1. It’s March 15th and as the saying goes-“Beware the Ides of March”. Have you read or studied much Shakespeare? Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play? How do you feel about a Caesar salad?
I’m aware of that term. Haven’t read much or studied much of Shakespeare and don’t really have a favorite play. We all know about Romeo and Juliet, don’t we? In the early 70’s before Dear and I were married we attended a Shakespeare play in Stratford Upon Avon with our singing group. King John was the name of the play. We really weren’t impressed with the performances.
The ominous warning, “Beware the Ides of March,” originated with the Roman ruler, Julius Caesar, who was assassinated on the Ides of March – March 15, 44 B.C. If you’ve heard the ominous warning, then it’s most likely due to William Shakespeare and his play, Julius Caesar.
The warning itself was made famous in Shakespeare’s play on Julius Caesar, when an unidentified soothsayer tells Caesar, who is on his way to the Senate (and his death), “Beware the ides of March.” Caesar replies, “He is a dreamer; let us leave him. Pass.”
2. Have you ever been to Rome? If so what do you love about the city? If not, any desire to go?
Haven’t been to Rome. I have been to Italy once with Dear on a Business Trip to Milan. I’m sure there are places in Rome I would be impressed with and love but I do not have a desire to travel to Italy again.
3. What’s your favorite place to ‘roam’?
My, our favorite place to roam is anywhere in Great Britain. I’m a comfort traveler so I appreciate being able to communicate with the locals and for the most part understand what they are saying.
4. Do you like pizza? Thick or thin crust? Red sauce-white sauce-other? Your favorite toppings? How do you feel about pineapple on a pizza?
We do like pizza, thick or thin but mostly thick and usually read sauce. We enjoy sausage, bell pepper, pepperoni, onions, mushrooms. We do not do pineapple on pizza…ever.
5. ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’…tell us how this expression applies to something in your home-life-job currently (or recently)?
The latest ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ project at our country bungalow is a redo of our master shower stall. It’s taken weeks just to come up with a plan. It will take more weeks to first decide on the pan and then the tile. Right now the glass doors came off and we are living with a curtain. We do not plan to put glass doors on the finished product because of our well water deposits that are impossible to clean.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
This beautiful bouquet of flowers was on the porch on Monday from our oldest and his lovely bride. We returned home from celebrating an overnight in Spokane and Idaho for my 71st birthday. We enjoyed Indian food, 2 lamb dishes, jasmine rice and naan at India House in Post Falls on Sunday. We spent the night in Spokane Valley and on Monday, my birthday, we shopped at all the places we don’t have in Colville. On the way back home on Monday we stopped for Mexican at our favorite spot and Hector treated us well as usual with a very small bill left at our table.
Four more days until our oldest and only granddaughter turns 5. Celebration plans are afoot!
Addy and JJ are holding a bag of Brussels Sprouts. Our DIL told Addy she could pick any vegetable she wanted in the produce section of the store and her choice was Brussels Sprouts! Well done Mommy and Addy!
The first decade of my life was from 1951 until 1961. Born in East Los Angeles, moved to Montebello Gardens and then at the end of this first decade we moved up to Montebello. Warning up front that these decade posts will be a photo and information overload for many of you.
Somewhere in East Los Angeles possibly on Humphreys if my memory serves me right about the street name from our Pop. My sister Vera is telling me to shush. My brother Fred is not happy about me crying.
Yikes, I’m crying again. My little babushka is standing behind my mom. My parents good friend Zena Katkov next to her and my Uncle Paul holding my cousin Valia and then my Aunt Nina with my cousin Walter beside her. The lady sitting next to mom is a friend from San Francisco (Mrs. Hamzieff) with her son. Not sure who the lady is between her and my Aunt Nina.
These next photos are from our home in Montebello Gardens/Pico Rivera, California.
My sister Vera’s birthday party with many of our cousins on our Father’s side.
Camping in Big Bear, California with our maternal cousins.
The paternal side of our family.
Our cousin Johnny’s birthday on our Pop’s side of the family.
Maternal side of the family on Easter. Our Babushka with her grandchildren.
That’s a pigeon on my head.
Paternal cousins on another Easter.
Berry picking somewhere in southern California.
Paternal grandparents.
Our brother Tim was born and he usurped me of my title of being the youngest in our family.
My seventh birthday.
Cracking up at the way I lay my hands for photos.
I’m on the rug in front of my sister Vera, sister Kathy holding our new baby brother Tim and our brother Fred with the accordion. Love my goofy expression!
Easter 1958. We always got new clothes and shoes for Easter and Christmas.
Christmas 1958
Another photo from Christmas,1958. I’m on the left at seven years old. Our little brother Tim was 11 months old. There’s a reason I’m the only one who isn’t dressed in their Christmas clothes in this photo. I had some medical problems that I can only remember as some kind of kidney infection that I was hospitalized for. I ended up having to have a teacher come to our home for a couple months in the new year, (1959). By Valentine’s Day I still wasn’t back to school because I remember that my home school teacher brought me Valentine’s Day cards from my classmates.
Easter 1959
My birthday in 1961 and our last year in Montebello Gardens. Our next little brother, Steve is on the left barely in the photo. Cousin Vera and Johnnie on my Pop’s side of the family. Our cousin Valia, Tania and Walter on our Mom’s side of the family and my two little brothers, Tim and Steve and older brother Fred who is not quite visible.
My 5th grade photo. I sent this photo to Paul Kushnerov when he was in the service. His girlfriend at the time asked me to write him while he was serving our country in the 50’s. This little act inspired me to be more of an encourager with letters and cards. It was always a joy to receive something in the mail. Paul and Vera were married and would be our youth leaders for a time at Bethany Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Paul’s son shared this photo he found in amongst his parents keepsakes after Paul passed away a few years ago.
At the end of my first decade I was still in elementary school. We were living in Montebello and we walked to school crossing busy Whittier Blvd. There were six siblings and our parents living in a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom home. In my next decade our family increased.
Because I skipped a grade (2nd or 3rd). I’ve always thought it was 2nd grade that I skipped but now with a little detective work I think it was third grade since I do not have a school photo for the third grade nor do I remember a teacher from the third grade. Now I’m also wondering a lot about 3rd grade. What is 3rd grade known for? 4th grade you have multiplication. From 4th grade on I was a year younger than most of my classmates.
In this first decade of my life my parents socialized mostly with our relatives or Russians who we went to church with. Both of the churches we were a part of had services in the Russian language. Our pop made friends that were non-Russian at work but not lifetime friends. Work is where he picked up most of his English. My mom became friends with an Italian lady who lived across the street named Lucille. Lucille gave me simple jobs around her home and paid me. She made the best Italian cookies. She would let me have some out of the oven, delicious! She baked them for weddings and I remember them iced green and pink and stacked on every surface of the house! When I cleaned the detached room that 2 of her sons lived in she said if I found any money under their beds I could keep it. I did find some! Maybe that was a way of getting me to clean thoroughly. My mom learned a lot of her English from Soap Operas. As the World Turns. Lucille helped her, too.
There was another friend across the street who had an Avocado tree in her backyard. We learned to really enjoy Avocado on toast in the 50’s long before the current trend.
We had a lot of Hispanic neighbors. Rosie was my next door neighbor who’s dog bit me on the mouth. Not a fan of Boxers to this day! Her mom seemed to have a pot of beans simmering on the stove most days I visited inside the home. It was an aroma I had never experienced. Rosie and her cousin betrayed our friendship one day by jumping me and beating me up and ripping my favorite blouse when we were walking to the store. Our friendship ended. Needless to say I didn’t smell beans simmering after that day until high school days with my very good and faithful Hispanic friends!
Speaking of being beat up there was a day that I angered someone at school who let everyone know they were going to beat me up when we got off the bus after school. There was more than one school bus stop in our neighborhood of ‘The Jardines’ and at the last minute I jumped off the bus at the stop before our stop and ran home avoiding the fight.
We would watch TV as a family. Shows like Art Linkletter, Micky Mouse Club, I remember Chucko the Birthday Clown (popular in L.A.) because I went on the show for Victor Katkov’s birthday party. I would like to have footage from that show. I ended up winning a prize on the show, too. Can’t remember what it was. Other L.A. based shows like Engineer Bill were popular, too. “On the green light you go, on the red light you stop because no engineer would ever run a red light” They used that to get kids to drink a glass of milk. Sheriff John was another popular show and here’s his birthday song!
We were able to go to Disneyland shortly after it opened. We also would get in our jammies and load up in the car to go to the Drive-in to see all the latest Disney releases. Bambie was sooo sad. I couldn’t keep my eyes open for the sad parts. Falling asleep in the car on the way home was a regular occurrence. Knott’s Berry Farm was another experience we enjoyed. If my memory serves me right the first time I ever ate in a restaurant was at Knott’s Berry Farm’s Chicken Dinner restaurant.
Many families that we knew had a story about one of their kids falling out of a car from leaning on the door or from the door opening going round a corner. No seat belts and no car seats in those days.
This post is an ‘all about me’ historical post and if you made it all the way to the end congratulations. Maybe my grandkids will enjoy reading about their Baba in the future when I’m not around to answer all the questions.
Happy Birthday to me and I thank the God who loves me and called me, Jesus who saved me from my sins and the Holy Spirit who indwells me, Three in One, that I have made it to my 7th decade 8th decade and to my 71st year. Thank you to Anneliese for noticing I’ve entered my 8th decade!!
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 share, leave it/them in the comments and I will add it/them to the post. Let’s dig deep in God’s Truth this year!
Ephesians 4:17-24
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!- assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self; created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
From Vera:
Psalm 19:7-9 ESV
“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.”
From Leonard:
1 Corinthians 5:8
“Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.”
It’s Wednesday so that means the Hodgepodge is here with new questions to answer. Thank you to Joyce From This Side of the Pondfor keeping our brains challenged!
1. Where do you get your news these days?
We follow more conservative voices. I limit my news intake since they prove themselves to be misleading so much of the time. I get so tired of all the opinions and talk show formats instead of your good ole news like; there was a flood today in such and such city or it’s real hot in Texas today. During this war I get information from our missionary associations that are in the midst helping like FEBC, SGA, and others who are there.
2. It’s National Crab Day…do you like crab meat? What makes you crabby?
A good Crab Cake is a treat.
Stone faced liars make me crabby.
3. Does freedom mean more choices?
From the Oxford dictionary;
the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.
Another definition is; the state of not being in prison. 🙂
So…if we all have freedom there are going to be a lot of choices.
Have you ever felt there were too many choices? Elaborate.
Some restaurants have way too many choices making it very hard to choose. Then you wonder…can they really do 40 different dishes well?
Seriously though, choices are important in life. We will all live with the choices we make and their consequences.
I’m with Joshua on this one…
Joshua 24:14-15 (ESV)
14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
4. Barbara Millicent Roberts was introduced to the world on March 9, 1959…that’s Barbie to most of us. Did you have Barbies as a kid, or did you let your own children play with Barbies?
Madame Alexander Dolls are more my style and it was one of her dolls I bought our daughter for her 1st birthday.
I was 8 years old when Barbie was born. I never owned a Barbie. I can only remember having one doll when I was little. It was small rubber headed one. Nice and chunky and nothing like a Barbie. I was not a big fan or pro Barbie but our daughter had a collection of them. I did not appreciate how hard they were to dress and undress. Oye! Our daughter was gifted a special edition Russian Barbie from her Uncle and Aunt one Christmas. That doll disappeared from our home a few years later when we had a Russian traditional dance troupe visit for a meal. Hmmm…
I still have some of our daughter’s Barbie collection in a bin that I pull out for Grand nieces or other little girls to enjoy when visiting.
What well known Barbara (living or not) would you most like to meet?
We did know a real life Barbie (named Barbie) that could stand in for Barbie and model those outfits and afford them!
Truth be told I’m not interested in meeting any ‘well known’ Barbara.
5. What are three things you value most in another person?
A person of integrity who is faithful, honest and dependable.
Someone who is generous with their time, talents and money.
A person who I can belly laugh with. Not a fan of grouches.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Speaking of Barbie, I didn’t walk away from this one that was in our local Goodwill store for under $12.00 back in June of 2017. If our granddaughter is ever interested in Barbies, I’ll give this one to her. If not interested I’ll have to offer it up for sale. It wasn’t Barbie that drew my interest. I’m a huge fan of Beatrix Potter and her collection of Tales!
The sticker price on the bottom of the box is $44.00.
This will be the last puzzle I complete this Winter.
This one has oversized pieces which makes it a lot easier than the last one.
Spring is coming and there will be projects starting around our country bungalow!
Sunset last night. When driving through town last evening we were so surprised to see that gas prices have gone up over a dollar here in one weeks time. Yikes.
Time to work on our schedules to make our drives into town worth it.
We are having daytime temperatures above freezing so some of our yard art and rocks are becoming visible.
Our sea glass float is just popping out of it’s snow blanket.
There is our gentle shepherd planter poking up his head.
Two out of the three bunnies are enjoying the sun on their faces.
The other things that are being revealed are the plants that need some trimming.
Soon enough more needed gardening will be revealed. I’ll just consider that work and enjoy the winter rest from it for a few more weeks. A little less than 2 more weeks before it is officially Spring.
Blessed is the Man That Endureth ~Thou Faithful Into Death
Safe in the Arms of Jesus
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast,
There by His love o’ershaded,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.
Hark! ’tis the voice of angels,
Borne in a song to me.
Over the fields of glory,
Over the jasper sea.
Refrain
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast
There by His love o’ershaded,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe from corroding care,
Safe from the world’s temptations,
Sin cannot harm me there.
Free from the blight of sorrow,
Free from my doubts and fears;
Only a few more trials,
Only a few more tears!
Refrain
Jesus, my heart’s dear refuge,
Jesus has died for me;
Firm on the Rock of Ages,
Ever my trust shall be.
Here let me wait with patience,
Wait till the night is over;
Wait till I see the morning
Break on the golden shore.
Refrain
Words: Fanny Crosby, (1820-1915)
ht: Cyberhymnal
Cyberhymnal attached this sweet story along with this hymn by Fanny Crosby;
At the close of one of Mr. Sankey’s meetings in Glasgow, Scotland, a woman said to him: Mr. Sankey, I want to tell you about my daughter, Maggie. She was converted when you were here eight years ago, but has gone home to heaven, and I want to tell you what she said when she was dying.
She asked me to get her little hymn-book, and when I brought it she asked me to turn to No. 25, saying: I want to sing it. Why, my child, said I, you are not able to sing. Yes, she said, I want to sing one more song before I go; will you please turn to the twenty-fifth hymn, Safe in the Arms of Jesus. I found it for her and she began to sing these lines:
Hark, ’tis the voice of angels Borne in a song to me, Over the fields of glory, Over the jasper sea.
Her voice then seemed to fail her, and she said, Mother, lift me up. I put my arm under her and lifted my poor girl up, then she raised her eyes to heaven and whispered, Jesus, I am coming; Jesus I am coming. The doctor who was standing by her side, said, How can you sing when you are so weak?
She replied: Jesus helps me to sing. Jesus helps me to sing.
With these words upon her lips she died in my arms.
The little hymn book was laid upon the girl’s breast and buried with her.
Another interesting note,
This song was played on August 8, 1885, when American president Ulysses S. Grant was interred in Riverside Park, on the banks of the Hudson River.
This is a thick chili with 3 kinds of beans and jalapeno that is sure to warm you up!
1 pound ground beef
12 oz. ground chorizo
1 onion chopped
1 green bell pepper chopped
2 tablespoons oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 can diced petite tomatoes (14-16 oz.)
1 can drained and rinsed black beans (14-16 oz.)
1 can drained and rinsed kidney beans (14-16 oz.)
1 can drained pinto beans (14-16 oz.)
1 fresh jalapeno, chopped or 1/2 of a 4oz. can of chopped jalapeno
1 can corn (approx. 15 oz.)
Fresh diced tomatoes and grated cheese for serving
Heat oil in large heavy bottomed pot.
Add onion and saute for 2 minutes.
Add bell pepper and saute for 2 minutes.
Add beef and chorizo and season well.
Cook till meat is no longer pink.
Add the tomatoes, 3 kinds of beans, jalapeno, and corn.
Bring to a boil and simmer for up to an hour. If you like thinner chili you can add some broth to the pot.
Serve topped with fresh tomatoes, grated cheese, sour cream, avocado or your favorite toppings. We always love to have corn bread with our chili.
This recipe will probably serve 8-10 people.
It is still that time of year where a nice warm bowl of soup or chili hits the spot! Chili is such a simple meal and we enjoy it in many forms. Many times it’s a matter of just mixing together what we have in the fridge and cupboard.
This is Shakespeare’s birthplace right in the middle of town on Henley Street in Stratford Upon Avon. This photo was taken in September of 2013.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 