Donna’s Blog

It all started with a necklace

I love jewelry….especially necklaces!

I went to a jewelry show.

I talked to the lady who sold the jewelry.

I decided to sell the jewelry.

I wore the jewelry everywhere I went.

T. saw my jewelry when I stopped in her office and bought some.

T. decided to have a jewelry shoe in her home to win some free jewelry.

T. had a good time and decided to sell the jewelry.

T. and I became good friends.

T. introduced me to B. when I needed a photographer for my first CD.

I called B. and we met in the park for a photo shoot.

B. has a heart for the Lord and sees her photograpy as a “calling”, the same way I feel about my songwriting.

B. and I have become good friends.

I called B. the other day when I had finished writing a song and needed to find someone to play some guitar chords for me. 

B.’s son, W. plays the guitar.

I called W.  He had some extra time and said he would be glad to help.

We met at the church and I sang through the melody.  W. put some cool chords with it.

We met at the church again last night to record the song.

I am really liking it! 

And to think….it all started with a necklace!

At the risk of sounding crazy…

This may sound weird, but since you are my friends (and you already know I’m a little strange), I can go ahead and risk this and just throw out this crazy thought.  Ok, here it is……

I feel a song coming on.

I can’t explain exactly what it “feels” like.  But it’s almost like the promise of a great, homemade baked, chocolate chip cookie.  You’ve mixed up the ingredients, placed funny lumps of dough on a cookie sheet and then a few minutes later there is this heavenly scent tempting you with the promise of what is to come…..yummy, gooey, cookies!

So…..I guess I’m smelling the scent of a great song in the air?

Well, it’s not the smell so much as the anticipation that something new is going to be written, NEEDS to be written.  I have been thinking about so many things lately, and I know that somehow one of these thoughts will begin to get organized in my brain and will rise to the surface above all the other scattered thoughts and the idea for the song will begin.

Sometimes it helps to read.  I pulled out a Donald Miller book last night (“Searching for God Knows What”), cause I thought that maybe something I’d read in there was still buried in my thoughts and reading the book again would cause it to surface and become clear.  I scanned through the whole book….and yes, there are a LOT of great ideas in there.  But just not the one I need to write about right now.

Really, the more I type about this, the crazier it is sounding (even to me!), but on days like this I just want to go sit and the piano and write.  It’s already time to leave for work and I’d rather be writing.

Oh well.  The good thing is that I have a scheduled writing night with J. tomorrow.  And just in case there really is a great idea floating around somewhere, I’m going to keep my writing journal next to my cup of coffee all day! 

24/7

I pretty much think music 24/7.  I have music playing every minute I can.  I have songs buzzing around in my brain.  I’m planning the music for our worship services.  I’m singing a new chorus that I’ve just discovered.  I’m shopping in the Christian bookstore for a new CD.  Music is a big part of who I am.

With all the Psalms that King David wrote, I’m guessing music was a big part of his life as well.  I know it caused him to dance naked in the street (well, that and his enthusiasm for the Lord of course!).  He used music to rejoice and to repent, to magnify and to meditate, to praise and to proclaim.  I wonder if he kept a quill and parchment paper around for those moments of writing inspiration?!

I love how he wrote honestly.  When I read the Psalms, I don’t have to wonder if David had times of discouragement…..it’s there to read.  He never sugar-coated the hard times and he gave equal attention to God’s greatness and granduer in His life.  His writings can bring me to tears and fill me with great hope.

Amazing that a King could be so vunerable.  After all, He was KING.  Should he really admit his times of defeat and weakness through song?  What would his subjects think?  Did any of his advisors tell him King D….you can’t really mean it when you say “my heart is severely pained within me….fearfulness and trembling have come upon me”? (Psalm 55:4a, 5)

After he wrote his song, did he take it to the chief musician to find that perfect melody?  (My Bible gives a subheading several times “to the Chief Musician”.)  Or, did David just go and sing it to him and let him write it down and teach it to the people?

I’m so thankful for the songs that David wrote and that we have record of them.  

At the end of praise team last night we were praying together and I was thanking God for the gift of music.  It still amazes me that He blesses us with this gift and then allows us to use it and enjoy it.  We were learning some new songs last night and I am thankful for each writer and how they opened themselves up to write such powerful songs.

On a funny note……we were also practicing our set for Sunday which includes a chorus that I wrote.  I had given one of our new guys the lyrics with the chords and apologized for not having the actual music and he started flipping through a big book he brought…..thinking the song would be in there.  I had to tell him that he wouldn’t find it in a book because I wrote it.  But who knows?  Maybe one day!!!!!! 

Camp Survival List

Clothesline - to hang the wet towels outside because they don’t dry well when you stack eight towels over one bathroom rod!

Extra sleeping bag - can be used as a great cushion for a hard matress

Air freshener - really helps freshen a room….especially when the room was used as a boys dorm the week before you got there

Good walking shoes - because even though you are tempted to drive your van over to the recreation field, you really should walk with your campers

Cooler w/ drinks - who wants to pay $1.25 for coke out of the machine?

Eye patch and bandana - to go along with the pirate theme for the week.  “Argh….matey!”

Alarm clock - To wake up all the sleeping beauties who had to stay up and talk late every night

Uhaul - to get everything home.  How in the world can you have more stuff than you started the week with?

Camp Time!

Can you take an iron to camp……or is that against “camp dress” etiquite?  Is the official look of camp, the wrinkled look? 

You just don’t know how badly I hate wearing wrinkled clothes.  When I was in college and it was a Saturday and I was just going to hang around the dorm in my sweat pants….I would still iron them…..if they were really wrinkled.  I can endure the “fold lines”…..those aren’t bad.  But if something gets stuffed into a suitcase and is totally wrinkled, I just don’t think I can stand it.  Maybe my 11 year old roommates won’t laugh at me if I pull out my iron!

I haven’t been to camp in……well….a long time!  I am taking Paige and four other girls from our church.  It should be a lot of fun.  I mean the kind of fun that you have by sleeping on a bunk bed, eating camp food, sharing a bathroom with a bunch of pre-teen girls and staying up late to just giggle and be silly!

This campground is out in the boonies.  So there won’t be any t.v., or computers and probably not any cell phone service.  There is a pay phone in the cafeteria for emergenices!  And of course, I’m sure the schedule will be so busy that we won’t have time to miss the television (which I personally wouldn’t miss at all except for catching up on the daily news) or our computers (which I started to say that probably only I will miss….except that I have a feeling a lot of these kids at camp this week have active email accounts and friends they chat with every day).  

I am looking forward to getting to know these girls and spend time with them…..away from all that other stuff.  It will be fun just to listen to them talk in the dormitory at night…..and to be in services with them and see what God will do in their lives.  I have no doubt that God wants to draw close to each of these girls and do something special in their lives.  And who knows?  Maybe in this “old lady’s” life, too!

Talk to you on Friday!      

8:00 PM

So THAT’s why I don’t ever sit down at 8:00 PM and watch t.v…….because I fall asleep!

Last night I decided to be a couch potato.  I decided the laundry could wait till Saturday.  I decided I could go to the church Friday night to record the song I’m working on.  I decided I could pick up my book and read it on Sunday afternoon.  I was just going to veg in front of the t.v.

I lasted about fifteen minutes and then fell asleep!  It was mostly a light sleep…..I was aware that Ben was changing channels and I thought about trying to wake up and watch something….but sitting there just made me SO sleepy.   Isn’t that what old people do?  Yikes!

I know what was wrong……all the good shows are off…..no Dancing With the Stars, Idol, or Grey’s Anatomy to watch.  I’m sure those would have kept me awake!

By 9:00, I was ready for bed!  That is so NOT my usual routine. 

I NEVER sit down when I get home.  I change out of my work clothes.  We have dinner together and then I am up and running and doing SOMETHING.  Then by 9:00 or 9:30, I’m usually ready for my three mile walk.  Still full of energy (because I haven’t vegged out), I love my walk at night.  It’s only after my walk that I finally start slowing down.  Then it’s time for one more check on all my blogging friends, and time to wash my face and head to bed.

I hereby pledge to stick to my routine.  I missed my routine last night.  I am a creature of habit I guess.  I am glad I am discovering these things about myself. 

Amen Sister!

I was in charge of our ladies Bible study last night.  That can be a dangerous thing.  Depending on the mood I am in….I might just talk about anything. 

That’s what I love about women getting together though…..that ability to talk about anything and everything.  Of course in a Bible study setting, the topic does need to be religious, but everything is up for discussion…..and debating…..and trying to figure out….and all that cool stuff!

So I asked a question that I heard Chuck Swindoll talk about on his radio program yesterday.  I only got to hear a snippet of his broadcast as I was taking our business deposit to the bank…but it was enough to get me intrigued and thinking about this whole thing.

Here’s the question:  “Have you ever had doubts in your faith that you were afraid to share with anyone for fear of what they would think of you?”

I asked that question and I was both surprised and relieved to see most of the heads nodding yes!  One lady spoke up and said, “I still haven’t shared it.”  Amen, Sister!  I am totally with you.  I know what it is to carry that doubt around and hide it safe and secure under layers of “I’m just fine” smiles.

Why is that?  Why can’t I be brave enough for a minute, to take the mask off and reveal the REAL me?  What would be so terrible about saying, “I am struggling here…..”

Am I afraid that instead of seeing my friends, I’ll see a judge and jury? 

I thought about the women in the Bible study and I understand that some of them would not want to share with a large crowd….but from the faces of the women, I would say that some of them have never even shared their struggle with one friend, not one.

I’ve recently opened my heart to a friend and found it a very safe place to be.  I wish that same thing for anyone who reads this today.

Amazing

Amazing…….what God does is amazing.  I just read of how He is using a song I co-wrote at the writing retreat a few weeks ago.

If you’d like to read about it, check out the blog at www.co-writers.blogspot.com and look for the one titled “If I’m Willing”. 

Ruby’s PB

You have not tasted peanut brittle, until you have tasted Aunt Ruby’s Homemade Peanut Brittle!

Aunt Ruby is Ben’s aunt from White Springs, Florida.  She has been making homemade peanut brittle for……well…..a loooooooooong time!  Let me just say, she has it down to perfection.

The only peanut brittle I remember eating when I was little was around Christmas time.  We always had three things out during the holidays…..a bowl of walnuts (that you had to pry open with that annoying nut cracker that usually ended up breaking my walnut into 100 pieces!)…..a box of assorted candies (my dad’s favorite) and a box of peanut brittle (my mom’s favorite). 

I loved peanut brittle…or at least I thought I loved it…..until I got married, met Aunt Ruby and tasted her peanut brittle!  Oh my stars!  It is just the perfect consistancy of hard and soft.  It crunches when you bite it and then melts in your mouth.  And it is LOADED with peanuts! 

Once in a while Ben’s mom goes down to White Springs and helps Aunt Ruby make her special peanut brittle.  I think there is a festival that comes to town every Fall and Aunt Ruby makes pounds and pounds of her peanut brittle to sell at a little booth she sets up.  She ends up selling it all….it is that good.

Aunt Ruby was here on Saturday because we had a family reunion.  When she walked in the door I saw that she was carrying the beloved tin of peanut brittle.  Not only one, but two!  She told us to put one out for everyone to munch on and then “save the other for later”!  

Let me just say that there is nothing like laying out by the pool on Sunday and then coming inside for a refreshing bottle of water and a handful of peanut brittle! 

So, it takes me a while

When I first saw them, I thought they looked strange.  Why would anyone buy those? 

It was several years ago at a ladies retreat and it was cold outside.  We were walking from our rooms on the hill, down to the tabernacle.  I noticed the shoes my friend was wearing and wondered why anyone would wear backless shoes in the winter…I mean your heel is exposed to all that cold air….even though you are wearing a sock…..which seemed even sillier to me…..if you’re going to wear half a shoe, why wear a sock?  Of course, those shoes became all the rage (my friend was always one of those “fashion forward” thinking gals).  And much too late to be in fashion, I finally purchased a pair and loved them!

Sometimes it just takes me a while to get it!

Another example……laptop computers.  They are everywhere.  Professionals have them, college students use them, KIDS play games on them.  I was singing at a campmeeting last summer and stayed in the parsonage.  The pastor and his wife BOTH had laptops!

Recently at the co-writing retreat I attended, I walked into the room with my two co-writers and guess what…..both had laptops propped open and were typing away!  It didn’t take me long to figure out the advantages!  They could……retrieve all their song ideas at the push of a button…..pull up the rhyming dictionary on-line to find that perfect word……type up and re-write lyrics faster than I could write out the title of the song in long hand…….and THEN record and save the song to play later and critique and possibly make needed changes.

OK…..I get it!  It might take me a while, but I get it.  It’s a pretty handy tool for the songwriter.  So Ben and I have been talking about doing some computer shopping.  

The more I think about it….it’s a pretty handy tool for the blogger, too!  Just think….next time I’m sitting board in the airport in Atlanta, I could pull out my laptop and bore you to death, too!!! 

ps.  Happy Birthday, Sis!!!