Category Archives: 5 Songs I am Singing

Song is my love language.

Thought-Collage Thursday // I gave up perfection{ism} for Lent

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

If you happen to see me and I look dazed and confused

It’s probably because I have been collecting songs for the fashion show. And high-energy club music makes — me — craaaaaaaaaazzzzeeeey!

I may or may not have a throbbing pain behind my left eye, while my right eye is twitching. I won’t say. But I am enjoying these three songs, only the first of these made the show cut. But the other two are fun, too!


Sometimes a small phrase turns a very nicely written article into something quite fanciful~

Dessa Wedding

Nibbles, Tredessa’s wedding 2011

That happened with a Laura Gaskill piece at Houzz on Sunday. She was advising us all to “Cultivate Everyday Joie de Vivre.” Upon her fourth suggestion, “Entertain with Abandon,” in which I felt fully encouraged to have guests over often without worrying over perfection, she wrote,

“Offer aperitifs and nibbles as soon as guests arrive to put everyone at ease.”

“Offer aperitifs and nibbles.” Doesn’t it just sound divine?

Well, it does, but of course, I don’t do alcohol {teetotaler, here}, so I won’t be – serving aperitifs. I’ll serve lemonade or green-sherbet punch,  and root beer floats a-plenty, instead. Sorry.

But there will be nibbles. I could not and would not have guests without nibbles. Of this you may rest assured.

I LOVED this blog post today:

How to Fail and Still Win, a Guide to not losing your cool. Donald Miller. Big fan of his writing and life’s work.

Because yesterday, I was feeling completely ill-prepared for an important meeting with people whose time is very valuable. I really wanted to cancel, even though I knew I would be enriched by them.

Then this simple Donald Miller post, just spotlighted my rather exuberant tendency to treat any bump in the road like a major wreck , to beat myself to smithereens when I have not achieved perfection. How did he know what I was thinking this morning? The conclusion:

“The next morning I got up, made my to-do list and pushed on. It’s a long season, after all. You’re going to drop a couple games on the way to the Superbowl.” -Donald Miller

Thank-you, Donald Miller.  And so I am pushing on.

They just don’t make TV like they used to

My silly little secret is that I loved music so much, any kind of music and song, I used to watch Lawrence Welk on TV every Saturday at 5 pm – when I was 14! I knew his bubbly brand of American standards and Martini music weren’t “cool,” but if there were going to be singers with bouffant hair in fancy dresses and fabulous, colorful sets and antics, I was going to watch!

Last Saturday evening, PBS was airing a Lawrence Welk “special.” They sometimes take a theme and air the best of his many years on television. This particular theme was the month of April, all bright and spring-y and hopeful and romantic.

I totally got sucked in to the special. Of course, it still isn’t “cool” for some one of my generation to be watching Lawrence Welk, but I was thinking – these people, these singers and dancers and the orchestra – they worked so hard to entertain. They are certainly considered quaint by any of today’s standards, but I found the show beyond enchanting.

lw collage

Check out the “rain” in this video. So low-tech, So perfectly charming.

Effort. Lights, Pretty clothes. Color. Sentimental songs. I loved.

Lawrence Welk would absolutely have served aperitifs with his nibbles!

Lumosity Brain Train

I love those silly Lumosity things. It’s my brand of gaming. Sometimes I do the daily suggestions then try them several times to beat myself. :)

I assumed my weakest area would be “flexibility.” But it is my highest scoring area, with speed and problem solving right behind.

Attention (What? Where were we?) and memory are tied for my weakest areas.  I used to have this amazing memory, like – AMAZING (In 1974 April 17th was a Wednesday – that type of memory)…but I can’t quite recall when that was…before the flood or something.

Sometimes I just don’t know what to do.

Or what to say. Or what to think. Or which way is up or right or the best. I feel surprised at this age and stage to not know as much as I once thought I did, to not know what is expected of me or how to make hard things work.  Sometimes I just don’t know…which is tough on a striver like myself.

And this is really the bravest thing I will admit today. Or maybe over the course of many days.

I did try to give up perfection for Lent. But…

I was remembering my younger self – back when I thought I knew an awful lot about a great many things. And even if I didn’t know, I still had a strong opinion. I really miss those days, sometimes. I really thought I was going to conquer everything before the end.

Now I know much better, which is to say I know very little. In my life, there is so much I will absolutely never know, ever learn, never experience. And while it wreaks havoc on my pride to know less than ever, to be less certain and able to tout my absolutely correct and utterly right viewpoints and finely tuned belief system, I’m wondering if that isn’t the point, anyway?

But it boils down to this, I really want to know {need to know} and never forget this thing: Jesus loves me. I am in my 50s and I have yet to comprehend the depth and breadth and width and height of it – this lavish love.  “Jesus loves me, this I know,” and that knowing  is still where I often find myself stuck. I am glad the Ephesians needed understanding for this, too. :)

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Eph. 3

Anne Ortlund, in Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman, said she jotted in her Bible margin next to that passage, “How do you put the ocean in a teacup?” That is the question!

His love

Amelie was practicing her cutting and gluing skills in pre-school with Nonna today. I masked off the shape of the cross and we talked about all the things for which we thanked Jesus – besides dying on the cross for our sins and then beating the devil by being raised from the dead.

amelie and her cross

I may or may not have misspelled “Easter.” Proving my point. Ha!

But as she cut and glued and looked through the newspaper and found more images, she just kept saying, “I know Jesus would love this – let’s give Him this!” Instead of thinking about what He has done for her, her love response was to give Him something in return!

“We love Him because He first loved us.”  1 John 4.19 NIV

This, is turns out – is pretty perfect!

The Birthday Blizzard

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, , , , ,

Right around this time, our spring-season birthdays start appearing in a flurry of cakes & gifts & celebrations!

birthdaze

Amelie Belle was born on a spring day, a few days after Grand-poppa’s birthday. We celebrate them both just as spring has sprung.  Then April happens and things really heat up! Bailey-Baby and Stormie have celebrations. Then we have Tara, Stephanie, Gemma May in May with Gavin, Tredessa and DP just as spring is about to turn in to summer.

Ten peeps of our family-of-20 happen in this one little season.

Then there is Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, May-Day, last day of school, and the sun shines bright in blue skies while flowers emerge in full color and the green grass starts its’ wildly renewed growth as lawnmowers criss-cross over subdivided lots creating  an emerald plaid any leprechaun would be proud to wear.

No wonder I love spring so much!

Plus there are those other people we love, from our families of origin (like my Mamala in early June). And ~ who remembers what I was doing on Stormie’s birthday (April 15) last year very early in the morning??? That is right! I was helping birth baby-boy Wryder of Holyoke. Now – I didn’t do much of the birthing work – that was his mom, but I sure do think that kid is handsome! He and his sweet sister dropped by for a few minutes Saturday afternoon and I got dandelions. :)

hapbday

LOVE these people – so glad they were all born to be in my life!

My little brother, Tim, just had a birthday Friday.  I called him “the gorgeous one in the family” and he acted surprised. Please. He’s a handsome fella and he knows it. Plus – he is an excellent Elvis impersonator. I will try to share video with you sometime on that.

joey and timmy november 1964

Joey was 3 1/2 and Timmy was 1 1/2 in this November 1964 photo.

And tomorrow is Joe’s birthday. He was my first younger sibling and has been my most enduring friendship. I wish he were here today with his guitar and we were singing and reminiscing on life because no one else on earth shares as much early-life history with me. He knows where the bodies are. I mean, there was my mom, but Joey saw things from my eye-level. And I will always have the Joey-Joey-Joey-Joey down in my heart.

Here is a song for you, Joe-Joe, to say I LOVE you on your birthday! “May your party never stop”


And the years go by

And we don’t know where they went

We just let them fly

‘Cause they were all heaven-sent

We’re on borrowed time

And we still owe half the rent

For soaking up the sunshine

‘Til we’re dead gone

We will laugh until we drop

Here’s your birthday song

May your party never stop

Singing on and on

We go stumbling down the block

Soaking up the good wine  –Chris Trapper

Speaking of blizzards –

Must be Springtime in the Rockies because is was hot-hot-hot yesterday and today – sleet and snow. Good grief.

But just beyond the white, dancing flakes, where the birds frolic and sing anyway, I see the pink blossoms of the flowering pear tree just next to the sunny yellow, forsythia. I am not deterred in my springtime hope…Oh it is true:

“See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.

The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.

Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”  ~Song of Solomon 2.11-13

It’s the season of celebrations and many birthdays. It’s the season of singing.

There is Hope for a Tree // Song for a Sunday

1 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Think

Job 14 yet at the cent of water

It’s spring, but still the trees are bare, save for the few buds beginning to emerge. On frosty, gray mornings, even though the grass is slowly greening, it can still look like winter and feel like it, too.  We can start wondering – will spring will ever come again? Will this deathly, barrenness last forever?

I was reminded again recently that we don’t have an enemy who is just there to annoy us. He isn’t a comical character with a pitchfork who has just come to tempt us or trip us into sin. He has come to kill, to steal from us and to destroy our lives. We get cut and sometimes everything we have tried build gets knocked down, destroyed. And we’re shocked. We’re surprised it could happen when we were following all the Christian “stuff” like living for God, reading the Word, spending time in worship, attending a good Bible-believing church. Etc.

“In this world you will have trouble, “Jesus said. What did we think He meant?

I’m surprised that I am still surprised at the enemy’s tactics, that though I have lived surrounded by God’s faithfulness, I still fear winter has come for good. I forget so quickly that He also said, “But take heart, I have overcome the world.”

I smell hope. Could new life be just around the corner?

At the scent of water…

There is hope for a tree. If it’s cut down, it will sprout again…

Last summer I fought the battle of the Cottonwoods and the Aspens. We landscaped our back yard from dirt ten years ago. Today it is full of bushes and trees and flowers and veggies, come summer. It is lush, verdant, full of living things.

Those first trees were coaxed, kissed, sweet-talked: Please grown here, little trees, please bring me shade and thrive.

Now though, the yard is fairly bursting with goodness and life {quite overgrown and out of control, actually} and years of compost and hearty feedings and love and attention have created living, oxygenated wonderland so that now Aspens and Cottonwoods try to hold conventions here. I barely turn my back and another hidden seed has become a viable seedling, planted snugly in fertile ground.

I consider it carefully {should it stay?}, but most times, I need to remove them or they’ll damage a pipeline or cover the vegetable gardens. I try pulling them out. There! Got most of the root I think. A few days later, proud, bright green leaves unfurl on sturdy, baby branches.

Foiled, I get the heavy-duty pruners out and I cut and I mangle and I damage them badly – on purpose. There, I think! Now it’s gone. But, no. New shoots, new leaves.

I generally cannot help but smile and actually am encouraged that, though the gardener has tried her best to get rid if it, another little tree has fought for life. The secret of existence anyway has been the roots were taking hold, establishing before I was even aware. My attack doesn’t have the effect I think it will because I have no idea how long those roots have been at work, of what has been happening under the surface. How true of you and me, too…

“Be well-balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour.

Withstand him; be firm in faith [against his onset—rooted, established, strong, immovable, and determined], knowing that the same (identical) sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world.”  1 Peter 5.8-9 Amp

Like a tree – you may have been cut down, the enemy bent on stealing your identity, your life, your peace, your reason for living, and destroying the things you held dear. But that other tree, the one on which Jesus died with all the bloody hope that was buried that day, changes EVERYthing.

When Jesus emerged in an explosion of dazzling, bright light and life three days later, with the keys of death, hell and the grave jingling in His hands, our Risen Savior proved that being buried, cut down to the root, couldn’t stop the plan of God – not for Jesus, not for us. Regardless of what it looks like on the surface, no grave can hold you down, no death sentence, no curse, no sin, nothing.

At the scent of water, it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant…

Hear this :: Physical abuse, emotional abuse, spiritual abuse, sickness, inoperable tumors, cancer treatments, a ‘stage 4’ diagnosis, chronic pain, relational brokenness, financial ruin, disenfranchisement, illegitimate chastisement, paralyzing fear, suicidal torment, shame that flattens, depression, humiliation, guilt that shatters, fearful thoughts, unholy imaginations, competitive people, rejection, divorce, heartbreak, job loss or layoff  – Anything and Everything that the enemy has tried on you or stolen from you, may this now be the scent of water before the rains even fall and may the roots you have sunk deep into the mercy of Jesus see you through to renewal and transformation, and a spring-green, hope-filled life!

Zechariah 10.1

Hear this as a love song from the Father~to you.

Is that the scent of rain on its’ way?

romans 15

It’s About Time

5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

Time-travel movies are plentiful and I’ve just seen a new one I really like!

I have made a list {quelle surprise} of time-travel movies I generally like. There are soooooooo many out there, but I am not all Science-fiction/Fantasy loving. So, my husband will say I have left off at least 50% of the “really good ones.” But it is my list, in no particular order. Maybe you’ve seen some of these, too?

  1. It’s a Wonderful Life – Well, I mean. George Bailey. He gets to travel back in time and see life as it would have been without him. If you’re ever feeling sorry for yourself or thinking your life doesn’t matter, this movie brings perspective. One of my all-time favorite movies ever!
  2. The Lake House (2006) – I totally, romantically like this movie even though it stars Keanu Reeves (cute, but not a fav actor) with Sandra Bullock (who is wonderful). However, though I have seen it countless times, I still don’t totally get how they did it. There are things still hanging up in the air for me about the storyline. But I choose to suspend disbelief and let my heart get woozy by the fact that, though living two years apart, they carry on a romance via letters they leave in a mailbox by the lake.  How cute is that? Words on paper, people! I love letters…Plus the dancing scene with Paul McCartney singing in the background. Oh, yes!
  3. Groundhog Day (1993) – This movie actually makes me nuts, because if you have seen it once, you have seen it a couple dozen times, if you know what I mean. But Bill Murray is pretty awesome in it and everyone should see it once or…20 times, whichever. All the same.
  4. Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) – The classic Dicken’s story is at its’ finest when the Muppets are involved. Don’t judge me.
  5. The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009) – This movie. This movie.  Well, I wanted to adore it and I sort of did, but I have to admit to my confusion, too. When his wife sneaks out to go have sex with him in another time so she can get pregnant and he is jealous when she returns that she went to have sex with him when he didn’t want her to – well, you can see my dilemma. Confused. But I have the book (my mother, of all people, gave it to me) and maybe I’ll read it and understand it better?
  6. Back to the Future (1985) – Probably the most successful time travel movie ever, don’t you think? Michael J. Fox was amazing and engaging, as he tends to be. Just a classic.  Reminds me that it’s time to share it with my grand-boys.
  7. Somewhere in Time  (1980) – Heavy on the beauty, a period piece  set in the early 1900s and thick with romance starring the very young and totally gorgeous Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour.  It is a tragic story, death by heartbreak. I don’t know if I’ll ever watch it again.
  8. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) – This is the only Star-Trek type movie I ever liked. It was funny, with the original TV cast saving the whales. My Star-Trek loving husband was happy I connected to it and I still quote it frequently. “Computer? Com-puter???”
  9. Frequency  (2000)- A Science Fiction THRILLER, it thrills, for real! And has Dennis Quaid, which is some kind of wonderful. I have to admit, I do not totally get this whole storyline, either, but there is this father-son relationship-thing that is so sweet. Really good watch.
  10. Field of Dreams (1989) – Oh my goodness – I almost forgot this one. Kevin Costner + baseball = YES! An all-time favorite movie of mine because of summer and baseball and Iowa and dead baseball players showing back up. I love when the Kevin-character takes a walk in a small town and meets “Doc.” SEE IT!

I just found a new one for the list: About Time (2013)

Domhnall Gleeson and Bill Nighy in About Time

“A new funny film about love. With a bit of time travel.”

about time the movie promo

I love it.  I LOVE it. The actual travel mechanism/storyline is the least sophisticated, easiest explanation ever and is more of a sweet twist to the story rather than a huge thing to be explained. Rachel McAdams, who was, indeed, The Time Traveler’s actual wife is in this and though I thought I’d find it problematic, it wasn’t. It is totally its’ own story, which is sweet and full of love and caring and relationship and gentle joy-of-life and watching over people you love and letting go when it’s time.  See the trailer:

The whole cast is endearing, the music is FANTASTIC and the greater message is so right on.

I’ve tried to live every day as if it was the final day of my extraordinary ordinary life. -About Time

Here is one of the songs I loved.

 Oh see it, really! About Time.

Song for a Sunday // A Whole Worship Set

1 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing

You say to us seek Your face

Our hearts reply, Your face we seek

And come teach us Lord, reveal Your ways

Anoint us for the greater things

 

We have gathered with one thirst and hunger

We’re here to drink of glory and wonder,

Here to cry out

Come and fill this place

Come and fill this place – From One Thirst, Steffany Frizzell

From the Ransomed Heart Ministries Becoming Myself LiveStream Day Retreat yesterday (because the worship was so great!):

After a short introduction to the day, Staci Eldredge set us on a course of worship, thoroughly vertical, starting with a song of words from God to us, then our response.  She said it would be a time to align our spirits with the Truth, to get ourselves ready to receive everything God had for us, 10 of us.

It did, powerfully.

nothing but the blood

And there was this song, which I couldn’t find on Spotify:

“You show me the way to life” – Who Can Compare, Jesus Culture

In case you needed directions…

Thought-Collage Thursday // Song is My Native Language

2 Mi Familia, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

amelie belle at pre-school

“Nonna – can we put the music on?”  Amelie asks me so sweetly every Thursday morning when she arrives for pre-school.  We talk about pushing the big, rectangle button on the surround-sound, then carefully lifting the lid to place an LP on the player.  Then we lift the lever, place the arm over the spinning vinyl, and lower the lever with great care.  Then we lower the lid and after just a bit of crackling,  the dancing begins.

She loves the process, the steps to using the turntable.  She speaks them softly as she reverently plays a record, today: The Fabulous Fifties, last week, some Andy Williams.  I am trying to expose my grandbebes to older, American classics in music, for the new they will always find.  So I start them on 40s love songs and 60s Motown.  As they get older (like Gavin and Hunter), they want to hear the Footloose album or a song like “The Night Chicago Died.”  But it is all “old-timey” music to them.  :)

Hey – remember the 80s?

Well, as I may have mentioned before – I barely do, but not for the “usual” reasons.  I was just busy having babies and tending to my little family back in those days.  Movies?  Music?  Who the president was?  I can hardly recall (though my huge hair and Desperately-Seeking-Susan wardrobe was fantastic).  But our friends, Mary and David, invited us to a show last weekend with a B-52s cover band called, Hey Lady.  It was an all-80s music extravaganza, even with the openers, The Retrosonics (I could sing along with a lot of their music – they were great and the lead singer is the sister of another set of great friends: Joel and Marj).  But I had mostly missed the B52s the first time around.  Ha.

hey lady

Two things became very clear to me: I really AM  from the 1970s and I need that red wig!

I don’t drink and I don’t dance (I want to – just…can’t…dance, that is), so I was out of my element, but Mary has promised we’ll go back on Karoke night sometime – because I DO love to sing!

The keyboard is currently in the living room, where I plunk and play and sing a little most days

I have hit that horrible age where every song has a memory and I burst into tears at the drop of a hat or the gentle turn of a melody.  It isn’t because the memories are sad or bad, but just because I wish I had held every moment of life a little closer and more reverently.

Now I play a chord and sing a line and I see a person or place or time in my mind’s eye.  And I cry because I am so grateful I got to live it and know the people I know and to have loved them.  And my heart is full now because understanding seems to come with age.  Not one day is unimportant.  Do you hear me?  Not one.  The tears are just the overflow of a heart that can feel, that risks feeling, more and more as time goes by.

So just let me cry when I sing.  I am that age now.

#TBT

For today’s #throwbackthursday ::  Highland Park Church of God in Des Moines, Iowa.  My mom was the choir director and she started it while I was about 7, at which time she taught me to sing alto.  In fact there was a whole alto section, Rhonda Sable being the rest of it, but nonetheless – there were parts.

Junior Choir 1968 j

This picture includes all 5 of us, my siblings and myself.  I am the girl in the back row clear to the right.  While the choir had been going for a year by this time (practices on Sunday evenings at 6 pm, while the YPE (aka Young People’s Endeavor, now more commonly known as Youth Group, except with some way more hip title) met upstairs.  But in the fall of 1968, when we got our poncho-robes and bright-white bow-ties, we were certainly at the zenith of our junior choir career.  Good times.

Back row, left-to-right: the late Lonny Sable, Brenda Smith, Sharon Smith, Wesley Sable, Rhonda Sable, MOI! //  Middle row, left to right: Timmy Rodgers, Timmy Moslander, Debbie Bettis, Joey Moslander, Rebecca Sable, Darryl Sable.  Front Row, left-to-right (the junior-est of them all): Tina Slight, Laurie Rodgers, Dana Mitchell Moslander, Tami (alias Tammy) Moslander, David Bettis, Carol Bettis and the late Ramona Whorley.

Which brings me to this question:  Where has all the harmony gone?

What is up with all 5 vocalists onstage singing the melody these days?  I miss hearing harmony?  Part it out, people.

Beautiful music makes the whole world go around!  Who wants to sing with me right this second?

Music on a Monday // Bill Withers Mellow

5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

Is it crazy to say that, especially after watching this documentary called Still Bill on Netflix 2 years ago, I wish to remove all my living room furniture (which creates a beautiful reverb with the high ceilings) and put a grand piano there (and a really good guitar nearby) and have Bill Withers come and play and sing while I just sit in the corner and cry like a baby?

Yes, I am aware that was all one sentence.

Sorry.  Take a breath.

bill withers

Bill Withers quote from the movie (on working towards your dream):

“It’s ok to head out for wonderful, but on your way to wonderful, you’re gonna have to pass through alright.”

I started liking him way back in the early 70s when I just heard his songs on the radio, like, “Ain’t No Sunshine,  and “Lean on me.”  But I didn’t really know what he was about.

But now, I get his music and what a rare talent he is and there is nothing like his simple, but deeply soulful music for the melancholy side of me.  The man writes love like my heart feels it.  His voice just sort of fills the room while his poetry pours out slow like honey, but much sweeter.

I love him.

My Bill Withers Spotify Playlist.

Hello Like Before

Whatever Happens

I wish he’d tour again.  Oh my goodness – I’d go!

bill withers mixed tape

The big hits are, there, too.  But “Family Table” makes me think of my parents and supper at 5 every night during the 60s and 70s.  And the first songs, like, “Hello Like Before, ” “Whatever Happens.” “Memories are That Way,” and “You Just Can’t Smile it Away,” well, I can get lost there.  I sorta made you a mixed tape, Spotify-Style.  :)  These are the mellow ones.  Bill.

www.billwithers.com

Song for a Sunday // Let it be Known!

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

“No need for fear and shame. There’s power in His name. Come on, let’s free the reign!”

From Worship Central.

Just LOVING this fun, upbeat, YES!-Christians-do-have-a-reason-to-rejoice-and-be-the-happiest-people-on-the-planet song!  My FAVS are the dancers that kick it off (you’ll see them throughout), the altar-boy (he has got the joyful moves), the dad dressed like Woody , the little kids on the bus (keep watching past the end), and “the chin!”  O:)   But the puppets – oh the puppets are so great,  just praising Jesus right along with all of creation!

“Let it be known

That our God saves

Our God reigns

We lift You up, up

Let it be known

That love has come

Love has won

We lift You up up, up – oh”

Let it be Known!

Warning: you’re gonna wanna get up and  dance!  It’s fun!

On this Beautiful Day of Consecration

Today we are off to Boulder where Tredessa and Ryan will be set forth as leadership in their church (Highway Community, Pastor Steve Crowder), ordained to love and lead God’s people with the team there.  AND Evangeline is being dedicated.  With gratefulness to God for the gift of her, we give her back, we bless her little life with the promise that we’ll always point her to Jesus.  Love you, Baby Eva!

evangeline lilly faaland

Evangeline: post bath happy

How appropriate then, today’s song of such astounding and wonderful news.  For our baby girl’s name means, “Messenger of Good News.”  So, in that spirit, everybody now:

“Let it be known that our God saves

That our God reigns

Let it be known, let everybody know

That love has won, love has come!”  -Worship Central

And on the matter of this springing forward ~

I like because it has the word “spring” in it.  But this morning, I fear, the spring is stuck and the minutes are just flying right by at a much quicker rate.  How is this possible?  Please, some one, fix this!!!

Song for a Sunday // It’s Gonna Be Worth It

1 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Think

“It’s Gonna Be Worth It”  by Rita Springer

I don’t understand Your ways

Oh but I will give You my song

Give You all of my praise

You hold on to all my pain

With it You are pulling me closer

And pulling me into Your ways

Now around every corner

And up every mountain

I’m not looking for crowns

Or the water from fountains

I’m desperate in seeking, frantic believing

That the sight of Your face

Is all that I need

I will say to You

It’s gonna be worth it

It’s gonna be worth it

It’s gonna be worth it all

I believe this

Oh, I’d forgotten how much I loved this song.  The CD, Effortless, was a birthday present in 2002, the year I “discovered” Rita Springer.

If you’re going to sing a song about not understanding God’s ways but deciding to worship Him anyway, right in the middle of everything, then it should be this strong, this desperate, and have this intensity.

“Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my Help and my God.” Psalm 42.5 Amp.

It’s true.  I don’t understand His ways.  But I’d rather be in His presence at those baffling times because He can see what I cannot.

psalm 42.5

It’s gonna be worth it all ~ I believe this…

Thought-Collage Thursday

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

Ok….so more technical problems…today is actually Saturday (March 1), obvi..but I wrote this Thursday.  *sigh  // ANYHOO-such profound thinking to follow…ha!

Throwback Thursday

I noticed recently that #throwbackthursday  (as in hashtag-throw-back-Thursday) is picking up steam.  It’s the chance for everybody to post those hilarious old photographs of themselves way back in the day.  I can TOTALLY do Throwback-Thursday today because I have been scanning old family photos and oh, man – did I find some doozies (of OTHER people, of course).

The Moslanders, my family-of-origin, #tbt

moslander 1976

Ross the Boss, Mrs. Moss and all the little Landers, 1975 @ Robert, Louisiana (I’m the oldest.  I was 16 here)

moslander 1988 nov

The Sunday after Thanksgiving in 1988 in Hobart, IN (Southlake Church of God).  Two words: shoulder pads!

Thirteen years later, we were all married, I had 5 kids (ages 2-9) and Tami had not grown an inch in height since she was 10 years old.

Meanwhile, I’ll call this Thought-Collage Thursday because that is what this blog is, anyway a collage!  :) 

I think I’m being followed.

fbi wi-fi

Seriously, everywhere I go, when the Wi-Fi options come up on my phone, there is always an FBI Mobile or FBI Van #7 or some sort of FBI vehicle around.  I am pretty sure I am being watched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Why?  I do not know.  If anyone questions you about me, send me a coded text to warn me, will you?  Thanks!

Willie.

I have this {I own it!}, the Willie Nelson – His Hits and Finest Performances album distributed in a Reader’s Digest collection in 1987.  A former co-worker gave it to me just because I have a turntable (or “record player,” as they were known while I growing up!).

willie nelson album set

And while it is packed with all the great songs you already know by Willie Nelson, there are so many great treasures I had never heard anywhere until I got this.  53 great songs on 5 LPs.  Seriously, his rendition of “Let it Be Me” is the best I have ever heard of that gorgeous tune – and it has been sung by every. body!

Any song Willie Nelson sings, with that unmistakable gravel and sophistication actually just sounds more authentic and true than anyone else who ever attempts that song again.   A little raw and wholly soulful, he owns any melody that comes out of that talented heart.

Other songs he covers that I would totally encourage you to try out on iTunes or Spotify:  “Without a Song,” “Stardust,” and “September Song.”

February is (almost) over.

I am surprised every single year at how quickly it is gone.  Every year.  You’d think I’d know by now that it is going to happen.

hello march

Speaking of things I should know

When I take a drink and sort of miss my mouth…and dribble down the side – I am always appalled.  Occasionally when I am eating, I bite my tongue.  How is it 50-some years down the road I haven’t totally mastered these things, having practiced SO much?!

My Jesus, I Love Thee, verse 3

I love old hymns and find restoration, when I am frazzled and shredded by life, in just singing them.  Modern worship is wonderful, but I am drawn to lyrics deep and timeless, to melodies that have been sung by voices before me and which will still be drifting heavenward long after I am gone.

William R. Featherston wrote the well-known, “My Jesus, I Love Thee,” as a poem when he was somewhere between 12 and 16 years of age.  How does such a young man know how to communicate such depth of love?

I was playing the keyboard and singing this song the other morning and the 3rd verse caught in my throat for a minute as I wondered: Will I love Jesus as much in my death as I do in my life?  Because I love life, too, really.  And what if I am not happy with the whole death process?  Will it make me love Him less?

But as suddenly as I questioned myself, I realized, we’re already dying anyway.  Part of our living is dying.  And if I am loving Jesus wholly each day in my living, then when I step through the door  of death from this realm, and actually see Him face to face, Oh, yes.  I will be loving Him more fully, more truly than I have ever been able.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,

And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;

And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

Adoniram Gordon added a melody to the words in 1876.  And William R. Featherston died at age 27 never knowing his words would become a hymn of the deepest devotion, sung around the world and included in almost every hymnal for years to come.

 Live Stream Ransomed Heart Event!

live stream simulcast

1) Get the book and read it!  2) Sign up for Live Stream HERE  3) Saturday March 15, 9am-3 pm…4) While you wait, enjoy archived events from Ransomed Heart Ministries.

 That is all for today.  Enough.