Almighty Father of Mankind ~ Hymn

Almighty Father Of Mankind

Almighty Father of mankind,
On Thee our hopes remain;
And when the day of trouble comes
I shall not trust in vain.

In early years Thou wast my Guide,
And of my youth the Friend;
And as my days began with Thee,
With Thee my days shall end.

I know the Power in Whom I trust,
The arm on which I lean;
He will my Savior ever be
Who has my Savior been.

My God, who causedst me to hope
When life began to beat,
And, when a stranger in the world,
Didst guide my wandering feet.

Thou wilt not cast me off when age
And evil days descend;
Thou wilt not leave me in despair
To mourn my latter end.

Therefore in life I’ll trust in Thee,
In death I will adore;
And after death will sing Thy praise
When time shall be no more.

Words: Michael Bruce (1746-1767).

Music: St. Peter (Reinagle), Al­ex­an­der R. Rein­ag­le, 1836

January Birthdays

Jamie and Dan both had birthdays this week so we planned a dinner party. Happiest of birthdays to you Dan and Jamie. It’s going to be another landmark year in your lives as parents!

Jamie loves cobalt blue so I set the table with blues and since it’s winter I added snowflakes and sparkles.

Photos taken with different light in the morning and evening.

The birthday boy, birthday girl and Addy along with Jamie’s aunt, uncle and mother.

Addy loves and is loved by all these guests.

Addy is getting to be a pro at getting on and off Maverick!

Our firstborn son’s birthday is tomorrow. It’s a landmark one. Where did all those years go.

Happiest of birthdays to you, Josh! Glad we could spend time with you last weekend and that we’ll all be together again the last weekend in January!

Quotes of the Week 13

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Excerpts From the Prayers of Kierkegaard

To Will One Thing

“Father in Heaven! What are we without You! What is all that we know, vast accumulation though it be, but a chipped fragment if we do not know You! What is all our striving, could it ever encompass a world, but a half-finished work if we do not know You: You the One, who is one thing and who is all!

So may you give to the intellect, wisdom to comprehend that one thing; to the heart, sincerity to receive this understanding; to the will, purity that wills only one thing. In prosperity may You grant perseverance to will one thing: amid distractions, collectedness to will one thing; in suffering, patience to will one thing.

You that gives both the beginning and the completion, may You early, at the dawn of day, give to the young the resolution to will one thing. As the day wanes, may You give to the old a renewed remembrance of their first resolution, that the first may be like the last, the last like the first, in possession of a life that has willed only one thing.”

From: Devotional Classics, Edited by Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith

First Road Trip of 2019!

We decided Thursday evening to hit the road Friday morning (January 11th) to visit our western kids. It’s a 5-1/2 to 6 hour drive from Colville to Bothell. The weather window looked real good for crossing the Cascade mountain range so we packed up for a quick trip. We had to be back home on Sunday.

This was the only photo I took on our trip west. This is the Vantage Bridge over the Columbia River Gorge. Our drive was smooth and easy all the way to our destination. We did not stop except to get a few gallons of gas in Cle Elum before going over Snoqualmie Pass into Western Washington.

Our first stop was at La Corona and these two joined us for an early dinner.

They just got their keys to their very first home. We were excited to make the trip to see their new home in person.

Before Dear and I left for this quick road trip I had made a big pot of Borsch. I froze several containers of the borsch and we took them to Western Washington for our kids to enjoy. We dropped off a container for our Colville kids, too, on Thursday afternoon.

Perfect for a warm up after playing in the snow.

While we were in Western Washington we didn’t take any photos except for the selfie at La Corona. After La Corona we all gathered at our oldest son’s home for some family time. On Saturday we drove to Katie and Andrew’s new home and had a little tour. From there the guys went to the big box store to get some things the kids will need to fix up their home. The girls gathered along with my sister Lana to do some fun shopping at our favorites, HomeGoods, TJMaxx, Target, Hobby Lobby and Costco. After Costco we all gathered at Josh and Laura’s again for a meal together that we brought home from Costco. I bought some new wall art for our country bungalow.

Early on Sunday morning we left for our trip back to Colville.

This is a new wild animal crossing bridge over Interstate 90 just east of Snoqualmie Pass.

We saw a lot of birds of prey from Cle Elum on through Ellensburg. Hard to get good photos speeding along the interstate at 70 miles plus. This was one eagle I was able to capture. After Ellensburg as we headed up and over Ryegrass we encountered some heavy fog that put a huge strain on our eyes.

Once the fog cleared we continued listening to our book on cd that helped our trip West and back East fly by. We were listening to the new Inspector Gamache crime mystery by Louise Penny, Kingdom of the Blind.

Dear got a migraine and I had to drive so no more photos till after we left Spokane and Dear was ready to drive again. In Spokane we stopped at Home Depot and Costco before heading north on highway 395.

The rest of these photos are from after we stopped for dinner in Chewelah at El Ranchito. The road from Chewelah to Colville is one we are very familiar with and the scenery changes seasonally but some things stay the same.

The big C and the cross are the landmarks we see as we approach city center in Colville.

We dropped off some goods for our kids in Colville that we purchased for them at Costco and had some sweet time with Addy before we headed the 8 miles home again, home again, jiggety jig.

It was good to get home and heat up the house before we hit the sack.

We still have a cd to listen to for the Inspector Gamache story’s end. Our trip afforded us 9 cd’s out of 10. Do you listen to books on cd? We love to travel that way.

We had/have 3 family birthdays this week. More about those events to come…

Falling Behind

Hoping to catch up again, soon. In the last 5 days we had a road trip 6 hours each way with 2 days jam packed with family time and then on this side of the mountains we had a birthday dinner party at our country bungalow last night. Today I’m regrouping in my robe and slippers. Onward we go…

Tuesdays With Moisi ~ 14

Our Pops 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 first four years of our sojourn in the U.S saw us living in the East Los Angeles area with various family members and friends.  I worked various jobs in the construction trades.

Our second child Vera was born February 1948.

Fred, our first son, was born in October of 1949. Ellen was born in March of 1951. We bought our first house in Montebello in 1951.

Fred, Moisi, Ellen, Kathy and Vera in the front yard of our first home in Montebello Gardens which is now known as Pico Rivera.

 

Tim was born in January of 1958 and Steve was born in December of 1959.

In the early 60’s we moved to a bigger house in Montebello to meet the needs of our growing family. In July of 1963 Nadia surprised us all by giving birth to twins – Leonard and Lana.

I’m adding to Pop’s story about the twins. Our mom was very embarrassed and distressed when she got pregnant since she already had 6 children. She was happy to have things even and to be able to say we have 3 girls and 3 boys.  Then when the doctor told her she was having twins at age 40 it threw her into an emotional period of denial. Financially things were tough already and she wondered how we could afford to have two more babies. She didn’t even tell our Pop that she was going to have twins. She kept the fact that she was having twins a secret her whole pregnancy. We had just spent a week at Forest Home Christian Conference Center in Southern California arriving home on Saturday, July 27th. Our Pop went back to work on Monday and our mom went into labor. Pop was working on a construction site and my mom couldn’t get in touch with him. She called a friend of ours to take her to the hospital. Our mom never learned to drive. Later that day our family friend let us all know that our mom delivered twins, a girl and a boy. We were shocked and excited and waited for our Pop to arrive home so we could let him know. Pop pulled into the driveway and our brother Tim ran out to the car first and said “Pop, Pop, not one baby, two babies”, holding up two fingers.  To say our Pop was shocked is an understatement. He walked into the kitchen, sat down, and asked for a glass of punch. (Hawaiian Punch concentrate was a staple in our home in the 60’s). In those days natural childbirth was not the common practice so my mother was not awake when the twins were delivered. When they brought the twins in for her to see she told the nurses that the boy was hers but the little girl with all that dark hair was not hers because she looked Mexican (maybe she was still a little woozy from being put under). The nurses kindly informed her that both the boy and girl were definitely hers! 1963 would prove to  be an epic year in the life of our family.

This was the kitchen of our home in Montebello where our dear Pop had his glass of punch before heading to Beverly Hospital in Montebello to see his newborn twins and our mom.

 

Quotes of the Week 12

From Manners and Customs of Bible Times
Fred H. Wight

Ability to separate the Sheep;

When it becomes necessary to separate several flocks of sheep, one shepherd after another will stand up and call out: Tahhoo! Tahhoo! or a similar call of his own choosing. The sheep lift up their heads, and after a general scramble, begin following each one his own shepherd. They are thoroughly familiar with their own shepherd’s tone of voice. Strangers have often used the same call but their attempts to get the sheep to follow them always fail. The words of Jesus are indeed true to Eastern Shepherd life when he said: “The sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:4,5)

I want to be a lamb that only follows my shepherd (Jesus) and knows His true voice amongst all the noise of false voices.

Up to Date…

This little munchkin got to spend some time with Baba and Gramps on Monday because these two…

… had things to do without the help of a toddler.

Addy is learning the lay of the land at Baba and Gramps’ house.

Having no skid socks makes running on the tile floors safer.

We had a lot of fun playing with the helium balloon, bouncy balls, the rocking horse, and a stethoscope. We made sure the dollies got their shoes back on. I’ll have to take a photo of where Addy likes to store those dolls besides Katie’s cradle.

My views today after we got another dusting of snow in the night.

1/2

We are expecting rain soon that will melt a lot of this away. Hopefully enough to melt the solid pack of ice underneath.

Today is a good day to stay in and make a big pot of Borsch.