Ken Lewis with his goat toenails, Paul in the background

Today we had a bunch of meetings and GMA-ish stuff, but in the middle of all that Chris and I went with Paul to the final tracking session for the single. Ken Lewis is putting world percussion sounds on the song, and he couldn’t do the regular session because he was recording in Korea (oh sure, that old excuse).

He was pretty amazing, and I love that stuff, so we were watching him add a lot of percussion “bling”. He takes out this long rope that has all these little one inch square, brown, papery little things sewn to it and wads it up in his hands with a Tibetan bell rope. I spent the whole track trying to figure out what that was, so when he was done, I had to ask.

“Oh, that’s goat toenails.” Um, what? “Yeah, it’s goat toenails. I pick up weird things all over the world when I’m traveling. But they make a cool sounding shaker, don’t they?”

Actually, Ken, yes they do. They sounded really cool. And yet, I wonder, does knowing that there are goat toenails (and yes, people, I assume he means the hooves!) on your track take away any of the worshipful feeling? Hmmm….

Virginia Hill and my booking agent Chris in the horse-drawn carriage we leapt into at a red light

Francis Drost, my manager Wally, me, and Stephanie Newsome after our showcase at GMA

Wow, I can’t believe it’s only been 24 hours since I got back to Nashville. GMA week (Gospel Music Association’s conference) is pretty intense, but it’s been great for me so far.

I got to hook up with my friend and booking agent, Chris, and that is so fun because we don’t get to see each other that often. I also got a see Virginia Hill who is a good friend, and she was so scheduled this week with interviews that we never thought it would work out to hang out, and here I ran into her and we got to grab a quick dinner within about 10 minutes of arriving. God is fun.

I had a showcase today at The Listening Room in Nashville and I felt pretty good about how it went. I also got to sing the new single which was fun – it’s not quite done yet, but we got it together enough to introduce it to the radio people who were there. All in all, a busy, but very fun day.

Yesterday went great – it was a lot of fun to work with Paul, and he really is amazing. He thinks on a different level, and it’s fun to watch his mind work. We got up this morning and took my friend Megan to breakfast (thanks for letting us crash with you, Megan!) and then headed home. I have church tomorrow, and then a blocking rehearsal for our new VBS play, and then I’m driving BACK down to Nashville tomorrow night for GMA. I’m definitely memorizing this path…

Well, I’m headed down to Nashville tomorrow morning to record the lead vocals on the new radio single. On this song, they’ve been tracking without me since I couldn’t work out the scheduling. That’s not really my preference, but everything I’ve heard is just beautiful, so I really can’t complain. 🙂

I’m very excited to do the new song today because I’m working with a new producer, Paul Marino, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what God will do with this, and getting to know Paul better as an artist.

I also get to go with my husband, which doesn’t happen very often, so yea, road trip!!

I just heard the rough mix for my new song, and I am psyched – it’s going to be beautiful. We’re heading down to Nashville on Friday to put on the main vocal. I can’t wait for you all to hear it!

Also, in the area of answered prayer, we’ve had so many snags with this trip to the UK and Kenya, and we’ve just been trusting God that He knows the plan and will take care of it. We leave two weeks from Friday. Yesterday and today we’ve had so many things fall into place, it’s just incredible, and the Kenya portion of the trip has really taken shape and come together. Keep praying for the UK part of it – we’re still waiting to hear about some pretty big issues, but again, God knows that and we are trusting Him. 🙂

Happy Jello

Well, I just wanted to say, “Happy Easter!” I’m so overwhelmed this year with the grace of God. What an incredible gift, what amazing love He has shown for us! I just love Him.

We had a pretty wonderful morning of worship and celebrating Jesus’ amazing victory over death this morning. There’s lots of special music stuff going on, so it’s a very busy morning for me, but it really was great fun, and really neat to facilitate all the musicians glorifying God with their talents.

And on a totally non-spiritual note, I wanted to show you our little OCD side. This is the 14 layer jello my hubby made for Easter. We both can do this particular gem, but he did it this time since I was fighting a cold. So, I don’t know what you could read into that. We have too much time on our hands? (And, um, I can vouch for the fact that that’s not the case.) We spend a lot of time making totally non-nutritive food? We like rainbows? Well, at least I think no one can argue with this – that is one happy jello. 🙂

Happy Easter!

Just wanted to note how good our God is. He cares about even our little stuff!

As seen below, we’ve gotten tons of clothes in the clothing drive from the kids’ schools. We were planning also to wear these clothes, and that way we can leave them all when we come home and get more in.

Well, in many areas we are visiting, it’s necessary for the girls and I to wear skirts, and they need to be at least past the knee in length. None of us like skirts particularly, and if you follow children’s fashions in the US right now, it’s mini-skirt land. We probably got 40 skirts, but they were all too short for the girls to wear without offending. I began to worry that I wouldn’t be able to find them long skirts even if I went out to buy them. We were told we’d need at least 2, and one needed to be nice, not a jean skirt.

Also, we had tons of clothes for every size, it seemed, except for my son. I couldn’t believe we were going to have to go buy him clothes when we’re sitting in this huge pile of clothing.

Well, today, I looked through it all, and I found exactly 4 girls skirts. Guess what? Two of them fit my older daughter, and two fit the younger, one jean skirt and one nice skirt for each of them. What are the chances?!

And as I was thanking God for this, a mom from one of the schools brought over another bag. She said, “Are you still accepting clothes?” and I joked, “not unless they are size 4 or 5 for boys.” She says, seriously, “Actually, they are.” No way! They are beautiful, and actually perfect for Toby, exactly the kind he likes with his sensory issues. We’re literally packing that bag for him.

God is so good! And He cares about even little stuff. Isn’t He cool?

The tip of the iceberg

We asked our kids’ schools if they would like to be involved with our trip to Kenya by having a clothing and soccer ball drive. We’re planning to take whatever we can with us to the orphans we’ll be visiting at Little Lambs, and to the World Vision kids we’ll be with.

Well, I’m not so sure about posting this, but here goes: this is a picture of what used to be my living room. And you can’t even see the fact that everywhere under the piano there are clothes, as well as a pile of soccer balls filling up the whole space for the bench. I’ve been sorting for days now! I think we’re about 2/3’s of the way done.

At this point, we’re planning to even outfit our family from the clothes and that way, we can just leave everything except the outfit we’re wearing when we come home. It’s the best way we can think of to get the most stuff there.

I have to say, though, that I have been really touched by people’s generosity. There have been whole bags of new clothing, new soccer balls, and on the whole, really nice stuff. It touches my heart. And, as a mom, when I think about those kids putting on a fleece or a sweater (the altitude is really high at Little Lambs, and it gets cold at night and there’s no heat), it just makes me feel good.

So wish us luck! Let’s see, 10 bags, 5 carry-ons, 3 kids, and customs – sounds like a ball, doesn’t it? Ha!!

Wow, I haven’t been this tired in a long time, but what a lot we accomplished!

I got home from Nashville last night at about 1 in the morning. Tuesday I got up and went to a co-writing session with Dennis Dearing. What a super nice guy! We had a lot of fun, and worked on a song that’s been kind of a “problem child” for me. He was so cool about it – not many people want to hear, “Hey, here’s this song that I like some things about, but mostly don’t like it – can you make it a great song?!” I have to say, though, he’s a guitar player, and I’m a pianist, so listening to it on the guitar gave it a totally different feeling. We ended up coming up with some good stuff, and I think a song is born after all. 🙂

Then we had lunch with Paul Marino who’s a producer my radio promoter is good friends with and went to check out his studio. He does beautiful, beautiful orchestral work – just amazing.

Then looking at lots of pictures and stuff with my manager, and planning the singles, and driving home (leave at rush hour in Nashville, brilliant move on my part!).

I really can’t get over how much we got done in only 2 days. Thanks, Wally, you rock!

So, I drove to Nashville last night after the read-through. We need to get some new songs written. I’m starting a new project, but I want to have a new radio single before we leave for the UK/Kenya trip.

What a crazy and great day. I worked all morning on a song with my manager, Wally, and it’s done – I really like how it’s coming out, and really like co-writing, which is something I’ve not done before.

After that, we went and did a photo shoot all afternoon. Nothing says feeling pretentious like taking 300 pictures of yourself. Oh, well, at least I got cool earrings out of the deal. 🙂

After that, I went and co-wrote a song with Darwin Moody (Embassy Music). I wrote the chorus in the car on the way down to Nashville, and really liked it, so we worked on verses. He is pretty incredible with lyrics, and a great player – what fun! I really love how it turned out – can’t wait for people to hear it. It’ll be a great World Vision song too, so that’ll be helpful in my ministry.

I’m super tired now, but so excited about the new songs, I’m having trouble going to bed! That’s how you know I’m a music geek, ha!