Monthly Archives: September 2011

In looooooooooooooooove

Stuff I Actually Think

This is NOT a paid endorsement.  It will just seem like it.

It’s a virtual inspiration board (style file, mood board, clippings notebook: whatever you want to call it) where you neatly keep all the stuff and cool images you find that trip your trigger – make you happy – floats your boat – gives you THE idea.  Ah yes.  And the cool thing, it keeps the connection to the original source so you can find all the information again.

So, you know how you have all those websites struggling for air in your “favorites” folder?  Just go in now and pin them all to one of your inspiration boards :: by CATEGORY, glory-hallelujah, Thank-You, Jesus!!!   Then check all those picture folders you have of “house ideas,”  “things I want to do in the garden,” and stuff like that and TRY to find the original source again so you can pin that stuff, too.  Then be sure to FOLLOW me and I will follow you, too!

And wait until you see the cool stuff you can RE-PIN to your board from the people you follow, because they will have such cool stuff, you will remember why you adore them so!

I have a “Jeanie-green” board I just started because you know how I am when I see that color.

I have a “Goin’ to the Chapel” board because I have a daughter getting married in short order.

There is a “{REALLY} Good Eats” of things I have made or am absolutely going to make and no one can stop me, a “Sweet Dreams” board of bedrooms I find lovely and at the very least would like to take a nap in, and a board about all things organization, not to mention the first board I started, which is all words-words I love that move my heart.  Uh-huh.  You can make any board you want!!

I am in love with Pinterest. 

It IS a real, actual place (other than right here on my blog) to COLLAGE my THOUGHTS!  O, yes it is!

SO many creative people in the world.  And they are all out there finding the coolest stuff on the internet.  And they are pinning it to their boards and helping me find it it, too!

Know why I like it (in case all of the above isn’t enough)???  It is like looking through an amazing eye-candy kind of great-ideas-and-gorgeous-images magazine and then being able to put all the stuff I’d really ever use/want in a file with all of the information that I need to go with it available with the simple action of a keystroke.  Click.  Done.  Click.  Got it.  It is all there.  No muss, no fuss, no looking all over and trying to recall which website that stuff was on.

A peak at my boards in-the-making from my very own Pinterest page. 

Happy, head-over-heels **sigh.**

A B O U T :: http://pinterest.com/about/help/

Chalk-Talk

2 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually Think

Look what I discovered I could do with www.picnik.com!!?!!!

I found an image of a slightly messy chalkboard on google-images.

I uploaded it to Picnik.com.

I typed in some text and a few “stickers” and then faded them 30-40% or so from the orginal full-strength white and voila!  I have no idea if I have any use for this in the future, but I did it.  5 minutes of good fun. 

Happy ways to say “so long.”

 

 

 

Right-click on the empty chalboard at right and you can give it a go, too.

A message from my heart, for real!

No chalk dust.

Forest for the Trees

1 Christ is All, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

So, my crazy friend Bryan gave me perspective.  Purely by accident on his part, right, Bry?

His family, always into baseball as the family sport, has slide reels of him hitting the baseball as young as four-years-old.  I read on his post-birthday-blog (http://bryanyounger.wordpress.com/) that in his first official game he hit the ball and ran with all his might, but was put out at first.  He cried and the coach comforted him.  The next time he went to bat, the same thing happened.  He cried and got more comfort.

What he didn’t realize was that he had driven in 4 runs on his two at-bats.  Still, when he “got out,” he cried.  Bryan could hit, he could catch, he could throw.  And he could drive in runs, advancing his team, helping bring victory.  But all he could see was his failure to be safe at first.

Stuck in the middle.

I am pretty sure the “enemy assignment” against my life, being a performance-oriented-slave-to-the-need-to-achieve type I seem to be, has just been to make sure I can never quite check all the things I want to off my list, nor see the end for the middle (the forest for the trees), nor feel like I completely did what I set out to do.  I constantly judge my efforts to have missed the mark.   In almost everything I do or am.  In spite of so much goodness and favor, I have lists filling volumes of all the ways I did it wrong, missed the mark, disappointed, failed, folded and fizzled.  I have a detailed record of my own wrongs and letters of apology to my most treasured ones of my carelessness, my meanness, my complete ineptitude at love and life and following Jesus in a way that at all reflects Him.  I always say anyone but God would have thrown me on the scrap pile by now, but surprisingly, I am still surrounded my loving, forgiving people.  Meanwhile, I remain certain I will botch it fully and finally.

But is it really over before the fat lady sings?  Has it really been “a fail,” the current “in” phrase –  any of it or all of it?  Have I been the worst at everything, the person whose life has the least purpose, the person who never lived up to her God-given potential, am I the only non-home-run hitter?

Baseball Bats by Stormie Rhoades

I liked the phrase I heard a few years ago, “It is never too late to become the person you might have been.”  And I have often encouraged young mommies and my friends with, “It is never too late to be the family you were meant to be,” and while I wholly believe it, I somehow tend towards seeing myself getting tagged out at first base and I am immediately overwhelmed, overcome, really, with a deep sense of being the world’s all-time most  substantial disappointment.  I guess if you are going to be awful, you may as well do it really well…

Wait for it.  WAIT FOR IT.

But deep down, I know I am just somewhere in the middle – like everyone reading this.  Proverbs 24 tells us that even when the righteous falls seven times (or gets thrown out at first base repeatedly), they get back up and keep going – you can’t keep them down.  I love the Word of the LORD to Habakkuk, which I would like to re-phrase here, from 2.2-3.  God is like,

Write this.  Write it down and make it plain {the vision – the point, THE thing that it is all about at the end}.

Write it in a way that when you read it, it will energize you and feed your soul for the journey; so well put that it will give you the life and vitality and gusto to get all the way {running like a banshee} to the desired end (starting line to finish line, point A to point B, from once upon a time to forevermore).  So you won’t just fizzle out along the way (in the middle somewhere).  Know the vision inside and out, for crying out loud.

Because those deep desires in your heart?  That thing planted deep {a covenant marriage that sizzles hot to the end, children who live to praise Jesus and serve Him wholeheartedly, grandchildren who rise up as men and women of God as the world continues its meaningless descent into godless madness;  the rich opportunity to, as a friend of the Bridegroom, help get the Bride ready, the chance to feed the hungry and clothe the poor, be a blessing and live in the favor of God – bringing Him joy, ETC}, these things long to come to pass, they want to come to fruition with a deep ache (the whole creation is groaning for the completion of our adoption to sonship, so says Romans 8).

Watch and wait.  Watch for it and don’t give up.  The vision, the deep thing, speaks of the end.  It is the whole goal, the final glory of it all.  It is the fulfillment of the goodness of the LORD in our lives.  It is what will stand when the dust has settled.

If it seems like it is slow in coming, wait for it.  Wait :: lean forward in hopeful expectation, watching and anticipating.  Instead of  Are we there yet? ~ What’s next, Father?

It may seem late.  It may seem long.  But the end will be good and just as God has planned!

Yes, wait.  It will surely come to pass.

Thanks, Bry.  For the encouragement.

More at-bats to come.  Let’s just keep swinging.

 

 

Up, Up and Away

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

This week in Gunnison.

Dave is teaching for the county here.  We went really-really-really almost-above-the-timberline high to get here, over Monarch Pass.  Here is a sign Dave saw in the county building:

I am visiting lots of wedding sites and www.marthastewart.com greets me with a countdown each time I log in, which I have to say does not really thrill me.

So, like 75 days now…actually less.  Luckily, though, Ryan and Tredessa are having a small family wedding, so we should be able to pull it off.  I mean I have got all the talent in the world in my fam!

In other wedding news ::

Elise-the-Niece is getting married to Matt in 11 days.

This gorgeous beauty will be at my house, along with little Miss Sawyer by the time we get home.  All the way from hot-hot-hot Texas!

Better bring a sweater, Stef.

Dave and Tara are celebrating their 8th anniversary today.

Love your love, my sweets.  8 very, very good years.

Rocky and Jovan will celebrate their 5th anniversary Friday.

Five beautiful years for two gorgeous lovers!  Congrats, my sweets!

So

I am catching up on reading and writing and organizing my computer files and photos and downloading video and editing video and getting room service every morning.  From Dave.

And I have suddenly realized I want to start thinking ahead to:

Yes.  It is time.

UPDATE 9/14/11 :: Apparently rain in Denver = snow in elevations over 10,000 feet.  Living in Colorado this long I should know that, yet am here, expecting up to 6″ of snow tonight, in flip-flops and a hoodie.  Hehe.

Engaging.

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Think, ,

So here is what happened in our familia on 9.10.11

Just after the proposal – sporting the ring.

Recently.

We are happy.  Congratulations, you two.

UPDATE from MayDae.com ~

http://www.maydae.com/love/they-will-forever/

http://www.maydae.com/fashion/music/

A super-tiny family ceremony to follow in really short order.  On with the business of being married!

The Cabin

3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think

In the Mountains.

“Front side of the cabin”

“Back side” of the cabin, where the trail leads down to the middle fork of the St Vrain.  This is where you can usually find me.  {NOTE:  my poor little cheap Kodak could not, try as it might, capture the water.  It always just whited-out, but that is water down there.  It’s OK, though, it did pretty well on colors and textures.}

Rushing waters.

Dappled sunlight.  Warm, hot even.  Yet a cooling breeze blows over.  Fresh.  Exhilarating mountain stream baths.  Blue-jays cackle loudly on their way by.  Hummingbirds swooping and frolicking, feeding frequently and zooming in so close I am afraid they will scratch my glasses lens.

The chipmunks try to hide in the shadiness of low brush, but betray themselves by their own relentless chatter.

The path down to the water on the left.  The path up the driveway on the right.

The blue of the sky :: what blue is that?  From where does it get that depth and clarity?  Bluuuuuuuuuue….saturated with intoxicating substance.  Mmm.

How many different greens am I seeing?  How many different textures?

Moss, earthy and sweet.  Moss is safe here.  Is that why I am drawn?  Did my very name at birth identify a part of my souls’ homeland that draws me, still?

Large boulders stand settled, immovable for the truth they represent.  The waters flow freely around these altars, splash against these planted “tables.”

“You prepare a table before me”

The Aspens quake like the religious sect of old, the trees clapping their hands and roaring their applause to great God.  When the breath of the Lord blows through, the forest-stadium is filled with home-team-victory ear-piercing, loud, standing ovation excitement.  I cannot quit watching the leaves – trying to capture them by digital recording – knowing it is all for Creator.  They’ve never learned to dissipate their purpose in delighting Him by doing what anyone else thinks they should do.  It is all song and dance to Him, for His good pleasure.

He and I keep laughing at these tiny, energetic hummingbirds.  They are just so happy and busy, so full of life.

Laughing with God in the mountains at Peaceful Valley is so good.  He is giving me a clue about what makes him happy, what brings His smile.  I feel like He is letting me in a secret.  I am giddy to find that the birds of the mountains crack God up.

This is the Rocky Mountain {most} High.

Omygosh, I am weird, but wow I love it, too.  My Father is putting on a show for me, or maybe, more accurately, He is letting me see the one being put on for Him.  He claps.  He laughs.  He sings along.  He sees that His creation is good.  Here I am, lucky enough to sit in the Divine box seat with Him.

I am struck by how all of creation just does what it does and is in constant worship by very nature, created to bring Him glory.  I wonder what the heck we are doing?

I can’t help singing Andrae Crouch’s old song~

If I was a tree all I could do is lift my arms to You, Lord

If I was a bird, all I could is sing a song to You

If I was the sun all I could do is shine for You

Everything You made I know You made to give to praise to You

But You created me in Your image to give You the highest praise

Yeah, that’s right.  I sang my head off.  I was created to.  I couldn’t help it.  The waters splashed and pushed by loudly headed toward destiny.  The birds did sing.  The trees did clap their hands, the sun shined brilliantly and I sang and laughed and cried.  My soul sang.  It sang.  I was born for it.

Peaceful Valley was…peaceful, in its’ own raucously full-of-living kind of way.  Good times.

Offering

1 Christ is All, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

What it really means to be an intercessor.

….and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain

and bore  o u r  suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for {our} transgressions,

he was crushed for {our} iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds  w e   a r e   h e a l e d .

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

Yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living;

for the transgression of my people he was punished.

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the LORD makes his life an { O F F E R I N G } for sin,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days,

and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

11 After he has suffered,

he will see the light of life and be satisfied;

by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,

and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

because he poured out his life unto death,

and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors

{aka the wrongdoer, the miscreant, the guilty party, the villain, the sinner, the evildoer}.

Jesus, the great Intercessor.  He was familiar with pain.  So He knew how to take ours – both what we’ve been hit with and what we have dished out.

My sweet mama called today and we talked about love, the real stand-in-the-gap, intercessory-like-Jesus kind of love.  It is the love that says :: even if your sin/rejection/disdain kills not only my heart but also my mortal body, I will still love you ’til the day I die.  I’ll love you while you pound the nails into my hands, I will love you when you spit in my face.  I will love you while the blood runs from my body and my life-flow hits the ground.  I will love you until the day I die.

Wow.

It is a wonder, Jesus being who He was was, I can even lay claim at all to being a “Christian.”