"May you always have angels to watch over you..."

Today I've been contemplating the nature of love and friendship. I am so grateful for the people in my life who lift me up and make me feel loved. It's kind of hard for me to be really open with anyone (yes, even though I blog and you think I spill everything here!), but for those who have laughed with me, cried with me, and continued to see me as someone worthy of love despite all my foibles and faults, I thank God for you.

There. Enough mush. Gosh, you'd think I was going to have to wipe away a tear or something. Another tear, I mean. Sorry about that. It's been kind of an emotional day.

In my contemplative mood, I played some serious organ. One advantage of the digital piano is that you can change voices, which nearly makes up for the fact that the piano sound on our digital piano is only a recording of a Kawai piano, lovely as it is. Crank up the volume on the Church Organ setting, and you've got reason to party with a few Bach fugues. I had a grand time until Little Gary came over and said, "It's too loud! Turn it down!" and then turned the volume on the piano down to a level barely above audible. I guess this bodes well for when he's a teenager listening to some horrid recording of whatever passes for music in his generation. (Do you like how I already sound old and crotchety? Gotta get my practice in.)

I've been singing "Sleepsong" by Secret Garden, too, when I'm not pounding out Bach. It's a lovely Irish-type lullaby, and I'm trying to get all the little voice lilts just right. I can't remember the name for those at the moment. You know what I mean, though, right? Anyway, beautiful song with beautiful lyrics.

Other news and random thoughts: Husband has had a nibble from an agent, who has asked for more pages of his book. That's encouraging. Unfortunately, the email the agent sent was somewhat disjointed and hard to understand. Do agents have to know how to write? Good question. I'll ask that later when I find an agent who doesn't mind being grilled.

Sian has returned home to the family bosom. She spent a little over a month living with my parents in the Big City in order to attend Girls' Camp and Youth Conference with her old friends, but I think she might have missed us a teensy-weensy bit. If she did, I'm sure she's over it now. Coming back to a shared room and the noise of six kids and their friends is a big change from the quiet solitude of Grandma's and Grandpa's house. Linnea came by and managed to convince her to attend the Girls' Camp for this ward, too, so now we have some quick packing to do. Good job, Linnea! I didn't think it was possible.

I finally went swimming for the first time this summer. My only complaint is that the the current for the lazy river is so strong I kept getting sucked in, which made me very worried about my boys and kept me eagle-eyed.

Sometimes 1000 words can be such a long article to write. For the first time, I accidentally wrote 1000 words when all I needed was 500. What stinks is that it took me so long to research. I was writing for a podiatry company, so I wrote about barefoot running, which is something I've been contemplating doing since realizing that my back is not happy with any sort of long distance running I do. Fortunately, the research was a big help in understanding the reasons many are taking their shoes off. Shanna's husband runs barefoot, so I asked him about it. That got me interested enough to keep looking.

This is all a stall so I don't have to make dinner. My stall has stalled, and now I need to feed the masses.