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…
A golden autumn sun pours in to the living room in full, bright force as Gavin runs from the front door and sails through the air in his magnificent jump down the stairs to the family room. He lands bent-knee in perfect Spiderman form, delighting his two sisters and his little cousin. Sweet sugar and spice girls squeal and clap and shout their praises while they run in circles throwing their heads back to laugh without reserve.
Guini is alternately power-serving her pink balloon like she is on the Olympic Volleyball team or kicking it down the imaginary kitchen floor soccer field. Gemma’s teeth make small squeaky noises against her balloon as she tries to bite it while Gavin reports on his high scores at school today in between masterful leaps into the air. Sandy-the-Dog is quite happy indeed to see the popcorn and M & Ms flying through the air as an unexpected afternoon snack. Full of sass and spunk and decked in a purple t-shirt and black gauchos, Averi saunters across the room with her hand on her hip, and up on her tippie-toes, just like I did at her age!
At exactly 3:52 pm
Out the window in the brightly-lit, sunny street we spy a pearly-white Nissan Maxima pulling in the driveway. Rocky is here! Rocky is here! even Averi cries out. All 4 kids and the dog do the happy dance, as if Rocky were a super-hero or a beloved friend returning from a far away land. He comes in the house to hugs and children jumping up and down and exclamations of love and we realize we are in the middle of a spontaneous party of delight. You can practically see the confetti flying through the air.
These are the moments.
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
Dave-the-husband writes, paints, teaches, husbands, fathers, grandfathers and now he is acting again. You can catch him this month in the newly renovated/restored Armory in Brighton with The Platte Valley Players. He starts rehearsals this weekend for his next role as Daddy Warbucks in “Annie ~ The Musical” for Prairie Playhouse Productions.
He says he is shaving his head.
I am shaking mine. I guess I’ll be able to say, “I knew him when…” But he still has to take out the trash.
December 1988. Stephanie was 6 and we left her and her two sisters (Tredessa 5 and Tara 9 1/2) home alone for a few minutes while we picked up some church supplies for the Christmas season. Wal-Mart was 5 minutes away and it was a small Nebraska city. I wouldn’t try this now, so don’t call Social Services on me, people. They were given strict instructions and told to behave.
We get to Wal-Mart and call home to check on them and are informed by the very responsible and afraid-she-might-be-in-trouble Tara that Tredessa and Stephanie were jumping on the bed and Stephanie had hit her head on Tredessa’s noggin, knocking her tooth loose.
It was very upsetting. Rushing home I am thinking, “Oh no. We have to save the tooth. Oh poor Stephanie!” But it ended up being a bottom tooth and when we investigated closely, she already had her first “grown-up tooth” coming in. Tredessa’s head was a blessing in diguise.
Having 5 kids in less than 7 years, can I just tell you we kept the Tooth Fairy veeeeeeeery busy between 1985 and the early 90’s? Then? We had to give her a pink slip.
The grandbebes enter their tooth-morphing season.
Gavin is a man after my heart. He loves to work and work hard. He spent 4 hours one day last week shoveling snow. His neighbor paid him $2 – for shoveling at his own house! But he thought it was worth that! After the Harvest Fest he dumped his huge candy haul on the floor and said, “I have to organize all this candy, Nonna!” Organization is key for Gavin, a red-headed first-born. Case-in-point, he had just organized the kitchen pantry that afternoon, emptying it of all its contents and carefully filling it back up.
So no surprise that this very detail-oriented and hard-working, freckle-faced kid only had that loose tooth for 2 or 3 days before it came out. He is very consistent and organized that way.
Love you, Gavin! Congratulations! Be sure to tell the Tooth Fairy that prices have gone way, way up since December of 1988!…Love, Nonna
youtube.com: “Snow” from the movie White Christmas; daughter Stephanie quoted this song on Facebook the other day and reminded me how hilarious the words are.
“I wanna wash my hands, my face and hair in snow.”
Thank-you, Jesus, the snow has finally subsided and the meltdown begins. By 4 pm today huge sheets of thick, heavy, wet snow were sliding off the roof in loud splats, scaring my big-fat-chicken dog. The sun re-emerged and made me very happy.
I never heard the official numbers for my city, but my own {highly scientific, I am certain} measuring says we got 13 1/2″. I know this partly because I left my 12″ ruler in place at 10 pm the first night where the measurement said 9.25″ and the next morning, it had disappeared. I had to pull out a yard stick. Dessa’s neighborhood got more than a foot and a half of snow.
If some one really is excited, as the song says, “to see a great big man entirely made of snow,” now would be the time.
pictured: snow measurement first thing Thursday morning; a huge pot of chicken and dumplings which Jovan had fortuitously requested for her family birthday party meal, as well as a balloon snowman Tredessa fashioned and Averi enjoying a piece of the very moist and dense triple-layered pumpkin spice cake with that cream cheese icing you could just die for. Hot comfort food on cold days: good!
For the past 15 years or so, Delirious, a British group, has been impacting the musical landscape with some of the most powerful songs (secular or Christian) anywhere. I heard once that the original 3 of the 5 guys were married to 3 sisters and that the bass player is the sisters’ baby brother. So they are family, then, which explains a lot!
Our own family became huge-devoted fans while Tara was a senior in high school when some one gave us Delirious? Live and in the Can. They changed everything about Christian music and influenced my kids, who were all teen-agers at the time and deciding for themselves how to follow Jesus, deeply. This group has been the Rhoades family soundtrack for these last exciting 12 or so years as my children grew into passionate pursuers of the Presence.
Their songs have become classics.
“I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” and “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble” are unquestionably songs that define our spiritual times. Their call to social justice because of loving Christ, not to garner His love, has broadened the church’s reach, made Christians more aware of a need to get out into world and make a change. There is “Majesty (Here I Stand),” and “My Soul Sings,” which have taken us to places of deeper worship. When Martin quoted the words of the 1834 lyrics of “The Solid Rock” through a megaphone at their final appearance in Colorado a couple of weeks ago, I was struck by the power of the classic hymn as well as how musically sophisticated and cool Delirious has been. It was almost a rap, but with that English accent. They definitely experimented and we are the richer for it.
Stormie took lots of pictures of the bass player. She even has a shirt (her very own design) that says “I wanna be just like Jon Thatcher.”
Their song, “Obsession,” (“…and my heart burns for You…”) expressed the haunting question that kept one of my daughters returning to God when the enemy of her soul tried to dissuade her. Another daughter encouraged me through some of the darkest times with the lyric from “Every Little Thing”:
When it’s all falling down on you
You’re crying out but you’re breaking in two
When it’s all crashing down on you
When there’s nothing you can do
There is someone who can carry you
Every little thing’s gonna be alright
Every little thing’s gonna be alright
And when some one broken has come to me for a word to soothe, I have often put my arms around them and sang those words softly in their ear, because I do know Who can carry them, “…every little thing’s gonna be alright…” It is a promise we can take to the bank.
There is “Rain Down,” “What a Friend I’ve Found,” and the classic, “Oh, Lead Me.” The Monkey-esque (in the best possible Davy Jones way) song from the Mission Bell album makes you want to run right out and “paint this town red with the blood of Jesus.” And I don’t know if there is a song about the indisputable power of God that I love more than “My Glorious.” He is all in all and “greater than the air I breathe, this world we’ll leave. And He will save the day and all will say ‘my Glorious…'”
The Delirious? Challenge:
But the song that seems to wrap up their message in a nutshell, the one they’ve been singing for ages and sang again just the other night, is “History Maker.” And Martin Smith and the band challenged everyone there to understand that they can shake this nation and impact this world. And my kids were there, hearing it and accepting it and I am so blessed to watch them becoming History Makers in their worlds. We have always told our kids to live in a way that could bring them an epitaph like David’s: “For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep…” That is the whole goal, to fulfill God’s purpose in our times, for our times. That is the message of “History Maker.”
Is it true today that when people pray
Cloudless skies will break, Kings and Queens will shake
Yes it’s true and I believe it,
I’m living for you
Is it true today, that when people pray
We’ll see dead men rise and the blind set free
Yes, it’s true and I believe it
I’m living for you
I’m gonna be a History Maker in this land
I’m gonna be a speaker of truth to all mankind
I’m gonna stand, I’m gonna run
Into your arms, into your arms again
Well, it’s true today that when people stand
With the fire of God and the truth in hand
We’ll see miracles, we’ll see angels sing
We’ll see broken hearts making history
Yes it’s true and I believe it
I’m living for you
I’m gonna be a History Maker in this land
I’m gonna be a speaker of truth to all mankind
I’m gonna stand, I’m gonna run
Into your arms…
Thanks, Delirious?
I have loved Delirious? for years now and will be listening to and loving their music for a long time to come. They are just so cool! I am blessed because my kids use their stuff (some one once told me that nobody can cover a Delirious? song as well as my son Rocky, and oh, how I agree) and they will be releasing their final album on November 9 (“History Makers Greatest Hits“). Thank-you, Delirious, for what you’ve given, what you have stirred up, the integrity in which you have walked and for unleashing History Makers around the world. Your song will go on!
From a thankful mama…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Buy Rocky the Greatest Hits 2-CD/DVD set as a late bithday gift.
BTW-Gavin’s grandpa bought him a leaf-blower, an apparatus I have always spurned in favor of an old-fashioned rake. But maybe I’ll end up actually liking it. I know Gavin does.
This is the same yard today.
Pictured: left, from the front door (inside the house!); right, out the back sliding glass door (from inside the house!)
Early afternoon update: looks like we have about 6″ and they are saying it will double before it is over. Other areas of the city already have 12″ or more.
Schools are closed. Wal-Mart is full of frantic people buying milk and toilet paper. I called Tredessa to make sure she had everything she needed to be snowed in for 2 days (which is what they are “promising,”) and her reply was, “Yes. I just got some movies.” I laughed because I was more worried about food and she just wanted to be sure she had enough entertainment to get her through. FYI, The Westword published a list of the best snowy movies to watch on a snowy day, which you can view here.
My main complaint.
Pictured: out the back door.
The weather guys are telling us to anticipate a crazy, snowy winter during this El Nino year. Which is fine, but I am going to complain ahead of time that today is a beautiful, snowy-Christmasy-type-day and on Christmas, it will probably be 63-degrees and sunny, as it so often is in Denver in December. I don’t have to like that.
My secondary complaint.
I just got back from 8 rainy days in Missouri. I needed my Colorado sunshine!
I should just shut up about it.
Pictured: from the front porch (I actually stepped outside!)
I know. I know. Everyone else in the snowy-universe is thrilled. Tredessa has her movies. Everybody is making chili and Tara is baking her very first ever pumpkin pie from scratch (even baking her own pumpkins!). So, the world is joyfully on hold, the kids are out of school, the snow continues and I will live.
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” ~George Eliot
I am visiting my parents in Springfield.
Two days ago I watched my backyard Aspens flutter dark green to yellow in one day. I swear it. The leaves were turning that fast, hourly lighter and brighter in color. Today it is snowing in Denver, really snowing, they say. By next week the naked branches, up to their knees in brown crunchiness, will glare at me as I attempt to rake up the once-glorious leafery.
But I?
I have chased autumn into a Missouri mood that lingers like musk on my skin. I have escaped to turning-leaves on proud trees and the deep intensity of autumn colors that hold both the memory of exuberant youth with its’ fresh, green-spring growth, and the exploding red-to-the-core ripeness of the late summer tomato, now seasoned to a complex beauty, indisputably richer and wiser for the aging. The blazing urgency of the season, so much to experience before it all passes into winter, is salty on my tongue. I inhale the cinnamon-scented air, and taste the pungent, spicy and intangible gift of the equinox while the crickets sing that haunting song I have always loved.
Burnt sienna and ochre rustle restlessly as autumn falls and the cool night air sprinkles wet diamonds onto my keyboard and into my mouth filling my lungs with cool, brisk air and enduring toasted warmth at once. Haley’s Comet spilled burning meteor fragments in the wee hours, punctuating the night sky with light, a spectacle for late-night lovers young and old.
What is it about fall? Not just nostalgia, so much sweeter. Faded, yet more glorious. Softer, yet stronger. The taste? Lingering, commemorative, a celebration of all that has ever been with a watchful eye for all to come. Delicious.
I always hate to see summer end, yet the autumn is my life’s palette, the colors of my heart. Even the heading at the top of this page gives ode to the falling leaf…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Grab the season with gusto, hold it close until the last leaf flies away.
pictured: a google image of Missouri and what I am surrounded by
My mom and I were drinking coffee on the deck this morning and enjoying the rustling leaves in their fall coat-of-many-colors. Autumn is romantic. This is from my mama’s heart and mind:
“The butterflies are taking one last dance across the meadow.
Last year I said October is Orange. And it still is. My church turned orange last fall, too. I do love my house-of-worship-advertising sweatshirt with the bum logo (thank-you, sweet Katie!).
This October is craaaaaazy-busy-fun and occasion-filled!
Like, we have three family birthdays in October (mine, Hunter’s and still-to-come: Jovan’s!). I turned 50 (shhh…there is no need to think about this, nor mention it aloud) with dinner at Cinzzetti’s~
Pictured: Me and my baby, Stormie; Patrice is telling me right at this very second that she is pregnant with their 3rd child! Me, Pearl and Marilyn. I screamed immediately following…
DP nearly ate Cinzzetti’s out of mussels; me and the 5 grandbebes who were well-contained in our private room.
I have sweet friends (almost every single one of whom is younger than me, I noticed), and a lovely family. Thank-you, everybody for celebrating my life even if I could have gone without noticing the new decade. I am blessed.
Hunter and the wheels-in-motion cake and fun-on-wheels party for himself and 25 of his closest friends:
Hunter turned “The Garage” into a speedway. There were trikes and bikes and skateboards and more. Kids zoomed one way and then the next. It was crazy loud and speedy. Hunter got the chocolate fudge cake he wanted in the shape of a “5” and when, the other day, he reminded he really, really, really wanted some lightening bolts, too, in honor of his current favorite movie, Bolt, I whipped up a strawberry cake at the last second to cut out and ice some lightening bolt shapes for flanking the main cake.
But, oh my goodness, it is what I did with the cut-off-cake crumbs that needs to be mentioned. Into a bowl: leftover chocolate-fudge cake, the rest of the fudge filling, a block of cream cheese, a can of cherry pie filling. Mixed well. Cookie-scooped onto baking sheets and thrown into the freezer until they were just firm enough to coat with melted white chocolate. Chocolate-Cherry Cake Bites, o yeah! To. die. for. Yum. Seriously!
Poor Magoo ended up very, very sick at his own party. He conked out, but the fun held up.
There was a Worship and the Word Movement PSTeam (prayer-support team) potluck at the MadCap Theater (a great improv place-you should totally go!)
Last night there was a Seek and Soak with TOM EWING (a man DP called a general in worship ministry). Here is the kick-off song featuring Tom, Sing to the King
In the video, left to right: Rocky Rhoades on guitar, Tom Ewing, Tristan on drums, Stormie on bass, DP on lead guitar (and leading the whole Seek and Soak), Lewis Brown (a.k.a. Proxy), and Lewis Brown, Sr. on sax. It was an amazing night. Musical worship, the Word of God, 3+ hours of encounter-worship, about 100 people entering the Presence, even Baptists! :) Smile, Emily! That was for you!
Let’s see…what else?
Jovan and Rocky will find out if it is a boy or a girl at their next appointment. Goody!
There is the celebration of Amy Jo’s baby-to-be this Thursday night.
And Saturday night I get to go see the final Delirious concert in Colorado ever as they are on their farewell tour. This band changed everything in the 90s and they are still such a class act, men of integrity who love Jesus and are soooo talented. They changed the sound of worship and people around the world go deeper worship via the songs of the Lord they introduced. Got to see them at Ichthus and now here. I love them and how they have influenced my own children to become History Makers.
Also ~ Dave will play the lead in the Platte Valley Player’s community theaters’ presentation of “Suspenders,” a musical comedy, as part of the grand opening celebration of Brighton’s newly restored/renovated armory as a community arts center/theater in Brighton’s “downtown.” He’ll be performing in it over the next few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. I’ll be attending the very first performance on Monday the 19th (an event for which I bought a dress!!). I am somewhat divided in my joy about the fact that Dave is also painting the backdrop for the show and there are 6 giant 8′ x 4′ canvases in my living room at this time.
Family Time!
I will be going to spend a week with my mama et papa in Springfield, MO, where they wrongfully and stubbornly retired a year and a half ago and now wish to leave to be closer to any of us that they know (do you know of anyone house-hunting in Springfield?? Help!). They will spoil me rotten and my brother Joe is meeting me there, too. We will visit Branson, about a half hour from them, for the express purpose of giving my mother her dream-come-true in visiting the Roy Rogers/Dale Evans Museum before it closes its’ doors for good this December.
I am already working on church Christmas decor. In October!
Upon my return, I will enjoy the grandbebes playing dress-up for the church’s annual Harvest Fest and then, as they have all requested (informing me that it is a tradition, one I must have started unknowingly), all will gather at our home for broccoli-cheese soup (because I make incredible zuppa).
Life. It can wear you out!
Dave is sick and they are checking him for H1N1 tomorrow morning, though they have already started him on antibiotics. What in the world?? Who has time for this?
Just trying to keep up…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Loosen up some time in November and December. Right.
You did it! You’re 5 now. You are a big boy. No question about it!
Hunter’s very first question to his mommy this morning was: Am I 5 now? He has been anxiously awaiting this milestone. For a few months he has told people who mention that he is 4, “I’m a big four,” not to be confused with some pre-schoolish-tyke in the ‘hood who was just a small or regular four. Being five and being big are veeeeery important to my Hunter-Magoo! I have never seen anyone want a birthday so bad!
Oh, I love you, you good-looking little blond-haired,green-eyed, stylin’, smarty-pants. I love how you never. ever. forget. anything. Usually. Not so much how you accidentally changed the “Nonna is ten-times older than me” to “Nonna is ten-times bigger than me.” That, I could do without. But kid? You make me laugh. You make me smile. You make me look at you really intently to see if you are the spitting image of your dad or of your mom. Which is it? You look and act and talk and walk and run and play exactly like both of them!
But when we went to lunch the other day and you started licking your lips in anticipation of the corn dog that was on its’ way, Oh, you were your mommy through and through: excited about life! Anticipating delicious food! Yum!
Happy Birthday, Magoo. I love your heart. I love your strong opinions. I love that you absolutely already know exactly what you’re going to do when you grow up (fly airplanes and help sick and poor people get to hospitals, as well as lead worship all over the world in many different languages). I love that you question everything and know everybody. I love that when you get a nice captive audience, like in the ladies’ bathroom on shopping trip while you are waiting on mommy, you become a very vocal evangelist, loudly proclaiming to the women there that they shouldn’t love Target more than Jesus. And all those imaginary friends you witness to and pray for? Oh, kiddo, I bet you’re getting points in heaven for it! You are going to win the whole wide world for Jesus if you get your way!
Happy happy days, Hunter. You crack me up and fill my heart with love!…Nonna
NOTE TO SELF: Fashion a cake for Hunter’s party. Including the lightening bolts he has mentioned relentlessly for several months.
