Outdoor Wednesday ~ Walk with Willow…

It’s almost time to join in on Outdoor Wednesday. Susan at A Southern DayDreamer is our hostess for this weekly event. My outdoor photos were taken on a walk with my bloggy friend Willow in her neighborhood. These were taken on Monday of this week in Southern California.

This was a day that we spotted deer again. After uploading this photo I was surprised at how Fall like the colors were.

Same hour different scenery with more Spring like colors.

Don’t forget to look up. I love this view of the tree against the blue sky!

For more Outdoor Wednesday please visit Susan here.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

I Won’t be Needing my Passport…

The wedding in Cancun has been cancelled. The young couple decided they wouldn’t be able to live with themselves if even one guest got sick. They are seeing if they can put together a ceremony in New York this weekend…

The airlines are being generous with changing tickets. We’ll see how the resort handles their and our losses. So far we will only have to forfeit one night of our deposit. It would be nice to get a full refund….

Our hearts go out to not only our Jenna and Justin but to the country of Mexico and to all who will suffer loss because of this epidemic.

Update: The wedding has been moved to a hotel in Orlando Florida for this Saturday. Lots of phone calls and scrambling and changes of flights and the event will be happening. :0) Unfortuanately Dear and I will not be able to transfer our tickets for Florida but our son and DIL are going to be able to swing it!

2nd Time Around Tuesday ~ Apple Blossoms…

Well if it’s Monday night it’s time for 2nd Time Around Tuesday. Diane at A picture is Worth a 1,000 Words is the hostess of this weekly event.

I found these Apple Blossom Plates at Goodwill in Bellevue, Washington this past March. I thought they were so sweet. Here is a photo of my Apple tree with the blossoms almost opening that I took after Easter. I’m sure by now they have opened up but I’m not in Washington to take a photo right now.

For more 2nd Time Around visit Diane by clicking here!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Should I stay or should I go…

So this is part of the beautiful resort in Cancun we are suppose to be at this weekend for our niece’s wedding…Cancun, Mexico. We are praying and consulting before making a final decision on whether we will be cancelling our travel plans. We are praying for the young couple who have to make the decision to carry on with the plans or cancel the event that has been planned for so long. Praying for wisdom and comfort in the decisions and praying about disappointments and concerns…

Also praying that the State Department and CDC get good information and give out good advice in regards to the Swine Flu and travel.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Blue Monday ~ Peacocks

Happy Blue Monday

When I drive across Los Angeles to visit my parents I always stop at the Target in Norwalk which is at the exit I take to get to their place. I stop because the trip is long, I’ve given birth to 3 children and this is a convenient spot to stop if you catch my drift. The unusual thing about this Target is what I’ve seen and heard in their parking lot more than once…

 

There is a really cool old farmhouse next door and peacocks that live behind the farmhouse. They hop the fence and stroll about the Target parking lot from time to time making their annoying loud calls.

 

I kept asking this guy if he’d kindly fan his feathers but he was not impressed with me and didn’t feel the need to show-off!

 

I’m always fascinated to watch these beautiful creatures with their iridescent feathers.

Blue Monday is hosted by Smiling Sally who hails from Florida. If you’d like to see more blue or to join in please click here.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Why Do the Holy Angels Sing? ~ Hymn

Why Do the Holy Angels Sing?

Why do the holy angels sing?
Why do the heav’nly arches ring
With anthems sweet from seraphs bright,
With glitt’ring crowns and robes of white?

Refrain

They sing of the Lamb that was slain,
The Savior that lives again,
The Root and the Offspring of David,
The bright and Morning Star!

Glory to Thee, our God, they cry,
Maker of earth, and sea, and sky,
To Thee our highest strains belong,
Thou great Inspirer of our song.

Refrain

Beautiful world where all is bright,
Rivers of gold and fields of light,
In murmured tones of joy prolong
The echo of the angels’ song.

Refrain

Well may the holy angels sing,
Well may the heav’nly arches ring,
With anthems sweet from choirs above,
They sing of God, and God is love.

Refrain

Words by Fanny Crosby

ht: cyberhymnal

Chorus From ‘Atalanta’ ~ Spring

 

Chorus From ‘Atalanta’

For winter’s rains and ruins are over,
And all the season of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain, and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.

~Algernon Charles Swinburne, 1837-1909

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Family & Spring…

 

Oh these Friday’s come so quickly when you’re living life! My favorites this week are leftovers from our time in Seattle. We came home to Southern California Sunday evening after a 3 hour delay due to a dent in a door on our original plane…We then got to fly on the Tinkerbell plane so we all chanted We Believe and clapped and then when the plane finally took off successfully we clapped louder! But this is about favorites….

Absolutely at the very top of my favorites is time spent with our family. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Signs of Spring popping out all over. Beautiful apple and pear blossoms, clematis blooms, and anything pretty in pink that is blooming. Mama and Daddy duck walking over for a Spring visit…

Shopping at my favorite Goodwill stores in the state of Washington…where I always seem to find sweet treasures!  The baking dish is one of my new purchases.

Having the time to hear my son Dan’s keen sense of humor. He can really make me laugh.

Looking forward to spending a few days with our kids and Dear’s side of the family at our niece’s wedding in Cancun next weekend. I won’t be blogging for Fave Fives next weekend or blogging in general because we’ll be in Cancun.

Bonus Fave!: Getting the news that our son Josh will be down to visit us soon and that we’ll all be going to a Sounders/Chivas soccer game here in Southern California. Ole, ole, ole , ole!!

To see more Favorites from this past week visit Susanne who had lovely Spring weather and then another snowstorm oye, oye oye! Click over to Living to Tell the Story….

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Foodie Friday ~ Artichoke

Spring Fling is the Foodie Friday Theme this week. Everyone at my house loves artichokes and for Foodie Friday I’m going to share the fast easy way we choose to enjoy this Springy looking vegetable! Gollum at Designs by Gollum is the hostess of this weekly Blog Food Event.

 

First find nice firm artichokes. Cut the stem off so you have a flat base. Cut the top say up to 1/2 to 1 inch straight across. Snip each leaf at the top to get rid of the sharp prickly part. Rinse really well and lay upside down with some of the liquid in a microwavable dish. Cover the dish and microwave on high for approx. 5 minutes for one. I did these for 10 minutes for the two and they were perfect.

 

Put the artichoke on any plate (be careful it will be very hot) Aren’t these artichoke plates Springy looking that I got from Goodwill for cheap?!  Next choose your dip of choice. Dear likes mayonnaise, I like Ranch Dressing, the rest of my family likes Italian dressing. Put a little  on the plate in the nifty section made just for it. Peel off one leaf at a time and dip the end that was most connected then scrap off the goodness with your teeth. (I love that soft focus you can fix photos with cuz now you can’t see all my wrinkles on this close up of me with the leaf) As you get farther into the center the leaves are more delicate and you can scrap off more goodness to eat, or even eat the whole leaf except for there always seems to be a little prickly part you need to avoid. Now here’s why they call it a Artichoke (maybe)…

 

See that fuzzy feathery part of the choke. This is the part you need to discard because you will probably choke on it. We use a spoon to scrape off all the fuzziness to get to the very best part the heart of the artichoke, you’ll need to apply a little pressure to remove the fuzzies from the heart but be careful not to scrape away the heart. After scrapping off the fuzz, sometimes I even rinse this part off to make sure I got rid of all the fuzzies, yep I’m a little paranoid that way. Now you can eat the heart and it’s solid artichoke yumminess. Make sure you add a little more dip if you got low in the eating process at this point :0)  This is a fun appetizer that we always enjoy at our house!

Now to see more Foodie Posts visit Gollum at Designs by Gollum!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

ABC’s of the Word ~ K

Luke 12:35-37 ~ Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.

For more ABC’s of the Word please visit Pam at Grey Like Snuffie.