It was a nice, quick response to this post! CLICK!! Now don’t forget those grasshoppers!
Dave and I have lived in a few places (Minot, ND; Kokomo, IN; Sioux City, IA; Norfolk, NE; Denver-forever), different houses. And my parents have been all over since I left their home, too (Hobart, IN; Willard, OH; Richmond, IN; St Joe-MO; Butte, MT; Springfield, MO; back to St Joe-MO). I visited my parents in their current digs in Saint Joe early in the year. The house they are living in? Not home. No. But my parents? Wherever they land, is kinda home to parts of me. I always need to know where they are and what their house looks like so I will know the space my heart is rambling about in. Mom and dad are the fixed stars in my sky. LOVE them!
God, it seems you’ve been our home forever; long before the mountains were born,
Long before you brought earth itself to birth,
from “once upon a time” to “kingdom come”—you are God. Psalms
While we were at the Moslander Family Reunion last week in Chicago and Northwest Indiana, us old-timers took a late-afternoon, impromptu drive through the old neighborhoods; saw places we had worked and schools we’d attended and the house we called home. It is all the same, but so different. The huge mountain spruce in the fron yard at 4995 Roosevelt Place, trimmed to above roofline and barely clinging to life now, was once a full, thick, green privacy wall between the house and street. There are pictures there of my brothers in their graduation attire and even my babies running on the lawn from way back when. The juniper has all been removed in favor of more manageable potted flora. The dings Tim and my other brothers put into the side of the house playing baseball in the 70’s are still there, a testament to long summer days spent with a bat and ball in hand.
And we actually were just a few blocks from the Jackson family home in Gary, Indiana, btw!
The streets of Gary used to be positively frightening during business hours, the traffic heavier than the city had prepared for. The business district I used to drive is nearly a ghost town. Boarded up windows and abandoned buildings everywhere, yet minutes away, there are still quiet neighborhoods with established lawns and trees. You can buy a beautiful brick bungalow for $15,000 (the for sale signs made of cardboard and black marker) there on an empty street. The same would cost 1.3 million in Denver.
Surprisingly, standing there in the old yard, looking at the house in conjunction with neighboring homes and recalling old times and people from the past, it didn’t seem smaller. Often you’ll return to a childhood haunt and you’ll just feel like, “Wow-this seems so small now.” But that wasn’t the case at the Roosevelt Street house, the last home we all shared under one roof, the place my kids remember going to see Grandma and Grandpa Moslander. It really didn’t seem smaller.
It just seemed like: wow-how did this house ever hold all the life and loud love and laughter and memory and family and patio swimming in a 12-foot pool and Uno, all the huge bags full of 19-cent White Castle burgers after church ball games, or Bronco’s Pizza with 5 pounds of melted, dripping, greasy cheese, and church friends and Lake-effect wind and graduations and marriages and teen-agers and letter writing and boyfriends and girlfriends and Lake-effect snow and family altar and family feuds and kids and toys and books and WGN afternoon movies with our first color TV, first jobs and rusted out cars and Tip Top and Bible study and early morning prayer and first grandchildren and the first few spouses and all the rest of living that the Moslander family brought to it?
And it yet stands as a testament.
* LOVE Bon Jovi’s song, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home Again?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abzbVFuxigg
He was pretty excited to have beat me. I only have 4 tomato plants this year and he has 3, but he got the first tomato out of the deal, a tiny, green sphere getting ready to turn into a gorgeous red tomato. Yum. We were so happy.
Then, to Gavin’s great excitement, we noticed he also had a pepper on his little sweet pepper plant. Glory be!
“I’m the luckiest boy in the world!” he told us.
Be still, my melting, proud, love-filled, gooey-sweet, this-kid-is-amazing heart. He gets the gardener in me because the same heart beats in him, too. Gavin and I were born to be sustainable-living-backyard-farmers. I am the luckiest Nonna in the world!
If you could see his eyes (I stink at photography), you’d know they were happy!
Hunter is at the most hilarious stage. He likes to make me laugh and will pose for pictures for me. I caught a few before he jumped in the pool recently. He loves pulling out his Kung Foo Panda moves. I laugh every. single. time.
In 3 months (the less-than-90 days between March 23 and June 19), we’ve had Dave-the-husband’s birthday, Amelie’s first birthday, Stormie’s quarter-of-a-century birthday (plus moving her into her first house-she is a homeowner!!), Tara’s super-early-30sbirthday and Mother’s Day. We had Stephanie’s birthday, Gemma’s birthday followed closely by Gavin’s lava’d birthday, Guini and Hunter’s Kindergarten graduations, Wrex’s birthday, Tredessa (28) and DP’s (30th) birthdays and Father’s Day. There have been 2 major Heaven Fest dinners and a couple of big-HF-family-meetings with all the trimmings and even Luka had a bday
The first grandson turned 8 and we all gathered for a happy-Saturday-morning breakfast-party. I used strawberry Jello for the “lava,” but even though in the trial run the actual liquid didn’t ooze out, but rather just red Jello-bubbles travelled slowly over the sides, no one wanted me to put more Jello in, afraid the donuts would be drenched in it, ruined for consumption. PLUS my dry ice melted down to 2 tiny slivers overnight. Guess I need a lesson in dry ice!!? Gav and I will have to try it again sometimes when there is no Jello-sogginess-concern. With LOTS of dry ice. A red explosion!!
Gavin’s dinosaur cake when he turned 4, I think, was sort of the beginning of my “cake adventures.” He keeps making life fun. Love that boy!
Wrote about his birthday:: H E R E. We did a double-celebration for him and Tredessa with a big Rhoades-family-Mexican meal. Cilantro rice and carne-asada steak tacos plus pulled pork green chile tacos and all the things that go with those. Dave wanted strawberry shortcake for his birthday. Tredessa had Lazy Peach Dessert (see below) for hers. Naturally Wrex performed a song for Dave and noted all his “famous” phraseologies (i.e. o-my-hinkin’-harry, bro-ham-and-cheese, etc) and even mentioned his penchant for v-neck tees. Stef is a master lyricist! Dave got the blessings and encouragements from the fam and Tara played him a most appropriate Brad Paisley song, “It Did.” [see here]
And she had a lovely birthday with him. I wrote her b-day blog:: H E R E. Then the double-celebration with DP. She got a song from Wrex and it was a little on the ornery side, which Wrex believes brothers should do. It was hilarious. It fit right into the tune of “Take Me Home, Country Rhoades,” if you can imagine. She is an amazing woman and in love, which we like.
Lazy Peach Dessert by Jane Hagelstein
From the October 1988 issue of Family Ties (the monthly newsletter of New Life Church of God in Norfolk, NE). But I actually have the handwritten recipe card Jane wrote it on. Beloved and quite in shambles.
My best advice for this in Colorado: wait until the western slope peaches are ripe and juicy and cause you car to drive itself to a roadside market where the scent and taste literally scream: DELICIOUS! Yeah. They just aren’t quite right, yet, these California peaches. Huh-uh. Nope.
Shortbread crust:
Combine 1 cup oleo* 1 3/4 cups flour 2 tablespoons sugar dash of saltLightly pat into glass cake pan (if you push it in hard, it will be tougher and less light and pastry-ish and amazingly wonderful). Bake it for 15-18 minutes in a 350-degree oven. Cool.
Peach sauce topping:
2 cups sugar 2 cups water 2 tablespoons corn starch 2 3 oz packages peach Jello 1 tablespoon oleo*In a saucepan, blend and cook water, sugar and cornstarch until thickened and clear. remove from heat. Stir in Jello and oleo until dissolved. Cool.
Assemble
Slice or chop 7-8 ripe peaches (sometimes I make them all beautiful and perfectly uniform. Unless they aren’t great peaches anyway…like this batch). Distribute over the top of the crust. Pour over the sauce. Put in the fridge for at least 2 hours (overnight is best). Cut into 12 servings. Top with whipped cream.
You may also make this dessert with canned peaches, Jane Hagelstien noted (so Nebraska) or use fresh strawberries and strawberry Jello.
*Oleo, for my dear children, was another name for “margarine” back in the day. Just use REAL butter instead and all will be well!
Complete wih a custom song for him by Dave and the girls to the “Wolfcreek Pass” soundtrack. Love this guy. There is not a more genuine, giving and generous man than Wrex. His parents did a great job, but if he were ever in the market for new parents, we’d apply for the job. He is just a cool guy. That is why God blessed him with the gorgeous Stefane and the two of them with the loveable kiss-kiss, Princess Sawyer. LOVE them all!
Dave chose his fav worship songs. We sang along to guitar accompaniment, all the current favs, but it morphed in to pulling out all those old songs from the years the kids were growing up. Pretty hilarious. Songs you never really want to sing ever agin, but in this context were pretty fun. “Lord, I lift Your name on high. I’m so glad to sing your praises…” Haha.
Artwork by the grandbebes, found the next morning. Mixed media:: chalk and stickers on concrete. Intrigued by the block that say, “Aim for the head,” and the stick figure identified as “dad,” albeit backwards, with a huge bunch of snot coming out of his nose. Haha.
NEXT UP: Summer starts June 21! Today! YEAH!!
Time to relax a bit with some lollygagging in the garden and floating in the pool and you know, a little thing called Heaven Fest. www.heavenfest.com
We made it!
The sun will return in a bit. And everything will be pure and whole and clean and glistening. Or maybe a tornado will power through. The conditions seem inclined. But for now…
***********
Yeah! Some of you joined me. Joining anything takes effort, so I applaud you! Thank-you. You are keeping me accountable, too! Come on, Tami, Dave, Stef, Joe & Robin (??), mom, Stormie, Heather, Marilyn and Dawn: hold my feet to the flame!
Slowing down to let it sink in. It is really not that much to read at once, or especially if you are separating it into the morning and evening readings, as is a more traditional, high-church approach in daily meditations. I actually read all of the first 11 Psalms at least 3 times, some, more. I need to learn to stop, meditate, think them through, sloooooooooooooooooooooow down. Yes, I do!
The very final words of Matthew 14 just exploded in an almost-summary of this whole Jesus story, didn’t they?
“…And all who touched Him, were healed.”
Wow!
Also diggin’ on Matthew 13, which is all about being a {backyard} farmer like myself with the Parable of the Sower, the Parable of the Weeds and the Parable of the Mustard Seed. When the disciples asked Jesus why He spoke in parables, he explained,
“Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you…”
That is where I learn all the secrets of the kingdom – when I am planting and weeding and sowing seed in the garden.
As for the Psalms, I just have always loved the third chapter –
But you, LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the LORD, and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.
Followed shortly thereafter by Psalm 5.12, that favorite scripture that says, “Surely. LORD, You bless the bless the righteous; You surround them with Your favor as with a shield.”
I am off this morning to do a Heaven Fest Sunday in Dacono at New Horizons Christian Church with my buddies Glenn & Linette Bellew, where I will get to invite people to volunteer or hook us up with materials to keep those costs down, because, every. single. dollar. we get. from parking AND tickets – is being. given. away! Jesus, help us! There are 7 “Heaven Fest Sundays” going on around the metro-area this morning. That is crazy favor from God with the fam, gotta love the Household of Faith! www.heavenfest.com
It’s no different than cooking for 4. Except that what takes 30 minutes for 4 might take an hour and a half for 100. That is actually a pretty good ratio!
4 1 lb. boxes rotini pasta, cooked al dente and then cooled in a cold water bath (I do boil the pasta with sea salt and garlic powder to infuse more flavor) 4 x $1.18
2 1/2 bottles of Wishbone Italian Dressing (one I had opened was a Balsamic Italian) 2.5 x $1.88
4 cans black olives, drained and I cut mine into 3rds for better distribution and prettiness, but they can be left whole, too. 4 x $1.28
10-12 peppers, julienned: 2 green, the rest: red, orange and yellow. YEAH for King Soopers having a fab sale on them this week. $12
2 bunches of celery, chopped or thin-sliced 2 x $1.18
2 pints grape tomatoes cut on the diagonal (just for making it look more beautiful and so they are easier to eat) 2 x $2.48
1 container baby spinach leaves $2.98
2 8 oz. containers feta cheese crumbles 2 x $3.37 each
I tossed 1 bottle of the dressing on the cooled pasta to marinate it well and stored it in the fridge. I tossed the second bottle with the cut veggies to really coat them (except for the spinach) and stored them in the fridge. Just before serving, I tossed the pasta and veggies and spinach together with a little more dressing and sprinkled the feta over the top. Added salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. $ Voila!
Pssst….Also made Swedish Meatballs for 100, popped some gourmet popcorn, threw in 9 dozen bakery cookies, a huge tray with fresh watermelon and 6 quarts of strawberries and fed 100 HF leaders for $132 and some cents.
The sound of singing birds before the sun even comes up. In the trees just outside my window on early mornings – the song, o-so-pretty. I get all squishy-happy and cartoon-princess-romantic about it.
The mama birds gossipping about me, swooping dangerously close to me in menacing fashion, and screaming at me from the fence when I am out gardening in the afternoon.
