It's time...

Time for what, you ask?

Time for me to stop leaving the faithful few hanging anymore...

After just a year and a half, I think it's time for me to hang up the blogger hat.

For now.

Even though many noteworthy things have happened in my life over the past couple of months, I have had NO desire to really write a blog in a long time.

I have hardly even kept up with the blogs that I used to read daily.

 

I really don't know exactly why this is...but I'm just feeling kind of burnt out on the whole thing and I don't want to keep pretending that I'm going to get to my next post soon.

So, until this mood passes or I have something spectacular to share with the world, this blog is officially on hiatus.

And if you are dying to know what is going on in my/our life...I guess you're just going to have to do it the old-fashioned way...by being IN my life. =)

To those of you who took the time to read my ramblings, thank you.

I sincerely appreciated your participation and feedback.

I wish all of you a joyous Christmas and many, many blessings for the new year.

Thank you once again,

Music Monday #20 ~ First Love

As a kid I had a jacket that looked something like this:

And a school folder with this image on it:

Yeah, I was a little bit in love with the original "King of Pop", Mr. Michael Jackson.

Of course, as I got older, I ventured away from the pop music and he ventured away from being admirable.

But there has always been a place in my heart for that young love of Michael.

The Michael that was cute, vivacious, and well...normal.

Of all things MJ that I used to adore, the original Jackson 5 was one of them.

I loved his little, yet amazing voice and smile that could warm a thousand winters.

Today I wanted to share one of my all-time favorite songs...by the Jackson 5 or anyone else for that matter.

To my daughter

12 years ago at this very moment, my daughter was taking her very first breaths of air and then alerting the world to her presence with a scream.

Today she has taken many breaths and still likes to alert us all with a random noise or two.

She's so many things to all of us...but what she is most is growing up.

Just yesterday she was a baby in our arms and now she is all but done with childhood.

Here is a video I made just for her and how I feel about all this.

The music is "Watch Them Grow" by Zach Gill.

Music Monday #19 ~ Cancer

One of my absolute favorite songs by My Chemical Romance.

 

Love while you can.

Music Monday #18 ~ This is Halloween...

Halloween may be now be gone, but my decorations aren't yet, so I figured I would stretch out the celebration just one more day in order to procrastinate having to yank webs out of my yard and remove paper skeletons from my walls.

This has always been a fun occasion for my husband and I, especially now with the kids.

We even give presents for the holiday.

(I got the soundtrack to "The Rocky Horror GLEE show"...yay!!)

I'll be posting pics later in the week of our festivities, but for now I wanted to share with you three of my favorite songs to hear/play at Halloween.

Though "Monster Mash" should be in this list, I've heard it just one too many times over the past week and would like to take a break from it for now. =)

So here goes...my short-version Halloween play list:

"I Put a Spell on You" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins

(yeah, CCR also did this song...but I'm a fan of this version in particular. And from what I've read, it was QUITE "out there" when it came out in the 1957.)

"Every Day is Halloween" by Ministry
Though I grew up with the industrial/metal Ministry of the 90's, their 80's synth-pop beginnings aren't half bad!
I love to hear this song...any time of the year.



"Thriller" by Michael Jackson
Okay, so who HASN'T heard this song?
But hey, it never gets old in my opinion.
I just wish I had taken the time to learn the entire dance like some.
(oh, and this video used to really scare me as a kid!) =)




Well I hope you (if you celebrated) had a fantastic Halloween.
I'm exhausted today actually.
But we did have a good time.
Time to start planning next year's costumes!
(yeah right! didn't you read above where I said that I was a procrastinator?) =D

Music Monday #17 ~ Wordless

Gosh, I so love a good sing-a-long.

Typically, if I can't sing a song, I don't like it.

(We won't bother discussing whether that singing sounds good or not)

But there are exceptions to every rule and there are definitely some in this case.

Sometimes it is just nice to sit back and listen...

...to just feel the music.

I'm pretty sure that all my continual howling over songs takes away their full meaning,

so when a song comes along that doesn't have any words,
I am forced to keep my mouth shut and open my ears.

Sure there have been some amazing compositions created over the centuries.

Who doesn't love a bit of Mozart or Beethoven now and then?

But the instrumentals I am highlighting today are some of my all-time favorites composed within the last century.

I will post them in chronological order.

First up is from 1946...my dad will love this one.

He and I were both born too late.

We listened to this a time or two thousand when I was a kid.

And I love the theatricality of the band in this performance.

Here's "In the Mood" by Glenn Miller:

The next two songs were both recorded in 1959.

I have to admit right here and now that I am not a fan of the saxophone.

There are just very few songs out there with that instrument in it that I really enjoy.

But here's another exception to another rule...

...Dave Brubeck.

Amazing jazz artist.

Amazing song.

(and prepare to be blown away by the drum solo)

Good stuff.

Here's "Take Five":

And the other from the same year is seriously one of my absolute favorite songs.

Even if it weren't associated with "La Bamba".

Here's "Sleepwalk" by Santo & Johnny:

(Les, you can just skip this one ;-)

And last, but certainly not least, is a piece composed by Bjork for the movie "Dancer in the Dark".

It is the opening overture and is simply titled "Overture".

It's not very long, but incredibly powerful.

This song alone has, at times, brought tears to my eyes.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this chance to just sit back and listen to some incredible songs by some incredible artists.

We should probably all give our mouths a break from time to time and let our ears get some use.

Take care,

Music Monday #16 ~ Let It Be

Though my opinions may steer my political leanings pretty far to the right, I find that many today think that means that this makes me an ignorant, hateful, war-mongering bigot.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I am first and foremost a Christian.

And the Bible tells me these things:

God is love.

God created us out of love.

God intends for us to love each other.

Sin is another matter.

Sin, and the architect of sin, the devil, are constantly struggling for control of our lives.

No one but Jesus has ever been perfect, or will ever be.

So in light of this, it is impossible for me to hate one of my brothers or sisters in Christ because of his sin.

Being a sinful person myself keeps me from truly being able to place judgement on another.

I do hate the sin though.

I hate war and fighting.

And I hate what sin does to obscure the love and happiness that God wants for us.

If for one moment we could all (left, right or middle) just stop and realize

that not one of us is perfect,

that not one of us is doing things exactly right,
then we might be able to see each other for what we truly are...

creations of love.

Every person that God has created is worthy of being loved.

Because God first loved us.

If we will only gather ourselves into that love of God
and see that love in each other,
 then it will be that much harder for the devil to overshadow it with hatred.
And for just a moment we could "let it be".

(I am well aware that The Beatles were not professing Christians, but the message of  letting go of our hate for a person, if only to allow that person to live to see another day, is quite compelling, don't you think?)
Excerpt is from the film "Across the Universe"
"Let it Be" performed by Carol Woods & Timothy T. Mitchum