Choir Sharing

This week has been very busy with Stephen and I volunteering to help out a music education organization SouthEast Chapter of Kodaly Educators (SECKE). I am a member of the organization and was the co-secretary this past year. Anyway, we provide a couple of workshops throughout the year, and a choir festival once a year, called Choir Sharing, for school choirs to come and perform and be assessed. It lasts for two days and just the mornings. Stephen volunteered to record the choirs so they would be able to have a copy and listen to how well they performed on the day. We had lots of fun! I was basically helping to organize where people were to sit and how to get these choirs, with up to 75 kids in one choir, in and out of the auditorium quickly and quietly. Stephen and I arrived at 8am on Tuesday to set up the mics and recording equipment. The choirs started to come at 9:30am that morning and were continuous until about 12:30pm. Then we had lunch and then I went to teach my piano students from 2:30-6pm that night! Needless to say I was exhausted! I came home and sat on the couch while Stephen heated up our dinner (I had made a casserole the day before to last us for a couple of days!), I ate and litterally went to bed! The next day we were back there again at 8am and had the same routine except I could come home after lunch and didn't have to teach on Wed.

I think we had 21 different school choirs over the 2 days and we heard some very good singing! It was encouraging to see so many good music teachers giving students the opportunity to excel in music and learn to work together as a group to achieve! I took my choirs that I taught last school year to this last year, and I remember them really enjoying the experience and taking a lot away from it. We had a range of children from age 7 to 14. The 7 year olds were my favorite, they sang a lullaby and it was so precious I cried! I think it was the pregnancy hormones but still it was just lovely! There were 40 or more 7 year olds all standing up there on the stage and when they came to sit in the audience they were the best behaved children we had all day! I did have to accompany for one choir that was missing their accompanist. Our Choir Sharing director came up to me and asked me Wed morning if I would be able to accompany for this one choir as their accompanist had tripped over a pre-schooler the previous day and got a concussion! It would have been funny had the lady not received a concussion from the event! Anyway, it was good to be of service to a choir director in need!

Thankfully I am feeling much better and have more stamina this week to be able to help with this event. Yesterday I just rested to make sure I am ok. Baby seems to be fine, I haven't felt baby move yet, or not anything significant enough to speak of. My doctor did say that it could be up to 24 weeks before I feel baby move, so we will see.

Getting ready for our Mother and Daughter dinner this Saturday as Mother's Day is this Sunday. I have been asked to speak for our dinner so I am studying and praying for God's will. I am learning so much from the study and really enjoying it. We are doing Titus 2:3-5 and how it can relate to a mother and daughter relationship too. I've been doing a word by word study on the passage and then will try to tie in how my mother is truly a Titus 2 older woman! I also want to challenge the younger women to be humble in listening to the advise of the older women in the church and not think they know more than them. Sometimes we younger women can be a bit prideful and we need to be mentored by those who have gone before us and learned great lessons from the Lord in how to raise their children, love their husbands, and take care of their homes. Happy Mother's Day to all mothers!