My Life Now

Sorry I've been a slack blogger lately. Life has been very full of wonderful summer holiday things! With the flood seemingly over and behind us, lots of other things have been keeping us busy.

We've had trips to the pool and the water park and the indoor playcentre, we've been school shoe shopping and school book covering, pencil labelling, etc. - and I even had a spontaneous trip by train last weekend for my little brother's engagement party! We are meant to be travelling to the city again next weekend to see the musical Wicked, but it may be cancelled due to the recent flooding. We know up until the Friday night performance is cancelled - but Saturday is still yet to be announced. I'm not giving up hope yet!

The children start school next week so we've been talking lots about that, praying, preparing, etc. I think we're all feeling a combination of excitement and nerves.

But mostly my life right now has been full of this:

Remember this post? Well, Marian is slowing entering my subconscious as I learn all my lines and music and try to get my head fully around this rather complex character!

Our first rehearsal was on Monday night. The whole cast was together for the first time and we worked on a chorus number. I'm not in many of the chorus scenes, so won't be required Monday nights again for the next few weeks. Wednesday nights are Principal rehearsals (SO excited for tonight!), and Saturday mornings are purely singing with our vocal coach for the show. I've had to shift three of my own piano students to lesson times through the week. Life is certainly going to be full for awhile. Once we get into February and March, rehearsals will be Monday and Wednesday nights, plus Saturdays and Sunday afternoons. Final couple of weeks before we open we need to be available to go in every night of the week. Eeek! With no family in town, this is an enormous challenge for me. Thankfully Stuart and I can tag-team quite a bit as we're mostly in different scenes - but once we start doing full runs of the show, our wonderful babysitter Hayley and a couple of special friends will be caring for our little ones at night time. It will be a whole team effort! :)

I am so excited about this opportunity, and am going to be working very hard to ensure life stays as calm and smooth for the children as possible for the next 8 weeks........ until it's all over. Theatre is my passion, and it's so good for my spirit to be working on a project like this one. While the children are at school, William and I will be busy keeping all the cogs of home life turning. :) And he will be in care two days a week in a fantastic day care centre here in town. He is calling it "Kindy" and is beyond excited about going! We went to visit last week and I just feel a huge sense of peace about it. I will use that time for piano teaching (I've got three, maybe four students to fit in on weekday afternoons), housework, cooking, appointments, shopping, singing practice, exercise, etc etc. And maybe a bit of rest here and there. ;)

Last year was quite a harrowing year in many ways. Health problems were the main concern. Then there were issues within our family - things that just weren't working well. We are all feeling quietly hopeful that 2011 will be a year of balance for all of us. Balance for good physical and mental health, balance of work and play and rest. Balance of time at home and time 'out in the world'. :) Time to read and time to delve into scripture, intentional time for prayer and spiritual growth. I just want to draw closer to my Saviour this year and trust and rely on Him more than ever before.

Wishing you all a balanced, happy and healthy year too my friends! Oh, and thank you for listening to my rambles.