O-range You Glad It’s October!

If it’s Wednesday it must be time for the Hodgepodge. Thank you, Joyce.

1. What do you like most about your family?

The different Gifts that God has given to individual members of our family and how it enhances our times together. We have peacemakers, servants, caregivers, loyal friends. We also have those who display gentleness, wisdom, discernment, faith, generosity, courage, wit, a sense of humor and above all love. We all have ongoing areas that God is sanctifying in us like humility, patience, and forgiveness, to name a few. None of us are perfect but hopefully we’ll cooperate with the Holy Spirit in growing us up in our faith and obedience to be more like Christ.

2. What’s something nice that’s happened to you recently?

I received this special gift from Andrew and Katie from Scotland (Edinburgh). It will have a special post on Friday. The Islander Handbag Workshop invites you to design and craft your very own bespoke Islander Harris Tweed® handbag.

3. Do you like the color orange? Besides a pumpkin and an actual orange, what’s something orange you love?

An orange sunset!

4. What’s something you have now you couldn’t have imagined having five years ago? How does that make you feel? What’s possible now because of it?

I’ll answer this on a temporal level. Five years ago our freedom to breathe, move about, worship and make our own health decisions was threatened by those in power or those who were given more power than they should have had. For me this threat to our freedom was oppressive, harmful and sad. I’m thankful for the common sense and freedom I feel now.

5. Let’s wrap this one up with an October this or that…

pumpkin bread or apple cider donut
cozy sweater or cozy hoodie
apple picking or pumpkin picking
scary movie or Hallmark movie
hay ride or corn maze
twinkle lights or candles
autumn hike or autumn bonfire

My answers are highlighted in Bold.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

These two found a huge boulder while they were digging to China!

Freedom Rings Hodgepodge

Sizzling into Hodgepodge Wednesday this week. Thank you, Joyce!

Today is forecast to be hot, hot, hot. If I do anything outside it will be in the early hours. But now on to the questions.

1. What does freedom mean to you?

Freedom means I can choose. I can choose what I believe, where I live, where I get an education, where I go to church, what I wear, what I eat, where I work, what I do for fun, where I travel, and all of that without fear of being thrown into prison because of those choices.

I can also choose to give up a freedom for a greater cause like parenting, being a wife, being a friend, being a citizen, being a member of the Body of Christ. As a mother I chose to give up many freedoms so that I could help my children. As a wife I can give up some of my freedom to be a better helpmate. In serving others sometimes you give up personal freedoms, too.

There are national freedoms and personal freedoms.

I don’t want to abuse my relationships by demanding my freedoms to the extreme.

The more I think on this the more there is to say about freedom. There are times that God will take my freedoms away to teach me something I need to learn. Maybe through an illness or a loss. I’ll save those thoughts for another time.

2. How will you celebrate Independence Day this year? If you live outside the USA answer this question as it relates to your own country’s patriotic holiday, wherever that may land on the calendar.

We will go to an annual party in Colville with many of our church family. We bring our own meat to cook and a side or dessert to share. There are several grills for cooking the meat. There are games to play including an annual corn hole tournament. Fireworks are set off later in the evening.

3. This or that…red, white, or blue? Blue

Stars or stripes? Stars

Watermelon, home made ice cream, or blueberry pie? Watermelon

How do you feel about fireworks? I enjoy watching them. I’m always reminded of our dear Pop who never bought fireworks that I’m aware of. If we asked, he would say, “Here’s a dollar, just burn it.” His sentiment was that spending money on fireworks was just burning up money that was better spent for something necessary. 🙂

That said, here in Colville we don’t set off fireworks just anywhere because we are in a high fire danger season. Many families shoot off fireworks on New Year’s Eve instead when there is snow on the ground. People in town can set them off without the greater danger of starting a wild fire.

4. What have you purchased recently that made you excited?

I talked about my new riding lawnmower last week. This week I was excited to have the window washers come. Clean windows are exciting and when someone else cleans them that is even more exciting!

5. I’m thankful to live in America (or fill in whatever country you call home) because____________.

…it’s the land of the free and home of the brave.

I’m so thankful God led my parents to make the choice to immigrate legally to the United States from Persia. They made the hard journey to settle in the Los Angeles area with our oldest sister Kathy and while our mom was pregnant with our sister, Vera. God led them on that journey and was with them all their 90 and 95 years. They enjoyed their freedom in the U.S. and their abundant life in Jesus Christ. That freedom and abundance is available to all of their children, children’s spouses, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I love decorating and celebrating the 4th of July, Independence Day in the U.S.A.

Choices Hodgepodge

It’s Wednesday so that means the Hodgepodge is here with new questions to answer. Thank you to Joyce From This Side of the Pond for keeping our brains challenged!

1. Where do you get your news these days?

We follow more conservative voices. I limit my news intake since they prove themselves to be misleading so much of the time. I get so tired of all the opinions and talk show formats instead of your good ole news like; there was a flood today in such and such city or it’s real hot in Texas today. During this war I get information from our missionary associations that are in the midst helping like FEBC, SGA, and others who are there.

2. It’s National Crab Day…do you like crab meat? What makes you crabby?

A good Crab Cake is a treat.

Stone faced liars make me crabby.

3. Does freedom mean more choices?

From the Oxford dictionary;

the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.

Another definition is; the state of not being in prison. 🙂

So…if we all have freedom there are going to be a lot of choices.

Have you ever felt there were too many choices? Elaborate.

Some restaurants have way too many choices making it very hard to choose. Then you wonder…can they really do 40 different dishes well?

Seriously though, choices are important in life. We will all live with the choices we make and their consequences.

I’m with Joshua on this one…

Joshua 24:14-15 (ESV)

¹⁴“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

4. Barbara Millicent Roberts was introduced to the world on March 9, 1959…that’s Barbie to most of us. Did you have Barbies as a kid, or did you let your own children play with Barbies?

Madame Alexander Dolls are more my style and it was one of her dolls I bought our daughter for her 1st birthday.

I was 8 years old when Barbie was born. I never owned a Barbie. I can only remember having one doll when I was little. It was small rubber headed one. Nice and chunky and nothing like a Barbie. I was not a big fan or pro Barbie but our daughter had a collection of them. I did not appreciate how hard they were to dress and undress. Oye! Our daughter was gifted a special edition Russian Barbie from her Uncle and Aunt one Christmas. That doll disappeared from our home a few years later when we had a Russian traditional dance troupe visit for a meal. Hmmm…

I still have some of our daughter’s Barbie collection in a bin that I pull out for Grand nieces or other little girls to enjoy when visiting.

What well known Barbara (living or not) would you most like to meet?

We did know a real life Barbie (named Barbie) that could stand in for Barbie and model those outfits and afford them!

Truth be told I’m not interested in meeting any ‘well known’ Barbara.

5. What are three things you value most in another person?

A person of integrity who is faithful, honest and dependable.

Someone who is generous with their time, talents and money.

A person who I can belly laugh with. Not a fan of grouches.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Speaking of Barbie, I didn’t walk away from this one that was in our local Goodwill store for under $12.00 back in June of 2017. If our granddaughter is ever interested in Barbies, I’ll give this one to her. If not interested I’ll have to offer it up for sale. It wasn’t Barbie that drew my interest. I’m a huge fan of Beatrix Potter and her collection of Tales!

The sticker price on the bottom of the box is $44.00.

Five on Friday

We’ve been working on making more distinct borders on a couple of our planters. This planter is on the backside of our deck and between our home and garage/shop.

This planter is in the front of our home and is ready for the weed cloth and bark that you see in the planter above. It was so much easier to mow with this nice border today.

We are just home from our last minute getaway to Yellowstone National Park. We stayed one night in the Old Faithful Inn. The structure is the largest log hotel in the world; possibly even the largest log building in the world. The lobby was a comfortable setting to people watch and enjoy a drink.

Now at home we are getting ready for our annual fourth of July celebration with a few of my red white and blue decorations going up.

Our Canadian neighbors are enjoying Canada Day and on Monday we will celebrate with family, friends, food and fireworks for the fourth! Five words starting with the letter F!

I am thankful to God for the results of our hard work, for our last minute getaway, for the safety we had on the road, for the beauty of God’s creation that we were afforded on our trip, for our country where can worship our God in safety (so far).

Happy Canada Day to our dear neighbors to the North!

Linking up to Five on Friday with Amy at Love Made My Home and Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Freedom

O-range You Glad It’s October!

Freedom Rings Hodgepodge

Choices Hodgepodge

Five on Friday