Our Lady of the Rosary

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Image from http://tlm-md.blogspot.com/?m=1
Image from http://tlm-md.blogspot.com/?m=1

Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. All day look for tweets, blog posts and Facebook posts with #TweetingMOM – MOM for Mary out Mother. Social media is coming together with a whole day of rosary prayers, intentions, stories and inspirations. Share your rosary story here or anywhere. Check out http://catholicmom.com/2015/10/04/tweetingmom-a-virtual-celebration-of-the-rosary/ for more inspiration and information on #TweetingMOM

Hail Mary, full of grace The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners. Now and at the hour of our death.

Amen

Reading the Same Sheet of Music

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If you read my last post it shouldn’t come as too big a shock at a subsequent post would follow the story to the next rehearsal.

I was glad when Sunday arrived. Not only does it mean going to church, it also now means nearly 2 hours of music rehearsal – by myself! Big plug for my husband who is hanging with all 3 kids so that I can indulge my musical side.

While I was happy to be singing, I was looking forward to bell choir. When we got the bells out, I got straight to work highlighting my music. As we are all novices to the bells, our choir director asked us to highlight all our notes to help get everyone on the same page, or measure for you music folk. Each bell is one note, like one key on the piano. By highlighting wherever your note or notes (if you are in charge of multiple bells) appears, it helps keep everyone together. We have three songs for Christmas this  year, so we were all a bit scattered as we highlighted. I was absorbed in The First Noel – the bells I have been assigned are used frequently and play important roles in keeping the tune going. I looked up and realized we were going to start playing, so I got ready. 1, 2, 3, 4 Go!

It was so hard! I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t able to find my place. Then, when I thought I had found it, I had completely lost it again. I was counting, I was focused, I couldn’t figure it out. When the piece was finally over, the director looked straight at me and said, “Ok, good, good. Now, Kate, I didn’t really hear the C though.” I glanced at the music stand next to mine. Mine, as you know, said The First Noel. Everyone else’s said “Away in the Manger.” Oh dear. And in that one my missing “C” note messes up everyone! I was so absorbed in what I was doing, that I missed the direction to switch songs.

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Embracing Challenge

Published on by Kate3 Comments

I think I finally understand why Ben enjoys endurance biking. My husband, Ben, has been training the last few months for a bike race that will be 100 miles…up and down mountains (gorgeous views of the Pacific ocean and California coast)…with roughly 1,000 other road bikers. Personally, all this time, I haven’t really understood his desire to do this. I intellectually understand he has a joy for riding. He freely admits to being a tinkerer and has very nearly stripped down the entire bike to the frame and has built it back up with new and used parts so that it perfectly fits him. He just loves it, even if he comes back from a training tired, dirty and sore.

The amount of physical effort that he has put into this venture is immense and I applaud him for it – I just don’t understand it! Until now, at least.

Now, before I tell you what my enlightenment experience was, please promise not to laugh too loudly.

Image from: http://www.clc-scituate.org/bells-sound/
Image from: http://www.clc-scituate.org/bells-sound/

Bell choir.

Yes, I have joined the bell choir at our church. Basically the bell choir is the adult choir (which I also sing with), but with bells. (We aren’t quite this awesome…).

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