So what's new?

The dishes can wait, and I have at least one more day of wear in these jeans, right?  I buy TONS of underpants for weeks when laundry just seems too much.  The old college trick.  Wise, eh!?!?

Here is the door that closed and few windows that have opened lately:

Broadview Mansion is doing just fine without me.  I am still teaching there as a private teacher, just not in my Director of Music role.  The music studios are thriving, the programing there is beginning to streamline into a proclamation of the Word, and good things are happening.  Unfortunately the board has decided to close the Sacred Music Lending Library, effective 2011.  That part hurts, but they would have kept it open as long as I was running it, and I didn't feel called to do that job anymore.  But the experiences with so many denominations have been preparing me for a new area of vocation.

Smolen Music Studio website is up and running.  The site is somewhat generic, but it serves its purpose without a lot of babysitting or money.  And I have space for about 5 more students.   Tell your family & friends!!

Childrens Discovery Museum ArtsInk!  Music in Math exhibit opens on THIS Friday with a Donor's opening, and then Saturday to the public.  Smolen Music Studio students will demonstrating the new exhibits.  I consulted on the project-  a 2 year commitment- but so much fun and worth it.  The kids are going to LOVE it!

Time to Rise  :  A conference for church musicians of every denomination.  I am so excited about this one-  the work is hard and easy all at the same time.  This project is taking on a life of it's own and I'm excited about some spins-offs that may come from it.  

All Saints Lutheran Church is my new church home, it's a very tiny little congregation.  And the pastor and his wife are pretty nice people.  I've known them for about 35 years.  Despite the fact that they are my parents, I am learning so much from them as individuals-  how to have a more grown up faith, how to be responsible to a calling, how to abandon my will to God and rely on His righteousness.  My parents are a blessing to me.


Here's what's in my head lately:
Vivaldi: Laudaute Pueri Dominum, Psalm 119  I just found the actual score for this and hopefully will sing it next year.

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue  I heard it twice on different NPR stations in the last 3 weeks, and it is a favorite from when I was a kid.  I took it as a sign to get into iTunes and buy it.  For the kiddos, of course!  :-)


And the perpetual fight:
I have been trying to keep things together at home, The Schedule is a little nuts.  The house is a little nuts.  I can just tell from writing all this down that keeping all these things in the air will take a toll somewhere, and I know my husband could use a little care.
I also know my tendency to get overwhelmed and just fall right into an overworked depression because it is impossible to do all that needs to be done and do it well without some grace.  These are struggles for me that have been recurring throughout my adult life, and each time I go through it, it seems a little different, a little easier, a little more familiar and less daunting.  I hope I know when to slow down and give a little more to those who need and a little less to the world out there.  The trick is to get to it before I go into shut-down mode.   The newness of this old fight is my determination to sew my seeds of discontentment and weariness with God instead of with the world.  The world is just going to affirm my difficulties, distract me with it's internet and TV lures, and subdue me with it's delicious chocolate.  Ok so I won't deny myself the chocolate part.  That's going a little too far.  

And Finally...
I want to blog more.  This is so therapeutic.