Stress!

Christmas program is in TWO WEEKS! I have never been the one in charge of a huge production. At first, I really thought it was going to be small and easy, but then I start thinking of all the details and I am so worried that I might miss something!

• Music - The kids really know the songs well and I know they will do great here!
• Drama - ACK! I had a parent volunteer to help, long story short, he can't help so I'm running rehearsals. I don't know how to do that. All I am worried about is the kids learning their parts without reading their script!
• Sound - Here is where it gets fun. Last I heard 2 of the 3 mics the school owns have shorts in them. Should I find more to borrow or should I just settle for 1?
• Lights - Thanks to my church, they are going to light my stage. (that reminds me, I need to send an email to my pastor with the details.....)
• Props - Holy cow! I thought there wasn't much, but I start seeing more and more as I practice the drama with the kids. Where does one find gold, frankincense and myrrh?
• Set design - Thanks to a local church, I have risers. Problem is, they are homemade. Nice, big, heavy ones. It took Palmer and me all day long to transport them, now I have to set them up (in my spare time!)
• Music & Sound - Yikes! I need someone to run the CD player! While I'm at it, I ought to find someone who will sit in the sound booth and record the cute show so I can enjoy it later.
• Costumes - I hope the kid's parents realize they are making the costumes, NOT ME! I will send home a note tomorrow reminding them they are in charge of securing the costume for their child.

What else am I missing????

True Story

Our cute little family was walking towards the Holiday parade which Santa follows and turns on the lights at the Christmas Village. Many roads were closed off because of the parade. A local Police officer pulled over to us, rolled down his window and asked, "What's going on here?"

A bit startled I asked him, "What do you mean?"

"Why are there so many people around here?"

I felt relieved because I thought he was going to give us a hard time because we weren't walking off the road, but just on the side, I had to tell him, "There is the holiday light parade."

Then he asked what the parade route was. After I informed him, he drove away. I laughed and laughed. How can the local police NOT know what's going on in their own city? Glad it's not my city....

quick thanks

I am most grateful for the cross. The wonderful free gift of life given only by Jesus. Without it, I would not be saved.

I am thankful to God for giving me musical talent.
I am thankful for a job that lets me use my God given talent.

private mourning

A few weeks ago I saw a post by one of my Facebook friends about a little boy who was very sick and his wish was to get Christmas Cards from people so he could see he was loved. His family knew his time was drawing near to an end so they requested cards from their friends.

Someone posted it and it got posted and so on and so on.

When I first read it, I thought it was not real, like so many of those forwarded things. I went to Snopes.com and it wasn't there. So I did a little investigating and found out that indeed, there was a sick little boy named Noah for whom the family was celebrating Christmas early. You can read his story at
https://www.carepages.com/carepages/NoahScottBiorkman

Long story short, today I read his latest update and he left his family to be with Jesus. I wept when I read it.

God, hold Noah safe in your loving arms. Shine your grace on him and his family. God, be with his family as they mourn the loss of such a little life. May they find comfort in your mercy and love.

Matthew 4:19

Matthew 4:19
"Come follow me," said Jesus, "and I will make you fishers of man."

Okay, so this is a stretch, but I used it anyways. The Kindergarten through 3rd graders have been working so hard on learning the songs for the Christmas program that we needed to do something fun. Bryan's grandpa made these great wood fish (filled with lead in case you wanted to float them) and Bryan painted them. I put out all 12 fish and assigned a song to each fish. I told the kids they got to be fishers of songs. They caught a fish and we sang the song. Catch was, they didn't know what song went to what fish, but once they figured out what song was what fish, that fish would always be that song.

All but one grade wanted to know what all the songs were so they caught different fish every time. All except one 1st grade class. One fish was the mystery fish. I would put in the Christmas CD, press shuffle and that is the song we would sing. The kids loved it so much they caught it a total of 3 times!

Not all kids had a chance to catch a fish, so we'll do the same activity next week. Same fish, same songs. They loved it!

Side note: I'm so excited for the Christmas Program. It's all coming together. Please pray for me that I will think of all the things going into the production and won't forget any details so that it can be a night of worship to God for all.

Too Emotional

Good Grief! We had a practice fire alarm at school today and as I'm walking out seeing the kids all safely lined up with their respective teacher, I tear up. I had 2 minutes of advance notice of a fire alarm, so it didn't surprise me, so why the emotions? Maybe because it's my first fire alarm, maybe because I knew the kids were safe, maybe it's because I know how serious a real emergency could be.

Don't worry, I got it together and all went well.

I cried today

I cried today in front of 3rd grade. We have been practicing for our Christmas program for the past 6 weeks or so and the children really know the songs well. So, I pulled out my fish that Grandpa Jensen made and Bryan painted and the student's caught a fish and we sang the song attached to it.

One of the songs is a Peace Prayer with Silent Night. The choir sings Peace Prayer and the rest of the classes sing Silent Night and then the two are sung at the same time. Half of the 3rd grade class is in the choir. When they split, the choir kids sang their song and the rest sang theirs. As the song filled the room, my emotions lept from me and I wept. What a great group of students! The rest of the hour was filled with the kids trying to make Mrs. Jensen cry. I love them!

Isaiah 38:20

The Lord will surely save me, so we will play my songs on stringed instruments all the days of our life at the house of the Lord.

I have had so much fun with the musical family unit.
For the brass family, I brought in my french horn, trumpet and bugle. I let the classes try the instruments out.
For woodwinds, I borrowed my sibling's instruments; the flute, piccalo, clarinet and alto sax. I also demonstrated a recorder and how blowing into a water bottle is like the flute. Because these were not my instruments, I didn't let the kids try those.
For strings I brought in my 12-stringed guitar, a ukelali Palmer's violin. I didn't want to bring Ethan's cello because I didn't have the room to haul it in my little Prius. I let the kids' try the string instruments.
Percussion is next week. I'm excited to bring it all together with Peter and the Wolf and Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.

We're like apple billionaires!

Says Evan after seeing all the apple jars lined up.

Here's my day and help yesterday:

Started about 12:45 with Susie and Mary Palmer

Stopped for 1/2 hour to pick up Ethan from school.

Resumed at 2:20 with Ethan and Susie.

Around 3:00 Ethan's friend Ashley shows up to play,

I put her to work instead!

(She'd never used a peeler!)

Susie left at 4:00 taking Ethan with her.

Now it's just me and Ashley, so I ask Evan to help.

Ashley stays until 5:30 even after one of her friends calls her to "hang out" at 4:45. Here is the phone conversation, "Hi Rachel..... no I can't hang out, I'm at Ethan Jensen's house helping his mom cook."

Now it's just me and Evan.

Bryan comes home around 6:30 and does dishes.

I put the last batch of apples in the pot to can at 7:35 pm.

They come off at 8:10 pm.

I'm tired!

I Chronicles 13:8

And David and all Israel were rejoicing before God with all their might, with song and lyres and harps and tambourines and cymbols and trumpets.

Job 21:12
They sang to the tambourine and harp and rejoice at the sound of the flute

Psalm 98:6
With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the king the Lord.

Psalm 150:4
Prasie Him with tambourine and dancing. Praise Him with the strings and flute.


I'm dong a unit on the 4 musical families. Isn't it great how the Lord accepts our praise in musical form!