{Miscellaneous} Thoughts on the Thought Collage

February 14, 20139 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Thinkmaerican idolJeanie

Random thoughts…

I am so not keeping up my blog. I have things to say. I guess. But juggling all different formats is weird. With Twitter only requiring 140 characters, I am able to quickly say something, anything, to the world: boom! Done.

Then I forget to blog.

I know something about a certain car commercial…

If you were wondering where Shaquille O’Neal was yesterday or where you can find Payton Manning today, you could ask me. Because my nephew, Curtis, is at the shoot (he brought the cars). I could tell you…if I wanted to.

I never use nor approve of the word “sucks”

But sometimes…

American Idol is agonizingly, disgustingly horrid beyond belief this year. The judges are so awful. Where oh where do I begin? Randy seems sort of opinionlessly-pointless about anything at all. Niki Menaj is absolutely bi-polar-erratic in judgements. One person forgets words, she nasally annoyingly whi-hi-hines out: Oh I love you-that endears you to me. The next person forgets: Oh, you have insulted me and ticked me off.

Mariah is beautiful {earning her nice, big check} sitting there all diva-like with her hair sculpted into its glorious place (I do like her, really as she possesses pretty much the only true class to be found on this disappointing show) and Keith is adorable, naturally, but the contestants are just mortifying with the most deplorable social skills and world-view and the most utter self-absorption (more than usual) I have EVER seen. It seems like all the talentless hacks are being let through purely for the freak-factor. I HATE this show. And I used to love it. Please cancel it so I don’t have to be this miserable ever ever ever ever ever again. OMYGOSH! Where is Simon??? For the love of God and all that is holy, Simon – come back, pul-eeze!!!

All the wonderful years of Idol joy, gone….yet, like a terrible wreck, I cannot just go by without looking…

PONDER THIS: {“The days are long, but the years are short.”} ~Gretchen Rubin is cool.

Kiss-kiss, bebe I adore

Malakai, my little angel bebe, is now 7 pounds, 2 ounces. He is thriving on love, and his cheeks are getting chubby.

Tredessa snapped this last night. He is 5 weeks old now.

James Ryle posted this the other day

I invite you to begin reading your Bible as though you are taking a slow walk in a beautiful park — one filled with God’s presence. You will find that makes all the difference in your world!

Though I almost always jump head-long into those read-the-Bible-through-in-a-year incentives, after getting stuck on 2 chapters in Isaiah for three days, I thought this invitation sounded magnificent.

Barr Lake State Park

I am reading through the NLT this year. I have never read this version, even though it is part of my go-to-five on www.biblegateway.com. LOVE parallels! (New King James Version, New International Version, The Message, Amplified, New Living Translation, my favs)…

Speaking of walking though a park…

I have had this recurring desire to go watch the sunrise at Barr Lake State Park, yes, right in the middle of winter! Sadly, however, though the strong urge hits me in the evening, it isn’t strong enough at dark-thirty in the morning to cause me to get my buns out of bed and drive the 7 miles from my front door to the lake. Yes, that is how atrociously lazy I am – I can’t bring myself to get bundled up and go seven miles. Is that not terrible?

An actual Barr Lake State Park Sunrise:

Guess what is happening Friday?

Grandbebes! A whole houseful of them!

Which brings us to THIS question: I had one of the snapshots Stephanie did in December made into a gigantic 2′ x 3′ canvas (can you comprehend how much it is making me smile?). I was just going to hang it bare like that, then realized that it would fit in this very ornate, old frame I have. But of course, I’d paint the frame black or white…right? Thoughts? Advice? Opinions? Frame or not? Painting it or not???

Ok, so that is about it. I hope you are not upset about how I am feeling abotut American Idol because I am not taking that back…

What random loveliness has been going on with YOU???

John Eldredge: How to Pray Life Against Death

February 6, 2013Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

From Ransomed Heart in December.

Friends, a few days ago I posted a blog on the Newtown massacre. Crucial as that alert is, this is even more important than that one. I need to help you pray a shield of Life around your households.

About a month ago I experienced a very strong spiritual attack. It was quite dark, and took serious prayer to break off. It was, in fact, a spirit of death. As I prayed against it I sensed that it was not something specifically against me, but rather, it was a death attack that had been released upon the earth. I soon discovered that at the same time I was battling, a number of our friends were slammed with something similar, though they might not have identified it with death. It came as a malaise, a crushing, physical affliction, various “fruits” but the same spirit. God began to reveal even more; I just found out this week that during this same time period my son was praying for students at his school battling with suicidal thoughts, or even attempted suicide. Then came the massacre at Newtown, CT. That same week there was a shooting in an Oregon mall. Our dentist was killed with his father in a small plane accident. At this same time the nephew of a dear friend overdosed. All within hours of each other. The stories go on.

I hope this information begins to fill in a picture for you. Not fear, but awareness. As Paul said, “For we are not unaware of [Satan’s] schemes” (2 Cor. 2:11).

I want to encourage and equip you to be praying Life over your households. Some sort of death assignment and/or spirit has been released, and we need to bring the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ against it. We have a prayer here on our website we call the Life Prayer. It is the perfect tool for this moment. You can find it here.

Please share this post, pass it on to your circles and email lists so that we can get folks protected, and get the saints united in praying Life. If you read my post on Newtown, this is Part II—this is how we unite to bring Life at this very moment. This is the far more important part.

United with you for Life,

John

Life. Choosing it.

And re-igniting prayer for the big stuff, you know, those lofty prayers like Paul prayed for the church, like Jesus prays for us? Those. :)

…therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live. And may love the Lord your God, obey His voice, and cling to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days…Deut 30

Also, thanks to John and Stasi Eldredge: The Daily Prayer.

David Cassidy will be on CSI on Feb. 27!

February 5, 20139 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

How do I know this?

I make it my business to know. :)

www.davidcassidy.com #lovedavidcassidy!

Malakai Monday

February 4, 20132 Mi FamiliaJeanie

Oh. Did I mention I have a new grandbebe?

Well, he will be 4 weeks on Wednesday. Yes he will, my little Malakai (“Kai” for short) Powers *kiss-kiss*. He wasn’t even due until Valentine’s Day, but by then we shall be quite dear friends.

We hung out the other day and this was my {beautiful} iPhone vantage point.

Here was his response, I assume, to block the incessant kissy-faces he was getting from me.

Oh, he is a cuddle-bug, he is! Kinda leaves me speechless.

Averi J, you’re FIVE!

February 3, 20132 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

Happy Birthday, sweet Averi-kins, Nonna’s darling girl!

Oh, Averi-baby. I so LOVE our time doing pre-school and art and doing crafts and learning to read and so many other things we do. Can it really really really be 5 years since you were born?

Did you know I waited and waited {very patiently, I might add} for you to be born? And you just took-your-SWEET-time being born and I thought I would fall right over and go to sleep in the hospital hallway, but then, voila! There you were! VERY late, and I woke right up, wasn’t a bit sleepy anymore and I bet those doctors and nurses had never seen such a BIG family being all crazy-happy and rejoicing in their hospital that late at night! We were h-a-p-p-y!

And, get this: you were actually born on a Super-Bowl Sunday, a sunny, pretty day in Colorado – JUST LIKE today!!! Blue skies and bright sun – all for your birthday, beautiful just like you!

Well, little girl, for 5 years you have thrilled us with your big, blue eyes, your head-full of gorgeous hair, your kissable cheeks, your coy sense of wit, your surprise laughter, your sensitive heart, your warm hugs and sweeeeeeeeeeeet nature. Can you tell I just love everything about you?

I love you with so much of my heart there is none left to protest. :)

Happy-happy-happy-happy-happy birthday, Miss Averi. You are my sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. Don’t forget, OK?

I wish I could be as smart now as I was at 4

January 29, 20135 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

At four, I spent the hour I was supposed to be napping singing with the choirs of heaven. You cannot go wrong spending an hour in the middle of the day just worshipping the Creator of the Universe. So why don’t we?

At four I knew the best way to get anywhere in life was to either strap on the roller skates or skip high and long. So I did. I was either roller-skating (my knees still have the scars to prove it) or I was skipping (flying) around the neighborhood.

At four, I knew if you were going to sing, you should sing loud. So, I would get on the neighbor’s swingset (just across the alley at Sister Klug’s house) and sing so loud I could be heard far and wide, city blocks couldn’t contain the volume.

At four, I couldn’t spell much, but I could spell The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me, and Oh, you can’t get to heaven without S-A-L-V-A-T-I-O-N. If I’d never gone further, would I have really needed to?

When I was four, my brother Joey was my first and most lasting BFF and sibling-soul-mate. I totally had the Joey-Joey-Joey-Joey down in my heart. I still do, actually.

My mom was the center of my universe. My dad was the focus of our adoration. We chased (and sometimes caught) lightening bugs and splashed in a blow-up wading pool. Our dog chased cats away and the milkman delivered fresh to our door daily. We were up with the sun and went to sleep listening to records on the Hi-Fi.

I knew everything about anything that was fit to know about the universe when I was four. *sigh* I used to be so smart.

My Happy Places

January 29, 20131 Christ is All, Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

In no particular order…

1.

On a deck at the top of the hill where the river runs wild and loud as the hummingbirds dance ~ while I sing my head off. Peaceful Valley, Colorado. The Powers’ family cabin.

2.

The meadow in my (recurring) dreams, tall, soft green grass, yellow dandelions grow free and bright ( a place where they are not known as weeds) and I am about four, twirling and dancing and running around. And the sun is shining warm, and I am aware that God is smiling at me, and so pleased.

3.

In the house on any given night when the family all gathers and the room roars with love and laughter and the sound of the grandbebes’ little feet traipsing merrily up-and-down the stairs and gift-wrap paper-wad fights break out and people say nice things to each other and good memories are recalled and released for future times.

4.

In the early, dark morning when Dave puts his hand on me and I know he is praying over my life and my heart, a surge of peace blankets my soul.

Where are your happy places?

My mama and the movie…at the movie theater! :)

January 28, 20132 Mi Familia, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

Only one man could get my mom to the movies.

My mom was raised on Gene Autrey and Roy Rogers’ westerns and spent her childhood going to the Saturday double-feature for 25-cents in the 40s and 50s. She loved those movies and wearing her jeans and spurs, when she could get away with it.

But then she became engaged to a Nazarene preacher and there were things the holiness crowd just did not do. And going to movies was one of them.

So for years, she has adhered to the old teachings, to the sound of the voices of the older pastor’s and their wives who mentored her and told her that the word said not to “sit in the seat of mockers ” (Ps 1), which being interpreted {by them} meant: don’t go to the movie houses and sit in seats next to godless people. Now-they never mentioned sitting next to the godless at, say, a doctor’s office or a PTA meeting or even church. That verse, they were immovable in their stance, meant one thing: movie houses! Or maybe several things, because places like Disneyland were off limits, too. But mvies, most assuredly.

Over the years, especially as the grandkids came along, I heard her question that whole thing. She’d wish she could go ‘find Nemo’ or see a re-release of some Disney movie or another she’d watched growing up. She would brightly and hopefully say she really thought she could attend a movie and probably still go to heaven. But to actually risk it was another story.

:)

It happened. Finally. The movie that helped her break a 55+ year ban on the movies in her life? The man who moved her enough to make it happen? Lincoln!

President Lincoln was her favorite president ever and my history-teaching brother, Dan, was able to get her to go to support Lincoln if nothing else.

She loved it!

I said to her, “Oh, mom, how scandulous,” to which she replied,

“I did not feel the heat of hell.”

What was she expecting? *Hahahaha.* And she told me, “I don’t really care what people think. I was not sinning” Who is she now? Makes me laugh.

Oh and…

She had actually been in a theater a few years ago when “The Passion” was coming out and the marketing peeps were hauling in truckloads of religious-sorts to help them get the word out. But, she informed me, “It was all church people. That didn’t count.”

Happy Birthday, Dad

January 27, 20132 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually ThinkA. Ross Moslander, family, godly heritage, my dadJeanie

Happy Birthday to my dad – a strong warrior in spiritual things, a courageous man, resolved to overthrow the enemy’s strongholds. His love is deep and active, growing and cascading over crevices and stony barriers meant to keep it bound, ah, but they are no match. I love him more as time goes by, and my gratefulness for who he is increases with the years.

I love that at 74, he still grasps for understanding and wisdom, he continues to reach out to the God who saved him, to the God he is only even now learning to embrace as the Father, his Father. And that everything he discovers is a new gift for me. And will be for my children and theirs.

In October, when he called us kids home to hear his heart

My dad is not content to look back over the successes of his life (he has without doubt gone from glory to glory) and rehearse them as echoes of what once was. He, this very day, is seeking to do the will of God, is actively living for Jesus. In this way, I come from such rich, rich heritage.

I learn from him. I learn from him. His example to stand upright no matter what battle rages, for the right, is ever and always going to be my paradigm for life. Because whatever you must venture into, with unceasing tenacity, you must endure and remain standing with a steadfast heart. Wholeheartedness is the measure.

I love you, Papasan. I bless your birth and all the days you have lived. I bless the God of the universe finding you on a Missouri farm and capturing your heart. I bless the mistakes you made and the pain you hid and the amazing things you accomplished in work and life and ministry against all odds for a boy whose father was killed before he was even born. I bless you for choosing the right woman with which to make a life and for continuing to do and be all God has called you to do and to be.

I was moved this morning to pray for you with this scripture passage, Psalm 92.10-15 because it has your name all over it – a righteous man with a wild-ox anointing. The years cannot harness a person under the flow of the fresh oil. He’ll be like a young, strong ox that has never been yoked or broken or told he can’t. That is my daddy – strong as the day is long, anointed with fresh oil – verdant and green, a living memorial to the faithfulness of God. It’s true, dad!

But my horn (emblem of excessive strength and stately grace) You have exalted like that of a wild ox; I am anointed with fresh oil. My eye looks upon those who lie in wait for me; my ears hear the evildoers that rise up against me. The [uncompromisingly] righteous shall flourish like the palm tree [be long-lived, stately, upright, useful, and fruitful]; they shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon [majestic, stable, durable, and incorruptible]. Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God. [Growing in grace] they shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap [of spiritual vitality] and [rich in the] verdure [of trust, love, and contentment]. [They are living memorials] to show that the Lord is upright and faithful to His promises; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

I love you dad, and guess what? Almost everyday since you told me to in October, I have remembered to say:

I receive my father’s blessing on me today.

And I am cognizant of the powerful, rich and freely flowing blessing you are pouring out to heaven for each of us kids daily and I receive it, dad with gratefulness and so much love. And dad? I bless you back. Happy Birthday to my hero.

Strength, courage, resolve. That is what I see in his eyes. I love this man.

Pinsperation

January 27, 2013Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

Sometimes things on Pinterest actually encourage me.

Words (I love words!) + visual (‘cuz I am a visual person) = I get it!

So when I need a boost, when I am doubting myself or wondering what comes next, I sometimes go back and check out my words-are-all-I-have Pinterest board and re-read something that once struck my fancy or spoke some truth to my heart and I am thoroughly inspired and reignited. Yep. That easy sometimes.

These are some that made me crazy-courageous once. When I really needed it.