One of the final lines. I could have written this, yes?
TOULA: ?My family is big and loud, but they’re my family. We fight and we laugh, and yes, we roast lamb on a spit in the front yard. And wherever I go, whatever I do, they will always be there.
Is Ricky Gervais the monkey-dentist? Alan, hey Alan! Alan-Al-Alan…
Safeway did an ad campaign with Tony Bennett’s rendition of “Are You Having Any Fun?” a few years ago and that is when I knew I loved his version best, though it is one of those old songs that have been recorded by lots of singers. And besides it being a happy-day-making song, it asks a good question- better, I think, than questions about where you think you’ll be in 5 years and whether or not you feel on target to own everything you ever wanted to own or have accomplished everything on your bucket list. It is simple: are you having any fun?
If you read me at all you know I am waaaaaaaaaay too serious and prone to melancholy and consider my glass-is-half-empty tendancies to simply be realistic expectations. But as God has been revealing to me from His own Word how much he intended J O Y to play a part in our lives, well, I am on a quest for it. It is treasure. When I find it (which He lovingly allows over and again), I am renewed and restored and healed and strengthened, just like Father knew I would be. Wow, He is good. Yes, He is!
You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them. ~Desmond Tutu
Our late March -to- mid June months are a crazy-filled 90 days of family birthdays and celebrations. I mean, we see each other a-lot! We have 3 kid birthdays and 6 adult birthdays, Mother’s Day, Easter, Father’s Day, school programs, craft days, Heaven Fest intensifying: all good stuff. But it works because my kids are all so creative and thoughtful. They choose to change up locales, houses or parks. They theme things with kick-ball games or a New York-style food night. The grandbebes might order a 3-tier cake for one week and a stacked-donut volcano the next. It keeps it interesting and creates an ebb and flow of good times and laughter and getting to watch my granbebes running madly through life, short legs carrying giant personalities.
Is family life an efforrt? You betcha. You didn’t get to choose the family you’d get. But you choose to stay a family. You choose to do what it takes to love and build and be with the people God ordained to be in your life. Love. Family. Use it or lose it. It is something I go after with intentionality. It is what I have covenanted my life to.
I don’t care how poor a man is; if he has family, he’s rich. ~Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford, “Identity Crisis,” M*A*S*H TV show
I assembled brief moments of my May days into a video as a reminder of where the joy came from. It was a busy month. It was a beautiful month. The calendar was full, and my heart was enlarged with love and gratefulness. You won’t see the times I cried or failed or maybe made some one feel bad or was tempted to take offense. You won’t see my way- unrighteous moments or hear my constant self-doubt or times of anxiousness. Those things happened too. It’s called life.
So don’t mistake the fact that I am sharing the j-o-y for thinking I am just lucky and sailing through life unscathed. Oh, I get scathed, baby! ;) This also is not an attempt at painting pretty, but false pictures, either. But it is a sliver of my chosen treasure, the blessed moments, the transcendant times in the Presence, May days and nights when joy was mine, a gift of favor from a loving, faithful God. I can’t remember everything, so I have decided what I will remember – and these are some of those times of rejoicing and they are God and they are good. And they are mine.
The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck
There will be birthday gatherings and putting up the pool (pool parties to come), lots of grass mowing (the mower is humming along as we speak!) and gardening and cooking for crowds (for 100 tomorrow night!). Dappled sunlight and music by moonlight, summer and crickets’ song, kids squealing and sidewalk chalk and pots of pretty flowers. A recital to benefit the exploited, fast-paced festival-planning days vs. lemonade as I swing on the patio times. Father’s Day and Heaven Fest Sundays. June will bring even extended family times as we jet to Chicago for Moslander-Family-Reunion (Ross-the-Boss, Mrs-Moss, and all-the-little-Landers…I am a “little Lander”). June is shaping up to be lovely. I will watch for the joy…and I’ll let you know where I find it!
Family is just accident…. They don’t mean to get on your nerves. They don’t even mean to be your family, they just are. ~Marsha Norman
Thank-You, LORD, for mine.
When Stephanie was a little girl, any scarf or random piece of fabric would send her into joyful, swirling-twirling dancing. She would be delighted to get a stack of new bandanas in every color for birthdays. We called her our “Scarf Dancer” before we even knew there had been such a thing way back when. She was entertaining and funny right out of the gate, graceful and animated.
One rather dreary afternoon last October, Tredessa and I hosted a tea party for Averi and Gemma and Guinivere. When the music started, the scarves came out. And in Gemma and Guini, Stephanie’s own little girls, I see Stephanie still – silly giggling and jumping and free, rainbow colors and fabric framing her tiny self, dancing merrily, making happy.
The music is Chaminade’s “Scarf Dance,” composed around 1887, perfomed by Eric Parkin.
He is sweet and cute, I love country and he can sing (he probably doesn’t even recognize the scope of his magnetisn yet, at 17). Plus he is a Jesus-follower and represents well. But, ya know, we already have a Josh Turner. What is Scotty going to do when he has to give Josh’s song back?
Lauren, sweet as puddin’ pie, great voice. Not ready for prime time.
I didn’t even watch the final 2 weeks of American Idol. Just read Yahoo-news and it was enough.
Haley was strong, just waiting to be unleashed all the way. That girl has style and a voice! She packed a multi-faceted musical punch. James was hard-core and really, even though that is not even my thing, absolutely belonged in the final three. Casey is the voice (and fascintaing musician) of a modern-retro, way cool-cat generation. They should have have been the top three. I mean, technically Haley was in the top three, but if she still left at the same time, at least it would have been better to have left against James and Casey.
I have never bought a lottery ticket and I did not vote one time this year ( I have only ever voted one year: Blake Lewis), though it actually was probably my favorite year ever just because of the varied styles and extreme talent represented. I missed Simon and I like Jennifer and Steven. But the end? Questionable. I doubt Scotty could have, would have won with Simon in the judge’s seat.
*Yes, my grandma’s name was Ressie Belle, so I changed the actual lyrics a little. But the rest are pretty right on.
There is a really cool story line with the main character Zach, who loses his mom mysteriously and the angst he grows up with, the feelings of abandonment and the redemption that comes of it all.
LOVE the author!
At least that is what the National Gardening Association tells me. That pretty much just means I should wait until Mother’s Day to plant petunias and tomatoes and other warm-weather plants.
What??? It is time already? I am behind…
Some people get verklempt over Hallmark commercials. I loved a recent Home Depot commercial that said this:
YES! Let’s!
Got Stormie started with some stock and petunias and herbs and lettuce a few weeks back…
Very proud of myself for preparing all sorts of stuff ahead for this week: healthy and delish! AHEAD!! We eat out or pick-up TOO much! Busy life. Just as I was about to post this healthful factoid, Dave messaged me that he wondered if I would make some fudge…no doubt to go with the giant 3-layer coconut cake on the counter. Tsk. I don’t think so.
I figure, according to King Sooper’s deli dept, I just made 7+ side dishes and salads for $25-30 that would have cost me $60-75 through them. Nice. That is not even counting keeping my own boiled eggs on hand. Did you know they sell those?! Geesh.
Anyhow, I feel accomplished. Cook once, eat 7: a good thing!
NOTE TO SELF: Remember to tell Dave not buy so much fruit at once, espcially if he wants fudge.
