Hello September

My Grands via their dear mom gifted me with seeds to plant at Mother’s Day. The Sunflower is finally blooming in all it’s glory. There are three more buds that could bloom any minute.

The rest of these photos are of the nicest areas of our yard taken on September the 1st. Our high today, Sunday, was 97 degrees at our Country Bungalow after several cooler days. Sunday was the hottest of a few days of warming in our neck of the woods. Labor Day, today, is a bit cooler in the forecast.

I’m happy that our potted hanging plant we bought in May has survived until now.

Don’t look too close or you will see all the weeds I have not been able to keep on top of.

We are so thankful for our little plot of land that affords us peace and contentment in this stage of life that God has afforded us.

Happy September to you all. Happy Labor Day to all our friends in the U.S. of A.

Church of God, Beloved and Chosen ~ Hymn

Church of God, Beloved and Chosen

Church of God, be­loved and chos­en,
Church of God, for whom He died,
Claim thy gifts, and praise the Giv­er,
Ye are washed and sanc­ti­fied
Sanctified by God the Fa­ther,
And by Je­sus Christ His Son,
And by God the Ho­ly Spir­it,
Holy, ho­ly, Three in One.

By His will He sanc­ti­fi­eth,
By the Spir­it’s pow­er with­in;
By the lov­ing hand that chast­en­eth
Fruits of right­eous­ness to win;
By His truth and by His pro­mise;
By the Word, His gift un­priced;
By His own blood, and by un­ion
With the ris­en life of Christ.

Holiness by faith in Je­sus,
Not by ef­fort of thine own,
Sin’s do­min­ion crushed and brok­en,
By the pow­er of grace alone;
God’s own ho­li­ness with­in Thee,
His own beau­ty on Thy brow;
This shall be thy pil­grim bright­ness,
This thy bless­èd por­tion now.

He will sanc­ti­fy thee whol­ly;
Body, spir­it, soul shall be
Blameless til thy Sav­ior’s com­ing,
In His glo­ri­ous ma­jes­ty.
He hath per­fect­ed for ev­er
Those whom He hath sanc­ti­fied;
Spotless, glo­ri­ous, and ho­ly,
Is the Church, His chos­en bride.

Words: Francis Havergal, 1873.

End of the Season

The last game of the summer soccer season for the Bobcats! Jamie captured this great photo with Addy doing her little kickback move with her dad in the background being the coach and the referee. Great season Bobcats and coach Dan!

I have the cutest video of JJ and his end of season scrimmage but I wasn’t able to share it with my photo platform.

These next photos are of the roads we travel back and forth to get to the play fields and to the high school for our Stair climbing fitness times.

We had some sprinkles on the morning I took these.

I love the layers of mountains that we get to enjoy. We are so thankful for our peaceful country views with most of our traffic pauses because of animals crossing the road!

Here in the USA we have our Labor Day Weekend with the Monday holiday. The last hurrah of summer for many. Our schools start next week here in Colville. Our Fall programs at church begin next week, too.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Truth for Today #115

Thursday August 29th

On Thursdays my posts will include verses that stood out in my readings from the Bible during week. One, two, three or maybe more. If you have a verse/verses that you read during the week and would like to share, leave it/them in the comments and I will add it/them to the post. Let’s dig deep in God’s Truth again this year!

The verses that you share are appreciated and so encouraging, I’m thankful for them and for each of you! 

1 John 2:15-17

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world–the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life–is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

From Vera:

“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭10‬:‭17‬-‭21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

From Karen:

Psalm 124:8

Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

A Hodgepodge Full of Cliches!

We made it to our little Country Fair Parade on Saturday morning. We were only sprinkled on and didn’t get wet…just sprinkled. ‘Every cloud has a silver lining.’ Our Grands were able to gather a bunch of candy as the different participants in the parade threw the treats to the sides of Main street. Our Fire department starts the parade off with their sirens and such and that is why Addy and JJ have their ear protection on! ‘Better Safe than Sorry’

Onward to our questions of the week…

Yikes! It’s the last Wednesday Hodgepodge for August! Thank you to Jo, From This Side of the Pond, for the questions that ‘give us a run for our money‘.

1. What is one cliche you think is nonsense?

‘Easy as pie’, for me, is nonsense. Getting the pie crust just right and making a great pie without a ‘soggy bottom’ is not easy for me. I wasn’t raised with a pie baking mom so making a pie has always been intimidating. That said, I do appreciate my pie making friends and their great pies with the crust being just right!

What’s one you think holds truth?  

‘Ugly as sin’ Sin is ugly and has caused all the trouble we’ve ever seen in our world or will ever see. So thankful that God made a way for us to be out from under it’s condemnation! That way came through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross for our sin. Colossians 1:13-14: For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

2. What’s the last thing you broke and how did it happen? 

Recently, I knocked a stemless wine glass off my little side table and it shattered and traveled to many places unknown. The glass did not have wine in it, it was empty which was a good thing! It was a cheap variety of glass, too, not a Riedel, (if you know, you know). ‘Don’t cry over spilled milk’

3. Are you a fan of s’mores? Have you had a s’more this summer?

Not a fan and no I haven’t had a s’more this summer.

Last thing you ate that you wanted to ask for ‘s’more of’

A Scone with lemon curd. ‘One Man’s Meat is Another Man’s poison’

4. A mode of transportation you’ve never tried? Will you someday? 

I’ve never tried a Hover board and I will never try them. I’m at the ‘it’s too easy to break a hip’ stage of life! ‘Don’t Play With Fire’

5. Believe it or not, next week’s Hodgepodge lands in a brand new month. What’s your happiest memory from the month we’re bidding adieu? 

My favorite part of August was when Josh and Laura came for a 4 day visit in the middle of the month. All the gathering moments together were sweet and it’s always good to spend time together ‘face to face’.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Speaking of Josh and Laura, they celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary this past Sunday.

This is what I posted on Facebook about them…
Thanking God today for your twenty third wedding anniversary Josh and Laura!
We are so thankful to God for creating each of you and bringing you together, the very best of teams. Your generosity and caring hearts have helped so many. Your niece and nephews’ lives have been enriched with your love and care and generosity! May God continue to strengthen you in Him and with each other and in the ‘Body of Christ’! We love you, we love you, we love you!
Pops and I will take you out for dinner in Scotland to celebrate…soon!!
Happy Cliche Hodgepodge y’all. I hope to get around to most of you this week. Wow! Labor Day weekend is just ahead of us. Put on those white shoes and celebrate those remaining days of summer!

On the Water

On Saturday the 17th of August an afternoon boat adventure became reality. The younger set filled up all the seats on the boat for a cruise and landing on a beach. Gramps and Baba relaxed and recuperated at home.

Enjoying the best that summer offers in our own backyard! The weekend and Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo’s visit was coming to an end.

We all gathered at church on Sunday morning and Josh and Laura hit the road for home right after the service ended. Till next time, adieu!

Jesu, Lord of Life and Glory ~ Hymn

Jesu, Lord of Life and Glory

Jesu, Lord of life and glo­ry,
Bend from Heav’n Thy gra­cious ear;
While our wait­ing souls adore Thee,
Friend of help­less sin­ners, hear:
By Thy mercy, O de­liv­er us, good Lord.

Taught by Thine un­err­ing Spir­it,
Boldly we draw nigh to God,
Only in Thy spot­less mer­it,
Only through Thy pre­cious blood:
By Thy mer­cy, O de­liv­er us, good Lord.

From the depth of na­ture’s blind­ness,
From the hard­en­ing pow­er of sin,
From all mal­ice and un­kind­ness,
From the pride that lurks with­in:
By Thy mercy, O de­liv­er us, good Lord.

When temp­ta­tion sore­ly press­es,
In the day of Sa­tan’s pow­er,
In our times of deep dis­tresses,
In each dark and try­ing hour:
By Thy mer­cy, O de­liv­er us, good Lord.

When the world around is smil­ing,
In the time of wealth and ease,
Earthly joys our hearts be­guil­ing,
In the day of health and peace,
By Thy mer­cy, O deliver us, good Lord.

In the wea­ry hours of sick­ness,
In the times of grief and pain,
When we feel our mor­tal weak­ness,
When the crea­ture’s help is vain:
By Thy mer­cy, O de­liv­er us, good Lord.

In the so­lemn hour of dying,
In the aw­ful judg­ment day,
May our souls, on Thee re­ly­ing,
Find Thee still our rock and stay:
By Thy mer­cy, O de­liv­er us, good Lord.

Jesu, may Thy pro­mised bless­ing
Comfort to our souls af­ford;
May we now, Thy love pos­sess­ing,
And at length our full re­ward,
Ever praise Thee, Thee, our ev­er glo­ri­ous Lord.

Words: James J. Cummins, 1839

Last Saturday

Saturday morning the 17th of August we hit the Rotary Trail at 9am.

JJ was determined that Uncle Joshie would get him a Cat Tail from the trail.

The Battle of the Cat Tails!

Father and son #1. Our 2nd son was working this Saturday.

After our walk Greg and I headed home while the rest of our crew headed up to Bayles Mountain. An outing on the water was planned for after Dan’s work hours. That post is coming soon.

The Rotary Trail runs along and through the golf course and it is beside the high school and our little Colville airport. We noticed this huge craft at the air field. We’ve had several air resources around to help with the fires in our region.

Back to the current Saturday we had a nice amount of rain overnight and a lot of wind. There were many power outages around our county. Thankfully we weren’t part of any outages. Hopefully the storm aided instead of created more fire danger. The Fair is in town since Thursday and runs through Sunday. Greg and I went to the Fair on Thursday morning. Boise Cascade, a local company, pays for the first 1200 fair goers on Thursday and we were 2 of those 1200! There is a Fair parade this morning and I’ll meet up with our Grands for that. Other than that it will be a quiet Saturday.

Mornings around here are feeling more and more like Fall. Enjoy your last full weekend in August.

More August Fun on Friday

Friday morning the 16th of August we had Greg’s famous Swedish Pancakes for breakfast at Our Country Bungalow.

Our daughters in law were twinsies without planning it.

The three of us took off to do a little shopping while the guys stayed at our country bungalow. We couldn’t resist trying on these beauties off the sale rack. They did not come home with us but gave us a chuckle.

While we were gone the guys and Addy did some clearing of fallen branches on our property for which I was very thankful.

They finished that task and decided it was time to scale the mountain behind our home. We own part of Rattlesnake mountain and it was fun to hear about this trek up the mountain using game trails to traverse the steepness. Here is the team of four who took the climb!

Here are the views looking back down on our home.

It was fun to see these views without having to make the climb!

Friday night we enjoyed hamburgers at the Colville kids’ home.

Earlier a couple chickens got loose and they were tracked down and put back where they belong.

A little basketball and more shenanigans before dinner.

I could have gotten my days mixed up with all these photos.

After dinner and on our way back to our home we couldn’t resist snapping these photos from their driveway.

We all wonder when that great old barn is going to collapse.

Good night, Colville.

Saturday was another good day in Colville filled with fun in the sun. That will be another post or two.

Happy last full weekend of August!

Truth for Today #114

Thursday August 22nd

On Thursdays my posts will include verses that stood out in my readings from the Bible during week. One, two, three or maybe more. If you have a verse/verses that you read during the week and would like to share, leave it/them in the comments and I will add it/them to the post. Let’s dig deep in God’s Truth again this year!

The verses that you share are appreciated and so encouraging, I’m thankful for them and for each of you! 

1 John 2:1-6

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him, ” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

From Dianna:

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you have have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world. ” John 16:33 LSB

From Vera:

“Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”
‭‭1 Chronicles‬ ‭16‬:‭23‬-‭34‬ ‭ESV‬‬