Monday, June 23, 2008

Sometimes I Do Stuff

The chickadees left early this morning to spend two weeks in Houston with grandparents. I'm going to miss them a lot.
But I won't lie and say having a break won't be nice. :-)

Macy (7) had her very first piano recital yesterday. She did amazing, which we expected since her teacher says she's a prodigy and since she practices almost all day every day. We got her an electric piano (with weighted keys) for her birthday and she's already begun writing her own compositions (which, and I say this in all honesty, are surprisingly good).
Okay, so I'm a beamingly proud daddy. But out of 12 students performing at the recital, she was only one of 2 who did 3 songs, and she was the only one of the 12 who didn't mess up once or play hesitatingly at some point.
Yeah. My girl rocks.

I've got pictures from the recital (and some of us taking the girls bowling) up on my Facebook. If you're a "friend," check 'em out.
Here's one of the fam:



Last night at Element I preached on spirits and spiritual warfare. It was weird. I confess to feeling awkward whenever I present messages that contain (what I feel like is) an inordinate amount of information. I don't like to lecture. I have a passion to proclaim.
This is weird, because before the gospel really burned me in my bones, nothing turned me on like theological information. Now I find information dumps getting in the way of just imparting the uncaged lion of Scripture (to borrow from Spurgeon).
Next week we wrap up the current series with a message on Calvinism and Arminianism. I am a 5-point Calvinist. Predestination and free-will and all that stuff used to animate me greatly. But despite the fact that I'm going to respectfully stump for my own view (while hopefully remaining fair and generous to the other), I'm actually not as excited about this message as I am about the one we're gonna start in the fall. It's called "The Supremacy of Christ." That's more my style these days.

So what am I gonna do with 2 weeks sans kids?

Well, the highest priority for me, and the thing I've been looking forward to the most is as many date nights with my wife as I want. Ahhh, alone time. I've missed you. :-)
We don't have regular date night because we can't afford the childcare. Nights out with just Beck are few and far between. So I'm looking forward to catching up on couple time.
Our anniversary is Sunday, too, so that weekend should be extra special.

We're also gonna use this time to remodel Grace's room into a pink princess room with big girl furniture. When Macy turned 5, we did the same thing for her. Grace turns 5 in two weeks, so it's time to take down the primary colors and the Disney wall decals and giver her her very own big girl room. This means painting walls, staining new furniture, decorating, etc.

I also plan on using all this rare free time to resume work on the novel that's been on hold since Element started a year and a half ago. Of course, I've written another book in that time (which my agent started shopping two weeks ago and has already received some good feedback on, praise God), but I've been itching to dig back in to the story I abandoned. I'm eager to put my novelist hat back on.

Oh, and I imagine I'll be blogging. :-)

And twittering!

Hope you have a good week, blogosphere.

4 comments:

Paige said...

The pictures from Macy's recital are precious!! I remember my first piano recital. I was terrified, and I did mess up!

Proud dads should always be allowed to brag (from time to time). :D

Good luck with the novel! Happy writing!

Anonymous said...

Congrats to Macy on completion of her recital! (And what kind of Dad would you be if you didn't brag a little? In my house that's what Daddy is for! :D )

Do you mind sharing what kind of keyboard you got for her? I've been considering the electric option for my own 7yo, but I don't know anyone else who has gone that route.

Jared said...

Hey, Jenn. It's a refurbished Yamaha Portable Grand. We got off of eBay.

Had it for about a month or so. She likes it a lot and so far has worked great.
Haven't had it long enough to totally vouch for it, though, I don't think.

Buyer beware. It's a big purchase. :-)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info, Jared! It's just nice to have a hands-on opinion. There are so many options out there. It's a little overwhelming. I probably won't purchase one until I've actually put my hands on a few to see how they compare to the real thing and each other. I wouldn't dream of buying one off of eBay without playing one first. You're right - it's a big purchase. Thanks again for your help. :-)