7 quick takes Vol. 2

My brain is so full (and my time so clogged) that I’m going to do this again.  I’ve written at least four posts since the last 7-takes, but none of them were right for general consumption, so I’ll just touch some here and go on.

~ ~ 1 ~ ~

Been fighting bedbugs since last Sunday’s blitzkrieg.  Three days ago I realized the hardest thing about it all (okay, one of the three hardest tings) is a basic reality I learned in Introduction to Logic 10 years ago:

You can prove something exists.  You cannot prove something does not exist.

I’m feeling very good about the situation currently, but I can’t change what I’m doing because I have no way of knowing if I’ve “won” or if I’m just holding things off for the present.

I pray it’s the former.

~ ~ 2 ~ ~

I find constant housework mentally draining.  “Just pick it up when you see it” only works for me if I’m chooing not to see it all.

As a project-oriented person I feel I do my best when rotating between specific, goal-focused tasks.

The necessity of daily pick-ups for the daily vacuuming makes me a little nuts and I haven’t really figured out why or what to do about it.

~ ~ 3 ~ ~

My laptop’s mouse disappeared while I was vacuuming in the other room.  I really hope it surfaces soon.

~ ~ 4 ~ ~

I’ve been pulled toward my novel several times this last week, but not done any serious work.  I was reviewing my characters’ playlists (I’ve mentioned these before), adding songs, and really noticed the gap in appropriateness between my children and the stuff I’m writing.

Oddly (?) enough, it entered my awareness mostly from my realizing i didn’t want my kids listening to a steady diet of these songs I’ve collected.  Maybe they wouldn’t notice or care, but the stuff I collect leans toward the more emotionally intense.

It could be just my wiring, but these are rarely just background music, and when I finish one of these playlists I have a similar feeling to when I’ve sat through a movie– that breathless, half-tired rush of reentry to reality.

(And, again, if you look, the movies mean nothing– I collect these for the songs, so don’t read into what you might see.)

~ ~ 5 ~ ~

Because of all the “extra” work the dinosaurs have been put on perpetual hold.   Bummer.

~ ~ 6 ~ ~

Despite telling myself a long time ago that I would focus on guitar alone, I just realized I’m at about the same level on both.

That is to say, not great, but competent enough to accompany myself on songs I’ve practiced.  It’s amazing to me how much more alive and full a song sounds with an instrument.

And then it all jumps up that much again when a “real” pianist or guitarist plays that accompaniment.

~ ~ 7 ~ ~

I had a couple positive reminders yesterday of kids absorbing their parent’s enthusiasm for something.

  • I was practicing In Christ Alone on the piano and all the kids cycled through sitting with me until Natasha came and stayed.  I showed her the shaping of a couple cords, and her hand wasn’t quite stong enough, but she stayed with me and sang along while I played, watching the words and hardly missing any.
  • The bible study I’m visiting just now has the high goal of memorizing a verse a week of the passage we’re studying.  Yesterday I was playing catch-up and had my reader watch the words while I recited them.  I couldn’t pause long to think because she’d start reading.  By the end she was cheering me on, and when I paused her little sister launched into Psalm 19, the passage we memorized together last summer.
    • Melody might have been the quickest learner back then, but she quite suddenly decided she didn’t like it any more and quit participating, so this was a “breakthrough” moment to have her back on board.

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