And I already neeeeeed a Silent Night, just like Amy Grant.
Song: I Need a Silent Night by Amy Grant
Category Archives: Stuff I Actually Think
ALTAR through to the next round!
COnfetti! {Cheering!!} ShOuts of jOy! Haaaaa-the crOwd gOes wild!
Dave’s book is still in the running. Thanks for getting it in to the top 8!
25 Days Until You-Know-What!
Christmas in Connecticut
I watched the old, crisp-black-and-white, 1945 “Christmas in Connecticut” last night, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan. It is official. I am into Christmas. And I LOVE this movie (I have for almost 30 years, now).
Elizabeth Lane
Barbara Stanwyck plays Elizabeth Lane, a writer for a homemaking magazine, and just seeing it again last night made me laugh at myself, for I think I truly have emulated her food-writing style. It obviously has impacted my romanticism in regards to writing about the “homely arts.” She is gorgeous and tough, she is smart and sassy. She is self-sufficient and alluring. She absolutely sparkles in this sweet and silly old movie.
And the fur coat? I have it! I actually bought the exact same style of coat (made in the 40s) at an antique shop in Sioux City, Iowa in 1987. I want to be Elizabeth Lane!
I’m wishin’ that I may
I’m wishin’ that I might
Have the wish that I wish for tonight
Spoiler Alert…may give away some things (hopefully just makes you want to see it)
In the movie she is a city-girl journalist who can’t even boil water, but is forced to play farm wife and mother for her boss who doesn’t know her writing isn’t actually from a farm in Connecticut. Barbara Stanwyck is elegantly charming and totally lovable enlisting help from the men her life to pull this off: the horribly pretentious, prissy bore of an architect she is engaged to marry and Uncle Felix, the restaurant owner from whom she gets all her recipe copy. They set out to create the “Elizabeth Lane” persona for her boss, who has invited a war-hero sailor to spend Christmas with them at the farm.
When the hunky sailor shows up, the usually-cool Elizabeth knows she has met her match.
I adore the script-
Nora: I’ve never flipped in me life and I’m not gonna start flippin’ now for no man.
Felix: Nobody needs a mink coat but the mink!
Elizabeth Lane(about her boss): Every time I opened my mouth, he talked. I felt like Charlie McCarthy.
And watch for the “Christmas-card” scene. You know, like in “Holiday Inn,” and “White Christmas?” There is a moment when they take you to the Connecticut farm and it is snowy and there are sleigh bells and suddenly your heart is just pulled in to the story: this is what every Christmas should be, you feel, as the music rises majestically and you are magically transported to the fire-y hearth and can practically smell the good old Irish stew simmering from the kitchen…
It’s lighthearted, totally silly, borrowed babies, fake marriages, a nosy and overpowering magazine publisher, a little farcical and one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies. The really talented cast manages to create some well-defined and lovable characters. I am telling you, suspend some disbelief and just enjoy a “Christmas in Connecticut.” It’ll make you smile. And then we can talk more about it when I won’t be ruining it for you!
The 1945 Trailer
See? I mean, come on!
P.S. Believe me when I tell you that the early 90’s remake (Arnold Schwartzeneggar’s directorial debut, I think) was not nearly as wonderful, but it does have the beautiful Dyan Cannon – so that is something, I guess.
Blogoversary
I started blogging 3 years ago today.
Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth
It was November 29, 2006. Tristan “presented” me with my very own namesake website and I was excited, but wary, hopeful, yet afraid; I felt exposed, naked and thoroughly vulnerable – about to share my innermost thoughts, stories and dreams with the whole wide world…or at least with my mom and my kids.
“Which of all my important nothings shall I tell you first?” Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
Just emerging ever so slightly from a very despairing place at the start of the blog, my words initially felt ripped from my guts, laying me bare for everyone to judge. Now I read those early posts and I doubt anyone can really see how bloody and tormented they were for the darkness I was struggling to escape. But they were what I could do at the time. Over the course of 3 years I have both willingly divulged and unmasked my pain and faults or carefully hidden and protected myself, alternately (it isn’t my real true life, only what I allow you to see). But I am so much less afraid of feeling now and admitting to that, caution to the wind.
“A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar.” – Stephen King
I am so blogging this!
This is my 740th post and Akismet has saved me from over 50,000 vile spam comments. I have rambled on about my family and music and movies and silly news stories and my failures and blessings and what I have heard God say and the dog and gardening with a heavy tomato emphasis (because tomatoes are probably the best thing I write at all) and growing and healing and I write graphomaniacally because it is how I finally, at this ridiculous age, am finding out what I actually think about things – about anything and everything. Most anything is blog-fodder.
I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions. ~James Michener
My blog is my love note to living. It’s the depository of the bits and pieces, “the collage”, as it were, of my thoughts and feelings and silliness and words. It is embarrassingly me.
The real reason I blog like a maniac?
I LOVE the comments. I LIVE for the comments. Like this one from Bryan recently when I mentioned how a lot of my blog-peeps had started spending so much time on Facebook, they aren’t really blogging anymore. Here is his response:
“OK OK I’ve had a little bloggers-block of late and I actually don’t spend as much time on line as I usually do. I will try to do better. Because your side of the internet is getting full and I would hate for the internet to tip over.”
That did make me laugh, actually, right out loud!
And guess what my mom wants for Christmas? The only thing she requests? She wants a book form in paper (!) of this blog – something she could get online at any given moment of the night or day.
Ah, yes. I am writing for my mama. But I am glad/honored/so grateful you are reading, too.
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster. ~Isaac Asimov
images: google (woman writing, and word collage), representing the “romantic” notion of writing a blog and the messy, wordy side of it
A Saturday in November
(1) Gather and eat a light and delicious breakfast, a little too early on a Saturday morning.
(2) Swap meet. Clean out your closet of clothes and jackets and jewelry and all manner of now-unwanted items. Throw them into a giant pile in the living room so that after breakfast, everyone can dig through and get what they want. Leftovers to Goodwill.
(3) Go hit a series of thrift stores looking for amazing deals and designer clothes for less and to replenish everything you just got rid of at the swap.
Meanwhile, Guinivere stayed behind to lend her hand to decorating the outside door garland. She works very meticulously, we have found, from left to right in straight lines.
Good Blog Read
I read the best blog post!
No kidding – I was reading some one else’s blog, who just happens to be my brother Joe’s wife, Rockin’ Robin. And it was just such. a. good. post. I loved it! She wrote about blogging and all the things a blog is about it. In one, single post, Robin journaled a Sunday in their household and she presented her recommended book list. She shared her Christmas wish list and the secrets from her daily planner and to-do list. She gave a lighthearted and interesting glimpse into theirs lives, these people I adore, and I was just loving it. I laughed right out loud on some of it and was like, “Awwwww…” on other parts. I decided about halfway through that I would recommend it to my blog readers as a peek inside the mind and heart of sweet Robin (Elise-the-Niece’s mom, for those of you who know Elise), my friend and sister, Bible teacher, women’s leader, accomplished realtor, amazing mom and wife to the Joe-Joe. My sister-in-law love, Robin.
READ IT HERE
I just love this woman and enjoy her writing. So imagine my surprised delight when I showed up in a list of special people in her life at the end. I promise that is not why I am recommending this read. I just love Robin and think you would, too! (And thanks, Robin-for the mention! You know I’d trust you with my life, right?)
A Few of My Other Fav Bloggers~
Facebook is taking over the universe and some of my favorite bloggers have practically dropped off the face of the earth, rarely-if-ever posting. But most people are not as graphomaniacal as me. But among the favorites in my blog box, some who do still blog regularly, giving me food for thought, are:
Carol Ann Kelly. She blogs, she FBs, she tweets and she gets more done in a single afternoon than I do all week, I am sure. Always bright, funny and encouraging, always bringing a smile, read her here.
Marie and I worked together in ministry for a brief time, but she was a gift to me and is planted deeply in my heart. One of the most intelligent and thought-provoking women I have ever known, Marie can pierce me with a thought (whatever current truth she is personally wrangling with) so deep I think about it for weeks. She just did it again with her post, “Delicious Ambiguity.” Read Marie here.
Joel is a thinker. He is ever reading another mind-boggling book or listening to the intelligesia speak and then summarizing it for his readers. Saves me lots of time. He also gifted me with my top book read for 2009, and really probably in my top-20 all-time books, From Eternity to Here, by Frank Viola. Sometimes you get the right book at the right moment and Joel made that happen for me. Thanks, kiddo! Read Joel’s thoughts here.
Not only does she write openly, honestly and poignantly for her new ministry, For Girls Only (she is going to save this generation), Mary V. blogs the story of her little family: her love for her husband and their little boy and the challenges they have faced and overcome these past few years. The woman blogs! You can read her delightfully entertaining escapades here (where she also just wrote something very nice for me, so sweet- thank-you, Mary) and her passion for following and taking the next generation of godly young women with her, here.
There are more. I will talk about them another day. :)
Thanks, blog-family (those mentioned and those on the blogroll). Thanks for the words that inspire me, the thoughts that blow my mind, the things you share that touch my heart, the ideas I’d never have considered and for giving me a glimpse into your minds and hearts. Thanks for baring your souls, being gentle with mine, and exposing your fears as you cheer the rest of us on. As long as you write, I will read! …Jeanie
Black Friday ~ ALTAR SATURDAY!
Black Friday ~ ALTAR SATURDAY! Next-round voting for Dave’s book starts tomorrow!
Dave’s book, Altar, as you’ll recall, made it through to the 2nd round of voting. There are 18 semi-finalists and voting will be this weekend ~
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 28, SUNDAY NOVEMBER 29, & MONDAY NOVEMBER 30!
Three things~
- Pre-register to vote if you didn’t vote last time.
- Download the entries and prepare to vote (but OF COURSE vote for Dave!)
- Vote this weekend!
You can follow all of these steps and directions at www.daverhoades.com (on the home page)
I will post on Saturday, too, as a reminder if it is as weird this time as last time. Please VOTE!
The Big ALTAR Argument
If you enjoy a good debate (or even a stupid one), there is quite the little Altar tizz going on at the Anamoly message boards. If you are of a mind to, get on and create some buzz FOR Altar! And? Invite your friends and family to vote, too! (FIRST-sign in your account, THEN- follow this link: http://wherethemapends.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=mlpselect )
The winner of this contest will be published in the spring by Marcher Lord Press.
Full of Thanks
Last year’s list of things to be thankful about: http://www.jeanierhoades.com/stuff-i-actually-think/so-thankful
Today.
I walk in the door just before dark while a twilight indigo still colors the sky. Home from a wonderful Heaven Fest meeting where we thanked God for what He has allowed us to be a part of and dreamed big dreams for 2010, Tredessa pulls up to the curb from the same meeting to visit. Into the house she goes, arms full of her current Christmas projects, so excited to pour her love into the gifts she is planning for her siblings. Dave has been working on the “big” tree, stringing 5 or 6000 lights on the 12-footer. The whole lower level is ablaze in light, Stormie in the kitchen baking her famous pumpkin pies with Martha Stewart’s dough recipe. Spicy cinnamon scents the pre-Thanksgiving air, even as Christmas music is playing. We are moving furniture to accomodate the people who will join us around the table tomorrow to give thanks.
The house is warm and happy. But I can’t resist the deepening blue sky and nippy air so I head out for a vigorous walk through the neighborhood. And I think about simple things that make me happy and things I am thankful for and how sometimes I have selfishly pouted over not getting what I wanted when really, I have been blessed so far beyond what I even deserve. I am blessed. I need to say it more, I need to recognize it more. I need to remember and speak it out and be grateful for all that has been and all that is. I have been blessed. And it is the simple stuff that just makes life so rich, isn’t it? The little things, the silly surprises and the unexpected moments of grace – the stuff we almost forget to acknowledge. So as I passed houses lit up in the emerging night, already smelling good food as my neighbors are surely preparing for tomorrow like we are, I listed off simple things for which I am grateful, deeply thankful and I thanked God, from Whom all blessings flow. He has been so good to me.
5 little reasons to be thankful: Gavin, Hunter, Guini, Gemma and Averi
Simple things for which I give thanks:
a gentle rain…the smell of rain (not enough of that here)…being able to remember the lyrics to any 1970s song because I lost so much memory 3 years ago-it makes me happy to be able to sing along with Karen Carpenter (“Long ago and oh so far away…”)…currently having 2 really great-fitting pairs of jeans – seriously! That is a miracle!…that pumpkin pie with whipped cream is going to be so. flipping. awesome!…true friends, true even when you are a crud…new friends – so much ahead, but you just know when you have met a “keeper”…old friends, because they knew you “when”, in a certain time and space and even though you come from nowhere, they remember you somewhere in time and they become your roots and your home, the keeper of the proof of you…and good friends, the ones who count forever even if you don’t get to see them as often as you’d like…I’m thankful for the tire swing where I first started singing love songs from my heart to Jesus…autumn colors and what my friends are now calling “Jeanie green”…
…the brilliantly-colored sunset I witnessed from the Northern Hills Church cafe during our meeting and all sunsets I have enjoyed this year…sunny days are here again!…crystal-clear views of snow-capped mountains these November days that remind me of God’s faithfulness…I am happy about things that make me smile a real, genuine, heartfelt, eye-wrinkle-inducing smile (“polite” smiles aren’t, really, and forced smiles are tragic)…wry humor…my old mangy, but o-so-loving dog…quiet mornings and strong, black coffee…the girls downstairs singing “My Heart Will Go On” together- right this second-very loudly, so cute!…don’t you just love music?….
…a full moon…3 jackets from the beautiful Stef at the swap, I love jackets because coats make me too hot…the fireplace in the early dark morning so when I get out of the shower I can remain toasty and being hot is a good thing…google, that’s right, google.com, I love it. It has changed everything for this information junkie…I am thankful that dark chocolate is actually good for your health…
…So grateful for the seed catalogs that will be arriving in the next couple of weeks reminding me that these short days and long nights will have an end and spring will come just when I think I cannot go on…good conversation…funny conversation…Tredessa and Stormie are on a singing spree having moved past “My Heart Will Go On” to “Hotel California” and then Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.” It is making me smile an eye-wrinkle-inducing smile…I am thankful for a movie or book or point of view on some one’s blog that teaches me something or surprises me or just plain entertains me…for anything that can actually entertain me, because that is not an easy feat…Can you believe the girls are singing “Dancing Queen!?”…that’s entertainment!
…for God trusting me to be a mom…for God just giving me 5 grandbebes and all the ones to come…for great siblings and parents and a husband who has endured me…for the great GRACE of God (the Holy Spirit empowering me to be who He called me to be and to do what He called me to do)…for these things and more, I am thankful. And I am humbled.
Thanks, anyway
Too much food.
The funny thing about Thanksgiving…is that you spend 12 hours shopping for it and then chopping and cooking and braising and blanching. Then it takes 20 minutes to eat it and everybody sort of sits around in a food coma, and then it takes four hours to clean it up. ~Ted Allen
Don’t be like Charlie
Jimmy Stewart’s character on the classic movie, Shenandoah – Charlie Anderson: “Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvested it. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord, just the same for the food we’re about to eat, amen.”
No, that is not right.
Star Student of the Week: Gavin-the-Grandson!
Ode to Gavin’s teacher.
In one little 15-20 minute exercise weekly, this quiet woman is turning out 1st graders who are well-equipped to speak to their peers, run meetings, answer questions and communicate their thoughts.
Gav displayed photographs and items that showed him doing things he enjoys and places he has traveled and things that represent his life-to-now in his classroom last week. He was the “Star Student of the Week.”
Mrs. M. gathered the class, each tiny little human sitting cross-legged in a cozy space, and Gavin explained each item and picture, revealing a little of himself.
He is doing public speaking!
He looked so relaxed and at ease with his hands in his pockets, sort of nonchalently walking back and forth in front of the crowd, calling on various students as they’d raise their hands and ask questions. The question-askers were rewarded by the teacher putting their names on post-its in order of the questions posed. At the “end of the speech,” Gavin got to pass around a jar of erasers to the students for guessing how many were in it. They went in order and as they made their guess, Mrs. M would place the sticky note on the corresponding number on the wall, somewhere between 0 and 100. After all the guesses were made, the class counted the erasers by 2’s until all had been counted.
I was so impressed at how many skills and learning moments she squeezed into this small time frame, not to mention how special the “Star Student” got to feel.
And I felt special when I’d catch Gavin looking at me, but not so anyone else would know. I could tell he was thinking: My Nonna loves me. I’m glad she’s here. Yes. I could tell that. He is growing up, but he is till my grandbebe!
Dear Gavin,
I am so pleased with you. You did a great job. I was so proud to know you, so glad to say you’re my boy! You made me a Nonna, you know! I love you!
pictured: Gavin with Mrs. M; Gav speaking and running the classroom; I hung out with Gemma and Guini in the back of the room – and had to wear a bright green sticker identifying my legitimacy as his Nonna.