Rather than feel guilty for not blogging here, I'm going to officially take a 2 week break so that I can deal with three big projects that are simultaneously coming to a head.

I'll be back the first week of July...

Instruments of Peace

John Rutter's setting of the Prayer of St. Francis is a piece that brings me peace. It's been a long week (hence the lack of blogging here) and we've planned a peaceful and quiet day today- something most welcome.

Bedazzled

Life on Van Island is pretty casual and the dress code here reflects that. It took me a few years to make that cultural shift but now I'm completely comfortable in my 'uniform' of in jeans and cotton shirts. I have even given up wearing heels... something I would have never believed six years ago. While I love the freedom and ease that comes with this part of island living, I do miss the little bits of glamour that existed in my pre-Vancouver Island life. That's why I think I need to get the Ultimate Sparkle Umbrella by Klair.  I think this is the only bejeweled accessory I have a real chance of integrating into my current wardrobe.

Photo from Masato.co.uk

Sweet Spirit

I love the story of how Doris Akers wrote the gospel hymn Sweet, Sweet Spirit (you can read the story here). It's a gospel piece I remember from my childhood sung many times by men's choirs or quartets similar to this one (click here). I love when old classics are renewed in new arrangements and sung by new artists. The Choir of Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford has a wonderful version on their CD Voci di Fuoco that has made me enjoy this piece in a whole new way.

Voice of Reason

It feels these days that we have a lot of pots boiling on the stove. Even before our laundry room is finished, Jeff and I are trying to make some decisions about our kitchen redesign but have been quite overwhelmed by the incredible number of choices out there in everything from cabinet door profiles to tile to oven features. Usually, I'm the dreamer and go off on all sorts of wild and wonderful ideas before reigning myself in and coming back to Jeff, who is quite rooted in reality. That was, until we went shopping for kitchen appliances last weekend and Jeff fell completely and totally head-over-heels for this:

Jeff sees this cooktop as a thing of mechanical beauty. I see this cooktop as a mass of unnecessary moving parts that will inevitably go wrong and that probably can't handle my big soup pot in the first place.

We decided that "Star Trek Stove" (as Jeff has affectionately named this one) needs to stay in the showroom and we need to go back to the drawing board. Jeff is quite heartbroken about it. I keep looking outside, expecting to see pigs flying around because this kitchen has totally upended our usual roles. Me- the main voice of reason while finally planning a new kitchen?! It was a little more fun when I was the dreamer.

Back to the Laundry

With both of us busy at our day jobs during the week, progress has slowed in the laundry room. The cabinet doors are up with new hardware (except for a few drawer pulls that will be recycled from our soon to be gutted kitchen) and the tile is all cut and measured for the landing. We should be able to finish cementing it down tonight then grout on Thursday night.

In the meantime, I'm starting to sort through everything previously stored in the laundry room to determine what needs to go back and what can be purged. It's a cathartic but slow process that I enjoy because it restores chaos back to order! I'm not so good with chaos. And yes- we're already making plans and decisions for our upcoming kitchen renovation. This is going to be our most ambitious renovation yet- moving walls, closing up exterior doors and refinishing old parquet wood floors. It's a level of chaos that hurts my head to think about.

Creative Blues

Because I'm up to my eyeballs in three simultaneous work projects, I'm craving the opportunity to do some creative things at home. That probably won't happen until July... in the meantime, I'll just dream about turning the extra meter of blue chevron fabric in my sewing stash into this. 

Photo from here

Christ Alone

I read two very interesting blog posts about church music recently - Why have men stopped singing in church and Worship is about Christ not impressing crowds. I think both posts make good points. Reading this left me thankful that there are some great modern hymn writers out there. I think Keith and Kristyn Getty are two of the best.