Church Callings

Just a quick update on my church callings:  After a little over three years of playing the organ, I got released last week.  When asked about playing the organ by a member of the bishopric a little while ago, I did mention that it was going to be a bit difficult, mostly for Nate, once we had this new baby plus our other three fairly young kids.  Some moms have to manage their little kids by themselves during sacrament all the time, but dads aren't as used to it, mostly because they don't do it at home all day long.  Nate barely survived by himself with Damon as a newborn and Kelton as a crazy two year old.  And really, it only worked for me because Damon was bottle fed from really early on.  So, now with two crazy boys who like to fight and bother each other, and a soon to be newborn baby (Natalie is always really good), it was time for me to rejoin them.  I didn't mind playing the organ at all.  I will miss the quiet of sitting alone on the stand for the beginning and end of the meeting.  But it will also be nice to not be worried about not being able to help Nate keep the kids quiet, especially during the Sacrament.  (Or chasing my escaped two year old (Damon) across the front of the stand during the sacrament.  He was ever so nicely repetitively yelling, "NO, MOMMA!" the whole time I tried to catch up with him.)

Today was my first time sitting with my family for all of sacrament meeting since Kelton was about a year old.  I think having me there on the bench for the first 25 minutes of the meeting threw my boys off a bit.  They weren't very good.  It is going to take some re-adjusting/re-training. 

Also, this evening was the third time I have held choir practice.  I was called to be the choir director back in January or February.  But, along with being super not excited about it, I had morning sickeness hit at about the same time.  That pretty much took me out of commission for a few months.  Then we had a few months of crazieness in buying our new house, setting the other house up as a rental, and moving/settling in to the new house.  Once that was all finished, I was able to find some music for the choir to sing and then figure out a time when we would be able to meet.  Our church meetings start at 8:00 a.m. and we share the building with three other wards, plus one more ward that meets in a school because we can't do five blocks in our small building on Sunday, but they still use the building for all other purposes.  So, finding a time for choir practice when people would actually come was a bit challenging.  We meet from 6:00-7:00 p.m.

But we are underway now.  This calling is a bit different for me.  I am way more used to being the one behind the piano.  And directing a choir is different from just conducting the music.  But I am slowly figuring it out and it seems to be going okay.  Hopefully the choir members feel the same way.  We even almost have one song ready to sing.