Donna’s Blog

Friday night lights

I did not grow up around Friday night football games….but they are starting to grow on me.  Of course, it helps that part of the field will be occupied, for about ten minutes, by my daughter along with about 120 of her fellow bandmates.

Yesterday I stood outside on the practice field and watched them.  I never knew what hard work and dedication went into a band program.  The kids spend a couple of hot, hard, summer weeks learning the routine.  When school starts, they dedicate three afternoons per week to practicing…..a total of seven hours of additional practice every week!  Then they spend Friday nights from 5:30 to 11:00 as a Marching Cat and several Saturdays as well.  The season will also be scattered with attendance at Band Festivals and the chance to prove that they’ve got what it takes to be a championship marching band again this year.

I was amazed at how hard they practiced for three hours this afternoon…at the end of an already long day of classes.  But there they were, on the field, being told to march to a “28 count with a four count halt.”  And when they finished, they had to “check and adjust”.  If they aren’t in the right spot, they have to drop and do push ups (seems cruel, but I guess it makes them work harder to get it right).  There’s lots of band “lingo” that I’m not familiar with, but it is interesting to listen to anyway.

I’m fascinated how kids can remember all the steps they have to take to achieve the intricate patterns they must form, while at the same time remembering all the notes they have to play.  And they have to make it look easy and seamless as they move from one formation to the next.

Of course there are other kids on the field too, the football team…..the cheerleaders……and I know all of them have worked hard to get there and put in countless volunteer hours to be a part of an amazing team.  But I can’t enlighten you on that cause I’m not a football parent or a cheerleader parent.

I am the one who’ll be screaming like a wild woman when the 2007-08 Marching Wildcats take the field!! 

Just nothing

Every once in a while, I feel like I need a day to just waste!  A day to sit around and accomplish absolutely nothing!  A day to do whatever I want, whenever I want……or do nuthin at all.

If I had a day like that I might just stay in bed way too late….

And probably not even make the bed the whole day (of course, that would start bugging me around 3:00 PM and I’d have to finally make it up!).

Drink a cup of coffee in bed, have another cup sitting on the back porch, and another cup just because I could.

Stay in my pajamas because nothing else creates quite the feel of “i have no where to go and nothing to do” like relaxing in your wrinkly, wonderfully comfortable jammas.

And “I’ll have chocolate chip cookies with that”, thank you very much.  Now some may say the baking of cookies requires work and is therefore not a “lay around day” kind of thing to do.  But I consider it pure joy to mix up the flour, baking powder, eggs, butter, and sugar (my mouth is already watering), and add way too many chocolate morsels, and wait on a hot oven to deliver “melt in your mouth” chocolate chip cookies.  Then I collect a big stack of them, with a tall glass of milk and indulge myself like there is no tomorrow. 

Of course the important thing is to remember to collect all the cookie ingredients before I experience my do nothing kind of day.  Cause it’s kind of rough to discover I’m missing the morsels for my cookie and having to shop in my pajamas.

Noodles to Conundrum

I learned a new word at our class party on Saturday. 

We had a pasta party……we fixed different pastas and everyone else had to bring a sauce.  I enjoyed tasting someone else’s spaghetti sauce for a change.  I also mixed a couple of sauces together and that makes for a taste that intrigues the pallet!  I could eat spaghetti every day of the week and not get tired of it (of course it could be the fact that i also eat it with a buttery slice of french bread that makes it so tantalizing)!

We had finished enjoying our brownies with the secret ingredient included……or who knows, maybe everyone includes this in their recipe…..but try slipping in a few Nestle chocolate morsels in your brownies and they go from regular brownie to brownielicious! (no that’s not my new word)

We were in the living room and somehow the subject turned to kids movies and how they always include some adult humor so that the parents who have to accompany their little ones to the theatre aren’t too bored.  This reminded me of what I’d read recently on Sue’s blog about her delimma of writing a children’s musical that would be sure to include dialog that children would say….but that parents would find entertaining as well.  And someone said that indeed was a conundrum.

Now, I’m sure I’ve heard that word before and based on the way it was used, I think I got the gist of what the word meant…..but you know when someone says a word sometimes and it just doesn’t sound like a word?  So I asked, “did you say conundrum?”   Yes, indeed, the word used was conundrum. 

When I googled Conundrum I got interesting information like this:

in literature……Conundrum (Doctor Who), an original novel written by Steve Lyons

Conundrum Press, two book publishing companies in North America

in other fields:

“Conundrum” (song),an instrumental song by Jethrol Tull

“Conundrum” (TNG episode), a fifth season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (yes, i had to investigate that one further!)

Someone finally decided to ask for a definition and here’s what we got:  Conundrum…….when your mother-in-law drives over a cliff in your new cadillac.

and yes, somebody’s praying

I think I’ll save the message on the machine for quite a while. 

The phone rang at work yesterday afternoon and it was Paige.  “Mom, I just got home from school and checked the answering machine and there is a really cool message on there for you.” 

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s a man from Florida and his wife is sick and they love a song you wrote.  Here, let me just play it for you…..can you hear this?”

As I listened, I was overwhelmed.  He and his wife had heard me sing at a revival in Spring Hill last year.  They purchased my CDs.  She was diagnosed with breast cancer last week.  She’s been listening to one of the songs on my CD over and over……the song, “Somebody’s Praying.”  He said in the last week they’ve probably listened to it forty or fifty times.  He wanted to thank me and left me his home and cell number to call him.

I sat at my desk and was blown away.  “Mom, isn’t that awesome?”  “Yes Paige, thank you for calling and playing that for me.  I will call him as soon as I get home.”  And I did.

He told me the story again….the diagnosis, the song that they were leaning on.  He told me they played it at their home bible study last week and their worship leader was there and heard it.  She said they needed to play it at church Sunday.  They did….during the offering. 

He said they had faith that God would carry them through.  The lump is two centimeters which is fairly large and means that it has probably been there for a while.  They have yet to find out if it has spread to the lymph nodes.  He knows there are hard days ahead for her, and for him.  He is taking it really hard.  She keeps listening to the song….over and over and over.

To tell you the truth, I didn’t really know what to say to this sweet man.  I just listened as he poured his heart out.  I did tell him that songs had often ministered to me in the way that mine had for his wife.  I’ve often “claimed” songs as my own as they spoke to a deep need of my heart.  I told him it was a wonderful God who could do something like that through music.

 I promised him that our ladies prayer group would add her to our prayer list.  We love to pray together and now we will pray for our new friend in Spring Hill.  I thanked him for taking the time to call me and share all this with me.

He told me something that sort of stopped me in my tracks….he said the Lord had prompted him, “Call Donna Norton and tell her what this song has meant to you and your wife.”

I can’t explain to you what that said to me……but there is a reason I needed to hear that yesterday.  God knows.  So if in some small way my music has been a blessing to that family, they will never know the blessing they were to me.

r u there?

My little blog counter has been broken for a couple of weeks.  At least I guess it’s broken, or else I’ve been deserted!

Let me explain.  When my friend, J., helped me set up this blog a year ago…..I was just enjoying typing merrily along and a couple of my friends joined me just to see what strange things might be lurking in my head and be blurted out on this page.  I discovered after a few weeks, that when I signed on to my blog, i could scroll down and there was a graph that showed how many people had viewed my blog for the day.  i didn’t know that was a feature originally, but once i discovered it, it was fun to check it and see how many readers i had.  (in the blog world, i think they refer to it as blog traffic….but don’t quote me)

It was interesting to me to see things like whether people favored reading my blog on certain days over another.  For example, there isn’t as much “traffic” on the weekends as there is during the week.  And there seems to be more traffic on Tuesdays than there is on Mondays.  

And of course, it’s fun to check in on certain days and see that a few extra readers may have joined me that day.  I guess it’s confirmation that I haven’t totally bored you with my ramblings!! 

And then there’s even the occasional comment that gets me really excited that someone took a moment to reply to my blog!!  I will say here that I hope it’s not too complicated to comment…but I don’t know that I’ve ever checked on that.  I read several other blogs, all different blogsites and some of them require you to sign up and get a password and all that jazz before you can leave a comment.  I know I’ve signed up under several of them and seems like I can never remember my password when I’m ready to comment, and then one site in particular never remembers that I’ve signed up and keeps giving me the message that I need to be a new member so I can leave a comment. (is my lack of computer “suaveness” showing up?)  Maybe that sort of thing doesn’t bother you, but I can’t stand making up passwords for everything I do on line.   

So anyway, I was recently checking my traffic for the day and it was a flatline!  No readers!  I knew it should at least register one reader, cause I usually check my blog from work to see that it posted o.k.  I also remembered that occassionaly, blog.com will have some down days when they are working on their program and it will cause all the graphs to disappear for a day or so.  I chalked it up to that for a few days, but after a week of being flatlined I started to get worried that I had said something to make everyone mad and they left!  I even took a day or two off from writing and then one of my lunch buddies told me to get back to work and blog!! (o.k., i may have misquoted her a little bit, but that was the gist.)  She actually said she missed me when i didn’t write, so i knew that meant that she’d been checking…..so if the graph was working it should have at least registered the two of us!!

I checked this morning and it remains a flatline.  I have emailed the blog.com.support and hopefully they can tell me what is going on.  It’s just a little thing…..but it helps to know you are out there. 

It’s like my songwriting……it means so much to be able to share it with someone. 

Isn’t that true about anything we love?  Think about a good movie…..isn’t it better when you watch it with a friend?  Or a delicious pan of brownies……you could eat them by yourself, but isn’t it way more fun to munch down on brownies with a group of girlfriends and “ooooh” and “aaaah” about how chocolate is the best thing that ever happened to you?!  Yeah, sharing stuff just makes life funner!

sweat bands and hearts

I am typing this on my porch with the cool breeze blowing and an awesome light storm going on.  I don’t know if we’re going to get any rain out of this or not, but I’m enjoying the sounds of a storm coming anyway.

So, on to the real topic today.  There’s something that I’ve been thinking about…..I’m not sure I know where to start….so I think I’ll start with sweat bands.

You know how the tennis players wear those sweat bands on their arms?  Well, when I was a kid I just thought that was a fashion statement or something.  It was just part of the “tennis look”.  Like the cute skirts, or the fashionable bag to carry your racket in.  And maybe it did become “fashionable” to wear a certain kind of sweat band, but still, it was necessary to keep the sweat out of the eyes while playing a match.  It was functionable (is that a word?)  There was a reason to heed the advice of the pro and wear your sweat bands.

I wondered the same thing about those cute little “half glasses” that people would wear.  I saw adults use those and I saw it as something that made you look “smart”.  I wasn’t sure why they only used them to read and then would take them back off to look at people….certainly not like real eye glasses.  I saw ladies put them on decorative necklaces and so I thought again…..fashion statement.  It’s something to use once in a while, when you wanted to look really intelligent.

So anyway, I guess you get the drift.  It’s funny how things appear one way until you grow up and realize what the purpose is.

So, when do I grow up spiritually?  When do some of the concepts I’ve heard about all my life start really making sense and come into focus?

Take for example the stuff I’ve always heard about the heart.  I’ve heard people talk about how it could lead you astray, or be divided, be selfish, or not even tell you the truth……and I think I assumed that statements like that were just a crutch for weak people (a totally judgemental statement that you make when you are young and don’t have a clue).  You know, that fashionable crutch to lean on when you were faltering in your faith.  “The devil made me do it.”  “I was just following my heart.” I don’t think I took it seriously….because surely the Christian who was all about God would never let their heart be anything but devoted to God.

In fact, I hate to admit it, but I prided myself on my devotion to God.  It was simple….God first and never any question about that.  Until one day I noticed that I was making some decisions based on what I wanted and only on what I wanted.  When the thought occurred to me(aka, the holy spirit talking), that maybe my decision wasn’t the wisest decision to make….I actually ignored it.  No….this was what I wanted to do and I was going to do it.

It was amazing what a quick jump, and easy jump it was into following my own heart and even into rationalizing with myself that I had to be on the right path….my decisions were surely what God wanted……because I was devoted to God and my heart would never lead me astray and selfishly try to take control.  

Then it hit me.  I was definitely on the wrong path.  And all the things that I’d heard people say about the heart, all the testimonies and scriptures quoted…..maybe these people were speaking from experience.  It wasn’t a crutch, or an excuse, but the reality of walking with Christ and experiencing the struggles that come as we grow up in our faith and realize there really is a battle going on out there.  All the cute VBS songs I’d sung as a child about putting on your armour so you can stand firm in the Lord weren’t just “decorative eyeglasses”…..but the lens of truth that I should be looking through.

Maybe it is time to quit just highlighting the verses in my Bible and really start studying them. 

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“I” or “i”

I have random thoughts going on in my head today…..so I’m just gonna share them with you.  Here they are in no particular order of interest or importance.

The clock is ticking on getting my songs ready for the listening session.  I am excited about the songs, but what if they don’t like any of them?

Friday night football is about to kick off!  Since I’m a band parent, you’ll find me working in the concession stands!

I had bananas in my cereal this morning and I’d forgotten how much I love that! 

Paige stayed home from school yesterday with a bad cough.  She had a low grade temp when she went to bed last night  What is up with that?  A summer cold?  (she made it off to school this morning….we’ll see how long that lasts!) 

We’re having a sunday school class party this Saturday night……yeah! for fellowship…….yikes! cause I’ve got some serious cleaning to do.

We watch Will and Grace reruns at night and although I still feel guilty about the subject matter (like I’d have to apologize to my folks for enjoying a show about gay people)……there was some seriously funny writing on that show!

I wonder if I should start wearing leg weights when I walk at night?

I’ve never worn false eyelashes, but I think I’d like to try them just once.

I’ve never watched back to back movies in a theatre, but i think i could spend a whole day doing that and LOVE it!

I can’t decide if I like using “I” or “i”.

Does somebody have a dictionary with all the text message shortcut words?  You know like typing “hav” instead of “have” and “u” instead of “you”.   

We finally have decided to let Paige quit taking piano lessons.  She hung in there with guitar for a while and piano for almost a year.  She knows enough about both that she could pick one or the other up later.  The good thing is that she just joined the middle school band and will be playing trumpet…..so she is still learning an instrument.  

My fake fingernails are way too long to type on this laptop!

My current favorite pair of pajamas are grey “jersey” type material with a smiling green frog on it that says “Prince Charming” and sparkly pink crowns all over it.

I love anything sparkly.

Precious Lord

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEosw5GUCzQ

I watched a youtube clip several weeks ago and was so blessed by watching it.  I tried to post it here, but best I could tell, youtube isn’t compatable with this blog site.  The link is listed above.  I don’t know if I’ve posted it in a way that you can click on it or not….but you can go to www.youtube.com and search for Precious Lord, Thomas Dorsey. 

I was blown away to hear the story behind the song. 

I was also amazed to hear how he began to pen the famous words…..precious lord, take my hand.

If you have time today, check it out.  The video is rather lengthy, but it is worth every minute!

music and lyrics

I spent Saturday morning listening to Karlee and Heidi work on their song.  It was pretty cool.  Heida told Karlee a few weeks ago that she was working on a song and needed help with the music.  I remember Karlee telling me that. 

I don’t remember when they woke up Saturday morning, but while I was making pancakes they were at the piano working on the song.  They were there for the next three hours.  I was surprised.  Heidi pulled a chair up next to the piano bench.  Karlee had her notebook out and had written the words out to the song.  She was writing the note over each word so she could remember the melody that Heidi was singing. 

Once she got the melody down, she began to play the chords that matched what she was hearing in her head.  Occassionaly she’d offer a suggestion about changing something…she’d play Heidi two choices….two directions they could go….and then they’d agree on what sounded best. 

What was so cool was when Karlee would find this really cool chord on the piano and she and Heidi would get so excited about how good it sounded.  They worked on the bridge and decided to do a key change at the end.  Pretty neat.

I was making lunch at one point and Karlee was like “mom, I’ll be there in a minute, I’ve GOT to finish this section.”

I knew just what she was feeling!

Not the usual

It’s not the usual Saturday around here.  I’ve cooked two meals.  That is shocking.  How did it happen?  Well, Ben wasn’t around. 

Paige spent the night with a friend and Ben had gone to pick her up.  Karlee had a friend to sleep over last night and they were hungry.  It didn’t seem right to just wait for Ben to get back, so i took their order (pancakes), hunted up the bisquick and made them.  Batch one was a little thick, so I threw it out and tried it again.  Batch two was pretty good.

The girls have spent the morning and afternoon at the piano.  They are working on a song.  Ben and I have been out at the pool.  I came in to find a book and that the girls were hungry, again.  I sure hated to go get Ben out of the pool, so I took their order (hamburgers) and made some.

I hope you are not too shocked, but the truth is I’m just not a cook.  Everyone around here has accepted it and I’ve learned to love myself in spite of the fact that I can’t wonder into the kitchen and just whip anything up.

Today has been a proud moment for me; therefore, I blog.