Elise-the-niece gave me a big bouquet of flowers for Mother’s Day (for being her Colorado mom-ish-type-fill-in-person) and some flower seeds and these adorable little garden markers she found in the dollar section at Target. They say you get 5 in the package, but mine had 6 – good times! They come with the marker and everything.
These are highly superior to the plastic picnic knives Gavin and I had used! Methinks we shall do some replacing…
I FIND THIS (very humbling) NOTE FROM TREDESSA: Please post on your blog:)
TITLE: To a mother who blogs from a daughter who doesn’t
By: Jeanie’s daughter, Tredessa
My mother usually starts off her children’s birthday blogs by remembering the day we were born; her first encounter with us; the beginning of our relationship. I can’t say that I remember that far back. I can never remember a time without her. It doesn’t exist for me. So I can’t say what my world was like without her.
I can only postulate what it would have been like…
My life might be devoid of a wisdom I’ve learned from her.
I might not understand the importance of choosing a Godly husband.
It’s possible I wouldn’t know a thing about events – wouldn’t have the deep love for them that I do – might not be able to pull one off for all the money in the world.
I could know nothing about how to decorate a house or how to turn someone else’s garbage into gold.
I would probably be imbalanced in my thinking with no one to tell me when I’m over-analyzing; with no one to bring peace where I’ve gotten myself worked up; with no one to give hope where my disposition may cry that there is none to be found.
I might not have learned the danger of religion over relationship and therefore hurt many by keeping them in spiritual bondage as a result.
I probably would have chosen to let past wounds breed inside me until I was a hollow, emotionless shell, lashing out at anyone who tried to get close, inside of choosing to let the Healer come in and restore broken areas.
I wouldn’t have the deepest love of worship and could carry no tune.
There would have been no years of teaching on a healthy marriage and parenting to learn and commit to before those blessings have happened.
I may not know what it means to be a woman in the truest sense of the word.
I wouldn’t have learned to love the Word of God by seeing a mother who learned it, loved it and lived it day in and day out when no one was watching.
My love of writing would have had no example and nurturing to give it wings.
Prayer would have remained something that stayed in church and was reserved for Sunday mornings only.
Church would have remained a building, a place that you attended and left behind instead of a fellowship of like-minded, like-hearted individuals.
Endurance through suffering would have been something I ran from and didn’t embrace as a necessary part of growing up and maturing.
Self-discipline would be a four-letter word and I would have thrown my life away seeking pleasure at all costs.
I would have taken deep hurts from the past and grown bitter; choking on them, instead of forgiving, desiring true freedom and moving on.
I would never know the importance of what one woman, who believes her life hasn’t amounted to much, could truly impact a generation; could bring life through her wisdom and experiences and advice; could save my life so many times through her prayers and love; could show me what a true wife, daughter, friend, sister and mother looks like.
This speculation is just that…speculation; and I’m glad to leave it at that. The life I’m describing looks bleak and not worth living. For millions of individuals in the world, the enemy has stolen away a precious part of truly living…their mothers. Why does God deem me worthy enough to have kept mine and not just that, but to have given me a mother that blows me away? I’m not worthy, but I am so thankful.
Mama, as the years go on, I imagine that I will say many times that I haven’t told you enough how important you are to me; how much I love you; what you’ve done for me, but – like moms usually do – I hope you know these things by:
You are my mother and I will always shout that from the rooftops in grateful awe at how much God’s love has saved me from who I could have been without you.
I love you, mama. Happy Mother’s Day!
Note to self: Remember that Jeanie Rhoades has served me selflessly for almost 26 years. Bless her by doing the same with my children and return that service to her for at least the next 26.
I wanna be just like you when I grow up, Mama. I love you! Happy Day!
*Norma Jean (Allison) Moslander, currently residing in Springfield, Mo. Everyone should have some one like her in their lives! Truly. “Then the world would be a better place!…” Pictured: my mom beside my dad – where she has been for 51+ years, faithfully and with great love and devotion.
It was a Wednesday 05.09.79, the evening of a beautiful spring day. The mysterious baby was coming – boy or girl? I had no idea. But I was hoping for a baby girl. 30 minutes after arriving at the hospital (where I refused to go until I was having difficulty “handling” contractions), she arrived.
I see perfection for the first time in my life. She is pink and shaped perfectly and gentle. I am not alone…
Two hours later they place the little bundle in my arms in our temporary home and she looks at me as if she has always known me. I breathe in the mystery of her and know that my heart is tied to this little human being in an eternal way. I feel the love I give her come back to me. God gave me the gift of her, entrusted me with her life and I cannot fathom how life-changing it will be.
Shiny blond hair and bright blue eyes accessorize this girl’s joyous personality. Everything about life is another opportunity to laugh and be happy and to bring the same to all around her. She squeals with delight at the slightest provocation. She is fun and she is joy. She is star bright and star light.
Was it really thirty years ago that I held this beautiful stranger as close as humanly possible? Did I really start my wobbly ascent into motherhood so long ago? Hard to believe, difficult to comprehend.
Yet, more mysterious is the fact that this girl, this amazing woman of God with the angelic voice, this anointed exhorter and song writer, DP’s devoted crazy-in-love-with-him wife and Hunter’s creative and attentive mommy is that same baby I held. The fact that I had anything at all to do with this woman boggles my mind. The fact that I held her first, that I prayed over her and sang to her and got to mommy her ~ I am humbled. Because Tara? Has turned out!
I am so proud of you, Tara. I am so pleased with the choices you are making every day and the life you are living to please the Father. Happy Birthday, my firstborn, my child. Happy Birthday!
Love you babe…Mom
NOTE TO SELF: Be the driving force to get her birthday shelves built by her dad! :)
Gavin spent the morning with me the other day and we played in the dirt, or “gardened,” if you prefer. We turned over and amended the soil in one of the 4ft x 4ft raised garden beds. Then to really get the visual, we used string to divide it off into 16 squares.
We had alread planted onion sets at the back a couple of weeks ago and they are sprouting up nicely.
The poles are in place for beans to be planted directly in mid-May.
Meanwhile we planted 16 radishes in one 1ft square. We planted a square of carrots, a square of mixed gourmet lettuces and a square of butter head lettuce, with spicy mesclun mixed in around. It will be harvested so young it won’t affect the butter head.
We tucked in some nasturium seedlings here and there, which we will use in salads – both the leaf and the flower, and voila!
Gavin, who insisted on taking some pictures “so we can remember what we planted,” (how did this boy become such a genius???), kept saying to me, “This is a really good day, isn’t it, Nonna?” It sure was!
More veggie tales to come…Jeanie, aka “Nonna”
pictured: some of Gavin’s shots (you can see we planted the seed in tiny vermiculite indentations, because it acts as a sponge to water, keeping the seed constantly moist), and the ones where I was able to wrangle the camera from him. :]
They do make life grand!
Guini jumps on my lap, wraps her arms tightly around my neck and with an almost-urgency says, “I need you, Nonna.” I look to see if a boogey-man has been chasing her, but I see no one. I ask, “What do you need?” She tells me, “I just need you, Nonna.” I am overcome with gratefulness that she does. I hug her tightly back. The moment vanishes and she off to play again.
Hunter tells his mommy, “I need to speak to you in regards to…” He is four. What does a four-year-old know about “regarding?” Today he is busy cutting out paper crosses. He says he wants to put them all over the ground at Heaven Fest so that people will be able to worship Jesus there.
Grandpa will be taking Gavin to school while his mommy is at the dentist. “It’s almost time to go,” Grandpa tells the little red-head. Gavin looks his grandpa up and down. “I think you forgot to change your shorts…and that shirt,” he says, clearly concerned that his grandpa will not be meeting the fashion standard at the schoolyard. Dave is wearing a orange t-shirt (which I ask him not to wear, but he believes to be quite comfortable on his work-at-home days) and some navy stretch shorts (which, though they are the closest things you can wear to pajamas in public, are nice). I laugh my head off and wonder whatever Gavin will think of us by the time he reaches 1st grade next fall?!?
“O wow o wow o wow o wow,” Averi said to me the other day. Despite the remaining fullness in her cheeks, both those seen and unseen, Averi is getting taller and thinning out, growing into her baby weight as she darts from room to room as quickly as her little legs will carry her. Averi’s true passion in life is putting all her new teeth to work. She loves food with great zeal and loudly mourns the end of every meal or snack time. This, I am certain, she inherited from me.
What a saucy little redhead! When she walks in a room, it is with great fanfare as she invites, “‘Ook at me! ‘Ook at me!” Then usually, and with great authority, she’ll spew some cursory commands at Sandy-the-Dog, who wishes for nothing more than to slink from Gemma’s sight before her tail is yanked on unmercifully or Gemma hops aboard for a ride. Gemma’s life is spent in pursuit of any reason whatsoever to laugh. She never fails to respond to my affectionate “I-love-you” with a very bright response in her quivering little lamb voice: “I wuv you!”
Who knew it could bring this much?…Jeanie-the-Nonna
NOTE TO SELF: I am being fully compensated.
When Steph first got her bangs I kept asking, “Who do you remind me of…?”
Remember Cher before all the weird surgery-altercations? She was so late-60s cool! The “I Got You, Babe” days (you know, before Cher literally tried to “Turn Back Time”)…
I see in my mind’s eye a big healthy baby – 9 pounds, 10 ounces. Two weeks past her due date, she arrives: peacefully, happily. She settles in as the newest and final addition to the home of love being built by my lover and me. She is the object of affection and delight to her four older siblings. She is a reward and gift to her mommy and daddy.
Chunky at birth, she elongates into a tall-for-her-age, skinny pre-schooler who uses her voice, sweet and syrupy, to melt us and get everything she wants.
She is 5 with a tiny heart-shaped face and big, expressive eyes. There is a big yellow bow in her tightly permed hair and she twirls in a polka-dot skirt. She doesn’t just like school, she looooooooves school!
She runs, during the elementary days, to keep up with her brother. If he is playing baseball, so is she. If he is madly roller-blading – she will keep up. Though we fear her tiny frame may snap from the pace, she is ever just an “nth” of a step behind Rocky.
As a teen, she follows Jesus with all her heart. She prays her sister, with tears, back from the brink. She becomes a stained glass artist and stars in the school play. She learns to drive while worshipping her head off in the car with her mama. She is a blessing.
Age and maturity reveal one of the kindest people I have ever known. She serves and cares and quietly sets things aright. She is 23 now. The baby is 23. And I love her.
I don’t know where the years have gone, Stormkins, but I cherish every moment you have been mine. I love you so deeply, my sweet baby girl. All 23 candles on represent a wish I have for you this year.
Happy Birthday, my baby. Twenty-three years ago today was such a blessed day in my life. I didn’t even know how much at the time, but, wow! God was so good to have given you to me! I love you, babykins!…mom
NOTE TO SELF: Take Stormie to Anthropologie for her birthday. Buy her something sweet.
pictured: I was trying to find a good pic of Stormie’s eyes because I love them. This was as close as I could get; Stormie on 4/15/86 with her daddy just a little while after her birth.
We got together over the weekend to celebrate Stormie’s birthday, just the fam. She didn’t know it, but we decided we’d do a Twilight – themed party since Stormie loves the books and movie by Stephanie Meyer so much.
There were pepper, onion and roast-beef stuffed chimichangas along with cilantro-lime rice and all the other fixings. Tara made her excellent guacamole while Rocky and Jovan served us sizzling sausage and cheese-stuffed jalapenos, “poppers” as they should be. Food everywhere! No special cake, but as Stormie requested, her usual fruit pizza.
The movie soundtrack provided the musical backdrop, and naturally the flick was playing continuously for ambiance. There were red apples (see the book cover), red ribbons and chess pieces (Stephanie-the-daughter is in to the details), quotes everywhere (oh, how our family loves movie quotes!), and Tara painted a black sheet with the title. We used it as a backdrop for some silly pictures.
I “invented” a Twilight-Mad-Lib kind of thing. I asked each person to give me a noun, a thing of any sort AND to name a characteristic or physical attribute of Stormie’s. They didn’t know why, but then I used the line from the movie: “Your scent is like a drug to me…” and filled in people’s responses for Stormie. She got stuff like:
I wish I had thought to also ask them to name their own secret obsession, too, because I could’ve added from the rest of the quote: “Your scent is like a drug to me, my own personal brand of heroin.” Then Hunter’s might have read, “Your heart is like an egg to me, my own personal brand of candy.” And Jovan’s would probably have read: “Your eyes are like a shoe to me [which she really said]…my own personal brand of Edward Cullen!” Which, if you keep up on Jovan’s blog – you know she actually has her own personal brand of Edward!
Feel free to use “my” invented game at your next party! :]
A couple of the girls re-enacted their favorite neck-biting scene from the movie and everybody held an apple in their hands like the cover of the first book of the series, referenced then in the movie when Edward is talking to Bella at the school cafeteria salad bar. She accidentally knocked a very red apple down and he, with lightening-quick reflexes, kicks it back up, catching it in his hands. Fun!
Gavin fixed his own hair to look just like Edward’s and is already talking about being Edward for Halloween this year. Gemma thought if they were handing her an apple, she may as well eat it. Stephanie got shy about the neck-biting.
There was an Easter-egg hunt for the Grand-bebes.
No. Don’t even ask. I will not share the video of Dave and I reprising one of our greatest wedding-singing hits ever: Always by Atlantic Starr!
‘Cuz she’s the baby. Gotta love her!
Our nephew Zach turns 19 today! He is my brother Tim’s oldest son. He is pictured below with his younger brothers Seth and Caleb. Tim and his wife Julie have turned out some awesome boys (BTW: loving the St. Louis Cardinals is a Moslander-family rule)!
Zach is living with us while he works and is doing a ministry internship (worship arts) at Northern Hills. We feel honored to have him here, are so glad for the opprotunity to bless the young man of God as he prepares himself for what lies ahead.
We got together last night to celebrate his birthday and teased the stuffing out of him for the Wii Fitness Age of 71 that he got (which had to be bogus, because he really is quite athletic and agile)! Tara replaced a few of the candles with the kind that you can’t blow out and even though he kind of knew it, he good-naturedly kept blowing on them – creating a major smoke cloud over the kitchen and making my grandbebes laugh with glee.
Happy Birthday, Zach-a-ronis. We are so blessed to have you here, to get this time together. You are kind of like the little brother Rocky never had and I am so glad you guys are getting this time. Thanks for sharing your life and time with us and being such an awesome example of the believer, even at this very young age. I know God has great things in store for you and one day we’ll say, “We knew him when…”
Much Love…Aunt Jeanie for all
NOTE TO SELF: Cook more for Zach so he doesn’t starve to death under my care.
pictured – the 3-layer chocolate pudding cake (very dense and moist) with chocolate fudge icing; I used the extra batter to make a couple dozen mini-cupcakes, some iced in confetti icing, some in the extra chocolate fidge; then with the “extra” cake removed from the layers, I made “cake bites” by crumbling the cake, putting the extra icing in, added some slightly sweetened cream cheese, rolled into balls, then coated in melted white chocolate chips. Used every single bit of cake! Zach’s Wii screen. Zach and the candles that wouldn’t die.