Ageless Beauty walking gently upon the Narrow Path
She runs, she glides, she rests, she makes the journey her home
Eyes roam in search of hidden truths to hold, to grasp and adorn
In never-ending pursuit of the knowledge that evades the apathetic
A solid foundation rooted in love, she unites her family
Her green touch hails life in the dead garden, now fresh and new
With tasks at hand to nurture, to provide, to advise
She shifts in form to embody the need of the moment
Watch on, watch long, wholehearted devotion you will observe
She has an audience in me, I listen and absorb
May I sit beside you, Seasoned Wisdom, on the narrow path?
What will you share? What must I know? What knowledge do I lack?
Speak the words that breathe life in the graveyards of my being
Then, permit the Undeserving to leave you with a wish
Hold no more the woes from seasons Time has now retired
Ageless Beauty, age in grace, grow in love, lie down in peace.
From Tredessa Christine Rhoades, (a very wonderful daughter) in watercolor and ink, on the occasion of my 5oth birthday. At this point in life, you enjoy being described as ageless and timeless. *smile…
Sometimes one old hymn can say in very few words what an almost-three-year-old blog has been trying to say in over 700 posts.
A hymn of A. B. Simpson
Once it was the blessing, Now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling, Now it is His Word.
Once His gifts I wanted, Now the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing, Now Himself alone.
Once ’twas painful trying, Now ’tis perfect trust;
Once a half salvation, Now the uttermost.
Once ’twas ceaseless holding, Now He holds me fast;
Once ’twas constant drifting, Now my anchor’s cast.
Once ’twas busy planning, Now ’tis trustful prayer;
Once ’twas anxious caring, Now He has the care.
Once ’twas what I wanted, Now what Jesus says;
Once ’twas constant asking, Now ’tis ceaseless praise.
Once it was my working, His it hence shall be;
Once I tried to use Him, Now He uses me.
Once the power I wanted, Now the Mighty One;
Once for self I labored, Now for Him alone.
Once I hoped in Jesus, Now I know He’s mine;
Once my lamps were dying, Now they brightly shine.
Once for death I waited, Now His coming hail;
And my hopes are anchored, Safe within the vail.
Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843-1919) wrote many poems and hymns and founded the Christian and Missionary Alliance
NOTE: I discovered this hymn at the end of Frank Viola’s amazing book,From Eternity to Here
A golden autumn sun pours in to the living room in full, bright force as Gavin runs from the front door and sails through the air in his magnificent jump down the stairs to the family room. He lands bent-knee in perfect Spiderman form, delighting his two sisters and his little cousin. Sweet sugar and spice girls squeal and clap and shout their praises while they run in circles throwing their heads back to laugh without reserve.
Guini is alternately power-serving her pink balloon like she is on the Olympic Volleyball team or kicking it down the imaginary kitchen floor soccer field. Gemma’s teeth make small squeaky noises against her balloon as she tries to bite it while Gavin reports on his high scores at school today in between masterful leaps into the air. Sandy-the-Dog is quite happy indeed to see the popcorn and M & Ms flying through the air as an unexpected afternoon snack. Full of sass and spunk and decked in a purple t-shirt and black gauchos, Averi saunters across the room with her hand on her hip, and up on her tippie-toes, just like I did at her age!
At exactly 3:52 pm
Out the window in the brightly-lit, sunny street we spy a pearly-white Nissan Maxima pulling in the driveway. Rocky is here! Rocky is here! even Averi cries out. All 4 kids and the dog do the happy dance, as if Rocky were a super-hero or a beloved friend returning from a far away land. He comes in the house to hugs and children jumping up and down and exclamations of love and we realize we are in the middle of a spontaneous party of delight. You can practically see the confetti flying through the air.
These are the moments.
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
Dave-the-husband writes, paints, teaches, husbands, fathers, grandfathers and now he is acting again. You can catch him this month in the newly renovated/restored Armory in Brighton with The Platte Valley Players. He starts rehearsals this weekend for his next role as Daddy Warbucks in “Annie ~ The Musical” for Prairie Playhouse Productions.
He says he is shaving his head.
I am shaking mine. I guess I’ll be able to say, “I knew him when…” But he still has to take out the trash.
December 1988. Stephanie was 6 and we left her and her two sisters (Tredessa 5 and Tara 9 1/2) home alone for a few minutes while we picked up some church supplies for the Christmas season. Wal-Mart was 5 minutes away and it was a small Nebraska city. I wouldn’t try this now, so don’t call Social Services on me, people. They were given strict instructions and told to behave.
We get to Wal-Mart and call home to check on them and are informed by the very responsible and afraid-she-might-be-in-trouble Tara that Tredessa and Stephanie were jumping on the bed and Stephanie had hit her head on Tredessa’s noggin, knocking her tooth loose.
It was very upsetting. Rushing home I am thinking, “Oh no. We have to save the tooth. Oh poor Stephanie!” But it ended up being a bottom tooth and when we investigated closely, she already had her first “grown-up tooth” coming in. Tredessa’s head was a blessing in diguise.
Having 5 kids in less than 7 years, can I just tell you we kept the Tooth Fairy veeeeeeeery busy between 1985 and the early 90’s? Then? We had to give her a pink slip.
The grandbebes enter their tooth-morphing season.
Gavin is a man after my heart. He loves to work and work hard. He spent 4 hours one day last week shoveling snow. His neighbor paid him $2 – for shoveling at his own house! But he thought it was worth that! After the Harvest Fest he dumped his huge candy haul on the floor and said, “I have to organize all this candy, Nonna!” Organization is key for Gavin, a red-headed first-born. Case-in-point, he had just organized the kitchen pantry that afternoon, emptying it of all its contents and carefully filling it back up.
So no surprise that this very detail-oriented and hard-working, freckle-faced kid only had that loose tooth for 2 or 3 days before it came out. He is very consistent and organized that way.
Love you, Gavin! Congratulations! Be sure to tell the Tooth Fairy that prices have gone way, way up since December of 1988!…Love, Nonna
Did you ever wonder why a woman’s bra size is measured by A, B, C, D, DD, E, F, G, and H?
Here is how the code breaks down:
A ~ Almost boobs
B ~ Barely there
C ~ Can’t complain
D ~ Dang!
DD ~ Double dang!!
E ~ Enormous.
F ~ Fake, definitely fake.
G ~ Get a reduction, already. Good grief.
H ~ Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!
Thanks to my friend Christy-from-Nebraska who sent this bra-size explanation to me. And I dedicate this post to my mother who actually thought the tank top (a gift from Stormie Dae) I was wearing said, “I am so blogging these,” rather than the more acceptable and actual “I am so blogging this,” (which is what bloggers say about everything). I don’t have that kind of blog, I told her. But, hmmm, maybe I do now, after this post?
Happy Birthday, sweet girl and amazing mommy. Happy Birthday to the one daughter God gave me who was not a moment of work for me: just a gift! Happy Birthday to the wife of my son’s youth, the daughter-in-law, who like Naomi’s daughter-in-law, Ruth in the Bible, is better to me than seven more sons could ever have been. I am blessed among women. I am blessed that you are mine by the choice my son made.
I am so pleased with you, Jovan, so proud of the young woman you are becoming. I know God chose you from way back when for Rocky. And though I did not give you birth, you are my beloved daughter. I thank God for you and I am so glad He chose you for our family. I love that you say you wanted to marry Rocky since you were 14. I love that the long, winding road of life brought that to pass. I love that the two have you have brought us Averi and soon her sibling. You are a life-giver in our midst!
In thinking about your birthday, I got to remembering that about 23 years ago I was asked to join this sweet group of people (the band, Parousia) as a vocalist. They played at Catholic masses, community events and on college campuses around Nebraska. The the first song I did with them was by Wayne Watson and it got a lot of play. Rocky was just a little guy at the time. He was climbing walls and sliding down banisters and making life exciting. And I was asked to sing this song frequently and I think the reason it was very well received was because when I’d sing it, I would purpose singing it over my own children and it was a prayer of my heart. So, in a way, before I ever knew you existed, I was singing this song over you, too:
Somewhere in the world today
A little girl is going out to play
She’s all dressed up in mama’s clothes
At least the way that I suppose it goes
Somewhere in the world tonight
Before she reaches to turn out the light
She’ll be praying from a tender heart
A simple prayer that’s a work of art
And I don’t even know her name
But I’m praying for her just the same
That the Lord will write His name upon her heart
Cause somewhere in the course of this life
A little boy will need a godly wife
So hold on to Jesus, baby, wherever you are
And often I’d change the words the last time through:
Cause somewhere in the course of his life
My little boy will need a godly wife
So hold on to Jesus, baby, wherever you are
And Jovanie? I know for sure that God heard that prayer and began even then to prepare you for our family, to get you ready to be one of us. You were born to be a Rhoades, sweet girl, my daughter and my friend. And I love you so much.
Jovan loves her sweets…and so does her daughter and her nieces and nephews (the five little monkeys)!
Twenty-three wishes for Jovan on her 23rd Birthday:
Look at the sun shining today! It is for your birthday. It is so you can have a happy, happy day!
I wish for you to have a great pregnancy all the way until baby-number-two is born. I hope these months will be full of fun and laughter and anticipation and your memories warm and happy of these days. You are so cute pregnant, girl!
Enjoy crazy-romantic-love with your man. These are baby-days and busy-days, but keep the fires burning. May Rocky love you like a real man should and may you receive it with unabashed joy!
I wish for lots and lots of happy mommy-daughter times with Averi…Gilmore Girls reruns and Cinderella watching!
Jovanie, I pray for you to know Jesus in a closer way than you ever have.
Let this year be a year of discovery: finding out who God really created you to be and what He has really called you to.
I am wishing for a gazillion kids, but no multiple births, as you wish. But you guys make beautiful babies!
May God enlrage your heart with an even greater capacity to love and be loved.
I am praying for deep relationships for you. I am praying the connections and relationships you have, both friendships and family, will develop and grow and be life-giving and true. And I pray God sends you many new friends and puts people in your path both to bless and be blessed by.
I wish sweet times of scrapbooking for you. Those will be hard to come by right now, but I am going to wish for suprise pockets of time for it, anyway. I know you love it.
My wish for you is to find your own beat and to be unapologetic about marching to it.
Jovan, I hope you will understand that you were called to us and will never be afraid to change us and impact us. That is why you’re here!
I am believeing God for financial blessing. They always say you can’t get rich in ministry, but the Lord is your Provider and you guys are rich, but I pray for sufficient funds for planning for the future and raising your family.
I want you to get the house you want, too!
May your creativity continue to blossom and sprinkle color and light and life on everything you touch as you create home and memories for your little family.
I wish for those traveling adventures that you and Rocky love so much to happen a lot over the next year.
I also wish for special days, holidays, holy days and romantic nights to be festive and memorable.
I pray you’ll find the ministry you were born to do and that the ministry things you and Rocky were created to do together will be fulfilling and sweet.
Girl, let me hang with your babies so you can go out without a diaper bag sometimes! Shop. Or whatever you want. I love Averi! Can’t wait for the new little bundle!
Happy Birthday, Jovanie. May there be great and growing joy-of-the-Lord in your heart. It will be your strength!
I am wishing for long nights of sleep, and happy days of rejuvenating living for you.
I am praying for the enemy to have to flee as the perfect love of the Lord drives out all fear and trepidation in your life. You are strong, Jovanie, in the Lord. Don’t be afraid.
And? May heaven hear and answer your prayers as you call out to the God who loves you greatly. You have His ear, my sweet. He is attentive to your heart’s cries.
Happy, Happy Birthday, Jovan. You know I love you, right?…Mom (Jeanie)
Chicken and dumplings at Jovan’s family party, her request. Stef and Gemma, 2 pinkies in the pink and white decor; the pumpkin spice cake with 23 candles.
NOTE TO SELF: Me. Jovan. Creating our legacy books with scissors-in-hand, tape and glue and piles and piles of photographs.
About the party from Facebook:
Tara Powers Status Update:Truth or Dare for Jio’s bday tonight [using Rocky’s I-Pod Touch]. Outcome=Rocky tasting soap, Dessa talking for 3 minutes straight, Steph trying to tell each person one good and one bad thing about themselves {editor’s note: she kinda chickened out – it was her great chance in life to really get us all and she couldn’t do it!}, Tristan speaking with an Italian accent, Jovan describing her first kiss with Rocky, Stormie wearing items from everyone, Mom acting out… Lion King, Me NOT sitting on Rocky’s lap, and Dave telling everyone who he would marry in the room..ME=)
Stephanie Rhoades Kelley: You forgot the best part – when Tristan HAD to kiss me – thank you Lord that I was sitting on his right and not someone else! *smile…
youtube.com: “Snow” from the movie White Christmas; daughter Stephanie quoted this song on Facebook the other day and reminded me how hilarious the words are.
“I wanna wash my hands, my face and hair in snow.”
Thank-you, Jesus, the snow has finally subsided and the meltdown begins. By 4 pm today huge sheets of thick, heavy, wet snow were sliding off the roof in loud splats, scaring my big-fat-chicken dog. The sun re-emerged and made me very happy.
I never heard the official numbers for my city, but my own {highly scientific, I am certain} measuring says we got 13 1/2″. I know this partly because I left my 12″ ruler in place at 10 pm the first night where the measurement said 9.25″ and the next morning, it had disappeared. I had to pull out a yard stick. Dessa’s neighborhood got more than a foot and a half of snow.
If some one really is excited, as the song says, “to see a great big man entirely made of snow,” now would be the time.
pictured: snow measurement first thing Thursday morning; a huge pot of chicken and dumplings which Jovan had fortuitously requested for her family birthday party meal, as well as a balloon snowman Tredessa fashioned and Averi enjoying a piece of the very moist and dense triple-layered pumpkin spice cake with that cream cheese icing you could just die for. Hot comfort food on cold days: good!
