This is from an email I sent them in 2012. Tara, Stephanie, Tredessa, Rocky & Stormie…
May you each {within your own homes and families, now} live full and exciting lives, marked by sheer delight and pure joy, along with the surging Holy-Spirit-strength that comes from that! And I pray you will have many good conversations with the people who matter the most and will enjoy experiences and memories that warm your heart at the end of each day along the way.
I pray that you will be blessed with work, the life-giving kind of service and labor that comes from knowing you are doing the good things God actually created you to do way before anyone else even knew there would be a you (see Ephesians 2.10). I speak grace to you, over your lives. I shake heaven’s gates praying you will have the grace to be everything God created you to be and the grace to accomplish everything He created you to accomplish!
I pray you will press in to know the One who loves you most (Hosea 6.3), and that you will zealously, and with consecrated energy, live for the praise of His glory! I urge you to break off the chains of the quotidian existence sometimes imposed by the times and our culture in its’ pursuit of amassing things, gaining impressive status or careers with fancy titles. And I pray and declare that you’ll live, really live, in the hope for which God has called you.
Make every effort to enter into the rest of God (Hebrews 4.11), my sweets. Jesus paid it all, so don’t bother trying to earn your place in Him. He has got you covered.
Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost – that is Kingdom of God, the doors-wide-open welcoming House of the Lord. This is where we live, in the Household of Faith. There is bread in His house, you’ll never lack for His provision. Come, eat, my beloved children. Don’t go hungry when the feast has been spread.
I pray you’ll sleep sweetly through all your nights (Proverbs 3.24) under the moon and stars hung by your loving Father, having lived your days without regret and shame. And I pray you’ll drop into bed in sheer exhaustion, but that it will always be that “good kind of tired.”
I never even hoped to dream I’d have children like you. You were made for me. And I was made for you. I love you all very much and am wholly honored that God chose me to be your mom. And I am, you know…And I pray for you!
These are not just a random selection of nice thoughts for these who came from me. They are actually dedicated, targeted prayers for wholeness (and healing, too as it is needed) for a few of my weak areas – places where I may have (probably) failed them. Thank God He can redeem and restore and His grace is greater!
Wheels of love go ’round Love go ’round Love go ’round A joyful sound*
Ross and Norma Moslander (also known as my mamala and pappasan), married August 24, 1957. They are my parents, the two people I adore and most admire in the universe. Like most kids, I suppose, there were so many things I was going to do differently as a parent. Then I didn’t. Or I did and found out their way was better, anyway. They are both amazing and flawed, both extraordinary and just plain human. But their trajectory has always been headed towards heaven, walking with Jesus, being guided by the Holy Spirit and the closer they get to their goal, the more perfect they become.
My mom thanks me each Mother’s Day and on my birthday for making her a mommy – everything she had ever wanted. I love them! And I’m so blessed to have them as mine!
He ain’t got a penny For Cotton Jenny to spend But then Wheels go ’round*
Another grandbebe is on the way!
That’s right: you heard me. GRANDbebe #10 is due at the end of February 2015. He or she will be Tredessa and Ryan’s second child. Eight-month-old, Evangeline Lilly made the announcement at church wearing a shirt that said, “Only Child, expires February 2015.”
Singing through the Decades
Tara (my firstborn) and her husband Dave are back with a concert follow-up to the wildly successful, sold-out show they did for Valentine’s Day at the Mad Cap Theater in Westminster.
This concert is called Decades, where, rumor has it, they will sing some of the best love songs from various , you guessed it, decades in the past. They are pulling out some of my favorites and I don’t know if I am suppose to tell, but one is a very sexy version of “Let’s Stay Together,” and **maybe-maybe-maybe** even “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” one of my mom’s all-time fav songs (she wants me to make a video of pictures of my dad and add that song as a soundtrack – how cute is that???).
Anyway – the concert is at the historic Armory Center for Performing Arts up north and you can get tickets at dtp.eventbrite.com. It WILL be sold out, so buy early. I get a pass ‘cuz I am their mom! :)
Rocky @Rez.org & other places
Rocky just started a new phase of life and ministry at Resurrection Fellowship in Loveland.He’ll be leading worship a couple of weekends a month and engineering sound in a super-cool exposed brick office with a full-blown recording set-up. He is a little bit in heaven.
He just got back from The Big Tent Revival in Butte, MT where he led worship and just a day before that from a Rez trip to Lake Providence, Louisiana where they were raising money for a ball field there and he was thrilled to get to meet Uncle Si and some other Duck-Dynasty family. This was an explanation of the event CLICK HERE.I think there were follow-up news stories, but I live in Colorado, people.
Image from The Big Tent Revival, Photographer Tom Curry, copyrighted
Jovan is going to home school Averi this year as they transition, prepare to sell their house and move to Loveland (which, while only 45 miles from us, will still make them seem quite a ways away compared to now, which has been 15 miles). They are having an exciting year.
Stormie was at The Big Tent Revival, too
Crazy girl plays bass and sings. She uses her vacation time to travel wherever she is invited to glorify God. We like her very much!
Image from The Big Tent Revival, Photographer Tom Curry, copyrighted
You have been following Beat a Day, haven’t you? You haven’t??? What?!
Stephanie and Tristan are movers and shakers and are always doing something new that wows all of us. And they are both wildly popular on Instagram. Is that such a mom thing to say? It is! :)But it is still true! Steph is an extraordinary photo stylist, see here.
Tristan started posting a 15-second “Beat a Day” drum vids to Instagram {he is the BEST drummer in the world}} and everybody is talking about it! You MUST check it out!:) You totally have to watch the 100th beat that has exactly 100 hots played at 100 beats per minute! So cool!Also lots of beats at TristanKelley.com
So-this is just a little bit of what is happening with my people around here –
All the result of Ross and Norma saying I do 57 years ago this week!
*”Wheels of love go ’round” are lyrics from the song, “Cotton Jenny” written by Gordon Lightfoot. But it was the first song I ever heard by Anne Murray. I was 12. I loved her low voice and I still sing this song around the house! A lot!
“Last-borns tend to be self-centered, attention-seeking people who will wrestle the spotlight from others if need be.” – from an article on birth-order at a parenting site
Not so, our Stormkins. She never fit the profile of the typical baby of the family. She, in fact, nurturing spirit mixed with careful thoughtfulness, is adored by her siblings all, for she has enriched their lives and adds to them as people. She never wrestled spotlights from them nor manipulated to take their place. She is loved deeply for how she has loved them. She is loved fiercely for all the ferociousness with which she has protected and covered and served and loved them.
And on her birthday, they can’t say enough. She is festooned with praises, this particular baby-of-the-family.
Last year on Mother’s Day – I have the black eye. Stormie is flawless.
Can you even imagine what it is like to get to be her parents?
She lives in our town. She lives in a house she is making her own and it is designed with detail, though it may seem quite casual because it is so relaxed and unpretentiously welcoming. But it’s reflective of her utter sophisticated coolness. Everything around her, including the giant German Shepherd, Saber, is structurally Stormie. Light rebounding from carefully curated usable collections of her heart and soul: her books, her kitchen tools and dishes, her music and her scents – all clues to a most unique and copacetic home owner. No one else could possibly live in that particular early 1900s house. It pulses with the beat of Stormie’s life-giving existence, her panache, her style. Don’t tell her I told you she has one. She would blush. :)
Stormie – as tagged on FB
“Tax-Day” forever redeemed. 1986 a best-year ever.
April 15 was never the same after 1986. The IRS never once more could claim this day, for this was the day our family became **7** and it was perfect: Dave and Jeanie (aka dad and mom), Tara**Stephanie**Tredessa**Rocky and finally, fantastically, phenomenally ~ Stormie. Our Stormie Dae (it really was icy and blizzardy on the day she came). And for that matter, of all the things that happened in 1986, jobs and a new house and church stuff and life in general, the *best* thing of the year was having Stormie, a sweet-natured baby who has grown up to become a trustworthy, responsible, longsuffering, compassionate, missions-minded, loving, doting, worshiping, praying, wry, funny, intuitive, deeply-connected, intensely-loyal, attentive, utterly-amiable and oh-so-likeable girl. I guess she is a woman, but she is my baby girl, too.
“Hold tight to the sounds of the music of living, happy songs from the laughter of children at play…We have this moment today.” I sang this, holding you, when we dedicated you to the Lord (a Gaither song)
Good grief – how did you turn out so well? Must be all those older sisters and that older brother helping hone and shape you. :)
So, my sweet baby girl – of course I bless the day you were born. And I bless you.
Let us pray on the occasion of the celebration of your birth and the life you are living:
I pray you live, Stormie, take the deepest breath, inhale the Holy Spirit, the ruach of the LORD, and be energized and live. **Live!** Live deeply and hidden, unseen and true. Live loudly and bright and in the light, in the open, fearlessly. Live to delight the One. And live to make happy the places in you only you and your Maker know anything about. Be quickened and energized with that same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead – let your mortal body reflect the glory of God (remember our homeschool rap from 1 Cor. 6.20, “therefore – glorify God in your body,” haha).
I see His countenance on you, my sweet. I see a twinkle, a sparkle dancing in those eyes. The stars are casting light on your nights, the sunglow doesn’t match your days. Damn self-sufficiency, baby-love. You could do that in your sleep. You possess fortitude and ability and are able, but you, my daughter, were meant for the wild passions of the things of God. You have tasted eternity on your tongue. Your hair has been blown by the winds of the Holy Spirit. Your heart expands in the Presence, your longing for the Divine opens doors to see Him face to face, to be so close you hear His still, small voice with utter clarity.
You are like David. He did not strive to come out from among the rest. He was doing what he did. He was honoring God and singing songs that blessed the Lord – when no one heard, and no one saw. And God invited him to come out, to come up, to be seen, to do what he was born to do and was already doing in secret places. That is how it is, my sweet. God sees you. He knows you. It’s ok when He calls you forth. You’re no Johnny-come-lately. You are true and real, you are an honest version of who God says you are.
And all the things the enemy has ever done to try to take that away – well, to *h*with the devil. God rebuke the enemy on your behalf, I pray! May God be your Protection, your Guide, your Guard, your Friend, your Father, your All. And when He invites you to the seat of honor, all of us will know why and we’ll be cheering loudly and raucously, Stormie’s fans and family, with hearts fairly bursting in love.
I bless the day you were born and all the days you have left, in Jesus’s Name, in His great love and grace, and with gratefulness for the forgiveness and healing we have received for all the wounds and wrongs and sins {redemption has come – He has made all things new!}, my darling daughter – in HIS name, I bless you! Amen.
And he is directing it. And he is acting in it. And so are other people related to me by blood. And so are many of the cast from last year’s Merry Gentlemen ~ A Christmas in Mediocrity, but it is a whole new story and feel. In fact, the infamous and ridiculously good-looking Bill Barrow (and he needs to be because he is married to the ravishing Candi), whose character has a much more expanded role in this show said,
Bill Barrow, himself
“Last year’s play was good. It was really good. But this year’s is fantastic. It is so much better!”
Well, then! Last year’s production was amazing. REALLY good. Two sold-out, standing-room-only nights of fun with live music and great acting. So – wow, then…THIS YEAR will be even better!
It is slated for two performances, December 20 and 21 at Community of Faith in Broomfield (90 Emerald Street), which is sponsoring the whole shebang.
All I know about the story is what Dave will let me know until the performance: It’s about a children’s pastor who has been assigned the task of putting together the church Christmas pageant even though he doesn’t really care for Christmas and doesn’t even really like children, either. But poor Pastor Mike is stuck. He is stuck with overbearing assistant directors, a Joseph who wears football pads, a little superhero who calls himself The Pigeon, a prima dona named Twinkle and a skate board riding redhead known as Dorito. Can Pastor Mike pull it off without losing his sanity?
Well, here is the deal~~ it’s a Christmas story through and through, Christmas as in Jesus was born. It’s written by a man who LOVES Christmas like crazy – so you know it will be Christmas-y in every good way. And it is laugh-out-loud funny (I have this on good authority) and yet heartwarming, too. There is great music (PLUS live music with Rocky Rhoades, Tris and Stephanie Kelley, Stormie Rhoades, and Dave and Tara Powers – which is worth a huge ticket price alone and I am not just saying that because they are my kids, hehe). And, because it’s Christmas? It has a little magic, too! So COME ON people! Soooooo worth the $5 ticket price! BUY TICKETS online www.callbacktheater.com.
Plus: check out the cute director. I know him. He is a talented writer and director. And actor. So come to JESUS, MARY and JOSEPH! :)
Omygosh…I JUST realized I sort of married my very favorite actor from the High Chapparal 1960s TV show…Manolito Montoya, of whom this website says:
The classic 60s Western centered on The High Chaparral ranch in 1870s Arizona where Big John Cannon married Manolito’s sister…Manolito himself was a dashing rogue who’d rather make love to the local ladies than get involved in fighting. Read more here…
Um yeah-the actor’s actual name: Henry Darrow? Manolito to me!
You don’t just get to be a mom without the help of some pretty incredible people to help you out. On Mother’s Day, I always think tribute should be given to the people who made you a mom. I have never been one to need breakfast in bed or a dozen roses of thanks with a Hallmark card, really, though those are sweet things. But I sure like being with the people who afforded me the privilege and title of “mom.” Time. Yes. Loved them way back when (before I could even know who they would be but I just knew God had entrusted their tiny to-be-discovered little lives to me). Love them more, and o-so-proud-of-them all, today.
I loved having babies, which is why I kept at it so vigorously for those, ya know, almost 7 years. There was honestly something so regal in carrying a child within. I sensed, very keenly, during pregnancy, the unbridled blessing of the Lord, the trust He had placed in me to carry destiny, to harbor safely within: some one, a person, my heritage from Him – a baby who would grow up to be His. At each child’s dedication, I solemnly renewed in my heart to honor the Lord by giving my babies to Him. Write Your Name on their hearts, Lord, I would pray, knowing that more than they were mine, they were His.
It is a sobering realization
With the way I failed so many times, at being everything a good mom should be, the kind they speak of in songs and greeting cards, it amazes me still, that I was entrusted with so many and such an above-average group, at that. I think I got points for making sure they had such a great daddy, or something? Nonetheless, I was blessed, so blessed beyond deserving.
And I have often heard it said that God gives you the parents you needed, which, except in the case of parents who choose cruelty, who abandoned without thought the preciousness of the child placed in their care, this may be true. But it seems more true that God gives you the child you need (with 5, I must have been very needy). For they bring a piece of your heart, a part of everything you were born to be – when you didn’t even know it was missing. And suddenly, you’re a mommy. And though they grew there, nurtured in your womb, and then became their own, leaving that safe place, they somehow left you more whole than before.
So, on Mother’s Day, thank-you to Tara & Stephie, Dessa & Rocky and the baby, Storm-kins for making me a mom and for turning out so darn great in spite of me and maybe a little because of me. I hope my deep love covers anything that needs it and will last in your heart way past the days I here to remind you of it – all the way to the end.
Tara – you taught me that God loved me and believed in me even when and especially when I did not deserve His mercy. You were a gift straight from heaven for my heart, joy that I had never had, and a stamp of approval I was almost too embarrassed to receive. Having you was my yes to God. Yes to You for all times and all ways. This is when I knew I was in for keeps (I am my beloveds and He is mine) and not just because of who my parents were. This is when I met the same God Hagar had discovered in a desolate place: the God who sees. I saw Him. And He saw me and placed love in my arms. Joy-in-the-morning!
Stephanie –you taught me that God is a healer and that he hears us when we pray. You were not just the only baby we actually “planned” to have ~ all the rest were delightful surprises and unexpected-but-cherished gifts. But you, you were the one I had to fight the enemy for. You were the baby that caused me to grow up and stand my ground against the thief. You were the one that introduced me to agonizing like Hannah before the Lord “For this child I prayed, andthe Lord has granted my petition made to him.” And He did, oh yes He did. And you were worth it, Stephanie. You are worth it…
Tredessa – everything about you, from your conception to your even-in-toddler-hood deep love for the Word and things of God when you could barely walk or talk caused awe and wonder in us. You have challenged me to know Him more, to press in no matter what. Where I had been a strong-willed, hard-headed, bull-dozer of a kid to try to be heard, you came quietly, but with such a deep dignity and strength of spirit. Your reliance on the Lord has taken you around the world and keeps you close to home. You are the wit and wisdom of your grandparents, the brains and ability of all who have come before you and deep treasure of the strong love of your parents for each other, for you. You are all this and so much more…
Rocky –to us a child was born, a son was given. You were such a surprise after 3 girls. You carry the name of our family, of all we have been and yet are to be. You got your dad’s good looks and my fire-y personality. You carry your grandpa’s zeal and your great-grandpa’s strength of character. You embody the strong work ethic from which you come and make us proud, so proud to call you son. But you carry a song from the Holy Spirit, and a heart to give God praise and you are called by the One who has shared you with us for paths all your own, yet to be discovered, exciting for us to watch. You are my beloved son, in whom I am so so so well pleased.
Stormie –you came in gentleness. You are the heart of your daddy and you remind me so much of Jesus in John 13 when he was ina room full of disciples and no one would serve. And because He knew who He was and where He had come from and where he was headed, He just tied the towel around His waist and washed their feet. And baby girl, you have served the Lord and the people you love in selflessness and rich beauty and you are all the more ravishing for it. It is your honor, your bejewelment, it is the dazzling beauty of who you are in the room. You were the icing on my cake, the cherry on top, the greatest (the servant of all) for last…
The past couple of weeks
These are some photos and video from 2 or 3 “family times” these past couple of weeks. This song and these images are a tiny, delicious slice of the great smile-pie of my life! This is Dave + me + the five + their loves + 6 chubby-cheeked sweetie-pie honey-bunches-of-oats grandbebes. Mi familia. Because of a blessing-giving God…
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ME!
1 Samuel 1 “Oh, my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here praying to the Lord.
For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted my petition made to Him.
Therefore I have given him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is given to the Lord. And they worshiped the Lord there.
Best thing I ever did as a mommy?
Give you back to the One who gave you to me. As long as you live, you are in my heart, but you are His.
My daughters are industrious, creative, gifted and talented Proverbs 31 women. They all see to their households, as well as to the Household of Faith. They give to the poor and assist anyone in need; they shop for the best yarns and cottons and enjoy knitting and sewing. They organize their days and plant gardens with the money they have put aside. They dress for work, roll up their sleeves and are always eager to get started because they understand the worth of their work. They take good care of their families and dress in colorful linens and silks. They design gowns and sell them and bring the sweaters they knit to the dress shops. Facing the future with smiles, they always have something worthwhile and kind to say. They outclass anyone in Hollywood or the magazines. Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades, but my little women – these who are serving God with reverent respect? They are to be admired and praised! (The Message, personalized)
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Stormie and Stephanie are MayDae &have an Etsy shop.
My girlies, Stephie and Storms, are such creative women. Each on their own, but when they get together, zowie! Stormie works in the billboard-graphics field during her “day job,” and Stephanie mommies 3 of the most amazing little red-heads! They have proven to have a “good eye” on finding vintage wares that people will love. I love them bunches!
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Tredessa serves as the Director of Operations for a little ministry called Heaven Fest www.heavenfest.com
The night Dessy let us make her into an 80’s glam girl. Aaahhh….good times!
Tre directs a leadership team of 100 people, who utilized 2000 amazing volunteers this year! Daniel Miles said, at the appreciation event at Elitch Gardens that Tredessa was the “captain,” of Heaven Fest and people cried as he said (and others chimed in, in agreemen)t, “We’ll follow you anywhere.” She needed to know that – because it is true.
This is granddaughter, Amelie Belle, modeling one of her mama’s creations. Sweet baby girl!
Jovan makes the prettiest things for baby girls (her passion, imagine that) and for gifting. Jovan is my sugar-and-spice-and-everything-nice daughter who is woman enough to not be afraid of pink. And a good wife to my baby boy!
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Tara leads an international ministry with her husband and very dedicatedly teaches their son at home!
Yes. That IS Hunter’s KINDEGARTEN textbook. I shudder to think what he’ll be doing by junior high?!
I wonder if Hunter can yet comprehend what an amazing and patient momma he has? She is fully devoted to helping Hunter fulfill God’s call in his life in his generation. Plus? The woman writes songs and sings and lights up a room! My firstborn, who walks in favor.
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Quotes I love from Little Women, the movie (1994)
Marmee: I am going to write that man a letter.
Jo: A letter! That’ll show him.
Jo:Now we are all family, as we always should have been.
Marmee: Feminine weaknesses and fainting spells are the direct result of our confining young girls to the house, bent over their needlework in restrictive corsets.
Marmee:Oh, Jo. Jo, you have so many extraordinary gifts; how can you expect to lead an ordinary life? You’re ready to go out and – and find a good use for your talent. Tho’ I don’t know what I shall do without my Jo. Go, and embrace your liberty. And see what wonderful things come of it.
And from the book by Louisa May Alcott:
“Money is a needful and precious thing,–and, when well used, a noble thing,–but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I’d rather see you poor men’s wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace.”
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May the LORD bless you and make His face to shine upon you. May your lives, Tara and Stephanie, Tredessa and Stormie, and Jovan, be festooned with the praises you have earned for all you are and all you do. And may the favor of God surround you and your marriages and babies and businesses and ministries like a shield. I admire you all! Much love and a zillion kisses…mom
(1) Gather and eat a light and delicious breakfast, a little too early on a Saturday morning.
(2) Swap meet. Clean out your closet of clothes and jackets and jewelry and all manner of now-unwanted items. Throw them into a giant pile in the living room so that after breakfast, everyone can dig through and get what they want. Leftovers to Goodwill.
(3) Go hit a series of thrift stores looking for amazing deals and designer clothes for less and to replenish everything you just got rid of at the swap.
Meanwhile, Guinivere stayed behind to lend her hand to decorating the outside door garland. She works very meticulously, we have found, from left to right in straight lines.
