Guini was watching the family videos from my YouTube channel on our TV the other night (we love our Apple TV!!!).
She watched this one-minute snapshot of Tredessa and Ryan’s wedding with lots of oohs and aahs in fun recollection, inserting her own commentary throughout:
“Ooooh – where am I?
Oh! There’s Amelie!
Here comes the bride!
They kissed.” {insert giggles here}
As the video came to an end she concluded,
“And then – happily ever after.”
And she was off to the next video. :)
It was about 34 years ago this week I arrived in Minot, North Dakota to attend Bible College. While researching content for a paper, I happened across an ad in a Moody Monthly (the magazine, not the periodical female condition) for an album featuring Stormie and Michael Omartien. Stormie was not yet mega-famous in Christendom for books on praying, though they were both established in the music and entertainment biz.
If you have read here long, you know why I was going through an intense spiritual awakening. I won’t re-tell at this moment, but suffice it to say. I can’t recall what I was researching or even for which course. But simple words impacted my heart, as if straight from heaven to me.
I couldn’t hum you a part of the melody to save my life. I have only ever actually heard the song once, I think? But time and again, the lyric that jumped off the small, perhaps 2 column x 3 inch ad, that fall day in 1978, that lyric – it keeps reading my mail and making good sense. Time and again. 34 years and counting.
“…you feel like you’ve lost control,
And the valleys seem so low,
Well it’s not forever, just a season of the soul.
If you could step away just to see how far you’ve gone,
If you would take the time just to be what you’ve become,
You could have the time to grow,
There would be a chance to know,
That it’s not forever, just a season of the soul.
If you don’t rest when the Winter is here, what will you bear in the Fall,
A time to cry, a time to sing,
There’s a time for everything,
Nothing lasts that long.
Don’t look at what you see,
And just keep your eyes on Me,
I won’t let you go wrong.
It’s not forever. It’s just a season of the soul.
Thank-you, Stormie Omartien. And yes, I loved it so much, I eventually named our last child for her. :) Read the story {HERE}.
1. I like recess.
2. I have a nice teacher.
3. My new shoes.
Grandson Gavin took this picture of granddaughter Averi up in Estes Park a few weeks ago.
I have this recurring dream. I am a little girl in a field of flowers and I am twirling and dancing and just making God smile. I haven’t had it this year. :( I realized when I saw these Averi pics, in my dreams I am about 4.
It is Dr. David Jeremiah’s Life-Changing Moments with God – Praying Scripture Everyday.
She has been through several copies now and buys them for people she loves a lot. But she actually gave me her first copy. It has notes from 2009, 2010 and even 2011 in it.
My mom is not of the “journaling” era, but it became her journal-of-sorts. It is the record of her prayers for her family. In it, she shares day-to-day happenings in the margins (“Found a bird with a broken wing today on the sidewalk. I placed it in the shade, but it died at 7 o’clock pm“), and things she is praying about (“Praying THIS for Joe today.”). As she reads and prays through it, her Webster’s Dictionary is always nearby so she can read the passages mentioned and write down synonyms and word meanings (“Shield: defense against blows.”).
Dr. David Jeremiah is wonderful. The prayers are great. But my mom in the margins, the yellow highlights, the exclamation points and little stars, along with underlines and double-underlines, these are the words of life. Don;t even get me started on her bold arrows…
Numbers 23.19 NKJV
“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
James 1.17 NLT
“Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.”
Hebrews 13.18 NKJV
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Psalm 91.4 NIV
“He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”
Hebrews 6.17-18 Amplified
Accordingly God also, in His desire to show more convincingly and beyond doubt to those who were to inherit the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose and plan, intervened (mediated) with an oath.
This was so that, by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God ever to prove false or deceive us, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge might have mighty indwelling strength and strong encouragement to grasp and hold fast the hope appointed for us and set before [us].
Deuteronomy 7.9 NKJV
“Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;…”
Psalm 25.10 NKJV
“All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth,
To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.”
Psalm 146.5-6 NIV
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
he remains faithful forever.
we who have fled [to Him] for refuge might have mighty indwelling strength and strong encouragement to grasp and hold fast the hope appointed for us and set before [us].
I love the little grandbebes. The whole cake-making deal came from their sweet requests and imaginations.
Last year, Gavin had a donut volcano and this year, for her 7th birthday, Guini told me she wanted two things: [1] donuts and [2] three great big tiers.
I really really really want that, she told me.
I figured there was a way to give her the tiers and the donuts.
I just took my everyday dishes out of the cupboard and stacked a bowl with a mini-casserole with a plate and then a coffee cup, another plate and another coffee cup and finally one last full-sized diner plate.
Since we were having breakfast with the fam and the donuts would be eaten quickly, I wasn’t really worried about the whole thing toppling, but just in case, I put some hot-glue dots on the rims of the coffee cups to “glue” it all together. Because {little-known fact} when you put ceramic with hot glue into the freezer for few minutes, the hot glue will pop right off, as if it was never there.
So voila! An easy tiered donut holder that only took about 3 minutes to assemble. It would probably work for cupcakes, too.
It took another 2 minutes to pile the donuts onto the plates and we were off to the races!
Guini loved it and that makes me happy. We filled it with big, puffy yeast donuts and decorated cake donuts, too. There were Crullers and Entenmann’s powdered sugar mini’s and the little chocolate-covered donuts, too. We topped it with a Mexican pastry for color and to hold the candles.
Guinivere’s mommy and daddy fixed a lovely breakfast buffet for us all – to offset the dozens and dozens of donuts on hand.
It was a lovely way to start a Saturday morning, the whole familia there, except for Ryan, who had Guard this weekend. All six of my adorable grandbebes celebrating 7 wonderful years of Guini-muggins. We adore her!
5 of the 6 graced our lives for the night.
Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!! Averi wins the quote-of-the-day for both last night and this morning.
Last night, Averi (4) and Gemma (5) were fixing my hair and each other’s hair – brushing and affixing clips and just little-girl-talk. Gemma mentioned going to JC Penney’s to get her hair done for school. Averi asked her, “So, you went to the cilantro? So many people go to the cilantro to get their hair done, even me.” Salon, cilantro, whichever. :)
This morning I poured some grape juice for each of the kids into Dixie cups for fun. Hunter cracked me up by walking in, looking at the breakfast spread and commenting, “Oh, communion.” Hahaha. But Averi, sipping her juice expressed to me,
“Mmm. This tastes just like campaign. I love campaign.”
I don’t think she was referencing the presidential campaign. So, I think she was referring to champagne and I want to know what her parents are plying her with for breakfast over at their house???!
Revelation-of-the-day: Ohhhhhh – this is why we used to have to buy milk in such quantities!!
The morning after: Gemma and Averi have picked up last night’s work again, whereupon they are both “in charge” of Heaven Fest and I can now retire. They are busily writing contracts and drawing site plans and declaring Free time for everyone! The main thing Averi wants me to understand is “We’re in charge and I am in charge.”
And that is the truth.
“I’m at the top of the world looking down on creation and the only explanation I can see…”
From Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado, the Rhoades bunch has gathered in gorgeous Estes Park, Colorado. Dad (Raymond) Rhoades is celebrating turning 90.
It isn’t actually the “top” of the world, at 7522 feet above sea level, but it is high and the view (you should have seen the sunset from here last night) is kind of tremendously breathtaking and coupled with the cool mountain air? Yep. Good times.
Oh, Guinivere. You were my very first grand-girl ever! Can you even imagine how much happy-happy-happy that made me? We already had the wonderful Gavin and the cutie-pie Hunter, but when we got you::wow-o-wow! It was a day of joy!
Grandpa and I were up in the mountains at some meetings for our church. We were waiting for you to be born, but you were just staying put! Then, very late at night, just when we had gone to sleep, we got the phone call: Stephanie and Tristan are having their baby girl! We jumped out of bed as fast as we could and we zoooooooomed down the mountain to get to the hospital.
Not too much later, we got to see our brand-new, blond-fuzzy-headed Guini. And how perfectly gorgeous you were! And that day was one of the lightest, brightest most beautiful days I had ever seen and I know it was because you were born. And Guini? I am looking out the window and it is beautiful today, too – just for your 7th birthday.
Here is a biblical blessing just for you kind of from Psalms 96. Live your life for Jesus, Guini-kins. He loves you and you were born to bring Him praise! May you always be found making Him smile!!
Sing to the LORD, Guini! Sing a brand new song today. Tell everyone to sing with you! You can even shout about how good God is everywhere you go! Find the lost and hurting and tell them the good news, too! Because God is just so great and He deserves to have you and me worship Him! He does!!!
So let’s tell everyone how amazing He is and just invite people far and wide to join us in hanging out in His beautiful presence, in that glorious place of rest and sanctuary He has for us.
Sometimes, Guin-Guin, just even get down on your knees to worship Him. You know what? Even the trees and animals show their worship to God. So let’s just live life doing that and o, how blessed we will be when He comes again.
Rejoice! Be glad. Praise Jesus!!!
I LOVE you, my Guini!