FFF ~ Announcements, Announcements, Announcements!

Time to choose our favorites from this past week and to link up at Susanne’s Living to Tell the Story to share them with our friends in bloggy world.

March has proved to be a month of wonderful experiences at our house. While we were in Seattle enjoying and celebrating my 60th birthday with our sons and daughter in law, our daughter Katie and Andrew were in North Carolina with our blessing on their plans to be married! This was going to be a secret until their wedding next winter but yesterday they decided to go public! I’m so happy to be able to share this and not keep it a secret for a year! So my #1 favorite for this week is …

1. …the announcement that we have a new son, Lance Corporal Andrew, and that our daughter Katie has changed her last name. We are still planning an official wedding with my brother who is a pastor officiating and our family, Andrew’s family, and friends witnessing their vows and covenant promise to each other.

These are their temporary rings which will be replaced at their wedding.

2. Katie and I have spent a lot of time together this week at the different government agencies that need her new information. We have made sure to enjoy nice lunches together after spending lots of time in waiting rooms people watching.

3. On Saturday Dear and I spent a day in Snohomish eating and shopping and buying a new piece of furniture that was delivered on Sunday.

4. Josh and Laura came over for brunch on Sunday and we enjoyed their company. Waffles, ham, and strawberries were on the menu.

5. Finding out our cookbook Mennonite Girls Can Cook is now available on Amazon for pre-order! It’s due for release on May 1st!

Our household is thankful for all God’s goodness to us. My cup continues to overflow.

What were your favorites this past week.

The Final 20 & My New Cabinet!

In which she cheats and puts things on the final 20 list that happened before they appeared on the list and she knows will happen in the near future!

 

#22 was… Buy a Welsh Sideboard. I’ve wanted one for years. This isn’t a Welsh Sideboard but it fulfills it’s purpose and fits in my space well. It’s an Indonesian solid wood piece and we are pleased with it’s function.

Now here are the final 20 of my list of 60 things to do in my 60th year!

41. Take a ride in a limousine with people she loves. Completed on my birthday March 14th with our sons, DIL, and Dear.

42. Treat people for her birthday. Bought drinks for all our season ticket neighbors at the opening game which was the day after my 60th birthday.

43. Find a purse that will accommodate my stuff plus my camera with a long enough strap to fit over my shoulder.

44. Meet bloggy friends in person that she has never met in person before.

45. Reorganize cabinets and purge some Chotskies.

46. Make those every so many year appointments you dread but need to do.

47. Write a Psalm to God.

48. Find a dress for our daughter’s wedding.

50. Learn to put the flagpole up and take it down.

51. Back up the files on my computer.

52. Create some photo books.

53. Mail a box of goodies to Katie’s Andrew while he is deployed.

54. Order a DVR

55. Get a new modem that might actually make her internet work well.

56. Send flowers to some unsuspecting person.

57. Detail my car.

58. Write poetic tribute of my history as seen on Debora’s blog.

59. Take a canoe ride on Lake Washington this summer with Dear. Him rowing, me taking photos.

60. Do a blog tribute to some of my favorite blog posts on other people’s blogs.

Coming up with 60 things was not an easy task. Maybe there will be some modifications along the way. It was a good exercise and I’ve already enjoyed the benefits of completing many of the 60.

 

Have You Seen These?

It’s a Cupcake Vase that comes in a few different colors.

It was fun to fill it with these white and yellow flowers. It’s spill resistant and non-breakable. You squeeze the top to open it up. It feels like those silicone cooking cups.

I bought this at Rust and Ruffles on 1st Street in Snohomish, Washington. The packaging says to “Enjoy decorating your 100% fat free Floral Cupcake.

Hope your week is going well. Wednesday is Katie’s final wedding dress fitting so we’ll need to find a spot to store the dress until the wedding day in this old house. Hmmmm…

 

A Great Escape…

… just 17 miles from home. I’d recommend a leisurely morning or day in Snohomish, Washington.

Strolling along 1st street you can see the Snohomish river. There are a good variety of shops to stroll through and eateries to choose from. Antique shops are in abundance but there are some fun country stores and clothing shops, too.

We started our morning at the Cabbage Patch Restaurant and had a very nice breakfast.

This post is going ruby on me so I’ll have to link up with Ruby Tuesday with Mary at Work of the Poet!

After breakfast we strolled through some shops and along 1st street.

We didn’t make it out of town without a major purchase. We found a hutch for our kitchen that was delivered on Sunday. I’ll show it later in the week. Hope Spring is showing up wherever you are and I suppose if you are in the other half of the hemisphere you’ll be welcoming Autumn! Enjoy.

Click on over to Work of the Poet to see more Ruby Tuesday!

 

Mosaic Monday ~ Birthday Dinner

Last Monday March 14th my kids and Dear surprised me with a limo ride to my birthday dinner in downtown Seattle. At the restaurant there was a drink on the menu named Ellen. I had to order it just because…

From Saturday night here is the Super moon, a full moon that happens to be close to the earth.  These are my little camera views, a tripod and a different camera might have captured more detail…

To see more Mosaics today and through Monday visit Mary at Little Red House.

 

Behold the Lovely Springtime ~ Hymn

Behold the Lovely Springtime

Behold the lovely springtime!
We hail its rosy hours,
We welcome back the sunshine
And cool, refreshing showers;
There’s beauty all around us,
And music everywhere;
O praise our great Creator
Who makes the earth so fair.

Refrain

Come, children, join the chorus,
Ring out in joyful strain
A song of love to God above;
The Spring has come again.

Our youth is like the springtime,
Our hearts are like the flowers;
Our smiles like playful sunbeams
That cheer its passing hours;
And may our deeds of kindness,
As one by one they fall,
Be like the gentle raindrops
Our Father sends to all.

Refrain

Each tender bud and blossom,
From out its dewy leaves,
Gives back to God who made it
The sweet perfume it breathes;
Then let us give to Jesus
Our youthful hearts today,
And in life’s happy springtime,
Begin the heavenly way.

Refrain

Words: Fanny Crosby, 1876.

Birthday Week Favorites!

What a week it’s been and there are so many favorites we’ll see if I can keep it to five. Click on the pretty tulips to join in the fun with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.
This week was my birthday week and I turned 60 on Monday March 14th. I was surprised, honored, and loved to overflowing and I’ll never forget the wonderful events of this past 7 days!
1. My husband and kids surprised me with a visit from our son Dan to help celebrate my birthday. We hadn’t seen Dan since Christmas and I had no idea he worked out some extra time off to be able to travel across the mountains to join in the fun. I was SHOCKED in a good way when he walked into the kitchen at Josh and Laura’s house on Sunday morning!
2. Dinner with the Mennonite Girls and their husbands at Chuckanut Manor in Bow, Washington. This was the first time all our husbands met and what a great time we all had!
3. A surprise limousine ride to dinner with Josh, Laura, Dan and Dear on my birthday!
4. The third surprise was our dinner menus personalized for my special day.
5. All the wonderful cards, gifts, phone calls, e-cards, and tributes on blogs that I read including my 3 year old niece singing Happy Birthday to me all the way through by herself over the phone. Some cards made me cry but this card just made me laugh! Thanks Leonard and Mandy and Hope.
All of you who ever have used your pedometers should be laughing right now!
~
6. Yes, I’m going over but this was also opening season week for Major League Soccer with the Seattle Sounders and L.A. Galaxy and we had our first game the day after my birthday and the day after my flagpole was installed and my flags were waving proudly!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who made this week so special for me. I am so grateful for new friends, old friends, family, bloggy friends I have never met in person. Thank you for your kindness and encouragement to me. God bless you all richly!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

2015-03-11 St2

Are you wearing green today?

Do you make a special Irish dish to serve for dinner on this day?

Do you have a favorite Irish saying?

Have you ever been to Ireland?

Do you have any Irish relatives?

Have you ever attended a céilis? Céilis are held in large towns and country districts where young and old enjoy group dances.

We’ll be having corned beef and cabbage tonight along with some Guinness. I’m thinking I should try a good Irish stew recipe soon, too.

From 2008 at Fado an Irish Pub in downtown Seattle…

An Old Celtic Blessing

May the blessing of light be on you –
light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
and warm your heart
till it glows like a great peat fire.

 

Just in Time…

…for the Major League Soccer season opener in Seattle my flagpole was ready to hoist it’s flags. We’re proud to wave the American flag and our Seattle Sounders flag, too. We also have our Marine Corp flag that will be waving proudly.

Dear mixed up the concrete base for the flagpole on Saturday. On Monday we were ready to set the telescoping flag pole in and to raise the flags. Josh and Dear did the honors. Long may they wave! We take them down at Sunset since we do not have a light to illuminate the Stars and Stripes.

 

Last night at the opening ceremonies they had representatives from all the Military Service Branches. They unrolled and held and waved huge flags on the pitch. The Few. The Proud. The Marines. They were the brightest and the best. They never flinched, slouched, or let go of the flag. I bumped into a few of them during halftime and complimented them. Of course they replied “Thank you Ma’am” , because they are very polite, too.

Our daughter is marrying a Marine and we are proud of him! OO-RAH!

The origin of OO-RAH ~

U.S. Marines were the word’s first proprietors, using it to express contentment or to set expectations. And although use-dependent, the word OO-RAH can take on a variety of meanings. Now after languishing in military jargon obscurity for decades, it has rapidly become much more commonly known as even civilians associate its use with Marines.

The spelling of the word has never been standardized, as is often the case with phonetic interpretations of a sound that can only be properly formed at the bottom of the lungs. Variant spellings include “OORAH,” “OOHRAH,” and “OOH-RAH.” However it is spelled, it is recognizable as distinctly Marine whether spoken or written, and it can easily be distinguished from the Army version, the venerable but significantly less motivating “HOO-AH.”

Hope your Wednesday is going well. I’m a wee bit tuckered out from all the partying and fun we’ve been having around here this week. I slept in and missed my Zumba class this morning. I’m enjoying a little sunshine but I hear it’s not suppose to last so for the time being I’ll bask in it. Tomorrow I’ll be making corned beef and cabbage to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

These things I warmly wish to you-
Someone to love
Some work to do
A bit o’ sun
A bit o’ cheer
And a guardian angel always near.

~

Dance as if no one were watching,
Sing as if no one were listening,
And live every day as if it were your last.

~

May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.
God is good, but never dance in a small boat.