We Remember the Fallen

We take time to stop and remember the sacrifices that have been made for our freedom. Some gave all. This is Memorial Day.

Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. Romans 13:7 (NRSV)

This weekend we remember those who served our country and died in combat. This is the Veterans Memorial at the Riverside National Cemetery in Southern California.

There were many sobering monuments at this National Cemetery. The Veterans Memorial was one of them. Another sobering monument was the POW/MIA monument.

We remember that this isn’t just a long weekend and a barbecue but a significant time that has been set aside on our calendars to acknowledge that sacrifices have been made for our nation and our well being.

Part of our family was able to spend some time at this cemetery in May of 2012. Dear’s father is buried here and we had never seen his grave marker. I took most of these photos then. On Veterans Day in 2015 we were at this cemetery again to bury our brother in law who served in the Viet Nam War. The next photos are from that day.

Memorial Day is the day we honor those who served their country and died in that service. For our Son-in-law who lost several of his fellow Marines in Afghanistan and in a training exercise in Nevada just within the last few years, the memories are close and raw.

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These young men, warriors, that our son-in-law feels privileged to have served with, we remember and pray for their families who remember them everyday not just on Memorial Day.

Memorial Day and Veterans Day honor the sacrifices of innumerable individuals who sacrificed themselves to preserve the freedoms all Americans enjoy, with Memorial Day remembering those who gave their lives, and Veterans Day honoring all who served in the U.S. Armed Forces. It’s important to know the difference.

I’ve been away from my computer all weekend with a short trip to California to honor our dear old pop on his 95th birthday. Hopefully I’ll be able to share some photos from our short time there.

Away With Our Fears, Our Troubles and Tears ~ Hymn

Away With Our Fears, Our Troubles and Tears

Away with our fears,
Our troubles and tears.
The Spirit is come,
The witness of Jesus returned to His home;
The pledge of our Lord
To His Heaven restored
Is sent from the sky,
And tells us our Head is exalted on high.

Our Advocate there
By His blood and His prayer
The gift hath obtained,
For us He hath prayed, and the Comforter gained;
Our glorified Head
His Spirit hath shed
With His people to stay
And never again will He take Him away.

Our heavenly Guide
With us shall abide,
His comforts impart,
And set up His kingdom of love in the heart.
The heart that believes
His kingdom receives
His power and His peace,
His life, and His joy’s everlasting increase.

The presence divine
Doth inwardly shine,
The Shechinah shall rest
On all our assemblies, and glow in our breast;
By day, and by night
The pillar of light
Our steps shall attend,
And convoy us safe to our prosperous end.

Then let us rejoice
In heart and in voice
Our Leader pursue,
And shout as we travel the wilderness through;
With the Spirit remove
To Zion above,
Triumphant arise,
And walk with our God, till we fly to the skies.

Words: Charles Wesley

This is a Whitsunday Hymn and I missed posting it last week.

No Mind Has Imagined…

Being in the country with acres between my son’s home and other homes I am enjoying the sights and sounds that I do not experience living close to a big city. While enjoying what I’m seeing with my own eyes right now out the window then reading this verse from the Bible it makes me wonder about what we have yet to experience from God.

So much beauty for us to enjoy in the here and now and yet there is more that God has prepared for those who love him.

This is a post from May 26th a few years ago and I’m posting it again today. We are busy moving our youngest and her hubby into their new apartment today and then I’m headed to California with our oldest and his dear wife tonight. Whew! Packing it in. Here’s a photo of my dad taken yesterday on his 95th birthday.

He’s fallen a couple times over the last few weeks. The bruising on his face is from falling into a doorway. It’s hard growing old.

I’m trying out a new look for my blog…time will tell if I change it again, soon. Happy Memorial Day weekend to all of you in the USA!

Spokane Lilac Festival

Last Saturday we drove south to Spokane to catch part of the Annual Armed Forces Torchlight Parade. This parade takes place during the Lilac Festival. To get to the parade we parked on the north side of the Spokane river and crossed a pedestrian bridge to get across the river which gave us some great views of the rivers current thundering with spring runoff.

Addy was in awe of all the noise and activity of the parade.

This is the pedestrian bridge we crossed to get to the downtown parade route.

I should have taken a video so you could hear how loud the rush of the river was.

This shot above with the mist was looking west

I’m traveling to Southern California on Saturday with Josh and Laura to see my pop who turns 95 tomorrow. He is not doing well and it will be nice to have a face to face visit with him and see some of our other family, too. We fly back home on Monday early afternoon.

Hope you all have a good Memorial Weekend.

First Things First…

Our little fourteen month old grandgirlie kept us on our toes during her waking hours. She is busy and on the move.

Baba had to have a little talk with her to let her know that it made me nervous when she chooses to stand on this toy instead of scooting on it.

It isn’t as easy to get good photos these days. As soon as I pull my big camera out Addy wants to investigate and try to grab the camera from me to play with. Baba and Addy spent lots of time with her building blocks and enjoyed “This Little Piggy”.

We are back home. We are still in the waiting room with our house sale and purchase of a new home. You’ll be the second to know if and when we have success on both these fronts. Can’t have one without the other, though. I’m asking God to give me more trust and peace in this waiting period.

As always on our visits to Colville I like take the current view photo from our kids’ driveway. Here’s our May 21st shot.

Soon I’ll share more photos of the Spokane river and a collage from our time at the Spokane Armed Forces Appreciation Parade that always takes place during the Lilac Festival.

Cheers! I’m getting caught up on the Royal wedding since our kids don’t have cable TV and I dvr’d it.

Rushing…

…to get a fresh Spring post up before we hit the road home. This is the Spokane River with the spring runoff rushing to the Columbia river. I’ll post more photos from our evening at the Lilac Military Appreciation Parade after I get home. We’ve had a busy time here with Addy and her parents.

Until later hope all is flowing nicely in your corner of the world.

Clap Hands, O Ye Heavens

Clap Hands, O Ye Heavens

Clap hands, O ye heavens,
Thou firmament ring!
From highest to lowest,
Thou universe sing!
The darkness and tumult
Have ended in calm;
And glory has come,
And victory’s palm.

Refrain

Clap your hands, all ye mountains!
Ye valleys, all ring!
O warble, ye fountains,
Ye little hills, sing!
He liveth again, as truly He said.
Unconquered, unharmed,
He has come from the dead.

Come forth, O ye flowers,
Come forth with the Spring!
And deck the fair plains with
Each blossoming thing.
With violets humble
Let roses be joined,
And marigolds bright,
With lilies combined.

Refrain

Thou song of rejoicing,
Rise higher and higher,
Thou spirit of gladness,
Breathe forth from the lyre.
For Jesus is risen,
As truly He said,
Unconquered, unharmed,
He’s come from the dead.

Refrain

Words: 16th Century

Rosebud Azaleas

My favorite Azalea is the Rosebud Azalea. I have 2 older plants and 2 young ones in my planters.

Yesterday I helped Katie at K&A’s new apartment. She built her bookshelves and we emptied book boxes and a couple random boxes. They still have the bulk of their apartment to move but don’t have to be out of it till the 31st of the month. All the stuff we’ve organized so far were the things they were still storing at our house. Their new place has about 250 more square feet.

I’ve been away from my computer a lot this week and missed doing my usual visiting. Someday soon my blogging mojo will return.

The Four Loves ~ C.S. Lewis ~ Quote

I’m reblogging this from May 16th, 2007, my first year of blogging. As I’m going through all my posts I’ll reblog some along the way.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

This quote is from The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis. My friend Jan sent it to Jody and I as it describes what happens in close friendships between 3 or more people. I love this quote and I hope it will augment your idea of friendship. I chose this book to illustrate this quote because the 3 friends Lewis speaks of are pictured on the cover.

Lamb says somewhere that if, of three friends (A, B, and C), A should die, then B loses not only A but “A’s part in C,” while C loses not only A but “A’s part in B.” In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles…

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Now and Then

Our daughter in law posted this great selfie of her and our little grand. Mommy and daughter, love it.

Our other daughter in law posted this photo to facebook on Mother’s day with a lovely tribute. This was taken before Addy was born. Our girls with me.

These are two of our rhododendrons that are in their glory. I took this photo on Mother’s day. They are generally in their fullness for Mother’s day each year.

Hope you had a good weekend. We enjoyed a meal downtown with our western Washington kids on Saturday evening. On Mother’s day we worked hard with temps reaching 85 in Seattle. Mowed the lawn and finished an addition to our landscape with one more section of privacy fence and a new arborvitae.

Here’s the sad long story of my arborvitae purchase at the Home Depot. While Dear was finishing the staining of our new fence section, I took the truck to the HD to purchase the Arborvitae. It was close to noon and the HD was hopping with people buying plants with or without their mothers in tow. With difficulty I pushed and shoved the heavy potted plant onto one of those rolling carts to take it into the store for purchase. The line to the cash registers was circling around the indoor plant section and it was a nice breather after my muscle man effort getting the plant on the cart. When I reached the register the employee said she’d call for someone to help me load the plant into the bed of the truck. With high expectations of help I walked quickly to the truck which was a fair distance in the parking lot and drove without running over the groups of humanity walking down the center of the parking lot and reached the designated loading area. A young man was waiting by my cart to “help” me. He was 25ish, I’m 67ish. I had to help him get that heavy plant into the truck. Poor young man was weaker than me. I still said thank you but truth be told he should have thanked me.

Katie and Andrew arrived shortly after me getting the plant home to borrow the truck to move some of their stuff to their new apartment which is a lot closer to us. Andrew single handed picked up that Arborvitae and set it on the ground. That was the kind of help I was expecting at the Home Depot. Sigh…

How was your weekend?