Sunlit Sunday~

I’m trying something new today. I’m joining in with My Little Home and Garden for her Sunlit Sunday Meme. Here are my offerings from a very cold walk about the yard on Saturday morning when our temps tried to make it out of the 20’s.

I love the sparkly effect the sun has on the snow.

Brrr…

We had a wonderful frost effect on anything that had moisture on it overnight.

There’s nothing like a dry sunny day after a snowfall!

Psalm 18:28 (ESV) ~

For it is you who light my lamp;
the Lord my God lightens my darkness.

Hope you all have a good productive week and that you enjoy God’s light in your part of the world.

Winter in His Heart of Gloom ~ Hymn

Winter in His Heart of Gloom

Winter in his heart of gloom
Sings the song of coming bloom:
So over death our souls shall sing
’Lays of the eternal spring.

Then decay shall be no more,
And, the weary seed time o’er,
All the dead in Christ shall rise
For the harvest of the skies.

Wheresoe’er the faithful sleep
Angels shall go forth to reap,
From the dust and ’neath the foam
They shall bring the harvest home.

Bodies of the saints, whose bones
Rest beneath sepulchral stones,
Or are lost on every wind,
All, those messengers shall find.

All from earth to Heaven shall soar
In that flesh which once they wore,
Deathless now and glorified,
Like their Lord and at His side.

This is life’s eternal spring!
This the coming joy we sing!
Look we ever toward this day,
Be it near or far away!

’Mid the sorrow and the strife
’Tis the music of our life,
And the song hath this refrain—
Our Redeemer comes again!

Words: Samuel J. Stone, 1866.

Looking Closely…

I took a little walk about the yard looking closely to see what I could see with my little pocket camera. The birds can ice skate in the bird feeder.

Mini icicles. It’s rare for us to get the large cool ones that Jill showed us.

These might be the needle ice crystals Jill showed on her blog. This is my blueberry bush.

This plant is my thyme.

As I drove out of our neighborhood I spied the snowman built by the kids down the street.

Then I saw this…a frozen spider web.

It was good to take the time to look closely. Have you had some time to look carefully and closely at the world around you?

Snow & Ice

We are having a cold snap here in the Pacific Northwest. As I type we are creeping up to 30 degrees. Yesterday it snowed and this is what we woke up to. Overnight everything froze so we are walking and driving gingerly trying not to skid or slip.

The only footprints that appeared on our deck during the day yesterday were Dear’s. I stayed in for the day but ventured out in the evening to our church to prepare and deliver a meal to the homeless in downtown Seattle with our small group. More about that in another post.

All my snow shots were taken from various doors in our home that I opened just long enough to snap away. This was a wet snow so the streets did not stay white with snow for long but the grass kept it’s new white cover all day and into today.

Chopper 7 even came to the neighborhood to do a report on the snow. The interesting thing was that we had snow at our house but just one mile down the road there was no snow. Snow is always a very big story here in the Seattle area. Today ice is the culprit in our neighborhood. I watched the kids walking to school slip and slide down the street. Most of them managed to stay upright!

I’m still having a bit of a challenge remembering what day of the week it is after all our holiday fun. I think next week will be better in that regard. How are you doing?

Travel Tips?

First off before I get to my news and question for my friends in bloggy world I want to thank you for all your kind thoughts about my state of mind this last week. The blur has lifted and things have cleared up nicely in my outlook. God is good, all the time.

Some trips have been added to my calendar for the winter months and that’s where I would love some suggestions from you. In March during my birthday week Dear has a conference to attend in Milan, Italy. Since it falls during my birthday we decided I should tag along and take advantage of a free hotel room. His company booked his ticket and we booked mine on the same flights sitting together. Woohoo!

By the way this photo is not from Milan or Europe at all but from our own National Cathedral in Washington D.C. Since I’ve never been to the mainland of Europe (only Great Britain), I didn’t have any of my own photos of Milan to show you…yet!

So…have any of you ever been in Milan or in Italy? If you have would you be so kind as to offer suggestions of things I shouldn’t miss while there. I’m not a fashion guru so I won’t be spending a lot of time with what Milan is known for but I’ve already seen some beautiful images of the Milan Cathedral and am really looking forward to visiting it with my camera. As usual on these trips most of the time I’ll be on my own.

We’ll be there in the middle of March and fly home on the first day of Spring.

Women’s Bible study started up again this week and it was good to be back with the ladies in my group. Thursday night our small group is going to help prepare a meal and deliver and serve it to some Homeless folks in downtown Seattle. The coming weekend looks free. How are things in your world?

As the Sun Doth Daily Rise ~ Hymn

As the Sun Doth Daily Rise

As the sun doth daily rise,
Brightening all the morning skies,
So to Thee with one accord
Lift we up our hearts, O Lord.

Day by day provide us food,
For from Thee come all things good;
Strength unto our souls afford
From Thy living bread, O Lord.

Be our guard in sin and strife;
Be the leader of our life;
Lest from Thee we stray abroad,
Stay our wayward feet, O Lord.

Quickened by the Spirit’s grace
All Thy holy will to trace
While we daily search Thy Word,
Wisdom true impart, O Lord.

Praise we, with the heavenly host,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost;
Thee would we with one accord
Praise and magnify, O Lord.

Words: Unknown

Olivier Salad ~ Happy Russian New Year!

Modern Russian New Year has happened already but Old Russian New Year is later in January. I’ve posted the recipe for this salad with an interesting history on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog today. Head over to see how to put it together!

Happy Saturday to you all. I’m happy for a somewhat normal weekend. How about you?

Leftovers!

I like leftovers, do you?

Speaking of leftovers here are the rest of the photos from our Elliott Bay Marina brunch at Palisade Restaurant.

Palisade is on the second level of this building with great views of Elliott Bay and part of downtown Seattle in the distance.

Our family all together. I’m going to have to get more creative in 2013 with group shots. I’ve seen a couple good ideas on Facebook.

See what I mean. I think the only thing that changed in this shot is the position of my hands. I do weird things with my hands in photos.

By now you are tired of us so look behind us and check out the Space Needle and downtown Seattle.

We positioned my nephew Caleb in this shot to make sure he didn’t block the view of the Space Needle!

My nephew Caleb and his girlfriend Marie. They both graduated from Westmont College in the Santa Barbara area this past May. She’s working on her teaching credential and he’s working at a church in Santa Barbara with the youth. It was fun to have them with us for brunch before they headed back to Santa Barbara. On the day Caleb was born our son Joshua hit a homerun in his honor at a little league game. Joshua and Caleb…that rings a bell. They have been strong and courageous!

Had to include a shot with the new shoes. Andrew and Katie still behave like newlyweds…

On the way home we got closer to the needle but we were driving fast so it’s a bit blurry.

Tonight our Newlyweds fly back to the east coast. My little nest will be empty again. I took down Christmas on New Year’s Day. I had to make room in the living room once again since our small group meetings start back up on Thursday. We had a real laid back New Year’s Day and ordered pizza in for dinner. The night ended with 4 of the kids playing Settlers of Catan. Dear and I hit the sack early as usual.

Hope 2013 is starting well for all of you!