This is what I have been up to lately. =)

Hello, one and all! I thought it was about time I wrote another post to let you all know what I have been up to since my last post which was oh so long ago.

First, though, I would like to thank all my followers for hanging in there with me and all the new followers that have decided to read what I write here. I appreciate you all more than you know.

Okay, where to start with my news. I have no particular order in mind so I will write as things occur to me since this is not meant to be a timeline but more of a list of things I am or have been doing.

I am still doing soundboard duties at my church but now I have been learning how to run the presentation software that puts images and words up on the screen at the front of the church via the laptop and projector.

So, this means that pretty much every weekend I switch between either of these jobs. Last weekend I was on sound and it looks like this weekend I will be too unless something happens and they need me on the laptop.

I had a woman from the congregation come up to the Soundbooth last Sunday and express her pleasure in the music and quality of sound she was hearing.

Some exciting news on the soundboard front! Our church will be getting a brand new mixer (soundboard) with 24 (edited)32 channels. Our current board has 14 so this one will be much bigger and newer.

I am excited because it means I get to learn how to control this new one and we won’t have to push the system as hard since there will be more than enough space and power which will make my job easier in the end.

Along with the new board, we are getting professional powered speakers and a new flatscreen monitor for the booth. When all this new equipment arrives I am going to feel like a kid at Christmas. LOL 😀

This is the mixer we are getting it is a Yamaha MGP32X 32 channel board.

Now, on to other news, I finally got our taxes completed and filed with the government. It is April and tax time in Canada. We have until April 31st technically but since it falls on a Sunday this year the government will still consider taxes filed on time if they receive it by May 1st.

I don’t like to leave it that late but it is a pain getting all the paperwork and receipts etc. together and filling out the forms and I dread it every year. I am so happy it is over for another year.  🙂

I have also taken on the job of getting all the music sheets together and organized for our church. Oh, what did I get myself into there!?

I had to put them in order and fill binder after binder worth so that the songs would be easy to locate for each musician or singer that went looking for a particular song.

That has been a huge undertaking that I have invested hours upon hours doing and I am thankful to report that the job is just about completed. I have to retype the indexes for each binder and take the whole huge box of binders back to the church.

Not to worry, I am taking time out from all these jobs to not only work on my YouTube channel and relax a bit too.

My channel now sits at 830 subscribers at last count and I am gaining roughly three to four more each day. It seems ever since I hit that magic number, of 500 subscribers, my channel growth has been snowballing.

If you would like to come over and check it out for yourself I will put a link here (it will open in a new window to leave your reading of this post uninterrupted.)

Susan Millard’s YouTube Channel

Of course, I am relaxing sometimes as well as I mentioned. I have been doing a lot of reading and doing some adult coloring. This is keeping me relatively stress-free for the most part while I tackle all these large jobs with paperwork.

I have also been continuing to practice playing my mandolin. I am happy to say that my left-hand fingers are all nicely calloused which makes it easier to play for longer.

I am currently working on different strumming and picking patterns to use with the mandolin. These instruments are not usually played like a guitar as they are meant for a different type of music; namely bluegrass and fiddle tunes and the like.

I have learned a total of 10 or 11 chords so far and am getting pretty proficient at switching between them. This has proven to be a difficult task, to teach me how to play using books and the internet.

A metronome has been a recent purchase to aid in my strumming and picking so that I can keep time properly, so that is helping I think. It was on sale for $10 at our favorite music store marked down from $28.95! That kind of deal I could not pass up.

As for the book, I am writing for my grandson, Ethan, I am still plodding along working at getting that done as time permits. I have the basic storyline down and have some names picked out for the dragon although I have not decided on THE name yet, not for certain.

Getting the wording just right is proving to be tougher to do than I thought. The words need to be simple and I need to capture the story in maybe 15 pages maximum. A majority of those pages are going to be big beautiful pictures with great detail.

I do have the materials collected to put this book together but figuring out just what it is going to say and look like is frustratingly difficult. But, I will persist and work that out and get it done. It is for Ethan after all! 😉

Oh, my husband and I have just started seeing a new dentist right here in town so we no longer have to travel half an hour each way to and from North Bay for appointments.

Yay! Our new dentist is kind and easy to talk to about our teeth and takes our point of view into account when it comes to planning treatment.

We have also had several good references from the people we know here in town who go to him. We both had a cleaning done today as well as a new patient exam by Dr. Wong.

Well, I think that does it, for now, you are pretty much up to speed with what I have been doing with my time while away from my blog. Again, thank you for being there and for stopping by to read my posts. I do appreciate all of you, so much.

Have a wonderful day/night wherever you are – until next time. 🙂

I Am Finding That Being Part Of A Community Is So Important To Me

It occurred to me that this, the topic of community, would be a great thing to blog about as I come back, once again, from an extended absence from my blog.

What has kept me from blogging this past almost month has been a community, my local faith community, and the commitments I have made to them.

My last post was on January 27th and I wanted to fill you in on what my February has been like thus far. First, though, I want to offer my deepest apologies for the lack of posts.

I have been more fulfilled and happy this past month, even though I have been extremely busy to the point of not getting to blog as much. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy blogging.

I plan to continue blogging but my posts will be as I am able to write them. If you are following this blog please know you have my thanks and I enjoy talking with you in the comments.

You will continue to be notified when I post a new blog. I hope that by expanding my time spent in my community I will have more topics and thoughts to share with all of you.

In one sense by being away from my blog, at times, I will actually be bringing more to it when I do write posts. At least that is my hope.

The reason being part of a community is so important to me is because I feel like I am part of a team, that my contributions and volunteering of my skills matters and they are valued.

That is an amazing feeling. I think we are all hard wired with the need to belong.

From February 1st until today has been an extremely busy time for me. As many of you know I run the soundboard at our church. I also help clean the top floor of the church every week.

This means I have to be there for worship practice in order to set the correct levels ahead of Sunday morning’s services. We usually practice once a week on a Tuesday night.

Last week we had two practice nights during the week because we are introducing new songs to our church congregation. Our congregation consists of mostly elderly men and women.

These folks are so used to singing hymns and as a result, our church is not attracting any younger people in the community to come out and join our church or hear the gospel.

The younger people are looking for a place to worship with a more contemporary feel and more upbeat music. So, the plan is to slowly (we are talking baby steps here) introduce new songs that are just that.

There will be a great deal of the music the congregation knows and loves but one new song will be added to the mix. That new song will then be repeated every Sunday for a few weeks so that people can learn and become familiar with it.

We started this Sunday (today as I am writing this) which, as I mentioned, was the reason for extra practice this week. It seemed to go over well but we shall see if the pastor gets much flak before next Sunday.

On top of the soundboard and cleaning I do at the church I have been asked to take pictures of all the special events held at the church. These photographs will be posted on the church website.

The pastor explained it to me as a kind of free advertising to show anyone visiting the website that our church is active and doing things.

It is hoped that the pictures will help make others feel welcome and make them curious enough to come out and join us to see for themselves what we have to offer.

All I need to do is take the pictures as there is someone who takes care of the website and posts the Sunday message audio file on it every week. I record this as part of my duties on the soundboard.

There have been two special events at the church this month and a third one began tonight.

On February 5th we held a free movie night to show a screening of the movie God Is NOT Dead 2. There was a modest turnout for the movie and I tried my best to take some photos even with the low light conditions.

On February 11th we held Valentine’s Day Dinner (actually just ahead of Valentines Day) which included a half hour of worship songs prior to going downstairs for a full roast beef dinner.

That was an event where I wore a couple of hats; soundboard and photographer. The music portion of the evening was an extra half hour of music to practice on top of our regular Sunday worship.

The man in the bottom picture holding the coffee pot is our pastor. His name is Pastor Dave Johnston.

Tonight, February 19th we began a six-week course entitled Laugh Your Way To A Better Marriage. My husband and I attended this same course at our previous church many years ago.

We are attending this one as well since it is a good refresher and the speaker is hilarious to listen to while getting his points across loud and clear.

Besides, I am the official photographer and once again this is a low light situation so I must try to get the best shots possible.

I must take photos all while respecting that attendees may not want their photo taken for a website given that this is a marriage seminar. Here are the photos I took tonight.

I am thankful that there are five more Sunday nights to try and get better photos before they are posted to the church website.

Anyway, on top of all this activity at the church, I have been creating videos and uploading them to my YouTube channel, answering emails and watching what I can of other YouTubers videos that I am subscribed to.

I am pleased to say my channel is finally starting to take off; I am gaining subscribers, 726 at last count, and doing a little better in the financial department.

I have also been working on my storybook for Ethan here and there when I can. I now have a name for the dragon Ethan befriends and a rough outline of the story.

Next up is the plotting of what the wording on each page will be and the general layout of the book. From there I will get down to practicing drawing Ethan’s likeness in the various poses that the wording suggests.

I will also need to create a dragon that looks friendly and yet can transform into a fierce companion ready to come to Ethan’s aid when he needs him.

In my spare time, that is after all of the above plus doing dishes, cooking meals, doing laundry (in other words – life) I have been doing a fair bit of reading.

Reading is my favorite pastime by far. Doing more reading was one of my New Year’s Intentions and on that score, I am happy to say I am achieving what I set out to do.

This year’s Goodreads Book Challenge I have set 40 books as my goal. So far this year I have read seven books, that is two books ahead of schedule. Currently, I have a further two books on the go. The one I read at night before sleep and the other I read during the day.

It is now eleven o’clock at night and I will end this post here so I can proofread and edit in order to publish it to my blog.

Thank you, as always, for stopping by to read my thoughts today/tonight. I really appreciate you all being out there. Until my next post – remember it is important to do what makes you happy. This is not a dress rehearsal…this is life and it is too short to spend it unhappy. 🙂

Sneeze, cough, sleep…being sick sucks!

Hello again everyone, I am sorry for the lack of posts for the past while. I am finally feeling up to sitting here and composing a post to let you all know what’s been going on.

This cold or flu or whatever it is hit me on January 16th. When it did it hit me like a Mac truck. In fact, I hopped on my Facebook account and asked if anyone had gotten the license plate. LOL

It was weird the way it took turns with my body parts. It started with a sore throat then went to headaches. From there it hit me with such a lethargy I spent a lot of time sleeping and reading.

Fever was the next stage and at this point I was miserable. Then came the sneezing and runny nose which reactivated a sore throat and headaches.

I don’t mean to go on and on whining is really not me. I just wanted to let you all know if there was any way to keep content going here on my blog and on my YouTube channel I would have made it happen.

I think now that I must have picked up this bug at church although it could have been anywhere really.

Somehow I fought nausea and coughing etc. to keep up my commitments to my church. We have only a couple of people, myself included, that can run the sound board.

I didn’t want to leave them stranded with no one and figured I would not infect anyone if I didn’t hug anyone or get too close. The entire service I stayed up in the sound booth and tended the board.

Everyone who saw me, including the Pastor, commented that I should be home in bed but if I was determined to come in that they would pray for me. We even joked that we should pray the rest of them not get this. So we did just that!

Slowly I am feeling better each day and this blog post is step one to getting back to my routine. I still take naps when I need to and am restricting activities to what I need to do.

So what else have you been up to Susan?

Okay, I did work on my story outline for my grandson’s book a little bit.

I have a cast of characters listed which includes; King James, Queen Crystal and Prince Ethan, the townsfolk in the kingdom and our friendly dragon of course. I still haven’t thought of a name for him.

Basically, I am going for a story in the style of Robert Munsch. I want to introduce the Kingdom of? (no idea what to call that either yet) the castle and those who live in it. I will then expand out to touch on a few of the townsfolk.

Word will come from an attack on the kingdom from the next kingdom over. Prince Ethan will be playing in the backyard of the castle and befriend a dragon perched on the castle wall.

Through this friendship, Prince Ethan will save the kingdom when the attack happens by calling on his new friend the dragon to chase away the attackers.

Once the kingdom is safe again there will be a huge banquet held in honor of Prince Ethan the hero. His dragon will make an appearance at the banquet to share in the glory.

Again…thinking of drawing a dragon like this guy. ^ (I did not draw this it is just meant as an example).

I know this storyline has been written many, many times before but by personalizing it to Ethan and his parents and coming up with my own dragon I will make it my own.

What do you think so far? I would love to know your thoughts on the direction I am going with this.

I am considering making the book using plastic page protectors which I can slide pages into back to back and then seal the tops with tape.

I think this would give the pages some durability from the many, many times it is read to him (hopefully). I will probably then stitch the pages together using the holes where they are meant to be put in a binder.

If I just slap them in a binder some would get lost once he learns how to spring the clips open. Trust me with my grandson this will not take long to figure out….he is pretty determined when he wants something. 😀

On a final note, I just learned, today, how to run the laptop using Easy Worship 2009 to put the pictures and words to songs, scripture etc up on the screen at the front of the church.

Our usual person who runs the laptop during service is away right now so the one other person who can do soundboard will sub for me there and I will be on the laptop this Sunday.

Life is interesting if nothing else and it continues to be a busy one for me so I am glad that I am finally on the mend.

Thanks for stopping by to read my blog post once again my friends. I really appreciate you sticking with me even though the postings are erratic. That means the world to me that you do that and I don’t take your attention for granted, ever.  🙂

 

 

Decisions About A Book For My Grandson, Ethan.

I got some excellent advice on my questions on my last post. I want to thank both of those people for their wise counsel. I have done a lot of thinking since that post and those answers and have decided to write a storybook for my grandson. Period. Full stop.

It will be a one of a kind book created and produced exclusively for Ethan. I have decided against writing any other children’s books for the public. My heart is not in it when it comes to getting something like that published.

However, my heart is entirely in it when it comes to making one for Ethan. As a result of this decision, I have decided to work on a story outline personalized to Ethan. He will be the hero of the story.

His Dad, my son James, is a fan of all things dragon so a dragon must be involved in this story. I will have to learn how to draw a friendly looking dragon as well.

I think I want to make him a friendly dragon that guides and protects Prince Ethan just as James does for the real Ethan.

 

Something like this might work (image from Pixabay)

 

Yes, I believe that will work and would be an excellent jumping off point.

I will be writing the story first so that I have an idea of what to draw at crucial points in the story. I will also begin taking photographs of Ethan I took this past Christmas and teaching myself to draw his likeness in various poses.

So far I have not been able to sit down and draw or do any sort of artwork since the New Year. I am pleased to report that my other two goals are right on track. I talked to my best friend out west for two hours the other night. 🙂

I have been able to almost finish my first book of my reading goal of 40 books this year. This should all be in a separate post, really, but I wanted to explain that the drawing part of this project is a bit delayed.

Not to worry I will get there!

In my next post, I should have a rough outline of the story written to share with you. Thanks for stopping by my blog to read my thoughts once again. I hope you have a wonderful day/night wherever you are. 🙂

 

 

 

Hey, I Want To Share An Idea With You!

For a while now I have been doing some serious thinking. Mostly it has been on the subject of New Years Goals and Intentions; read my last post to see what goals I settled on there.

The other thing I have been thinking about lately has been whether or not to attempt writing a book. Yes, I do want to write a novel one day or a memoir.

Those two choices would take a substantial amount of time and are more complex than I am thinking about committing to right now.

I need something to, in a sense, dip my toes in as an introduction to the world of writing. In the interim, I would like to try my hand at writing a children’s book.

I am wondering how hard a market that would be to break into but it has all the hallmarks of a wonderful project.

Writing a children’s book would combine two of my passions in one project; writing and drawing. I would have to come up with an outline of something that would be of interest to children.

I would want to make it different enough to stand out against all the children’s books out there.

The beauty of a large picture book like this is that it would be fairly short but that being said I would want it to spark a child’s imagination even though it would be short.

The thing that really started to turn up the desire to do this was when my grandson came to visit us on Christmas Day.

This idea occurred to me a long while ago but Christmas Day intensified it and really brought home the immediacy of such a project.

This has to happen soon since my grandson will remain a little guy only for so long. Already at two and a half he is growing so fast and saying a few words now.

The window of opportunity to write for him is only so long. Even if my first book is written and illustrated just for him. I could write another to get published for the general public afterward.

How special would that be to have Grandma write a storybook just for you?

I wished with all my heart that I had a big beautiful book to share with him. I want him to enjoy reading as much as I do and the idea of writing a book for that purpose just inspires me.

I think of some of the great authors of children’s books like Dr. Seuss and Robert Munsch. That kind of great authorship is what I am shooting for!

Perhaps tomorrow will find me sitting down to sketch out a few ideas as to subject matter and a vague outline to flesh out.

One of my New Year Goals is to spend one day a week doing artwork or creative projects for either my YouTube channel or here on my blog or both!

Could this be the subject of my first weekly creative artwork I set for one of my goals this year?

What do you think about me doing this? Would you be interested in seeing some sketches and ideas as I work this out on paper and not just spinning around and around in my mind?

Your input and opinions would be most welcome as I try to figure out just what this book for Ethan would look like.

In order to fit this into the short window of opportunity I have to get it into my grandson’s hands I would have to actually produce a single true original book that I could then ship to him via the mail.

After this is accomplished I could then take the time and follow the proper steps to find a way to get a children’s book published for the public.

It might even help sell my idea to a publisher if I could point to the one I made for Ethan and how he responds to it.

The more I am sharing this idea with you all the more real it is becoming. It is no longer just a private thought in my mind. This desire, goal, intention is now out there and I find my pulse quickening a bit.

Yes, I am a little afraid as well as excited at the possibilities.

Will my drawings be good enough? What about the story or theme of the book, will it be something Ethan would want to have read to him? Or will he want to get down and play with his toys on the floor?

Would you let me know in the comments what your thoughts are? I know the decision is ultimately up to me but I guess what I am asking is would you be interested in seeing some ideas and sample drawings?

Do any of you out there have young children or grandchildren? If so what kinds of books are they interested in? Do they like stories or simple learning books on colors or the alphabet?

Thank you in advance for your responses. I appreciate everyone who stops by to read my blog and those that take the time to leave a comment to let me know they were here and what they think.

Have a wonderful day/night wherever you are! 🙂

 

 

 

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2017!

Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog. It is officially January 1st, 2017 and I am writing this at the tail end of the day.

Our current time is 11:34 P.M. and I am writing now because I think it is important to get this particular post up as soon after the new year as possible.

Edit: It is now January 2nd, 2017 and I am finishing the final edit on this post and publishing it today.

Today was busy but good. I have already started my New Year’s Goals/Intentions and it feels good.

I recently read some great information on the differences between resolutions and goals/intentions which I covered in my last post. I must say I prefer the idea of goals/intentions.

Please see my last post that I have linked here (it will open in a new window) for details on what I read and where you can find it too. –> Update & Saying Goodbye To 2016

If you fail at resolutions it is all done…there is no coming back from that failure. Resolutions seem to be set in stone with a do or die kind of feel to them.

If you fail to reach and attain a goal you can simply figure out what held you back from achieving it and then reassess and readjust the goal to try again.

I don’t know about you but I for one am tired of feeling like a New Year failure. That is what made me stop writing resolutions in the first place.

I guess before I go too much further I should let you all in on what I have defined as my goals and intentions for 2017.

My Goals /Intentions For 2017

(Whoa…that looks official, doesn’t it?)

Goal # 1 – Call and talk to friends and family once a week or more often this year.

The intention behind goal #1 – I want to and need to keep in touch with the people that matter to me and this year I intend to do just that. These people matter to me and for far too long I have allowed life to distract me and let it get me too busy doing things instead of connecting with the people I love.

Goal #2 – Read 40 books in 2017 keeping track using Goodreads.

The intention behind goal #2 – I will spend more time doing what I enjoy, which is reading, I want to invest more ME time. I have spent a lot of time doing the do things and lost track of my joy. I want to reclaim that happiness that I had before life got too busy.

Goal #3 – One day per week do artwork for either my YouTube channel or my blog (or both).

The intention behind goal #3 – I will not only get artistic content for both my channel and my blog but I will also spend more time creating art, drawing, painting and so on.

It has been too long since I took out my sketchbook and just focussed on my art. Again, I will spend more time doing what I enjoy with the bonus of creating content which I need anyway.

It is important to focus on a limited number of goals in order to ensure a better chance at success.

I stopped at three goals/intentions since I have not written a New Year Resolutions List for years. If I keep my number of goals down to a modest three I stand a better chance of being able to achieve them.

Too many goals and it will be all too easy to lose track and lose focus. I need to be able to keep my goals in sight front and center all year in order to work toward them every day.

Let’s face it if the list was a long one of 10 goals I would eventually, and in fairly short order I would think, look at the long list and give up.

That huge list would look more and more like a burden instead of something I want to strive for.

If I manage to conquer these goals this year I figure it will build my confidence to try for bigger goals next year. Correction; I have to rephrase that so I am not defeating myself before I start.

What I should have said was WHEN I conquer these goals this year… the intention is everything. What was that saying? Oh yes, this one!

In particular, I am thinking of the second set of lines. Watch your words for they become actions.

Today was only the first day of the year and I have actually worked on two of the three goals. I spent quite a bit of time this afternoon reading.

If you click on the Goodreads panel down there on the right side of the screen you will be taken to my Goodreads list of book(s) that I am currently reading.

I also made a phone call to connect with someone I love. That simple act of talking to them on the phone made me smile and I realize once again I need to do this more.

People are always more important than things.

How is your New Year starting out so far? Mine is working out pretty well, so far,…I feel invigorated and full of hope for this fresh start in a brand new year.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my post once again my friends, I really appreciate your support. 🙂

 

 

Update & Saying Goodbye To 2016

 

How was your Christmas this year?

Well hello there! So happy to see you here; pull up a chair and grab a hot beverage of your choice. I wanted to fill you in on how Christmas went, talk about 2016 drawing to a close and what that means to me.

Okay, so Christmas was absolutely terrific for me this year. My son, his wife and my two and a half-year-old grandson came to visit for the day on Christmas Day.

Pardon me while I do the proud Grandma thing and share a photo or two of the little guy. Isn’t he adorable?

This is my son and daughter in law trying to get him to rest a bit while they try to recoup some of their energy. LOL, I asked my son Jim where Ethan gets his energy from and Jim swears he steals it from both of them.

They brought us a present but as far as I was concerned their visit was a treasured present to me. According to his parents, Ethan did not nap at all on the two hour trip to our place.

He then spent the entire day ripping around from one end of our apartment to the other and back again. The only time he slowed down was after dinner.

We did try to get him to nap earlier in the afternoon when we put on DVDs of cartoons to entertain him and slow him down enough to get sleepy.

The Christmas decorations are now back in storage for another year as I prepare to say goodbye to 2016 and ring in 2017.

So what are your plans for the New Year?

I am still thinking about and trying to define what I want 2017 to look like for myself. I usually don’t make New Year’s Resolutions because every single time I have tried I ultimately crash and burn not long after January first!

That leaves me feeling horrible and berating myself for not being able to stick with anything. I dislike the idea of giving myself yet one more opportunity to mess up so I tend to avoid it like the plague.

There is a website that I love to visit and the topic of their latest article was Superior Alternatives to Old-School New Year’s Resolutions.

I read it and that article was so compelling and gave me a different way of looking at the subject.

Have a look at the article for yourself and see if it doesn’t get you thinking. Here is the link to the page (it will open in a new window).

Alternatives to Old-School New Year’s Resolutions article.

The new perspective I gained has me reconsidering my moratorium on making New Year’s Resolutions. Yes, I am considering actually picking out and declaring even a few goals/intentions.

While you are there; if you are a woman have a look at the entire website (don’t forget to tell your women friends and relatives) and consider subscribing (it is FREE). You will get access to a terrific e-book titled

How to Be One of the Successful 8%

A SIMPLE 5 STEP PROCESS FOR SETTING AND ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS

A short, comprehensive guide, complete with cartoons

If you are a man you can still read the article about alternatives to old-school new year’s resolutions, of course.

The website Profound Journey is

Exploring change, creativity & self-care

A personal growth site exclusively for women

 

You guys can help out the women in your life and let them know about the website. 😉 I would really appreciate it if you would help me spread the word about this wonderful resource for women.

I am signed up and every time I go look at a new article I learn something new. It shows me different ways to look at things and inspires me to try new things.

Okay, so far I have a rough list of what I want to aim for starting next month and continue for the eleven months following that.

I still have a lot of thinking to do because as I mentioned it is a rough list, a start. I need to get specific about the items on that list and define them as attainable, measurable goals so I will have something specific to aim for.

It is only by doing this that I will know I have achieved the goal. That would actually be a good resolution, or goal/intention, to start with; To be proud of me, for sticking with and accomplishing even one of my goals for the year.

I still have two full days to consider and think through what I want my 2017 to look like.I think I will get this posted and go get some more thinking done before Saturday night at midnight.

Thank you for dropping by to read my words and thoughts once again. You guys are awesome! If you are making resolutions or not I still wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Would you leave me a comment and tell me how you will be celebrating the New Year? Hubby and I will be here at home when the clock strikes midnight.

There will be no champagne, no watching a countdown on TV since we don’t have access, no party to go to. Likely though there will be lots of events to watch on the internet.

See you next year! Let’s all make it a good one. 😀

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wrapping All The Way Was A HUGE Success!

 

I am extremely pleased to report that the play was performed for a packed church for both performances. Saturday night was the premiere and Sunday morning was an encore.

We shot video both times and I am waiting for the final go-ahead for approval to upload the Saturday evening event to YouTube so it can be watched along with the others you can find up there.

Some parents have yet to agree to that happening. None of the kid’s names are listed in the credits of the video. Either way, as I understand it, each cast member will be given a copy of the play on a USB thumb drive as a memory of their part in it.

The kids just saw the videos tonight during their regular Kids Club Tuesday night meeting. I am told by the director that they are very pleased with their efforts and had a lot of fun.

Saturday night we got underway at 5 P.M. sharp and it took about half an hour start to finish.

After the play ended and the kids had taken their bows there was thunderous applause and a standing ovation from everyone in the audience. A few minutes later they sang their final song as an encore.

At the end, the Pastor presented the director (his wife) with roses for all her hard work and dedication.

She, in turn, thanked all who helped bring this play to reality and of course God for providing the children. At the beginning of October, there were only 3 children interested in being part of the cast.

All across the stage were 16 kids each with an integral part of the story. That is a miracle in itself, 13 more kids agreed to be in the play and they practiced every Tuesday night plus a couple of extra run-throughs right up to opening night.

In very short order they mastered complex dialogues, songs, actions to those songs, who they interact with and where to be on stage.

I am incredibly proud of these guys for getting up there and giving it all they had.

I would be struck dumb with stage fright, I am sure. The girl who played Sparky had her cat die the night before the play and woke up the next morning to be told about her cat.

She still showed up and soldiered on even though she was grief stricken. Just amazing…I am in awe of all of them.

The children were sent downstairs to change out of their costumes in order to preserve them for the next morning’s encore performance. Shortly after that, their families were sent down to be with them.

There were tables reserved for the cast and their family members so that they could sit together during dinner. Aside from that, there were dishes, silverware and cups etc. for 175 people in all.

The Amish community was hired by the church to cater a full turkey dinner buffet style. All one had to do was file past the serving tables and be asked what you wanted to be added to your plate.

There was a choice of white meat and dark, stuffing, peas, carrots, coleslaw, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, rolls (both white and whole wheat) and butter.

There were people circulating among the crowd serving coffee, tea, and an orange drink. As soon as your meal was done there was someone who showed up to inquire if you would like dessert.

Dessert was a scoop of ice cream and a chocolate cupcake drizzled with marshmallow and caramel was beside it on the plate. Mmm, it was delicious.

Sunday’s encore performance of the play took place instead of the usual sermon. There were gremlins in the midst during that time.

The CD used to play the music that the children sing to, at one point, did not sync up correctly and they had to eventually go on without one horn blast to announce the Queen of Tuneville.

The audience laughed off the glitch and the children took it in stride and continued on. In the end, they received another standing ovation!

Hubby and I were surprised at the church when we were there practicing for this Saturday’s worship (Kevin will be playing guitar up front and I am going to be on Soundboard again) as part of our Christmas Eve service.

Mary came up to us and handed us a present for Christmas and the card attached thanked us for all our work on Wrapping All The Way.

We were given two mugs with scripture on them and a large tin of Quality Street Chocolates. Mmmm…who doesn’t like getting spoiled? LOL 😉

There will be a Christmas Day service at the usual time too but I will be staying home to welcome my son, his wife and my 2 1/2-year-old grandson. They will be traveling  approx. 3 hours up to see us for the day from their house down south of us.

When my husband is done playing for the Sunday service he will be home to join us. Their plan is to get an early start on the trip up here so they can spend the better part of the day with us before having to return home.

I am looking forward to taking lots of pictures and video of the little guy since they stay small for such a short time.

Seeing pictures of him I am amazed at how much he looks like his Dad at that same age.

We are having ham this year. Frankly, we are done with poultry for a while and I am thankful that I did not have to cook or clean up a turkey dinner.

I am looking forward to seeing my son, daughter in law and grandson. It has been a long time since seeing them last.

Their gifts are waiting for them under the tree and I can’t wait to see them open them on Sunday. That to me is my greatest joy…seeing others opening gifts more so than opening gifts given to me.

I will end this post here as there is a lot of house cleaning and baking I want to get done before they get here.

But first I want to wish everyone reading this a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. If you celebrate something else I wish you a happy one of those as well. 🙂

Thank you for your support during this first year of my blog. I appreciate each and every one of you whether you are following my blog or just happened to stumble upon this post on your first visit here.

Tomorrow Night It’s Curtain Time!

The Kids’ Club Christmas play has it’s opening night tomorrow night at our church. The play is titled Wrapping All The Way and it tells the story of Jesus’ birth in a manger, the true meaning of Christmas.

There are several videos on YouTube if you would like to look it up and see basically what it is about and what it looks like. Just type ‘Wrapping All The Way’ in the search.

We have been practicing several times a week and our last run-through will be tonight at 6:30 p.m. before tomorrow night’s official production.

The play will begin tomorrow night at 5 p.m. and right after the play we all go downstairs for a full turkey dinner being put on by the church.

Everyone is welcome – the entire cast, the production team (which includes me on the soundboard and my husband who will be running the video camera) and all members of the audience whether they attend our church or not.

I took some pictures of the stage to give you an idea of what it will look like. Once all the permission forms are handed in pictures and video can be taken of the children performing the play.

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All safety steps are being taken to protect the children’s identity when it comes to sharing any photos or video of the night.

Things were a little rough in the beginning but now the children have their parts down and are beginning to shine in the spotlight. They are getting better at using the microphones, making my job easier.

The youngest cast member is just 6 years old and she is a dynamo! Wow, she has a great singing voice and not only knows her lines but pretty much everyone else’s.

She is a natural born actress. Her role is a dual one; playing Tanzie the star of the gift wrapping station in the town square and Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The story is basically one of a fictional town called Tuneville where the citizens like Christmas so much they declare every day to be Christmas Day.

They get so caught up in the excitement, gifts, and commercialism of the holiday that they forget what the true meaning is. So Tanzie tells them the story of Mary, Joseph and the angels heralding the birth of Jesus.

 

I am excited to be on the team helping to bring this play to life and I must admit a little nervous too. I just don’t want anything to happen that will detract from all the hard work these children have put in.

We have a whiteboard right next to the soundboard that has this written on it in red marker. “God gave you His best what are you giving Him?”

That always gives me pause to think every time I sit down at the controls. It is time to head off to the church for our final practice so I will finish and post this now.

Thanks to everyone that stopped by my blog to read what I had to say today.

Thank You, Everyone!

Today’s post is dedicated to every single one of you out there in cyberspace that stops by and reads my blog from time to time. I want to say  Thank You as I approach this milestone.

Coming up very quickly now, on Wednesday, December 21st, I will be celebrating ONE FULL YEAR since my very first post on this blog.

The 21st is also my husband’s birthday. He turns 48 this year and I can’t tell you how different things are since he turned 47. Wait, maybe I can…let’s see. 😉

We live in a different apartment and a different locale. We moved from the city with a population of somewhere around 54,500 people to a town with a population of 3,500.

That alone was a huge difference and then adding to that our apartment itself has gone from something stuck in the 50’s/60’s to an apartment that is brand new & modern, where we are the very first tenants.

We went from not going to church at all in the city to being fully involved in our local church here.

Kevin plays guitar sometimes with the worship team. I operate the soundboard and record the sermon to be put on the church’s website.

Both of us help clean the church every other week as well. Life here has turned a full 180 degrees from the life we lived back in the city.

 

This will be my 92nd post and I now have 88 followers on WordPress plus 3 followers via email. I am ecstatically happy with my blog’s growth.

It means the world to me that all those people, and more, want to read what I write. Thank you, doesn’t begin to express my gratitude but it is the best I can do right now.

In that same year, my YouTube channel has finally begun to take off as well. Back in the city, I was lucky to have just over 200 subscribers and just yesterday I attained 600 subs!

On the 21st I will be enjoying a steak dinner with all the fixings with my husband to celebrate not only his birthday but a tremendous first anniversary of my blog.

The fact that I have stuck to writing this blog that long is amazing to me. I have attempted to blog before but soon lost interest and let the blogs fade into obscurity.

I actually feel like I am in a really good place in my life now. Gone are the depressing surroundings, gone too are the wishy-washy commitments to blogging and to my YouTube channel.

Now that I am seeing significant changes and improvements in all areas in my life and what I am doing I feel like I have the momentum to keep rolling full steam ahead in this direction.

 

Well, my friends, I will cut this post short and get it uploaded. There is still much to do and so very little day left in which to do it.

Please know that I appreciate each and every one of you reading this. You are all contributing to my happiness in this present moment and I am so very grateful.

Have yourselves a wonderful day/night and I will see you again for post #93.  🙂