Category Archives: Songs I am Singing

Song is my love language.

A Magical Day, part two

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First the bride’s sisters and her mother met weekly to put together a fabulous wedding shower for her.

As soon as that was over, we met weekly to create and glue and make and dream and talk and laugh and plan and gather supplies and create timelines.  It was a very DIY vintage-y wedding, for sure.

It is hard to recall who exactly saw which idea first but along the way we had giant paper flowers, and old frames with lace.  Tredessa brought a big stack of old lace curtains over and we created “lace balls” by using a glue mixture on the lace and forming it around balloons.  When it was dry, we popped the balloon and voila: a lace balloon ball to hang from the ceiling.

 

 


Tredessa really liked the idea of a barn for a wedding and in short order her old roommate introduced us to a family who’d built a small barn on their 17 acres.  They used the downstairs of the barn for the owner’s hobby of hand-carving wooden carousel animals (which are amazing!) and the upstairs for family celebrations.  It was perfect!

We realized that to have a wedding ceremony, a celebration dinner, and photobooth and a dance floor all in one spot would be a tight, tight fit.  So Dessa decided to pray about finding a nice, small church for the ceremony and the next thing you know, New Horizons Christian Fellowship opened right up for us.  It was so cool, right across the interstate from the barn!

Here are some of Ellie’s photos {www.lilacphotography.com} showing the “things” of the wedding

We used things we have, antiques and vintage items to decorate at the wedding.  This old typewriter was at the guest table.

I have to say I have some talented kids.  Stormie designed and printed the super-cool wedding programs with the full love story on them.

Jovan created the flower mobile that hung over the guest table.

The wedding party on a framed poster.  Jar candles on a rustic candleabra for ambiance.

A felled branch was wrapped in white satin ribbon and candles in jars, along with lots of glass and heavy crystals embellished the “tree” we created.  The whole backdrop was draped in cottons and canvases creating a living room atmosphere.

The sidewalk to the church was lined in the trademark-Rhoades-family luminarias.  We used framed lace at both the church and the barn for the dinner celebration.

The gift area was comfy and merchandised with antiques.  Mercury-glass love birds on an old window from Tredessa’s grade school, touches of home.

 

Left, Tristan playing at the wedding.  Right, Tredessa and Ryan scattered photos of great-grandparents around the reception, witnesses to long love, a nod to their heritage.

An old brass and crystal chandelier got a coat of white paint for the wedding.  It hung right over the bride and groom during dinner.

Here is a look at things we made and the progression of the wedding as we were getting it set up.

The {only} hope of glory

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Song-prayer on a Thursday morning.

EVERYTHING

God in my living

There in my breathing

God in my waking

 

God in my sleeping

God in my resting

There in my working

God in my thinking

God in my speaking

 

Be my everything, Be my everything

Be my everything, Be my everything

 

God in my hoping

There in my dreaming

God in my watching

God in my waiting

God in my laughing

There in my weeping

God in my hurting

God in my healing

 

Christ in me

Christ in me

Christ in me the hope of glory

You are everything

 

Christ in me

Christ in me

Christ in me the hope of glory

Be my everything

 

You are everything

Jesus, Everything

Tim Hughes Holding Nothing Back Album – Song “Be My Everything”

The family China.  At Ryan and Dessa’s wedding, by www.LilacPhotography.com

 

Colossians 1.27

“…God has chosen to make known among {the people in your life – your neighbors and co-workers, your family and friends, the people who work in the places you do business in and the people you know through church} the glorious riches if this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Ephesians 3.17b-19

“…And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. ”

Filled to the measure of all the fullness of God

“How do you put the ocean in a teacup?”

 

 

A single seed & a million stars!

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You HAVE to listen to this!

FREE download at www.worshipandtheword.com

Dan Wakefield wrote it.  Dave (the son-in-law) just flat sings it, with a stage-full of his prayer and worship buds.  “A million stars could not outshine You, a million miles could not out-run Your love.  A million songs could not contain the praise You’re due…”

My favorite line of the song?

“A single seed reveals Your Kingdom”

Think about that for a little bit because it so absolutely does!  It must appeal to the gardener in me.  Truth!

 

I am the Nativity

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Living in darkness

I am a weary traveller.

There is a plan charted out, birthed before the ages.  This path has been worn not only by necessity, but in utter anticipation for my passing through.  One generation will praise His works to another. My part in the story keeps me moving forward.  Having received the baton of faith, I prepare to hand it off.

I am a census taker,

rigid and law-abiding.  There are rules to be kept and religion feeds that beast.  The church-girl in me keeps records and checks things off lists, shoulds and woulds.  Then Grace is born and the columns and lines cannot contain Him, cannot, even to the nth-degree hope to define Him.

I am the inn-keeper,

the rooms of my life and heart overcrowded and full.  Life and age and circumstances, not to mention the busyness of the times, filling every nook and cranny.  I almost hopelessly shrug Him off – no room, but a longing to fulfill destiny drives me to make a place for Him, keep Him here close…

A Light has come.  A Light has come!

I am the star.

There are people watching, looking for the hope I’ve been given and I am leading them somewhere.  May I lead aright, pointing them to Jesus.  All for Your name, Lord.  For your acclaim and Your fame in the earth…

I am Mary.

I am incredulous at the call of God on my life.  Heart palpitating, palms sweaty, “How can this be?”  I question God’s reasoning, His trust in me at all, His relentless pursuit.  I concede with a tentative sigh, “Then may it be unto me as You have said.  I am Your servant, I will obey…”

I am Joseph

whose goodness as a moral and loving man could be so wrong-spoken of, his motives and very character questioned in light of his participation in the Plan.  That he risked so much in spite of possible loss of reputation, possibly friends and family even – all for the Glory.  May it be said of me.

I am the shepherds,

kneeling low, sore afraid for the dazzling brilliant power of the revelation of Glory, the ear-splitting loudness of it roaring through my frame.  Everything being promised by these heavenly hosts, too strong to comprehend, almost –  I need, I need.  God has seen me, He has heard my cry and He has thundered in response:  Good news – great joy!!  A Savior is born today!  Peace on earth and goodwill toward men from God! God’s very good-will and Peace towards us.  Overwhelming, unbelievably good news!

I am the  angels

singing of God’s great love, a messenger of the joy of my salvation, spreading the great-great promise of His love, His good-will and His Peace toward those who dwell beside me on earth.  Sweet, sweet song of Salvation

I am a sinner,

trudging along, too many times unaware of all that God has given.  Forgiveness, at my fingertips.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Forgiveness, right there for the acceptance, a hall-pass from death to life from a faithful and just God, by the bloody, agonizing death of Jesus Christ – to His conquering resurrection.  Just like that! [snap fingers here} Forgiven.

Arise, shine.

I am a wise man.

Having seen and followed Your star, I bring my gold, my treasure (family), my belongings, all that I am or have or ever will be or possess and, bowing down, I place them at your feet.  Any thing I have came from You anyway.  There is nothing of it that I desire beside You.  Please receive all I place here as my worship…

I am a wise man.

I bring my incense, pouring out my prayers and petitions to You.  And in love, like the love You have shown for me, I pour out my life for my family and friends.  And I ask You, from the deepest recesses of my heart,  to mend and repair relationships and bring healing for hurt, beauty for ashes, and rejoicing for mourning.  And may this prayer be true and not contrived and may it be pure and not for self-gain.  And may it be a sweet-smelling offering to You.

I am a wise man.

I carry Myrrh, the embalming oil.  And I fall face down with all I can muster, nothing in my hands but bondages of sin and death and my own feeble attempts to save myself, but I give it to You and You raise up the dangling-ring of the keys to death, hell and the grave, taken by force when you led captivity captive and set. me. free.  And in place of an oil that cannot heal the rips and scars on my nearly-fatally wounded soul, You pour a fresh oil on my head, a wild-ox anointing and my leaf is green  Forever-life is established and I am set free from the law of sin and death.  Forever.

I am.  the Nativity.

This came to me as a prayer just pouring from my heart yesterday morning upon waking.  May love and joy come to you these days leading to our Christ-mass-worship.  And may you comprehend your place in the story that began so long ago like you never have before. NOTE: I will try to go back soon and add scripture references.

 

Home 4 Christmas

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I’ll be home with bells on.  I’ll be home with bells on.

Trim the tree and wrap the presents, turn the Christmas music on

This Christmas I’ll be home with bells on.

Can’t you just hear Dolly Parton belting that out?  It is a happy place for me: Dolly and Christmas!

Home.

Tredessa and Ryan just moved in to their leased, little 3-bedroom first home – in time for Christmas. It is so cute.  They’ve got a big, fenced back yard with a workshop and garden shed.  The house has been renovated and painted and upgraded and spiffed-up just in time for them, but those gleaming wooden floors slant for some good marble-rolling, like any 100-year-old house does.   They are near “downtown Frederick,” one of the cutest little towns between Denver and Fort Collins.  Everything is small and quaint there, little shops, family-owned Italian restaurants, and parks where young families meet up during walks and soccer practice.   They have an alley and live about 7 blocks from Rocky and Jovan and only about 1.3 miles from Dave and Tara over on Hawthorne Circle.  The photos below are realtor shots.

Front of house.  Entry and living room (the piano is at the base of the stairs now), family room

Eat-in kitchen, fresh paint and brand new counters and cabintery, one of the bedrooms, new carpet.

1200-little-square-feet of love.

Concerned about a lack of good closet space and how small the rooms are, her sister Tara incredulously reminded Tredessa: the whole house is yours!  You are not rooming with other people now.  You have just increased your square footage by like 1000+ square feet!

And Tredessa and I were just talking about how good God is and what a crazy blessed year it has been for them.  They met, fell in love, got married and were planning to live in an apartment for a year or two, but the deep desire of Dessa’s heart was a house where they could stay put for a bit and maybe get started on their family.  And God just delights in doing good toward us.  And so my daughter has a home.  Home for Christmas!

Where the Heart is…

Home is a big deal to me.  My family moved a. lot. while I was a kid, and both my parents had had rather nomadic childhoods so there was this silly moving thing.  Dave and I determined NOT to do that, yet, living in a small Nebraska city experienced some uproot and movement we did not enjoy.  I long for cocooning.  I enjoy having a place.  Yes, sometimes I have made it an idol, and I have had to learn that God is my home, He is where my heart truly rests.

5 LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup;

you make my lot secure.

6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

surely I have a delightful inheritance.

7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;

even at night my heart instructs me.

Psalm 16 NIV

But at Christmastime, like no other time, I think, home is wondrous. A house to hold everything your heart holds dear.  Season turns in to season and the children grow and look forward to certain cookies baking and a particular ornament going in an exact place on the tree and new jammies because of the Christmas morning photographs and the traditions make home more than a roof over some walls but a place, an altar of sorts, a warm reminder from Father that we are His family, His household of faith.  And He blesses us and gives us family on which to lavish our love and a place in which to enjoy it.

And God has blessed my familia.  With homes and family.

Stephanie and Tristan got to buy their house when they had only been married for 3 months! She was still only 19 years old (Tristan was a ripe old 21, I think) when God planted them in the middle of their block, a good-looking young couple who were not even certain yet about becoming parents, when or if it would be in their plans.  But o-my-goodness, the delight a year and half later when they presented us with Gavin.  Now three of the cutest kids frolic through those rooms and Steph’s home-style has grown (in the 10-years-on-Dec-27-since-they-got-married!!!) and become colorful and jovial, kind of a light, bright, retro-vintage, but wholly modern and extremely hip home base.  And she changes up her Christmas decorating every year.  And a lot of times I see on Facebook that she has been listening to Spotify and I will smile when I see her, in her very own home with her own little munchkins, listening to a lot of the Christmas music we listened to while she was growing up.  Wasn’t that just yesterday?

I don’t think we have a full Kelley-family Christmas-decor reveal yet, but this is from a recent photo shoot Steph and Tris did in their living room.  You can see more at www.maydae.com

Dave and Tara travelled so much they were not even interested in buying their own home for years. They’d been able to lease a wonderful, roomy place right after their 4-month-honeymoon-ministry tour when they got back to accept a position at Northern Hills.  But suddenly last year, it hit Tara that she wanted to buy a house.  Just kaboom.  She was ready to commit to a neighborhood and a little bit of stay-puttedness (yes, I know that is not a real word).  And just a couple of days before Christmas,  they closed on their home, the perfect place for them with lots of parking for lots of people over there all the time and a gorgeous back yard that connects to open space where Hunter can run.  And parks nearby.  And lots of family near, now.  Ahem.  And the house is warm and bright and cozy and light and roomy, yet intimate and filled with Tara’s touches and super clean and organized!  We squeezed all of us and Ryan’s family from Florida in there for Thanksgiving and we all became fast-friends and family just because we were so squished and it was lovely.  Last year at this time, they got a house for Christmas with an extra bedroom for a new baby – and who even knew that was about to happen!?!

Tara’s at Thanksgiving and after Christmas movies last night

Inspired by Dave and Tara’s success, Rocky and Jovan decided they’d had enough of apartment dwelling and bought their first house right after Christmas last year.  And Jovan boldly added color and more color and handmade touches everywhere.  Jovan has been madly crafting and creating all season long, some of which you can see on her blog (www.littlebitsandgiggles.com), making life merry and bright for her family.  While Rocky continues to work on the recording studio going in to the basement, the girls are enjoying their great big yard and being very close to their grammie and papa (Jovan’s parents).  There is definitely room for a baby brother!!  Haha.

Then Stormie.  The baby of the family – she bought her very first house just before her 25th birthday this past April. And she has made it uniquely hers this Christmas season.  Her very busy schedule and exiting roommate caused her to decide on something very “scaled back,” though her version of that includes an actual antler “tree,”  Yes, antlers.  And she even put a few lights outside.  And did some very different, non-commercial-type things for her little home Christmas decor.  For her and the dog, Saber, whom she lovingly calls, “The German.”

Stormie’s house.  And antler tree.

Everybody is safe in their homes tonight, where little lights twinkle and Christmas is expressed in many new ways, but also just like we have always done everything.  And I am home and the house is festive and the ghost of Christmas past just walked down the hall and when she opened the door, I heard the 5 little Rhoades kids giggling and making merry – like it was yesterday.  My heart is no longer at home just here.  A little bit of it lives in 5 other lovely homes nearby…

Congratulations, Ryan and Dessa!  There’s no place like home for the holidays!

The BEST way to Spread Christmas Cheer

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As Buddy-the-Elf loves to tell us~

The {BEST} way to spread Christmas cheer is {SINGING loud} for all to hear.

Read this blog this morning on nine lessons you can learn watching the Will Ferrell movie, Elf (2003), already a Christmas classic for sure. {CLICK HERE} I most love the scene where Buddy hears that “Santa” will arrive at the store the next day.  He jumps up and down screaming

“S a a a a a a a n n n t a a a a a a a a a !!!!”

Everyone thinks he is weird, but hardly able to contain his exuberance he explains,

“I know him!”

I want to be like that about Jesus, my Savior!  I want to be almost unable to contain my excitement because I KNOW HIM!!

~

Gemma showed up for pre-school this morning, and upon seeing the family-tree lit up waiting to be decorated, exclaimed, “Well I didn’t see that tree coming!”

Later while doing some school-work, she exclaimed, “Aw, nutcrackers!  I forgot my bookbag!”  **hahahahahhaha!!  THAT is some Christmas cheer, too!

This is ME singing Really loud-can you hear me??  HARK, the herald angels sing….**

The Line to see Jesus

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I am not going to re-post the video here, but if you hang in Christendom like me, you probably get an email with this very heartfelt song each year in recent history.  Maybe you have been tagged on Facebook or Youtube may have actually suggested this song/video to you.  I am not re-posting it because the singer is lovely and has a nice voice the part where she sings out about every knee one day bowing and every tongue confessing, with a children’s choir behind her, that Jesus Christ is Lord is kind of a chill-bump moment (and you know how we love those).  And she so very obviously feels the message of a “little boy at the mall” who, while all the other children are clamouring to see Santa Claus, wonders “Where’s the line to see Jesus?  It’s HIS birthday, after all”  Then disappears.

I am not re-posting it because I truly do not mean to disparage it.  It is obviously presented with an intent of provoking thought (which it has done for me, for sure), but after recieving it along with 80,000 other people on a FW:FW:FW:Fw:Fw:Subject: the Line to See Jesus list where a little hint of condemnation mixed with a little dose of shame-and-tsk-tsk over Christians merry-making or that we ever even go to a mall (which I truly do avoid at all costs), and then the ever-present dare to re-send to everyone in the ol’ addy book, I cringed a little.

You may or may not know that I CONSTANTLY pray that the Lord will not let my life cause stumbling to some one else, that my actions will not turn people off to Jesus, because nobody knows better than me how little I truly am {like Jesus}, how little I probably do deserve to be called a Christian (whatever that really means, anymore).  I am so trying to follow Him close enough that I can just reflect HIS glory.  Anything less is detrimental to His love and plan for the people in my life.  I need to pray this more, actually…

Oh we Christians are funny, aren’t we?

I just want us to be careful not to watch a video like this and just shake our heads and start condemning the world (and our peeps in the household of faith) for celebrating the Birth of Jesus in the only ways they know how.  For yes-they are celebrating His birth even when they don’t understand it.  Every twinkling light they hang, for instance, represents Jesus-the Light of the world.  He came and the darkness can never be the same!  They may not consciously realize it, but it is so.  Their hearts cry out for wholeness, too, my brothers and sisters!

Where is the line to see Jesus?

Check it out.  It is the bumper-to-bumper traffic you are forced to deal with on your daily commute.  It is the crowded bus full of anxiety-ridden, depressed and joyless people who invade your newspaper-reading territory and climb over you unceremoniously to get the window seat.  It is formed in the 15-items-or-less line at WalMart anytime this month, where every cart has at least 30 things or more and you better not say. one. word.  It is sitting next to you in class.  It is the challenging relative who attacks your faith and witness every year because they are really hoping you will prove them wrong about a God they feel somehow doesn’t see them. It is your toddler tugging your shirt when you have no time.  It is your spouse and who has been to hell and back with you.  Oh the line is there.  It’s everywhere.

Look over your shoulder, baby. The line to see Jesus is long and it is growing.  It forms right behind you.

Do they see Him?

 

my-words-are-in-songs

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“My whole life history, every event, person, place, time and thing – has a song attached to it.  Song is my native language.”

~Jeanie Rhoades, true story

So this was my just-before-waking dream this morning in the wee hours:

I was in a car on a bright, blue-sky day with a little girl.  She had a dark complexion with deep set, beautiful brown eyes and a chubby face framed with raven-black hair.  I think she was about 11 and I was fervently trying to get her to make an important decision, as important as life itself, as we drove in circles around some European town square (I guess Europe because the steering wheel was on the right).

I was saying to her: You have to decide the words in your hard-back book.  You have to see them and figure out what is there then you will know everything you need to for the rest of your life, but as long as you can’t see them, you’ll ever know.  What words are there?  What do they say and how are they written?  They are already there – look!

She would falter and seemed nervous, afraid to make a wrong move.  But I urged her on:  It is like a novel and this is your story, your novel.  What is in there?  What do you see in your book?  You have to find this out so you’ll know just what to do.

She was unsure.  She hem-hawed.  Then I remember feeling a pang of guilt, thinking to myself,  I never even found out what was in my book.  I never found out what my words were.  I don’t know my own answers…Still I knew that the story was already there, waiting to be discovered.

Yet, still, perhaps even driven by the fact that I didn’t know my own words, didn’t know the eternal story or what the type and font looked like in my own book, I all the more encouraged her to look, really look, really find out…

Suddenly she burst into tears of great relief said, “It’s songs – my words are in songs.  That is what is in my hard-cover book!”

In my dream, I hugged her little neck and by now we were on a soft carnival ride going in circles in that same town square, sort of flying gently through the air.  And in the dream, the second she said it, I realized that those were the words in my book, too – as if when she said it everything in my heart and soul suddenly bore witness, and had understanding.  When she said “the words in my hard-cover book are songs” I started crying, I burst into tears.

Me too, I excitedly realized, that is what my book is, too.  It is song.  My hard-bound book is written in melody!  Me, too!!

I was crying so hard in my dream, I woke up with tears in my eyes.  It was joyful, an amazing realization.

Dreams are so funny.

It was so vivid and intense.  Yet so full of holes, reality wobbly.  Then when you write it, it is like what??  It is making me laugh to re-read this.  But it also is making me think of book titles I could write

  • My Life is an Old, Red Hymnal {I grew up C of G where the red hymnal not only ruled, it caused plenty of feuding, haha.  But its’ pages paper the walls of my memory.}.
  • Whatever it Takes {the Lanny Wolfe song I sang a lot at age 14 – words so strongly indicative of my gritted-teeth determination to prove I could be what God wanted.  A million times since, I have proven that I could not do whatever it ook and that it has all been by His faithfulness}
  • My Desire {from my 1975-1977 singing, “It’s My Desire” – another loud, intense anthem declaring my life intent to follow and wholly live for Jesus}

Maybe I will write all these stories someday…in hardback editions.

SONG FOR A SUNDAY

My little sister sent this to me again recently.  It was good to hear again.

I Do. For Real.

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I am not really here.

I am actually running around like a crazy woman doing wedding stuff, Thanksgiving stuff, wedding stuff, company-coming prep, wedding stuff, and etc…

One of me and the girls’ all-time fav songs from my best-ever movie::

 

And a teeny-sneak-peek into one of today’s projects.

Now off to the chapel to decorate…

Am I deliriously happy for Dessa and Ryan?  I am.  Will I live through the extreme joyousness?  I will.  Do I love it all, all the craziness, and zany, over-the-top preparation and celebrating?  I do.  I really do.  For real!

Song, “I Do by For Real.