Blue Monday ~ Seattle

Welcome to Blue Monday. This fun weekly event is hosted by the very good humored Smiling Sally.

My blue this week is brought to you from Downtown Seattle in the State of Washington.

I managed to get Dear away from all his projects at our home in Washington to have some lunch and a wee stroll downtown. See that building in the top left that looks like a tube of Ban Roll-on? That’s where Dear worked in Seattle for 7 years. We are back in Southern California tonight in our little condo where the projects are few. Hope you all have a wonderful week!

To see more Blue visit Sally by clicking here.

Metamorphosis Monday ~ Lawn

It’s time for Metamorphosis Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Dear and I were at our home in Seattle for the last 10 days celebrating Easter with our kids and getting some things done around the house. While we were there it was time for the first mowing after the Winter lull in grass growth. So I’m showing the before and after shots that I took.

Don’t you just love the look and smell of a freshly mowed grass?! OK, Ok, truth be told we really can’t call this a lawn, it’s mostly moss and dandelions but all 1/3 acres of it is ours. Hopefully some day we can tear it all out and re-seed…

Dear and I are just back to our Condo in Southern California. We had some interesting flight challenges that put us in 2-1/2 hours later than we expected. Now I’ve got to replace my Seattle brain with my Southern California brain! Ejola!

To see some really great metamorphosis visit the lovely Susan at Between Naps on the Porch!

Come, Thou Almighty King ~ Hymn

Come, Thou Almighty King

Come, Thou almighty King,
Help us Thy Name to sing, help us to praise!
Father all glorious, o’er all victorious,
Come and reign over us, Ancient of Days!

Jesus, our Lord, arise,
Scatter our enemies, and make them fall;
Let Thine almighty aid our sure defense be made,
Souls on Thee be stayed; Lord, hear our call.

Come, Thou incarnate Word,
Gird on Thy mighty sword, our prayer attend!
Come, and Thy people bless, and give Thy Word success,
Spirit of holiness, on us descend!

Come, holy Comforter,
Thy sacred witness bear in this glad hour.
Thou Who almighty art, now rule in every heart,
And ne’er from us depart, Spirit of power!

To Thee, great One in Three,
Eternal praises be, hence, evermore.
Thy sovereign majesty may we in glory see,
And to eternity love and adore!

Words: Some sources show the au­thor as “anon­y­mous.” Others cre­dit Charles Wes­ley, 1757. The words ap­peared in George White­field’s Col­lect­ion of Hymns for So­cial Wor­ship, 1757.

Music: Ital­i­an Hymn, Fe­lice de Gi­ar­di­ni, in The Col­lect­ion of Psalm and Hymn Tunes Sung at the Cha­pel of the Lock Hos­pi­tal, 1769. De Gi­ar­di­ni wrote the music spe­ci­fic­al­ly for this hymn. Al­ter­nate tune: Amer­i­ca, The­saur­us Mu­si­cus, 1744

In the days of the Amer­i­can Re­vo­lu­tion a con­gre­ga­tion of pa­tri­o­tic col­o­nists were wor­ship­ing in their church on Long Is­land when the ser­vice was in­ter­rupt­ed by the ar­riv­al of a com­pa­ny of Hess­ian troops. The cap­tain stalked up the aisle and com­mand­ed the people to sing “God Save the King.” The or­gan­ist start­ed the tune that we call “Amer­i­ca”; but the peo­ple, true to the cause of the Amer­i­can col­o­nies and to their God, sang this hymn.

ht: Cyberhymnal

Belated Birthday Lunch!

The kids wanted to celebrate my March 14th birthday while we were all together so we headed to Downtown Seattle today. They chose Ipanema, a Brazilian Restaurant on the Harbor Steps across from the Art Museum. It was great to be all together before Dear and I head back to Cali tomorrow!

Ipanema

The Guys!

The Girls!

The Young Girls!

The Young Marrieds!

It’s been so good to be here in Washington visiting and catching up with our kids and friends in person!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig!

Round Robin Photo Challenge ~ In Flight!

Welcome to the Round Robin Photo Challenge for April 18th. This challenge was submitted by Carly and the theme is “In Flight”. These are the choices I made for the challenge. These photos were all taken in Ventura and Santa Barbara, California.

Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura, California.

Our daughter Katie who looks like she’ll take off and fly and all the Seagulls she made fly!!

This last photo was taken in Santa Barbara, California.

Happy Photo Challenge all you Robins!

To see more “In Flight photos click over to the official Round Robin Challenge Blog!

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Seattle

So it’s time for Friday’s Fave Five and all of mine come to your from the State of Washington this week. Dear and I will be heading back to Southern California on Sunday. Boohoo.

1. Spending some one on one and one on four time with our children in Washington! Our oldest son took me to a soccer game last Saturday which was so much fun. Katie and I did some shopping on Monday and she found her strappy gold shoes she needed for an upcoming wedding she’s in. Working around the house with our son Dan. Having Easter Brunch together and Taco Night. Good times.

2. Easter Tradtions! I love Easter and it’s always fun to do the traditional things each year. This year my sister Lana G! and I even made the traditional Russian Easter Bread and Cheese topping. Ok, I keep mentioning that but it was a big accomplishment for us and now we know we can do it and we’re so excited we can have fresh Kulich every year if we want it! Coloring Easter Eggs…it’s so much fun to watch Katie get creative with the colors on the eggs. Going to Easter Service. There’s something special about Easter Sunday at church. We go to church most every Sunday but Easter Sunday always stands out to me. Repeating the traditional Easter greeting to everyone we see on Easter…Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

3. Spending time in Downtown Seattle with Dear. We had a hair appointment together and then headed downtown to have lunch at the Pink Door. It happened to be one of the sunny days in Western Washington so it was nice to walk around and enjoy Downtown! The Market and all the fresh flowers, the tall buildings, our yummy lunch and buying dessert for the taco dinner we were having later that night with our kids.

4. Fresh mowed grass! I really enjoy mowing the lawn at our home here. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as seeing a freshly mowed neat looking yard! Dear does the weed-wacking and I do the mowing. The first Spring mow is always a bit time consuming and I had to empty the bag more often…

5. Flowers! It was great to see flowers blooming in the yard when we arrived. My Lenten Rose was full of blooms which made me smile. I love the shape and colors of this plant. Seeing all the fresh cut flowers at Pike Place Market was great, too. So many beautiful varieties of tulips and daffodils. I bought a bunch of yellow with orange daffodils to bring home for Taco Night!

Thanks to Susanne at Living to Tell the Story was hosting this weekly event. It’s good to look back and think about the good times and blessings we enjoy each week.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Easter Brunch

My tablescape this week is from my home in Washington State. We had brunch with our children after church on Easter Sunday.

Our traditional Russian Easter Bread ~ Kulich. My sister Lana G! and I baked this by ourselves for the first time this year.

We also made the traditional sweet cheese topping for the bread called Seerney Paska in Russian. The X is the first letter in Russian for Christ and the B is pronounced V in Russian and it stands for Arose. Christ Arose…

Our little bunnies are holding the signs for the reason we celebrate Easter. Again this is written in Russian Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

Here are our children after our yummy brunch of Swedish Pancakes which Dear made for all of us. We had to get the Swedish heritage in there, too.

To see more Tablescapes please visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch!

 

WFW ~ Mark 10: 13-16

Mark 10:13-16 (New International Version)

 The Little Children and Jesus

 People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

For more Word Filled Wednesday please visit Amydeanne at the 160 Acres Woods.