Some Mo' Stuff

This is the gratuitous picture of me and my incomparable husband Marty Ballestero II. He is the facilitator of all my ginormous projects. Right now he is keeping our kids busy while I "bloginate" - this from the man who reads the dictionary for fun. I have three kids. Yes, I am far, far too young to have three kids. Like I said,I tend to gravitate towards large projects.

I get this questions sometimes: What inspires you when you write songs? If, perhaps, someone doesn't express themselves through writing or the arts it is a viable question. If, perchance, you are someone who is totally immersed in this form of expression the question in overwhelming. What doesn't inspire me to write songs? The laundry? Oh, wait, no. I've actually written songs about laundry. In fact the other day my oldest son and I noticed a '89 Saturn sedan next to our truck at a stoplight. Normal, everyday family sedan...except it had spinners. SPINNERS?!! This inspired us to write a spontaneous country song about the reasoning behind such an obvious faux pas. I mean, it was tan...like, not even a sporty color...and I digress.

Oftentimes when it comes to the projects our church produces , I'm inspired on "the fly" as it were. We may have a group of songs from various contributors and Kim (my sister-in-law, pastor's wife, and partner in crime) will say, "We need a fast song/slow song/theme for suchandsuch." And then I get crankin'. Other times I may be inspired by a sermon, something gleaned in my devotion time, or perhaps a personal incident that happened in my life. In particular, when Jonathan Suber was at our church November of '06 he prophesied that a certain sound was coming out of our church. At that moment I picked up my flashy blinged out ink pen and began to write a song. I'll admit that the first time I introduced the song there were raised eyebrows and heads tilted to the side. But it was inspired. We worked it out and recorded it. It's a crazy, no holds barred song about "dancing" your way through life's toughest disappointments. Months later when it finally came out on CD I rolled into the church for my complimentary copy. When I slipped it into my stereo at home the Holy Spirit spoke to my soul, telling me that the songs I had written for that project were the songs designated to get me through one of the darkest periods of my life.

So I guess you could say I was doubly inspired.