7 Quick Takes Friday (8/13/10)

1

I am in the rotation to occasionally play the pre-service music for our church's traditional service. I usually try to run straight through my selected music several times to make sure I'm close to the ten necessary minutes. Of course we all know what happens when we try to time ourselves doing anything with our children around. You'd think that if I can practice with the distraction of two small boys and keep my focus then I should be ready for anything. Last Saturday night practice sounded something like this:

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling...

"MOM!!! INDY WON'T LET ME SIT ON THE CHAIR WITH HIM!"

Calling for you and for me...

"Well, go find another chair to sit on then."

"UGH! BUT IT'S NOT FAIR, I WANT TO SIT THERE!"

Did you feel the mountains tremble?

Screaming...

Did you hear the oceans roar?

"You STUPID HEAD!"

When the people rose to sing of Jesus Christ the risen one...

"AAAGGGGH! MOM! HE'S BEING MEAN!"

If with all your hearts ye truly seek me

"Mommy, do you know where my Snowmanny is?"

ye shall ever surely find me..

"Did you look in your little wooden box?"

Thus saith our God.

"Where IS it??? I can't FIND it!!!"

Sigh. I just wish all of that concentration would result in fewer mistakes on Sunday mornings.

2

I am married to MacGyver. On Sunday the passenger side window mechanism on Mike's car broke with no warning and no apparent cause. There was just a 'ping' and the window dropped out of sight. We've had to fix this problem before on a different window, it isn't cheap. And we've pretty much cleared out our savings on car repairs the past few months. So while I was inside stressing and stuffing my face with ice cream and peanut butter cookies (oh, so THAT'S where the extra pounds came from) he went out, took apart the door, raised the window and then screwed a block of wood into the door panel to hold it in place. Sure, we can't use it, but who needs it anyway? I ask you, could the Mac have done any better?

3

This summer is becoming known as the summer of the bugs. Apparently both mosquitos and crickets like abundant rain. What I didn't expect was dragonflies. Hosts of them. They zip around my garden like little blue pins, sparkling in the sun. We've found a few specimens on the sidewalk, and despite Indy's insistence that I rescue them, they are typically beyond my help. But the most glorious sight by far happened the other week as I went out for an evening walk. I looked up in the sky and saw hundreds, probably thousands of dragonflies dancing in the air. Apparently the moist summer brings them out, particularly since it provides an abundant supply of their food source, mosquitoes. Bring on the dragonflies!

photo by Glass_House

4

I really don't care what celebrities do, but sometimes I find that the whole celebrity culture has tipped over into the absurd. Like this recent article. "Paris Hilton sued for wearing wrong hair extensions". Really? Do people actually pay so much attention to that that it would be worth millions to a company if she wore the wrong ones? And how do they KNOW she wore the wrong ones? It's hair, it doesn't come with a little tag proclaiming its origin. They are also claiming her party-filled lifestyle doesn't fit their marketing campaign. Umm, hello? This is Paris Hilton we're talking about? I don't think they can claim ignorance on that count.

5

On the subject of hair (mine is real, thankyouverymuch), I was reading recently that women over a certain age should forgo hair accessories and settle for simple tortoiseshell clasps and grosgrain ribbon headbands. Although I'm not exactly shopping in the kiddie section of the hair aisle, I do like some sparkle, and you will pry my hippie headbands from my cold, dead hands. I prefer to think of it as an expression of the inner me, and the inner me does not scream for tortoiseshell. What's your favorite hair gadget, and what does it say about your personality?

6

The boys start school on Monday, which is creating a lot of mixed feelings. On the one hand, I may actually be able to clean and have it stay so for a span of several hours at a time. I won't be interrupted by bloodcurdling screams of "MOOOOOOMMMMM"! I will be reasonably sure that while out of my sight they are behaving like civilized little human beings instead of devising new ways to aggravate each other.

On the other hand, it will be quiet. Very, very quiet. My husband said to just turn on the tv as background noise. He's missing the point. There is noise for the sake of noise, and then there is noise that is alive and breathing that wraps itself around me and reminds me that I exist for someone other than myself, that I have a purpose and a job to do. Without that noise I fear a loss of purpose, I fear being adrift for seven hours a day.

School starts on Monday. And I start learning how to navigate a new stage of my life.

7

Last, but certainly not least, a recognition of the one who helped to bring the noise, the chaos, the laughter into my life. Without him I do not think I would have ever learned how to fly. I would have never had the joy of rolling over to gaze into eyes that hold nothing but love for me. I would never have a hand to hold, a shoulder to lean on, someone to rub my feet at the end of a long day. (Oh, wait, scratch that last part...he doesn't do feet.) There is a picture in my wedding book; I have no idea what I'm doing, but the joy shining in my face is unmistakable. It is the most joyous picture I have of myself and captures perfectly what he brings into my life.

Happy Anniversary, Mike. I love you now, always and forever.

7 Quick Takes Friday is hosted this week by Hallie at Betty Beguiles, go check it out!