*Movie quote from “Stripes,” starring Bill Murray (1981)
Jovanie – you know how I always tell you that you were born to be one of us? Well you really were and I am so glad! LOVE YOU GUYS! Love my Rocky and Jovan and all the beauty their love and marriage bring in to our lives!
Did I tell you about my early birthday present? It is this turntable-thing-machine that will digiitize my old vinyls and cassette tapes! Oh yes! That will be my project for the next 17 years or so…
An invitation to a tea by Gavin’s 2nd grade class. We “adopt” his friend, Keenan, whose grandparents are out of town and they serve us tea and lemonade and assorted muffins. The boys are so energetic it makes my head spin. But right in the middle of a school day Monday, my grandson gives me a hug and a kiss and he’s is so glad we are there, I can tell. And Keenen likes us, too.
I pull into the driveway at their house to drop off their cousin and two little Kelley girls run to meet me. “Nonna!! ,” squeals Gemma, and she jumps up to hug me through the window with abanoned glee at my arrival. Guini is slightly more reserved but makes her way to me, “Oh, it is my lovely Nonna,” she says, touching my face, and she kisses my cheek and hugs me through the car window.
Know what is sweeter than kissing a grandbebe goodnight? Waking their warm little faces with a quiet kiss in the mornings. Hunter spent the night and was my little sweety-pie-let’s-have-hot-buttered-toast-for-breakfast guy. I miss having a little person in the house. How did those years go so quickly?
Averi’s momma says Averi has my feet. I ask her, “Do you have Nonna”s feet, Miss Averi?” Yes, she tells me AND we both have bejeweled flip flops. We lie in the grass looking at the clouds and prop our feet up on a retaining wall and take a picture of our cute shoes to remember the moment. Averi thinks mine are pretty and she tries them on. We chat about all sorts of nothing before she insists I push way high in the swing.
This ex-NFL football-player-turned-pastor gave DP and Tara this ornate, round coffee table (on which I broke the glass while it was in the mezzanine at church when I dropped my computer on it, corner first, yikes…was removing shards of glass for months from my little Dell) and one day, after we exchanged the beloved red couch for the sectional in the family room, I realized I needed a round coffee table, really needed one. I called Tara to ask for this one (knowing I’d have to replace the glass), she said yes and then it sat in my garage until I knew exactly what the heck to do with it. It had a beautiful dark brown finish, with slight gilding to accent the carvings and it is as heavy and solid as can be – as if it were made for an NFL football player. But I didn’t want it to look like it was made to look, for crying out loud! I sought to humble it a little. *smile
during the sanding process
Plus, I’d been looking to cheer up my surroundings a bit since the red couch was gone (*sniff, sniff) – needed something outside the ordinary. For the sectional is perfectly neutral – just waiting to be told what to do.
I considered painting the table white to add brightness, then asked my daughters and sister-in-law for their advice: should I paint it dark or white or maybe a zany color that I love? And the resounding consensus was that anything can be re-painted so I should use a color I adore. And so I did.
the first coat goes on…{paint was custom-mixed from a piece of grandbebe artwork right off my wall}
It is the color of my computer and a jacket I love. It is part of the Luke’s HF green in designs and artwork on my walls by my kids when they were little and my grandbebes now. It is the color of my notebooks and planner and the fresh limes on my counter and the inside of the avocado I had for lunch recently. It is the color of some handpainted stoneware saucers I have and most anything printed by Heaven Fest during the past year. It is spring green – the leaf, tender and moist, just bursting forth from the bud when you have all but given up hope of winter ever being over.
“Are those fingerprints on there already?!,” you ask. Is the sky blue? Is there a God in heaven? Do I have 6 grandbebes? Did I have about 60 people at my house for a party last night? Yes. There are fingerprints on the new coffee table already: the sign of a lived-in, loved-in home. ;p
My coffee table is a raucous green. And now I must add bright-colored throw pillows and move the sepia family tree art and the antique intaglias from the stair wall. Yes, this one simple act now requires more change, as almost any project upon which I embark does. But I will be energized and happy in my family room, where delightful things always happen! And where the coffee table is, unapologetically, green.
I was reading an article in the Traditional Home magazine I got in the mail this week (October issue) and there was an article about designer Tobi Fairley using earth-friendly tactics such as salvaging discarded furniture and decorative items to be as environmentally-friendly as possible. Of the design featured she said, “People are looking for ways to take older things and make them fresh again. Recycling makes for more interesting interiors. Nobody else is going to have your grandmther’s furniture painted chartruese. That is going to add so much personality to the space.”
Good. I needed that confirmation that I didn’t just fall right off the deep end!
This makes us laugh. Do you know why?**
**hint: Beauty and the Beast – The Enchanted Christmas (1997)
Yes my tan is fading. Yes the nights are cooler. Yes, the tender plants in the garden are closing down. But I insist on enjoying and savoring every last drop of summer, wearing flip flops and white shorts, keeping the pool going for another couple of weeks and singing “Summer Breeze.” You cannot stop me.
Al dente pasta noodles afloat in a perfect, hot and sizzling garlic-butter and extra-virgin-olive-oil blend, tossed with fresh garden tomatoes (a selection of both super-sweet and those with a slightly enticing tang) and baby zucchini ribbons. My tongue trembles in anticipation as the fork, full, comes near my lips. Black pepper, Kosher salt and Parmesan sprinkled generously on top.
You have to need one.
Even though I know, in my brain at least, I can’t earn God’s favor or the salvation He freely gives me, I constantly fall back in to trying to compensate Him for it: to pay Him back. I try to do more and work harder to show Him my sincerity. I try to pay my own way.
In the little book I wrote in anticipation of Sawyer’s birth a few weeks ago, this little rhyme-variation came to me as I pondered what Sawyer should always know about the Father’s love in her life:
He loves me, He loves me lots! He loves me, He loves me lots!
Those are the only choices, actually, yet I struggle to comprehend them for myself.
My conclusion, of course, is that not only am I unable to earn God’s love and favor (and believe me, I have tried), but I have nothing to pay Him with either. Remember when Micah asked how he could come before Him, what he could bring?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (6.7b NKJV)
I default to making payment too quickly. And now I am actually doing it in my dreams. Recently, I awake exhausted from working so hard, running so far, climbing steep ladder or hills and working, working, working – hoping God is noticing. In my dreams! This is no bueno.
Today I am praying for God to help me understand mercy: NOT getting what I deserve, that is mercy. I am praying to be delivered from being receiver-challenged (unable to receive His love and forgiveness, His grace and His sacrifice on my behalf). I am praying to understand, at least a little, how He gives so freely without it being about what I can do for Him or give to Him. These are big prayers. Such a long way to go…
