Archive for April, 2010
Ode to Melancholy
Friday, April 30th, 2010Two
Monday, April 26th, 2010Two large, colorful, beautiful Monarch butterflies just flew about the backyard, diving and swooping, flirtatiously fluttering for full effect.
I, in turn, thanked them wholeheartedly for stopping by (clapping and cheering at their arrival) and have given them full use of the yard at their discretion. “Bring friends,” I encouraged. For until I have filled the pots with annuals (we mustn’t let temptation for color coax us into doing this earlier than Mother’s Day here in Zone 5), the Monarchs shall be the kaleidescope of wonder.
The birds seem ever-so-slightly put out at my response to the lovlies, having provided song and sweetness for months now. But they will get over it when they see what I have in mind for them…
To be continued….
Post Script ~ The conflict with the interloping garlic chives continues this year. As if I did not not win some of the battles last season? They are as fat and invasive as ever.
Unrelated? Hmmm…
Sunday, April 25th, 2010Mr 3-pound Toad had still been in hiding as of yet this spring. But major construction development and rehabilitation of his neighborhood (trying desperately to remove the hollyhocks from the pond area and move them waaaaaay back by the fence) exposed his fat-winter self. Interestingly, it also revealed my reading glasses, missing now for three days.
Coincidence? I think not. It was him or the big, juicy worm.
trying to hide
I’ll be watching them. And reading again.
earthday.
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010This is in the church driveway today, about halfway to the building (on the way in to the Heaven Fest office for a meeting). The earth. The dandelions. The rolling, dark clouds. It was a beautiful day.
taken with a very inexpensive camera by a pretty terrible picture-taker. : ) Yet, kinda beautiful!
Thunder showers! Lightening! Started out raining like crazy (way, way-low visibility on the way to Longmont). Cleansing rain, abundant moisture. Then sunny, warm, bright and beautiful. Then this gorgeous weirdness (dark on the south, sunny and blue on the north). All fading into a deep reverberating-blue, spring evening.
The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.
Earth day = The LORD’s Day!
NOTE: 99 days until Heaven Fest! www.heavenfest.com
Le moi d’Avril
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010[French} Le moi d'Avril = The month of April [English]
“April is the cruelest month,
breeding lilacs out of the dead land,
mixing memory and desire,
stirring dull roots with spring rain.” ~ T. S. Elliott
google images
Tiny leaves and buds have appeared on the miniature lilac near the patio. I love lilacs (part of the unruly olive family). LOVE them! Did you know that, situated properly in full sun and well-drained soil they can last for centuries? Someday I intend to have a secret writing garden surrounded by lilacs where I shall where a yellow dress and sip tea, eschewing all forms of modern technology. Yes. I will do this.
You may visit me there, but your phone is not welcome.
I’m not finished
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010Observe, if you will, the first sentence.
And the second, for that matter.
Tara had a couple of rather persnickety English teachers during her high school career who would candidly point out to me Tara’s seeming inability to write a simple sentence, for she would use commas and semi-colons and colons to make her point without taking a breath and the ‘period,’ as it were, was a rare find in her one-page essays, causing me no shortage of embarrassment, I assure you, for I knew she had inherited this English-teacher-frustrating trait from none-other than her beloved mother, that being me, it so happens; and so, while I wanted her to do well and excel in writing and possess a great mastery of the language arts, I also understood, while said teachers obviously did not, that Tara is a master communicator, well able to make not only her point, but to make it in such an interesting way that an overuse of the period-as-punctuation is not necessary, but rather over-used in our short-attention-spanned society. Sad. Very sad, indeed.
The period-punctuation gives people too many opportunities to escape my words. I am most likely not finished. So don’t try getting away.
The book is inscribed inside as having been owned by one Mr. Harry Story of Great Falls and is dated 5/13/12 – almost exactly 98 years ago! Image on the right has in quotes: “Is it because we are merely attractive that you mentioned the relationship?” *smile…
The book page pictured (top) is Japonette (c) 1912, by Robert W. Chambers [1865-1933]. I feel a strong affinity toward his sentence style. I don’t think. we. need. as. many. periods. as. they. tell. us. I say let’s make people stay in there until the point emerges! Yes. I do. Especially since sometimes, yes, I wander and the point may seem way down the road. It is coming. Wait for it. I will make it. I promise. Eventually. But not too soon.
N O T E :By the way? Tara was an A student in English. No worries. And when she writes? She writes well. I think it was the one year I homeschooled her. Yes. I believe I will. Take the credit. For the lack of periods. And how good. She is. Period.
“Presently she caught his eye and made him a pretty gesture.”
“‘I wonder just how innocent we really are,’ she said.”
MORE ABOUT THE BOOK: I actually bought it at a used book store in Montana because it was illustrated by none other than Charles Dana Gibson [1867-1944] himself, the great “Gibson-girl” illustrator, whose glorious images of curvaceous, bold women with nonchalantly up-swept yet-tumbling-tendriled hair, make me glad to be womanly.
Bethany, Churchill and Phil Keaggy!
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010Phil Keaggy. I mean – come on: PHIL KEAGGY!
He is in Colorado this week:
http://westword.backpage.com/Events/phil-keaggy-in-concert-with-special-guests-churchill/4601011
And Churchill is opening. SO COOL!
Because not only is Churchill really good (really good), Bethany Kelly is in Churchill and she is awesome/talented/sassy/gorgeous (and practically family)!
Churchill:
http://www.churchilltheband.com/
Bethany:
http://bethanykelly.tumblr.com/
Bethany’s parents:
http://cakboliv.wordpress.com/ http://robkelly.typepad.com/
I am surrounded by greatness!
springstuff, the list
Monday, April 19th, 2010“Imperfection is beauty,
madness is genius
and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous
than absolutely boring.” ~ whosaidthis?
And isn’t April ridiculously mad and delicious?
Elise-the-Niece, the very personification of spring, is here for a visit on her way from almost a year on the YWAM base in Hawaii back to Aberdeen, SD and her family.
Things of spring: MY LIST~
Hunter, Gavin and Guini; Guini and Averi ~ artwork on the patio
Sidewalk chalk and seed packets.
Salad greens and spring showers.
Blue skies and garden bunnies.
Family birthdays and family food daze.
Birdsong and backyard play.
Sugar snap peas and Cherry Belle radishes.
Grandbebe chatter and catching up with neighbors over the fence.
Home Depot then home work.
Sidewalk sweeping and wagon pulling.
Clean windows and fresh air.
The boys building forts and digging holes for buried treasure.
Perennials popping up around the pond.
Sprouts in the garden and sproutonline.com
Petunias and pansies.
Lilies and lilacs.
The lawnmower’s roar and squeak of the swing.
Azure-blue dusk and snow-capped mountain horizons.
The smell of hot soil and the intoxicating scent of wet cedar mulch.
Fertilizer and polished furniture.
The whoosh of kids swinging and the wind’s soft whisper.
The grill fired up and sweet girls dressed up.
Terra cotta pots and tomato seedlings.
Bright lights and short nights.
The Kelley kids at church one evening last week; Elise-the-niece with Amelie Belle, the newest of the grandbebes.
April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. ~William Shakespeare
Stormie and Amelie; GemGem and her Aunt Tara; Stormie and Guinivere. At Stormie’s family birthday dinner.
Celebrating with mi familia! Happy Birthday, again, Stormie Dae Rhoades, spring baby and lovely girl! The grandbebes eating.
In springtime, love is carried on the breeze. Watch out for flying passion or kisses whizzing by your head. ~Terri Guillemets
Wrex and Stef with the birthday girl. The cookbook holder Wrex made for Stormie with his own two, bare hands! Same as the high-ticket model at Anthropologie. But better! Wrex practicing eating while holding a baby. He vows a tiny human being will not interefere in this department!
If you’ve never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Terri Guillemets
The coconut cake for Stef and Elise, icing/filling kinda to die for. Tara singing a song Stormie wrote for part of her birthday gift. Fruit Pizza is ever-so-much-more-scrumptious the next morning. Approximately 3872 calories. And I HOPE I am only kidding!
Outside after dark: the boys building their fort. Averi and GemGem, best cousins…just before the tragic accident. Gemma “ran right into” Hunter’s construction site and got quite the owie on her face. But a band-aid and a kiss makes everything better. That and getting some attention.
“Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.” ~ Rainer Marie Rilke
{sigh}
I love spring. And I LOVE lists!
My Little Stormiekins
Thursday, April 15th, 2010HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Stormie Dae!
And I never thought I’d feel this way
And as far as I’m concerned
I’m glad I got the chance to say
That I do believe I love you
Stormie with Grandma Moslander, early 1987, almost 1
She’s the baby-gotta love her!
My little Stormiekins. How I love you, chica! Can you even imagine how much? Can you comprehend what I see when I look at you? Me, with a million words, yet, unable to fully express how brightly you shine in my universe, how fully you fill my heart with joy, how rich you have made our family?
The last of 5 children (all born in less than 7 years!), you came along and became the opus, the grand total of us all. I was only 26 when you arrived, barely understanding adulthood and living in the happy chaos that is toddler-world. With three “big,” (and I use that term loosely) sisters and one big brother already here, who will she be, we wondered? And we couldn’t have planned it, nor even asked for such a perfect fit. But God knew.
And if I should ever go away
Well, then close your eyes and try to feel
The way we do today
And then if you can remember
And, oh, what a treasure you are to us, to me. Your are an honoring daughter which makes me happy because, girl? I want it to ge WELL! with you! So keep it up! And your faithfulness to the things you have committed yourself to and the things God has called you to inspires me so. I love your sweet voice and willingness, quiet and reserved as you are (and never afraid to work quietly behind the scenes), to leadworship – to raise your song in praise and invite the youngones to follow along. Yeah, Stormie!
You are loyal to a fault and so creatively, over-the-top, abundantly, self-sacrificingly, Holy-Spirit-empowered in your giving. Your generosity has touched people around the world and I know why God has blessed you monetarily at such a young age: because He has anointed you to give and He trusts you with the job!
I have wept over you when I have watched the enemy come to steal your heart and your hope and I have been comforted by you when the same craphead has tried to take mine. We haveprayed together and sangtogether and you’re the best driver of all my kids and I am not just saying that because I was the one who taught you. Or maybe I am. But you are sooooo special to me, Stormie Dae.
Keep smilin’, keep shinin’
Knowin’ you can always count on me, for sure
That’s what friends are for
For good times and bad times
I’ll be on your side forever more
That’s what friends are for
As a baby, you were a delight (and the first girl who could handle Rocky’s antics) and as a woman, you are my beloved daughter and trusted friend. Which is why I have included Carol Bayer Sager’s amazing song, which just happened to be Billboard’s #1 hit of the year when you were born in 1986, That’s What Friends are For.
For the song epitomizes the kind of person you havebecome, the kind who will, in good or bad times, be on a person’s side. You are a person who can be counted on and I thank God for you. I thank Him for knowingwhat this family needed when He surprised us with you! I am so glad He gifted me with you even when I didn’t think I had it in me. Thank-you for living out God’s call so beautifully, Stormkins.
Well, you came and opened me
And now there’s so much more I see
And so by the way I thank you
And then for the times when we’re apart
Well, then close your eyes and know
These words are comin’ from my heart
And then if you can remember
Keep smiling, keep shining
Knowing you can always count on me, for sure
That’s what friends are for
I am so pleased with you, Stormie Dae. I am so thankful for you and delighted with the way you have turned out. Happy Birthday, sweetie-pie. Your mama adores you. There’s so much great stuff ahead.
In good times, in bad times
I’ll be on your side forever more
Oh, that’s what friends are for
Stormie being silly and Stormie with her sister and www.MayDae.com partner, Stephanie
Keep smilin’, keep shinin’
Knowin’ you can always count on me, for sure
That’s what friends are for
For good times and bad times
I’ll be on your side forever more
That’s what friends are for
Keep smiling, keep shining
Happy Birthday to the baby. I will be on your side for ever and for always.
Love,
mom
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOE!
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010J o e- theBROTHER…49 years in 10 minutes flat!
QUICK CLICK for full, crazy, sentimental effect: The mood music
My little brother, Joe, turns 49 today. When we were little, when we were “Jeanie and Joey” way back when, he was my best friend and confidante. I was bossy and he needed to be bossed. I was forthright and opinionated and he was the gentle listener who appreciated my opinions. I talked. He listened and drew pictures. He became an accomplished artist and I, a talker.
One time he quietly saved me from drowning and another time he saved me from something much worse. He risked a lot to be in my corner during a really hard time…or two. He has spent his life teasing me, tormenting me, aggravating me and protecting me. I have spent mine acting like I am always right and challenging him to boxing matches (which I win, of course, because gentle Joe would never hurt a girl).
For a lot of years, marriage and raising kids and careers and life made what we once shared so closely (he was my first nap and room-mate) a sweet, but distant memory. But then the melancholy of years and a deep, abiding love reminded us to reset our priorities and to be not only a brother and his big sister (he now calls me his “little sister” which is all the more reason to love him), but to be friends – the kind who are God-sent and will never let you go. For that is what I have in Joe.
During those interim, busy-life years, I once almost lost Joe permanently and I didn’t even know. I was living my own life and he was dying, coding repeatedly one night after he collapsed doing police work at the airport. Thinking now about what I’d have missed if he hadn’t made it makes me nag him and check his pacemaker for malfunction when I see him. His strong, steady heartbeat is very important to me.
He was my first best-friend. At times, moving around like we did as kids, he was my only friend. Now? Friends to the end!
Forgive my sentimentality, but I have put together 10 minutes (!!!) of pictures of me and ‘the Joey.’ And I added “mood music” because this is how I want to tell him how happy I am that he was born on April 14, 1961. Plus I am all melancholy and sentimental.
I know you are probably thoroughly embarrassed now, Joe-Joe, but I don’t care. It is what I do. You KNOW I’ve got the “Joey-Joey-Joey-Joey
down in my heart!” And I love ya! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! So glad, so so glad you were born to be MY brother!
Now and Forever by Carole King
Now and forever
you are a part of me
And the memory cuts like a knife…
Now and forever
I'll remember all the promises still unbroken
And think about all the words between us
That never needed to be spoken
We had a moment
Just one moment
That will last beyond a dream,
Beyond a lifetime
We are the lucky ones
Some people never get to do
All we got to do
Now and forever
I will always think of you
Didn't we come together
Didn't we live together
Didn't we cry together
Didn't we play together
Didn't we love together
And together we lit up the world
I miss the tears
I miss the laughter
I miss the day we met
and all that followed after
Sometimes I wish I
could always be with you
The way we used to do
Now and forever
I will always think of you
Now and forever
you are a part of me
And the memory cuts like a knife…
Now and forever
I'll remember all the promises still unbroken
And think about all the words between us
That never needed to be spoken
We had a moment
Just one moment
That will last beyond a dream,
Beyond a lifetime
We are the lucky ones
Some people never get to do
All we got to do
Now and forever
I will always think of you
Didn't we come together Didn't we live together Didn't we cry together Didn't we play together Didn't we love together And together we lit up the world
I miss the tears I miss the laughter I miss the day we met and all that followed after Sometimes I wish I could always be with you The way we used to do Now and forever I will always think of you
Now and forever
I will always be with you
Happy Birthday, Joseph Allen Moslander
