Song stuff...

Disclaimer: if you sense a lack of flow in this entry, it is due to 24 days of sleep deprivation. Be kind.

As for the singer/songwriter portion of my life, things are still active... just hibernating a little bit. I finished a song last week with a cowriter in Nashville who sent me a melody to a lyric I'd sent him months ago. That was fun to hear. If I've learned anything in my songwriting journey, it's that things take time. Songs I wrote two years ago might finally find a home this year, and then in another year, I'll see the CD with shrink wrap on. In another year, maybe some pennies will come my way. Things take that long.

We got a Mac laptop over a year ago, and I have been too chicken, too busy (excuses, excuses) to use the iSight feature. Well, last night I did my first co-write using iSight (the video camera on my computer screen... so I was a talking head in Sue's house in St. Louis, and she was talking to me in my living room, right on my screen!) Sue was very patient with me and understanding of my fuzzy brain and we almost finished a song. It felt good to be in the writing room again. Thanks, Sue. My boys got a kick out of seeing Miss Sue "in the computer" talking to them. Ah, technology.

So, Mac friends, who will be next to endure my rookie iSight skillz?

The night we brought Gloria home, I received a phone call at about 10:30pm. It was Jayme, my publisher's song plugger (the awesome lady who shows our songs to artists and tries to find them a home ... our songs, that is.) She had some good news for me that a song Dave Clark and I wrote was being cut on a Christmas musical album performed by a pretty "big" group. That's being recorded this week, so I'm looking forward to hearing it fairly soon.

It's funny how a major life transition propels me to write more, not less. It's not that I'm super inspired and have songs of milk and pink and babies waiting to be written. It's more that I'm holed up in my house (enjoying most every minute, I might add) and I need some sense of outside contact and creative expression. So to the writing room I go, a minute here and a minute there. It makes for slow writing, but it's something.

Our Songwriters Guild here in town is growing and deepening. We have "regulars" now, which is fun. And everyone looks forward to hearing the songs that are shared. I think the writers are each improving, and we can see the fruit in the songs that are brought. We still fit in our living room, which could be good or bad. But for now, I like the family feel of it.

One other thing I'm looking forward to: two of my songs made it onto a children's album that will be used in churches across the country. If you are a leader in children's ministry, watch for Brentwood Benson's "Foundations of the Faith" CD and books, due out this month. It'll be a great resource for kids to learn sound doctrine and building blocks of theology.