Jacquelyn E. Maas

These are huckleberries. I only know this because my husband grew up on the West Coast and is a bit of a foraging nature nut.

There he is. He already knew about huckleberries (the red kind- they also come in a darker colour) from his childhood running through the woods in Washington. Naturally, he wanted to pass on his wilderness know-how to his kids. And here they are foraging...

...Which resulted in this beautiful haul.

I honestly didn’t do very much picking but I promised to make it into a pie, or at least a tart. They got a pie worthy amount. So I went to work and followed this recipe https://hildaskitchenblog.com/recipe/wild-huckleberry-pie-recipe/#recipe

The orange zest and tapioca starch were the highlights for me. I just used a grocery store gluten free crust and the filling was enough to fill two of them.

Fresh from the oven!

The berry pickers and I (the photographer is an even bigger fan of berries and pie than all of us put together). He took this last picture too.

In January I got together with some friends and we recorded my worship songs. They were done live over two nights with lots of spontaneous worship as well. I’m calling the song collection BREAK OPEN THE JAR.

Listen here. 

“yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also”

Here’s the chords and lyrics to a new song. Read Revelation 3:20 and Psalm 24 for a deeper reflection.

Come In Jacquelyn Maas, Max Funk

G You’re standing at the door C I’m waking to a sound Em You knock, I hear your voice       C           G You win, I’m found

vs. 2 Tears that wash your feet That’s the best place to start Lifting up my head, you give Clean hands, and a pure heart

chorus         Em         C               D Come in, come in, King of Glory G/B       C        Em       D God of mercy, God of grace          C            Em                  D                     Come in, come in, strong and mighty G/B       C                    D         G  (last time Em) By your blood, we are face to face

tag C                           D Your love’s calling out C                      D And I hear the sound

bridge Em No shame C No fear G          D You are right here

I feel inspired to share a pictorial series of what has brought me joy over the past few months. In past years, I blogged a lot about our gardens. This year was not a big garden year. However, the few things that I did decide to grow and cultivate brought me a lot of joy. Here’s to small gardens in an unexpected urban place. 

I bought a miniature rose bush at a farmer’s market in May. Watching it bloom all summer was fabulous. So are the wild flowers and flowers growing through cracks in the sidewalk that my children pick.

For mother’s day I got to go Figaro’s on Victoria Drive and pick some plants. Instead of going for utility and production, I just got a few things that I would just enjoy. These are the flowers that grew from the “vision in red” astilbe bush, which I chose to grow in a poorly lit corner of my concrete patio. I also got a lavender bush. Early in the season, when asking my daughter to cut some purple chive flowers, she accidentally cut the lavender. Oh well!

Some of you have asked about our blue bin garden that we did last year. We only did one blue bin this year. It grew the perennial sage and chives.

My little cayenne pepper plant! It grew from the stray rays of light it could get from my basement window sill. It got some summer sun outside too. Just a few days ago I harvested 6 mature red peppers. They were so good! A friend told me about how fun it was to watch peppers grow and she was right.

It is still a wonder to me that one seed can produce such amazing things. My daughter and I planted 2 sunflower seeds in an old wooden toy chest. The seeds were also old but one of them sprouted into this huge sunflower! When it started to droop and look totally dead we almost cut it down but now we can see the whole centre forming hundreds of sunflower seeds.

I’ve always had a fascination with hummingbirds. In our last place, when I finally attracted hummingbirds to our feeder, we had to move. After almost 2 years in this place I see a hummingbird almost every day. It is sheer delight!

Moving indoors for a moment, this bookshelf brings me joy. My husband brought these home from my dad’s library. I love these old books. Some of them used to belong to my Grandpa. I even started reading one of them. In a house geared toward nurturing children, I find this adult nook very calming. The painting in the background is by Heidi. 

Please enjoy this last photo featuring my favourite colour turquoise in a province very dear to me, Alberta. We were on a road trip and I jumped out of the van and ran down a small path to find this breathtaking view.

Sunshine Salad

Watermelon, cubed Cucumber Mint leaves, chopped Red onion, chopped

Feta, crumbled

The elders can cast their crowns

The angels can sing their songs

But I have this life on earth to be a living sacrifice

This is my worship

So burn me up God

Pour me out

https://aubreysbistro.wordpress.com 

Twenty-five years ago at Easter time, my maternal Grandpa went to his eternal home with Jesus. He led a life of sacrifice and surrender to the Holy Spirit. This led him from his home in Australia to Africa where he met my Grandma, to his retirement in Canada.

My uncles collaborated and launched a blog sharing his autobiography/memoirs (see above link). What an amazing way to pass on his legacy. After looking this over myself, crying and remembering, I’m so pleased to share. 

Our youngest child is named after him. I see him in my middle son’s smile.

Eb               Gm      F             

We don’t want religion, we just want your freedom (repeat)

Eb       Gm        F

Take us into Your heart

Where the lame can dance

The Father’s reaching out

Through His Son’s nail scarred hands

Eb                  F            Gm

We don’t want that yoke of slavery

                  F/A         Bb

Today was a harder day. It just was. I decided to look at pictures of the last year, since our move to the city, and just be thankful for everything. We moved so suddenly. And since I have kids, I can be tempted to wonder if my decisions as a parent will be damaging to them somehow in hind sight. Well, below are pictures of each of them right after our move.

So they look pretty happy! Things can get chaotic but at the end of the day if we all loved each other then it’s a good day.

I love our neighbourhood too. Here’s a picture of 2 eagles perched on top of the cross of the Catholic church down the alley from us. A few times a day it chimes familiar songs.

And here’s our view on our way to go grocery shopping in North Van.

There’s endless urban places for the kids to explore, not to mention all the wild places of mountains and beaches.

So we are thankful, thankful, thankful. And to increase the nostalgia a bit, my baby turns 2 on Wednesday! How thankful am I for this little guy!