Roses are Red…

…and so are some tulips!

There’s a new meme in blogdom hosted by The Tablescaper called Oh, the Places I’ve Been. I’m sharing more from the Skagit Tulip Festival in Washington State. The fields and garden I visited were Roozengaarde. Today it’s all about red. Yesterday I posted Tickled Pink.

It seems like red tulips might be fast bloomers. I was interested in all these spent blooms that are in the trenches.

The focus on a few of these are on the mountains in the background. It really was the first great weather day since Easter. We have a quiet weekend ahead for which I am grateful.

I’m linking up with The Tablescaper’s new meme starting April 19th. Click on image to see the rules and join the party.

A NEW LINKING PARTY - click for details

Tickled Pink…

On Tuesday I made a morning trip to the Tulip Festival in Skagit Valley right here in Washington State. The weather was right and my day was free so I hopped in the car and headed an hour north.  I’m starting my photo sharing with the pink tulips…

You don’t have to go to Holland to have a wonderful tulip field experience. There were rows and rows of pink, red, purple, yellow and some variegated varieties.

“The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is one of the destination events for the Pacific Northwest, held from April 1-30. Every spring hundreds of thousands of people come to enjoy the celebration of spring as millions of tulips burst into bloom. As with all things governed by Mother Nature, the tulips bloom according to their own schedule sometime during the festival. The tulips allow us to share our corner of the world and showcase Skagit Valley agriculture.”

Wednesday was a semi productive day around this old house. I cleaned out some mystery broth from the freezer and used up our frozen ham leftovers from Easter to make a big pot of Split Pea Soup. I bought rubarb for the first time from a farm stand in Skagit Valley after visiting the tulip fields and made a coffee cake. I’ll share the recipe on MGCC soon. Sounds like our 2 days of sunshine are coming to an end. How is your week going?

Notecard Party

It’s time for Vee’s Notecard Party. Click on over to see the rules. All of these illustrated Bible Verses are from 2009.

The Bible has words of life and truth that are always so comforting in times of sorrow like many are experiencing in our country this week.

Hope you all are experiencing God’s peace in the midst of any suffering in your life.

I took a quick trip to the Tulip fields on Tuesday morning since there was promise of some good weather and some sunshine. I met people from all over the U.S.A. and from Canada trekking about the beautiful tulip fields.  I’ll share soon…

Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele

We are praying for all the victims of the explosions at the Boston Marathon. I can’t imagine what all these families are going through right now. Hats off to the first responders and the people of Boston who were so ready to help. May God comfort the suffering.

I’m winding down on my Milan posts and today I’ll share shots of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele which is named after the first King of the Kingdom of Italy and the oldest mall in Italy.

I didn’t go for the twirl on the Bull but I enjoyed watching others twirl on their heels.

I guess I’m not a design shopper as I didn’t feel tempted to go into any of the shops.

No shopping in the oldest galleria but I really enjoyed all the old Architecture and details in the Galleria.

The country we will be visiting with our oldest and his lovely lady is England. Josh and Laura have never been there and it will be fun exploring some old sights with them and discovering some new ones while we celebrate Dear turning 60. 2013 is fast becoming a major travel year for us between Dear’s conferences, family events, and the Mennonite Girls book launches. Praying already for God to go before us.

Psalm 121:8

The Message (MSG)

7-8 God guards you from every evil,
he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
he guards you now, he guards you always.

It Arrived!

The real exciting thing that happened this weekend is that my copy of our new Celebrations Cookbook arrived on Saturday!! Oh how wonderful to hold the final product in my hands after the months and months of planning, cooking, perfecting, cooking again, photographing, photographing and more photographing. Then there was the initial editing before it went to the Editors. Maybe now you get the picture as to how wonderful it is to hold the book in my hands finished and ready to share.

Our author royalties from our new book will all be going to a Clean Water WASH Program in Africa. Our author royalties from our first book will continue to go to the Good Shepherd Shelter in the Ukraine funding the new greenhouse. Make sure and check our MGCC blog as there are some giveaways in the works. We are looking forward to several book launch events in British Columbia in early May and more events in Winnipeg in early June.

Now more everyday news back in our humble dwelling in the Pacific Northwest. We actually saw blue skies around fluffy white clouds today and we had to pull out our sunglasses! We don’t count on this lasting so we headed out to finish up the mowing I started on Friday. Don’t you just love a freshly mowed lawn? I know there are a lot of you out there that are still looking at snow and I hope that changes soon. Some of you had ice storms and were without power, like Rosella and other weather blasts like Vee. I’m sorry I use my fellow bloggers to be thankful for our clouds and rain when I hear about what’s going on in your neck of the woods. I’m sure like us the excitement of the beauty in our world and good weather days are that much more appreciated!

One more thing before I go scrounge something to eat…

We (Dear and I) were on the speaker phone with 2 of our kids (Josh and Laura) and we made some initial plans for a trip together. When we hit the purchase button together it was exciting and scary all wrapped up in one click. Now to decide on all the other details. I’ll share more later!

Have a wonderful week and oh my don’t forget to file your tax returns if you haven’t already!!

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing ~ Hymn

 

Wesley wrote this hymn to com­mem­o­rate the first an­ni­ver­sa­ry of his con­ver­sion to Christ. This or­i­gin is re­flect­ed in the lyr­ics, “On this glad day the glor­i­ous Sun of Right­eous­ness arose.” The stanza that be­gins “O for a thou­sand tongues to sing” is verse seven of Wes­ley’s orig­in­al po­em. This work first ap­peared in Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems in 1740.


O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing

O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

He speaks, and, listening to His voice,
New life the dead receive,
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.

In Christ your Head, you then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

Glory to God, and praise and love
Be ever, ever given,
By saints below and saints above,
The church in earth and heaven.

On this glad day the glorious Sun
Of Righteousness arose;
On my benighted soul He shone
And filled it with repose.

Sudden expired the legal strife,
’Twas then I ceased to grieve;
My second, real, living life
I then began to live.

Then with my heart I first believed,
Believed with faith divine,
Power with the Holy Ghost received
To call the Savior mine.

I felt my Lord’s atoning blood
Close to my soul applied;
Me, me He loved, the Son of God,
For me, for me He died!

I found and owned His promise true,
Ascertained of my part,
My pardon passed in heaven I knew
When written on my heart.

Look unto Him, ye nations, own
Your God, ye fallen race;
Look, and be saved through faith alone,
Be justified by grace.

See all your sins on Jesus laid:
The Lamb of God was slain,
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man.

Awake from guilty nature’s sleep,
And Christ shall give you light,
Cast all your sins into the deep,
And wash the Æthiop white.

Harlots and publicans and thieves
In holy triumph join!
Saved is the sinner that believes
From crimes as great as mine.

Murderers and all ye hellish crew
In holy triumph join!
Believe the Savior died for you;
For me the Savior died.

With me, your chief, ye then shall know,
Shall feel your sins forgiven;
Anticipate your heaven below,
And own that love is heaven.

ht: Cyberhymnal

Visitors…

Mama Duck and her 9 little ducklings came to visit. I’m always surprised when I see them for the first time in Spring.

We had a short stretch of dryness yesterday and I mowed part of the lawn and did some weeding before the rains rolled in again. Hopefully we’ll get another dry patch so I can finish the rest of the lawn. This part where the ducks are nibbling seed that has fallen from the bird feeder above has not been mowed yet. I’m happy they can glean the fallen seeds.

Today my kids are picking me up for another Sounders Soccer game. We hope they win for a change. I think the team and fans are ready for a lift!

What does your Saturday hold for you?

Happy Birthday Andrew!

If you and Katie were here I’d bake you a cake!

We’d have Josh and Laura over, too, and sing Happy Birthday to You!

We’d take you someplace fun to have a meal.

It would be another good reason to get the whole family here to celebrate you!

Hope the birthday card we sent arrives today. If not we only have the U*S*P*S to blame. Glad the “kids” are coming over tonight to celebrate with you and that Alex is making his famous burgers for y’all!

We love you and thank God for you and pray that God continues to bless you richly.  We ask that He will continue to protect you and keep you safe at home and when you are away serving in even more dangerous environments! Semper fi! May you always be faithful in your service to your country and God and in your marriage to Katie! Looking forward to being with you at one of your birthdays in the future!

A thank you to Jeremy Leffel for this last photo.

Both Old But Very Different…

The finale to my Monumentale Cemetery photos are all from a indoor portion called the Hall of Fame. I’m also sharing a link to a post Lovella shared on her blog yesterday about her visit to my old house.

You can see Lovella’s behind the scenes shots of my old house by clicking here.

Yes…the ceiling was that blue!

This was one of the very few images we saw of the risen Christ.

Another week is flying by at this old house.  A free calendar has been a blessing. It has been interesting making plans for a 90th birthday party for my folks from 1200 miles away. Our 70 or so guests will just have to be flexible along with the party planner! Since most of those 70 are related to the guests of honor the pressure is minimal. How’s your week going?

More Monumentale…

The entrance to Monumentale Cemetery in Milan is as grand as the rest of the grounds. This cemetery is filled with both contemporary and classical sculptures. We were struck with how massive many of the sculptures are.

This monument reminded me so much of a story from the Old Testament. Anyone out there want to guess which one?

This cemetery would need several hours to fully take in. I will soon share the last part of the cemetery we visited including the Hall of Fame.

Hope your week is going well. So far so good here. I was happy that the constant rain from the weekend has seemed to cease. The exciting news this week is that our new cookbook, Celebrations, is in the hands of some at Menno Press. The 10 of us are excitedly and anxiously waiting for our copy to arrive!

Blessings…