…for a major event!
The 2017 Solar Eclipse! We didn’t get the full show here but it was a good show. We really enjoyed seeing the interesting shadows cast by the Eclipse! We also enjoyed watching the NASA coverage on T.V.
And here for historical perspective for our dear little Addy is her 5 month photo collage that her mommy took yesterday on August 20th.
We love you Addy May! Look at you grow!
Dan, Jamie and Addy surprised us royally with an unexpected stop at our house on their way home from a vacation on the Oregon Coast. All our kids knew about this surprise that was on it’s way. They kept Dear and me in the dark until they pulled up in our driveway. We were shocked in a happy happy joy joy way! We enjoyed them under our roof for 20 hours before they made the final leg of their journey home.
We gave Addy time with mommy so she could get used to her new surroundings after spending 8 hours in the car traveling up from the Oregon coast.
I got lots of snuggles and kissed those cheeks and when I wasn’t holding her I was snapping some photos. She spent some time getting reacquainted with Gramps.
Aunt Katie blocked Addy’s escape route off the blanket while Addy stretched and scooted getting some good exercise before it was time to go to sleep.
Time for jammies with a little prayer that she’d be able to sleep through the night after a few rough nights in Oregon. Thankfully Addy was able to sleep through the night and was ready for lots of visiting and attention on Saturday.
Aunties and Uncles arrived for our Swedish Pancakes breakfast and we took turns being entertained by Addy. Addy was very interested in her aunties and uncles. Auntie Laura got some extra noises and raspberries from Addy.
She can really move and scoot and push herself up on all fours.
Uncle Josh got some good snuggles in and Addy was very interested in his beard.
She is active and curious and strong.
It was like Christmas in August. We traditionally take a walk after Swedish Pancakes on Christmas morning. We took this selfie after our morning walk to burn some of the calories we added up at breakfast. Addy is under the white hat in her baby carrier having fallen asleep during our walk. I borrowed some of these photos from Laura.
She looked a bit dazed when we pulled her out of the front pack waking her up. Addy loves to stick her tongue out, blow raspberries and work those eyebrows of hers.
Expressing herself with Auntie Katie.
She’s also on to all of us and knows when we are taking photos with our phones or cameras!
A friend of Jamie’s handed down this Johnny Jump-Up which has proven be be enjoyable for Addy. We had one years ago for Josh and Dan. We never tried it for Katie. They really have improved the design with extra padding and comfort.
It was a quick overnight visit and the kids were in some horrendous traffic heading home over the pass. Thank you Dan, Jamie and Addy for going the extra miles to visit us and enduring the horrible traffic you encountered going home! See you in two weeks! This time we’ll do the driving.
Hoping for God’s Peace to all who visit my blog!
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27 (ESV)
Are you going to try to see the eclipse tomorrow with the proper eye protection? We will get a partial eclipse in the Seattle area from just after 9am until 11ish. It kind of makes me nervous. We are going to don two of Dear’s welding helmets and sit on some lawn chairs in our back yard and see what we can see. Time will tell how long we last…
Safely Through Another Week
Safely through another week God has brought us on our way;
Let us now a blessing seek, on th’approaching Sabbath day;
Day of all the week the best, emblem of eternal rest,
Day of all the week the best, emblem of eternal rest.
Mercies multiplied each hour through the week our praise demand;
Guarded by almighty power, fed and guided by His hand;
Though ungrateful we have been, only made returns of sin,
Though ungrateful we have been, only made returns of sin.
While we pray for pardoning grace, through the dear Redeemer’s Name,
Show Thy reconciled face, shine away our sin and shame;
From our worldly cares set free, may we rest this night with Thee,
From our worldly cares set free, may we rest this night with Thee.
Here we come Thy Name to praise, let us feel Thy presence near,
May Thy glory meet our eyes, while we in Thy house appear:
Here afford us, Lord, a taste of our everlasting feast,
Here afford us, Lord, a taste of our everlasting feast.
When the morn shall bid us rise, may we feel Thy presence near:
May Thy glory meet our eyes, when we in Thy house appear:
There afford us, Lord, a taste of our everlasting feast,
There afford us, Lord, a taste of our everlasting feast.
May Thy Gospel’s joyful sound conquer sinners, comfort saints;
May the fruits of grace abound, bring relief for all complaints;
Thus may all our Sabbaths prove till we join the church above,
Thus may all our Sabbaths prove till we join the church above!
Words: ~ John Newton
Picture Lake!
On Tuesday when we reached Picture Lake there was a breeze that made ripples on the surface of the water so the reflections were not as clear as they could be. The lake has a very nice 1/2 mile trail all around it. Picture Lake is at 4100 feet with a postcard view of Mt. Shuksan, elev. 9,131 ft.
You don’t even have to hike in to enjoy this spot. We parked right on the road next to the lake.
The weather was just right for us this day with no need for a jacket. Our next stop and my next post from our time on the Mt. Baker Scenic highway will be from Artist Point.
Meanwhile back at this old house Dear continues on some home improvement projects. We have new closet doors in our Master bedroom. I’m hoping to sort through my clothes before I put them back into the closet and face reality on which I’ll never wear again. In the last 7 days our water leak got fixed, the shingles on 3 peaks of our house have fresh stain on them, our overhangs are sanded and repainted and we have new closet doors. I’m thankful for my hard working husband.
Our kids from eastern Washington are on the Oregon coast far away from their smoky skies and heat. They sent us this photo of the three of them at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Now they have to beat all the solar eclipse traffic to get home.
Love these three and praying that their long trip home goes well for all of them.
What’s going on at your house?
On Tuesday morning bright and early we headed north on Highway 9 to see some sites on the Mt. Baker Scenic Highway. Our first stop was in Snohomish for breakfast at Jake’s Diner. Fueled for the day we headed farther north just below the U.S./Canadian Border.
“Rated one of the top hiking, skiing, snowboarding and scenic drives in America, Mt. Baker Highway takes your breath away.”
Our stops were at Nooksack Falls, Picture Lake and lastly Artist Point at the end of the highway.
From the falls we traveled on toward the Mt. Baker Ski area. We started the part of the road that in 10 miles climbed 3,200 feet.
I’m not sure what the significance of the raven sculpture on the sign is. Dear and my last and only time here was in 1988 or 1989 for a winter ski trip with friends just after we moved to Washington State from California. It looks a lot different in the winter.
Our next stop after the falls was Picture Lake and I’ll devote a whole post to it on another day.
Picture Lake is in the Heather Meadows Recreation Area.
Today we are awaiting news on who our next Senior Pastor will be. Our former pastor followed a calling to become a Navy Chaplain. We will get to meet the new candidate on August 27th. We are excited to see and hear him on that day. I’m tapping my feet and keep checking my emails to see the announcement. I’m not called the Wonderer for nothing! Hope you have a good day!
Update: Got the email from church at 1:00 pm and got to meet our new pastor candidate and we are encouraged and looking forward to the future of our church.
1. Do your actions match your words? Elaborate.
“They are both approaching the same level of confusion” says Dear. We’re having some issues with the word match in this sentence. My actions are in harmony or in agreement maybe not so much matching. Seriously though, I do think I speak and act consistently.
2. Sick as a dog, go to the dogs, dog days of summer, dog tired, it’s a dog’s life, every dog has it’s day, can’t teach an old dog new tricks…now doggone it which saying could most recently be applied to your life?
Probably the Dog Days of Summer. Summer makes me lethargic. Truth be told…it’s not my favorite season.
On the whole subject of dogs we have never had a pet dog in Dear and my house. Our son Dan now has a dog he inherited when he married Jamie. Rayna is the golden in the photo above the photos in the collage are of the dogs coming to the self-catering cottage we rented for a week in the Cotswolds when the sausages we were cooking reached their noses.
3. Your favorite book featuring a dog in the storyline? What makes it a favorite?
I’m going with Spot in the Dick and Jane series. I can still remember how excited I was to learn to read and I just couldn’t get enough of reading in my elementary years. Spot was the first dog in the first books I read and now I just found out in the original books from 1932 that Spot was a cat to begin with and then they changed Spot to being a dog! I cherished my time in the bookmobile when it came to school. The only books we had in our house growing up were the Encyclopedia Britannica and a Bible…written in Russian. We eventually got Bibles in English, too. My older siblings and I would walk a couple miles to the library every month to return and check out new books. We would always check out as many as we could carry home. The above photo are of the original 4 of us who walked to the library together before my mom and pop had 4 more to make our sibling count eight!
4. What’s something you hope to one day have the confidence to do?
Make bread. Yes, I’m part of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook but I don’t make bread and I’d like to change that. I have mastered the roulette above that was a favorite that my mom made growing up and I’m pleased about that.
5. August 16th is National Tell a Joke Day. So tell us a joke.
Just changed my name on Facebook to “No One” so when I see stupid posts I can click on it and it will say ‘No One Likes This’.
Hope you are laughing…
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Here’s something I really like, love and can’t get enough of, Addy May!
Love the eyebrows on this little one and all the expressions she makes. Counting down the days when I can kiss those cheeks…
I’ll be linking up with Jo From This Side of the Pond for Wednesday Hodgepodge. She comes up with the questions and we come up with the answers.
Dear and I had a great road trip on Tuesday to Mount Baker Scenic Highway. We enjoyed beautiful vistas and a lake and waterfall. I’ll post about it soon.
…the smoke is gone.
We have blue skies again and white clouds that are visible after we enjoyed a light rain last night and today.
Our pear tree is full to the brim and I always wonder when the time is right to pick the pears. I will have lots to share this year. Our apple crop was very small this year compared.
Since we had some cooler days Dear decided to freshen up the shingles and scrape and paint the overhang.
Things are looking a lot better.
The hydrangeas are still looking nice even though they are waning. The raindrops on their leaves and petals looked refreshing.
We’re enjoying the look of the ground cover varieties we planted. Looks like I need to weed out a couple of grass blades.
It’s a full time of year in our yard.
We are so thankful for our cooler nights and our clear skies. It is so refreshing and we were tired of moaning about the smoke and haze!
“Shower, O heavens, from above,
    and let the clouds rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;
    let the earth cause them both to sprout;
    I the Lord have created it.”
Isaiah 45:8 (ESV)
Sweetly the Holy Hymn
Sweetly the holy hymn
Breaks on the morning air;
Before the world with smoke is dim
We meet to offer prayer.
While flowers are wet with dews,
Dew of our souls, descend:
Ere yet the sun the day renews,
O Lord, Thy Spirit send.
Upon the battlefield,
Before the fight begins,
We seek, O Lord, Thy sheltering shield,
To guard us from our sins.
Ere yet our vessel sails
Upon the stream of day
We plead, O Lord, for heavenly gales
To speed us on our way!
On the lone mountain side,
Before the morning’s light,
The Man of sorrows wept and cried,
And rose refreshed with might.
Oh, hear us then, for we
Are very weak and frail,
We make the Savior’s name our plea,
And surely must prevail.
Words: Charles H. Spurgeon, 1866.
On Tuesday after a hike to the bottom of Snoqualmie Falls in the morning our kids decided a 2 hour cruise on Lake Union in an Electric Boat would be a nice thing to do with our company from Southern California. Our niece Debbee and her husband Lenny were with us for 2 days before heading north to spend time with friends in Surrey, British Columbia.
These Electric Boats hold up to 10 people. Josh started the journey as our skipper and soon we were wondering how to avoid the float planes landing and taking off over, beside and in front of us!
We headed to calmer water. The sights we saw were varied. The Space Needle was shrouded in smoky skies as was Gas Works Park. The floating hot tub had us laughing. There are floating home all along the shores of Lake Union including the home used in Sleepless in Seattle. I didn’t get a photo of it.
We were warned that after five we’d probably be dodging sailboats. They have the right of way.
Soon Lenny took over as the skipper. What are you trying to hide Skipper?
We went under several bridges that we normally only drive on. The blue and orange bridge is the Fremont Bridge and it’s a drawbridge. The larger bridge is the Aurora Bridge.
Behind Dear and me is the University Bridge.
We headed toward the Montlake Cut but the Electric Boats aren’t allowed through the cut. The Montlake Bridge is also a drawbridge.
As we headed back to port Laura tried her hand at steering the boat and decided Lenny could take over again. Two hours went by quickly and our time on the water was refreshing even with the smoky haze that has settled on the Pacific Northwest.
On their way back to our house the cousins stopped at Brooks for Debbee to get some running gear. Debbee is a marathoner. She has run the Boston Marathon twice. You know you can’t just sign up for the Boston Marathon you have to have a documented qualifying running time from another marathon to qualify to run in the Boston Marathon. The picture on the right of the collage is her during the Boston Marathon in April of this year. She’s a high school math teacher and she also coaches track and cross country at her high school.
We had a nice two days with Debbee and Lenny.
Another summer weekend is upon us. Dear is scrapping and painting overhang and freshening up the shingles on 3 areas of our house. I try to do a few chores in the cool of the morning and am waiting for more serious household projects next week when we are promised cooler days and cooler nights. Happy Friday and Happy Weekend to you.
Head on over to Mennonite Girls Can Cook to see the recipe for this cobbler. I like it because you can use frozen or fresh fruit and the cake topping doesn’t get soggy. I made a larger one with a mix of apples and blueberries, too. Serve it cake side up or cake side down.
They say we are finally going to get some relief from our dry days and heat and smoke filled skies soon. I hope so.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 