Tag Archives: Wednesday Hodgepodge

In the Pink Hodgepodge

It’s time for Wednesday Hodgepodge where Jo From This Side of the Pond asks the questions and we rack our brains for the answers! Thank you, Jo!

1. Something little you are loving right now? 

I was tempted to say our little grandchildren but I’ll love them forever not just now. The little thing I’m going with is a jigsaw puzzle. It’s been fun to conquer those little pieces putting them all together to form the whole of the picture. Here is our 11th C****19 puzzle. The 1000 pieces were extra large so the completed puzzle was very large.

2. Red roses or pink peonies?

Pink Peonies.

Red wine or pink lemonade?

Red Wine

Red lipstick or pink polish?

Pink Polish

A cotton candy colored sky or a fiery red sunset?

Fiery Red Sunset

A book-movie-song you love with the word red or pink in it’s title? 

Love is a strong word for these choices I made.

Book: Redwall       Movie: The Hunt for Red October      Song:  When the Red Red Robin

3. What’s something you currently have your heart set on doing-going-seeing-or experiencing?

It would be amazing to walk along the sand at a beach before summertime. We enjoy the ocean beaches in winter. 

4. Who would you most like to have a heart to heart with right now? Is that possible? 

An in person heart to heart with our estranged brother. All things are possible but it would be difficult for sure. For me this would only work face to face, not on the phone or in an email or text. 

5. Write an acrostic for the word L-O-V-E. 

Love–One–Valentine–Exclusively 

Here’s my exclusive Valentine

Now and then…

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Speaking of Love…

The Snowball Effect Hodgepodge

A new month of Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thank you to Jo From This Side of the Pond for coming up with the questions for us to answer.
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1. Feb 2nd is Groundhog Day in the US of A. Tell us about one day you wouldn’t mind living over again, and why you chose that day. 
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 I’ll pick July 9th, 2014.  This was a day Dear and I spent in Oxford, England. I chose this day because it’s impossible for us to visit Oxford at this time in virus history and it is something we dream to be able to do again. Here’s a link to part of our day in Oxford in 2014.
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 2. Something you know beyond a ‘shadow of a doubt’?
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God created me a woman and he created my husband (Dear) a man. Those are the only two genders that God has created. 
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3. Give us an example of history repeating itself in some way, in your own life or the lives of your children.
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It’s fun to see our little grandson doing some of the things our son did when he was little. 
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4. Snowed under, snow job, not a snowball’s chance, snowbird, on thin ice, snug as a bug in a rug, tip of the iceberg, snowball effect, run hot and cold….choose a wintry idiom and tell us how it best applies to your life right now. 
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I’ll choose snowball effect. Building a shop on our property has had it’s own snowball effect. Once I think the hard part is over and done with another hard part presents itself. One thing leads to another. I think I should plan a huge completion party to celebrate once it is all done and all our stuff from our son’s shop finds it’s way into Dear’s shop. 
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5. Your favorite sign of spring? 
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It’s hard to choose just one. 
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There is Easter and all that it means. Easter is my favorite holiday to celebrate. So much promise, so much hope because of Jesus’ resurrection. He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed! 
Our very first grandchild was born on the first day of Spring four years ago. We get to celebrate her at the beginning of Spring every year!
Our grandson was born in Spring, too, in April of 2019. We have so much to celebrate in Spring! 
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6. Insert your own random thought here.
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All this talk of Spring makes me want to go out and find a bunch of daffodils to bring in for cheer and the good promise that Spring is on it’s way!

Hit the Road Hodgepodge

Speaking of travel the photo above is of me behind the waterfall in the pool at our son’s Airbnb in Arizona a week ago, sigh.

Jo From This Side of the Pond has come up with the weekly questions for Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thank you, Jo! Click on over to join in on the fun.

1. Have you done more binge watching this past year than in ‘normal’ years? Any plans to break that habit in 2021? Tell us one or two shows you binged last year that you really liked. 

Our satellite connection for tv and the internet is temperamental and works better some parts of the month over other times. When it is working well we’ll binge some of our favorite shows on Acorn or BritBox. Since many of the British seasons are 4 to 8 episodes it’s not tough to binge. We’ve enjoyed Murder in Paradise, and we always enjoy going back to Midsomer Murders and the Great British Baking Show. Murder in Paradise had a new season in 2020 and we binge watched it. We enjoy other shows like Endeavor and Vera, too. If in 2021 there are any new seasons of these shows we’ll watch them when the internet is working well.

2. January 26th is Australia Day. Have you ever visited or lived in Australia?

No.

Have you ever tasted Vegemite, and if so what did you think? 

No thank you.

Is a trip down under on your bucket list?

No and I’ll tell you why…it would take far too long on an airplane to get there. If I could afford business or first class with the opportunity to lie down flat for much of the trip I might consider it.

We answered a question about travel three months ago (the October 21st Hodgepodge), but let’s revisit now…where are you when it comes to planning or even imagining travel this year? 

Our youngest niece on Dear’s side of the family is getting married on October 1st of this year in North Carolina. We are planning and imagining what a road trip from Washington State to North Carolina would look like with possible stops at some National Parks on the way. On the way back we are considering a route that would take us through Dallas to visit my youngest brother’s family then home via Colorado with a detour to some National Parks in Utah, Lord willing.

3. Something that zaps your energy?

Unconfessed sin, misunderstandings and confrontations.

Something that energizes you? 

Planning a trip, Spring, having company.

4. On a scale of 1-10 what are your eating habits like these days? (1=all junk food all the time and 10= juicing every green thing in the frig)

Dear says, “we’ve been juicing all the junk food in the fridge”. Haha.

I’m gonna say we are a 5 in eating habits these days.

Healthiest meal you’ve eaten in the last week or so? 

White meat chicken tacos with corn tortillas that weren’t fried with cabbage.

5. What’s your most often ‘Back in my day….’ thing to say? 

Back in my day we did not have cell phones to call anyone.

This phrase comes up a lot, “well we didn’t have cell phones then”.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Psalm 39:1 (ESV)

Consider joining in for Truth from A to Z, a Bible verse challenge for Thursdays on my blog. Tomorrow we are on the letter R. You don’t need a blog for this challenge.

Family Hodgepodge

Thank you to Jo for coming up with questions this week even though her daughter’s wedding was this past weekend!

For Hodgepodge Wednesday questions we were with all our kids and grands in Arizona, flying out later on Tuesday afternoon. I posed  some of these questions to them for fun.

1. What’s something we’d find you doing most afternoons?

Dear and I eat dinner most afternoons, not in the evening.

2. Who do you take after? In what way(s)?

I’m more like my mother, snarky but willing to feed a crowd.

Joshua takes more after me, more of a people person and more adventurous and willing to spend money. Dan is a mix of me and his dad, jumps in to get things done more introverted like his dad with the best one liners coming out of nowhere. Katie is mostly her dad, more introverted, the brightest in the bunch and smart cracking.

3. ‘After every storm comes a rainbow’ or ‘the calm before the storm’...which phrase do you relate to more right now? Tell us why?

Most of the group was ‘after every storm comes a rainbow’. I tend toward looking on the bright side and knowing things will turn out in the end. Because Jesus is our Savior and Lord we know who holds the future and that Hope brings us through the storms of life.

Our daughter says…”how about in the eye of the hurricane?”

4.What are your plans for the day after tomorrow?

We will be back home after a week in the sun trying to catch up with laundry and mail and bills, etc.

5. Complete this sentence-“After all is said and done_____________________.”

From Andrew: …naptime.

Laura: …it’s over.

Joshua: …atta boy.

Jamie: …,satisfied.

Ellen: …time to relax.

Greg: …I wouldn’t change a thing.

Katie: …the best is yet to come.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

The parties are over and it’s time to come back home to Winter…

Be My Guest Hodgepodge

1. When were you last a guest at an event or in someone’s home?
The last time we were guests was in December.
Tell us about it.
It was a fun informal dinner and card night. Three couple, six of us for pizza and salad and then a great game of Hand and Foot.
Do you enjoy having guests in your own home?
We do enjoy having guests in our home. Despite what’s going on we have had overnight guests and week long guests and one family were our guests for a few weeks. Great times!
2. What has you ‘tied up in knots’ currently or recently?
Thankfully I can’t think of anything that has had me ‘tied up in knots’.
Are you any good at tying actual knots?
I am not good at tying knots but Dear is and I let him tie the knots that we can depend on.
3. What’s something you’ve been wanting to do and have decided 2021 will be the year you ‘take the plunge’?
Trying to sell off some of my dish collections.
4. Something in your home that’s old?
We have a lot of old things that got passed down from Dear’s parents. This baby grand piano is a 1906 Chickering.
Our kids enjoyed it in years past.
And now a new generation is enjoying it.
Something new?
Dear’s shop is something new.
Something borrowed?
The one thing we borrow now that we live in the country is our son’s tractor about twice a year.
Something blue?
Lots of blue in our home. It is hard for me to walk away from a pretty blue plate. Both of our guest rooms have some blue in them, too.
blue-danube-002
5. Share a favorite quote, a verse of scripture, and/or a bit of wisdom for couples getting married in this challenging and seemingly unpredictable season we’re currently/still experiencing.
Even Jesus came to serve and not to be served and in marriage it would be good for both the husband and wife to have an attitude that is ready to serve each other and not have the expectation to be served. With this attitude gratitude for the selfless acts each one will do for the other will be genuine and this will contribute to a joy filled home.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
We are traveling today and I might not be able to get around to all the hodgepodgers until tomorrow.
Thank you Jo From This Side of the Pond for coming up with the Hodgepodge Questions each week.

Time to Party Hodgepodge

Sticky Toffee 017

It’s Wednesday so it’s time to answer the Hodgepodge questions from our gracious hostess Jo From This Side of the Pond. 

1. What advice would you give yourself as we begin this new year?

I’ll borrow this paragraph from our Christmas letter and say continue doing this!

“We are digging deep in our Bibles and some trusted commentaries, soaking up the Truth of the Gospel and asking God to increase our faith and our love for God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son who is our Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit who is our Comforter. We don’t want the ‘oil in our lamps’ to be nonexistent when the “Bridegroom” returns.

2. If you could throw a themed party for yourself what would the theme be?

Oh how I love a themed party! I’ll choose a British Pub Party with all the trimmings and don’t forget the bunting!

Pub Night 034

Pub Night 045

Pub Night 013

Way back in November of 2013 we put on a British Pub dinner party as a thank you to our friends who let us use their parents home in Cornwall for a few nights on our trip to England in September of 2013. We traveled with our son Josh and DIL Laura.  It was so much fun to try to turn our home into a British Pub. We called it The Three Birds Pub and I added the link to my post if you’d like to see our old house converted to a pub.

3. Tell us where you were and something about what life was like when you were 20- 21.

I was living in my parents’ home in La Mirada, California. I was commuting to college at Cal-State L.A. completing my degree in Home Economics with a fifth year program of student teaching to earn my Elementary (K-8) Teaching credential. I was working part-time for Montgomery Ward at their appliance servicing center. In late Spring of 1972 when I was 21, I met Dear who was part of a Christian Band that my best friend auditioned for. The band toured England that summer. When they returned they needed to replace an alto and I auditioned for the group and became part of the band. Something sparked between Dear and me and we went on our first of many dates in October of 1972.

4. What’s on the menu at your house this week?

What menu? We fly by the seat of our pants.  It might be high time I planned for a week. I know that part of our meal on Tuesday will be artichokes and a Caesar salad with leftover chicken. On Wednesday I think I’ll pick up a couple curry dishes from ‘Thai to Go’ since I’ll be in town for a portion of the day. Red Curry for Dear and Yellow Curry for me. We do have a birthday dinner party planned for Sunday evening in honor of Dan and Jamie who both have birthdays soon. I’ll let them choose the entre they would like.

5. What should you do more of this year?

Walk

Less of?

Wasting time…

6. Insert your own random thought here.

21 and in love…

Thank you Lord for creating us as man and woman and loving us and sustaining our love all these years!

Family Moments Hodgepodge

1. Tell us about your favorite moment or share one of the bright spots from the year we’re leaving behind.
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My favorite moment was when our Colville kids decided enough was enough and we were allowed to hug our grandchildren again. Oh Happy Day!
2. What do you wish you’d known at the start of 2020? Elaborate.
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I wish I’d known that travel would be so adversely affected because of the COVID. I wouldn’t have booked our flights to London and our lodging in Oxford. Then I wouldn’t have had to spend any time cancelling and wondering if we’d get our money back. Thankfully we were refunded for everything.
3. Best book you read this year? If you did not read any books this year, what’s the best thing you ate all year? We’ve all eaten, right?
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Nonfiction: Besides the Bible which is by far the best, Only Jesus (What It Really Means To Be Saved) by John MacArthur
Fiction: All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
This was the only nonfiction book I read all year and it wasn’t until December that I read it!
4. The Pantone Colors of the year for 2021 are ultimate gray and illuminating yellow (a bright shade)…are you a fan? Would we find either of these colors in your home or wardrobe?
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The ultimate gray could be found but I would not choose the illuminating yellow. We have some gray in our home and wardrobes but no illuminating yellow.
5. If you were/are making a list of 21 things to do/accomplish in 2021 what is one thing that would be on it?
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Weeding out things that I don’t want to leave to our children to deal with is one of the 21 things to accomplish in 2021!
6. Insert your own random thought here.
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Our family of 10 had a wonderful few days together over Christmas and we are so thankful for the relationship strengthening time we had!
Our 4 kids from the other side of the Cascade Mountain range left on Tuesday for home. We are thankful for how they honor us, their parents, and how they contribute to our family unity!
Addy asked our “Coast Kids”, “Why don’t you live here with us?” She loves spending time with her aunts and uncles. Addy had several deep questions during our times together. Out of the mouth of Babes…
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Thank you Joyce From This Side of the Pond for your faithful weekly questions that add a midweek boost to our blogging!

Christmas 2020 Hodgepodge

Yesterday was a beautiful day in the neighborhood. It was very windy which made it icy cold! The big news from yesterday is that the siding on our new shop is complete! Still lots to be done but what a relief to have all the steel panels on the shop and off our garage floor. I can now park my car in the shop/garage that was already on our property when we bought this country home.

Time for Wednesday Hodgepodge #400! That’s a lot of hodging or podging or hodgepodging. Thank you to Jo From This Side of the Pond for asking the questions, all 2000 of them!

1. I feel like episode 400 cannot go without comment. That’s a whole lot of Hodgepodging folks. 2000 questions if my math is right. So, what’s something you feel like you do 400 times a week?

Good thing you added the feel part. At this stage of life, nearing 70, I feel like I double check a lot. Did I turn out that light? Why did I walk into this room? Did I put deodorant on? Are the doors locked?

2. Tell us where you were and something about what your life looked like in the year 2000?

Yikes, that was before blogging so I pulled out the photo album that had photos from 10/23/99 thru 5/27/01 to get my bearings for the year 2000. We had been living in Kenmore, Washington since October of 1998 in the same home we sold in 2018 to move to Colville. Our oldest turned 21 in January of 2000. We had two family weddings that we traveled to Southern California for in May and July. On December 20th our oldest, Josh, asked his high school sweetheart, Laura, to marry him and she said yes. We are forever blessed by their union.  Dear was working for Immunex in downtown Seattle. I was enjoying my last year in my 40’s.

3. Do you like cinnamon? What’s something you make and enjoy that calls for cinnamon? Of the cinnamon ‘foods’ listed which is your favorite-red hot cinnamon candies, cinnamon toast, cinnamon rolls, cinnamon toast crunch cereal, apple cinnamon oatmeal, churros, an Indian curry?

I do enjoy cinnamon. The Applesauce Spice Cake is a family favorite requested for birthdays and it has cinnamon in it.

Click here for the recipe for the cake.

In that list I’ll choose cinnamon toast as my favorite.

4. Does Christmas 2020 (or Hanukkah) look much like it has in years past, or is this year vastly different for you and your family? How so? How are you feeling about it all?

We are gathering with our children and grandchildren this Christmas as we have in other years so that isn’t changing. Other gatherings aren’t happening like our annual Mennonite Girls Can Cook Christmas dinner which was sad. Since that is something we travel to Canada for it couldn’t happen because of the border being closed and because of the lockdowns in our countries. I know many are not gathering as usual and I’m sorry about that and for many who are compromised and need to be extra careful. May God bring joy to your gatherings no matter how small.

5. What’s one thing you need or want to do before this year ends?

Plan our daughter’s birthday dinner which will be at our home while they are here for the Christmas celebrations. Her birthday is on December 27th.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Along with my morning Bible reading I’m slowly going through a work by Spurgeon called, Christ’s Glorious Achievements ~ What Jesus Has Done For You. Yesterday I wrote down this quote:

“Man’s books have usually far less in them than we expect, but the book of the Lord is full of surprises, it is a mass of light, a mountain of priceless revelations. We little know what yet lies hidden within the Scriptures.”

I’m hoping that more is uncovered in 2021!

Reminder: We won’t be having our Truth from A to Z Bible Verse Challenge tomorrow or next Thursday. We’ll resume the first Thursday in the New Year!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Know Your Rights Hodgepodge

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1. What’s something about Christmas that most people like, but you don’t? Elaborate.
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Yearly Santa Photos. As a child I wasn’t raised with the notion that Santa was real. When we had kids we talked about Santa as a fun participant but we didn’t make them think he was real. We don’t have one photo of our kids with Santa through their growing up years. We do call the gifts in the stockings as being from Santa…again for the fun idea of it not reality.
My parents were Russian immigrants arriving in the USA shortly after WWII from Iran. Their families escaped out of Russia in the early 30’s into Persia. Russians have Dzed Moroz instead of Santa Claus.
Ded Moroz or Father Frost, the Slavic version of Santa Claus, long ago became the symbol of Russian winter, New Year’s and presents. He is usually accompanied by his granddaughter Snegurochka riding with an evergreen tree in a traditional Russian troika, a sleigh drawn by three horses abreast.
All that being said, we have some fun vintage Santa Christmas decor from Dear’s mother Verna.
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2. Tell us about one cherished tradition from your childhood and if you’ll make it happen this year?
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Cherished tradition from my childhood is going to my maternal babushka’s apartment for Christmas breakfast before church. We were in church every Christmas morning. Our little babushka lived in an apartment building a few doors away from our Russian Baptist church. Babushka has the yellow apron on next to our mom. Of course that can’t happen because those days are gone.
We added a cherished tradition in our home that we all count on for Christmas morning after stockings. Dear makes his Swedish Pancakes for all of us to enjoy with little smokies on the side. We’ve had to change this up as our “Coast” kids travel to us on Christmas Day so we have Swedish pancakes on Boxing day now.
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3. In 1941 FDR declared December 15th Bill of Rights Day. Citizens were encouraged to fly the flag and gather for prayers and other ceremonies as appropriate. Did you know this?
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I didn’t know this.
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Will you fly a flag?
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No we aren’t flying a flag today. Our flag pole is put away for this snowy season we are in.
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Can you name all the rights and protections guaranteed in the first ten amendments of the US Constitution?
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No I cannot.
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Of the ten, which two do you value most? If you need a list you’ll find one here. 
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The first and second amendments are the two I value most. In the first amendment I value freedom of religion which we are putting to the test during these times. The right to bear arms is important to us.
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4. Do you know someone named Bill?
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We had a cousin Bill on our Pop’s side of the family.
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Tell us something about him?
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Our cousin Bill was a troubled young man and died young from injuries in a bar fight. If any of my siblings read this and remember something different correct me.
Is there a famous ‘Bill’ you’d like to meet?
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I’ll meet him in heaven but it would have been nice to have a fireside chat with Billy Graham. He played a role in the salvation of our Pop.
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5. A step in the right direction, on the right track, bragging rights, be in the right place at the right time, get off on the right foot, right as rain, right side up, give your right arm for, have one’s heart in the right place…choose a ‘right’ that applies to your life in some way in recent days and tell us how it’s so.
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I’m going to say a step in the right direction. At the beginning of 2020 Intermittent Fasting became  a new eating lifestyle and I’m happy to say that it works for me. I’ve dropped some pounds and my face is not as puffy as it used to be. It’s something that I can do forever and even when I can’t adhere to the plan during a period of time it’s easy to jump right back in.
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6. Insert your own random thought here.
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We had a few inches of snow fall on Tuesday. Time will tell if we are in for a white Christmas.
Thank you to Joyce From This Side of the Pond for asking the questions each week.

Christmas Spirit Hodgepodge

Wednesday Hodgepodge questions that Joyce From This Side of the Pond asks each week are not surprisingly Christmas themed in December. Here we go…

1. What do you think it means to have the holiday spirit?

Going deep on this one and deferring to my hubby:

“It’s having the Spirit of Christ, who convicts of sin and enables faith in that Jesus is who He says He is and has done what He has says He has done. Without the work of the Spirit of Christ we would have no hope for forgiveness, for eternity with Him, for glory.

Romans 5:1 (ESV)

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

2. What’s one thing you’ve baked this month?

I baked a Chocolate Decadent Bundt cake last week for our card night.

Have you eaten the finished product?

Yes, at the card night last Friday night. It got very good reviews from those who ate it.

How much baking do you do around the holidays?

This varies from year to year. Some years I don’t make any cookies…shock!

What baked sweet something does your family insist is on the menu during this season of the year?

Roolyet is a Russian treat our mom would make every Christmas. A yeast dough rolled with a  walnut filling (walnuts, sugar, egg whites and vanilla). Now that my sister and I perfected the recipe I should make it every Christmas, too.

3. Your most recent ‘half-baked’ idea?

How about thoroughly baked. In January I clicked on the buy button for plane tickets from Seattle to London for September of this year. Then COVID-19 struck us all. Plane tickets, Air BnB deposits and many plans made that had to all be cancelled. Thankfully all was refunded.

4. Where were you the last time you ‘baked’ in the sun?

In my own backyard pulling weeds.

The top ten sunniest destinations in the world (most sun from January-December according to this site) are Dubai, Bali Indonesia, Los Angeles CA, Miami FL, Barbados, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Mauritius, Antiqua, and the Canary Islands Spain. Have you been to any of the cities listed?

I was born in East Los Angeles and raised in the “burbs” of Los Angeles and spent many summers baking on Southern California beaches slathered in Coconut Butter. Craziness!

Which one on the list appeals to you the most?

We do not choose sunny destinations these days. We do not lay in the sun. We look for shade and head straight to an umbrella when the sun is out and the air is hot. The only reason L.A. is appealing these days is because of our loved ones who live there and who we enjoy spending time with.

If the world were not upside down crazy and you could lie on a beach anywhere right now where would you go?

Never mind lying on the beaches, I would choose Jolly Old England any time of the year, walking down a lane instead of lying on a beach!

Now that said, we do enjoy walking on the beach at dawn in the summer and any time of day in the Winter.

5. Today I wish I had more _____________________.

Options for shopping in my little town of Colville.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

This past Sunday to Monday we enjoyed a 46th Anniversary night at the Coeur d’Alene Resort in Idaho on Lake Coeur d’Alene. Dinner at Beverly’s on the 7th floor made us feel like normal before all this craziness came upon us all.

Our complimentary Anniversary dessert! Vanilla ice cream wrapped in cotton candy with some fruit and dessert bark.

When the Christmas cards are all signed, sealed and delivered to the Post Office I feel like I should get an award. Do you still send cards?