God’s Artwork

I’m thankful for the beauty all around me. One morning this last week when I went out for a drive into town the Camry caught my attention.  The detail of the ice on the car was like beautiful artwork or carvings.

This Saturday morning we are already at 31 degrees but they are predicting a snow flurry this morning. Sunday and Monday are the warmest days this coming week but just above freezing. The rest of the week is at freezing and below. Hope our travelers do not have any problems coming over the Cascade mountain range.

We freshened up some rooms in our country bungalow and I’ll share some of those changes next week.

I’m itching to decorate for Christmas but I’ll hold off till after Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have a tip for you. I needed to send off some Thanksgiving cards to loved ones and popped into the Dollar Tree in Colville. Don’t forget that they have a nice variety of cards all the time and some are even 2 for a $1.00. That beats the $3.99 and up you have to pay elsewhere these days. Your welcome.

I’m attaching a few photos here just to keep up with family doings. Our grands are still enjoying time on the other side of the mountains at Uncle Josh and Auntie Lolo’s house. They are coming back home on Monday.

JJ is pulling himself up and standing and he’s so proud of himself.

Hi mommy, I can see you better from here.

New adventures await. Never a dull moment for his parents and sister! Soon he’ll be chasing Addy around.

Thank you, Auntie Lolo, for all these great photos you text us!

Aunts and Uncles

In this Thanksgiving focused season I’m thankful for aunts and uncles who love to spend time with their niece and nephew.

Last Saturday a trip to the Bellevue Children’s Museum included all Addy and Jaymison’s Uncles and Aunties. (Not counting Great Uncles and Aunties)

Uncle Josh sticking his head in and…

Jaymison enjoyed watching for a while…

Thank you dear Lord for Uncles and Aunties and Mommies and Daddies. Thank you that our grandchildren have so much love, nurturing, modeling, teaching and guidance in their upbringing. May they all know (our grands and our kids) that God loves them and cares for them. Thank you God that first and foremost you have shown us your love by giving us a Savior who died for our sins, Jesus Christ your son. Thank you that we can have forgiveness of our sins because of His sacrifice for us on the cross. And because of this sacrifice we have hope of new life in Him and with you when our sins are forgiven and we live in obedience to your living Word. Thank you God almighty in Jesus name I pray…

1 John 4: 7-12:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another; God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

1 Peter 1: 22-25:

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for

“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

A Shopping Day…

On Tuesday we decided since it was going to be a rainy day we would head to Spokane to shop. I’m thankful that we can travel south for an hour to Spokane and enjoy shopping at all the stores we enjoyed when we lived in the Seattle area. While we drove we enjoyed listening to a couple of sermons online. That’s another thing I’m thankful to be able to do on the road.

It rained most of the day but we were treated to some clearing on the way home as we approached Colville

In Spokane we stopped at The Home Depot, Trader Joe’s, HomeGoods, Hobby Lobby, Total Wine, At Home, and we ended at Costco for shopping and refilling our gas tank.

On our drive home we stopped in Chewelah at our favorite Mexican restaurant on this side of the mountains for “linner”.

This is the auto body shop that will be working on our car. Our car is scheduled for December 16th. They are in high demand at this shop.

I’ll be doing a fair share of shopping local in Colville for the holidays, too.

WalMart has already gotten some good business from us.

We bought our overpriced natural fresh free range turkey from this store. It’s our favorite grocery store in town. When we saw turkeys for 99 cents a pound at Costco we consoled ourselves with the fact that we had helped our local economy out. 🙂

This is the part of our road where I hit the deer.

Almost home.

At the mailbox.

Looking back towards town and enjoying the clouds.

We enjoyed a quiet evening at home after our day of travel for shopping.

Thanks Be to God…

I’m so thankful to God for giving us the joy of grandchildren. What fun it is to enjoy seeing them grow. Our earnest prayer is that God will call them and save them. That they will understand their need to confess their sins and be born again into God’s family. Oh how I love them…

Thank you to Laura for capturing this moment. Oh how I love you, too.

We are heading to Spokane early today for a day of shopping at our big box and other stores that we do not have in Colville. I’m hoping to find some Christmas gifts and stocking gifts. Dear needs some things for the shop that we will pick up at the Home Depot.

I haven’t had the time to share till now that I hit my first deer on Friday of last week. It was better than it could have been since the deer decided to turn and I didn’t hit her head on but grazed her on the driver’s side of my car. My brakes worked exceptionally well and my airbags did not deploy. Praise the Lord. I hit her on our road about halfway to our home. She was able to run off into the woods. I’m so thankful that my first encounter was one that ended so well. We are seriously considering some deer guards (brush and grille guards) to put on our car. You know you live in the country when you consider these accessories to your car!

All the Love

 

A week ago Sunday after we enjoyed the Sounders championship game Josh and Laura invited our dear friends over for dinner. Addy had so much fun with her friends. They enjoyed dress up and other games during the evening. We all ate together and Addy was sad when her friends had to go home. Some of my bloggy friends had the privilege of praying for David Daniel because of his very early birth and for all the complications along the way. He is such a sweet boy and we continue to pray for God’s touch on his life and for his whole family.

Hope you’ve all had a good weekend.

My Redeemer ~ Hymn

My Redeemer

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross He suffered,
From the curse to set me free.

Refrain

Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer,
With His blood, He purchased me.
On the cross, He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.

I will tell the wondrous story,
How my lost estate to save,
In His boundless love and mercy,
He the ransom freely gave.

Refrain

I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant power I’ll tell,
How the victory He giveth
Over sin, and death, and hell.

Refrain

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His heav’nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me,
Son of God with Him to be.

Refrain

Words: Philip P. Bliss, 1876.

 

7 Months Old

I’m waiting for the official 7 Month Old photos to be messaged to me but in the meantime here is our 7 month old 4 days shy.

We got the official 7 month old photos so I’m adding them here.

He’s enjoying rice cereal with peanut butter, squash and other pureed veggies. Applesauce is good, too. He is pulling himself up when there is something he can grip. His crawling skills are getting good and fast. Chords hold a curiosity that we all have to curb. His smiles are genuine and sweet. He can spot his mommy in a crowd. He loves singing, being sung to, and he’ll chime in with sounds that seem like he’s trying to sing, too.

Baba loves you, Jaymison Joshua!

The Prince of Preachers

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, a preacher who stands out amongst many and one who I’ve enjoyed gathering books by lately. He was born in Essex, England in 1834. He was born again in 1850 at the age of fifteen. At the age of 16 he was known as “The Boy Preacher.”

He preached his first sermon at the age of sixteen. He became a pastor at the age of eighteen. In 1854 he became the pastor of New Park Street Chapel in London. He married in 1856. He had twin boys who later entered the ministry.

He often preached to congregations of more than ten thousand. The Metropolitan Tabernacle was built in 1861 to accommodate the large numbers who came to hear him preach. The Prime minister of England and members of the royal family were among those who came to hear him preach.

He went from the title of “The Boy Preacher” to be called “Prince of Preachers”.  Charles Spurgeon died in 1892 and was mourned by many.

From “A Passion for Holiness in a Believer’s Life” by Charles Spurgeon:

There is a way to God…

What that “way” is we learn from John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Believing in Jesus, we enter upon the way; receiving His Spirit into our hearts, we stand in the way; following our Redeemer’s footsteps, we walk in the way; holding fast to His leadership, we reach the end of the way. When we find Jesus, we find the way of truth, the way of life, the way of holiness. He is not only the way but also the end to all those who put their trust in Him. There is but one Christ, and therefore but one way of salvation. He is the same yesterday, today and forever; and those who pretend that He changes with the centuries talk as idle dreamers, knowing nothing of the matter. God has given us a way to Himself in the person of His Son Jesus Christ. Why should he give us another? What other can there be?

Psalm 1:1-3:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither. In all he does, he prospers.

I took these photos of Mount Rainier in Washington State from the plane I was on traveling from Seattle to Spokane on Wednesday the 13th of November. It was nice to see this majestic (volcano) mountain clearly instead of shrouded by clouds. Rainier is a mountain in Washington state that stands out amongst the rest of the mountains so I thought it appropriate to add photos of it with this post about Spurgeon and one of his many quotes.

Here we are halfway into November. I’m getting settled back into the daily routine of country life after being exposed again to city life. I’ll have more catch up posts of my time on the “Coast”. So good to be around all our kids but one. It’s nice to have two more weekends before Thanksgiving weekend to get organized. We are not hosting on Thanksgiving Day this year. We will still make a Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings on Saturday of the long weekend. Having the aromas of a traditional Thanksgiving meal in our own home is part of Thanksgiving we don’t want to miss out on. Are you hosting?

HT: The facts about Spurgeon that I shared above I read in a book I’m beginning to read (Six books in one) called Spurgeon on Prayer and Spiritual Warfare.

We Are the Champions!

What a day. What an epic event. Victory is always sweet. Our day was fabulous from beginning to end. More to come from our dinner event after the championship game with our beloved friends!

I’m back home tonight basking in the comfort of our country bungalow reunited with Dear. I hope to catch up with your blogs soon.

Tuesdays With Moisi ~ Yorba Linda

From Wildomar to Yorba Linda. My parents decided to sell their home in Wildomar and move back to the “city” in 1987. They found a home in Yorba Linda which was in a good location for our family to gather more frequently. They lived in this home from 1987 until 1997 when they decided to sell most of their possessions to return to Russia as missionaries.

Their move was just before the time we were deciding on relocating from California to the state of Washington. This was also during the time of planning for our youngest sister’s wedding in July of 1988. July of 1988 moving vans loaded all our earthly goods and Dear’s mother’s goods to move with us to Washington State. Dear’s father had died in October of 1985 and we eventually had Dear’s mother move in with us and then she relocated with us to Washington state.

Father’s Day 1988. Moisi with all his grandchildren at this time plus our two nieces on Dear’s side of the family. At this time Katie was the youngest granddaughter.

A trip to Descanso Gardens in Spring of 1988.

We were in Southern California over Christmas and for Katie, Nina and Stephen’s birthday, December 27th, 1990. This is in the dining room in Yorba Linda.

 

 

We traveled from Washington State to Southern California for a few Christmases until it just wasn’t practical for us to continue.  For Katie’s fifth birthday since we were in Southern California we decided a trip to Disneyland was a good idea.

Moisi barbecuing meat for a birthday party in the backyard in Yorba Linda. You can see part of his garden to the left.

In 1994 we spent a good amount of time in Southern California for World Cup. We stayed with my folks in Yorba Linda.

The kids and I made a road trip during Easter break in 1997 to say some goodbyes to Moisi (Dzeda) and Nadia (Babushka) who were getting ready to spend an extended time in Russia.

 

My Tuesdays with Moisi posts will be fluid as I come up with more photos or memories.