Focused? Nope.

I was utterly bored today, for a good portion of the day. That made it so very difficult to focus on anything important (not that I have much important work to do).
But once I got home, things started looking up. Or at least more entertaining.
I followed a couple of new-job-idea-leads while the kids practiced their myriad instruments and generally made noises all around me. I managed to get some dinner going and to suddenly toss a serious, future-iffic conversation at my honey the minute he walked in the door (Honey, what about if I just join the circus? I mean, I'm talented, right honey? Right? Honey, why are you rubbing your temples already?). It's not wonder that he sometimes comes home late.
He did the dishes for me, even if it might have been an attempt at finding some peace & quiet, because I will generally not be found anywhere near a sink full of dirty dishes.
I forced the elder of my noisy children to play Uno with the youngest of them and they managed to turn even that into a serious competition. And I tried to knit. But I was reading blogs too.
My head is just elsewhere and it is refusing to be put back in line. I have my little tricks and gimmicks for reigning in my mind and I will use them when it becomes absolutely necessary. It is almost absolutely necessary.
But maybe not just yet.
Chris has some money in his iTunes account that's been sitting there for a while. It's a good thing I didn't know about it before. It might have mysteriously disappeared. He bought a couple new albums of which I highly approve (Iron & Wine's new one and the She & Him album that I've heard is really good - he kinda looked a little dreamy-eyed about Zooey Deschanel, but I don't mind.). I've been on something of a folk kick for a while. It seems that's all my subconscious is singing in the morning these days, too.
Oh my. I lost track of my point. Surprised? Me neither.
So, he called me down to check out M. Ward's new album because he was liking it and that was his first mistake. iTunes, for me, is like an endless tunnel. Once I get in, I will never find my way out. It was not long before I had commandeered the mouse and found two or three more albums that I was strongly suggesting he should purchase. Um, Patrick Watson? I might love you. It's a good thing he's so open to suggestion. Or else it's a good thing that he thinks I'm cute enough to buy music for.
Whatever.
Now, I have a shawl to block (hear that, Mom?) and I need to obey some lovely rain that is calling me to the bathtub.
Maybe that doesn't happen to anybody else.
I love to open my salvaged window right next to my claw-foot tub and listen to the rivulets of water smacking the pavement of the driveway as they roll off the side of the roof. And sometimes, that is even a trick I use to bring my brain back into submission when it has decided to go a-wandering - giving it something so lovely on which to focus.
But we are not resorting to tricks yet, are we? That's what I'm telling my brain for right now. I suspect it is a little skittish and I don't want it to run off in the other direction under the threat of being forced to behave.

Daily Bliss: watching a papa cardinal and his baby peck around by my mom's bird feeder

Wake-up Playlist: Iron & Wine - Resurrection Fern