Friday the 13th!

So happy I’m not superstitious. I still have to share 5 more hats I’ve worn or am wearing but my creative juices aren’t flowing these days but rather they are dribbling. I’ll get back to those hats at a later Friday. So here are five favorites from this past week.

#1. Mother’s Day brunch with my kids that are on this side of the mountains.

#2. A few hours with these girls on Tuesday in Canada. The tall blond on the left that you probably don’t recognize is a writer who is writing a play about the Mennonite Girls Can Cook that will be staged later this year in Indiana and possibly Ohio.

#3. Lovella opened up her home for our meeting with the writer and cranked up her oven to treat us to coffee and these delicious rhubarb rolls for our morning coffee time. Delicious!

Then Lovella and the B.C. girls that were free to come for lunch offered up these delicious salads and other goodies.

#4. Our new book is in the works and we got a preview on what it is going to look like. I’ll share more about this soon.

#5. Today (Thursday) Dear and I worked outside mowing and weed whacking and then we brought down our deck furniture and set it out for the season.

We are thankfully heading into a quiet weekend. We have been processing lots of emotional things this week in our extended family and quiet is good to look forward to. Of course we know that just because we think it will be quiet doesn’t guarantee it. The other thing we know is that God is in control of everything that is allowed into our lives.

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

Five on Friday and…

…Friday’s Fave Five.

1. My niece shared this photo of my Pop that she took while he was reading his Bible in his room at my sister’s home. He reads every night before he kneels at his bed and prays for all of his children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. This is a favorite blessing of mine. A Pop who loves the Lord and is obedient in his prayer life and Bible reading. He will be 93 on May 25th.

2. Our rhododendrons are at their peak and I am grateful that we have these established plants in our yard to enjoy. Rhododendrons are the Washington state flower.

3. My visit last Friday with my brother’s family in Austin, Texas is a favorite for sure.

4. My rosebud Azaleas are filling out and showing their glory this week, too.

5. On Thursday we took a ferry across the Puget Sound to visit dear friends of ours. We were able to catch up and have a time of prayer together as we all face our fleeting time on this earth. It was good to be together. How about this wonderful view they have from their home?

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Here in the U.S.A. and Canada we celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday.

Linking up with Amy at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday and

with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for Friday’s Fave Five.

Five Hats I’ve Worn…

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

I’m sharing five of the hats I’ve worn and continue to wear over the years. These are the earlier years before marriage.

Daughter to Moisi and Nadia Bagdanov, Russian immigrants whose families escaped out of Russia into Persia and immigrated to the U.S. after WWII.

Younger sister to Kathy, Vera and Fred.

Kathy, my mom, me in front of her, Fred and Vera. I was the baby of the family for 7 years before the siblings doubled!

Fred, my Pop, me, Kathy and Vera.

Older sister to Tim, Steve, Lana and Leonard (twins).

Student in the Montebello Unified School District. Schools I attended were Montebello Gardens, Fremont Elementary, Montebello Junior high and Montebello high school. I grew up in suburbs east of Los Angeles with many Hispanics and a fair share of Russian, Armenian and Jewish families, too. A great melting pot.

Mrs. Nicolaus my 1st and 2nd grade teacher was one of a handful of my teachers that I knew were fond of me. I was a voracious reader and she recommended that I be skipped from 2nd grade to 3rd grade. (Top Row left with my curly “do”)

Graduate: Junior high graduation with my little maternal babushka (grandmother) and High School graduation with my little babushka.

College graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Home Economics and a Elementary teaching credential. On the left me and dear before we were married and on the right me and my brother Fred. We graduated the same year and from the same college.

So daughter, sister, student, graduate and number five for this week is part-time employee. All through the end of my senior year of high school and through college I worked part time to save and pay for my college education. My parents could not afford to pay for my college education.

This photo is from the parts department of Montgomery Ward in Rosemead, California. I worked here during the years I attended Cal-State Los Angeles my last 4 years of college. College was 5 years for me as I had an extra year to earn my teaching credential. My first year of college I worked as a Teacher’s Assistant in the Russian department at the University of Redlands. In my high school years I worked as an office assistant at Link-Belt in Montebello. See the huge Icthus I’m wearing? I was never shy about the fact that Jesus Christ was and is my Savior. This was also the early 70’s when the Jesus movement was going strong in Southern California.

Thanking God today for how he’s been with me all these years leading and guiding and protecting me. All the way my Savior leads me…

Five Smiles…

Here are Five things from this last week that made and make me smile. I’m sharing at Five on Friday with Amy and Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne.

On Saturday Dear and I worked for several hours in our yard with chores that needed to be done. Things like pressure washing, cleaning out gutters, weeding, and washing my car.

Smile #1 is our very clean deck after being pressure washed that is ready for the covers to go up on our patio structures soon.

Smile #2 Our pear tree in full blossom with a closeup of it’s blossoms.

Smile #3 Beautiful apple blossoms on our apple tree.

Apple Blossoms

Of all the months that fill the year,
Give April’s month to me,
For earth and sky are then so filled
With sweet variety.

The apple-blossoms’ shower of pearl
Though bent with rosier hue,
As beautiful as woman’s blush,
As evanescent too.

On every bough there is a bud,
In every bud a flower;
But scarcely bud or flower will last
Beyond the present hour.

Now comes a shower-cloud o’er the sky,
Then all again sunshine;
Then clouds again, but brightened with
The rainbow’s coloured line.

Ay, this, this is the month for me:
I could not love a scene
Where the blue sky was always blue,
The green earth always green.

(Letitia E. Landon, 1802-1838)

Smile #4 Lilac Bush getting ready to show all it’s glory.

Smile #5 Camellia’s blooming away with Azaleas getting ready.

I love Spring and I’m always renewed in my attitude and outlook during this beautiful season. More plants in the yard are waiting to show their color and I’ll share those after they are in full form.

I have to say that our hard work on Saturday gave Dear and me the groans and moans every time we had to get up or sit down or climb the stairs. Thankfully our muscles aren’t screaming at us anymore but we still know they weren’t happy with our efforts. Never the less I’ve finally been able to get back to walking most every day this week. It’s time for me to shed some of my fluff!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

The Peeps and Daffodils…

This Easter we were blessed to have a table of ten. Five couples including Dear and me. It was good to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ together at an Easter service and around our celebration table. On Saturday before Easter Sunday we had a baking and creating day that you can see here. And if you are interested in seeing the table we sat at you can see it here.

Jamie and Dan traveled over 5 hours to be with us for the weekend. They were married last summer. Dan is our second son.

Dan with his dad.

Steve and Lana with a stand up daffodil photo and a silly one, too. Lana is my youngest sister and the only sibling of mine that lives in Washington State.

Laura and Josh are the longest married of our children. Josh is our firstborn.

Dear and me.

Katie and Andrew were under the weather on Easter day and we didn’t find a time to get them to stand behind the daffodils so I pulled up this great photo of them as they were on their way out to celebrate their 5th wedding anniversary a couple weeks ago. Katie is our youngest.

And here’s my new Peter Rabbit (Beatrix Potter) bunting that Katie put together for me including making what the kit called radishes that look like carrots and flowers. Josh and Laura gifted me the bunting kit on my birthday.

I’m linking up with Amy for Five on Friday and with Susanne for Friday’s Fave Five even though I added #6!

I’m happy to report that I’m feeling well again with enough energy that I conquered the lawn today with the lawnmower. No fooling! But because I was spent after doing that the king of this old house had to take his gardener out to dinner! It got up to the 70’s today and it is going to be up to 70 degrees on Friday, too, woohoo!

Hope no one tries to fool you on April Fools Day.

Birthday Five!

Monday the 14th was my medicare and concessions birthday! When you reach my age you should celebrate for more than a day and as I write this post I’m on my 5th day of celebrating! Today I’m sharing 5 wonderful birthday encouragements I received.

(1) Dear and I were able to celebrate with the B.C. Mennonite Girls and their husbands on Sunday in Bellingham, Washington for brunch/lunch. The British Columbia girls came across the line. It was enough for me to celebrate over a meal but they showered me with gifts, too. These girls have been such a blessing in my life and I thank God regularly for each of them. I received many wonderful encouragements in the cards they gave me.

(2) On my actual birthday we met our kids on the western side of the Cascades for dinner. Our middle son and his bride live 5-1/2 hours away so they couldn’t join us. Dan called me before dinner to wish me a happy birthday. I love the cards I got from my kids with a good page full of words that always mean so much to me.

Josh and Laura gifted me Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life and a Peter Rabbit bunting kit. They know I love all things Beatrix Potter. Katie made that card and wrote a page full of thoughts that blessed me dearly.

This same six were together last year for my birthday. I forgot to take a photo this year.

(3) These two are my youngest brother’s kiddos and they are my youngest niece and nephew. They called and sang happy birthday to me. They live in Texas.

(4) My dear old pop called to wish me a happy birthday. He lives with my oldest sister in Southern California. We talked about the jigsaw puzzles I sent him and I thanked him for the cold hard cash he sent me. This black and white photo is taken in the 50’s during a camping trip probably at Big Bear in the San Bernardino mountains in Southern California. I’m the one with the buster brown hairdo and my oldest sister Kathy is standing. Jigsaw puzzles have become my pop’s favorite thing to do again at 92 soon to be 93 to pass the hours away. He reminded me again that he prays for me every day.

(5) I received many birthday wishes on Facebook and one of my dear old friends from junior high/high school messaged me and her sentiments made me cry. Another dear friend called on my birthday morning and expressed her wishes and love for me and I cried again. Good tears…

I’m writing this post from our hotel room in Vancouver B.C. where Dear and I continue to celebrate my birthday with an overnight trip. Vancouver is about a 2-1/2 to 3 hour trip from our home in Washington State. It’s always fun to cross the border into another country where English is spoken! Tomorrow we will take a ride on the hop on hop off trolley to take in much of what this grand city has to offer before we head home. I’ll come around to visit you all when we get home…

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

Susanne’s daughter is getting married next weekend so I’m wondering if she’ll even have time to post for Friday’s Fave Five…

Thank you ladies for hosting!

Five Sister Selfies!

For Amy’s Five on Friday and Susanne’s Friday’s Fave Five I’m sharing 5 sister selfies from our Sister’s Weekend and a bonus selfie with my daughter and daughter in love.

We tried to take one at each stop we made. This first one is in Mount Vernon at Roozengaarde.

This one was taken at Deception Pass and I’m glad none of us fell off the ledge.

This one was taken in Langley above Saratoga Pass on Whidbey Island. I finally took my sunglasses off for this one.

This one is taken in my family room while we were watching episodes of Rosemary and Thyme after our long day away from home.

On Tuesday our sisters Kathy and Lana were gone back to Southern California so Vera and I had a little outing of our own. This selfie was taken in Kirkland at the waterfront on Lake Washington.

This bonus selfie was taken by my daughter in love Laura with my daughter Katie and me at the Seattle Sounders Soccer opener game on Sunday afternoon. My sister Vera was suppose to go with us (she loves sports of all kinds) but she woke up with her back out and couldn’t move. We pumped her with pain relievers and she was better by dinner time and she watched the game on T.V. We started the game out in wonderful sunshine and then a Spring downpour rolled through the stadium that had everyone ducking for cover. Thankfully our season ticket seats are mostly undercover…

My sisters and me and my girls were so thankful to God for how He smiled on us and our adventures this past weekend. Thank you Lord for your love and care over us.

I’ll be coming around to see your five. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Last Five in Feb

Happy last Friday of February to all of you! I’m sharing 5 flashbacks today from February past. These are memories that I like to remember. I will start with February of 2012. My sister Vera is a Leap Year baby so she only gets an official birthday every 4 years. In 2012 her kids threw her a Sweet Sixteen Party since it was her 16th actual birthday. It was such a fun party!

Since this Monday is another actual birthday for her I wanted to share this flashback.

Everyone who came to the party was encouraged to write their response to the I Love Vera because prompt on a white board and take a photo at the photo booth.

In February of 2013 my cousin and his wife came for a visit and I set a table for a meal together.

We gathered around the table to enjoy our visitors from California. My cousin and I are Russian and our moms would make Goluptsi for us so I thought it would be a special treat for our evening. Goluptsi are stuffed cabbages. You can see the recipe here. We had a wonderful salad with lots of goodies chopped in it and dressed with our favorite Persian Dressing.

Since I’ve seen that many of you enjoy knitting and working with your hands I thought I’d share some yarn bombing with you. We saw these yarn bombed trees in the Pioneer square area of Seattle in February of 2014.

“It’s a statement by artist Suzanne Tidwell. She uses a knitting machine, which sounds like a saw and looks like a giant harmonica, to make evenly-stitched striped panels. It takes two or three of these large panels to wrap one tree trunk. She climbs a ladder or sometimes rents a lift to wrap the tree, then hand sews the final seam up the trunk.”

In February of 2015 I set a Valentine’s Day Table for a meal with the family.

And last but not least is February of 2016.

Our beautiful and fun views on the way home from an early Valentine’s Day lunch on Friday the 12th. The upper photo is Lake Washington from downtown Kirkland and the bottom is from Kirkland, too. They decorate this cow and dog sculpture according to the times and what is happening. In March they’ll be decorated for St. Patrick’s Day and then for Easter.

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

Hope your last weekend in February will be good. We’ve had some glorious sunny days and are now expecting some rain for the weekend. I’ve been able to walk without a rain jacket. Dear has a cold with a nagging cough that we suspect he got on his plane ride to or from Austin. I’m hoping he doesn’t share it with me!

Cotswold Five…

It’s time for Five on Friday hosted by Amy and Friday’s Fave Five hosted by Susanne. Today I’m continuing my reminiscing of our time in Great Britain with our daughter Katie in April of 2004. After our day in Oxford we took a day to drive through the Cotswolds.

This was a literary tour for our daughter to see her favorite authors haunts or inspirations for the books they wrote. We were hoping to see a Hobbit in the Cotswolds. Our first stop was for a snack of treacle close to the Cotswold way. I fantasized about walking the whole of this trail once…

The closest we came on this tour of seeing Hobbit land was just seeing the countryside and coming upon this little village of Buckland which I’m counting as stop number two. Buckland has a lot of history we weren’t aware of when we stumbled upon it. Isn’t that the way it goes when you blog? You come home and look up a stop you made to research for a blog post and find out everything you missed! I wasn’t blogging in 2004 so I’m letting myself off the hook for this trip!

Our third stop in the Cotswolds was Hailes Abbey. Built in the 13th century by the Duke of Cornwall, the beautiful ruins of Hailes Abbey are set amid delightful Cotswold countryside. There was a small church with this graveside next to the Abbey.

Stop number four was Hidcote Gardens. This was early in April and the blooms were still not at their prime except to our delight the daffodils!

All these photos were taken with film not digital. The manicured hedges are always a treat to see.

Lambs were in plenty.

One more stop halfway on the Cotswolds Way was St. Mary’s Church in Painswick. The church of St Mary (originally Norman) was extended around 1480 in the English perpendicular style. The churchyard with 99 yew trees (legend has it that the 100th won’t grow) also has unusual tabletop tombs.

This past week afforded me the time and effort to scan our film photos from our trip to Great Britain in 2004. It’s nice to look back and remember the good things that God has allowed in our lives. This trip was a good experience for Dear, Katie and me. I still have the Jane Austen portion of our trip to share and the Monty Python portion, too. I’ve already shared the C.S. Lewis and Tolkien portion in Oxford.

These five stops could be way out of order but I don’t think that matters now. Hidcote Manor Gardens and Hailes Abbey are part of the Heritage Pass that you can purchase for your touring pleasure…

Dear got home from Austin Thursday night so all is back to normal around this old house. I made it to the accountant in the big blue truck and he was helpful as usual. I have a few more things to dig up for him so we can get a few more deductions. I was able to get out and walk in between rain showers by myself while Dear was in Austin which was a great accomplishment for me.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

This is a long post already but today on Mennonite Girls Can Cook I’ve reposted my Chicken Quesadilla recipe with a new twist. Click over to check it out. Also on some of your blogs my comment link takes you to the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog instead of to my home blog (The Happy Wonderer). That happens when the pull down choices for comments don’t include the Name/URL option or the double choice blogger and open ID. On those that give you 5 choices with open ID it won’t let me switch from my blogger ID to my WordPress Blog. TMI? It’s just one of those weird things. Sheesh…I better just let you go now and enjoy your day!

Five in February…

Linking up with Amy for Five on Friday and with Susanne for Friday’s Fave Five!

1.This is the time of year that we I prune the apple tree. See all those branches growing straight up. They all need to be cut. It took me a few weeks to complete this task as I do a little on dryer days because it is hard on my neck and shoulders. I’m happy to say that I finished this week and I’m patting myself on the back. It was hard to get a good photo but in the photo on the right you can see that all the branches that were growing straight up are gone now. I’m thankful to have the strength to still do some yard work.

2. This week my Lenten Rose is making a great showing. I love this humble plant and the fact that it blooms during the season of Lent.

I’m thankful for my Lenten Rose and that it reminds me of my savior who humbled himself for all of us and died in our place.

3. The Primroses are blooming. So nice to see them appear and our littlest and youngest rhoddy looks like it will have more blooms this year than last. I’m always surprised and thankful when they pop up all on their own again and again.

4. and 5. On Wednesday I went to See’s, Macy’s, Costco and Hobby Lobby to do a little shopping for myself and others. At See’s I bought 3 small boxes of candy handpicked from lists of our families favorites. Our oldest son’s office is across the street from the mall so I delivered his and our dil’s box early. I went to Macy’s because I was ready to replace my purse. My everyday purse has to be light to start with, not beautiful heavy leather. I like pockets on the sides that my sun glass case and phone will fit in. Two main compartments to keep my wallet separated from other stuff. I had this exact purse in black and this time I went with this lighter color combination. By the time the sales person gave me some extra percentages off it ended up being half price. I also bought some items for Dear that he requested. At Costco I was happy to see they have my favorite jeans so I bought 2 pairs. They were $14.99 each! The sweater was $12.00. Then at Hobby Lobby I found three puzzles for my dear old pop. At almost 93 he enjoys his puzzles. They help his days fly by instead of drag on. I was on the hunt for bright and light pictures because the darker backgrounds are hard on his eyes. I’m thankful for such a productive outing and that I have the shekulkie (money) in my pocket to make these purchases.

Dear and I are having an early Valentine meal together on Friday. Rain is forecast for many days in a row now so we aren’t going far from home but far enough to get to a good steak house for our midday meal. Hope you all had a good week. On this Valentine weekend may you feel the unconditional love of God and pass it along to those around you…

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Friday’s Fave Five