Barn Collective

All these barns were situated along Highway 395 between Spokane and Colville.

Linking up with Tom for The Barn Collective. Thanks Tom.

Every chance I’ve gotten since Friday I’ve been working on restoring posts and replacing photos on posts dating back to 2007 because Photobucket has blacked out all my photos and it makes for a very ugly sight on my posts. I’ve also had to clean up my posts on Mennonite Girls Can Cook.  I’ll keep plugging away and determine which posts are worthy to save and which ones I should just delete and not spend extra time on. Hope you all are having a good weekend.

 

O Father, Hear My Morning Prayer ~ Hymn

yosemite to Cody 139O Father, Hear My Morning Prayer

O Father, hear my morning prayer,
Thine aid impart to me,
That I may make my life today
Acceptable to Thee.

May this desire my spirit rule,
And, as the moments fly,
Something of good be born in me,
Something of evil die.

Some grace that seeks my heart to win,
With shining victory meet;
Some sin that strives for mastery
Find overthrow complete.

That so throughout the coming day
The hours shall carry me
A little farther from the world,
A little nearer Thee.

Words: Frances A. Percy

Happy 150th Birthday Canada!

Click over to Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog to see a wonderful tribute posted by Judy.

May the friendship between our two countries last forever.

The plaque says: “What an object lesson of peace is shown today by our two countries to all the world.  No grim-faced fortifications mark our frontiers, no huge battleships patrol our dividing waters, no stealthy spies lurk in our tranquil border hamlets.  Only a scrap of paper, recording hardly more than a simple understanding, safe-guarding lives and properties on the Great Lakes, and only humble mile posts mark the inviolable boundary line for thousands of miles through farm and forest.”

“Our protection is in our fraternity.  Our armour is our faith. The tie that binds more firmly year by year is..

…ever increasing acquaintance and comradeship through interchange of citizens and the compact is not of perishable parchment, but of fair and honorable dealing, which, god grant, shall continue for all time.”

Erected by Kiwanis, international in memory of a great occasion in the life of two sister nations here on July 26, 1923.  Warren Gamaliel Harding twenty-ninth president of the United States of America, and first president to visit Canada.  Charter member of the Kiwanis Club of Marion, Ohio, spoke words that are worthy of record in lasting granite dedicated September 16, 1925.

I’m headed out for a walk this morning with the Wonder Walkers. It will be a fine distraction from the tedious work to restore many of my posts. Hope you all have a good first day of July.

Down With Photobucket!

Photobucket is holding all my photos hostage from me that I added to their site from 2007 and beyond. When I got to 99% full of my free photo storage space they wanted me to pay for more space. I stopped adding photos to the site. I chose not to pay for more storage and now they have deleted all my photos from my blog posts. I am more than miffed because to free my photos from their grasp they want me to pay $$ a year.  What a bother. I worked all day on Friday trying to fix some of my many many posts. I’ve also had to restore many posts on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook. I’ve got miles to go before my posts are restored.

Addy is a bit concerned, too. I’m so glad that not one of Addy’s photos is stored at Photobucket!

 

Thankful Thursday

On Saturday morning June 24th Addy survived staying home with me while mommy got her hair cut. She didn’t even realize mommy was gone since she slept in my arms. Thankfully Jamie pulled in just after Addy woke up and wanted to be fed.

Sunday morning I put together this trifle to have for our belated Father’s Day meal. There were 11 of us and I forgot to take photos of the crowd and of all the great appetizers and salads we enjoyed. The heat has a way of taking me out of my photography groove.

Addy slept until we all were done eating. When the company left she had some belly time and when that frustrated her Gramps came to the rescue.

They had a very nice conversation. Sunday night was a rough night in the baby sleeping world. The bedrooms were hot from our 94 degree day.

We are having cooler days here in Western Washington since we came home. I visited the hand therapist today and I have exercises and instructions until I revisit him. He suggested I wear my hand/wrist brace most of the day instead of just while I sleep.

I’m thankful for the time we had with our kids in Eastern Washington last weekend. Thankful that Addy is healthy and growing. I’m thankful for a safe drive both ways. I’m thankful for being able to do most of the things I usually do without pain even though I have very little grip in my left hand. I’m thankful for cooler weather. I’m thankful for our Canadian neighbors who are celebrating 150 years.

At Home

I’m starting to get things ready for the 4th of July. With the 4th landing on a Tuesday this year I’m not sure what we will do or who we might have over. We are having out of town guests the middle of July and I’ll just keep the red, white and blue theme going.

The white hydrangeas are well ahead of the the other ones in the yard. I still need to fill a hanging basket with some flowers. I’m on the lookout for a nice Fuchsia. Our northern neighbors are getting ready for Canada Day. Do you decorate for the 4th or for Canada Day?

Y is for Young

Our little Addy May is the youngest in our family and her mama’s family. We were in eastern Washington visiting our kids from Friday afternoon until early Tuesday morning. The photo above is of Addy with mommy and granny (great grandmother). We went out to lunch on Saturday while Daddy was working.

This young-un loves to be up on her feet and not laying down. Gramps got a good workout holding her up.

 

Daddy got a good arm workout after he got home from work.

Addy was expressive with him and let him know all the ups and downs of the day.

Mostly it was good news. Good thing her parents are young, too, because of all there is to do in bringing up a baby safely is hard on the arms, legs, back, shoulders not to mention emotions. Young ones in our care are worth all the effort. We were happy to arrive for the weekend to help out in any way we could. Mostly we had Addy time while mommy and daddy had free arms to accomplish other things around the house. It was so good to get caught up with the development going on with the youngest amongst us. She’s already turning over and it’s no easy prospect for her.

As I watched all her antics and movements I kept thinking if I moved this much and was this active I would lose some weight for sure. All these photos and activities happened on Saturday June 23rd. Addy is 3 months old.

Today is also Dan and Jamie’s 2 year anniversary! Happy Anniversary Dan and Jamie! So many changes in just two years!

We just arrived home. The travel time by car to our eastern Washington kids is close to 6 hours. We cross the Cascade Mountain range, the Columbia River and several farmlands on our journey there and back. The largest city we go through after leaving Western Washington is Spokane where we turn north and drive about 20 miles south of the Canadian border before reaching our kids home. We have learned the best way for us to travel these roads is listening to a book on cd. This time around we listened to a new to us author, Barbara Cleverly and her book called Not My Blood, A Joe Sandilands Investigation. The narrator makes or breaks a book on cd for us and Simon Prebble was real easy on our ears.

Linking to ABC Wednesday for the letter Y. Thank you to Mrs. Nesbitt and the great team of administrators keeping things going!

Mosaic Monday

This is my Mosaic Monday without linking up. On Friday the 23rd of June we traveled east over the Cascade Mountain Range along Interstate 90 to Colville.  When we reach Spokane we head north and connect to Hwy 395 to travel the last 70 miles of our journey. As we near Chewelah we see many familiar signs. In the summertime the streets in Chewelah and Colville are lined with flower displays in hanging baskets and along the road in planters. On this journey we stopped at our favorite Mexican Restaurant in Chewelah, El Ranchito for an early lunch.

Continuing north on 395 you can tell you are in logging country.

We took a back road to get to our kid’s home and enjoyed these great country scenes along the way.

Then we arrived to see who we really wanted to see. She charmed us with many expressions and moods.

Yawns galore before she had another afternoon nap.

Sometimes she needs to express herself and she gets all our attention. It was a nice drive and reunion.

We will have had three full days with the kids before we head home early Tuesday morning. Sunday was the hottest day so far here and today is another hot one with temps expected to hit 93 with possible thunderstorms. With no air-conditioning it gets hard to do anything but sit around in front of fans. It’s cooling down a bit the next couple of days.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world.