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!

More August Fun on Friday

Friday morning the 16th of August we had Greg’s famous Swedish Pancakes for breakfast at Our Country Bungalow.

Our daughters in law were twinsies without planning it.

The three of us took off to do a little shopping while the guys stayed at our country bungalow. We couldn’t resist trying on these beauties off the sale rack. They did not come home with us but gave us a chuckle.

While we were gone the guys and Addy did some clearing of fallen branches on our property for which I was very thankful.

They finished that task and decided it was time to scale the mountain behind our home. We own part of Rattlesnake mountain and it was fun to hear about this trek up the mountain using game trails to traverse the steepness. Here is the team of four who took the climb!

Here are the views looking back down on our home.

It was fun to see these views without having to make the climb!

Friday night we enjoyed hamburgers at the Colville kids’ home.

Earlier a couple chickens got loose and they were tracked down and put back where they belong.

A little basketball and more shenanigans before dinner.

I could have gotten my days mixed up with all these photos.

After dinner and on our way back to our home we couldn’t resist snapping these photos from their driveway.

We all wonder when that great old barn is going to collapse.

Good night, Colville.

Saturday was another good day in Colville filled with fun in the sun. That will be another post or two.

Happy last full weekend of August!

Weekend Wrap-Up

On Friday afternoon there was an advertised Birthday Party for Smokey The Bear at the Colville Museum but Smokey never showed. It was still a fun experience to walk around the museum and the museum grounds.

On Saturday we took a early morning trip to Spokane to make purchases to re-stock the kitchen cupboards at church since our VBS week depleted all the stock. The sunflower fields were not in their glory but it was fun to whiz by the fields of yellow and green.

Sunday morning was a wonderful church service with our VBS kids starting us off with one of their VBS Songs, God made the Manatee. From beginning to end it was good to worship God together.

On Sunday evening we celebrated our Grands’ Granny’s birthday at our Colville kids and this was the sunset we enjoyed driving down their driveway for home.

It was a good full weekend. Looking forward to Mid-week when Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo are planning a drive over the mountains for a short visit to enjoy some summer activities with us.

Have a good week everyone.

Early Morning Walks

On Monday of this week we started early morning walks along the Rotary Trail in Colville. The trail circles the Golf Course. These are some photos I took with my phone on two different mornings.

Smoke from fires have made sunrise and sunset interesting.

A hawk

There is usually only one eagle perched on these polls but on this day I had a twofer.

Now for a smoky sunset…

This was on Tuesday on our way home from a class we are taking at our church on Biblical Counseling. Our windshield needed a good cleaning!

Some Olympic competitions have been televised already. I’ve watched a couple Olympic soccer games and we’ll see if we sit down to watch the opening ceremonies on Saturday.

We have cooled down as of yesterday and it was a nice relief.

Happy Friday everyone. Hope you have a nice last weekend in July! Here we are this Friday morning on the trail. My, what long legs we have.

Sunset

On Sunday night of our birthday weekend together our family walked down our kids driveway to catch the sunset after dinner.

Psalm 19:1-6

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.

In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

A wonderful finale for us as we began our farewells to our ‘Coast’ kids.

Anger…

Monday the 17th of August and we are in a blistering hot weather pattern. Today’s word is Anger.

Ephesians 4:26-27: (ESV)

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

From Maristella:

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”
James 1:19 | NIV.

From Happy One:

Ecclesiastes 7:9

Be not hasty in thy spirit to be ANGRY:
for ANGER resteth in the bosom of fools.

From Rosella who is remembering her father who would have been 104 today:

Proverbs 15:1
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

Hello Monday. If you have a verse to share add it to the comments and I’ll post it here. Thank you!

Catching Light

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge. Psalm 19:1-2

Linking to NF BildVerkstad for Catching Light.

Have a great week everyone!

Hither and Yon…

hither and yon, from here to over there, especially to a farther place; in or to a great many places:

That pretty much sums up the state of affairs with our family right now.

Our oldest, Josh, and our DIL Laura are in Cabo right now with my nephew David and his wife Kristin.

Our middle son, Dan, is working 2500 miles away from his home and his girlfriend is counting the days until he’s back where he belongs.

Our youngest, Katie, and our Son in law, Andrew have started their journey this morning from Jacksonville, North Carolina, to the state of Washington. Andrew has started his terminal leave from the Marine Corps after serving over 4 years with 2 deployments to Afghanistan. They will settle close to us so Andrew can finish his schooling.

I still feel like a fish out of water while the bathroom construction continues into the third week. Thankfully the end is near.

My brother and his wife are making their second trip today to the Ukraine to finish the legal work to bring their new young son home to his forever family.

We had some interesting sky views this past weekend. The Blue Angels were in Seattle for our SeaFair and to put on a air show during the hydroplane races. Along with the Blue Angels we had Fleet Week and the Marines put on some great demonstrations. I was able to capture some of the Osprey as they flew over our house on the way to the air show. Besides the great loud noise from the Blue Angels and the Osprey we had thunder and lightning from these amazing skies.

Couldn’t help but quote part of Psalm 19:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.

So this is some of what is happening in my world. What’s happening in yours?

Sunset Terrace at the Grove

We were so happy we listened to several recommendations we got to make sure we made it to the historic Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. Mary from A Breath of Fresh Air first suggested that Katie and I shouldn’t miss this historic Inn. Two co-workers of Dear’s also said it was a “not to be missed” destination.

We arrived to Asheville on the 6th day of our Road trip across the U.S.A. We had preplanned a two day stop in this beautiful mountain city.

We made reservations on the Sunset Terrace for the evening that we arrived to Asheville. Can you see Katie on the right looking down at me?

The Terrace has wonderful views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

We had a nice visit with this local couple and I did mention they might end up in some of my photos.

Because of traveling all day and making our reservations later than we normally eat we ordered on the “light” side. No big steaks this night. Katie ordered Caesar salad, crab cake, and macaroni and cheese. I ordered a fresh beet salad and the onion soup.

For dessert we shared the Sticky Toffee Pudding.

After our dinner and before we left we walked around the lodge and it was fun to see that they were featuring wines from our neck of the woods!

We really enjoyed our time at the Historic Omni Grove in Asheland, North Carolina. As Mary told us even if you don’t have dinner on the terrace make sure you visit and enjoy a drink there. We thought sunset was the perfect time to be there, too. Thanks for the recommendation. This stop was one of the highlights of our SeaJack Road Trip!

Today in Jacksonville Katie has scheduled massages for us. We have come up with a few more necessary items to purchase for the apartment, too, so a little shopping is on the agenda.

What does Monday hold for you?

April Note Cards

It’s time for Vee’s Note Card party.

Thank you Vee for hosting this monthly party!

Sunset over Lake Washington in Kirkland, Washington.

Rows of spent daffodils in Mount Vernon, Washington during the Tulip Festival.

Apple blossoms on our apple tree taken this past Saturday.

Russian sweet cheese spread served with Russian Easter Bread (Kulich/Paska).

Христос Воскрес!

Воистину воскрес!

Here we are in the middle of April and we’ll finally be celebrating Easter this coming weekend. I’m looking forward to our Good Friday service and Easter service. After services on Sunday some of our family will be coming over to celebrate an Easter meal here. We are having rack of lamb, rice, asparagus, salad and Italian Easter bread (Colomba) with strawberries for dessert. Our annual Kulich/Paska baking day is not happening this year so I was happy to find a source for the Colomba. It tastes and smells very similar to Kulich/Paska.

How are you celebrating Easter this year?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Sunset