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My wife and I have been doing the music for Children’s Church for about two months now.  It’s a 20-minute block of time where we lead them in songs before the speaker of the day comes up.  I lead and click the PowerPoint slides through, and Megan plays the piano.  The age group is 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, a group I don’t really know much about.

I don’t know many of their names yet.  I have difficulty learning names in general, and in a group of 50-60 kids I don’t see much outside of these 20 minutes once a week it’s that much harder.  I know one 4th grader because she’s the daughter of friends of mine.  There are four other kids that I also see in Tae Kwon Do, and I think I have their names down, but two of them are twins, so I’m not sure entirely if I know which of them is which.

We’ve been trying to engage the kids in conversation when they first get there, to try to get to know them a bit more and pick up on more names.  Sometimes it takes a while for all three grades to get there, so one week we might get to talk to the third graders a bit more until the 4th and 5th graders arrive, another week it might be the 4th graders.

This past Sunday the 4th graders got there first.  We were talking at the piano about the songs and one of the kids came up to the piano – the first time that’s happened, I’m pretty sure.  She was very excited:

“I got my ears pierced and my sister is letting me wear her earrings!”

I’ve never been a little girl, but I’m told that getting one’s ears pierced is a big event. Makes sense she would be excited about telling us that.  And her older sister letting her wear her earrings?  Also very much a big event.

I’m still figuring out how to talk to kids.  I know they’re humans and all, but I feel so far removed from that age that they might as well be little ETs.  I am learning, though, that asking questions is a good thing.  So I said something about how that was neat and that the earrings were very pretty, and then I asked, “How long ago did you get your ears pierced?”

Her answer sums up why I’m having trouble figuring kids out.  If someone my own age says “I did this and this” in the same sentence, I can pretty much assume those two events are related, if by nothing else than at least by timeframe – “I went to Wisconsin and got some cheese,” “I went on a hike and got poison ivy,” “I got a new skateboard and went to the hospital” – these all make perfect sense to me.  Her response, though, tells me I’ve got a ways to go before I understand kids:

“Oh, last year.”

Dove Chocolate is getting lazier. I’ve had some go-arounds with them before, but I just can’t help but feel they’re slacking now.  They appear to have gone all Web 2.0 on me, using the masses as their source of advice.  How does this seem like a good idea to anyone other than the guy whose task it is to come up with things to put on chocolate wrappers?

This bag of Dove Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate Promises had 34 pieces of chocolate, which is the same amount the last bag in April of 2007, so I guess that’s good.  There were only 8 different pieces of advice, which is both good and bad.  Bad because there’s not a lot of diversity there.  Good because I didn’t have to roll my eyes at more ridiculosity.

So here’s the list, complete with a number telling you how many times each appeared in the bag.

• (4x) Be the silver lining in another’s cloud. – Janet, Streetsboro, OH
  I think if clouds have a silver lining, the rain they’re producing is most likely toxic.
• (6x) Indulge in the moments that matter most. – Nicole, Williston, FL
  “Perhaps you could indulge in… oh, say, maybe some chocolate while you’re doing that?”  I see what you did there, Dove Chocolate.
• (3x) It’s OK to not do it all. – Dawn, Wildwood, MO
  Is it OK to not do any of it?
• (4x) Live every day up to your expectations, not others. – Reena, Brentwood, TN
  I expected someone named “Reena” to come up with more inspirational advice.
• (3x) Look for love in unexpected places. – Leanna, Columbus, OH
  I’d advise against looking on Craigslist, however.
• (6x) Love yourself. Dare to dream. Live on purpose! – Dana, Highland, IN
  Sneaky Dana!  She put in three pieces of sentimental mishmash when the form only asked for one!
• (2x) Say “I love you” every day to your loved ones. – Donna, Grand Junction, CO
  Okay, this one’s actually a good idea.  Fine.  You’re one for eight, Dove.
• (6x) When you give with joy, joy is your reward. – Ida, Landing, NJ
  It’s fun to replace “joy” with other words: “When you give with fire, fire is your reward.”  “When you give with rabbits, rabbits [are] your reward.”  “When you give with chicken pox, chicken pox is your reward.”

I wonder what a Venn diagram of “Hallmark Card Sayings” and “Dove Chocolate Advice” would look like.  Probably just a big circle.  Filled with saccharine. And puppies.

I looked out this morning and the sun was gone
Turned on some music to start my day
I lost myself in a familiar song
I closed my eyes and I slipped away

-“More Than A Feeling” by Boston

I’m getting married in 16 days, and there’s a lot of hustle and bustle in preparation for it – emails, phone calls, meetings with photographers, decisions about program order,  flavor of cake (hoping for lemon!), playlist for the reception… and on and on it goes.  It seems like there isn’t much time to sit back and enjoy the fact that, hey, I’m getting married!

Amidst all of that, we are slowly moving stuff from Megan’s apartment over to the house, box by box.  We’ll have one major moving day the week of the wedding and get all the rest of it, and she’ll stay with friends for a day or two here and then will stay at her dad’s for the days right before the wedding.

It struck me this morning as I was getting ready that my life is about to change.  Sure, that seems like something a person would have realized a lot sooner, and I had – you know, in that deep, meaningful, life-altering I’m-going-to-spend-the-rest-of-my-life-with-this-person way.  But this morning I was struck with something seemingly insignificant, that kind of turned into this whole big deal in my head.

My morning ritual is to wake up to the radio (tuned to Jeff 92, since they don’t have commercials there’s a better chance that I’ll actually wake up to music), then turn that off and turn on my Zune as I shower and get ready.  I’ve got 468 hand-picked songs on my Zune, and I set it to play randomly, so I’m listening to stuff I like, but there’s enough of a mix to keep things interesting.  Here was this morning’s songlist, for example:

• “Warning Sign” – Coldplay
• “Better” – Regina Spektor
• “Fix You” – Coldplay
• “Wise Up” – Aimee Mann
• “New Slang” – The Shins
• “That Thing You Do” – The Wonders
• “Sweetest Thing” – U2
• “Stars” – Hum
• “Angel” – Sarah MacLachlan

The Zune goes from “1234” to “Ziggy Stardust” and it’s not uncommon for me to go from a song by the Newsboys or TobyMac to one by KISS or Boston.  Today’s playlist was Coldplay-heavy, but tomorrow’s looks to have The Beatles, Weezer, and Britney Spears.

So, anyway, the thought that crossed my mind is that this Saturday is the last day I’ll be able to listen to music as I get ready in the morning.  I have it cranked up pretty loud so I can hear it over the sound of the shower, and it can be heard in every part of the house.  While I’m not getting married for two more weeks, I am getting a houseguest this Saturday who will be staying with me for the next two weeks.  Playing music loudly at 6 (or so) in the morning isn’t very considerate of those who might still be sleeping, whether it be houseguest or wife.

From there I went into this whole “What else will I need to change?” whirlwind – not, it should be noted, from a negative viewpoint (“I can’t believe I have to change that, that sucks!”), just from a “What’s on the horizon that I haven’t thought about?” view.

What are some things you’ve had to change that you hadn’t thought about before having to make the change?