Reflections Over Afternoon Tea

Hey everyone! I'm sitting here at the computer, drinking hot tea and eating Ciabatta bread, as I catch my breath and try to remember everything that has happened in the past few weeks since I last wrote here.

House-sitting went rather well, all things considered. It was a little crazy, because it felt like living in two places at the same time. I had my friend, Colleen, over to spend two nights with me. We had a good time together and consumed far more chocolate than can be disclosed here. ;-) The last night I was there, I edited chapter five of my first novel, Broken Things. I'm not entirely happy with it, but words and sentences flowed again for the first time since January. Very encouraging and inspiring! I also had brainstorms on both my other stories, which will hopefully come together soon.

When the people I was house-sitting for came back, I began babysitting their kids from 7-2 everyday. This is my second week doing that and I'm kind of looking forward to it ending when they go back to school in September. I love kids and these parents are super nice and laid back, but it is quite exhausting and time consuming. I'm thankful for the opportunity to make some money though - I'm going to put it all towards that laptop.

This week is Vacation Bible School. We didn't have it last year, which was rather disappointing, so I'm especially excited about it this year. Mr. Smith asked me to play the songs for it again! I read over my post from two years ago when I played for VBS before, and I laughed when I read about how I wasn't thrilled over the hat. However I felt about it before VBS that year, it grew on me. In fact, I had lost it for a while, but when I found it while cleaning my room, I dedicated a whole video to it. This year there are no hats (at least, not yet), but I did get a pretty cool bag. I'm having a bit of trouble with 8th notes (timing has never been my strong point), but my biggest problem is nervousness. Sometimes I play better under pressure, but last night I tripped up over easy sections over and over again. I'll just have to try again tonight...

Autumn is coming up fast and furiously. I can hardly believe summer is nearly over - an incredible amount of stuff has happened in such a short amount of time. I love summer, but I am definitely looking forward to days without humidity! I haven't checked my planner in a while, but I think I can safely say that this is fall is going to be quite busy, quite fun, and quite memorable. Talk to you all soon!