We took a drive yesterday to a taxidermist in the back country. I’ll be sharing a post about Larch Trees that we saw on those back roads soon.
Today we are wondering if we will have any trick or treaters at our Country Bungalow. Time will tell. We do know that one little girl will stop by with her parents sometime in the evening. Do you get many costumed cuties at your front door?
Our Pop’s story continued…
This is our Pop’s story dictated verbally by him a few years ago. I’ll be sharing excerpts every Tuesday. When I add to his story or explain a photo I will Italicize my words. Our Pop’s words will not be italicized. Our mom does not come into Pop’s story until “Tuesdays With Moisi ~ 9” even though I’ve posted photos of her before #9. I have very few photos from our parents’ life in Russia and Persia. At the end of my Tuesday posts I’ll add links to all the other posts.
The photo above is of our mom and some of her friends in Iran. This is well before my pop met my mom. I chose this photo to show how our Russian friends who immigrated to Persia dressed. Our mom is the girl seated on the left.
At this time in history the Shah issued a decree that Iranian women were no longer forced to wear head coverings. He wanted to Europeanize Iran. This was met with fierce resistance from Muslims to the point of violence. We Europeans began to fear for our lives because we were blamed for the existence of this edict. The Shah also wanted to scatter us Europeans among his people in order to teach them modern farming methods. We resisted this because we realized if we were to acquiesce, we Russians would be picked off one by one, resulting in our eventual extinction. We had to cluster in order to effectively defend ourselves. So when a rich Iranian offered us substantial acreage for farming purposes, our community of about twenty families took him up on it. It was an abandoned village with surrounding farm land. Within the first year, however, some of us began to come down with malaria. It grew to almost plague like proportions among us. Six of our group actually died. We then concluded that this area was not conducive for living, let alone farming, and so eventually we all left.
After this episode our family moved to a village near the Caspian Sea in Iranian territory. We stayed there about two years and moved to another village. We stayed at this village for two years and moved to a town called Rahmanabad. In my first year there, I worked as a driver delivering rocks and sand for the construction of roads and bridges. Then for the next three years I became a tenant farmer. The Shah leased us the land and our payment to him was one-fifth of the harvest.
It was fun to meet up with our kids in Chewelah for the annual Light Up the Park event. We didn’t stay till dark so I didn’t get photos of all the pumpkins lit up. Maybe next year.
Time will tell if we will get any trick or treaters this year at our Country Bungalow.
Happy new week to you!
My Soul, Now Praise Thy Maker
My soul, now praise thy maker!
Let all within me bless His name
Who maketh thee partaker
Of mercies more than thou dar’st claim.
Forget Him not whose meekness
Still bears with all thy sin,
Who healeth all thy weakness,
Renews thy life within.
Whose grace and care are endless
And saved thee thro’ the past;
Who leaves no sufferer friendless,
But rights the wronged at last.
He shows to man His treasure
Of judgment, truth, and righteousness,
His love beyond all measure,
His yearning pity o’er distress,
Nor treats us as we merit,
But lays His anger by.
The humble, contrite spirit
Finds His compassion nigh;
And high as Heav’n above us,
As break from close of day,
So far, since He doth love us,
He puts our sins away.
For as a tender father
Hath pity on his children here,
He in His arms will gather
All who are His in childlike fear.
He knows how frail our powers
Who but from dust are made;
We flourish like the flowers,
And even so we fade;
The wind but o’er them passes,
And all their bloom is o’er—
We wither like the grasses,
Our place knows us no more.
God’s grace alone endureth,
And children’s children yet shall prove
How He with strength assureth
The hearts of all that seek His love.
In Heav’n is fixed His dwelling,
His rule is over all;
Angels, in might excelling,
Bright hosts, before Him fall.
Praise Him who ever reigneth,
All ye who hear His Word,
Nor our poor hymns disdaineth—
My soul, O praise the Lord!
Words: Johann Graumann, 1525
Starts with “Q.”
A Favorite.
A “Q”uantity.
Starts with Q: Quail in our back acreage.
A Favorite: I decided to choose a Quote for my favorite since we are on Q.
“Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial. Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul. Pessimism is at best an emotional half-holiday; joy is the uproarious labor by which all things live.” ~ G.K. Chesterton
If you’d like to see more of my favorite quotes of the week click here.
Photo: Me having joy in my labors with my new riding lawn mower. We have just under 5 acres to keep under control. Adding a new closeup showing my noise protection on my ears!
A “Q”uantity:
How about a quantity of quail? How many do you see?
A parting shot:
I’m calling our new home Our Country Bungalow. I might add to it and call it Our Country Bungalow at Quail Run.
Click over to Tom at Backroads Traveller to see more Weekend Roundup!
This is something new I’ll be posting mostly for myself on Fridays. I come across many great quotes during the week that I don’t want to forget about. I’m going to gather them up and publish them every Friday so I’ll have them to come back to. I will add a link (source) above each quote so I can go back to the full article. I’ll also include one of my favorite photos of the week at the top of the post. This weeks photo was taken in Spokane of the Spokane River from the Clinkerdagger Restaurant on Tuesday. More about that day in another post.
Third, we have the opportunity to stand out in the world by choosing to die to ourselves, to lay our lives down for something greater than ourselves. The New Testament tells us to crucify the self the world tells us to be true to. Nothing is more non-conformist and radical and rebellious than seeking conformity with Christ and the death of your old self. Mark Sayers is right:
To be shaped by grace in a culture of self, the most countercultural act one can commit…is to break its only taboo: to commit self-disobedience. To acknowledge that authority does not lie with us, that we ultimately have no autonomy. To admit that we are broken, that we are rebellious against God and His rule. To admit that Christ is ruler. To abandon our rule and to collapse into His arms of grace. To dig deep roots into His love. We don’t just need resilience; we need gospel resilience.
Because it is so perfect, Scripture endures forever (Ps. 19:9). That’s why Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mark 13:31). It never needs to be updated to accommodate contemporary thinking. It stands forever as authoritative and unyielding. Those who judge it, slander it, or ignore it are in grave peril. Far better to fear God and bow to His revealed will.
Believer, grasp the divine Word with a personal, appropriating faith. Imagine that you hear Jesus say, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.”9 Imagine you see Him walking on the water of your trouble, for He is there, and He is saying, “Do not fear—it is I.” These are sweet words of Christ! May the Holy Spirit make you feel them as if they were spoken to you; forget others for a while—accept the voice of Jesus as addressed to you and say, “Jesus whispers consolation; I cannot refuse it; I will sit under His shadow with great delight.”10
The psalmist wrote, “How blessed [happy] is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers” (Ps. 1:1-3).
Our kids had a reveal party with cupcakes that had a center that would reveal whether we are anticipating a baby girl or baby boy added to our family. Granny Great, Grandpa Great, Granny, Grandfather, Gramps, Baba, Great Uncle and Great Auntie, Uncles and Aunties all gathered to enjoy the reveal together. We held our cupcakes and took a bite together for the great reveal!
So happy and thankful to God that we get to experience a grandson after our dear granddaughter. We are excited for the new life that God is forming and that we get to see come April of 2019!
Our Pop’s story continued…
This is our Pop’s story dictated verbally by him a few years ago. I’ll be sharing excerpts every Tuesday. When I add to his story or explain a photo I will Italicize my words. Our Pop’s words will not be italicized. Our mom does not come into Pop’s story until “Tuesdays With Moisi ~ 9” even thought I’ve posted photos of her before #9. I have very few photos from our parents’ life in Russia and Persia. At the end of my Tuesday posts I’ll add links to all the other posts.
My paternal grandfather is in the gold and black shirt with his red bear waning and filling in with grey. My dear paternal grandmother is next to our Pop. Pop’s sister and her husband are on the right. This photo was taken at our home in La Mirada in the USA in the 1970’s. Red Beard, Timofey, my paternal grandfather died July 23, 1979, the year our first son was born, he was 91. Martha, my maternal grandmother died inJuly of 1986, she was 98! Our pop’s sister shown here is the last remaining member of the family alive.
About two or three hours later we came to the town of Sherevan just before sunset. Some of the townspeople came out with bread for us. We were so thankful for their generosity. We were directed to a motel for the night. But shortly thereafter, border guards came to the motel and took us all to the local police station in order to start the process of deporting us back to Russia. We did not know this at the time. But then at that moment, a truck happened to arrive at the station. The driver saw us and asked, “Whose family are you?” My mom answered, “Bagdanov.” He said, “Do you know that they are planning to send you back? But don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.” He then went to the town mayor and asked, “Do you know whose family you’re sending back? It’s Red beard’s family.” (My father had a rather prominent red beard.) The mayor immediately released us back to the motel, gave us a large room and brought us food. Later on that night my father came with a loaded truck (he was in the delivery business). The next day he delivered his load and came back for us. We then headed for the town of Meshed where my father was living while he was waiting for us.
If you want to read the rest of the story you can search my Tuesdays With Moisi posts.
Thankfully one of the local groceries had a nice turkey for me to buy. We enjoyed turkey, stuffing, gravy, yams and rolls. It was a beige meal but one we all enjoy.
We all ended up in plaid except for Addy.
Our oldest with job, family and roots in Western Washington.
Second born and our neighbors in Colville. Neighbors by eight miles. Roots and future established in North Eastern Washington.
Our youngest with their shallow roots in Western Washington wondering where life and jobs will take them.
The plaid, courtesy of Wal-Mart and Costco! We had a whirlwind wonderful family time together. All these shots taken in our back yard acreage.
Soon I’ll share photos from the inside of our Country Bungalow. We have many more walls to cover with our art pieces. Before too long Dear will be painting every square inch of our interior. Happy new week to all of you!
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 