New Music

I placed an order today for some music that I’ve dreamed about playing for a long time: Claude Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio. (The link is to the audio CD so you can listen to samples. I ordered the sheet music.) This is some phenomenal jazz/classical/whatever-the-heck-it-is fusion. I dunno when I first heard it - sometime in high school, I suppose, and immediately I wished I could get with a trio and play it. But that seemed unlikely and the folio with the instrumental parts cost about 50 bucks.

Flash forward to today. I was looking online for a decent collection of Debussy piano music, and while browsing, came across the Bolling suite again. I decided that I could now manage the 45 bucks, so I ordered it. I also know a couple good flute players and a really good bass player, so I might just be able to get a little trio together to work some of it up. I know I’ll need to get practicing on it - it’s some challenging stuff. But I’m excited to just give it a shot.

they're leaving... but they're coming back.

By late this evening I’ll be the only member of my immediate family still present in North America. My folks, sister, and brother are heading down to Panama to visit my two brothers who are already there. Actually, I’m not sure if Ryan is going down today or sometime shortly later… but that’ll leave me as the only one back here in the good ol’ US of A. This is a big trip for all of them, but especially for my folks, who haven’t been on a trip like this in many, many years. Dad just got his passport done last-minute, but fortunately it got done. So they’re off, for a 10-day trip.

I’m slightly jealous, but even with cheap (<$400 round trip from Chicago - Panama City) airfare, I don’t think we could quite manage with two kids under 2 yrs old on that kind of trip. :-) We’ll be happy to stay home this time.

Have fun you guys! Take lots pictures and have safe travel. I’m looking forward to all the stories and pictures when you get back.

odds and ends March 2006

The server has been down for the last few days, so I haven’t been able to update. But now it’s back and running, so here goes. Actually, there isn’t a whole lot to update about.

Becky and Addison came home from the hospital on Wednesday. We are slowly getting sleep schedules adjusted and Addison is sleeping decently at night.

I had already planned on taking the whole week off, and what better weekend to take off than the opening weekend of March Madness? I will confess to having watched far too many basketball games this weekend. There were some good ones. I was disappointed when the Hawkeyes lost their first-round game on a miracle shot, but hey, if you leave the door open…

Saturday morning I had a very minor sore throat; I was feeling pretty tired, but wrote that off to the wacky sleep schedules this week. By Sunday morning that very minor sore throat became a very major sore throat. Thankfully I already had someone lined up to lead worship for me. So instead of going to church, I headed off to MercyCare North, where the doctor took one look at my throat and just shook his head. He did a throat swab for strep and when the result came back and the “Yes” field had four stars in it and was circled, well, I don’t think I was suprised.

So I’m home again today. I really was ready to get back to work. Becky, don’t take that wrong when you read this. :-) I’ve logged on to the work computer here from home to respond to some email and such, but I’m sure things are just piling up there waiting for me, and I’m ready to get going on it. Maybe tomorrow. The doctor says I should be non-contagious by then. So then if I’m only feeling up to it… The other real bummer is that being still-contagious right now, I have to try to avoid too much contact with the rest of the family… and it’s hard to be home with Laura and not want to spend time playing with her.

Well, that’s my whine for the day. :-)

the web sites can wait

It’s Tuesday afternoon, and I’m sitting on the couch in a darkened hospital room. There’s a little bit of hazy sunlight filtering through the miniblinds behind me, and a muted television sits ignored across the room. My wife is napping, my older daughter is at a friend’s house, my newborn daughter is asleep in the bassinette, and I have had a few minutes of precious quiet. Sure, the nurse interrupted it a few minutes ago to check temperatures and pulses, but she is forgiven.

I have realized just a bit over the past couple of days how I thrive on being busy. I am busy, you know. I am a project lead at work. I have a wife and two kids. I lead the worship teams at church and participate in leadership activities there. I’ve been playing basketball in two recreational leagues this winter. I maintain websites for myself, my family, my church, and my friends’ ministry and business. I have a very hard time slowing down.

This came to me most vividly somewhere around noon yesterday. Addison had been born only nine hours before. Everything had been cleaned up, she was sleeping, Becky was resting, and I had eaten lunch. And I didn’t know what to do next. I kept thinking that it was time to head to work, or think about work, or worship team, or something. Surely there’s something I should be doing. And it took a while for me to realize that no, there was nothing else I needed to be doing. I should be right here, enjoying the rest, getting to know my new daughter, and caring for my wife.

Why do I feel the need to make it busier? Partly I’d like to ascribe it to my mental “wiring” - I don’t handle boredom well. I like to multi-task. My wife marveled one night a couple of weeks ago when I was talking on my cell phone, having an IM conversation, and posting on my blog all at the same time. I hadn’t even thought about it; it’s just the way I operate. But I think more responsibility lies on the shoulders of my own choices and decisions. I need to make the conscious effort more often to slow down and enjoy the things in life right here around me. Busyness doesn’t make life richer; rather, I think that busyness is the thief that steals the richness of the glory that we see in everyday life. It’s time to think more about everyday life.

I think Addison is stirring now, so it’s time to put this to practice and set down the laptop. The web sites can wait.

short on sleep but full of joy...

Yesterday welcomed our little girl Addison Grace into the world. It was a quick labor and delivery; we were at the hospital for a whole 45 minutes or so before she was born. :-) She’s a big girl (9 lbs 3 oz) and seems to be doing well. She’s had a stuffy nose, but otherwise has been happy to just eat, sleep, and fill diapers. Ahhh, the life of a newborn. :-)

She was born at 3:12 AM on the 13th, so we didn’t get much sleep that night. Slept a little better here at the hospital last night. Not the most comfortable bed, but at least we could go to sleep by 9 and sleep until 7 or later with few interruptions.

Laura doesn’t know quite what to do with the baby yet; I don’t think it’s quite registered that it’s our baby… it’ll be interesting to see how it goes when we all get home tomorrow.

Well that’s about it for now. I’ll post some more later.

a new addition

No, it’s not the baby. But today we did end up purchasing a nice used minivan. It’s a 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan, has about 70000 miles on it. Got a pretty good price and traded in (!) my old Toyota Corolla that was on its last legs. Laura seems to really enjoy riding in it, and it’ll have lots of room for us and our stuff especially after we add kiddo #2.

I’ll try to get some pictures in the next few days. Today it was raining so it was hard to get any.

Still waiting for the baby, I’ll be sure to keep you posted on that. :-)

starting out hectic

Well, no baby yet. But that still doesn’t mean my Monday has calmed down much. :-) We did a bunch of minivan shopping this weekend, and have found one that seems like it might be a good fit; in our price range, in decent shape, etc. I need to get my mechanic to look at it, and the first availability they have is tomorrow, so I guess I’ll be patient until then. Actually, my mechanic wasn’t available until Wednesday, but a mechanic that a friend recommends highly is available tomorrow, so I’ll go with that one. Maybe by then the bank will have gotten back to me on the loan approval.

If Becky goes into labor tonight or something, it’ll throw a bit of a wrench in the car purchase works, but it’ll be a welcome wrench. The van can wait. :-)

so nice to be busy again...

Things had been a little bit slow at work for the past couple of weeks; I was winding up one project and in a holding pattern waiting for some critical decisions to be made so I could start the next project. Work is amazingly long and excruciating when you’re bored.

But the decision got made yesterday, and I am off and running on the new project. Yesterday flew by. So much to do! Today is moving at a brisk pace as well. Somehow I don’t think I’ll get very bored at work in the next several months. It’s a nice feeling.

Welcome to Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key!

House of Cakeboy had about run its course, so after reflection the new blog title, as you can obviously see above, is “Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key”. This wonderfully picturesque phrase is the title of a song from the album Mermaid Avenue, with lyrics by Woodie Guthrie and music by Billy Bragg & Wilco.

I don’t know that I have much more to say about it at the moment; I created the new blog header and I’m fairly happy with it. Otherwise the layout hasn’t changed much; I might switch it up when I get time to make it a little more customized.

So that’s it for now, and it’s late - I’m heading to bed.

I still feel the same... a follow-up.

In a previous post, I wrestled with the ideas of being 10 years removed from my teens, but still feeling many of the same feelings that I did back in those years. It’s been interesting to see the reaction from my siblings. It caused Ryan to reflect on his life, which is good… wait, not that he needs to do more reflecting… it was just interesting to hear his thoughts. :-) I think Rebecca’s comment was just that my post scared her. I take that to mean that she was hoping that things would get better as you get older…

Now that I’ve had a while to chew on it, let me give my siblings (and anybody else who is still reading this) some more thoughts that might encourage you a bit.

Things have changed. I would be very stupid not to recognize that a lot of changes in my life have brought stability and peace over the past dozen years. Relationship worries have been removed by my marriage and the wonderful relational stability it brings. Monetary worries have largely been alleviated by a good job, which meets my needs and then some. Not that financial worries are never there, but they aren’t the how-the-heck-am-I-going-to-pay-for-this-month’s-rent type of worries. What-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life worries have been largely alleviated as I find peace and confidence in God’s plan for me here in Iowa, with my family, my job, and my church. So take heart, brothers, sister, the process can be agonizing (and still is for me, at times), but there will be a day, sooner than you think, where you will stop and look back on things much like I just have.

At the end of that previous post I wrote in conclusion:

It means something that the desires of a dozen years ago are still wandering around in me today. There’s something to be learned from the knowledge that home, wife, and child haven’t fully satisfied them. I know some of the answers, but for today I think I’d rather just sit back and ponder the questions.

Let me talk about some of the answers. Well, at least the one big answer. The answer is that the longings built into each of us cannot be totally fulfilled in this life. Many of them can, and growing closer to God daily will help bring that about. But some cannot, will not ever be fulfilled in this life. But that is the constant reminder for us to look forward to that hope that we have of all eternity with Christ.

As Andrew Peterson reminded us with his last album, we tend to think at times of heaven as this far away country where we will go someday, but that’s not the way it is; rather, God and heaven is home, and we are now in the far country.