7 Quick Takes: I QUIT and other whining! UT game day! Jack London's advice and more!
A while back I mentioned I'd take a two-week hiatus from the Parenting Unrehearsed blog series. I think that was about a month ago. My cousin's wife said she was going to take a hiatus from parenting until I wrote again. I sincerely hope she was joking.
I'm beginning to wonder if I'm being thwarted -- Providentially or otherwise, I can't say. For at least three weeks I've been working on the next installment (working title: How to get your kids to stop spending so much time at church). Because of my new work schedule and other responsibilities (for example, actual parenting) I've taken to getting up in the middle of the night to write for about two hours and then going back to bed. I find this method to be easier than getting up two hours early somehow.
On top of that, this particular post was just killing me. I know I say "unrehearsed" and, originally, that was my intention. A sort of stream-of-consciousness spewing of learning to share with you as if we were chatting over coffee once a week. The problem is that I found once my thoughts are in black and white for the world to see I wanted to take a bit more care what goes on the page.
Still, this post was coming out maybe at the rate of like two hours per paragraph.
Finally, I had an outline and an end in sight. Thursday night, I had an hour and a half window of time between dropping off and picking up Natalie from swim practice. Kendra and I headed to The Flightpath Coffee House, she with a Steinbeck assignment and me with this stinkin' blog post to finish.
We got our coffee, started working and, y'all, I opened the blog post draft and it was gone. The title was there and nothing else. I did every sort of trick I knew to recover it (minus the trick called BACKING UP YOUR WORK IN ANOTHER LOCATION!).
In this season of life I feel like I'm hanging on to creative work by my fingernails. I'm not gonna lie, this turn of events almost did me in for good.
I considered writing an "I QUIT" post. I sipped some ice coffee (timed just right for me to wake up approximately 2am for more writing). Considered the fact that my daughter was sitting across the table from me, perhaps observing her mother's opportunity for perseverance and healthy perspective.
And a new framework for the post came to me. I decided that, perhaps, the technical snafu was a blessing in disguise. That I'd been off course in the first draft, anyway. I felt the tiniest bit of inspiration energizing my brain cells to form more words.
New title.
One paragraph.
Phone rings. Natalie's calling from practice. She's pulled a muscle and needs me to come get her right away. On the eve of a swim meet at UT, no less. Frustrating night for mother and daughter.
I decided to sleep through the night last night. I'll let you know if I ever get that next post written.
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| Kendra, me and John Steinbeck at The Flightpath Coffee House |
Perhaps I should mention that this week at work, I lost one column of an excel spreadsheet for my employer's entire 2012 data base. Only one column, you say? One column that contained 1,665 customers' names. That'd be last names.
This is why I can't say for sure that my blog glitch was Providential thwarting. With my track record, it seems a bit unfair to blame the spiritual realm.
In the meantime, may I recommend a few good words from the rest of the internet?
- Charlie Peacock's crowning achievement at ThinkChristian: I wished I'd had this link to add to my post Monday Mixtape: No Man's Land, PJean ArtMachine & Dragon Day featuring Charlie Peacock's new album, No Man's Land. In my opinion, John J. Thompson's review is spot-on.
- Building the Culture With Furniture and What should a family room look like? at Like Mother, Like Daughter: Have I mentioned this blog before? I hope so. It's one of my favorites for many reasons, especially for posts like this. This look at home decor through the eyes of nurturing a family culture reminds me of the words I wrote about my mother's living room, All saints and all souls.
- Preaching in a Visual Age: 7 Thoughts and 15 Questions for Preachers at Diary of an Arts Pastor: Gosh, I miss the weekly work of preparing corporate worship liturgy. For now, I keep reading words like David Taylor's and praying for, loving on and, occasionally, sending annoying email suggestions to the preachers in my life. Aren't they lucky?!?
I'm aware of the Eeyore-esque qualities to this post. Permit me one more complaint, would you?
I detest the Google Ads for "single Christians" that keep popping up since I joined the adsense program. Somewhere in my inbox there's instructions on how to get rid of ads I don't like. Just haven't had the time to read it yet. I'll work on that, I promise.
Please don't misunderstand me: I love Christians. I love single people. It's only the ads giving me the problem. Not sure the two-and-a-half bucks I've earned since permitting ads on the site is worth the nonsense, you know?
In other news, our friend Phil is visiting this weekend.
While it's true that he's officially here on business, using his church finance knowledge super powers to consult with Christ Church, I've been quite impressed with the free-time itinerary Brian and he have managed. Today they have tickets to see UT play Iowa State.
Apparently, Veterans Day weekend + UT game day = jets flyover (via Statesman.com):
"...that includes parachute jumpers from the Army 82nd Airborne All American Free Fall Demonstration Team that is delivering the U.S. flag, the Texas flag, the Longhorn flag and the game ball.”Also at today's game, the Longhorns' tribute to revered UT football coach Darrell Royal who passed away this week at age 88.
All that AND a football game? Phil and Brian'll think they've landed in the burnt-orange section of Heaven.
I, on the other hand, plan to spend my day at the keyboard, reciting this mantra:
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