwell in me
That was ever found in Thee.

Comfort my desponding heart:
Thou my strength and refuge art.
I am weak, and cunningly
Satan lays his snares for me.

Bruise for me the serpent’s head,
That, set free from doubt and dread,
I may cleave to Thee in faith,
Safely kept through life and death.

And when Thou dost come again
As a glorious king to reign,
I with joy may see Thy face,
Freely ransomed by Thy grace.

Words: Heinrich Held, 1659.

Feed the Birds

 

We have been entertained by Quail and smaller birds like Juncos these days. We bought another bird feeder to put up this weekend since we are going to get even more snow and the birds are flocking to the bird feeders and the seeds that fall on the snow.

Our grounds will most likely be covered with snow through Christmas. They are predicting more snow until Sunday morning. Time to pull out our snow shoes!

I’ve been busy trying to get our Christmas Greetings ready to go to the post office. Some Christmas decorations are up but the tree is still undecorated. My organization is suffering these days.

Hope all is well in your corner. I’ll try to get around soon and see what y’all are up to.

Three Years Later…

…we were able to cross the line into Canada for our annual Mennonite Girls Can Cook Christmas Dinner/Party.

We drove the couple of hours from Bothell to Abbotsford crossing at the Sumas Border Crossing and arrived at Anneliese and H’s home. They had graciously reached out offering us their guest room for the night and a ride to the party in Chilliwack.

On the way to the party at Judy and Elmer’s we made a surprise stop but that’s not my story to tell.

Here we are, 7 of the 10, Mennonite Girls Can Cook. Our two Manitoba Girls and Kathy could not make it to the party.

It was so good to see these ‘Girls’ face to face after 3 years.

Lovella and Anneliese brought the appetizers.

Judy’s punch was festive.

Speaking of Judy, the hostess with the mostess, she single handedly cooked us the main meal portion for the evening. Her hubby Elmer is always available to lend a hand, help serve and wash up the dishes!

She set a beautiful table and created the live runner.

She sewed the napkins and made the place cards.

Marg brought the salad and she had help plating it from Bev.

Bev baked the buns.

Judy’s Saucy Cranberry Chicken was the main event on our dinner plate, delicious. Get her recipe here.

She also made the sides, carrots and peas, mashed potatoes, broccoli salad and a cranberry gravy.

Our sweet ‘captain’, Lovella!

The wonderful dessert finale to our meal was this trifle that Julie made. Refreshingly delicious! I did not get a photo of the Black Forest Trifle that Judy made. When I lived in Western Washington I would contribute to the menu but because of the extra traveling this year they let me slide.

After our meal the guys headed upstairs to play Crokinole and chat while us girls exchanged gifts and did some catching up downstairs. We finally wrapped up the evening shortly after 11:00 PM!!

Here’s the gift I brought home from our exchange.

We count ourselves blessed and fortunate to be able to meet up again for this wonderful yearly event.

You can now look away for the saga part of the story of Dear and me getting from Colville to Abbotsford. For those of you who are more curious here goes…

Originally we had flights out of Spokane to and from the Seattle area for our Saturday to Tuesday trip. We booked a hotel room at the Spokane airport for Friday night since we had an early flight on Saturday to Seattle (7am). It takes us 2 hours plus to get to the airport from our home in Colville. Our flight back home on Tuesday was scheduled for 7:30am getting us back to Spokane at 8:30am.

On Friday we had a leisurely morning and packed for our trip. We left our home at noonish with a stop at the post office to pick up a package that was too big for our mailbox. My haircut appointment at 1:00 got cancelled at the last minute so we decided to just carry on down the road to Spokane to have a meal before we checked into our hotel. We tried The Elk in The Browne’s Addition neighborhood of Spokane. The food and service was good and we enjoyed our time there. The drive to the airport from the restaurant was short and we checked into the hotel.

We woke up very early on Saturday morning and discovered both of us had never thought about bringing our passports even though we knew the purpose of our trip was to travel into Canada. OYE and BOTHER. We as a couple are not firing on all our cylinders. Every flight on Saturday was overbooked with one flight before ours cancelled which put even more pressure on the remaining flights. We made the decision to cancel our tickets for our 7am flight and drive back home (2 hours) and get our passports and make the 5+ hour drive to Bothell instead of flying. Driving the roads back to our home we gained confidence that the roads were in good shape and the drive would be okay. We made it home, grabbed our passports, had breakfast and packed a few more things in the car for our trip.

Back on the road at 8:30am we had an uneventful drive through the eastern and central part of Washington and over the Cascade mountain range into Western Washington. We made a stop at Chateau Ste Michelle in Woodinville for some wine to take with us to Canada and then filled the gas tank at the Woodinville Costco on the way to our kids’ home in Bothell. We were at our kids’ home at 3pm. (BTW: since Greg’s stroke I’m the sole driver)

Saturday night we had a nice meal out with our Western Washington kids to celebrate Laura’s birthday. On Sunday we worshipped at Josh and Laura’s church, grabbed some lunch items at Central Market, ate our meals and got ready for our drive to Canada. Our route to Abbotsford would take us about 2 hours. We stopped at a carwash in Bellingham to get all the dirty snow off our car before heading into Canada. The Border crossing and banter with the Agent was pleasant and once across the border we found our way to Anneliese and H’s home.

We drove with Anneliese and H. to the party in Chilliwack (a 20 minute drive) and the winds were blowing across the valley and it was frigid. We were welcomed into Judy and Elmer’s warm and festive home and enjoy our long anticipated party. After the party we slept fast. Monday morning we were served a delicious breakfast and we set off back to the USA. We were at the Border bright and early and had another pleasant encounter and crossing.

Our kids were busy with work and other events during the day on Monday so we contacted some dear friends to meet us for lunch at our old stomping grounds. We had a leisurely couple hours with them over delicious Mexican food and then made it back to our kids’ home. Laura made dinner and we packed up to leave on Tuesday morning. On the road again at 8:30 Tuesday morning (our anniversary). It took us an hour to get to traffic free I-90 and off we climbed over Snoqualmie Pass again. The roads were clear with no restrictions. (Thank you, Lord). Once over the pass we stopped in Cle Elum for a break which included breakfast. Back on I-90 we made it to Spokane by 1:30pm. We stopped at Costco to pick up a few items and were back on the road lickity split. Got another snack in Deer Park and started the final leg home arriving at 5pm. Whew! Greg figured out that we were driving for a total of 22 hours all told. That 22 hours didn’t count the stoppage times.

We are still covered in snow here with no melting in the forecast. In fact we have more snow in the forecast for Thursday and Saturday.

Greg is continuing with his Occupational Therapy. We’ll be traveling to Spokane again on Monday for his follow-up with the surgeon.

And that’s the rest of the story.

Forty Eight and Counting

A quick post since we have been away and today we are on the road. Today is our 48th wedding anniversary and we are thankful to God for all we’ve been through over the years. God is good. We are thankful.

When I recover from all the fun we’ve had the last 4 days I’ll fill you in whether you want to know or not, chuckle.