Still Alive!

Oh my blogger friends! If you are reading this, thanks for keeping my blog on your horizons, especially since I have neglected it for so longs To be fair, it's been an incredibly busy four months--even for me, where busy is my normal state of life. Here's a quick recap:

• I went back to work in the after-school program at the local Waldorf school.
• I started directing a church youth musical play, (that I also wrote). This meant managing a group of 40 youth, ranging in age from 12-17, as well as overseeing all of the aspects of creating a play--scenery, costumes, music, etc. We only had about 6 weeks to put on this play AND it was a competition with 9 other church youth groups.
• I went back to teaching music at a local preschool (the ELC). Combined with my Korean tutoring, I'm working between 25-30 hrs a week.
• I sang the National Anthem at the Sick Town Derby Dames September bout.
• In October, I did some subbing at the ELC, and started shadowing the Kindergarten teacher in preparation for taking over her class in November. For two weeks, I worked about 50 hrs a week while still having play practices and mom stuff and roller derby stuff.
• H turned 12 at the beginning of October.
• Our play (Roadshow, for those that know the lingo) was performed twice in one day, on October 23.
• I took over the Kindergarten class at the ELC the first week of November. I gave notice at Waldorf mid-October (I'm still on the substitute list there) because I couldn't keep up with it all.
• We found out at theRoadshow awards ceremony for the that not only did our little musical play win Best Script, Best Set/Scenery, Best Presentation, and Best Director awards, we also won the Grand Champion award! J shared the Best Actress award with another girl in our stake (a stake is a unit of organization for our church) but two other youth in our play won Best Vocalist (male and female) awards. I was very proud of the youth and how hard they worked.
• December rolled in with it's many concerts. Given that we have two children in band, one in choir, and the fact that I'm not only teaching music at the ELC but also our church choir director, it's really not a surprise that from the 12th of December to the 19th of December our family was involved in 7 concerts. I also sang/directed at a Christmas Eve service.
• Joel and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary on December 12th. (yay us!)
• My daughter J turned 16 in the first week of December.
• J joined the high school swim team.
• I started attending regular roller derby practices the second week of August and LOVE IT! I'm still not very good (I literally started with NO skating skills and had to completely learn how to skate), but I keep trying. I don't know if I'll be participating in a bout (or even a scrimmage) any time soon, but I'm definitely keeping up with this. My goal right now is to be better each time I put on skates than the last time I put on skates. I'm on the newbie team (Team Skabies) for the local Albany-Corvallis league, the Sick Town Derby Dames. I do have a derby name picked out, but am going to keep that to myself for a bit.

So that's it in a nutshell. We are still reasonably healthy and very very blessed. All in all, 2010 was a pretty successful year for the Nelson family, and we are looking forward to the challenges and joys of 2011.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

I Lay My Armor Down

Right now, this song  from the album "This Ordinary Thursday" by Georgia Stitt, kinda sums up how I'm feeling. I have a lot on my plate right now. Just a little more than my normal busy mom juggling act. It's the kind of thing that I'm supposed to have help for, but so far, three of the five people I asked for help have said "no." I'm not judging their reasons, but I'm really working to fight my inital knee-jerk reactions of being nasty to them or saying something to induce guilt. This will work out; it's just the kind of situation that will. I know it. I believe it. But right now, it feels a bit like a sucker punch to my gut and it makes me sad and tired. So I'm singing this song today, until I feel better. (singing does that for me)

I looked all over YouTube for a good link--lots of good singers out there, but with not so good video quality. So if you click the link--listen instead of watch...lol (I don't want anyone getting seasick!).



For what it's worth, I do believe in God (there's a line in the song that alludes to no God) and I go through every day believing that He's there to love me, support me, and lift me up when I'm feeling low like this. It'll pass. But today, I'm going to lie low and Lay my Armor Down.

Favorite Christmas Music

So what are your favorite Holiday music CD's? I am REALLY enjoying compilations--like the Hotel Cafe Wintersongs, and the Starbucks CD's from the past, --but I am especially enjoying a certain mix of old and new:

I LOVE THIS:

I bought it on iTunes, and especially loved that it had all of the dialogue and such. Something about Bing Crosby reminds me of my Grandpa Price. His voice is just one big hug, don't you think? I also love the line, "Right or wrong, I sing either way!" (also how I feel), and it's nice to realize that David Bowie has quite a lovely voice. But for me, it goes back to the hug of Bing Crosby's voice. I never get tired of that!

What are your favorites this season? Leave a comment and let me know!