7 Quick Takes (Volume 157)

1) Happy Birthday to my beautiful mother today! I'm really hoping I inherit her ageless genes. Doesn't she look great? I won't spill the beans, but if I'm 47 and she wasn't a teen mother, you get an idea of her age bracket. You look awesome, Mom.


I have been blessed beyond measure to have this woman for my mother. She is a consistent, selfless presence who not only makes my life easier by being in it, but encourages me to be all I can. It would have been very easy for me to be a hermit kind of person, but she made sure I wasn't. Thanks for all you've given up to make me who I am, Mom. I love you.

2) The creative arts ministry at our church is hard at it, preparing this year's Christmas musical to be presented the first weekend of December. This year we wrote in a fun interactive element. One of our characters, Cora McGinty, is an avid tweeter and tweets throughout the show. She already has a Twitter and Facebook account and is tweeting throughout rehearsals. Request her as a friend and get a sneak peek!

And make plans to join us if you're near Southeast Nebraska.


3) I am a mouth breather when I sleep, meaning if I'm really sleeping, my mouth is hanging wide open. Yeah. I know. Yuck. But a person can't work on something like that, you know, cause you're not conscious to be able to do anything about it. Anyway, I noticed as I walked by Ladies Man sleeping in the chair the other day, he does the same thing! And I smiled a little, thinking there was part of me in him.

There must be something wrong with me to find a mouth hanging wide open endearing. Oh brother.

4) Drummer Boy is a composition student and last night we attended a Wet Ink Concert, featuring original music by composition students at the University of Nebraska. Drummer Boy's piece was a vocal music solo with piano accompaniment called Lamentations 3, based on, you guessed it, the chapter in the Bible. Each composer gets up and explains their piece, their inspiration and sometimes the technique used to create it. I was proud of Drummer Boy as he unashamedly talked about his ideas coming from scripture.


He did double duty, acting as the accompanist too. I don't believe I've seen him play the piano since middle school and it was fun to watch.


Do you see the flash of white laying on his foot? He dropped one of the pages BEFORE he started and didn't realize it until it was too late to retrieve. He said he had a moment of panic and then thought, "Duh. You wrote the thing. You know this!"

I'm pleased to say he did so well I didn't even realize he was missing a page until the concert was over. Nice work, kid!

5) Another sign we are a household of music geeks:

Ladies Man: Mom, I heard the band director wants me to learn to play bass guitar. He knows I play guitar and our bass player is a senior, so apparently he wants someone else to learn.

Me: That'll be fun.

Ladies Man: Yeah. And I'm switching to bass trombone for wind ensemble. You know how I want to learn different instruments? This is my year, I guess.

Me: Awesome.

Ladies Man: Yeah, but I play bass clef for trombone, bass clef for the bass (duh) and I sing bass. It's a triple whammy.

Me: A triple whammy?

Ladies Man: Yeah. I'm treble challenged.

6) Drama Queen met us at Drummer Boy's concert and Miss Innocent One remarked, "I wish she could come home with us." Ah, now isn't that sweet? It warms my heart to see my children liking each other.

7) We're headed north to Lincoln for a birthday dinner with Mom tonight. I'm looking forward to spending time with my brothers and their families too. How does life crowd in so much that we can't see each other as we like? No one told me being a grownup meant having responsibility. Sheesh. I might not have been in such a hurry.

I hope you enjoy your weekend too, friends. Find more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.