Begin

Doxology

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host:
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

My Jane and William,

 I am brimming with excitement and joy to start this project of recording music and stories from our family for you, your children, and your children's children to learn about the family that came before you, the people that helped shape who you are and where you come from. I will tell you stories and sing you songs of the past and the present, of your great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers, and tell of the faithfulness of generations past who are now helping to shape your present and future. I leave you this collection of cherished memories, sacred moments, and the music that filled them.

Learn these songs, memorize them,  and hide them in your hearts. They will be your companions through every season if you let them. God can use them to teach you, encourage you, guide you, and comfort you. Let the songs, stories, and scriptures here be a reminder to you of God's faithfulness and of his never-ending, never-changing, relentless love for you. These are the songs of your ancestors. They have been passed down for generations upon generations, and I hope you will continue to pass them down for years to come.

When I starting putting together resources to do this a long time ago for myself, I found it much harder than I had anticipated. What I found were mostly covers sung by contemporary singers that changed a little or a lot of the song for stylistic purposes. Though I greatly enjoy many of those hymns, the words were sometimes hard to understand if you didn't already know the hymn, and most of the time only one or two of the verses were sung. When I did find some hymns that contained all the verses, they were largely the same fifteen or twenty best-loved hymns. If I found more obscure hymns (which I love), they were mostly choral, and again hard to hear and learn the lyrics and melody due to harmony parts and choral variations. I remember thinking "can somebody please just sing the hymn normally, clearly, and sing all or most of the verses? Maybe as a bonus it would be sung in a style that you guys would like listening to but that I wouldn't mind playing? It doesn't need to be fancy, people. I just want to teach my kids some hymns..."

And here we are. Normal, not fancy (or perfect), most-of-the-verses hymns for you to listen to...or myself...so that I can sing the songs without the recording and spontaneously burst into song with "For the beauty of the Earth" when we are going on a walk or picking flowers and not waiver when we get to the third verse...and here's the best part...YOU will be able to sing it right along with me. If you hear a baby crying in the background or children saying random things during the recordings...that's because YOU were crying in the background or saying random things while I was recording...and I love it.

I've been wanting to start this project ever since we started to pray about having children, but kept getting hung up on all the details. your dad, in all his wisdom and after hearing me go round and round about all these ideas for a really long time finally sat me down and said "Sarah, just start. The recordings don't need to be fancy, and you will learn as you go. Your great-grandchildren are not going to care if you get every note right. Just begin." Most of the time that's the hardest part. Beginning. If you can trust God enough to begin, even with the faith of a tiny mustard seed, He will show you each step, sometimes just one at a time. And that's all you need to start. Trust Him. Put your faith into action. Think about lying on your death bed right now and think about what you will wish you would have done...and do that. Begin.

I love you sooo much,

Mom

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Life with you

As of now, I'm staying at home as a housewife with a very talkative and (mostly) delightful two-year old (Jane), and a well-fed (16.5 lbs) and adorable three month old (William). Life is grand, and all the simple moments spent playing, laughing, crying, praying, eating, cleaning, guiding, and then doing it all again seem to all run together into this sort of hazy dream. Some days truly are a dream and I want every second to slow down and never end because my heart is so full of joy. Other hard days that I wish would be over seem to last forever. It's beautiful and messy and i want to drink in all of it. One of my goals these days is to cherish those hard days too and make room for God to redeem the moments that don't go so well. For instance, last week (on father's day), one of my father's day gifts to your Papa was almost killing him when I accidentally dumped water right down his throat. Jane, you saw the whole thing, but thankfully you were playing happily and didn't seem to be bothered by Papa coughing up his lungs. It will probably be a while before he gets in the kiddie pool with me again...


Books I'm Reading and Re-reading: The Life-Giving Parent (a book study), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 

Music we are listening to: Rain for Roots- The Kingdom of Heaven is Like This (that Tia Susanna sent to us)


Jane: Just started asking "why" a ton in the evenings ~you call the strings of your apron a "tail" when we bake ~we can just start to put your hair in a little ponytail ~ you have been helping Daddy take care of the baby hawk in the backyard~ every time we ask you what you what you are thinking about or what you want to talk about you say Jesus every time ~ you just started consistently saying "I love you, too"  and pointing at us after we say I love you ~ you love to play on the bed ~ you are so helpful with Will and help get burp cloths for him ~ my favorite song to sing with you right now is Ski-da-ma-rink-a-dink-a-dink ~ You are a pure joy and you light up every room you enter ~ You are full of giggles, questions, hugs, and snuggles most of the time ~ when you get upset you automatically run to your room, and come back about 30 seconds later smiling again ~ you make up lots of songs about just about everything and sing them at the top of your lungs (in the car) ~ you love to comfort baby Will ~ you are learning blow bubbles in the water, kick your legs, and dunk your head in the pool (a little bit)

William: You are either very happy or very not ~ you love watching Jane do just about anything ~ you give me the most smiles ~ you like to be facing out so you can see everything ~ you come to a book study with me every Tuesday ~ You sleep ALL night ~ You eat lots during the day and usually take one good nap and the rest are cat naps (I am much more relaxed with you than I was with Jane when it comes to your schedule) ~ you are wonderfully chubby and have the best dimple ~ you throw your head back when you cry ~ you get hot easily like me ~ we can't tell who you look like yet ~ you are the perfect addition to our family and we love you to pieces ~ you are growing out of your clothes quickly but we also just keep you in your diaper a lot because you are so cute