Stormie had the privilege of designing the insert for the new, luxurious pillow by American Down and Feather to benefit Love146, an organization set on ending child sex trafficking and providing restoration for those rescued. We {heart} Eric Weiland and we {heart} his heart.
Us and Eric and Heather Weiland, some of our all-time fav people), Sept. ’10
BTW-I have this pillow and it is…dreamy! Amazing. Soft, pillow-y, yet supportive and yes. I guess I do love it.
Stormie works in the billboard-graphic ads biz. A big chunk of anything you see on billboards or plastered on the sides of buses might have crossed her desk for art-checking. She sent me this very cool photo yesterday, an add for Bloom, “a different kind of grocery store.” www.shopbloom.com
On first glance? Very cool, clean, fresh. Look at those gorgeous, juicy tomatoes. Beautifully, neatly draped over the little garden sign. Quite modern and makes you want to eat healthy. But yikes, people. Tomatoes don’t grow like that. I actually enlarged the photo to make sure those were even tomato leaves, because they look so strange, just sort of plunked in like that via photo-editing. Hydroponics, I wondered? Some weird genetically engineered-type tomato plant? And what tomato 5-pack is that exposed? If that many leaves are missing, the dreaded leaf-devouring horn worm can be heard licking his lips nearby. Trust me on that one. Plus, um, tomatoes have to be planted deep. Deeeeeeeep. You can’t just throw one on the window sill.
A couple of these boogers can defoliate an entire large tomato plant is jjst a few days. Gross. They actually consume and fatten up to pretty big leaf-green larvae while destroying your tomatoes. They are the devil.
So yeah. On first glance this ad is pretty and neat and appealing and very suburban. But I am going to have to say no. I mean-think about the mis-information you are giving our children, Bloom! Tomato-growing is space and time-consuming and messy and deep holes and gazillions of leaves and hard-but-o-so-rewarding work.
“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard… is what makes it great.” -Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own(one of my favorite baseball movies of all times…heck, one of my fav movies!).
Some google images, tantalizing my tastebuds. Real tomatoes in real gardens.
Look at this t-shirt I spotted while browsing google images:
Who would wear that? Even if it IS true?
Averi J ~Gemma May and Guinivere
Who loves Picnik.com? I do. I do. It is like Photoshop for dummies. I just use the free version to change exposure and crop and add effects like vignettes or 1960s coloring. Plus WORDS! I love being able to add lots of words. It is really easy. If I can do it, anybody can! I’ll share some fun little things soon.
I kinda took a blogging fast after epiphany (January 6), which I was afraid to say “out loud” until later in January {wrote about it HERE}. And I didn’t know how long I’d stay gone and there were birthdays I had to mention and a few times I couldn’t resist posting something like a link or video or quick thought. But true writing/blogging, I have not done. And how I have missed it. And how, especially right now, in the midst of the greatest joys anyone could experience and in the midst of the deepest of sorrowful things for people I love deeply, right in the middle of the messiness of life and celebration-worthy rites of passage and as the tulips are becoming glorious and the daffodils stand tall and proud – I just need to be and able to break-the-blog-fast to say, and {to declare loudly}:
So, I am back to write that ~~~ plus lots of silly things and a little opining, too. I will write about sunny days and my quest for joy and let you in on where I find it. I will sing songs and share the lyrics and write about life as I see it. And I am back to write because my mom thinks I am good at it (everyone should have such a cheerleader!) and because I want a written record for my familia.
And I am back to blogging because, to shamelessly rip off 1 John 1, I am writing about the Word of Life! I have not only heard of Him, I have heard fromHim myself, and have seen Him with my own eyes and touched Him and been touched by Him. So I want to share and tell the things I have seen and heard with my own familia and the ones God has made mine by His Spirit. My “motive for writing is simply this: [I] want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double [my] joy!” (1 John 1.1-4, The Message)
She is an amazing homemaker and it was cozy within days. She is also very creative and organized and it is a lovely, peaceful place. There is a giant, jetted tub in the guest quarters where the grandbebes could swim laps! Their yard connects to open space (which in Colorado is guarded like gold!) and their big window views are of the crystal-clear Colorado Rockies. They are home!
Parsonage on the left. Church on the right. Too close for comfort.
There’s a lot a-lotta pink in the girlie room!
It is cute as a dollhouse and colorful and sweet. It fairly screams Rocky + Jovan + 2 of the cutest little girls = Blue and green & lots o’ pink and JOYfully Ever After!
Aren’t the presents kids get at three just the most fun? Her Grammy and Papa hosted in Frederick and it was a sunny day full of cute kids and smiles!
We shall gather near Chicago late June. Frontier Airlines to Midway, car-to-go, please.
“Aged cheddar cheese and just the right amount of spicy seasonings create a flavor that is highlighted by the adzuki beans’ subtle sweetness. Together with its light and crispy texture, this artisan snack is the perfect better-for-you snack chip because of the adzuki bean’s natural healing and health properties.”
Thank-you Candi, for this most wondrous introduction. I shall ever be grateful…and smiling as I crunch on them.
The volunteers for Heaven Fest, the leadership and everyone who is part are THE. MOST. AMAZING. PEOPLE. IN. THE. WORLD. I love them. {Stonebrook Manor in Thornton, Jim Elliot School in Englewood, Northern Hills Church in Brighton and Rez in Loveland} Thank-you, people! www.stonebrookmanor.com
He played Grandpa Joe to the great delight of crowds of people. Stephanie had to assure her friends he did not really walk or act that old in real life, because he was so good and a local news article said the “ubitiquous Dave Rhoades” threatened to steal the show. And? Even though it was sprayed gray, he got to keep his hair (in “Annie” a year ago, CLICK HERE he was shaved bald)!
That is Colorado for you. And though March is our snowiest month, we didn’t get any. Uh-oh. Watch out, May!
Joe made red beans and rice (to-die-for, mmmmmm) and I made an ok batch of gumbo. That got better each day until it was gone.
Is it ok to say that here? Well she did and he is cute (Army) and she kind of adores his muscles (Norwegian from Florida). And how sweet he treats her (prophetic intercessor). We all like him. That works out well. And since I don’t think he even knows I have a blog, I can pass all the news about them on to you. Haha.
I am not against Daylight Savings at all. It tells me gardening is around the corner. Every night, as the blue hours (l’heure bleu) get bluer and last measurable minutes longer, I sigh happily.
The Ranchin Loveland! Oh, yeah, baby! www.heavenfest.com
She is “Dorothy,” which seems so perfectly appropriate, somehow! VERY proud of our little working actress!
It’s a wonderful night for a moondance…
…the last refuge of modest people, when their soul is invaded.
One day I woke up – and there it was, spring! And I looked out the window to a sure confirmation: the garlic chives were taking over the back yard already!
Look at all the colorful dishes waiting for Dessa to finish painting the cupboards.
A 1919 bungalow. Cute and in pristine condition. Great price. The last owner {Ruby} had lived there since 1944.
She will live with her baby sister.
Sorely missed at the celebration were the Powers fam. Another celebration will have to ensue.
Yep. That is Wrex. The Birthday Singer.
The cake for the guests was a 2-tier (3 layers each), A 12″ triple-chocolate, chocolate-chip cake with Oreo-chocolate-chip mousse filling. The top tier, a 9″ confetti cake with fluffy-whipped butter-crème filling. Covered in a few pounds of fondant.
The number “1” cake was just for the birthday girl. Buttercream on confetti.
The windows are all smaller now. Modern. The neighbors got closer. Some trees are gone…(googlemaps image)
{Isn’t this beauful? It is by www.cutarts.com}
On July 23, 1981, we became a family. Me + Dave + Tara. And we started adding to our collection. We were avid collectors, apparently, for we added 4 more in less than 4 years. By the time of our 5th anniversay we were 7. Me + Dave + Tara + Stephanie + Tredessa + Rocky + Stormie. A full, loud, happy nest, a family!
The numbers have changed over the years, especially as kids turned into high schoolers and then college students and started getting married, and they have gone up and down, then slightly up again and even had a few cousins sprinkled in here or there and children of the faith added to the mix. But the house, the us, has always had other people besides me and Dave breathing in some adjoining room, or another.
Stormie bought her own, first house yesterday, signed the final papers.
This was the goal, right? This is why we taught them to tie their own shoes, be good citizens and get out there to fulfill their destiny for God in their generation. We were populating the earth with godly seed, right? Making sure to produce history-making, Holy-Spirit-filled sons and daughters, prophesying, praying, singing and worshipping, spiritual activists and icnonclasts for Jesus? Wasn’t this the very goal of it all?
Stormie at her new house, images from www.maydae.com
She will sleep in her new house tomorrow night for the first time (today painting and polishing and preparing for the moving van tomorrow, all exciting rites of passage). It is a sunny spring day and I am here, at home, on the couch and I can hear the distinct tick-tocking of various clocks throughout our home (I also, apparently, collect clocks) and they seem louder now. They seem to fill a bigger quiet than before, understanding the expanded space they will now inhabit. Children on the next block, rambunctiously enjoying spring break echo exactly the sounds of my own little ones – wasn’t it just yesterday?
We’ve spent 30 years building this nest for these people. And now they are building their own.
And it is good. And it is God.
google image
NOTE TO KIDS: Dad says to call if you’re coming over in case one or more of us is naked. Yes. He really did say that.
Sometimes you are just ready to fly away.
*obscure reference to the Church of God hymnal I was raised with and one of the most sung songs of my childhood, “I’ll Fly Away”
