we can sleep when we're dead

Believe it or not, I do have some good excuses for my blogging hiatus. Life in our house has been absolutely insane these last 6 weeks. For 3 weeks straight, we have had/will have people in our house every single day. Whether it's for Bible study, Family Dinner Nights, Theology Question nights, Psalty rehearsals, craft days, game nights, or just because they have nothing else to do, families from church have been here every single day and we will continue to have people here every day until the end of the month. None of this is a bad thing at all. We LOVE having people in our home, especially our church family, because, well, we love them. But it has kept us pretty busy, which I will use as Excuse #1.

Dad and Mom have spent years building up their reputation as friendly, loving, hospitable people. Any woman who walks inside is treated like a daughter and sister, any man like a son and brother, and any children like grandkids. Everyone who knows my parents know that our doors are always open, our table always has room for more plates, our rooms always have an extra bed, and kitchen always has room for one more handwasher. :) One of my good friends was over here a few days ago and of course, other people were coming and going as well. She told me how cool it was that all these people knew they could just come in...no knocking necessary, no invitation required.

And come in they do. Tonight we had around 85 people here, and smaller groups will be here every day for the next 2 weeks. The main reason we've had so many people in and out is because we are a week and a half away from our children's Psalty musical! Beth, Shelley and I are directing it and if I'm allowed to say so, it's going to be completely awesome. We have 30 kids in the production, a few adult actors, and a team of about 15 teenagers and young adults that we've recruited to help us backstage and in the sound booth. Because we don't have a church building, we're renting a theater building from a private school for the performance. We're only allowed to have it for one day, so most of our rehearsals have had to be on our deck which is the closest we can come to simulating the actual stage. We've had practices at our house at least once but sometimes twice a week and some have lasted up to 5 hours. And in San Antonio heat, it's not the funnest (Warren word) thing in the world. Our kids have been terrific though. They are working hard, despite the heat, and their musical is coming together nicely.

When I'm not directing rehearsals with 40-something people, the girls and I are spending the rest of our time making tons of props, making lists and schedules, sending out endless emails and making tons of phone calls, decorating 5 huge book costumes (this is Psalty, afterall), building and painting the enormous stage flats, blocking scenes and making posters, doing silly dances in our room to iron out the choreography, making countless trips to Lowes, Target, and Hobby Lobby for supplies, and basically eating, breathing, and living all things Psalty. (This is Excuse #2.) The reason we have not gone completely insane is because we have fabulous people helping us with all that, and I am very happy to delegate jobs and projects to willing parents and teenagers so I don't have to worry about everything.

I've taken alot of pictures of the whole process and was going to post them, but I'm on a slow computer that won't let me. I'll try again tomorrow so you can see the book costumes, the flats, our adorable kids, and our great helpers.

If you live anywhere in Texas, you NEED to come see our Psalty musical!! Our sweet kids have been working so hard for 7 months and it will be one entertaining night! I can't wait to see them put together everything they've learned and sing and dance their hearts out. Oh, and Shelley will be wearing a huge 10 pound yellow book costume. Who DOESN'T want to see that? :) Let me one of us know if you can come and we'll give you directions.

Covenant of Grace Church Presents
Psalty's Funtastic Family!
Saturday, July 26, 4pm