Hail My Ever Blessed Jesus ~ Hymn

Hail! My Ever Blessed Jesus

Hail! my ever blessèd Jesus,
Only Thee I wish to sing;
To my soul Thy Name is precious,
Thou my Prophet, Priest and King.

O what mercy flows from Heaven!
O what joy and happiness!
Love I much? I’m much forgiven
I’m a miracle of grace.

Once with Adam’s race in ruin,
Unconcerned in sin I lay;
Swift destruction still pursuing,
Till my Savior passed that way.

Witness, all ye hosts of Heaven,
My Redeemer’s tenderness;
Love I much? I’m much forgiven,
I’m a miracle of grace.

Shout, ye bright angelic choir,
Praise the Lamb enthroned above;
Whilst astonished I admire
God’s free grace and boundless love.

That blest moment I received Him,
Filled my soul with joy and peace;
Love I much? I’m much forgiven,
I’m a miracle of grace.

A Week Later…

…we are still celebrating.

This time it was just Dear and I who went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday which was a week ago. Greg searched on line to find a restaurant that served some good sounding lamb dishes.

We ended up at Pogacha Restaurant in Bellevue. Dear had the Lamb T-Bone Chop and I had the Lamb Shank. The meat was falling off the bone on my Lamb Shank and that’s the way I like it. Dear enjoyed his chops…a lot. We had a pear cobbler like dish for dessert. We shared. It was nice to share a meal together at the end of a week filled with ups and downs.

What a beautiful day we had on Friday. This was one of our views driving home from the restaurant. The mountains you see are in the Cascade Mountain Range. We are hoping for a few more dry sunny days so we can do a major clean up of our yard.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Country Fun vs. City Fun

Last weekend we traveled five and a half hours to our son’s home in the northeastern corner of Washington state. We were definitely in the country. There are things that you can do in the country that you are not free to do in the city. We have fun doing those things…

We arrived with the sun shining and blue skies.

There aren’t a lot of restaurants to choose from in the country compared to the city but you can still find some real good ones. We had my birthday dinner at The Chalet in Chewelah and we all enjoyed our meals.

Early on Saturday morning the snow started falling. We weren’t expecting that.

Thankfully the snow only lasted till noon and then melted nicely. On Saturday because of the cold and snow Dear and Dan did indoor projects.

In the country you can count on early morning visitors of the 4 legged variety that aren’t dogs or cats.

They make themselves at home.

We love the wide open spaces in the country. While walking out on Dan’s land on Sunday morning it was great to hear all the different birds chirping and the creek running.

Dan is fortunate to have a huge shop where he can work away from the elements.

You can’t do this in our city but in the country we got a great bonfire going cleaning up lots of debris around the property. While we worked outside our corned beef meal was cooking away in the slow cooker. When the clean-up for the day was done my family did some shooting. It’s nice to shoot out in the open instead of in a enclosed shooting range. In the evenings we enjoyed sitting around eating and enjoying each others company.

Before we headed home on Monday morning we drove north into Colville to the National Forest Service office in town to pick up my Senior America the Beautiful lifetime pass and we got a free Military dependent pass for Katie. We joined the locals in Colville for breakfast at Zip’s.

It was fun sitting and listening to the good ole boys talking about their doings and their take on what happened to that Malaysian plane.

Our 6 hour drive home back to the city was uneventful and that’s the way we like it.

So…are you a country mouse or a city mouse or maybe a little of both?

Welcoming Spring…

…with some Spring flashbacks!

Laguna Beach in the early 70’s. My sister Kathy, Babushka Vera, and my mom.

Laguna Beach, California

Dear at his home in Santa Monica, California in the early 70’s

Forest Lawn Glendale

Dan and Josh in Ventura, California 1985

Trip to Descanso Gardens March of 1988

SIL Kelly, MIL Verna, Me, sis Kathy, my mom

nephew Timothy, niece Michelle, Katie, niece Melissa

Michelle, Katie, Tim, and Melissa

A Prayer in Spring

by Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.

I hope Spring weather will arrive and Spring flowers bloom in your neck of the woods!

Junco

It’s time to jump to the letter J and come up with a post to share at ABC Wednesday.

I’m going with one of the most common birds that come to my feeders, the Junco.

This species shows much geographic variation in color. Typically, male of western population (“Oregon Junco”) has black hood, chestnut mantle, white underparts with buff sides. Eastern male (“Slate-colored Junco”) is dark slate-gray on head, upper breast, flanks, and upperparts, with white lower breast and belly. Both forms have pink bill and dark gray tail with white outer tail feathers conspicuous in flight.

Dark-eyed juncos are unique sparrows that nest on or near the ground in forests. In winter, they typically form flocks and often associate with other species.

We have had a nice variety of birds come to our feeders. It seems to be different every year except for these Juncos. They are pretty consistent.

Robins in our area do not bother with the feeders. They are content to poke on the ground and lawns. It’s always funny to watch the blue jays try to land on the feeder. They are a little too big to do it gracefully.

What are the common birds in your back yard?

Travelling Surprises…

On Friday we left the Seattle Area at 11:00 A.M. and headed east on Interstate 90 for Eastern Washington to visit our son Dan for the weekend. The road across Snoqualmie Pass was clear of snow and uneventful. As we approached the Columbia River we took notice of the lower water levels because of a crack and repairs on one of the dams upriver.

When we approached the the Quincy area we saw that the wind was really causing some dust storms and as we got closer to the area we saw this eerie sight.

The Attack of the Tumbleweeds!

The tumbleweeds crossing the interstate went on for miles. We hit so many and we noticed many trapped underneath cars and in the front grills.

It was a lot spookier than it looks in my photos. When we pulled off the interstate in Spokane we stopped so an older man could cross the road. He stopped in front of our car and pulled out the large tumble weed that was lodged in our grill. We laughed and thanked him!

We made it to Dan’s in record time and unpacked the car and then headed for dinner.

The roads from Dan’s place to the grocery store on Saturday were quiet and beautiful. I saw a rafter of wild turkeys.

It’s great to travel roads in the great open spaces.

On the way home today the only excitement we had was a snow/rain mix on the pass.

I’ll post more photos of our time at Dan’s place in the next few days now that we are back home again. Hope all is good in your corner of the world.

Winter Sunshine and Celebrations…

We had two beautiful sunshine filled days last week and one of them landed on Katie and Andrew’s Anniversary. Dear was in Orlando for a conference so Katie and I decided on a waterfront restaurant to have her anniversary dinner.

We ended up at Anthony’s Home Port in Kirkland on Lake Washington.

We got a very good dose of Vitamin D sitting with the sunshine streaming through.

Can you feel the heat?

So many people were out and about enjoying the weather that it was impossible to get out of the restaurant parking lot. We had to find a different route home because of the stream of traffic traveling along the Lake road.

On Friday we traveled east across the Cascade Mountain range to spend the weekend with our son in Eastern Washington. I’ll share our interesting travel experience in a day or two.

Lenten Hymn

Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days

Lord, who throughout these forty days
For us didst fast and pray,
Teach us with Thee to mourn our sins
And close by Thee to stay.

As Thou with Satan didst contend,
And didst the victory win,
O give us strength in Thee to fight,
In Thee to conquer sin.

As Thou didst hunger bear, and thirst,
So teach us, gracious Lord,
To die to self, and chiefly live
By Thy most holy Word.

And through these days of penitence,
And through Thy passiontide,
Yea, evermore in life and death,
Jesus, with us abide.

Abide with us, that so, this life
Of suffering over past,
An Easter of unending joy
We may attain at last.

Words: Claudia F. Hernaman, Child’s Book of Praise; A Manual of Devotion in Simple Verse, 1873.

Another Year Older…

…and I do hope wiser.

My life started when I was little.

I was a real swinger.

I started out a brunette and then became a blond and then switched back to brunette.

Kindergarten at Montebello Gardens Primary School. This school only went to the 3rd grade at this time. Starting in the 4th grade we were bused up to Montebello (over the Rio Hondo river) to Fremont Elementary. Montebello Gardens (not a garden by any stretch of the imagination) is part of Pico Rivera. (Top Row Left with my Buster Brown “do”)

Mrs. Nicolaus my 1st and 2nd grade teacher was one of a handful of my teachers that I knew was fond of me. I was a voracious reader and she recommended that I be skipped from 2nd grade to 3rd grade. (Top Row left with my curly “do”)

The majority of the children I went to school with in my primary school days were Mexican/American. Of course now the politically correct title is Hispanic. My growing up experiences were not in the era of political correctness. (Top Row right with my Buster Brown askew)

I tried to count the candles on this cake to see what birthday it was. It looks like 7 but I’m not sure. This was at our house in Montebello Gardens/Pico Rivera, 4635 Oak Street. It’s funny how the old addresses stick in my head. My sister Kathy on the right with my cousin Jim Loscutoff. On the left is my brother Fred and my sister Vera.

I know this is later than the photo above since my brother Steve is sitting in the highchair and my cousin Tanya is sitting at the table. My best guess is that this is 1960 since my brother Steve was born in December of 1959 (my 9th birthday). My cousin Valia, cousin Vera, cousin John, and cousin Walter blurred along with my brother Fred blurred. Looks like a store bought cake for this year…

When I was in the 5th grade we moved across the river into Montebello and I was able to walk to school. During my 4th grade year I was bused. Speaking of 4th grade, I talked too much and my handwriting was messy. Funny how the criticisms stick with you all your life. My 5th grade teacher gave me the distinct impression that she did not like me at all. She made me stand up once in class to chastise me and I remember thinking in my head “I may be standing up on the outside but I’m sitting down on the inside!” My 6th grade teacher was a gem who encouraged me with his kindness. I worked in the cafeteria in the 6th grade and got free lunches. The cafeteria ladies were another group of adults who encouraged me.

God has brought me through these 63 years with so much tenderness and care. I’m forever grateful.

We are heading across the mountains to our son’s home for the weekend. We’ll have my birthday dinner in Chewelah. Dear will be helping Dan with some projects and I’ll see what mischief I can get into. Don’t know if I’ll be checking in to the internet until Monday. Have a great weekend!

Snoqualmie Falls

Scroll Down to the Post Below This One for Kathleen’s St. Patrick’s Day Crawl!

Tuesday was such a beautiful day that Katie and I decided to take the drive to Snoqualmie Falls. Although it was dry with clear blue skies and a few fluffy clouds we still got rained on by the falls themselves. The river was running so full and strong that the spray off the falls fell like rain anywhere close.

On Tuesday evening Katie and I went out together to celebrate her and Andrew’s anniversary. Dear is in Florida until tonight so it was just the girls. We chose a waterfront restaurant because the weather was so great. I’ll share the photos from our dinner on another day.

Today was another glorious day and I even had to turn my air conditioning on in the car. I am looking forward to Dear coming home tonight. How’s the weather where you are? I hope it hasn’t turned nasty for you again…

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Hail My Ever Blessed Jesus ~ Hymn