Category Archives: 3 Celebrations & Festive Events
Fallen
The boundary lines have fallen for me
in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
Psalm 16.6 NIV
Recent guests: Tredessa and sawyer, Amelie as a strawberry (her mommy made this!) and Nacho Libre himself!
Perfect Autumn
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” ~George Eliot (I found this quote on an in-flight magazine a year ago, October)
Could this year have been any more perfect? No early freak snow blizzards that swoop in for one day, freeze and knock our leaves to the ground and then disappear into 70-degree days again. We have had perfectly lovely, crisp evenings and mornings, orangey-pumpkin, warm sunny days covered in Downy-blue skies. And all the color we could ever imagine. Perfect 2010 autumn!
Yep, that is Tara – the gift! Guini at Anderson Farms in the Pumpkin Patch. A Chia-Baby came for a visit.
My highly creative and talented daughter, Stephanie, made these costumes for the little K-Kids
Delicious October
Birthday cakes and pies, cinnamon rolls and breads (banana, zucchini and pumpkin for a start – not to mention those highly-dangerous bread bowls, Stef/delish!!)). Parties and suppers, soups and projects galore. Rustling leaves and children’s clattering about. Squeaking swings and the dog chasing the neighbor’s cat. Twilight falling earlier, the afternoon shadows growing longe. lowerr. Scented candles make the house smell wondrous. Grandbebe visits make life worthwhile!
Stormie and Dessa at the world’s biggest corn maze, Stormie hiding (swiped from her blog, www.maydae.com)
Sweet November
And now? Will November be so sweet? Well, just yesterday I found 2 spagetti squashes hidden away and one Sweet-Baby Watermelon. Surprise!, they cried out! Unexpected guests can be just delightful, at times.
Averi and Amelie modeling things from their mommy’s Etsy Shop
Almost half of the leaves have fallen with the remaining leaves-on-trees changing color while I watch…just before they shed their summer clothes and slip out of them into their November-nakedness. By Thanksgiving, bare branches will sway and make way for lighted evergreens to explode into their glory days.
Today is my cousin, Diana’s, birthday, which I always remember! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DIANA!
So far? So sweet!
It’s Your Birthday, Jovan
In the dark of all All Hallowed Eve, 24 years ago today, a light was born
“You are the light of the world, a city on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matthew 5.14
Last year I sang to you for your birthday, remember?
“So hold onto Jesus, baby wherever you are…”
This year, I am singing this song of great wisdom over you and your sweet life. I really do hope you’ll have no fear and never be afraid to dance, to fall, to succeed, to make a mistake or try what your heart wants to try.
I really do hope that – that you’ll live your life in the middle of the fulness of joy Jesus has for you! And may it cause dancing and rejoicing! Thank-you for loving my son like you do and for raising my granddaughters like you are. You are the beautiful girl your parents raised so well to share with us and we are grateful. And glad to call you our own.
I love you wholly, Jovan. I have you in my heart. Happy Birthday!
You shine!
“…so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—…” Philippians 2.15-16 NIV
pictured: Jovan a self portrait, Jovan be www.lilacphotography.com…but mea culpa, Ellie…I added words! :)
Ten.Ten.Ten
10.10.10
Little Obi-Wan arrives
Darth-daddy and the Light-Saber Family
Ten G R E A T things about today~
- Rainy. Cool and rainy. Finally like fall. Gentle and sweet.
- Burning my Yankee “Autumn Festival” Candle (a birthday gift).
- Baking 10 loaves of zucchini bread with extra cinnamon and a little bit of butter-rum oil in that batter. Buttered and sweet cream to top it off – too much heaven!
- R2-D2, the cake for Hunter Magoo’s 6th birthday party. Dark chocolate fudge with buttercream. I doubt I shall ever use a shaped Wilton pan again, but thus, it was baked, iced and eaten.
- With ice cream!
- Party for me.
- Wrex singing a birthday song for me to the tune of the Partridge Family’s “C’mon Get Happy.” Lots o’ music and memories!
- Broccoli Cheese soup (super cheesy and made from scratch! almost 5 pounds of broccoli, 4 pounds of cheese, chicken broth, cream, fresh onions and garlic, just the hint of nutmeg…soooooo good!)…tomato soup…bread…goldfish (cracker fish) to swim about in hot steamy bowls of kid-soup.
- The grand-fish (real fish) have been visiting for a few days (and I forgot to feed them almost everyday they were here, mea culpa little goldfish). The house loud, music and song, food flying, the grandbebes swinging from the chandeliers…having fish on the mantle makes it feel like we are living in a Dr. Suess book! ;p
- Time with people I adore: Dave and the Powers and Kelleys. Rocky & familia and the Phipps’. Tredessa and Stormie. The grandbebes and my mangy dog.
Little Jedis; the R2-D2 cake
Loved my video, too, honey.
Happy Birthday, Hunter-Roo!
Hunter turned {SIX}!
Hunter and some of his cousins a couple of months ago
Suddenly the “little guy” in turning in to a big kid. He is smart as a whip and will talk your ear right off. He is organized and meticulous and precise. He saus what he means and means what he says! And he cracks me up on purpose and quite by accident. His favorite snack at my house? A cup full of parmesan cheese and a spoon while he watches a movie.
Hunter-the Movie
Here is a little project Hunter and I did a couple of days ago. He was in a dancing mood, but not so much a talkng mood, but still…he is Hunter!
Dear Hunter-Magoo, You KNOW I love you and miss you when you’re gone on your ministry travels, but I love that you are learning to love the world for Jesus! Happy Birthday, Star Wars Boy! Hugs and a million-ga-ZILLION kisses from your Nonna!
My ONE-THOUSANDTH Post!
1000! One…THOUSAND!
My blog is almost 4 years old. This is the 1000th post. But there are over 30 posts in my drafts folder waiting…just…waiting.
I started blogging 1409 days ago (11.29.06) a.k.a. three years, ten months and nine days ago.
Graphomaniacal. In a word. And if I could always sum things up in one word, there would not be this blog…with 1000 posts.
Oh, and as it happens, today is the one-year anniversary of the day I turned 50. Or as some negative-Nellies like to call it: turning 51. Sigh….
Aka – 18,628 days old.
Tre took the photo of me, Stormie added me to the Sesame Street gang. Some one else had posted the original pic and “1000” sentiment and I swiped it from Google-images. Makes me happy. ;p
The most recent change to the blog is a new HOME MOVIES page.
October Glow
“Just before the death of flowers,
And before they are buried in snow,
There comes a festival season
When nature is all aglow.” – Author Unknown
I am always mourning summer’s end, but really. Could we have had a more perfect month than September was, than October is? Fruitfulness in the garden, warm, sunny days and cooler nights? Slight breezes and swaying branches. Green grass, blue skies. I see a little color starting to paint the tips of Aspen leaves out the back door. October’s glow is golden and warm as I continue to carry in armloads of tomatoes and cucumbers, zucchini and squash.
No actual autumn rain, but a gorgeous autumn, nonetheless. Pie, mmm….and coffee I received in Montana! Delish!
…I have been younger in October than in all the months of spring… naked air late morning my love is for lightness… – W. S. Merwin, The Love of OctoberGod bless him, Rocky requested pumpkin pie for his family birthday celebration the other day. Early cool morning the house smelled of brown sugar and cinnamon baking as yellow and orange sunbeams rose slowly, then erupted into a merry dance and if only I could have stopped time…
Amelie (trying a new look) and her mommy.
“October is nature’s funeral month. Nature glories in death more than in life. The month of departure
is more beautiful than the month of coming – October than May. Every green thing loves to die in bright colors.”
– Henry Ward Beecher
“Where on earth have you been?” the lemon cuke scolded. She was miffed at my absence while I was in Montana. “You can see what has happened here, can’t you?” Yes. I could and I had warned her of such trickery when the sunflower had perched so slyly in the tomato row. Yes, he’s offered his shoulder, but just as soon as lemon cuke was entwined, depending heavily on Sunflower for support and tomato thought a forever friendship had been established, he turned his head and bowed out. Oh, still he is there, less cocky than before and slightly bent over, but he is of no use to them now. Once the dashing provocateur, now a shadow of the promise.
Not to worry, I comfort heartbroken lemon cuke. The birds will soon peck his eyes out. {I cannot help laughing at myself for thinking such violence, and lemon cuke finally gives in with a faint smile…} The spell broken, lemon cuke returns to her garden square, esteemed and protected by King Zucchini. Summer has ended. Farewell, oh dashing Helianthus Tuberoses. Fare thee well … {the birds really are gonna pack his eyes out!}.
We took a colorable version of Picasso’s “Guitar Man” and wrote blessings and words of love for Rocky for his birthday as part of the song of his life (this year is all about song at our celebrations…ask Wrex about “Rocky mountain guy” hehe!)
Today the pool is packed away.
{But it DOES kinda still FEEL like summer…*b i g smile!*}
Rock on, Birthday Boy!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROCKY RHOADES!
Looks like tonight, the sky is heavy
Feels like the winds are gonna change
Beneath my feet, the earth is ready
I know its time for heaven’s rain, it’s gonna rain
Little boy grows up.
Look at you, Rocky. My little boy grew up. The shadow of the child with the thick black hair (mullet) and short legs running zig zags over surfaces and walls and ceilings, I can still see from the corner of my eye at times. I brace myself when you walk into the room these days – what joke or orneriness will ensue? Will you tickle me (undoubtedly) or try to scare me (most certainly) and when can I breathe relief as you move on to another target?
Rocky with Amelie Belle, September 2010
Oh, you were a bundle of delightful energy, you were all boy-defiant and strong-willed. You were all the brother your sisters could handle and you pushed their limits nearly every day of their lives and don’t they love you all the more for it, now?
Rocky with Averi earlier this year
‘Cause it’s living water we desire
To flood our hearts with holy fire
Rocky with Jovan, the love of his life
But before me stands a man, an honorable and good man. He is rugged and handsome, he is gentle and humble. He loves his beautiful wife and he dotes on his little daughters, and they sure do love their daddy. He is strong and gifted, capable, yet unpretentious. You are turning out, Rocky Rhoades. You are have turned out to be a wonderful man! Your mama loves you – can you tell? ;p Like a rock!
Rain down all around the world we’re singing
Rain down can you hear the earth is singing
Rain down my heart is dry but still I’m singing
Don’t you worry ’bout a thing!
Just when I thought you’d drive me insane, when your boldness and courage collided with your young teen-aged hormones and you questioned everything about everything and I wondered if I’d totally missed instilling in you what I’d wanted to, when you were about 13 and God showed me in an instant, as I was walking in to Burlington Coat Factory in Westminster and an evening snow was beginning to fall, that I shouldn’t worry. He showed me I’d raised a David (your true given name ~ David Allen Rhoades II, and a Psalmist) mixed with a bold, impetuous Peter (the “rock”). My heart breathed a sigh of relief, strength to see you through the teen years.
And wow-o-wow, was I ever happy when, within a few days, you said aloud that the 2 people in the Bible you most related with were David and Peter. YEAH! Thank-You, God!
Back to the start, my heart is heavy
Feels like it’s time, to dream again
I see the clouds, and yes I’m ready
To dance upon this barren land
Hope in my hands – yeah,yeah
When you were just 2 as a ring-bearer in LeAnn and Ron Barnes’ wedding. With your 3 big sisters. We were practically our own 1980s “hair band.” Haha!
Time to dream again!
Then you read Psalm 112 and told us, as a young teen-age kid, no less, that YOU wanted to be that kind of man. A Psalm 92 man: whew! What a joyous relief for your mom! And that IS who you are and the grace into which you are continuing to grow and go towards. That is your life scripture and your future, Rock-man. It is your description, you calling, your destiny and your promise! And because you choose this, I have all confidence in your life, your future. Go get ’em, Rocky, my unshakable: wealth, riches, light, blessing, good, security, honor and all the rest!
Hope IS in your hands, baby boy! You can count on it!
Rain down all around the world we’re singing
Rain down can you hear the earth is singing
Rain down my heart is dry but still I’m singing
Rain down.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to YOU!
Give me strength to cross the water – Keep my heart upon Your altar
Rain down, rain down!
Give me strength to cross this water – Keep my feet don’t let me falter
Rain down.
Do not shut the heavens
But open up our hearts, open up our hearts
Your mama loves you like a rock!
VIDEO: This is when Rocky took a few months of voice lessons in 2006 so he’d know how to sing it up without damaging his vocal chords. His instructor threw a recital for all of her students. It isn’t a worship setting, so there is some awkwardness in the set-up and maybe even a little in the response, but he brought it! And every time he sings this song, I can almost see the heavens opening up to pour out a blessing.
Happy Birthday, beloved son. May the heavens pour you out a blessing you can hardly contain and I hope you just get drenched! Soaked! You and your family, too!
Love you, Bo-Bear…mom
Four Fast Years
Happy Anniversary Jovan and Rocky!
Jovanie – you know how I always tell you that you were born to be one of us? Well you really were and I am so glad! LOVE YOU GUYS! Love my Rocky and Jovan and all the beauty their love and marriage bring in to our lives!
Rocky + Jovan = Two adorable daughters {Averi & Amelie}
and lots ‘o L O V E !
