Singing for Days Straight

We watch music videos the way sports people watch the Olympics. Cheering, judging, and enjoying. Then we come away inspired, stoked, and ready to sing for a couple days straight.

Whenever a video starts, my family and I gather from all four corners of the house. We squeeze in on the couch even sitting on the back of it (like I did last night when we were watching snippets of the actual Olympics), and time stops until it's over.

We recently spent a couple of mornings binge watching Peter Hollen's YouTube channel. We'd seen some of his songs but hadn't thought of looking at his channel until we discovered that he had covered some of our favorite songs. 

We love this one! It is not only beautiful but also filmed in an area in Oregon that looks exactly like our hometown. We have fun speculating. ;)

This one isn't the best musically; but it's pretty fun and we love how the mom looks like Maria from A Life of Music. ;) (Enjoy the goat scene!)

For some reason, this is my absolute favorite. I haven't even seen the movie, but this song is so hauntingly beautiful and he does such a good job singing it in Latin.

What music have you been enjoying lately?

Questions, Questions

The last survey I did was so much fun, I thought it was high time for another. This is borrowed and tweaked from Aimee's Google+, so you can thank her later. ; )

1. Name: Kate Marie
2. Age: Young enough and old enough. ; )
3. Role model: Jesus Christ, Mommy...
4. Hobbies: The three r's (minus the 'rithmatic), cooking/baking, nephew chasing, singing with my family, writing letters, test reading, amateur sewing, talking.
5. Favorite actor: Jimmy Stewart, and Gregory Peck. (And if you're asking about ones currently living I'll add Kirk Cameron, and David Tennant. And James from Studio C!!!)
6. Favorite actress: June Allyson, Julie Andrews, Donna Reed, and Amy Adams 
7. Best friend: I live in an artist colony (yeah, creative people who wear weird clothes--we qualify when we're still in pjs), so I'm pretty much best friends with everyone here. Outside of my family, I'd say Esther, Rebekah (both of them), Anya, and Susie.
8. Favorite band: Andrew Peterson and all his folks!!! (Though I'm beginning to branch out into some of the other Rabbit Room-ers...)
9. Favorite song: Kung Fu Piano by The PianoGuys and Rejoice by Andrew Peterson.
10. Favorite movie: Fireproof, A Man Called Peter, and Toy Story 3.
11. Favorite animal: Big dogs and small cows.
12. Favorite subject: English. (That covers about all of the wordy stuff.) ; )
13. Pens or pencils? Pencils, because I'm a fallible human. 
14. Summer or winter? Winter. It's so moody and good for inspiration and a really good excuse for reading.
15. Tea or coffee? Chai tea! It's like coffee without the dirt flavor.
16. Good day or bad day? So far, so good. I've made breakfast, read my Bible, and done my chores while talking waaay too much with my crazy siblings. 
17. Birthday: In the springtime. Lovely, lovely springtime.
18. Something that makes you happy: God's love, babies, books, breaking 13k words in my story, my family, our sweet dog Ella... I'm sorry, there are too many. ; )
19. Something you're looking forward to: In the future future, having a family of my own and Christ's return. In the present future? Eating lunch, publishing, writing more, and seeing the nephews again.
20. Tell a story in one sentence: Once upon a time, there was a problem that was solved so everyone could live happily ever after.
21. Nominate any number of people: I think it would be fun if Rebekah, Holly, and Lauren answered these questions! ; )

Now it's your turn! Answer the questions if you like or ask me an extra one. ; )

Josh Gwoban

Happy Leap Day, everyone! I hope you are enjoying this day since it only comes every four years. (Well, presidential elections do too, but that's a totally different story.)  I don't have a lot of time for blogging at the moment even if this day is "extra", but I thought I'd share with you a few hilarious videos we recently discovered. (Please be mindful of the fact that YouTube is a secular site. I also cannot wholehearted endorse the words of the first song since I've never been able to understand them all.) ; ) Enjoy!

Let's say you take a dramatic song like... maybe this...

\

and you do something like this to it...

Then you get us singing along to the dramatic version in husky little kid voices and just cracking up over it. (Add to that that we are coming off a cold so we're husky anyway...it's pretty great!) Poor Mr. Gwoban, though. I bet he's never been able to sing that song normally again! Especially after this...

Pretty awesome, eh? ; P

Grateful for 2015

Wow, I can hardly believe that 2015 is already over! Every other blog post you’ll read this week will probably start with those same words, but isequelh it’s the truth—time flies. There has been so much to be grateful for this past year, even the fact that this year happened. The world was supposed to end in 2012, so don’t forget that we are all miracles, folks.

It would never do to try to exhaust everything awesome that happened in the last 365 days. My brain would steam and yours would fall out your ear. So I’ll just cover the categories and please forgive me if I leave something out. ; )

I’m so grateful for…

• My family. The more I live the more I learn that my family is awesome. They are my built in friends, Romans, countrymen, critics, laugh track, comedy show, iron sharpeners (‘cause I have a pastor-dad!), and friends. Nobody else in the world would giggle at 11 o’clock at night about dropping flashlights or understand the joke “the eggs rolled off the ceiling”. (We don’t even understand that one.) Nobody else in the world would properly appreciate the term Calminian or be able to go on all day about the Trinity and constitutional rights at the same time. And definitely no one else would die laughing over our brother’s ability to mimic the voice of everyone in our family and beyond.
• More of my family. Yeah, I’m talking about the cute chubby ones and their chauffeurs. The Chap and the Chum and their tiny brother who is trying to learn to crawl so he can join them in throwing all their toys out the bedroom window and hosing each other down when Dad and Mom aren’t looking. They lived with us for five months this year in which we got to witness Chum getting un-chubby enough to be able to walk, Chap learning to do fist-bumps and say all sorts of intelligent things, and their fabulous brother being born. Then we got to help move them into their own little house, and altogether it’s been altogether amazing. ; )  The chauffeurs are pretty amazing too, by the way. Perry is great for calling and telling all about the three mile thick novel you are never going to write or getting all the advice you could ever need whether you want it or not. ; P (Hi, Perry! I know you are reading this! This part is for you!) And Tyler is awesome to bake for and shoot with Nerf darts.
• Church family. Since we started out on that infamously crazy road trip to move down here a year ago, they have been so welcoming and helpful. It’s been great to learn and grow and laugh and love with them all. Probably my two favorite things I’ve done with them all this year were our church picnic in April and caroling this past Christmas Eve.
• Friends. Most of my friends are at my current church, but if I didn’t talk about this category I’d be leaving out the special people back in the Northwest and my pen-pals far and near. All of these people have enriched my life so much.
• Media. I don’t mean the tv/social networking/newspaper kind. If you’ve been reading my blog long enough, you’ve probably noticed that this year has been a book explosion for me. There are definitely too many books for me to mention; but my favorites this year have been Dreamlander, Gift from the Storm, The Green Ember, its prequel The Blackstar of Kingston, The Warden and the Wolf King, and the Aggie’s Inheritance series. It’s not just books that I’ve been enjoying this year either. Andrew Peterson’s albums “After All These Years” and “The Burning Edge of Dawn” have been used by God to draw me so much closer to Him, and Handel’s “Messiah” is going to be a forever favorite now that I’ve heard it live. Two of my favorite movies this year are probably “Inside Out” and “The Stratton Story” (Jimmy Stewart—yup, yup!); but “Cinderella” isn’t on there just because I still haven’t seen it yet. (Goals for this year…) ; )
• Projects. Very sorry to bore you with more of “Kate’s Nerd Stuff”, but this year has been awesome for writing and test reading. I’ve written three short stories, two 10k words stories that I like tolerably well, and I’m halfway through another. I’ve also gotten to test read three manuscripts this year, which is always fun because it’s been rare for me to get to read something by someone who’s living and breathing right now and is asking my opinion. ; ) I love working out my worldview and imagination in story form and the sharpening from fellow authors is pretty awesome. The two Rebekah’s and the lovely people at Noble Novels have been a big part of that process this last year. (And those funny phone calls with Perry!) ; )
• Little things. A mini muffin tin; family celebrations; our sweet dog Ella (Nana if there ever was one!); sunny, breezy days; boots (I just got some for Christmas!!!); driving two hours just for the world’s best Mexican food; teaching a little friend from church how to say my name; old pictures; swings… There’s so much more, but you get the idea. Aren’t you proud that I didn’t accidentally sneak more books into this category? ; )
• Lessons and love. I have big problems with fear. I have big problems with change. I have big problems with adoring people but not wanting to talk to them because they are just too scary. I have big problems with controlling my imagination. I have problems with trust. I still have problems with crying when I smash a dish and then getting all defensive. I have problems with managing to get everything done. But when God said, “Let there be a Katie”, He knew there would be a lot of problems with her. Her teeth would be crooked; she would be afraid of the dark; she would love Him one moment and forget Him the next. God knew all of that. He loved her unconditionally. He sent His Son to atone for all of her sins. He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in her heart to conform her to His image, and He gave her lessons this year to teach her. And someday, when all things are made new so will Katie. Right now she’ll listen to Andrew Peterson’s songs “The Rain Keeps Falling” and “Rejoice”. She’ll talk about herself in the third person so she can tell her blog readers about herself while pretending that that problematic person is someone else. ; ) And she’ll strive to love people and listen to the Holy Spirit. 

All of that is why I am grateful. What about you? 

Christmastime Is Here!

Ten days ‘til Christmas, wow! This year has really sped by for me. These first two weeks of December, there has been so much to be grateful for! Let me share some of it with you…

I’m grateful for…

• Our family’s Advent celebration. Every night (at least every night we are able), Dad pulls out the Advent calendar after dinner and reads aloud that night’s little book that tells a part of the Christmas story. It’s a time where we all slow down to remember the Story again, sing Christmas songs together, and share in good conversation. This year, my littlest sister is finally old enough to participate in the celebration and understand what’s going on. It’s a really special time. ; )
• Our church’s Christmas recital early this month. I got to sing alto to “Joy to the World!” in a performance with some of my family members and friends. ; ) It was so amazing to be a part of! I also enjoyed listening to Anna and her friends sing “O Come, All Ye Faithful”; Tyler and Perry do “Mathew’s Begats” (by Andrew Peterson); and Tyler, Perry, and Dad perform “The Holly and the Ivy/While Shepherd’s Watched Their Flocks” (another Andrew Peterson).
• Babysitting nice nephews while their parents did music at the recital and that Sunday for church. Chap was hilarious sitting on my lap and coloring all over my sermon outline. Later when he was sitting with his parents again, I used his crayon to take notes. ; ) I also got to experience the “cry room” with the littlest one, which was a new experience. ; )
• Funny to say it, but…the clothes! All the best colors—red, green, black—are Christmas-y and my family actually finds it pretty easy to coordinate during this season. ; ) And I actually get to wear my warmer, favorite things since it’s a tiny bit cold out!
• My Christmas-present-making buddy! Betsy Bea and I are partners this year to prepare gifts for the siblings whose names we drew. It’s so much fun discussing our secrets and surprises. ; )
• The awesome gifts boxes we got from Aimee’s yard sale. That yard sale had a ton of Christmas stuff, and we bought some really cute little boxes from her. We turned on Christmas music and dragged all of our wrapping and scrapbooking supplies into our place of choosing. With a bit of decoration (one of them had lime green decorations that I colored darker green so they weren’t so hideous), Bea and I have them ready for their presents to go inside. ; ) Very exciting!
• Christmas music! Right now I’m listening to a cd of orchestral music; but it’s ranged from Nat King Cole to Andrew Peterson, from a collection of Christmas favorites to even a bit of the radio. ; ) Last Saturday, we got to hear a live performance of Handel’s “Messiah”! It was so amazing!!!
• Inspiration! Besides my story “Snowman”, I wrote another one currently called “Package” which I finished last week. They're even a little bit related. ; ) So much fun!
• Elderberry syrup to help us get healthy and stay healthy!
• All the Christmas baking I’ve been able to do since we are almost healthy now. ; ) I got to use my mini muffin baking tin for the first time ever last week! I brought the brownies to church yesterday which was pretty fun. I plan on making more for our church’s upcoming ladies’ tea.
• Mushy Jimmy Stewart Christmas movies. ; ) We just watched his little-known and hilarious movie “The Shop Around the Corner” (thanks to a generous friend); and I look forward to watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” soon among our other Christmas favorites. ; )
• The fact that Aimee and I get to host a table at the ladies' tea together! It will be really fun, though we do have somewhat different decorating styles. Not as far apart as they used to be though. When we were younger it was really bad. ; )
• The cold-ish weather that is coming!
• The book of Isaiah. I’ve been trying to read two chapters of it a day this Christmas season since there are so many prophecies related to Jesus. It’s pretty amazing!

Soon we will decorate our house for Christmas, if we are well enough; and we ladies will participate in the tea. After that, Christmas caroling with our church and then Christmas day—the celebration of our Lord and Savior coming to earth for us. What more could we ask than the Maker of the universe would humble Himself to come to His people? God is with us, and I am truly grateful.

This Christmas, what are you grateful for?

The Carol of the Bells (x3)

I love the song "The Carol of the Bells", and I love three different version for three different reasons to boot! ; ) Would you like to hear them? Enjoy, and remember to be careful since YouTube is a secular site!

First off is this Irish-y, awesome-y version by Keith and Kristyn Getty. 
I love the peppy, excited sound! ; )

And the PianoGuys version meshed with "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"...very dramatic. My littlest sister used to love pretending to sneak up on something whenever we listened to this song. ; ) 

Love the cello!

I had to share this one just because it's funny, and I love the Swedish Chef. ; )

Which one is your favorite?

Wonderful Music Video

I love, love, love this music video! I know I haven't posted on here in forever but I had been intending to start posting again and this was too awesome, tear jerking, beautiful, and right to pass up!

Thank you to my sweet daddy for showing it to me! Enjoy with a tissue in hand all you fans of true love and commitment!

"The Gift" by Aselin Debison

I remember the day, several years ago, that we heard this song on the Christmas music station in AZ. We enjoyed it and jotted down the artist's name. I have since lost the piece of paper, but her name stuck with me. After hearing a country version of "The Gift" on the radio just now, I finally looked up this version. Enjoy...
Merry Christmas!