Where Have I Been?

I'm back! And I'm blessed! I took a few pictures of my escapades for the last few days, and while I had my camera handy, I took pictures of some projects I completed over the summer.

Sometimes, it's nice to go walking in the evenings, as the sun is setting. Often I run into some animal or other creature, as I did the other night. It was great to stop and watch these geese follow each other around.

My first stop after working all day Saturday was playing in this church Saturday night. It was a church that was actually in my hometown, but then they had a "mega move" and the church was moved to a different town when we basically quadrupled the size of our church. It's old, though, and no air conditioning.

Sunday morning I played in this beautiful church and we sang some awesome hymns.

And Sunday afternoon I went to a third church, where a new pastor was ordained and installed. Here's a shot I took from the balcony during the ordainment. 

And here's what my music looked like as I prepared for the weekend. It was a bit of a challenge trying to keep everything straight and organized.

This is my children's book shelf. I just boxed up 2 boxes of books for storage, and I have another one boxed up that I'm going to take to school with me. The rest will wait on this shelf and in storage (and over time the numbers will accumulate, I'm sure), until I have my own classroom.

And these are the new bookshelves I put in this summer. It's my fun and professional library. I have two more crates of books, plus 3 other shelves, and 2 desk shelves. What can I say, I love reading and I love learning. Other than a few, the entire second shelf on this picture contains books on literacy development and instruction.

I've made about 13 blown up versions of children's book characters. I draw them out on posterboard really big, and then outline them and color them, and then cut them out. They will go on the walls of my classroom in the literacy center. I'm not an artist by any means, but I picked these 4 to take a picture of because they were the best of all I had made.

I wish I had a before and after picture for this. This is my music corner in our basement. There were piles of music every where, but now I have them in large tupperware containers. Yes, that is my guitar; no, I do not really play- I know the chord basics, but beyond that I'm not very good and haven't really touched it for a few years. 

I've been making felt-board characters and other retelling props. This is my current project, "The Great Big Enormous Turnip"- I haven't made boots yet for the man, and there are still 4 animals I have to make.

The last 3 days have been overwhelmingly busy, but, here are some blessings:

-This in an e-mail from the Pastor I'm playing for this Sunday: "People are very eager to have you back with us, and we so very much look forward to seeing you again."

-I made a LOT of money in tips this weekend. My tip jar is almost completely full, and I still have a few weeks of work left!

-Still finding time to Thank God, seek God, and spend time with God.

-I got to receive communion twice over the weekend.

-All of my services went very well.

-We sang this hymn yesterday morning.

-Hearing from friends from school.

-"You're such a handsome young man!"

-"You're my favorite waiter here. We all love you!"

-Finding an e-mail inbox full of amazing comments left on my blog!

-Playing worship songs on the keyboard and singing along

-Feeling great and appreciating all life has to offer! Things couldn't be any better for me!