Surf's Up

E wants to be exactly like her big brothers. Most of the time she really believes she is a 5-year-old boy. Today I found her and one of her brothers "surfing". They were throwing out phrases like, "Catch the perfect wave, dude", "Ho, daddy!", and "Wipeout!" I don't know where they learn this stuff...

Tattoo You

Recently Katherine Thompson created a photo spread on The Huffington Post’s website featuring “The Eight Biggest Celebrity Tattoos of 2008”.

I don’t have any tattoos, but the article got me thinking about one of my favorite passages in the Bible, Isaiah 49:14-16:

But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me."

[The LORD replies:]
"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…”

I’m tattooed on the palms of the God of the Universe. Pretty cool.

A Christmas Carol

by Christina Rossetti, 1856

The Shepherds had an Angel,
The Wise Men had a star,
But what have I, a little child,
To guide me home from far,
Where glad stars sing together
And singing angels are? –

Lord Jesus is my Guardian,
So I can nothing lack:
The lambs lie in His bosom
Along life's dangerous track:
The wilful lambs that go astray
He bleeding fetches back.

Lord Jesus is my guiding star,
My beacon-light in heaven:
He leads me step by step along
The path of life uneven:
He, true light, leads me to that land
Whose day shall be as seven.

Those Shepherds through the lonely night
Sat watching by their sheep,
Until they saw the heavenly host
Who neither tire nor sleep,
All singing 'Glory glory'
In festival they keep.

Christ watches me, His little lamb,
Cares for me day and night,
That I may be His own in heaven:
So angels clad in white
Shall sing their 'Glory glory'
For my sake in the height.

The Wise Men left their country
To journey morn by morn,
With gold and frankincense and myrrh,
Because the Lord was born:
God sent a star to guide them
And sent a dream to warn.

My life is like their journey,
Their star is like God's book;
I must be like those good Wise Men
With heavenward heart and look:
But shall I give no gifts to God? -
What precious gifts they took!

Lord, I will give my love to Thee,
Than gold much costlier,
Sweeter to Thee than frankincense,
More prized than choicest myrrh:
Lord, make me dearer day by day,
Day by day holier;

Nearer and dearer day by day:
Till I my voice unite,
And I sing my 'Glory glory'
With angels clad in white;
All 'Glory glory' given to Thee
Through all the heavenly height.

Letter To Santa

In order to work on his desktop keyboarding skills, my oldest son (age 6) composed the following letter to Santa this weekend:

Dear S C
we hope you come down are chimunee.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mary Christmas S C! you are the best S C ever. Ho ho ho! We will leave milk and cookies for you. I’m pretty sure there will be 4 or 5 cookies on the plate. Have a happy Christmas S C. and oh boy S C I’m excited for Christmas! S C we will enjoy are Christmas!!!!!!!!! S C this year we had a winter party it was fun we had sweets and treats and snacks.
Mary Christmas S C!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This picture was taken today

(Thanks Wendy!)

Holiday Shopping Tip #1: Be Careful, Men!

With only a few days of Christmas shopping left this year, I wanted to send along this warning to you men headed to the mall…

MIXTAPE: Hymns to Her (from Him)

Theme: Songs of praise and adoration for women, from men

Rules for Hymns to Her (From Him):

• The song must be an ode to a specific woman (as opposed to the female species in general).
• The lead vocals must be performed by a man.
• The man must express a certain sense of worship from afar, or at least an “I-can’t-believe-I-got-her”-ness, when singing about the woman.

Rules for every mixtape:

• The length of the mixtape must not exceed 90 minutes. (At least with a digital playlist we don’t have to concern ourselves with dividing the list into two less-than-45-minute sides. But we still have our standards.)
• Only one song per artist.
• I must like the song. No matter how apropos the song, it’s not going on the mixtape unless I would actually want to listen to it over and over.
• Each mixtape must, if at all possible, conclude with a great movie quote.

And lastly just to clarify: the numbers next to each song are not a ranking, but a track listing. The order of the tracks is very important in the creation of a great mixtape.

So without further ado, I bring you…

Hymns to Her (From Him)

1. Rio – Duran Duran
2. I Saw Her Standing There – The Beatles
3. Face Dances Part Two – Pete Townshend
4. Something in the Way She Moves – James Taylor
5. My Best Friend’s Girl –The Cars
6. She’s Got A Way – Billy Joel
7. Oh, Pretty Woman – Roy Orbison
8. Certain Kinda Girl – The Producers
9. Bony Moronie – Larry Williams
10. Somebody’s Baby – Jackson Browne
11. 11-6-64 – Steven Curtis Chapman
12. My Girl – The Temptations
13. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic -- The Police
14. Brick House -- The Commodores
15. Sussudio – Phil Collins
16. Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
17. Peg – Steely Dan
18. Harriet – from So I Married An Axe Murderer*

*Warning: This poem has mildly offensive language.

Selected commentary:
Rio – At first you think, “I can’t believe she’s starting off with Duran Duran.” But then you realize you won’t be able to get the “Doo doo doo doo, de doos” out of your head for the rest of the day. Plus it has a great intro.
Face Dances Part Two – One of the four great modern pop songs featuring a non-traditional time signature (5/4). The other three of course are Sting’s “Seven Days” and “Straight to My Heart” (both also 5/4) and Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill” (7/4).
Bony Maronie – This was one of the pet names my dad—who has impeccable taste in music, btw—called me when I was growing up.
11-6-64 – I usually don’t include CCM artists in my mixes, but this little gem is a pure pop confection.
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic – Just might be the perfect song. “Do I have to tell the story of a thousand rainy days since we first met?”
Brick House – What a winning hand, indeed.
Sussudio – Don’t pretend you didn’t love this song when it came out in the mid-80’s. I used to have a Betamax recording of a Phil Collins appearance on Letterman, where the two of them did a skit about where Collins got the name for this track.
Brown Eyed Girl – My senior year in high school I dated this really great guy. And then I did him wrong: I broke up with him abruptly, but then wanted to continue to keep him close by. (I know. I’m so sorry.) He had some friends who played in a cover band. They were headed off to college soon, so we went to their last rehearsal together. As they were closing it down, the singer asked, “Any last requests?” My guy shouted, “Brown Eyed Girl”! Being the loyal friends they were, the band played “Runaround Sue” instead.
Harriet – Alliteration doesn’t get any better than, “Hard-hearted harbinger of haggis”.

So are these the greatest songs about a woman ever recorded, or am I missing some? Do you have a favorite pop song featuring a non-traditional time signature? Do any of these songs stir up memories you’d like to share?

To check out my other mixtapes, click here.

Mixtape Madness

I love making mixtapes. (Well now of course they’re called playlists. But you know what I mean.) And mixtapes are meant to be shared. So I’d like to share mine with you.

Here’s how it works. Every so often I’ll post the song playlist of my latest mixtape on this blog, along with its particular rules.

Oh yes, there are rules. And the rules of mixtapes are fixed and finite.

Then you’ll look them over and post comments about what a mixtape genius I am. Or tell me what song you think I should have included.

Now before you get too excited, let me just warn you: I graduated from high school in 1986. I’m hopelessly unhip about today’s music scene. But for those of you who were just coming home from the hospital in a rear-facing car seat while I was moving into my first college dorm room: just consider this part of your ongoing education. :)