Category Archives: 2 Mi Familia

All things family-related. My husband and me, the children we made, the grandbebes that thrill us now. Our whole great big, loud, messy family. Love! *sigh…

Thought-Collage Thursday // What it’s all a-bow-wow-wowt

August 21, 20142 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually Thinkdogs, family dogJeanie

Woof-woof.

I don’t know why this cracked me up so much, but when I came across it a few weeks ago on Pinterest, I just fell in love with this cute pup! From Pinterest Everybody else is doing “phelfies!” Why shouldn’t he?

Bark. Bow-wow!

Image seen on Pinterest

I think we are drawn to dogs because they are the uninhibited creatures we might be if we weren’t certain we knew better. They fight for honor at the first challenge, make love with no moral restraint, and they do not for all their marvelous instincts appear to know about death. Being such wonderfully uncomplicated beings, they need us to do their worrying. ~George Bird Evans, Troubles with Bird Dogs

So true!

5 Dogs I’ve loved

1// Lady – she was in my home before I was. I have no idea what type was she was, but I just know she was always there – waiting for me when I was born. And she was part of our family. Then one day when I was 10, while I was playing at Nancy Lydon’s house, my mom called and told me to come home because Lady had been hit by a car. She was old and blind and deaf and just went and sat in the street. And somebody just drove over her. The end.

I sort of remember thinking I didn’t want to have to cry over a dog again. But I would – many more times.

2// Red – he was a mess. We had just left my beloved childhood home in Des Moines and moved to an acreage 180 miles away. And this big German Shepherd mix kept lurking nearby, scaring us, barking at us. But my mom, who can talk to the animals {for real}, kept pursuing and coaxing and talking sweet to him, convinced that he just needed her love. We learned he was from down the block and my mom believed there was abuse, plus Red looked to be starving.

Finally, mom gained his trust and we discovered that the owners had put rubber bands tightly around his neck, lots of them. His neck was bloody and matted and some if them had nearly grown in to his skin and she doted on that dog until little by little he let her remove the painful bands of abuse and cruelty and we kept him. From that second on, he was ours.

Red with my little brother, Danny, and little sister, Tami. 1971

I recall those neighbor kids at school saying we stole their dog, but they never bothered to come and get him back and they’d have had to cross my mom if they tried. Red was a good dog. And when my aunt lost him once while she was dog-sitting, I cried again. But he came home.

3// Duke – when we moved to Louisiana, we inherited Duke a family who had just moved away and left him. And we liked him a lot. I was a melancholy teenager and Duke was my best buddy on mild evenings, letting me rest my head on him as we looked at the stars and talked about the meaning of love.

A truck Duke loved to chase seemed to purposefully try to take him out and he was hurt badly and we thought he would die. I cried and cried and prayed and made vows to God. My mom nursed him and cared for him and prayed more than any of us and he recovered. Duke was a good dog.

But when we left Louisiana, we left him there. What on earth? We heard later that the neighbor shot him. And killed him. Booooo to that &^%$#.

4// Lady, Stephanie’s Christmas Cocker Spaniel – she was just so sweet (Lady II, to me). She was freshly weaned and the teeny one of the litter. But we knew when we saw her at the local pet store she would fit in to our family. The kids were all young, Steph was 7 1/2 that Christmas morning. Lady (named for the star of Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, obviously) just had the most pleasant, fun nature and loved us all.

One afternoon, some one at the door, another dog got riled and got Lady riled, too. And as the other dog took off, she darted after him and was hit by a passing car, killed instantly…

We only had her for 9 months, but she fit. She was right, you know? She was a part of us.

My heart was broken to bits. Don’t know if I’d ever cried so much. For days.

Finally…

My little dog — a heartbeat at my feet. ~Edith Wharton

5// Sandy, the junk-yard mutt (also known as our faithful, family dog). But there have been none like Sandy to me. Good grief, she is going to shred my heart in to pieces when she goes. We were not ever going to do the dog thing again. The heartbreak of Lady II had settled it for me for life.

But Stephanie saw this abandoned dog running wild near the landfill close to DIA. Sandy was woolly and afraid and emotionally wounded and some ignorant person had just abandoned her. Stephanie mentioned maybe bringing her home and we were very ANTI about the possibility!

But one day Dave drove out to see Steph at her office and he ended up bringing this big, 40-pound, hairy, trembling, scared-of-her-own-shadow chewabacca-of-a-dog home.

That was 13 years and almost 4 months ago (she was fully grown so we don’t know how old she really is). And oh the love she has given us so freely over these many years. She is devoted, loyal and totally a people person.

Sandy got to “play Sandy” in a community theater production of Annie in 2010. She loves the stage.

Her hearing is going – at least for obeying orders, not so much when some one opens a bag of chips 3 rooms away. Her sight isn’t good – unless you drop a bite of something on the floor. She misbehaves and pretends to be surprised that she is being scolded. Some days her arthritis gets the best of her hips which makes her wobble when she walks, though that is generally balanced by the days she still thinks she is a pup and she runs and bounds and rolls and dances with glee.

She is showing some signs of doggie dementia – erratic eating habits, not recognizing us sometimes, pacing in the dark – just not herself. *sniff, makes me sad

But then she is suddenly ok again and I become certain she’ll be fine forever and we’ll always have Sandy. One day I will experience life without so much dog hair to vacuum, but I will never be ready for Sandy to leave me. Not ever.

Ruh-Roh

This was our photo goal:

{Source}

Omygosh! Barbara Streisand is 72 and rocking the high-heel pumps. So…

This was all we could manage. Another day, perhaps. Ha!

Some one desperately needs a their hair brushed (and the dog, too). Current.

Oh Sandy, you sweet, old dog, you. I love how you watch me from the corner of your eye when I have told you to look away while I eat. I love how you patrol the yard and make a ruckus at the hint of the first sprinkle, as if you can hold thunder and lightening at bay. I love how you chase the birds loudly one day, then share your water bowl the next while you just look at them inches away from your nose. They are not afraid of you at all. And you’re a bird-dog. I love your big, brown, pouty eyes and how you know when I need a friend. Oh, pooch, you’re killing me.

You know there will be blogs, right? Many, many blogs about my heart breaking. Because she is going to do that to me.

My goal in life is to be as good of a person as my dog already thinks I am. ~Author Unknown

The Dog Song

Needed something silly. Sandy-the-dog is napping with utter dereliction as I write and every home with a dog in it is just a little bit more alive, ya know?

Dogs’ lives are too short. Their only fault, really. ~Agnes Sligh Turnbull

PS ~ I am babysitting my grand-dog, Tuppy-the-Puppy

Her familia is in the Springs. It’s the dog days of summer, for sure!

Wheels of Love Go ‘Round*

August 18, 20142 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually ThinkCotton Jenny by Anne Murray, dave and tara powers, Duck Dynasty, grandbebes, jovan rhoades, rocky rhoades, ross and norma moslander, stephanie kelley, stormie rhoades, Tredessa and Ryan Faaland, tristan kelley, Uncle SiJeanie

Mi Familia…

Happy 57th Anniversary, Mom and Dad

Wheels of love go ’round
Love go ’round
Love go ’round
A joyful sound*

Ross and Norma Moslander (also known as my mamala and pappasan), married August 24, 1957. They are my parents, the two people I adore and most admire in the universe. Like most kids, I suppose, there were so many things I was going to do differently as a parent. Then I didn’t. Or I did and found out their way was better, anyway. They are both amazing and flawed, both extraordinary and just plain human. But their trajectory has always been headed towards heaven, walking with Jesus, being guided by the Holy Spirit and the closer they get to their goal, the more perfect they become.

My mom thanks me each Mother’s Day and on my birthday for making her a mommy – everything she had ever wanted. I love them! And I’m so blessed to have them as mine!

He ain’t got a penny
For Cotton Jenny to spend
But then
Wheels go ’round*

Another grandbebe is on the way!

That’s right: you heard me. GRANDbebe #10 is due at the end of February 2015. He or she will be Tredessa and Ryan’s second child. Eight-month-old, Evangeline Lilly made the announcement at church wearing a shirt that said, “Only Child, expires February 2015.”

Singing through the Decades

Tara (my firstborn) and her husband Dave are back with a concert follow-up to the wildly successful, sold-out show they did for Valentine’s Day at the Mad Cap Theater in Westminster.

This concert is called Decades, where, rumor has it, they will sing some of the best love songs from various , you guessed it, decades in the past. They are pulling out some of my favorites and I don’t know if I am suppose to tell, but one is a very sexy version of “Let’s Stay Together,” and **maybe-maybe-maybe** even “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” one of my mom’s all-time fav songs (she wants me to make a video of pictures of my dad and add that song as a soundtrack – how cute is that???).

Anyway – the concert is at the historic Armory Center for Performing Arts up north and you can get tickets at dtp.eventbrite.com. It WILL be sold out, so buy early. I get a pass ‘cuz I am their mom! :)

Rocky @Rez.org & other places

Rocky just started a new phase of life and ministry at Resurrection Fellowship in Loveland. He’ll be leading worship a couple of weekends a month and engineering sound in a super-cool exposed brick office with a full-blown recording set-up. He is a little bit in heaven.

He just got back from The Big Tent Revival in Butte, MT where he led worship and just a day before that from a Rez trip to Lake Providence, Louisiana where they were raising money for a ball field there and he was thrilled to get to meet Uncle Si and some other Duck-Dynasty family. This was an explanation of the event CLICK HERE. I think there were follow-up news stories, but I live in Colorado, people.

Image from The Big Tent Revival, Photographer Tom Curry, copyrighted

Jovan is going to home school Averi this year as they transition, prepare to sell their house and move to Loveland (which, while only 45 miles from us, will still make them seem quite a ways away compared to now, which has been 15 miles). They are having an exciting year.

Stormie was at The Big Tent Revival, too

Crazy girl plays bass and sings. She uses her vacation time to travel wherever she is invited to glorify God. We like her very much!

Image from The Big Tent Revival, Photographer Tom Curry, copyrighted

You have been following Beat a Day, haven’t you? You haven’t??? What?!

Stephanie and Tristan are movers and shakers and are always doing something new that wows all of us. And they are both wildly popular on Instagram. Is that such a mom thing to say? It is! :) But it is still true! Steph is an extraordinary photo stylist, see here.

Tristan started posting a 15-second “Beat a Day” drum vids to Instagram {he is the BEST drummer in the world}} and everybody is talking about it! You MUST check it out! :) You totally have to watch the 100th beat that has exactly 100 hots played at 100 beats per minute! So cool! Also lots of beats at TristanKelley.com

So-this is just a little bit of what is happening with my people around here –

All the result of Ross and Norma saying I do 57 years ago this week!

*”Wheels of love go ’round” are lyrics from the song, “Cotton Jenny” written by Gordon Lightfoot. But it was the first song I ever heard by Anne Murray. I was 12. I loved her low voice and I still sing this song around the house! A lot!

The Holy Wild

August 12, 20141 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & SeasonsJeanie

Even in the most suburban of lots, house-bound on every side, a mere speck in the greater-metro area landscape – there are things happening we I too rarely take time to notice.

Psalm 66.4 “All the earth bows down to you;
they sing praise to you,
they sing the praises of your name.”

What is this thing, that the older I get the less interested I am in man-made paraphernalia and the more fascinating I find unfettered creation, its endless variations and complete autonomy? How have we come to live so that nature, seeing the Creator in His most beautifully expressed perfection, just enjoying the world God has made – is confined to the 2 week vacation we have planned somewhere “away from from it all” or the occasional hike up a mountain and then we are back to car motors and concrete, air-conditioned homes and a tidy, boxed little version of this vast universe?

Created {creative} life is actively engaged and fully alive and we can participate, but we spend an awful lot of time looking at handheld devices, staring at blue-glowing screens, don’t we?

Aspen leaves shimmer as the sun breaks over the rooftops…

Takes one to know one

I feel land-locked. I have the sliver of a backyard that I actually do work to make enjoyable and as “natural” as possible, suburbia be darned. But I do have to think of the HOA…When I’ve lived in a small town, I have longed for the city lights and easy shopping excursions. But when that is the reality, I yearn for a pastoral setting with chickens for eggs and goats for cheese and a horse, of course. I guess I am hard to please. And I forget to just notice the miraculous wonder all around me each day.

After reading Wendell Berry earlier this summer {click here}, I knew I needed to just start to see what is happening in the little universe that is my backyard again. So much is going on, it turns out, when I am so unaware, just a few feet behind a picture window. Life is happening, life abundant.

Psalm 65.13 “The meadows are clothed with flocks of sheep, and the valleys are carpeted with grain. They all shout and sing for joy!”

This is a test.

I went out to be still and quietly observe in the early morning, then the evening. Here is what I saw…

In spite of my predetermined locations, plants go wild and grow where they wish. No-see-ums throw raucous parties, throwing caution to the wind by dashing in and out of sunlight – knowing they can be seen in that instant, yet daring the birds to get them en masse.

Morning light dapples its way across the lawn

The sun slowly rises and though the shadow remains very still across the lawn, barely quivering Aspen leaves get caught in the beam-fall of bright morning light and gently shimmer against the dark green velvet background. All else is still, very still while the sacred dance is performed. All creation is at worship…

A black and translucent dragon-fly looped around me playfully at one point, daring me to give chase. Luckily my camera was nearby and when I wondered how I’d ever keep up, sweet thing just landed beside me on a rusty old milk can and smiled pretty for the picture. When he bid farewell and flew to another part of the garden, I decided to walk over and check a patch of sun-scorched grass, which I generally am irritated over, but which I decided to go view with mercy, to determine if I should re-seed or wait for cooler days to revive it.

Lo and behold, there in the middle of the little patch was a baby Mourning Dove!

Two Mourning Doves have made a home for their growing family in my Austrian Pine. Even though they are much too large, they often try to check up on me by lighting on a narrow edge just outside my window. They keep quite busy in their comings and goings and home {nest} improvement projects. And now here, in the brown and greenish corner of my lawn sat a plump baby dove. I asked if she was OK and where her parents were and I saw her heart was palpitating wildly as she checked me out, too. She’d obviously been instructed by her mommy not to talk to strangers. Just beyond, behind some rocks was her younger brother, slightly smaller and much more trepidatious about my presence. I stretched out on my belly in the cool grass, still slightly damp from last night’s rain, and we just looked at each other for a bit. Not long later, mommy and daddy dove returned and the happy family cooed and much happy wing-whirling (the distinctive sound they make upon each arrival and departure) ensued. Family, together again. Mourning Doves, I have since learned, eat seeds only, which explains the choice of the scorched spot – where seeds of every kind get caught on their way by.

Psalm 96.12 “Let the fields and their crops burst out with joy! Let the trees of the forest sing for joy…”

Isn’t life amazing?

I went to inspect a particular pepper plant that seems to have a nightly visitor who enjoys leaf-munching. I mean, it is there amongst a row of pepper plants, and yet, one by one, the leaves of said pepper plant have disappeared to the stem, munched right off. I am sure it is a cute furry something or another, but I have called a neighborhood watch by the nearby tomatoes and basil varieties and given the other peppers a scolding for not reporting this travesty. Thievery in the garden will not be tolerated!

Just then, a tiny toad hopped right onto my foot and then off again. It couldn’t have been more than an inch long and must have thought I was a statue or something. I reached down to see if I could catch him, for wouldn’t the grandbebes think he was delightful? And his hopping became very high and zig-zaggy. I’ve never seen a toad go so fast. Just as well, he’d have peed in my hand, no doubt.

Square-foot gardening, my attempt at taming the wild

A few hours later, in the shade of the Austrian Pine where the Mourning Doves live, where it comes together with mountain rock and the ever-spreading shiny-leafed Pachysandra, we spotted a very, very large spider (aren’t they always very large?) weaving a web for his nightly dinner. It had reddish diamond shapes on its back and worked quickly and efficiently, a 2 foot x 2 foot area. A peek into the space beyond and you realize there is this whole life system happening and my presence is of absolutely no consequence, even though this is “my” yard.

How did God do this?!?

Romans 1.20 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and divine nature…”

I decide I should take a quick look at my woefully neglected garden boxes and see the purslane remains abundant {taking seriously the command to be fruitful and multiply}. It’s a weed because I didn’t invite it there, but it is also a sign and reminder that if I did nothing in the garden at all, if the world went crazy and the stores shut down and food was scarce, there are edible things in the back yard. I could live without starving off the purslane alone. Now add in the sneaky dandelions that plant themselves in established gardens and emerge strong for the feedings and my ongoing war with those resilient garlic chives, I could subsist on some very green and tasty stir-fries.

The setting suns each day are becoming more colorful, more brilliant and deep. And just as you catch your breath from the painted skies in the west, a super-moon emerges and all over again, you’re in awe of this planet, this place God fashioned.

It’s 11 o’clock pm as I write this and the leftover brilliance of the super-moon is dazzlingly bright in the sky just outside my window. A cool breeze is rolling in and I have the urge to sing “Somewhere Out There,” like I always have when the moons are big and full. What do you think the neighbors would say??? I’m just a speck. I’m a blade of grass. I am so lucky to get to drink in the air, enjoy dappled sunlight from my patio on quiet mornings, swing in the cool of the evening, listen to grandbebes splashing in the pool or zooming down the slide. And all around us, even here in this tiny, suburban slice of the globe, all of creation is revealing the invisible God, the Creator of all and all of His eternal power.

Leaves and weeds, grass and seeds, web-weaving spiders and gnats and beetles, ladybugs and dragon-flies, the birds of the air, my old dog…revelations of God, all!

I mean – wow! This is what is happening. Right here in my own backyard!

Know what’s lovely?

August 12, 20142 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

Just some of life’s goodness, odds and ends and blessings. A list.

1.

Ruby red grapefruit, all tart and tangy thrown into a bowl of brilliant, sweet, red watermelon for breakfast. Juicy, cold and delish! They make good bowl-fellows.

2.

Grand-girlies and bubbles. Or hopping into the pool and out again. Jump-jump-jumping on the trampoline. Swinging up in the air so high. Music and singing and more bubbles and chasing. Hair trains. Hair trains are wonderful.

hair-train (noun) // lining up like train cars to fix each others hair, first one direction, then the next; best when Nonna gets in on the action

3.

Frozen with the grand-girls, too. Because they sing every song, with heart and soul. And if you haven’t seen Frozen yet, don’t watch it with Amelie. She likes to tell what’s about to happen before it happens. She does it to be nice, so you’re not surprised. :)

4.

After dark trampoline jumping and singing the Frozen songs {again and again} at the top of your lungs. I hope the neighbors thought this was as great as I did.

5.

10 o’clock pm water-bottle bowling.

Here is how:

Get 10 water bottles and remove the labels.
Use food coloring to create various colors.
Throw a glow stick into the bottle and screw the lid back on very tightly. We used the glow-bracelets, which weren’t very bright. But I think glow sticks would probably be better.
Arrange bottles in a “pyramid” shape. 1 bottle, then, 2, then 3, then 4. You know how bowling pins are arranged, right?
Get a ball (we used a wooden croquet ball) for rolling.

Each player gets three rolls to knock them all down and keeps a tally of their own points (10 points per bottle down, a little math thrown in for good measure) and must show a little grace to a certain impetuous 4-year old {Amelie Belle} who may or may not choose to overhand throw the wooden balls with gusto, thereby winning every game with colorful, glowing water bottles scattered in her wake.

My camera couldn’t capture the prismatic fun after dark, but it was. Later the remnants, multi-hued water bottles, sparkled a reminder on a rainy afternoon:

6.

And tomatoes from the garden. It may be mid-August, but I am still utterly undone each time I cut in to one and taste this magnificent tang and sweet and depth and power of all of the summer rains and warm sunshine right there on my tongue. These garden tomatoes don’t even remotely seem related to the red things you buy in grocery stores or the anemic, transparent slices on a fast food sandwich. Not remotely the same.

These? These are all of heaven laser-beamed into a small fruit, the reward of a little sweat and patience, some love and desire culminating in the blood-red taste of life. The tomato.

You knew I had to mention the tomato, right? Because they are lovely!

7.

Finally? You know what is really lovely? {{*** Y O U ***}}! Thank-you, my children, my friends, my familia – anyone who happens by, for reading through my silly lists and observations and indulging my zeal for my grandchildren and tomatoes. These are such small, inconsequential things to discuss in light of the horrendous crimes being committed against children around the world, the wars and rumors of wars, the complete dishonor/disdain against life and the Creator of life. But these simple things remind me of Him, anyway.

God, help us. Make us grateful and make us see the injustices and take action against them, for the love of the simple and abundant life You have allowed us. God, show us how...

Happy Birthday to the Lovely Guinivere!

August 6, 20142 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Thinkbirthday blessing, birthday blessing for granddaughter, speaking a blessing over familyJeanie

Happy Birthday, Sweet-Guini!

Steve Stanton Photography

Guinivere Eden arrived in the wee morning hours, the ones that still feel like night.

I was in some luxurious mountain hotel on a staff retreat and had barely gone to sleep in the room-sized bed when the call came: our first granddaughter would be arriving soon. Breathlessly I re-packed all the things I’d just unpacked. How exciting!

Zooming down the mountain and across the continental divide under a sky-full of stars we went. Down, down, down and straight to the hospital where, in the first light of a sunny, stunningly beautiful day we held her, her blond hair glistening as it caught the morning rays, grandbebe #3. Third time was most definitely a charm!

I tell Guini now, nine years later, I’d zoom down the mountain and cross great divides for her again. Anytime.

Her Indiana grandparents were on hand to help her celebrate turning 9 last week. Here she is with her older brother and younger sister, enjoying Starbucks.**

Guini is my “flower girl.” She doesn’t like tomatoes. Can you imagine that? MY granddaughter, flesh of my flesh and she doesn’t like tomatoes! But early on, she zeroed in on flowers. Barely able to talk, we’d roam the yard and she’d stop at each variety and ask, “What’s this?” And I’d tell her and she’d try to repeat it – cutest thing ever.

So when she came for a visit and found some small flowers from the garden center I hadn’t planted yet and grabbed a small table to set up her very own flower shop, well, I knew then, like the Cowsills sang,

I saw her sitting in the rain
Raindrops falling on her
She didn’t seem to care
She sat there and smiled at me

And I knew (I knew, I knew, I knew, I knew)
She could make me happy (happy, happy)
Flowers in her hair, flowers everywhere

I love the flower girl
Oh, I don’t know just why
She simply caught my eye
I love the flower girl she seemed so sweet and kind.
She crept into my mind.

How fitting for a girl whose middle name is “Eden,” a garden God Himself planted. I once made a video for Guini using that song (when she turned 5). See it {HERE}.

She recently worked on this art project in my living room. Guini meticulously watercolored each carefully chosen hue…Every coffee table should be used for something this wonderful.**

She is content in spirit. Her soft smile is authentic – not one given to outrageous enthusiasm nor dramatic meltdowns, she is as sweet as she looks. She’s a little quieter than many of my adorable grands, but oh the rich tales she has to tell.

Her wry sense of humor is so keenly developed, her ornery way of seeing things sharper than the average 9-year-old. She aces her school work without breaking a sweat and is such an incredible big sister to Gemma and a girl who admires and finds her older brother, Gavin, to be the most hilarious friend ever.

She came over in June to help me do a ballerina cake for her little sister. I thought her little arms would tire, but she was all to happy to pipe some shell trim and makes stars. She did the whole thing!

Just recently I’ve become aware that I’m seeing glimpses of a young woman emerge. Giggling with cousins one minute, then having thoughtful conversations with me about what she wants to do with her life next, and a slight turn of her head and did I just see the grown up Guini? Time doesn’t just pass, time flies with the speed of light.

I sure do love you, Guinivere!

So of course I need to pray some blessings on you! These are things I pray for you and words I speak as gifts for you straight from heaven. Long after I am gone, you’ll always have them to come back to. If ever you need to know what your life is about and what is being put together in heaven for your benefit on earth, you can come back to this little altar of remembrance, by faith, and know that these things are yours, in Jesus’s Name! :) Amen? Amen!

“The LORD God planted a garden, eastward, in Eden…” Genesis 2

I just know Isaiah 58:11 in a scripture for you, “The LORD will guide you always, He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your bones, and you’ll be like a well-watered garden. And like a spring of waters, whose waters just keep flowing” (paraphrased). Absolutely!

I pray your thoughtfulness and gentle spirit will be welcomed and received by good people who see you, really see you (and I hope I will always be one of those).

I pray that the fruitful garden of your life and love and joy will be shared by many and will feed and bless lots of people in this journey called life. Just like so many of us right now even are!

I bless you with increased creativity and ability to see beauty in the simple and the simple in the complex and I really pray you will have great prosperity (enough for yourself and much to share) in doing something you completely love in life! I hope you do get to have that cupcake business, or raise horses, or have a flower shop. Whatever you want to do, Guini-Poo, I know God can bless it and make it go well for you!

AND I pray that your 4th grade year will be the most fantastic and fun school year of your life. I pray that the classroom you’ll spend so much time in will feel good and that the teacher will be fair; that you’ll have at least 5 favorite friends, people who are nice and encouraging and that you can be the same back. I pray that this school year will open your eyes to fascinating things and that there’ll be plenty of celebrations and festivities along the way.

I bless you, my sweet. I bless your heart and smile and your love and your kindness. I bless your awesome sense of humor and every single one of your freckles. I bless you when you come to see your Nonna and when you go home again. I bless you as a granddaughter and a girl who cares about other people. I bless your taste and I bless your style and I don’t ever want you to forget how much you are LOVED! I love you, girlie. And may this Happy-Birthday-blessing go on and on…

{{the Nonna!}}

**photos by her mommy www.maydae.com

33 Years in the Making

July 31, 20142 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Thinkanniversary, dave and jeanie rhoades, lasting love, lasting marriage, wedding anniversaryJeanie

A really beautiful, fruitful garden takes time. It can’t happen overnight. It takes planning and planting and sunshine and rain. A fruitful garden must be tended…

33 Years in the Making

A marriage, a life, an enduring friendship, a love that lasts, a love that creates, a love that makes a place, a love that can still be silly, but wildly, seriously passionate, too. It takes 33 years to fall so hard, to break-up and make-up because there simply is no other there there. In good times, in bad…

It takes 33 years to have 5 kids and see them grow into human beings you find to be more fascinating than you can believe and to let them become, watching as bits and pieces of yourselves walk around the planet doing well – doing good, bringing glory to God by being who He made them to be. Thirty-three years.

It’s like a blip on the radar screen of time, but this time, our time, this love, our love, these days, our days – they have taken us 33 years to navigate, to tame, to experience, to taste, to cry over, to hold close, to run from, to do badly and to do well. In times of joy, and in times of sorrow…

It has taken us 33 years to get here. I…take you…to be my…

And oh yes, there have been bouquets of flowers and you’ve heard more of my laughter than anyone on earth ever will. And there have been love songs and passionate kisses and just plain times of sweet satisfaction with the life we have lived as honorably as we could and with the children we have raised and their children, now, too. For better…

But there have been agony and night seasons that sent friends fleeing for the hills and you have caught my tears and moved closer to bear my pain. And we have failed miserably sometimes as lovers, sometimes as parents, and as a family, and we’ve had to labor with intensity through great pain, harder than can be imagined, to repair the breeches, restore the losses. For worse…

It takes 33 years for this to be: for us to be us, for the children we raised to be the people they are, for 9 beautiful grandbebes to reward our fruitfulness with so much joy and delight. To have and to hold…

This blessed life was not built in a day, nor in the heated passion of our fall into deep love. It has taken 33 years of rights and wrongs, and good and not-so-good, but overwhelmingly lovely, oh-so-very lovely, love-filled days to get here, with you. For in the times there was nothing else to do, we have lived on love.

It’s taken 33 years for me to have more than I ever hoped or dreamed and more than I deserved. You are my home. Please keep me. :) For as long as we both shall live…

We are not of the “selfie” generation and it takes us 30 or so tries to get us both in the picture, centered and looking roughly the same direction. This was at Peaceful Valley in the Rocky Mountains last week.

Happy Anniversary to the father of my children, to my life, my love, my home, the man of my dreams, and my most trusted friend {a spot well-earned}. Thank-you for your faithfulness, your steadiness, your commitment to love even when it has been challenged, and for knowing who you are in Christ. You’re the strongest man I know.

“You are so handsome, my love,
pleasing beyond words!
The soft grass is our bed;
fragrant cedar branches are the beams of our house,
and pleasant smelling firs are the rafters.” Ecclesiastes 1.16-17 NLT

It took 33 years to create a home and garden so fine.

July 23, 1981 was a wonderful day to begin the work of love.

{Remember When}, a song … <<< click on it

PS // Oh, and – I know this is a long, serious blog post. I could just as easily have said: Dear Dave, I love your brown skin and strong arms. Plus your gorgeous hair and incredible lips. I love having your body in the bed next to me night after night and that you and me got to make this sweet family and still get to make out anytime we want. Happy Anniversary, lover. Signed, Me ;)

Feelings, nothing more than feelings

July 30, 20142 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Thinkcross roads by wm. paul young, good feelings, good life, things that feel good, wm. paul young quoteJeanie

Things that feel so good, body & soul. A list.

Amelie and Kai in conversation

Body…

Fresh sheets.
Cold showers just before jumping into bed on hot summer nights (with wet hair, of course).
Having my hair brushed.
A kiss on the cheek. Why are there not more cheek kisses? Must I go to Europe?
A real, honest-to-goodness, arms wrapped-tightly hug from some one who really loves me. And I, them. A good hug says, I surround you with my love, my devotion, my protection and all my resources. I embrace who you are. You are not alone…
The rich smell of my Rocky Mountain Thunder coffee brewing in the morning. The short wait is agonizing and tantalizingly aromatic.
The sound of real Rocky Mountain thunder just before a late afternoon storm. Heard several times this week.
Splashing in rain puddles with a grandbebe following one of those short, but powerful downpours.
Playing in the summer rain with my mutt because I don’t have anywhere to be and I don’t mind getting wet. In fact, I find it liberating – recalling the joys of childhood – back before hair styles and hair products had to be worried about.
A really good watermelon, so sweet and a little tangy, with a pleasant scent. After months of storing up the power of the spring and summer rains and bright, hot sunshine, cut open to be enjoyed, ice cold deliciousness. We ingest a hundred days of life-growing goodness {rivers of juice and mountains of red flesh} in the eating.

Soul…

Laughing so hard you cry real tears. Then you get to laugh again at the remembrance.
A movie theater with no one else there – and a movie you can just get. in. to. Perfection!
Watching a Youtube video so touching, you get goosebumps.
When an important person you admire and respect stops everything and gives you the simple gift of time, just time.
Getting to sing songs with some one who loves the music you love.
When you fall head-over-heels in love with the song because the melody is amazing and the words – the words(!) could have been something you could have written. The songwriters who tell our stories are insightful and extraordinary human beings, even if the artist who communicates them so well do get most of the glory.
Being understood. Being forgiven. Being liked. Being needed. Being valued.
When you haven’t blogged for a month and some one checks to make sure you’re ok.
Being a wife, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a mom, a nonna – knowing you’re a woman with a million things to be grateful for and a good-enough sized group of people to love and share life with. As Amy Grant sang, “Baby, baby, I’m the lucky one.”
When some one just goes the extra mile for me in some way. Why is that so surprising these days? It opens my heart and soul right up – makes me feel so generous and apt to do the same thing back. So if we all just started going the extra mile…imagine it!

Averi (6) and Amelie Belle (4). No shopping trip would be complete without some team-work balancing feats.

The immensity and grandeur of life continually absorb and eradicate death’s power and presence.

-Wm. Paul Young in his novel, Cross Roads

Life is the quicker-picker-upper. ;) What keeps you fully alive and living and feeling good?

My Birthday Wishes for the Treasured & Deeply Beloved S-I-L, Dave

June 28, 20141 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Thinkbirthday blessing, birthday blessing for a son, birthday blessing for a son-in-law, dave and tara powers, dave powers, worship and the word movementJeanie

To celebrate the anniversary of your birth, I have words…

Of course, I do. Many words. Still, some 12 years since we met, I am so grateful you married our daughter and became a son to us. She wasn’t the only deliriously happy person about that, you know. You were an answer to prayers and a fulfillment of hope and Tara’s dream come true. :)

If for no other reason than that you chose my firstborn and love her so deeply (and have blessed us with two spectacular grandsons), I’d think you were extraordinarily smart and wonderful.

But there are many reasons I love and admire you and my heart is tender towards you.

There have been incredible times since you became one of us, since the early days when we could suddenly be in the room with you: you, so well-liked, so sought after and admired and we could know, beaming with pride, he’s one of ours. You married the beautiful Tara and got the bunch of us, foibles and frailties and all. As mother-in-laws go, too many times, I haven’t been the one I had planned I’d be and for that, I apologize. I hope for all the times I have failed to encourage and bless you and for all the times I may still let you down in this winding path called life, you can find it possible to forgive me.

But I hope you do realize that I love and admire you and my heart is tender towards you.

Thinking about you turning 33 has had me reminiscing {of course}.

Three sweet memories on your 33rd birthday

1// I remember years ago, when your hair was longer, some person(s) started referring to you as a surfer-dude, which was a totally erroneous label just because you have the ability to adapt immediately to culturally distinct people groups, one after the other, rather effortlessly. But was a silly summation.

Because, like Paul the Apostle, you can be Greek to the Greeks and a Roman to the Romans, skater to the skaters, or mighty man of prayer among the intercessors. You are fluent in joy-speak and compassion-mixed-with-mercy is a native tongue for you. Because you’re able to adapt and flow as easily among Christian-magazine-produced minister’s meetings as you are with well-known rockers-saved-by-grace backstage at festivals, an old-timer mistakes you for merely a surfer-dude, with no offense to surfer-dudes.

It may have never bothered you a bit, but it irked me that you might be boxed in.

Because the point was and is – the apostolic anointing, the call. You fit. You have what it takes to be part of many groups and streams and situations. I so very much admire your courage and ability in this.

2// I was also remembering a late summer night in 2006 in a barn east of Brighton. It was a night of ordination, really, doors open wide and the warmth of God’s smile permeating the atmosphere. The sun dropped slowly giving way to twinkling stars signifying God’s good pleasure as rich worship rose heavenward. I watched as you and Tara, in almost a second wedding ceremony of sorts, the sacredness so palpable, became wholly united (one voice, one heart, one mission), stepping out from the safe into the holy wild. Worship and the Word Movement revealed.

And those of us in that barn that night, the small group of us privileged to stand on that holy straw-strewn ground, were witnesses to divine oil poured out from heaven. We were the yes and amen as we watched this man and this woman courageously say YES with everything they had and we stood in agreement and echoed from our hearts, yes, so be it, Lord.

You had already gathered the familia around your table a month earlier and we’d spoken blessing and prayed over you, then, for this movement-to-be. But the barn night, it was a night of nights, as we all watched you emerge, your voices blended, such power pulled from deep places of humility. You could practically hear a thunderous “This is my beloved Dave and Tara, in whom I am well-pleased.”

It was one of the most amazing and powerful nights I’ll live, I guess. I was so honored to get to be there, watching, pondering, treasuring the beauty of God’s call on you both, as one. So grateful I got to witness the birth of something of this magnitude, so full of favor.

Philippians 1:3-6 – “I thank God every time I remember you. In all my prayers…I always pray with joy…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

3// Then there was this festival we did together.

Man, those years meant so very much to me. In case I ever forgot to tell you or if time and circumstance has obscured the telling, thank-you for letting me be a part. I mean – God gave me something to share there, but how many men would be brave enough to let their mother-in-law be that close, anyway?

I love how God prepared me ahead of time {I still love the memory of the surprise of it} and you had the discernment to recognize and receive that and welcome me there. I will ever be grateful for that. It was the time of my life.

A blessing for you as we celebrate your life and look ahead this year…

And now, let me bless you and pray over you a little and impart some things I want you to remember. Is that ok? Let me assure you: I have asked God to edit me and I promise to do my best on letting Him! ;)

“Dave, may the Lord bless and KEEP you. May He make His face SHINE upon you and BE GRACIOUS to you; may the Lord turn His face toward you and give you PEACE.” (Numbers 6:24-26).

I bless your life, David Michael Powers. I bless the days He has planned for you and I thank God we get to be included in your fascinating so-many-cool-things-to-come story. How very wonderful for us! I bless the days we have known you so far {of course I do!} and all the ones we have left! You were uniquely crafted and specifically designed for God’s great purposes in these particular days on the earth. And to be in our familia. Now that is the coolest part!

I know God rejoiced when He was fashioning you in the secret place, and could not wait to celebrate and boast when you were born. Your parents both beam with delight when they are around you. I know they are soaking in the love of God in you, on you and through you! So I bless you to know {really know} the height, depth and breadth of His intense love for you – not for what you do or have done {as fantastic as it all is and will be}, but for who you are, as a man in his image and after His heart.

I bless your marriage to my lovely Tara-girl. She is the best thing I could ever give you. And we did so gladly present her to you at the front of that church as the setting sunbeams blazed through stained-glass windows but couldn’t hope to match the bright light of love passing between the two of you! There was not hesitation on our part in seeing her be joined to you, become one with you.

We raised Tara to be your wife, to love you, to walk in covenant with you. And we stood as witnesses that day to your marriage union and so we continue now to bless and pray protection over your marriage. We recognize what God has joined together and we pray that you are ever increased in love and oneness and laughter and mystery and discovery and romance and passion and friendship and rest. I pray that the wife of your youth will bring you joy and delight all the days of your life.

I bless you as a dad to the two magnificent grandsons you brought into my life {and God bless Hunter and Malakai!}. I pray that if there is any special grace or anointing or gift or heavenly blessing on my family of origin or me, that it be poured out on you and Tara and that through you it would be generationally passed on to Hunter-Magoo and Kai-Kai. Just the good stuff, though! :)

May each of your beautiful boys provide the opportunity for you to impart and teach and discipline and love and advise and find understanding about God’s heart towards you. And I pray you’ll have the wisdom to know how to bring them up, individually, to become the men God created them to be and that your ministry in your household will remain foremost in your heart.

And is it ok to say I am praying for increase and another blessed bundle of sweetness for you, too? Well, I am. Please do not refuse the gift of God in this area, and in fact: work for it! ;)

Worship. I bless your song, your music, your worship. I bless the psalmist in you that brings pleasure to the Father and Peace into the room. Your song opens many doors to many rooms and the song of the Lord, well, it is enemy-defeating, battle-winning treasure.

Word. I bless your leadership and pray you’ll be bold and humble and settled. I pray you’ll complete the things God started in you and through you. You have influence through your words of understanding. I remember seeing a glimpse in February 2003 and saying, “One day I’ll say ‘I knew him when..'” These are those days and I bless the work of your hands, the words of your mouth, and I pray that all the things you do and say in His name will bring God all the glory.

Movement. I bless you as a man of God, a man’s man, strong enough to be gentle. You have everything you need for the next step, the next rooms, everything. Hebrews 13:20-21 – “May the God of peace…equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Finally ~ May you live securely and have full supply (full!). And may you be filled with the measure of all the fullness of God (can you even fathom what that will look like?). I pray your joy is full as you walk the steps God has ordered for you, that you are satisfied and content. But also challenged and surprised!

I pray these things with abandon, I bless you with all I have which is so limited, but also by all He is and all His promises, which are so limitless.

2 Timothy 2:1 – “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

And the birthday guy sings…

He’s one of my all-time favorites. Ever!

I started cautiously liking you from the time we met (May 2002, Could he be for real, I wondered?). Then, very quickly, my admiration grew and I loved you deeply. I still do and my heart is very tender towards you. Always will be. On the occasion of the celebration of your birth {Happy Birthday!}, just wanted to say so. {mom}

Happy Birthday to Dessy

June 24, 20142 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Thinkbirthday blessing, birthday blessing for daughter, daughter, family birthday blessing, family birthdays, tredessa, Tredessa Rhoades FaalandJeanie

June 13, 1983 was this amazing day…

So, this may be the latest I have ever been in posting a birthday blog, but the added days have only made me ever more grateful for you, the day you were born and all the days since…

I know, I know – I am always reminiscing about the days you kiddos were born and how those sacred, over-the-top-amazing moments changed my life forever. Maybe I see them through rose-colored glasses, but your arrivals were, to me, so monumental, so divinely, lightening-bolt powerful. Well, I mean they were like day six in the garden of Eden, the day God made man in His image. That’s a pretty big deal, I’d say.

And you own June, Tre-Tre. You own June days and purple irises and rose bushes in full bloom. You are the sound of cheering at church ball games and yellow layettes and a handmade diaper bag in dotted-swiss, Easter green, embroidered by Grandma with love. You are a hot summer and a headful of black hair with big, lacy barrettes that had plenty to hang on to. You are the baby girl who arrived to two of the sweetest, giggliest big sisters who mentioned you in their nightly prayers, calling you Twe-dessa-Christina (even though it should have been Tredessa Christine).

You were born in to love, a mommy and daddy who were still newlyweds, madly in love with each other and church life and our three little girls and afternoons splashing in the backyard wading pool while the radio played, “Never gonna let you go...”

You just slipped in unobtrusively and cuddled into a little corner of our lives and hearts and then we were 5, our little tribe. And 1983 is so special in my heart for your arrival. And June became a month I revere and romanticize for your birth. And you, my little mystery, were heaven-sent, without a doubt.

Happy Birthday to Tredessa Christine, my 3rd baby and the centerpiece of the little Rhoades familia.

Hey, Dessy-Pooh, you are an extraordinary woman, you are! I am still thanking God He sent you to us, He formed you and fashioned you in very interesting and distinct ways. You possess such strength, such deep-rooted fortitude, I’d put money on you over a tornado any day. Best of luck to the winds and waves that try to defy you, one who so deeply understands her place in God’s heart. They’d just as soon die down and whimper away than try to quench the fiery wall that is Dessa. Seriously.

Intrigue and espionage, power and war

You, my sweet (hasn’t the whole family always known?), could run America with your brain and mighty valorous heart, the wisdom of God and your anointed insight! The FBI or the CIA would be in good hands with you at the helm, if you decided against a bid for the White House, that is. :) I leave nothing outside the realm of possibility, for you, an Esther, a Rebekah, a Deborah, for sure – you are a viable leadership option for the healing of this nation in the hands of God. I for sure BELIVE that! Now if you can somehow miraculously do it without becoming a politician…

But that is the thing. You could and you will do amazing things in your life (because you have already started and accomplished so much), but your strength is that you are willing and always content to wait on God’s timing in your life, for your life. So few of us have mastered that or want to. The vision that speaks of the end (Habakkuk 2.3): Give it to me now, we demand. But not you, Dessy, you wait with a twinkle in your eye, a knowing in your heart, a calm spirit and determination in your step.

“For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” Hab. 2.2-3

And you have a wisdom beyond your years and haven’t you used it to challenge my imprisonments, to bring enlightenment and yes, even some correction to your ol’ momma? You have. I will answer that for you, you little booger. ;) And I take it from you.

But what else could I do from a daughter who has repeatedly, intentionally received the counsel of her mom and chosen to accept all God had for her through even me for her own life? I love that you know we were paired by God on purpose and that you have searched for the treasure in it, even when it has been hard to find at times! I appreciate you giving me credit for many of your wonderful attributes even though I know you far surpass me in most everything you put your hand to…perhaps just – everything!

I love that you still look for the things you can learn from me and call for baby advice when, like your sisters, you are a completely incredible mommy, so much smarter and better equipped at it than I ever was, but still, you ask me, “What did you do when...” and “How did you handle..?” And the years roll back – back – back and I am in 1983 again and just so grateful to God for the blessing of you that June day you were presented to me from Creator and for the blessing of you now.

So, let me speak this blessing and prayer over you as we celebrate the day you came and the life you are leading, woman of God, devoted daughter, admirable human being:

God make you righteous and strong and able. May your Creator deal with you as He does with the Daughter of Zion in His Word. His patience and loving care for His people is sure and He considers it an affront to Himself when the enemy threatens His royal offspring. And so I remind Him daily to guard and protect you the same way.

May God bless you and watch over you and keep you.

I pray that not only will He see you and notice you and hear you, but that you will know He does. I pray that not only will He hear your prayers and hear your heart’s cry and answer you in days of trouble, but that you will never forget to call out to Him.

You are quiet and not given to voicing every little thing, but at the faintest whisper from your lips, I pray God is watching and will attend to you, as He promised. May He bless you, spirit, soul, body, in fruitfulness, mothering, love and marriage, may He bless you.

I pray that you will prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. I bless you on the occasion of the celebration of your birth and life with the blessing of God and His watchfulness over you.

May God shine His face toward you and show you favor and great grace.

I know your light and life make God smile. They make me smile. So, I pray that the warmth and power of His outrageous love for you and Ryan and Evangeline and all the little Faalands-to-come will just radiate like fire in you, through you, around you and for you.

Write words that will change everything, Dess. Soak in the Word of God for all you’re worth and love it and live it and stand on it for your home and marriage and life and mommying and calling and walk worthy because you are {in Him}. Bring order to chaos, spread numbers on sheets and make accounts whole and holy (those things you do so very well) . Speak out what God tells you because your words bring life to the lifeless, hope to the hopeless, and courage for the battle.

May God be favorably disposed towards you, and may He grant you peace.

I pray God just face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball gives you His absolute approval and you have the courage and grace to just receive it and soak it in. So that all those dreams you and Ryan have – dreaming of ways you can support the things of the Kingdom, all the plans and aspirations that are bubbling up in both of you to change the world and make a place for the Presence – may you be courageous and bold and strong and take hold of them.

{Remember the little girl whose favorite worship song for many years was “Be bold, be strong, for the Lord thy God is with you! I am not afraid, I am not dismayed, for I’m walking in faith and victory, yes…”? I do! I believe her battle cry took root!}

And may you live in peace, peace with God and with man and may your household be a place of rest and joy, refreshment and grace.

Beloved daughter, treasured friend~

I couldn’t have dreamed you up. You are beyond anything I could have asked for or even thought a daughter should be. You have been a delight since I first laid eyes on you in Kokomo 31 years ago. You’re a peacemaker, a thoughtful friend and an honoring daughter. May you receive and reap the full benefit of all you have given and sown to be so. I love you truly, madly, deeply, my darling daughter, my girl-child. {With love from your oh-so-thankful mom}

Thought-Collage-Thursday // Here’s What’s Up!

June 19, 20142 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Thinkrob sheffieldJeanie

How great is this video?

Summer is like

…sweet red radishes, bright orange gardening flip-flops and the greenest grass that grows by the minute. Summer is vibrant color.

…the sound of my grandbebes splashing in the pool, the deep conversations they have while drying out and warming up on the trampoline, then back into the pool, splashing, giggling, threatening to “tell” for being splashed more than they might have just done the splashing…and laughing some more. Summer is for kids.

…the first tomato sighting, the square foot garden neatly planted with each square full of tiny veggies, in ones, 2s, 4s, 9s or 16s – before it suddenly erupts into wild fruitfulness and a bounty that is hard to contain but oh-so-delicious! Summer finds me happily puttering about the garden whenever I can get there!

…the Coppertone-SPF 30 scent of youth and a sun that lingers long in the sky, which I love. And the sting in my eyes as tanning lotion melts down my face while I work outside, which I do not at all care for. But summer smells like Coppertone and Johnson’s Baby Oil, as it should. And maybe a spritz of Love Spell.

…Hot, sunny days, thunderous rainstorms to cool the evenings. The world gets soaked good and proper, then the sun comes out and “dries up all the rain.”

…Magic Radio Online (365) “Playing your favorite Soft Rock Hits, Groovy Mellow Oldies, Lite Pop Favorites, Timeless Love Songs and Classic Motown Hits!” The most sing-able set list since these songs came out the first time, and yes, folks – I was there. ;)

…corn on the cob, potato salad, firing up the grill, playing corn hole, and lemonade. Summer is so tasty.

Summer is like 100 days worth of Saturdays and Sundays all in a row – if we do it right.

I did finish the book and it was better than I even thought it was going to be

And I wholeheartedly recommend it for some fantastic reading (because otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it at all, which you know). And I am going to be reading more Rob Sheffield. Because he can write about music like nobody’s business. I love that.

All-beef hot dogs, please

That is what Guini requested when she could have chosen any meal on a visit here. “All beef hot dogs, and please pass the jalapeños.” She is my own little spice girl.

Oh just hanging with the wildlife

It is, after all, Colorado!

#tbt Throw-back Thursday

June 2011: Gavin’s 8th birthday. We made him a Donut Volcano Cake. It was fun. The boys were so little. The wall was so red.

So, here is what’s up

Family party this weekend. Pool is up. Maybe an after dark movie outside on the big screen. Company from Las Vegas and Estes and all nine grandbebes within my reach. How blessed am I?

No matter what – you’ve got my love to lean on, darlin’

That’s what’s up!

Woof-woof.

Bark. Bow-wow!

5 Dogs I’ve loved

Finally…

Ruh-Roh

The Dog Song

PS ~ I am babysitting my grand-dog, Tuppy-the-Puppy

Happy 57th Anniversary, Mom and Dad

Another grandbebe is on the way!

Singing through the Decades

Rocky @Rez.org & other places

Stormie was at The Big Tent Revival, too

You have been following Beat a Day, haven’t you? You haven’t??? What?!

So-this is just a little bit of what is happening with my people around here –

Takes one to know one

This is a test.

Isn’t life amazing?

How did God do this?!?

Leaves and weeds, grass and seeds, web-weaving spiders and gnats and beetles, ladybugs and dragon-flies, the birds of the air, my old dog…revelations of God, all!

Just some of life’s goodness, odds and ends and blessings. A list.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Happy Birthday, Sweet-Guini!

I sure do love you, Guinivere!

33 Years in the Making

It took 33 years to create a home and garden so fine.

{Remember When}, a song… <<< click on it

Things that feel so good, body & soul. A list.

To celebrate the anniversary of your birth, I have words…

But there are many reasons I love and admire you and my heart is tender towards you.

Three sweet memories on your 33rd birthday

A blessing for you as we celebrate your life and look ahead this year…

“Dave, may the Lord bless and KEEP you. May He make His face SHINE upon you and BE GRACIOUS to you; may the Lord turn His face toward you and give you PEACE.” (Numbers 6:24-26).

And the birthday guy sings…

June 13, 1983 was this amazing day…

Happy Birthday to Tredessa Christine, my 3rd baby and the centerpiece of the little Rhoades familia.

Intrigue and espionage, power and war

So, let me speak this blessing and prayer over you as we celebrate the day you came and the life you are leading, woman of God, devoted daughter, admirable human being:

Beloved daughter, treasured friend~

How great is this video?

Summer is like

I did finish the book and it was better than I even thought it was going to be

All-beef hot dogs, please

Oh just hanging with the wildlife

#tbt Throw-back Thursday

So, here is what’s up

{Remember When}, a song … <<< click on it