Category Archives: 5 Songs I am Singing

Song is my love language.

HAPPY x 7 to Gavin

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Think
I hope the days come easy and the moments pass slow
And each road leads you where you want to go
My wish for you is that this life becomes all you want it to
Your dreams stay big and your worries stay small…
And while you’re out there gettin’ to where you’re gettin’ to
I hope you know somebody loves you…
Yeah, this is my wish…*

Sigh.  Happy sigh.  Satisfied sigh.

   

The first one.  The first grandson, the first grandbebe.  I wonder how long I can keep calling him my grand-bebe?  Forever, I hope?

And wow, God gave me a good one.  Gavin is only 7, yet he already possesses and incredible work ethic.  He is caring and watchful, a leader, but a servant, too.  He shoulders responsibility and loves little babies.  Spongebob Squarepants makes him laugh and superheroes inspire him to fly.

He’s got red hair and freckles and boundless energy.  He is respectful and has a great outlook on life.  He believes the best in everyone, thinks school is great and even his sisters sing his praises, “Gavin is a good brother,” Gemma May recently told me.  They love their big brother.

I love you, too, Gavinators.

I hope you never look back and you never forget
I hope you always forgive and you never regret
And you help somebody every chance you get
That you’ll find God’s grace in every mistake
And always give more than you take…*

The day you were born, Gavin Lee Kelley, the company I worked for was in crisis and I was working another 16-hour day, firing people, closing down locations in the area, responding as needed.  It was hard to tell people, some who’d mentored me earlier in that job, that they wee no longer needed – we were going to make it go without them.  I came home that day on my crutches with my broken foot, and could barely drag myself up the stairs when I was told, “Stephanie is at the hospital having the baby.”  I wasn’t really sure I wanted to be a grandma yet, and I had just had the saddest, most draining day  but you were on your way. 

And didn’t you just change everything?  You made me a Nonna.  And you made my heart explode with hope and joy and love.  You made what I thought was the worst day ever the BEST day!  And you still do that – 7 years later.  When Gavin is around – it is a good day!  A really, really good day!

 

Thank-you for the hugs and kisses even though you’re such a big kid now.  Thanks for gardening with me and for loving tomatoes as much as me.  We are going to have a great gardening year, Gav!  I love you for always.  I will never, ever get over you.

Happy, happy Birthday!…Love, Nonna

This is my wish, my wish for you
I hope you know somebody loves you
May all your dreams stay big…

* LYRICS: portion of “My Wish” by Rascal Flatts

Happy-Happy-Happy, Gemma May!

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

GEMMA IS THREE NOW!

 

Gemma with her 1982 collector’s doll that her fabulous grandparents (us!!) found at a garage sale last week!!) and with Sandy-the-family-dog, who is way less shaggy now, but is still, in fact, actually “Sandy!”

 The sun will come out tomorrow

Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow ~ there’ll be sun!

Gemma wanted an ANNIE! Party

She LOVES Dora, too but Annie won out.  She plans to play Annie onstage someday and is hoping Poppa will reprise his role as Daddy Warbucks.  She is learning all the words to all the songs and does interpretive dance to the soundtrack.  And she has naturally curly red hair.  Could it be anymore perfect?

 

Gemma/Annie with her daddy and with her mommy.

Even though Gemma’s mommy and Aunt Stormie were getting ready to fly to New York, we found a little time to gather and bat around red balloons, eat lots of good food including fruit skewers the grandbebes made.  There was a wrapping-paper-wad war instigated by Rocky and a silly-string attack which paid him back.  The birthday girl’s mommy made her an Annie red dress and curled her hair up tight.  The little were girls trying on all of Gemma’s new shoes and gardening boots, and of course, there were bubbles.

  

Just thinkin’ about tomorrow

Clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow ’til there’s none

  

 

Gemma stayed in character pretty much the whole party!

Poppa sang “Something was Missing” from Annie-the-musical to Gemma and they danced together.  Gemma performed several numbers herself, especially shining on “It’s a Hard-Knock Life” with her old-time bucket. 

Gemma is three.  And she is sweet.  And she is sunshine.  And she is joyful and has a very upbeat outlook on the future.  She smiles easily, she is kind and sweet and she gives big hugs and lots of kisses.  Always ready with a song, GemGem delights us all everytime we get together.  And she is the epitome of the classic Annie song, “Tomorrow.”  No matter what happens, “Aw, it’s OK,” you’ll hear GemGem say.

When I’m stuck with a day that’s gray and lonely

I just stick out my chin, and grin and say

 

Gemma wanted a strawberry cake.  Buttercream icing.

I love you Gemma-roo!  You’re Nonna’s sweet puddin’.  I love your face, I love your blue eyes, I love that curly red hair and I just LOVE YOU!  Oh, yes, I do! 

Happy Birthday, sweetie-pie.  You keep on singing, baby-girl, and dance and jump and twirl!  Ok?  Never ever stop dancing.  You were born to dance us into happy.  So go, twinkle-toes! 

Remember ~ I will love you for always.  I love you today and I’ll love you tomorrow.  You make the sun shine in my sky!

Love, Nonna!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow

You’re only a day away!

Went to Sleep with YOU on My Mi-i-ind!

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think
“I woke up in love this morning
I woke up in love this morning
Went to sleep with you on my mind!” 
~The Partridge Family

The Pay-off for the Diaper Days

We did Mother’s Day a week late.  My children make everyday Mother’s Day, though, naturally.  Nevertheless, I got flowers and CDs and hugs and kisses and eye cream that will erase every wrinkle guaranteed and other stuff to make me pretty.  I got the colorful new dishes I have been wanting – all sorts of them and a shopping spree already with one daughter and another to come with another and handmade stuff and an orange ring to die for and this <SO neat> cool-cool-cool hook rack made with heavy-duty outdoor faucet handles (each unique in color and design) for the pool area,  and time with my grandbebes and a big family meal surrounded by the people I love and a cool case for my iPod Touch and flowers and plants and shrubs for my garden and more. time. 

Time in a Bottle

{Sigh}…I love time. 

There is nothing more valuable than some one giving you the gift of their time.  Nothing.  So, my kiddos gave me theirs and they stayed late and were loud and it makes me happy.  There was dancing and merriment and videos of the olden days when the kids were little and singing and prayer and love and kisses and grandbebes jumping from the stairs and on couches and into pillows.  There were ping-pong-gun games which did not pan out because the balls just sort of blopped out instead of actually shooting, which was probably safer for us all, anyway.

 

We were also celebrating birthdays with Tara and Stephanie, so it was a wonderful occasion of good stuff.  Eighteen of us, together just to love and honor one another.

“Do dreams come true?  Well if they do I’ll have you
Not just for a night, but for my whole life through” – David Cassidy

Birds of a Feather

But the pièce de résistance?  The thing that wowed me most??  My kids did my second-favorite Partridge Family song, “I woke Up in Love this Morning.”  YES!  They did!  Sooooo sweet and hilarious.  They had a little fun with it.  They didn’t do it like last time, during which they pre-recorded my FAVORITE P-fam song, “It’s One of those Nights.”  With that, they sang it and then taped themselves lip-syncing so it would be truly Partridge family-ish, a little off and marvelous!

This time, they just gathered in the family room and sang it live looking at pieces of paper with the words.  But I?  STILL. LOVED. IT!!  And I will now share it with YOU!

  

The daughters: Jovan, Tredessaa, Tara, Stormie and Stephanie.  The sons: Dave, Tristan and Rocky

Mother’s Day 2010 Patridge Family Cover: I Woke Up in Love this Morning

 

Blast from the past ~ Mother’s Day 2008 Partridge Family Cover: Yes, Love (It’s One of those Nights)

My kids have made life great.  The babies they’ve given me are making it divine! 

  

  

Gemma, Hunter, Gavin, Guinivere, Averi and Baby Amelie Belle

I woke up in love this morning
Went to sleep with YOU on my mind!

Thanks, kiddos!  I L O V E this!  Keep covering the Partridge Fam for me, ok-ok-ok???

Happy Birthday, Stephanie

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think

It is your birthday, dazzling daughter~

Really?  Is it possible that exactly 28 years ago today you were born?  That 28 years ago this morning I awoke to the certainty of my baby arriving on. this. day. even though you weren’t due for at least 5 weeks and the whole sha-bang had been started on a ridiculous carnival ride where I taunted the operator for it being too tame and he, in turn, decided to show me how rough it could be and our course was set?  Oh…I was young and stupid.  Can you imagine, Stephanie?  Can you forgive me from jolting you from the safe place too early?  I was only 22, naive, untested, and very ill-equipped in my mind – and yet, God was about to place the most fragile, tiny amazing head-full-of-hair, cutie-patootie ever in my arms.  He trusted me. With you!  I am still awed.

I want you to be remembered as the girls who sang their songs for Jesus Christ

Who were willing to lay down their lives, And do His will no matter what the price

 

We celebrated both Tara and Stephanie’s birthdays just a few days ago…a picture of Steph by Stormie

You’ll be singing for the deaf man who will hear about salvation through your song

You’ll be singing for the blind man who will see the light in you and come along.

So, here you came: this itty-bitty thing with underdeveloped lungs and not an nth of fat under your skin.  You arrived to a smashingly handsome and proud daddy and a big sister who’d just turned three and you were her utter delight and joy.  She took to that role like bees to my flowers and referred to you as “my baby,” when she told people about anything you’d done or happy she was.  During your extra-long 12-day stay in the hospital, we sewed and prepared and cushioned and made-ready.  I wanted everything to be perfect when you came home.  And even though they’d told me in the middle of the night, after you were born, to expect a 3-month stay in the hospital, 12 days later, we wrapped your 4 1/2 pound sweet self up and brought you to the charcoal-colored house on Armstrong Street in Kokomo.  We brought you home praising God, grateful that He heard our prayers.

“For this child I prayed and the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him.”  1 Samuel 1, an amazing chapter!

His.

And back when baby dedications were more personal, before the designated days of them, our home church allowed me the honor of singing to both you and Tara as we dedicated you to the Lord, His to use and live in and work through all the days of your lives.  And we stood there, young and naive and full of hope for our two little girls and this tiny, tiny little thing we called Stephanie May (May for the beautiful month in which you came), and I sang Evie’s song, Live for Jesus over you.

Live for Jesus, that’s what matters

And when other houses crumble, ours is strong.

Live for Jesus, that’s what matters

That they’ll see the light in you and come along.

And whether God honored my prophetic words over your tiny self that day, or whether I had just unknowingly tapped into His heart for you already, you became, along with your sister, such a songstress.  You started singing so early, I can hardly remember when or how.  You started singing as a baby and you sang your way right into the funny, delightful little girl you became.  You sang first thing in the morning and you sang while the rest of the household was going to sleep.  You sang silly and you sang well.

Well, I know you’re not the only girls who can sing His melody

But He’s chosen you to bless you

And to bring you into all that you can be

And you never self-promoted.  So when your song would go public, people were wowed (Remember high school?  His eye is on the Sparrow!?).  I can remember hearing you sing in your room and hitting those Mariah-highs and have heard you level those Kim Walker lows now and I have still never heard enough of your song. 

I laugh now because I can actually remember, when you were supposed to be taking a nap as a youngster telling you, “Stephanie, quit singing-go to sleep,” because you’d sing ’til the cows came home if we’d let you.  Well, I take that back.  Don’t quit.  Never stop singing, Stephanie.  You are dazzling and deep.  You are gifted and you are Miriam – singing the song of triumph.  Your voice was meant to proclaim: in your face, devil!  Your lungs were healed to give power to proclaim enemy defeat.  So sing, Miriam, sing!

And sweet Stephanie?

Live for Jesus, that’s what matters

And when other houses crumble yours is strong

Live for Jesus, that’s what matters

That they’ll see the light in you and come along!

 

The family legend is true. 

When you were 3 you’d fall asleep in the middle of singing a song and when you’d start to wake up, you’d pick that song up exactly in the place you’d left off.  You are full of song.  You are song.  And I love you.  Happy Birthday, Steph.

Love, Mom

SONG:  Live for Jesus was an Evie Tornquist song waaaaaay back in the day.  I adapted the actual lyrics for my purposes in singing it for the dedication in 1982.

A Girl’s Best Friend

1 Christ is All, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

Gentle rain falling throughout the night left these sparkling diamonds for me in the early morning walk through the green garden.

The daylilies will soon be bountiful with blossoms.

I’m RICH!

 

Have you ever had a thought and even though you knew down deep inside it wasn’t true, you also had a lot of evidence to support the fact that it is true?  Sometimes an enemy lie or a loss or a self-defeating prophecy echoes through your head.  It’s funny to us on the SNL movie “Stuart Saves His Family,” when he has to repeat the mantra “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and doggonnit, people like me, ” because we know that in reality he is hearing, “I’m going to die penniless and homeless. I am still 25 pounds overweight.  No one will ever love me.”  Stinkin; thinkin’. 

And it is all pathetically untrue, for Stuart and for us.  But we have those accusations that pierce.

Mine today was: everyone leaves you eventually.  Nobody stays.

Then, playing a CD Tara gave me as one of my Mother’s Day presents (Hidden in My Heart ~ A Lullaby Journey Through Scripture, www.scripture-lullabies.com), this song broke through, and it is lovely and it is true.  I know this.

I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU

“…For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you,’ so we may boldly say: ‘The LORD is my helper; I will not fear.  What can man do to me?…'”  Hebrews 13.5 NKJV

When your sky is cold and lonely and your heart is filled with fear
I will wrap my arms around you, know that I am here
And I will keep you safe and sound through the darkness that surrounds

{}

I will never leave you
Nor forsake you
Know that I am with you
You will never be alone.

{}

When your way is bright and glowing and your soul knows no despair
Can you hear Me singing with you?  In your triumph I will share
For I am watching over you and I rejoice in all you do

{}

So remember, never doubt this
Hold it tightly to your heart
I’m forever always with you
I will be right where you are

I will never leave you.

Hidden in my Heart, click here

Happy Birthday, Tara

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think
The best gift that I ever got
Didn’t really cost a lot
Didn’t have a ribbon ’round
And sometimes made a terrible sound

When you had surgery in January and I sat with you in the low lights of the hospital room as you recovered, I was struck with a deja vu so strong it nearly knocked the wind from me.  There you were, my baby – grown, but fragile, capable and strong, yet set back and breakable.  But I also saw myself….

  Tara at 4

I was taken back in my memory to Broadway Methodist in Merrillville, Indiana 31 years ago, to me in a hospital bed, a brand new mommy/so young – having just delivered this mysterious bundle of blond joy.  It was after dark, the room lights were low then too, and I was getting acquainted with you for the first time.  I looked at that perfectly round, tiny head and the gentle slow movement of your eyes daring to open and look up at me.  With great reservation I examined your hands and the contour of you, absolutely terrified to unwrap you and soak in the whole of you.   I had been afraid to intrude.

But the connection I felt was beyond anything I had ever experienced. The  intensity of emotion, as I’d approached labor with gritted teeth, determined to control my “situation” and handle it without “bothering anyone,” suddenly became stronger than my organized plans.  When the labor room nurses scolded me for not letting them know how close I was to birth, for not arriving sooner (for I’d only at the hospital for 30 minutes and had nonchalantly received the hospital gown and instructions as if I had all day), I wondered why they couldn’t understand that I was alone, that I’d been pregnant alone, that I would birth alone and somehow in silence, I would make my own wrongs right…all alone.  Understand, of course, that my skewed understanding was that of a teenage girl who did not understand that I’d never been left, never forsaken.

But then one, two, and barely 3 pushes and there you were – the girl I secretly hoped for, but had never allowed myself to believe I’d get.  You were perfect and pink and easy.  And they plopped you on me like a basket of laundry and you barely made a sound, though transcendance thundered through my body and I trembled with awe.

The best gift that I’ve ever known
I’ve always wanted most to own
Yet in my dreams of sugar and spice
I never thought it could be so nice

But later, in that room,  just us two, I knew that you were mine, a gift straight from God.  “I don’t know you yet, but I know I love you,” I whispered, wondering who you’d be and if you could ever love me back.  Yet, even then, in the dim light, when you looked at me, I sensed that already, this baby, this gift from God for me in spite of myself, already understood and was joined to my heart.  The deep communion of that perfect night between you, me and God, {deep breath} ~ I was certain I could read your heart and you mine, as if we were communicating on some empathetic plane.  I truly believe He was there, our Father, in that room, sealing our relationship, blessing our future.  And I knew I was no longer alone, however self-exiled I’d been.

The best gift I could ever get
Was sometimes dry and sometimes wet
Was usually pink, but oftentimes red
As she lay so innocently in her bed

Mercy was rewriting my life that night in a way I had no words to express.  The gift of God, eternal and true was being visited upon me in the most humbling way possible.  For the merciful gift of this baby girl who would become to me my joy, my very own proof of the amazing grace and endless love of the Father for me, to me and through me ~ left me speechless.  I needed mercy.  And through you, my sweet Tara, I have found it again and again.

 

And here is what I knew in January after your surgery and what I know every day and everytime I am around you: You are one of the most incredible human beings on the planet, a woman I admire and love beyond belief.  You are grace and mercy and joy.  And I am so pleased to call you mine.

The best gift of the year to me
The one I hold most dear to me
The gift that simply drove me wild
Was my tiny, newborn child.*

Happy Birthday, Tara.  Mercy and joy, grace and peace back to you, my gracious gift of God.

*LYRICS: The Best Gift by Barbra Streisand.  Bill Tull and Mary Tiller sang this at your dedication service June 1979, as suggested by Bill.  I’d never actually heard it before then (from one of her early Christmas albums), but it was true of you.  Still is.

To the mom who made me Me!

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think

Happy Mother’s Day, mamala!

Wow, I am blessed.  What a godly, gentle and guileless person you are.  What a good mommy you were to me when I was so little and you were so young.  I love that you always just wanted to be a mama.  I LOVE that I got to be first in making you a mom!  I love that there were 22 hand-sewn dresses waiting for my arrival, that you were so anxious to be a mommy you couldn’t stop that crazy exuberance of yours from preparing for me.

You taught me about heaven and end times (when I was four!) and the first two words I could ever spell were B-i-b-l-e and Oh, you can’t get to heaven without s-a-l-v-a-t-i-o-n because you sang me those songs over and over.   You made me cry telling me the story of Bambi and Roy Rogers’ stuffed horse, Trigger (housed, you informed me, in a Roy Rogers museum in Hollywood where you someday dreamed of going) and you made me listen to country music and though I eschewed it for years, I have come full circle and truly appreciate its place in my life now.  You told me where puppies came from and bought me the Christian book about sex called Almost Twelve when I was only ten.  But you only let me read 2 or 3 pages at a time, every few months, and it did end up taking me until I was actually almost 14 to finish it, but that doesn’t really matter since if that book  had been my only sex education, I still wouldn’t know what the heck was happening!

You taught me to cuss like a Christian.

“Oh, crap-a-dap!”

You were never too busy to stop and explore something fun.

I love how you are creative and so totally unpretentious. And I love how your life has been filled with you discovering new passions and finding new hobbies and you have just never gone dull.  There has always been something delightful and new to picque your interest.  I mean, you became an award-winning horse photographer after the age of 55 and had your work on magazine covers!  What a resourceful, inspiring, virtuous woman you are!  You are SO Proverbs 31!

You are long-suffering and always believe the best in everyone.  You let people walk on you ~  determined to win them over and though I advise you to tell them where to get off, you do, in fact, always win them over and there isn’t anyone I know who doesn’t love you.  And if there is anyone in the whole wide world who doesn’t love you?  I don’t even want to know them. Someday I hope I can be more like you, mamakins, because you are wonderful.

Mares eat oats and does eat oats
And little lambs eat ivy
A kid’ll eat ivy, too, wouldn’t you? 

We’d lie across the bed and sing this and laugh our heads off.  It was years before I even knew what I was singing.  And wasn’t that the point?

As if being a good mommy to me when I was young wasn’t enough,  you are my most cherished friend and confidante now.  You are my biggest cheerleader and when you nag me about overwork and taking care of myself and hold me accountable for making every effort to enter in to that Sabbath rest that remains (Heb. 4), I naturally rebel or pretend all is well.  But inside I am happy that there is a human being on earth who takes the time to actually care anything at all about me.  I love you, mom.  Thank-you.  Thank-you.  Thank-you.

Then

You dreamed of me.  You planned for me.  You wanted me.  And you have never given up on me.  And though I even know as you read this you would say to me, “Oh, Jeanie, I am not perfect.  I have a lot of faults,” and perhaps this is true, the only thing that really matters to me on Mother’s Day and every day is that you are PERFECT for me!  You were the only woman in the world God could trust to be my mom and I am grateful He knew…

Now

One of my favorite remembrances ever shall be that when we found out the Roy Rogers Museum had moved from California to Branson – just 45 minutes from your house, I got to take you to see Trigger (whom you’d actually seen ALIVE when you were a young girl…doing his tricks and carrying your beloved Roy Rogers).  And just before the museum closed down for good, together, we got to see all the things you’d told me about in my earliest memories (3 or 4 years old) and we stood there singing “Happy Trails to You” in the fan room, me at 50, you at 70-ish – our girlhood fancies intertwined…We are from so long ago, it is as if we have always been.  You are my mama and I am your baby girl, forever and always.

On my last birthday you wrote this in an email:

“You just can’t know how very, very happy I was when you arrived in October 1959. Wow! My Dream had come true!!”

I am among the most blessed women of the world.  I have such great treasure.  I am rich in a way that most people can only wish – to have my mom say words like these to me.

I love you, Norma J. Moslander, my mom.

J e a n i e

You have more than fulfilled the “prediction” in your high school senior yearbook, mom-ma!  You have pleased God.  It is certain.

“Give her the reward she has earned and let her works bring her praise at the city gates.”  Proverbs 31.31 NIV

Song for a Sunday ~ That’s What I Love about Sunday

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

Craig Morgan.

Pond garden weeded, re-arranged, added to and mulched.  Pretty.  Now it is time for Dave to get the fountains running and fish fat and happy.  And for Rocky to replace all the lily pads he threw out which he found distracting and bothersome, but which I’d spent 4 years cultivating!  Tsk.

May Day! May Day!

2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think

Pieces of April….

M A Y   D A Y is today!….

I’ve got pieces of April, I keep ’em in a memory bouquet
I’ve got pieces of April, but it’s a morning in May**

May Day memory:

As kids in Des Moines in the 1960s, we’d create “baskets” from paper: usually a cone-shaped affair with a “handle” attached.  We’d fill the containers with candy or lilacs, which happily bordered the yard, and hang them on neighbor’s doors, ring the bell and then run.  May Day was the most sunny, delightful holiday of them all.  No pressure, no rules – just try to be sweet to people annonymously.  Shouldn’t we be doing more of that?

 

Pictured: google images.  The ones we did as kids had spring flowers like these on the left, but were paper cones like on the right.  I like the idea of the paper flowers with the Rolo glued to the center shown here.  Hmmmm…..hope some one does this for me today!  Chocolate + caramel = Rolos YUM

A great website to visit on May Day~www.MayDae.com

CLICK HERE: www.maydae.com  Two of my super-cool daughters’ website using their middle names.  What have they got up their sleeves today, I wonder?  Read all the posts you have missed and I promise you’ll be smarter and way more hip by the time you have finished!

“April gave us springtime, and the promise of the flowers…”**

Pictured:  My ‘pieces of April’ ~

 

Averi and Amelie by www.lilacphotography.com  “…together in perfect harmony…”

 

 

The Kelley Kids:  Gavin-the-Great, Guini-my flower girl, and GemGem the delightful!

 

Hunter-Magoo at a video shoot doing the Heaven Fest dance!

 

Planning for May fun.  Bright and cheery.  Weddings and graduations, showers and celebrations galore!

  

April hair: mine is brown-black (on purpose this time) and Dave’s is growing back.  Left: what he looked like at the end of March having just finished 2 months of keeping it shaved for the ANNIE performances.  Right: this is now. 

**LYRICS: From [possibly] my favorite Three Dog Night song, Pieces of April, written by Dave Loggins.  He explains: “I wrote [Pieces of April] at a very special time of my life. Special, because I met the ‘love of my life’ and had recently lost her. By chance, we were together for three consecutive Aprils and then she left me for good. Today, I don’t know where she is or how her life turned out. May is symbolic of the present, April was, and still remains a sweet yesterday. I have never really gotten over ‘April’ and the ‘pieces’ still remain. Those sweet Aprils… It’s my favorite song, too.”  -Dave Loggins

Isn’t today a positively perfect May Day?  O yes!

Ode to Melancholy

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

“…the wakeful anguish of the soul…”  John Keats

‘Cause we were all so young and foolish, now we are mature.
And those were the days of roses, poetry and prose
And Martha all I had was you and all you had was me.
There was no tomorrows, we’d packed away our sorrows
And we saved them for a rainy day.

Do you have to let it linger? Do you have to, do you have to,
Do you have to let it linger?

And there’s no misery ooooooh oooh like the misery
I feel in me, gotta find me an angel in my life

I left my tender seedlings out last night and some frost bit them.  *sigh