Out with the Sink Hodgepodge…

1. In a rut, in a jam, in the groove, out of sync, off balance, out of touch…which saying best fits some area of your life currently (or recently)? Explain.

I’m literally out of a sink. The only thing that is still standing in our master bath is the toilet. The photo at the top of this post is what this area in our master bedroom looked like on Monday. Demolition started after I took the photo. Because of this chaos I am out of sync and off balance right now.

We are extending the bathroom wall into the bedroom by a foot and the wall will go all the way on the right instead of having that useless desk area. A new double vanity should be delivered on Tuesday. The new toilet will be in a different spot. Instead of a tub/shower unit we installing a shower stall. New flooring and two new smaller windows in different spots which means the siding on the outside of the house will need to be re-done, too. Dear is doing all the work himself. He will get some advice from a plumber along the way.

2. What is it about somebody else’s style of work (coworker/employee/shared volunteer project/household chore) that makes you crazy? Why?

Oh dear, this question can get me in trouble. I get antsy around laid back, do it the last minute kind of people. I might start tapping my foot wondering when the job is going to get started. Now I’ve learned over the years that these types of workers still get the job done but I’d rather not be there to watch. I like to plan and plan and make a list and start things early and have everything ready on time. For unplanned last minute things I’m good with fly by the seat of your pants.

3. What’s a tradition that always makes you feel at home?

Having a meal with family and friends sitting together around a table holding hands while saying a prayer of thanksgiving to God before we eat.

4. A favorite song with a girl’s name in the title or lyrics? Any reason why this is a particular favorite?

Michelle by the Beatles. Beatlemania was alive and well in my junior high and high school years.

5. Share a favorite quote, verse, or saying relating to gratitude or thanksgiving.

Psalm 118: 28-29 ~

You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
    you are my God; I will extol you.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    for his steadfast love endures forever!

6. Insert your own random thought here.

On Sunday I posted this for Bread for the Journey at Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog.

More and more it seems the world around me is choosing to come against the truth of God’s Word. Some of these voices, strong and bold, can confuse me and sometimes because of the labels they attach to anyone who does not have their strong point of view I am silenced. What should I do? …read more at this link.

I’ll be linking up with Joyce From This Side of the Pond for Wednesday Hodgepodge. She asks the questions and we answer them. Thank you for stopping by and reading my answers. I appreciate my fellow bloggers and others who stop by, too.

Chaotic

We are getting down to the bare bones of our former small master bath so we can make a new footprint and expand the bathroom into unused space.

Here’s the space before he started ripping into the walls. A full before and after post will hopefully be ready by Christmas. That’s my “all I want for Christmas wish”.  The master bedroom is the only area up the stairs from our kitchen so at least it can be out of sight and out of mind. I still feel unhinged and not at the top of my game. We are also waiting to create total chaos in the kitchen area when the new counter tops are cut and ready to be installed.

Here’s a fun photo that our kids took last Friday night when Addy arrived for a couple of days.

Addy and Uncle Andrew. We are an eyebrow rich family!

Have a nice Tuesday everyone.

Bushel and a Peck

This little cutie arrived at Baba and Gramps’ home on Friday evening after a long drive with her mommy and granny great. Daddy stayed at home. It was fun to sing to her (I love you a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck) and enjoy some nursery rhymes, too. Her new bibs were waiting for her here from Great Uncle and Auntie from Texas. Yeehaw!

Her aunties and uncles arrived for dinner and some hugs and fun. Photo fail on my part.

On Saturday morning we made a quick trip to Molbak’s in Woodinville for a little shopping and found that they already had their poinsettia tree up and their amazing poinsettia varieties displayed.

The Christmas displays were up already, too, so it was fun to see many new things for the season.

Responding to granny great and smiling and sticking her little tongue out at me.

After our morning together and a trip to Molbak’s they left for a cousin’s birthday party north of us.

We corralled a great play area with ottomans as borders so she could crawl and pull herself up without getting to other hazards in the room.

It was great to have all three in our home for a couple of nights. Thankfully they made it over the pass and through the snow and ice safely home before 5pm on Sunday. Addy will not be happy to get back into that car seat anytime soon!

Update: We are so so thankful that our girls left early and were over the pass by 10am because we just saw the news that 1-90 was shut down both east and west over the pass and beyond at 12:15 today! Whew!

We are again grieving the evil killing of people just going about their day worshiping together. May God comfort all the families and friends of those killed and wounded at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
    and saves the crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18 

Red Skagit Barns

A month ago we drove to La Conner in Skagit County for lunch with a friend. On the way home we took a back road and saw these red barns and others I’ll share later. Looks like this one above is a gym.

Linking up with Tom for The Barn Collective.

We had a busy couple of days with special overnight guests, our daughter-in-law, Addy and Granny great. They are on snowy roads heading home today.

We had to hurry out and take the patio covers down on Friday when the first snow came down so they wouldn’t get torn by the heavy snow. We draped them over the privacy fence until they dry and we can fold them up and put them away until late Spring. We were surprised again to see snow this morning. So early and out of the ordinary for our area. Have you had snow yet?

Moment by Moment ~ Hymn

Moment by Moment

Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned mine;
Living with Jesus, a new life divine;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Refrain

Moment by moment I’m kept in His love;
Moment by moment I’ve life from above;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine;
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Never a trial that He is not there,
Never a burden that He doth not bear,
Never a sorrow that He doth not share,
Moment by moment, I’m under His care.

Refrain

Never a heartache, and never a groan,
Never a teardrop and never a moan;
Never a danger but there on the throne,
Moment by moment He thinks of His own.

Refrain

Never a weakness that He doth not feel,
Never a sickness that He cannot heal;
Moment by moment, in woe or in weal,
Jesus my Savior, abides with me still.

Refrain

Words: Daniel W. Whittle, 1893.

While I was attending the World’s Fair in Chicago, Henry Varley, a lay preacher from London, said to Major Whittle: “I do not like the hymn ‘I need Thee every hour’ very well, because I need Him every moment of the day. Soon after Major Whittle wrote this sweet hymn…[He] brought the hymn to me in manuscript a little later, saying that he would give me the copyright of both the words and music if I would print for him five hundred copies on fine paper, for distributing among his friends. His daughter, May Whittle, who later became the wife of Will R. Moody, composed the music. I did as Mr. Whittle wished; and I sent the hymn to England, where it was copyrighted on the same day as at Washington.

In England the hymn became very popular. Falling into the hands of the well-known Rev. Andrew Murray, of South Africa, then visiting London, he adopted it as his favorite hymn. A year later Mr. Murray visited Northfield [Massachusetts], and while holding a meeting for men in the church he remarked, If Sankey only knew a hymn which I found in London, and would sing it, he would find that it embraces my entire creed.

I was very anxious to know what hymn it was, and when he had recited it I said to him: Doctor, that hymn was written within five hundred yards of where we are standing.

For years Dr. Murray had his wife sing this hymn in nearly all his meetings. It also became a great favorite in South Africa during the war.

Sankey, pp. 190-91

ht: Cyberhymnal

Give Thanks and Make Known

Yesterday I reported that we weren’t slated to get snow but when I walked down the stairs this morning at “oh dark thirty” I noticed that we did get a dusting in the wee hours. Once it’s light I’ll take a photo before it all melts off with the rain that is falling.

Waking this morning my mind was singing these lyrics off an old Acapella cd.

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name
Make known among the nations what he has done
Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name
Make known among the nations what he has done

Chorus:
Sing to him sing praise to him
Tell of all his wonderful acts
Glory in his holy name
Glory in his holy name
Glory in his name
Glory in his name

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name
Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name
Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice

I rejoice and give thanks for God’s beautiful creation. I so love autumn, the weather, the colors, the start of something fresh and new.

We live in an area with easy access to walking trails and parks that show off God’s creation.

There’s an old public golf course along the Burke Gilman Trail that the city of Bothell sold off and it is sitting and waiting for developers to change it’s landscape. There was lots of controversy over this sale and I’m sure the folks whose homes have enjoyed the green views are disappointed. In the interim they are allowing the public to walk on the course. We enjoyed our first time doing this last Sunday. The many hazards on the course were left there by Canadian Geese, wink wink.

Old and young golfers are mourning the loss of this course. We met one of them who wasn’t golfing this day but walking his old dog on the course instead.

I’m thankful to God for this guy and all the years we’ve had together so far.

Not linking up today with any memes because it snowed and I have to make potato salad to go with the pork butt that has been in the smoker already for 5 hours and the Sounders won last night and I was at the game and didn’t get home till after 10:30 PM…way late for this early to bed, early to rise person. I hope no grammar police are out today to critique my run-on paragraph! Our Sounders are off to the Western Conference Finals!

Go Sounders!

This is what it looks like here this morning. Yikes! It’s melting fast.

Also…to to Mennonite Girls Can Cook for a yummy white chili recipe.

November is Here…

…but I still have stuff to share from October.

Some fun times with Auntie Katie in the new outfit Auntie Laura and Uncle Josh bought.

These shots are still from our time at Dan and Jamie’s for the first annual family hunting trip in mid-October.

Fun with gramps and a box on Wednesday night before we left for home on Thursday.

On October 19th we said our goodbyes to Colville and to Dan, Jamie and Addy until next time.

Now back to the present. We have all kinds of interesting weather advisories across our state on this first day of November and the next few days. Snow has even been mentioned. The snow won’t fall on us but north and east of us it’s a possibility. Today I spent some time watching leaves fall from the huge maple in my neighbor’s yard. The leaves twirl as they fall and catch the light as they make their way to the ground. It’s kind of mesmerizing. We filled up our large yard waste bin plus one other bin yesterday and Dear rounded up mounds of leaves twice today.

Above is from our drive. The maple tree is just on the other side of that fence on the left.

Here is a reverse view with part of the tree pictured on the right. Half of the branches come out over our drive. Our privacy fence is on the left and you can’t see our home in this shot. We still have lots of leaves in our future.

This photo was taken in downtown Bothell at the Fire station. Fall really has been amazing here.

This was one of those random catch-up posts, a little of this and a little of that. What are you catching up on?

Interrupted Hodgepodge

1. What does/did Halloween look like at your house this year? Did you decorate? Pick pumpkins? Carve pumpkins? Expect trick or treaters? Wear a costume to a party or event? Make a costume? Feel glad you didn’t have to come up with a costume? Cook a Halloween themed treat? Eat all the leftover candy?

Minimal decorations on the front porch that I’ve collected over the years. Not much but enough for me. I’m working on this post in between the doorbell and knocks and shouts of “trick or treat”. So far we’ve had 35 costumed cuties.

We went to the pumpkin patch a couple Sundays ago with the newest member of our family and she was the cutest pumpkin in the patch.

This is the closest we came to costumes this year. We were at a favorite garden store today and they had these props to take photos with.

2. What are you waiting for? Elaborate

We are in the process of replacing counter tops, sink, cooktop, and back splash. All the old back splash has been removed so things are looking a bit untidy around here as we wait on the quartz guys to template and prepare and install the quartz for us. Then dear can get to work on the back splash. (Is that two words or one?)

We’ve now had 40 trick or treaters at the door.

3. Do you wish you were friendlier, braver, more creative, more athletic, or something else? Explain.

How about skinnier. I’ve put on a lot of weight since I hit 60 and I don’t like it much.

4. When it comes time to paint are you a do-it-yourselfer or do you hire someone? What was the last paint job completed at your house? What room most needs painting now? How do you feel about wallpaper?

Dear’s father had a house painting business and Dear was trained well. Dear does all the painting at this old house and any of the houses we’ve lived in. No room in this house is in desperate need of painting. After we gut our master bath that will be the next room that will get a fresh coat of paint. We haven’t wall papered anything in any house since our 2nd home in 1976. I can enjoy wallpaper but hate removing wallpaper.

44 trick or treaters so far and #44 really needs to go home and go to sleep, just a little cranky.

5. What is one specific thing you felt gratitude for in the month of October?

I am so grateful for our first annual family hunting trip at our son, DIL, and Addy’s home in northeastern Washington. All of our kids, spouses and our little grand were together under one roof for a few nights and we had a great time.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

We have so enjoyed the fall colors this year in our area. So thankful to God for all the seasons of the year and the beauty that we can find in each one.

Dear and I walked the river trail on Sunday afternoon and I have a lot of photos to share from that walk. The reflection of this tree in the river was beautiful.

Thank you to Joyce From Across the Pond for asking the questions for Hodgepodge Wednesday. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read my posts. I appreciate your visits!

Just when I thought cranky #44 was the last trick or treater we had another wave and we are up to 51! It’s after eight and all is quiet in the neighborhood so I think I’ll turn off the lights and call it a good night with 51!

Before I could turn out the lights 4 tall teenagers came by to grab a handful of candy so our final count was 55!

Three Days Shy of 7 Months…

These photos were taken Tuesday October 17th. Auntie and Baba were Addy sitting while her mommy was at Bible Study.

We got a kick out of all her expressions and those eyebrows!

Looking at Auntie Katie and reaching for her hand.

We were tiring her out.

Tuesday the guys made a run to the dump and then were in the forest getting a supply of wood with a permit. When they brought the Lodge Pole Pines home they cut it down into sixteen inch rounds to Chop later.  I was watching Addy while all the wood activity went on so I didn’t get a photo of the wood. After they cut and stacked it we got ready for dinner out at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Chewelah, El Ranchito.

Addy looks like a pro in the restaurant highchair. The padded high chair and shopping cart seat covers are such a great invention. I found this one in near new condition at Goodwill for $3.99. This was another full day with everyone dropping into bed early.

Back to the present: Our kitchen is ready for measurements to make templates to cut and prepare the quartz for installation. The new sink arrived today and the new cook top arrived last Friday. We picked the tile company we are going with for the back splash. We won’t purchase the tile till after the counters are installed. I’m parting with some items that have been on my counters forever and a day. I hope to get good photos for the before and after.

Today is Halloween. No tricks but I have a treat for you over at Mennonite Girls Can Cook. Click here to get the recipe for this treat…

I’m looking forward to seeing all the cute little trick or treaters tonight and shouting out a hello to their parents standing back and watching them approach our door. I’ll try to keep track as to how many come. I’ve got my old tupperware bowl full to the brim with a variety of candy. Do you get many trick or treaters?

Barns, Pumpkins, Corn Mazes and More!

On Sunday October 15th the girls headed to Knight Farm to enjoy the corn maze and pumpkin patch. The Barn built in 1907 is on the Washington State Heritage Barn Register.

With corn maze map in hand (Katie’s hand) we set off for the maze entrance.

Katie masterfully led us to each checkpoint in the maze never making a wrong turn.

Addy started out awake and soon fell fast asleep.

We started at the bottom at station #10 and ended our trek at station #1.

When we were done with the maze Addy woke up and we picked out 3 pumpkins. One for daddy, one for mommy, and one for Addy.

Yep, the cutest little pumpkin in the patch!

While in the maze I spotted these farms with barns in the distance.

The guys were done hunting on Sunday with early success bringing a buck home just after noon.  Andrew had to leave us all to drive the 350 miles back to Seattle so he could be in class on Monday morning. Dear, Josh and Dan started the hard work of prepping the venison while we were away at the pumpkin patch.

I spared everyone the full image of the buck in the back of our son’s truck but you can see the antlers if you look closely. One side of the antlers look like they are growing out of Joshua’s head. Andrew left before they had the celebratory toast.

Addy with auntie Katie before we got dressed for the pumpkin patch. She was interested in the guys excitement in retelling the story of how their successful hunting morning unfolded.

Linking up with Tom for The Barn Collective and Maggie at Normandy Life for Mosaic Monday.