Bi-weekly check-in

Just jumping in this morning to let those of you still reading know we are all still alive here. As for most people, December can be an activity-filled month for us. One of those activities has nothing to do with the holidays... That would be the graduation of my husband's students. I don't play a huge role in this, other than to create the invitations in November and then make the graduation programs in December, once all the details (speaker, awards, etc.) have been ironed out. This year had to have been the latest I have ever done the programs. With graduation occurring on Wednesday, I didn't finish the programs until Monday and didn't print them out until Tuesday (when I got the paper for the job).  

In addition to those programs, once again I designed the programs for Emily's choir concert coming up next week. Her director like the job I did last year so well that she asked me to do them again. I got about a 2-week notice on that job. I was able to get these done and emailed the file to her a few days ago. The nice thing about that task is that it gives me credit towards the 20 service hours each family is required to do every year.

Speaking of Emily's concert, this year she is doing a duet with one of the guys from her choir. They are doing Pié Jesu. I am really looking forward to hearing them. I've looked at the music here at home and it is a really pretty arrangement.

Today is Halle's dress rehearsal for the Christmas program at church. We'll be heading out in a few minutes for that. Rehearsal is from 8:30 to 12:30. The performances are tomorrow at 9 and 10:45, so we will be at church from 8-12:30 tomorrow. During at least part of that rehearsal time, I'm hoping to make a couple of quick stops to look for some Christmas gifts. Also today, after I get Halle home from her rehearsal, I'll be taking Emily to a hair appointment at 1:30. Hopefully after we get back from that, I can be done running for the day. I know tomorrow will be extremely full... I'll probably have to go grocery shopping once we get home from church.

One really nice thing about the upcoming week is that Brian is taking a few days off and will be at home with us. I know the kids will enjoy having him around; so will I! He and I will try to get some time alone to take care of some of our Santa duties... should be fun!

On the first day of December....

Since I last posted, it has been much the same here, with various runnings to and fro. The Six Flags trip was fairly uneventful. The weather was perfect and it was blissfully not crowded, so it was actually somewhat enjoyable, except for the overpriced lunch that was so horrible no one really ate it.

On a more recent note, we spent a nice Thanksgiving with friends from church. This was the first Thanksgiving in a long while in which I didn't spend hours in the kitchen. All I made for this meal was a small ham, a coconut pie, and a chocolate pie.

Over the weekend, we got quite a bit of cleaning and rearranging done around here. Brian is a dynamo when it comes to that kind of stuff. We also set up a new computer area for the kids, tucked away upstairs in the walk-in hall closet. We developed a new set of guidelines for use and times and the kids have been really good about them so far.

In other news, I recently received a very nice compliment from Carrie. She nominated me for this blog award:

This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships!
These blogs are exceedingly charming.
These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement.
Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.
Please give more attention to these writers!
Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Thanks, Carrie! Here are my nominees:

Betty at  JettyBetty

Jenny at Enlightened Eyes

Dee at Finding Direction

Katherine at Raising Five

Donna at The Other Blog

Shane at Come Back, Shane!

Franklin at Youth Ministry Hilarity

Jim at Jim's Journey