What’s Up?

In the Azalea world these Rosebud Azaleas are my very favorite. We have two mature bushes and two newer struggling bushes. The Azaleas are waning and other things are thriving. Spring is such a beautiful season in the Pacific Northwest.

Our patio covers are up, too.

We’ll bring out the patio furniture when Dear gets home from Chicago just in time for the next batch of rain showers, wink wink.

I’m in want of another dose of this little cutie pie.

While Dear has been in Chicago I’ve been able to sort through a few more boxes of papers we do not need to store. Lots of shredding, recycling and dumping going on. Amongst the sorting I found some jewels and some journal entries that were wise for me to dump, worthy of the dump. The middle to late 90’s were some years of suffering that brought out the worst and the best. There was darkness around us but I’m happy to say God’s light overcame the darkness of these years and He brought us through.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations: 3:22-23

I hope you are depending on the light of the world.

Five on Friday and…

…Friday’s Fave Five.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

Rosebud Azaleas

I wanted to show you my sweet Rosebud Azaleas and give you an update about what’s going on around this old house. If you are here for the giveaway you will need to scroll down a few posts.

This variety of Azalea is my very favorite.

I finally cleaned out this area of the front planter that rounds the corner of the house and planted a hydrangea in the space. Time will tell if the blooms will stay purple.

My cement block plantings are mostly doing real well. The wild rabbits that roam around here have eaten all the pansy blooms, though.

Things are going well with my extraction recovery. I never really experienced any pain to speak of which is nice. I’ll be getting the stitches out on Wednesday if they haven’t dissolved on their own. I’m still on a relatively soft diet so I don’t hurt the area that is healing. Although I still have a few days of antibiotics left I am off the Ibuprofen. Thank you for your kind thoughts. My de-fluffing progress was hindered by being on medication and being off my regular meal regiment but I’m happy to report things are still going well.

Happy Victoria Day weekend to our friends in Canada!

Catching Up…

After being gone so long from my home I’ve been spending lots of time catching up and getting things around this old house back to normal.

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We don’t have a gardening service so the first thing I addressed was our lawn and some beds and shrubs. I spent four and a half hours last Thursday and my body is still recovering from being taxed like that.

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I came home to blooms that were spent and blooms that were thriving. These are the sweet rosebud azaleas I bought with a gift card from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook to purchase something to plant in memory of my mom who passed away last September 13th.

This next collage is of my older azalea plants.

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overgrown yard 009Most of my rhoddys are on their way out but I’ve been able to enjoy a few blooms.

2014-05-22 May Yard GregWhile I was gone my pink dogwood bloomed and Dear took some photos for me. This is the fullest it’s bloomed since we planted it a couple years ago. The green leafed shot is the stage it is at now.

2014-05-22 overgrown yard2I’m so excited that my young peony bush has over 6 buds this year. Last year we only had one.

overgrown yard 035After I mowed and watered I took this before photo of our patio. Yesterday Dear put the covers on. I’ll take more photos of the after shots when a couple more projects get done like pressure washing.

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When we went to barbecue steaks yesterday our barbecue would not cooperate so Dear has some extensive cleaning and de-clogging of the poor old thing before it lights up. Plan B went into effect and we broiled the steaks inside and microwaved the corn. It all tasted good and sharing the meal with our kids was wonderful.

It’s so so good to be home again. It’s so nice that Dear gets a long weekend at home before he has to travel again next Friday to Chicago.  I can’t stop thanking God for the fact that our son-in-law is home from Afghanistan. We continue throughout this Memorial weekend and beyond to be thankful for those who have served and are serving our country.

What have you been up to this weekend?