Valentine’s Weekend

Not only is Valentine’s Day on Sunday this year but today (Friday) is Chinese New Year (Year of the Ox) and on Monday we are celebrating Presidents Day. When I was in elementary school and beyond we celebrated Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday on February 12th and George Washington’s Birthday on February 22nd. We had both days off from school.

Sending love here there and everywhere.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Presidents Day which now covers Washington and Lincoln and others. The above collage is of the statue of George Washington in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.

We have a devotional from Lincoln that I found on our bookshelves today. Here is an excerpt from it;

The True Believer;

The Believer the Object of Divine Love

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 1 John iv. 9.

Pause, my soul, adore and wonder,
Ask, Oh, why such love to me?
Grace hath put me in the number
Of the Saviour’s family:
Hallelujah!
Thanks, eternal thanks to thee.

Today our morning started at 6 degrees f. Right now it has only gone up 1 degree. It is cold. Freeze your face cold. We are doing some indoor things. My sister and her hubby are due to travel over the mountain pass and arrive at our place sometime before five. We have dinner reservations at 5 so we’re hoping they have an uncomplicated drive.

In other news, our ~~King~~ Governor of Washington State has granted Eastern Washington a move to Stage 2 for reopening businesses. Our small businesses especially restaurants are breathing a sigh of relief.

Have a great Friday and weekend everyone!

Beloved, Let us Love ~ Hymn

Beloved, Let Us Love

Belovèd, let us love: love is of God;
In God alone hath love its true abode.

Belovèd, let us love: for they who love,
They only, are His sons, born from above.

Belovèd, let us love: for love is rest,
And he who loveth not abides unblest.

Belovèd, let us love: for love is light,
And he who loveth not dwelleth in night.

Belovèd, let us love: for only thus
Shall we behold that God Who loveth us.

Words: Horatius Bonar, in Supplement of the Baptist Psalms and Hymns, 1880.

After the Storm…

Friday morning we had quite a deluge of rain in our area. Dear and I had reservations for an early Valentine’s lunch in Bellevue at Daniel’s Broiler. We decided because of the weather not to go to downtown Seattle to our favorite Steak house. When it was time to leave for our lunch the rain had stopped and the skies had puffy clouds with lovely blue. The views out the 21st floor were spectacular. You can see downtown Seattle across Lake Washington.

We decided on Filet Mignon sandwiches and a Coconut Fudge Sundae. Both recommended by our waitress. We chatted with her about Valentine’s day and she said that the restaurant opens at 4:00 and they already had 600 reservations for dinner on Sunday! Yikes. We were happy for the quiet relaxed atmosphere around our lunch celebration. On our way home from the restaurant we drove through Kirkland with more beautiful views of the lake that was glistening and then we got to see how the iconic cow and dog sculpture were decorated for Valentine’s day!

Hope you have a relaxing Saturday y’all!

A Day Off…

Thankfully today is President’s Day and Dear has the day off. We’ve been working and celebrating all weekend and our yard project continues today. I’ll be strapping on my back brace and helping Dear after my coffee. I’ll show you a little of what’s gone on this weekend already and I’ll show the complete before and afters of our yard project soon.

On Saturday, Valentines Day, we headed to the Home Depot and bought what we’d need for the beginning of our yard project. We finished the first half of what we planned and will continue with the second half today.

On Sunday we took the day off from our project and after church we had a nice brunch/lunch with Josh and Laura catching up on a lot of what’s been going on in our lives the last few weeks. It was a good time filled with fun, laughter and some hard things, too. That’s life, isn’t it? After the kids left we changed up a bit and headed to downtown Seattle for our belated Valentine dinner at Morton’s Steak House.

The food was delicious and that Grand Marnier Souffle for two was a very nice way to end our meal!

I’ll end with a little tribute to one of the presidents we celebrate on this day, Abraham Lincoln. The quote is from Lincoln’s Devotional.

Communion with God

a Source of Joy

There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou has put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. Psalm iv. 6, 7.

Lord, what is life? if spent with thee,
In humble praise and prayer,
How long or short my life may be
I feel no anxious care:
though life depart, my joys shall last,
When life and all its joys are past.

Hope your cares are few and your joy is full. Do you have today off? What does your day hold?

Happy Valentines Day!

I managed to put up a few Valentine Day decorations. I’m enjoying these fun little Valentine clothes pins. Josh and Laura bought us the sign for our 40th wedding anniversary.

I bought this plate at the thrift store and enjoyed the sentiment on it. The following Antique post cards are all from Dear’s great great Aunt’s stash.

We are going to work in the yard together this Valentines Day. The weather is cooperating and we need to go when the going is good. On Sunday early evening we’ll enjoy a meal out at a downtown Seattle Steakhouse. What are your plans with your Valentine?

Valentine Favorites

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! It’s time for Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story. Here are my favorites from this past week.

1. A surprise snowfall last Sunday. Glad it all washed away on Monday. Sorry for those of you that really wish snow was in your past right now.

2. A safe trip back and forth to Canada on Tuesday to enjoy a nice lunch with some of the Mennonite Girls and a tour of Matthew’s House in Abbotsford.

3. Meeting some dear friends for dinner on Thursday at our local haunt. So good to see them and talk to them. I didn’t take a photo boohoo.

4. A beautiful bunch of tulips from Costco that we’ve enjoyed all week. They are similar to these that were growing in Mount Vernon last April.

5. A no pressure Valentine’s Day plan. I bought steaks for Dear to barbecue and we’ll bake some potatoes and have salad. No fighting the crowds.

This is the start of a long weekend here in the states and for some of you in Canada. We celebrate President’s Day on Monday. Hope you all have a great one!

Wrapped in Love…

It’s that time of year when the signs are all around us. This week for Susanne’s Friday’s Fave Five I’m concentrating on love. Some deep thoughts and some not so deep.

1. I love Jesus who gives me hope for today and my future.

2. I love fresh flowers and how they brighten up a room.

3. I love my family and friends.

4. My palate loves chocolate, especially mixed with nuts!

5. I love to watch for birds flying to the feeder. This is especially enjoyable in the sunshine!

And for the record I don’t think that “love is all you need”.

Hope you have opportunities to show love to those around you this week.

FFF ~ Mucho Gusto!

A week filled with much pleasure.

It’s time to link up with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and share your favorites from this past week!

Just so y’all know there were things that happened this week that did not bring pleasure at all but the good far outweighed the bad.

1. I walked twice last week. On Friday with two gals from my Bible Study group and on Saturday with my great walking buddy Jan and my sister Lana. When I got home from my Saturday walk Dear was ready with his level and hammer to put the artwork on the wall of our new guestroom (formerly Katie’s room) We accomplished a lot of little things that made a big difference.

2. While we were working I emptied out some things in the freezer and added them to chicken broth to make a “what’s in your freezer soup”. It was tasty and used up things that needed to be used before they got freezer burn. It was a great no fuss meal for the two of us while we were working on the house projects.

3. After church on Sunday (which was fabulous) we met Josh and Laura at a new BBQ restaurant. The food was really good and we really enjoyed the owners of the restaurant. We took our time eating and getting caught up with Josh and Laura. You don’t have to take our word for it…anyone that knows Josh and Laura would tell you that they are a gift from God to their friends and family.

4. After Valentine’s Day sales of candy and other goodies! How great is it that I could buy a dozen roses for $5.00 instead of $24.99. I bought those sweet little cupcakes for $1.49 and they were fresh and yummy. We served them to our small group that meets at our house on Thursday nights.

5. Small Group: A group of people who get together regularly to encourage each other and grow and learn with each other. Our small group is composed of 10 very different individuals. A group of people we would never have hand picked to be in a group with but a group that surprises us in how much we have come together in a short amount of time. It really can only be explained by the fact that God brought us together and we see how God is working in each life and how he has drawn us together with care and love for each other. God is good.

Just had to share the yucky thing that happened this past week, too. On Monday night I was running around all afternoon so I decided to bring Chinese take out home for dinner. Unfortunately I got food poisoning and had a really rough time for part of the night. What a relief when the pain stopped and I could go to sleep again. I was thankful it wasn’t the stomach flu and when the poisoned food left me so did all the symptoms.

Hope you all had a good week.

23 Days till the Wedding!!

FFF ~ Food, Friends, Fun

Friday is here and it’s time to join Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to share our favorites from this past week.

Uno ~ Oh my what is it about clean windows that make me happy. Makes me want to stop and sing “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone…” Dear washed the windows in our new spare room (formerly Katie’s room). I want to sing every time I walk in there. Since it is the new office, too, and I was going to see the Tax man this week, I had a lot of time in there enjoying the clear views.

Dos ~ A good long walk with one of my walking buddies. We had a stretch of beautiful dry days up here in the Pacific Northwest and that made the walk even more pleasant.

Tres ~ Experimenting with foccacia bread to make a pizza sandwich. It was interesting flipping it to get both sides of the bread nicely baked. Even though the experiment isn’t something I’d be too keen on trying again it was real tasty and satisfying as a meal! The thing we didn’t like was how hard it was to eat without all the innerds squirting out.

Cuatro ~ On Sunday and the reason for all my Spanish numbering this week we were invited to a party by our favorite waitress at the Mexican restaurant we frequent. We were honored that she’d even think to invite us and more honored when we got to the party and we were the only fluent English speaking people there except for her 20 year old son. Everyone made sure we were comfortable and had enough to eat and drink. Her son kept us in the loop explaining who everyone was. Her parents are visiting from Mexico for 2 months and one of her nieces was being baptized that day so this was a party in honor of that occasion. A Mariachi band came later and that’s when all the dancing and singing started. Such suave dancing with twirls and steps and turns with smooth transitions. It was kind of like watching dancing with the stars.

Cinco ~ Decorating a little for Valentine’s Day and Chocolate Fondue! If you’d like to see the recipe hop over to Mennontie Girls Can Cook! It’s a good treat to serve for Valentine’s Day!

Our weekend looks pretty free and laid back. Hope your weekend is relaxing and rejuvenating!

L is for Love!

It’s time for Teacher Jenny’s Alphabe-Thursday. I’ve been delinquent the last couple of weeks and was really trying hard to come up with something for the letter L and there it was staring me in the face. L-O-V-E….Love. Love is in the kitchen and I can see it from different angles…

Matthew 22:37-39

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Ephesians 2:4-7 ~But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

1 Peter 4:8 ~ Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

1 John 4:8 ~ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Jude 1:2 ~ Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

Valentine’s Day in Elementary School is a fun memory for me. I so looked forward to exchanging Valentine’s Day cards at school and getting special treats on this day. These days I don’t put pressure on Dear to make Valentine’s day special. I want to find joy in our everyday…

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

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