Tag Archives: Friends

Happy Birthday Lovella!

 

Lovella from What Matters Most is turning a fabulous age today and I wanted to give her a special Happy Birthday Greeting here on my blog. Lovella lives on a farm in Canada and is a wonderful cook and was instrumental in starting the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog. If you’ve never visited her blog or the MGCC blog you should have a look…

Lovella! Enjoy your year long celebration!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

A Prayer For Every Day

 

A Prayer For Every Day

Make me too brave to lie or be unkind.
Make me too understanding, too, to mind
The little hurts companions give, and friends,
The careless hurts that no one quite intends.
Make me too thoughtful to hurt others so.
Help me to know
The inmost hearts of those for whom I care,
Their secret wishes, all the loads they bear,
That I may add my courage to their own.
May I make lonely folks feel less alone,
And happy ones a little happier yet.
May I forget
What ought to be forgotten; and recall
Unfailing, all
That ought to be recalled, each kindly thing,
Forgetting what might sting.
To all upon my way,
Day after day,
Let me be joy, be hope! Let my life sing!

~Mary Carolyn Davies

From Flowers to Reality T.V. Friday’s Fave Five…

Whoa…where has the week gone? It’s time to look back and pick some favorites. There is so much to choose from. Susanne has room for you to join in if you’d like to post your Five Favorites from the past week. Click over to Living to Tell the Story to join on in or see some Favorites.

One of my favorites are these new bookcases that Dear put together and I filled in our Living Area. We are really enjoying the new look this achieved and I’m enjoying seeing some of my pretties out from their hiding places.

 

My next favorite is being surrounded by live flowers this week. We bought a few Gerber Daisies at the Farmer’s Market and then on Valentine’s Day our kids sent us the beautiful bouquet of Lilies. (Of course that bouquet is my very favorite because they came unexpectedly from our kids) Then I got 2 dozen free roses from the little Thrift store I frequent. I think that God is so good to us to have created flowers of so many colors and varieties for us to enjoy. Don’t flowers just make you smile??

Call my next favorite a confession of my not so secret obsession. I love Reality TV. Not all Reality mind you just Biggest Loser, American Idol, Top Chef, Amazing Race, Project Runway, and Survivor. Can you still be my friend after I’ve made this confession? Good thing we have DVR so I don’t have to be home every night to watch these shows! For those of you who watch Top Chef, Fabio’s restaurant in Moorpark is not that far from us so Dear and I plan to go soon…

 

Onward and Upward…my next favorite was weather in Southern California this past week. Look at the contrast over a 24 hour period in Southern California. Tuesday Evening we had those great clouds that had brought rain earlier in the day and then the next afternoon not a cloud in the sky. It’s been cooler, too, which is a nice change for us in Southern Cal.

Last for this week are Willow and my walks and the fact that Dear and I continue to work out on the Bowflex and try to get our walking in too. We are starting to see and feel some results which are motivating us to continue. Us older folk need to keep our muscle tone up… Willow and I took photos of each other this week on a fun little path behind her neighborhood. We promised each other not to take photos of our behinds going up the path and steps. Little favors go a long way with body self esteem :0)

Maybe next week I’ll be brave enough for Dear to take a photo of me grimmacing on the Bowflex!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Friendship Tea

It’s time for another fun day of viewing tablescapes in Bloggy World. Susan at Between Naps on the Porch is our hostess for this event so click on over to her blog to see all the links to different tables set for us to enjoy.

Welcome to my Friendship Tea. I’m a table leader for our Women’s Bible Study at my church and I invited the ladies over for tea. It was fun putting together a tea table. Our Bible Study Women’s Leader is part of my table and it happened to be her birthday on the day of the tea so we had an extra celebration.

 

The Places were set and designated with these fun vase place card holders.

 

We had 3 different types of tea,  an Earl Grey, Peach Herbal, and a Russian Black Tea.

 

Cucumber- Basil sandwiches, Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Scones, Dream Cookies, Heart shaped Red Velvet mini cakes, Mock Clotted Cream and Lemon Curd and Strawberries.

 

Thank you for visiting my Friendship Tea.

Before you go I just wanted to show you my actual Valentine Tablescape that Dear and I ate at on Valentines Day…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

 

 

Friday’s Fave Five~

Oh my life has been busy since last Friday! It’s time to stop and think about our favorites from this last week and also to be thankful for all the good things God causes in our lives. So visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in or to see some favorites from around the world. Just want to give a shout out to our friends in Paraguay and Belgium that join in…

 

On Saturday we traveled across town to a friends Aunt’s funeral. You might wonder why a funeral makes my top 5 but funerals have been a natural part of my life from childhood. It was a good time of supporting the family and seeing friends and family that we haven’t seen for years. Reconnecting, encouraging and enjoying the company of loved ones from our past and present. It was especially good to see my parents, that cute couple in the collage.

On Wednesday I hosted a Tea for my Bible Study Group. It was another great time of fellowship with ladies that have had such a different life experience from me and each other. God has brought us together for a time and it’s always interesting to see how we connect and grow together.

Wednesday night Dear and I went to Ventura for a soccer game. We stopped at a restaurant for dinner first that we hadn’t been to since 1988. It was a fun evening. I’m a huge soccer fan and we got to see the Seattle Sounders our new MLS soccer team play a pre-season scrimmage game against a local Ventura team. We found one other fan from Seattle in the stands and I wore my Sounders Jersey that my son and DIL  gave me for Christmas. Fun times and we won 6-1!

I really enjoy walking every week. Willow and I spotted our little Dove again yesterday. We couldn’t walk Monday and Tuesday because “Life” got in the way but it’s always great to resume and continue this discipline…

 

Now for #5. Yesterday I posted some ingredients that I was putting together for an experimental meal. I said I would reveal the mystery ingredient and let everyone know if it was edible. Well here’s the reveal. The not so surprising ingredients were whole grain pasta, pasta sauce, and basil. The surprising mystery ingredient was my leftover chicken salad mix from my tea on Wednesday.

 

Strange but true it was very good! Dear went back for seconds. It gave a creamy and crunchy texture to the pasta that was surprisingly good. So my 5th favorite thing from this week is experimenting in the kitchen and having good results! :0)

To see more favorites visit Susanne from Living to Tell the Story.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Almighty Father of Mankind ~ Hymn

 

Almighty Father Of Mankind

Almighty Father of mankind,
On Thee our hopes remain;
And when the day of trouble comes
I shall not trust in vain.

In early years Thou wast my Guide,
And of my youth the Friend;
And as my days began with Thee,
With Thee my days shall end.

I know the Power in Whom I trust,
The arm on which I lean;
He will my Savior ever be
Who has my Savior been.

My God, who causedst me to hope
When life began to beat,
And, when a stranger in the world,
Didst guide my wandering feet.

Thou wilt not cast me off when age
And evil days descend;
Thou wilt not leave me in despair
To mourn my latter end.

Therefore in life I’ll trust in Thee,
In death I will adore;
And after death will sing Thy praise
When time shall be no more.

Words: Michael Bruce (1746-1767).

Music: St. Peter (Reinagle), Al­ex­an­der R. Rein­ag­le, 1836

I attended a funeral on Saturday and will be attending a funeral on Monday and I thought this hymn was a great hymn in light of  the death of these dear saints of God…

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head…

 

See the wetness out this window? We have had rain in Southern California for the last couple of days and we are promised some more rain tomorrow. I find it very refreshing being a transplant from the Seattle area. I was happy to have to pull out my great Marmot raincoat!

Tomorrow we are travelling across town to Whittier for a funeral. The Aunt of my best friend from my Russian Baptist Days in L.A. died last Saturday. My friend and her cousins (whose mom died) were connected in many different ways to my family and extended family. Our Russian community is all inter-connected in hard to explain ways. So it will be a day of tears for the grief her children are feeling from saying goodbye and a day of rejoicing in knowing she is with her Savior in heaven. A day of remembering our friendships and re-connecting and seeing the kids “all grown up”. A day of looking at someone and thinking “oh my I know who you are but I can’t remember your name right now”. Does that ever happen to you?  We will sing in Russian and sing in English. We will hear messages in Russian and a message in English. We will pray in Russian and pray in English. We will gather at the church, then head to the graveside, then we will all meet together for lunch.

“Therefore in life I’ll trust in Thee,
In death I will adore;
And after death will sing Thy praise
When time shall be no more.”

Hope you all have a day filled with an awareness of the God who made this world for us to enjoy and numbers our days…

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

My Last Pink Saturday…

I am so sad to say that this will have to be my last Pink Saturday. Saturday is a very hard day for me to find time to blog. Dear and I leave the house before dawn to have our weekly walk at the beach and we never know what adventure we’ll decide on after our walk. I always feel so guilty about not getting around to all the lovely pink that day and it just makes better sense for me to forfeit this pleasure. I want to thank Beverly, who I think is a fantastic hostess, for putting this together and for being so gracious. I’ll miss my Pink friends but I’ll probably see some of you at other memes Monday thru Friday. Blessings on all of you.

So here is my Pink for my farewell to Pink Saturday Post!

I’m so excited! I think I can now be inducted into the bloggy hall of fame because I have a glass dome that I put stuff under!! I’m going to go ahead and call it a Cloche. We  just purchased it at an antique shop in Arroyo Grande on January 18th. I’ve been on the hunt for a cloche and I still might end up buying a taller, narrower one…once I hear from the “Official Bloggy We’ll Induct You Into Our Hall of Fame Committee”. The glass cake plate it’s sitting on was from Target originally but I bought it at Goodwill.

 

Now look at all this sweet pinkness that my bloggy friend Cori G! gifted to me when we met face to face this last Tuesday. I was blown away by all these goodies. She made all those cards, bookmarks and tags herself. She’s a great designer! The four pretty Homer Laughlin plates are from a set of 8 she has. How generous of her to split the set for me. She participates in Pink Saturday from her Gingerbread Crumbs & Co.Blog.

This last one is for Beverly. I wish I could deliver a bouquet of these sweet pink flowers to your door for being such a kind hostess.

To see more Pink visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Blue Monday

Welcome to Blue Monday hosted by Smiling Sally! I’m digging into my archives for my Blue this week.

 

These photos were all taken in Great Britain in May of 2006. We travelled with two other couples who are very good friends and we hiked, and walked, and ate our way from Wales, to the Lake District, to Scotland and the Hebrides, and finally to York. What wonderful scenery we experienced on our treks. I’m so glad we wore a lot of blue!

Top left: Bob, Jan and me climbing a stile on our hike up Mt. Snowden. Bottom Left: Bob, Jan, Jody, me, and Dear at the halfway point up Mt. Snowden. Top Right: the beautiful sea between the Isle of Mull and Iona. Middle Right: Shale cottage along the River Derwent. Bottom Right: A stone bridge across the River Derwent.

For more Blue visit Smiling Sally.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

Fave Five on Friday!

 

1. Well it will be no surprise that at the top of my favorites for this past week is spending extra time with all my children. (And it hasn’t been a soap opera). On Saturday we did our belated family Christmas with stockings and Dear’s Swedish pancakes for breakfast. Later on that same day we had a birthday dinner for our daughter Katie. Since we will be in California for both Josh and Dan’s January birthdays we are celebrating tonight with a dinner for them.

2. It’s always great to see all the guys working together. Here they are shoveling snow off the drive to our house and two of our neighbor’s houses. We are really pleased the snow has almost disappeared.

3. I’ve been talking about wanting some more substantial nativities and Dear bought me both these sets for Christmas. They are both very different and I like them very much.

 

4. We revived a favorite dessert from days gone by this week that has always been enjoyed. You cook up vanilla pudding and while it is still hot you pour it over a generous scoop of good chocolate ice cream. Yum you get some great hot and cold and added creamy goodness in every bite!  Having Dear’s wonderful Tomato Rice Peasant Soup was so good, too!

 

5. On New Year’s Day we met our dear friends Dave, Jody, Bob and Jan at McCormick and Shmicks Restaurant in Downtown Seattle for Happy Hour. It was wonderful sitting and talking for a couple hours over great Happy Hour Menu food. We had Salmon burgers, Black Bean Chicken Quesadillas and Oysters for $1.95 each! We also tried the Cod sandwich which was $3.95 and delicious! Sheesh, can’t beat that with a stick! We love these friends who we’ve gone through thick and thin with…

 

To see more Fave Fives or to join on in visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.