Category Archives: Stuff I Actually Think

Happy Birthday to Dessy

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , ,

June 13, 1983 was this amazing day…

So, this may be the latest I have ever been in posting a birthday blog, but the added days have only made me ever more grateful for you, the day you were born and all the days since…

dessa at tea

I know, I know – I am always reminiscing about the days you kiddos were born and how those sacred, over-the-top-amazing moments changed my life forever. Maybe I see them through rose-colored glasses, but your arrivals were, to me, so monumental, so divinely, lightening-bolt powerful. Well, I mean they were like day six in the garden of Eden, the day God made man in His image. That’s a pretty big deal, I’d say.

And you own June, Tre-Tre. You own June days and purple irises and rose bushes in full bloom. You are the sound of cheering at church ball games and yellow layettes and a handmade diaper bag in dotted-swiss, Easter green, embroidered by Grandma with love. You are a hot summer and a headful of black hair with big, lacy barrettes that had plenty to hang on to. You are the baby girl who arrived to two of the sweetest, giggliest big sisters who mentioned you in their nightly prayers, calling you Twe-dessa-Christina (even though it should have been Tredessa Christine).

Dessa studio 818

You were born in to love, a mommy and daddy who were still newlyweds, madly in love with each other and church life and our three little girls and afternoons splashing in the backyard wading pool while the radio played, “Never gonna let you go...”

You just slipped in unobtrusively and cuddled into a little corner of our lives and hearts and then we were 5, our little tribe.  And 1983 is so special in my heart for your arrival. And June became a month I revere and romanticize for your birth. And you, my little mystery, were heaven-sent, without a doubt.

dessa and ryan

Happy Birthday to Tredessa Christine, my 3rd baby and the centerpiece of the little Rhoades familia.

Hey, Dessy-Pooh, you are an extraordinary woman, you are! I am still thanking God He sent you to us, He formed you and fashioned you in very interesting and distinct ways. You possess such strength, such deep-rooted fortitude, I’d put money on you over a tornado any day. Best of luck to the winds and waves that try to defy you, one who so deeply understands her place in God’s heart. They’d just as soon die down and whimper away than try to quench the fiery wall that is Dessa. Seriously.

Dessa and Eva right after birth

Intrigue and espionage, power and war

You, my sweet (hasn’t the whole family always known?), could run America with your brain and mighty valorous heart, the wisdom of God and your anointed insight! The FBI or the CIA would be in good hands with you at the helm, if you decided against a bid for the White House, that is. :)  I leave nothing outside the realm of possibility, for you, an Esther, a Rebekah, a Deborah, for sure – you are a viable leadership option for the healing of this nation in the hands of God. I for sure BELIVE that! Now if you can somehow miraculously do it without becoming a politician…

But that is the thing. You could and you will do amazing things in your life (because you have already started and accomplished so much), but your strength is that you are willing and always content to wait on God’s timing in your life, for your life.  So few of us have mastered that or want to. The vision that speaks of the end (Habakkuk 2.3): Give it to me now, we demand. But not you, Dessy, you wait with a twinkle in your eye, a knowing in your heart, a calm spirit and determination in your step.

“For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” Hab. 2.2-3

And you have a wisdom beyond your years and haven’t you used it to challenge my imprisonments, to bring enlightenment and yes, even some correction to your ol’ momma? You have. I will answer that for you, you little booger.  ;)  And I take it from you.

But what else could I do from a daughter who has repeatedly, intentionally received the counsel of her mom and chosen to accept all God had for her through even me for her own life? I love that you know we were paired by God on purpose and that you have searched for the treasure in it, even when it has been hard to find at times! I appreciate you giving me credit for many of your wonderful attributes even though I know you far surpass me in most everything you put your hand to…perhaps just – everything!

I love that you still look for the things you can learn from me and call for baby advice when, like your sisters, you are a completely incredible mommy, so much smarter and better equipped at it than  I ever was, but still, you ask me, “What did you do when...” and “How did you handle..?” And the years roll back – back – back and I am in 1983 again and just so grateful to God for the blessing of you that June day you were presented to me from Creator and for the blessing of you now.

Dessa and Stormie

So, let me speak this blessing and prayer over you as we celebrate the day you came and the life you are leading, woman of God, devoted daughter, admirable human being:

God make you righteous and strong and able. May your Creator deal with you as He does with the Daughter of Zion in His Word. His patience and loving care for His people is sure and He considers it an affront to Himself when the enemy threatens His royal offspring. And so I remind Him daily to guard and protect you the same way.

May God bless you and watch over you and keep you.

I pray that not only will He see you and notice you and hear you, but that you will know He does. I pray that not only will He hear your prayers and hear your heart’s cry and answer you in days of trouble, but that you will never forget to call out to Him.

You are quiet and not given to voicing every little thing, but at the faintest whisper from your lips, I pray God is watching and will attend to you, as He promised. May He bless you, spirit, soul, body, in fruitfulness, mothering, love and marriage, may He bless you.

I pray that you will prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers. I bless you on the occasion of the celebration of your birth and life with the blessing of God and His watchfulness over you.

May God shine His face toward you and show you favor and great grace.

I know your light and life make God smile. They make me smile. So, I pray that the warmth and power of His outrageous love for you and Ryan and Evangeline and all the little Faalands-to-come will just radiate like fire in you, through you, around you and for you.

Write words that will change everything, Dess. Soak in the Word of God for all you’re worth and love it and live it and stand on it for your home and marriage and life and mommying and calling and walk worthy because you are {in Him}. Bring order to chaos,  spread numbers on sheets and make accounts whole and holy (those things you do so very well) . Speak out what God tells you because your words bring life to the lifeless, hope to the hopeless, and courage for the battle.

May God be favorably disposed towards you, and may He grant you peace.

I pray God just face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball gives you His absolute approval and you have the courage and grace to just receive it and soak it in. So that all those dreams you and Ryan have –  dreaming of ways you can support the things of the Kingdom, all the plans and aspirations that are bubbling up in both of you to change the world and make a place for the Presence – may you be courageous and bold and strong and take hold of them.

{Remember the little girl whose favorite worship song for many years was “Be bold, be strong, for the Lord thy God is with you! I am not afraid, I am not dismayed, for I’m walking in faith and victory, yes…”? I do! I believe her battle cry took root!}

And may you live in peace, peace with God and with man and may your household be a place of rest and joy, refreshment and grace.

Dessa, steampunk photo shoot for work

Beloved daughter, treasured friend~

I couldn’t have dreamed you up. You are beyond anything I could have asked for or even thought a daughter should be. You have been a delight since I first laid eyes on you in Kokomo 31 years ago. You’re a peacemaker, a thoughtful friend and an honoring daughter. May you receive and reap the full benefit of all you have given and sown to be so. I love you truly, madly, deeply, my darling daughter, my girl-child.  {With love from your oh-so-thankful mom}   

Thought-Collage-Thursday // Here’s What’s Up!

2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think

How great is this video?

Summer is like

…sweet red radishes, bright orange gardening flip-flops and the greenest grass that grows by the minute. Summer is vibrant color.

…the sound of my grandbebes splashing in the pool, the deep conversations they have while drying out and warming up on the trampoline, then back into the pool, splashing, giggling, threatening to “tell”  for being splashed more than they might have just done the splashing…and laughing some more. Summer is for kids.

…the first tomato sighting, the square foot garden neatly planted with each square full of tiny veggies, in ones, 2s, 4s, 9s or 16s – before it suddenly erupts into wild fruitfulness and a bounty that is hard to contain but oh-so-delicious! Summer finds me happily puttering about the garden whenever I can get there!

…the Coppertone-SPF 30 scent of youth and a sun that lingers long in the sky, which I love. And the sting in my eyes as tanning lotion melts down my face while I work outside, which I do not at all care for. But summer smells like Coppertone and Johnson’s Baby Oil, as it should. And maybe a spritz of Love Spell.

…Hot, sunny days, thunderous rainstorms to cool the evenings. The world gets soaked good and proper, then the sun comes out and “dries up all the rain.”

…Magic Radio Online (365) “Playing your favorite Soft Rock Hits, Groovy Mellow Oldies, Lite Pop Favorites, Timeless Love Songs and Classic Motown Hits!” The most sing-able set list since these songs came out the first time, and yes, folks – I was there.  ;)

…corn on the cob, potato salad, firing up the grill, playing corn hole, and lemonade. Summer is so tasty.

Summer is like 100 days worth of Saturdays and Sundays all in a row – if we do it right.

iris

I did finish the book and it was better than I even thought it was going to be

rob s book

And I wholeheartedly recommend it for some fantastic reading (because otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it at all, which you know). And I am going to be reading more Rob Sheffield. Because he can write about music like nobody’s business. I love that.

rob sheffield set it free

 All-beef hot dogs, please

004

That is what Guini requested when she could have chosen any meal on a visit here. “All beef hot dogs, and please pass the jalapeños.” She is my own little spice girl.

Oh just hanging with the wildlife

me in estes

It is, after all, Colorado!

#tbt Throw-back Thursday

June 2011: Gavin’s 8th birthday. We made him a Donut Volcano Cake. It was fun. The boys were so little. The wall was so red.

214

So, here is what’s up

Family party this weekend. Pool is up. Maybe an after dark movie outside on the big screen. Company from Las Vegas and Estes and all nine grandbebes within my reach. How blessed am I?

No matter what – you’ve got my love to lean on, darlin’

That’s what’s up!

Hope your week is going really well!thursday

 

 

Happy Father’s Day, A. Ross Moslander

2 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , , ,

I am not suppose to tell you

That his name is Alva Ross, pronounced “Al’ vee Ross” and now that I have let the cat out of the bag, I must ask for your total cooperation in never mentioning it to him.

Jeanie and her dad

I was almost 2. He was 22. Des Moines, 1961

My dad was named for a dad he never knew, a very young man tragically killed in a car accident when my dad’s mom was 6 months pregnant (and 2 little girls at home). He was born into adversity.

We struggled to know each other, understand each other during the years of his workaholism, perfectionism…then mine {we end up being what we judge, people} and I regret the time lost, but I truly treasure him as a close friend and mentor now. I admire him for being 75 and still crying out to God to transform him, lead him, guide him. I plan to be like him in that, too.  And mostly, I am loving the restoration of the years the enemy tries to steal as I am learning to be his daughter, his little girl,  and he is learning to be my daddy.

1961 before joe was born

On relationships: It s good to pursue the great gifts God intended because He is able to rewrite the whole story, even if it gets interrupted or broken by enemy tactics {or our own stupidity}.  Dads and daughters (dads and sons, too) have much to share on the journey toward being whole and holy. Writing it off would have been such a loss.

mine

I arrived for a visit so late my dad didn’t see me until breakfast, at which time his first words were, “Jeanie – why is your hair so dark?” Haha. Dads. Gotta love ’em.

I love my dad!

“God rewrote the text of my life
when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.”  Psalm 18.24 The Message

Then there is Dave {the father of my children}

Happy Father’s Day to the man I entrusted with our 5 incredible children. You were born to be a daddy and even though you’ll be the first to say you didn’t do everything right, I can attest that you tried. And I can vouch for the times you re-adjusted your sails and changed your mind and your tactics and that you are still looking for ways to bless and father our bunch.

Fathers Day 1987b

And I hope the kids all know those morning blessings are not just idle words, they are deeply meant, spoken with the authority of a God-appointed and anointed dad and he means business. Please don’t ever take that lightly. You should say everyday, “I receive my dad’s blessing spoken over my life today.” You cannot go wrong receiving what he still has to offer, even though you are grown. And if you need to know how much he really loves you, let’s talk!

And Happy Father’s Day to Tristan, DP, Rocky and Ryan!

You are the daddies God chose to raise our grand-est loves, the 9 for whom our hearts pound with furious love and devotion.

But they are yours, these nine grandbebes, your heritage, the fruit of your love and marriage. And we are in 100% agreement that God has given these children good, really good daddies.

daddies

You are all men to be admired and I wish all children could be fathered through this life as well. Thank-you for being the courageous men you are and for carefully and intentionally raising, disciplining, teaching, playing, understanding and covering with love these granchildren we know and the ones to come.

My grandchildren are blessed, so blessed.

Happy Father’s Day to all the men who have loved a child enough to keep trying even when it wasn’t easy.

There aren’t enough good examples out there. Hope you had one or got to be one. And remember~

It’s never too late to be the family God meant for you to be.

So keep on fathering.

God Created June

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

“Spring, being a tough act to follow, God created June.” ~Al Bernstein

yard flowers peonies, scented geranium, and russian sage

Happiness in the house::Just some yard trimmings: Peonies, Scented Geraniums, and Russian Sage. Even the fading blossoms are magical in June…   

Rascal Flatts even sang about June: Words I Couldn’t Say

“In a book in a box in the closet / In a line in a song I once heard / In a moment on a front porch late one June / In a breath inside a whisper beneath the moon…”

June makes me romantic and hopeful. June is for falling in love. The Blue Hour holds tight to the June sky for all it’s worth, the sun regretting the end of such a perfect day. Dogs bark in the distance, neighbors scuffle by, safe under soft-blue June skies. Flowers tease then bloom in wild profusion, scented and heady, and oh-so-glorious. Every June I feel a little intoxicated by the power of the garden renewed, the soil, the sun, the heat, the long days that twinkle into sweet nights where you drive with the windows down and sing the love songs of youth. I do love me some June.

And how about my newest garden-girl?

eva garden girl

She loves grass and I love her!

eva

 

That Summer

by Sam Hogin, Phil Barnhart, Sunny Russ (performed by Lisa Brokop)

Love was alive on the telephone line
Honeysuckle hangin’ in the hot sunshine
Dust piled up on my daddy’s combine
That boy, that girl, that summer
Thirsty for somethin’, they didn’t know what
Tried to control it but they couldn’t stop
She was his rose, and he was her rock
That moon, that kiss, that summer
June and July and an August to remember
Ninety miles an hour straight into September
Memory still warms me in the dead of winter
Of love so true that summer
Two kids from Kansas on a yellow brick road
Watchin’ the world through a magic window
There wasn’t anyplace they couldn’t go
That hope, that dream, that summer
June and July and an August to remember
Ninety miles an hour straight into September
Memory still warms me in the dead of winter
Of love so true that summer
June and July and an August to remember
Ninety miles an hour straight into September
Memory still warms me in the dead of winter
Of love so true that summer, that summer
Love was alive on the telephone line, that summer

I hope everyone had one of these.  ;)

June. That is all.

Thought Collage Thursday // Mix Tape

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

Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield

I am enthused about a book right now.

rob sheffield every tape tells a story

The Back Cover:

Mix tapes: Stick one into a deck and you’re  transported to another time in your life. For Rob Sheffield, author of Turn Around Bright Eyes that time was one of miraculous love and unbearable grief. A time that spanned seven years, it started when he met the girl of his dreams, and ended when he watched her die in his arms.

Using the listings of fifteen of his favorite mix tapes, Rob shows that the power of music to build a bridge between people is stronger than death. You’ll read these words, perhaps surprisingly, with joy in your heart and a song in your head—the one that comes to mind when you think of the love of your life.

You can’t get the book at the library right now. Because some one else has it.  ;)

He is a lots-of-fun-words {funnier observations} kind of writer, so highly quotable.  I melted to the floor when I saw that he used “epiphanic” twice (so far, I am not done reading yet) because no one I know {except me, see here in 2010 and here in 2008} uses that word (is it a word? WordPress does not think so…) and I was SO happy. I mean – I am a blogging-Nonna, a plain ol’ person. He is a BEST-SELLING AUTHOR! And we used the same word. Yeah-I am getting carried away.

But suffice it to say I love his words and the way he stacks them and strings them and draws me right into sound of the life he describes. And his words about music and song, emotion and relationship, and just life, really – ohmygoodness! LOVE.

Some of the mixes he shares, I am like, “Oh yes – best music ever.” Others, I have no idea and nor would I, as, whilst he was living and listening and loving it, I was this very serious pastor’s wife with very small children’s whose ears would had to have been covered to listen to it. A lot of 90s rock, alternative, f-word stuff.  But, ya know. Still loving the story!

rob sheffield i'm a mix tape

One Amazon reviewer  of this book spoke of people who had never made a mix tape for some one, people for whom music is just background noise. He referenced them as  people having no soul. I am inclined to agree.

So, if you love songs, if there is a tune for every person, place or thing in your life, nearby or loosely associated, a melodic memory groove in any way, shape or form and if you have indeed made or been the recipient of a mix tape: READ Rob Sheffield’s book!!!

rob sheffield when we die

Moo.com

I wish I could have these very business cards.  They are at Moo.com and are a variety of cassette images on one side, and the back is fashioned to look just like the enclosure card! They call them, “I made you a mix tape.” LOVE!

I wish I were a singer or managing singers or some wildly important industry-type or something fabulous like that so having these would totally make sense! I. Love. Them!

i made you a mixtape moo.com

~~~~~~~~~

Answer: Because a song stays with you, cutting a path to remembrance  deep in your heart and soul in a way you will never forget.

[Hum Jeopardy song here…]

Question: Why did God communicate His very important message to the children of Israel through Moses and Aaron by song?

Deuteronomy 32 //  Moses…spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day…They are not just idle words for you—they are your life.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Would you even be surprised to know…

  • That I have cassette-tape gift wrap on hand for special occasions?
  • That I still make mix tapes all the time via Youtube and Spotify??? It is so much easier now to go to YouTube and make a playlist of Patridge Family songs {don’t judge me} or even a Motown mix, or Billie Holiday. As kids, making a mix tape meant listening to the radio and waiting until you heard the song you loved coming on, then pushing record as fast as possible. It also meant that if your mom came in and said to clean your room while you were recording – you’d forever hear that, too.
  • That 1974 is one of my all-time favorite years for music (because I was in love with love and love runs as a certain theme through the top 100 that year, as it does most years) and coincidentally is the same year I got my first cassette recorder? Oh. blessed cassettes, how I loved thee. Before that, I was using a miniature reel-to-reel. Yes, they had those in the olden days.
  • That I have an entire folder in my laptop pictures file devoted to images of old cassettes and that I have 32 drafts of songs I plan to write about on this very blog and have used said images for those posts?

bill withers

Probably not a bit surprised, are you? Reading this Rob Sheffield book has just confirmed to me that my zealous love of song and ability to recall every detail of the circumstance during which the song became important to my very existence is, well, maybe not normal, but certainly…acceptable.

And now, of course, I just put together a little mixed tape for you. I call it 1974, which was a very good year!

I am sure I will add to it, but for now, it has 53 songs for a nice 3 hour and 9 minute listening experience.

What? You don’t have Spotify yet? RUN, don’t walk – go get it. It’s like having all of iTunes available to you – for FREE!

#tbt Throw back Thursday

Me (and my little brother, Tim) in 1974, of course.

Tim and me in 1974
Worship Leading-also a mix tape

And while we’re on the topic – it occurs to me that putting together a worship set for a Sunday morning service is sort of putting together a mix tape experience, right? A little Matt Redman, a little Chris Tomlin, some Hillsong and a good dose of Jesus Culture. Bam!

And what the heck – family is a mix-tape, too, right?

If, as Wikipedia describes it, a mix tape is a name given to a compilation of songs recorded onto any audio format, then, I count my family. They are my song of life and they are most certainly an audio-audible, boisterously loud-with-the-sounds-of-living lovely recording.

mi familia - easter

Yes, if love is a mix tape, then family is a mix tape, too and the titles and artists are as follows: my Dave;Tara and Dp, Hunter and Malakai; Stephanie and Tris, Gavin, Guini and Gemma May; Tredessa and Ryan and baby Evangeline; Rocky and Jovan, Averi, Amelie Belle and baby Bailey; Stormie; my parents, my siblings, my nieces and nephews and aunts and uncles and grandparents and  great-nieces and great-nephews and all the people I came from and all those who are still to be –  we are a pretty amazing mix, I think.  :)

It’s Thursday. I love Thursdays.

Estes Park at Lori's off the deck

I will be exactly where this picture was taken, oh yes!

We have made it people – the pool is up for the season and another weekend is in sight! I shall be in Estes Park for three days with some of the most fantastically beautiful women on the planet (5 friends, 1 niece, 2 great-nieces and a sister-in-law). I hope I soak in a little bit of each them and come home a more wonderful person than ever. It could happen.  :)

Seen on Pinterest

And very good advice. You are enough. Not just because I say so – but because God made you so uniquely, wonderfully, creatively and awesomely in His very image. That HAS to be good. So, kick insecurity to the curb!

insecurity

Happy Thursday, everybody!

 

 

Gavin hits the double-ones

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

Oh, Gavinators-

gav playing piano

Gavin turned 11. He also just got his 6th grade schedule, a different teacher for each subject – a middle-schooler. He has this big, authentic smile, a shock of the most amazing red hair, a sprinkling of freckles and an emerging sense of humor. He erupts into giggles over things I didn’t know he would get and it doubles my joy, triples my fun, quadruples my absolute love for him, this all-American boy.

He was my first grandbebe, my first oh-good-grief-I-am-undone feeling. I never thought I’d be one of “those” grandmothers – effusing and gushing, feverishly, wild-eyed in-love with some small child not even my own.

gav skateboarding in denver

I mean – I loved my little munchkins, the five children I birthed. I thought they were just unusually talented and amazing and they brought Dave and I so much joy. Then they grew up and they became the people I most admire in this world. But I wasn’t really mentally expecting grandparenting to be that big of a deal.

But then Gavin arrived and – GEEZ-LOUISE!!! He was breathtaking. He was astonishingly beautiful (well, he has beautiful parents, so…), a magnificent tiny being, so impressively smart from the start and his smiles thrilling beyond belief. He .changed. everything . with his bright eyes and full-of-wonder curiosity. He really did. He altered my identity by adding this whole new generational dimension and infused our familia with new wonder and excitement.

gav his harry potter birthday cake

The Harry Potter I made for him for his 11th birthday

Gavin-L-K // YOU are amazing!

So, of course, I MUST bless your life and thank God for you. I must tell you that I speak words of blessing over you and I speak kindness and good wishes over your life because I love you deeply and want it to go well with you. I want you blessed in the city and in the country and I want all you put your hands to and all the things you attempt to do and to be to prosper and be over-the-top successful.

I pray for you to be strong, not just physically, but in your heart and mind and to be a young man of courage and conviction – to stand up for holy things and protect people around you who can’t protect themselves. I pray you will right wrongs and be a generous giver to people in need.

So I share this scripture with you on the occasion of your 11th birthday and I like it because it was originally delivered to a regular man named Gideon who was just working hard threshing some wheat in a winepress. I am not sure what that means exactly, but I know God’s people were in trouble and they needed a leader, a Judge – some one to help them battle out of the oppression they were living in, some one to answer their cries for help. And here was Gideon just doing what was right, day in and day out. And because Gideon was faithful when no one was watching (except God), He chose Gideon to lead the armies, to save His people.

I can see you as a Gideon…And so the angel appeared with God’s message to Gideon, and I speak it to you, over you,

“The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” Judges 6.13

Really, Gavin, you can do anything. You will be amazing in your life. The sky is the limit, my Gav – if love is the fuel that powers your plane, then between God and your parents and your Gramps and me, your plane will fly to infinity and beyond and never come down.

gav and the tomato

He loves to garden and eat tomatoes as much as me. The kid is a genius, I tell you!

I cannot remember life before you-

In all the world, no matter what happens, my heart for you will always and ever be partially, at least, pinned to your sleeve, hanging on for dear life – never letting you go. I am so pleased with the person you are, so proud of the young man you are becoming, so excited to know the blessing of God on you because you are such a parent-honoring kid! I just think you’re pretty cool.

Small Size (5)

Hoping all your wishes come true on your 11th birthday and the whole year through! I love YOU!  {nonna}

NOTE: All photos by his mom, whose beautiful work can be seen at MayDae.com

Music on a Monday // Summer Songs {a really short playlist}

Stuff I Actually Think

Ahhhhhhhh…perfection.

It’s June 2 and it’s like some one finally flipped the switch. Now THIS is summer in Colorado, nothing like it.

Good-bye freak snowstorm on Mother’s Day. Farewell muggy days and humidity in the 60-some-percent-range. Good-bye freezing cold nights and overcast days.

Hello, blue skies and Colorado sun!

Can’t help but think happy songs on a day like this. So, here is a short, but sweet and very summer-y playlist from my Spotify! You’re welcome.

Uhhh, yes. It is a little retro. It is me, after all. Songs by The Partridge Family, Seals and Croft, Chicago, Mungo Jerry, and a duet by Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta.

I had no idea Oliver Wendell Homes had this in him:

“Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons. You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body.”   -Oliver Wendell Holmes

sunny days ahead

GemGem is 7!

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

Oh, my Gemma-Loo, how I love you!

gemma bday

Her mommy is a fantastic photographer and I fall in love with the photos she gets of my grandbebes (her children and nieces and nephews)  :)

Our lively, darling grandbebe #4, Gemma May just turned 7 a few days back. She is silly and giggly and has this amazing cascade of red hair that just knocks you out. She dances, she acts, she smiles with her eyes, and she wears glasses now.

I can wrap my arms around her two or three times, wisp of a thing she is. But what I love most is the delightful, insightful, thoughtful conversation. The dancing light behind her eyes when we talk, behind those super-cool specs, sets a soft breeze in motion. Gemma May is more sugar than spice, she is sweetness and demure. She’s the girl next door and a little exotic, too.

I love this little girl like there is no tomorrow!

gemma and her cake

This is the cake I did for Gemma. A ballerina. In Gemma’s very proportions, give or take a centimeter!  :)

So, Gemma-Roo/Gemma-Loo, let me just tell YOU:

I bless the day you were born, the beautiful-beautiful May day you came along with that perfect round, soft-as-silk head and the sweetness of that button nose and those little pink lips from which so many laughs have escaped since. I bless the days of your life, all of them, as you grew and downy-soft red hair started curling every which direction and you could barely talk, but you could sing songs from Annie and do the dances with gusto!

I bless the days of pre-school and coloring and cheering every time you did something wonderful, which was every 8.4 seconds and pattering around in your galoshes with an umbrella in the rain and singing, oh-so-much singing.

I bless your life and I bless your heart and I bless your dreams and your wishes and your gifts and talents and I bless your place in this world. You know why? Because I love you and I can. I am your Nonna and I get to speak a blessing over you that they actually hear in the halls of heaven!

So I am agreeing with God’s plan for you, with His total delight in your life – and all the things He planned for you when He created you for us. Everything God wants for you and all the things Jesus is saying about you when He intercedes for you, I am shaking my head YES-yes-yes! And may the angels attend to you, and keep you safe!

And Gemma? Even though I never-ever-ever want your heart to be broken in any way for any reason, I do pray your heart will always be flesh and blood and that you will feel the intensity of living with all the sensitivity you now possess and that in spite of anything life throws at you, you’ll keep feeling and risking love and refuse to have a heart of stone.

For you are beautiful and your thoughts and feelings are precious beyond words. And oh, my sweet, your Nonna loves you. You are, as your name indicates, a jewel, a rare treasure.

And now, here is a promise for you, from the God of good promises:

“On that day the Lord their God will rescue his people,
just as a shepherd rescues his sheep.
They will sparkle in his land
like jewels in a crown.”  Zechariah 9.16 NLT

Of course, the grand-girls are always actually interpreting songs from Frozen these days, but I didn’t leave that music in because YouTube would poo-poo it. Imagine the Frozen soundtrack, though.

I love celebrating you and your birth~day, week, month. Happiness and love, darling Gemma!