Category Archives: 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons

I love to garden. I love to eat. I love to enjoy the seasons. And home is where my heart is!

LOVE HURTS: Love songs that make me cry. Everytime.

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

THE RULES:  In no particular order, limiting this list to 20 {because I can be quite a crybaby} and allowing only one per artist, (although I must admit certain artists and bands could have their own lists full of songs) here are some songs that can make me cry.  They are not necessarily the top 20, just the first 20 that came to mind when I decided to make this list.  WHY?  Because, like Elton sings, “Sad songs say sooooo much.”

 

“Still” by Lionel Richie

“But then most of all, I do love you,  {spoken softly}  s t i l l…” 

“At this Moment” by Billy Vera and the Beaters

I cannot explain why this song did me in, but when it came out in the 80s, I cried my eyes out every single time I heard it.  I was amazed at the idea of loving some one so much you’d be willing to give up “20 years” of your life to have them stay, have them not leave you.  I know that is impossible to achieve, but he sang it so well, I really believed he was willing.  Still kills me.

“The Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me” by Gladys Knight and the Pips

I sang this to Dave walking down a street in Dallas, Texas in 1982, just after our first anniversary.  After almost 29 years of marriage, he has no choice but to be “there, between each line of pain or glory,” whether he wants to or not. 

“Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro

She dies.  There is a tree that grows (you know how I love gardening).  He misses her.  I hope to be sorely and grieviously missed when I die.  After I am at least 87.

“Superstar” by the Carpenters

It’s about song bringing love…”Baby, baby, baby, baby, oh baby..” {those lyrics!}

“He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones

I don’t want to spoil this for you if you haven’t heard it…boo hoooooo….

“I Will Remember You” by Amy Grant

“Our love is frozen in time…”  They didn’t allow an inbed on this song, but it is a good one you can catch it on Youtube.com   HERE:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ospToG1Y0kw

“I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt

The raw pain in her amazing voice, “I will lay down my heart, and I’ll feel the power, but you won’t…”  Whyyyyyyyyyy?  Why can’t he feel the power of it?  Is he absolutely just an unfeeling, cold-hearted jerk?

“Whiskey Lullaby” by Brad Paisley and Alison Kraus

“She put him out like the burning end of a midnight cigarette, she broke his heart…”   Brad has the words.  He writes the songs….

“Vincent” by Don McLean

I guess I love this because I suffer for my sanity, too (just kidding…sort of).

“How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” by The BeeGees

“I can think of younger days…”  You just run out of resiliency when you get to the middle…and past it.

“If” by  Bread

“And when my love for life is running dry, you come and pour yourself on me…”  That?  Is being loved.  That is loving.  (BTW~I super hate the slides on this video…this is posted purely for the song)

“Weekend in New England” by Barry Manilow

Eyes meeting, touching, strong yearning.  Don’t be critical of Barry, now.  The man can tear your heart out with his songs.  I had trouble between this one and “Even Now” or “Somewhere Down the Road.”

 

“I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton from the early 70s

I was 14.  She was leaving Porter Wagoner (I have to admit I loved that Saturday afternoon show sponsored by some powedered laundry detergent).  I didn’t know what they were going through, but that woman’s pure voice expressed words so powerful that I knew, even then, I was hearing a song I’d never forget and would love my whole life through.  And oh, I get it so much more, now.  It is one of the greatest songs of all time.  One of THE greatest.  Ever.

“I Wanna Run to You” by Whitney Houston

From “The Bodyguard.”  The lyrics reveal our feminine vulnerability.  We’ve learned to take care of things ourselves, be tough.  The truth is we need to be covered, protected.  We need heroes.

“My Eyes Adored You” by Frankie Valli

I was 14 when this came out, too.  Being 14 was a big deal, apparently, in my romantic notions.  I just daydreamed about somebody adoring me, I guess.  Such a pretty melody, sweet words, innocent and lovely.  Remember when?…

“You’re a Part of Me” by Kim Carnes and Gene Cotton

Longing. Don’t leave me, and if you do: come back.   “You’re a part of me I can’t live without…”

“Rest Your Love on Me” by Olivia Newton John and Andy Gibb

Deep down, I am a caring person.  I am an INFJ – a “protector.”  That is what I like to do.

“Sunshine on My Shoulders” by John Denver

The soundtrack to the ABC Movie-of-the-Week, “Sunshine,” the fall of 1973 (I had just turned…can you believe it?  14!).  I think it was based on a true story of a young woman married to a struggling musician who has cancer and as she is dying, she talks into a tape recorder to be able to leave her thoughts and story behind for their baby girl.  John Denver sang the title track.  Beautifully.  His voice was very important to me during this era – all of his words and melodies touched something deep inside me.

   

“I’d Do It All Again” by Corrine Bailey Rae

Love does hurt sometimes.  But this girl is not going to let it stop her faith in love.  Me, neither!

REMEMBER:  Valentine’s Day is Sunday!

Colorado Winter

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think

Winter beauty.

I grew up mostly in the midwest.  First as an Iowa girl, then a brief stint way down on the Tangipahoa in Louisiana, ending up in the Windy-City area, the Chicago territory just below the Great Lake Michigan.  The midwest winters over.  Once the snow comes, it is often there until the bitter end, just piling up, mounding against vertical surfaces and drifting the winter months away.

But then spring arrives finally and fully and the great spring thaw comes and the snow pile next to the north side of the garage, the one that may have arrived in October and has been trying hard to melt away for 6 months, does.  The annual thaw makes everything wet and it smells sweet as a summer rain for 2 weeks.  Spring has a glorious scent in the midwest.  It smells like baby-green leaves and wet, black soil and thick sunshine with a generous dollop of blue-and-puffy-white-clouded sky.

Colorado, a known “winter state” because of mountains and skiing, is not so predicatble.  In the Denver area we can get 3 1/2 feet of snow one week and be back in shorts, tank tops and high 60’s the next.  Many Christmases we are coatless and snowless and many Mays we are getting freak snow storms.  Winter can meander aimlessly throughout quite a few months here, but rarely do we endure the harsh and relentless winters of the midwest.  No one who doesn’t live here seems to know this however.  For Denver makes  the big weather news splash when we get the extreme white dumps that shut down DIA.  To the casual observer, this is a scary, snowy place.  But to us?  It is a brief interruption to daily life, one in 10 days I can’t wear my flip flops.

I love Colorado, not least of all, for its winters.

But I miss the lovely smell of rain.  Colorado rarely has that luscious essence of a cleansing rain.  I crave that.  I wouldn’t trade this weather to get it, but I miss it nonetheless.  We are semi-arrid, so desertous the thirsty ground consumes even a full downpour quickly, denying us mere mortals the chance to fully inhale and devour the rich, earthy scent of summer showers or a spring thaw.

 

Today…

This morning started out gray and dark.  It was cold with a dusting of snow.  Bleak.

But soon the sun came out.  The white flakes melted into black, wet streets.  I took a walk and guess what?  It smelled like rain.  Yes!  It was the glorious, soaked and spicy smell of precipitation.  Saturated houses and landscape timbers, fully soaked yards and sidewalks glistened and sparkled, fanning fragrant redolence my way.  And I?  Absorbed all I could because it may be a long time before it happens again.

But I will be searching for it, the sweet scent of a good rain…Jeanie

Winter tip: Yellow tulips from Target make spring seem so near.  You may quote me on that.

The Farmer Inside

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

Way down, deep inside me, there resides a farmer.

Remember the TV show Green Acres?  While I found Eva Gabor fascinatingly glamorous and interesting, I had to agree with her husband:

Green Acres is the place to be!
Farm living is the life for me.
Land spreadin’ out so far and wide
Keep Manhattan just give me that countryside! 

Were it not for having to be up by 4:30 to milk the cows and feed the horses at 5 and then getting back to the house to fix a big hearty breakfast for all the field hands, if there weren’t so many eggs to collect and pigs to chase, if I didn’t have to plow and spread, and sow and till and irrigate and seed and pray for rain and then pray for the rain to stop, if the weather couldn’t wipe out my entire crop in one fell swoop, if I could be guaranteed the livestock would never get disease or freeze to death or escape the fence I needed to have repaired, I’d be a farmer.  I really would.

Below is one of those email forwards going around.    Made me wish I had my own tractor.

OLD FARMERS ADVICE:

 Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.

Words that soak into your ears are whispered…not yelled.

Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight.

Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.

Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.

You cannot unsay a cruel word.

Every path has a few puddles.

When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen anyway.

Don’t judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time.

Don’t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t bothering you none.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin’.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.

If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

Color Theory

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

I am working from home.  I take a break to get something to eat.  I am walking back in toward the coffee table which is pulled up to the couch (where I have been sitting cross-legged as I plug away on the minutia),  carrying my 12 Kalamata olives (only for the very brave because they pack a powerful flavor sensation) and my 1/2 avocado which has been sprinkled with torn cilantro leaves, crushed-between-my-fingers Kosher salt and had lime juice squeezed over the top (I mean, seriously – your mouth should be watering right now!).

I smile when I see this:

Because ~ this is what Luke Bodley (genius boy) sees across the table when we are in meetings.  What a happy  (and pretty darn well-coordinated) pile of stuff!

My theory? 

Oh yeah, baby.  Luke doesn’t just get his color and design inspiration out of the air!  He sees my computer, my pen bag and pens, my Sea & Ski lip stuff, my meeting notebooks, my coffee mug and my planner.  And we all see the finished product!  I truly don’t TRY to make this happen…these colors just show up in my life these days.

I’m just kidding. He doesn’t need my help. Luke is a genius designer/marketing/festival-producing kid and we just happen to be in sync on retro-modern, flower-child colors right now.  Plus he loves that Colorado-blue sky and I love spring-green grass and those things just cause an exuberantly colorful explosion inside…which then appears! I really LOVE his designs!

By the way:  The planner is opened to July and there is only one thing on it:  Heaven Fest on July 31st!

Do you know why?…Because           Heaven Fest is all there is in July! 

Heaven Fest website (www.heavenfest.com).  Click here for more.

394 Moments from the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

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

394 images (give or take 10 or 12) of our recent Christmas season.

Good times.
 

  

This is the link to a Christmas 2009 page, click here! LINK NO LONGER WORKS

It was a blessed and lovely season.  We were simply having a wonderful Christmastime.  That is what you will see…in less than 400 images!

GUEST BLOGGER ~ Robin Thinks…

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, ,

Read the rest of the post here.

 Robin is one of my favorite people in the entire world. And my sister-in-love.

Concerning New year’s Resolutions, Robin has decided to forgo the usual list of to-do lists to be tackled or goals to be mastered in exchange for pursuing the following:

Joy. I want to feel joy.

Moments. I want to ponder them.

Love. I want to love loving and not forget to do it.

Hope. I want to always hope because without it, the heart gets sick as the great book of Proverb says.

Stillness. I want to be still. Still enough to see the hurts of others, the milestones of my children, the twinkle in someone’s eye. Still enough to hear the voice of God.

Peace. Oh yes..the proverbial peace. But not world peace. It will never happen for the Bible tells me so (until that great day when the trump will sound). I want peace in this life that only Christ can give me as I really, really know and trust that He is the Keeper of my life. Those are the things I really want for my new year.

And one forever, encouraging thing about any new beginning is that we get them. I love new beginnings and I love even more that as long as I have breath, God’s mercies are new every morning. He gets it. He knew we would need a fresh start and so He tells us that it’s all ok with Him. Start fresh. Be renewed and free in the start of something new.

Three Nights Before Christmas

2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 7 Keep Christmas, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , , , ,

Three nights before Christmas and all over town, there is much to be done and so many sounds…

1.  Christmas with my family is pretty loud.

“Christmas at our house was like a Donny and Marie TV Special” (who said that?). 

That cracks me up because it is like that for us, too.  Rare is the quiet tree-lit silent night, or a room full of heavenly peace for pondering and reflecting.  Even now, as I write this (on Monday night to be posted on Tuesday), it is late.    And yet, the rooms are brightly shining and daughters have materials and supplies spread everywhere, working on Christmas projects and finishing last-minute gifts.  They tease and cajole.  They drink coffee and break out into song, filling the air with movie quotes and remembrances in a thoroughly unpredictable rhythm.  Just now they are singing selections from the musical “Oklahoma,” for what reason, I do not know.  I’d like to tell them to go to their rooms and get to sleep, but am reminded they are here now by choice, a gift to me, something I treasure.  Let the madness remain.

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2.  I really do not like to shop.  But at this point, I have no choice.

I power-shopped for more than 10 hours Monday.  {sigh} I organized each person’s list according to every different retail establishment I would need to hit.  I mapped out a plan, gathered coupons and those “free money” cards I have collected from said establishments (like $10 off a $25 purchase at JCP, $10 off any purchase at Kohls!) into a folder.  I made sure to have my Starbucks giftcards for needed strength (did you know there is a company-wide shortage of caramel due to the popularity of the new Caramel Brulee Latte??!?) and most importantly, dedicated myself to having a good hair day because when you are going from morning to night, not having to worry about hair in imperative.  Then I told Dave: this isn’t a pleasure trip, you know.  The objective is to cross things off my list: quickly.

Several of my girls have asked for vintage/antique-type things so I added 3 thrift stores to my list, all within a short get-it-done radius.  When we arrived at the first one and I leapt from the car with notebook and pen in hand and started bounding toward the door at break-neck speed, Dave commented, “There.  See, honey?  This store was created just for you.”  For the big sign at the entrance read:  ARC Thrift Store ~ Shopping with a Purpose. 

Yes, I am a purpose-driven shopper. 

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3.  I will continue to complain about the weather.

It was too stinking hot.  It didn’t feel  like Christmas with the weather in the 50’s, which is seriously impeding my glorious songs of old.  But today, the temp has dropped!  Here is what I want:  Maybe the low 40’s with some big pretty snowflakes falling, but not on the streets-just along the sides so everything looks pretty and children can build men…and women.  And just cool enough so you can wear the cute hat and adorable scarf set some one has given you (along with the coordinating fingerless gloves), but you don’t really need bulky coats.  You know-cool enough that you’d look all New-England-wintry and Christmas-card-ish if you made a quick stop and took a few spins around the ice-skating rink while you were bustling about shopping, but not so cold no one can recognize you due to the outerwear overkill when, if you should fall, you would not, in fact, be able to get back up.  Is this really too much to ask for???

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Three movies that are not usually considered Christmas movies, but have great Christmas scenes in them:

[1] Funny Farm with Chevy Chase. [2]  About a Boy with Hugh Grant and [3] While You Were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock (omygosh, I LOVE this movie!).

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Three nights before Christmas, 3 French Hens, Three Wise Men, and three wishes from me to you:  peace, joy and love!

pictured: DP, Tara and Hunter’s tree farm adventure a couple of weeks ago. 

Buttery-Sugary Goodness just 11 Days before Christmas

2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 7 Keep Christmas, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

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Baking Day @ Our House

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We scaled way back this year.  We have been scaling back yearly, it seems.  But we still mananged to get some of our favorites made and even a new thing or two, keeping that oven hot  and hopping for hours.  There are the wildly popular “Thin Mints,” a shameless and absolutely amazing rip-off of the Girl Scout cookies.  The sugar cookies for decorating are made and await a coating of royal icing in delightful Christmas colors.  Jovan used her new Pampered Chef cookie press to make the lightest most buttery press-cookies, dusted in colored sugars.

Stephanie has perfected peanut brittle.  There are Mexican Wedding Cakes and Gingerbread Men, along with Peanut-Butter Kisses-Cookies and Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Balls heaped next to our chocolate-dipped pretzels and “Strawberry” cookies (which have no relation whatsoever to strawberries, other than how they look, but really are made from dates and pecans and coconut and Rice Krispies and fashioned to look like a strawberry – a Rhoades family fav from the 1950s and 60s).  And more, yes, there is more.

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Things change.

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One interesting thing this year was computers.  Looking around the kitchen and seeing 3 laptops (2 Macs and a PC) open to recipe sites – that was funny.  So much for cute recipe cards, huh?  It was also quieter and we missed Elise-the-Niece…Well, it was quieter, that is, until the boys and daddies joined us and a chaotic-Christmas-cheer ruckus ensued, fueled, undoubtedly by the pure sweetness of the ‘cane hitting the bloodstream.

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The girls swarmed poor Santa

The guys show up for dinner at 6:30

The boys played cards with Aunt Dessa while the girls took our “food orders” for chicken nuggets and muffins, coffee and salad (their imaginary menus were limited and they are sort of pushy as waitresses, these granddaughters of mine).  The ‘bebes chased each other, snuck sweets from piled-high trays of goodies and pushed Rudolph’s paw,  making him sing the Rudolph song veeeeeery loudly, at least 172 times (that Rudolph nose was flashing like a traffic light, non-stop for hours!).  I seriously wished for some one to decapitate Rudolph.  But the grandbebes?  Find him delightful.

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Gemma was particularly artistic in her interpretive dancing, inspired by her viewing of “Frosty the Snowman.”  Averi’s great joys were bringing handfuls of cookies to everyone, or unrolling toilet paper into the, shall we say, “bath bowl”, and I just hope there was no criss-crossing of these activities.

And at one point, so warmed by both this season of good will and by the way they’d been running like banchees, all five grandbebes ripped off their shirts and flung them like confetti into the air, thrilled to be set free from the confines of clothing so they could fully enjoy the twinkling lights and the Christmas music.  “We’re nakey!  We’re nakey!” Averi exclaimed with glee and they laughed as if it were the funniest thing they’d ever experienced.

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Rocky and Tredessa interact with Santa as well.

Ah.  It is the little things.

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It took awhile to find every shoe and sock and coat amd mitten (and shirt) when it came time to go home with their large trays of cookies and candies.  {Sigh}.   But we did it…almost.  I still have to make the marvelous butter-cookie dough from which will emerge Raspberry Ribbons and melt-in-your mouth Candy Cane Cookies, among other delights, and the Peppermint Bark awaits me this morning.  But most of the holiday baking is complete for another year and it is way too much and more than enough and truly not as sweet as the time I got with my girls.  And the whole bunch.

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With Love from the Gingerbread House….Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Prep more next year.