Sunshine, Beautiful Sunshine!

It's a beautiful day today.  Cold, but sunny and happy out.  I've scrubbed my floors.  I've finished the laundry and now I can blog and crochet the day away if I want to.  Guilt free because my chores are done and the sun is shining!

I wanted to share this photo with all of you. I found this today when I was searching my cedar lined chest for something my son wanted.

This is the first thing I ever crocheted, way back in 1967! I was seven years old and my Grandma taught me to crochet by having me make a ripple blanket for my doll’s bed. She had me crochet every single stitch so I could always say I made it all by myself! I miss her every single day-she was full of wisdom and love, just as a Grandma should be! I keep the blanket in the chest so it can be passed down to my daughter’s children someday.  This project instilled a love of crochet in me that has never wavered over the past 45 years!

I took this picture yesterday off the back deck.  The sun was trying desperately to peek through for about half an hour and then disappeared again and we recieved another round of rain/snow.  This morning everything is icey and frozen.  You can hear cars crunching down the street as they drive by!  An odd sound!  Anyway, I love the dusting of snow on all the mountains.  It looks like someone has sprinkled powdered sugar on them from a flour sifter!

The last two pictures are my small way of decorating for Valentine's Day.  I don't do much but I have a few things out that I'll be showing you.  I found these silk roses on sale at Michaels last week.  Two stems for $3.00.  I thought it was a good deal and I came home and took the flowers off the stems and put them into the big vase on the coffee table.  What do you think?  I'm not a very good decorator, but I do like the way they look.  The little cherub in the top picture was a gift a few years ago from my friend Jenny. 

And that's it for today my friends.  I'm off to find my crochet hook and yarn.  I'm going to take a short break this morning from my baby blankets, (I've made 3 this week), and try to make a candle jar cover to cheer up the kitchen.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Have a wonderful Monday my friends.

Blessings,

Betsy

Typoon!

The world is sure getting hit with bizarre and powerful weather lately.  Earthquakes, hurricanes, drought and floods!

Last night we talked to Alex in Japan for quite awhile.  He's in the process of applying for a new job and wanted to bring his Dad up to date about it.  There was a major typhoon that affected central and western Japan this weekend.  Last I heard 8 were dead and 37 missing.  So tragic.  Our midwest is still underwater.  My brother and sister in Iowa both had such large hail that it went through the shingles, the tarpaper and the wood on their roofs.  The hail lodged in the ceiling of my sisters house but went all the way into the livingroom at my brothers!   I've never heard of such a thing.  Hail that big could have killed someone.  We must count our blessings where we see them!

On a much happier note, my dear husband is busy rescreening a few windows and the patio door.  Our son-in-law got him hooked last week in Portland.  They re-screened all of Brad & Mandy's windows.  Bless his heart.  Brad just cannot sit still.  On the bright side, nothing goes undone at their house!

Off to evening church now.  I'm singing tonight so I need to get a few minutes of practice time in first!

Blessings,

Betsy

Sunshine!

We have had the most beautiful weather the past three days.  After I mowed the grass on Tuesday we had the most tremendous rain.  You have to realize that's it's been over 2 months since we've had rain at our house!  I realize that some parts of the country are much worse off than we are-too wet or too dry.  This, however, is normal for a Spokane summer.  After a dinner that we ate while listening to the pounding rain on our deck roof this is what Dennis and I saw:

Isn't this beautiful?  This is the view we saw from our dining room table and the rainbow just seemed to get brighter and brighter as we watched!  Since Tuesday we have had three days of 70-75 degree weather with bright blue skies. Perfect Spokane weather.  I love my home.

 Wednesday I made zuchinni relish with some zuchinni's a friend "donated" from his garden.  We love this on sandwiches and especially meatloaf.  The recipe belonged to Dennis' grandmother.  She made this for years and years and the family all begged for it.  Aren't the jars pretty?

I love the colors of the peppers and zuchinni and spices.  And the taste is out of this world.  I'm hoping that I can still find enough tomatoes to can for chili sauce and plain tomatoes when I get home from Japan.  We've had the strangest growing season this year.  Spring was so cold and wet that everything is late.  I like to can my own tomatoes for chili, lasagna, etc.  Much fresher tasting without so much sodium.

We have no plans for the Labor Day weekend except to rescreen a window and the patio door. (Someone tried to walk through it!)  And of course, church on Sunday.  This will be our first weekend with no plans for almost three months and we're looking forward to sleeping late!  That's about 7:00 a.m. for us! 

I leave for Japan a week from today and I'm getting SO EXCITED!  I just want to thank all of you for making this happen with all of your contributions.  I can't wait to get there and take lots of pictures for you all to see.

I'll be talking to you all again soon!

Blessings,

Betsy

Good Morning!

It's another beautiful day in Spokane, WA.  We are supposed to get up to 90 today-which is pretty warm for up here.  I know a lot of you are suffering greatly this summer with terrible heat that just won't stop, so I refuse to complain about our few days of heat!

I know I promised pictures of our trip to Northern Idaho on Saturday but I didn't take one picture.  My dear mother-in-law started feeling ill while we were driving and I completely forgot to take pictures.  She's still in bed this morning with what I hope is just a stomach bug.  She's been very sick since Saturday afternoon but this morning ate a bit of oatmeal and a little of her beloved coffee. :-)   I don't drink coffee and I can't understand this addiction to it.  Our daughter is worse than my mother-in-law!

However, I do have a few pictures of our house and backyard for anyone who is interested.

These are my english roses.  I don't remember the actual name but I love them.  I wish they would bloom earlier in the year, but it's usually the end of July, this year because of the cold, wet spring it was just this past week that the first bloom appeared.  Notice how it hides the garbage can-that's an extra bonus!

These are our new front steps.  We had a wooden deck until 2 months ago.  Since the house faces west, they were constantly in need of staining.  At least twice a year we had to stain them.  We are so happy with these steps and we won't have to worry about scratching the wood now when we shovel the several feet of snow that arrives each year.

This is the deck off the dining room.  We have a roof over it and I love to read my Bible in the rocker in the mornings.  I also enjoy knitting out here since we have a lovely view of Mt. Spokane.  Oh yes, that's my "baby" Chloe.  Isn't she sweet looking?  She has the best disposition of any dog I've seen.

This is the sitting area under the deck.  It's so much fun to sit under here and read a book or knit while it's raining.  Summer afternoons are nice and cool in the shade since we have virtually no humidity.  I get books on tape (or CD) from the library and listen to them while out here knitting in the afternoon whenever I get a chance.  Next best thing to Heaven, (besides Hawaii). :-)

This is the backyard and patio.  Behind the trees are view of the mountains that you can see very well from on the upper deck.

Sorry about the glare from the sun.  I am far from a professional photographer, but I wanted to share a bit of my world with all of you.  I hope you have a wonderful day and remember to try to take a few minutes for yourself today.

Blessings,

Betsy