My Spring Break was exactly the restful vacation I needed because I ignored the persistent and nagging little voice in my head that kept telling me that I should do only productive things all week. Like deep cleaning. Or yard work.
Fie on productivity!
For instance, I read the first three books in Will Wight's ten-book Cradle series. Good fiction is like a drug to me so I only allow myself to read fiction when I have no deadlines pressing. I am helpless in the face of a great story and will forsake all else once I dive into it. Wight's books were so immediately engrossing that I knew I was in trouble; but with no major events for which I had to prepare, I quit worrying and just read as much as I wanted.
I also played a lot of Bach on the piano. Johann Sebastian, you minx, you have my heart and my fingers twisted into knots.
And then I tried my hand at my next bookbinding project.
This attempt was an improvement on my last one.
I bought a pack of three mini composition books from the dollar store $1.25 store, glued the covers together, and used them as my text block. This sped up the process because I didn't have to create signatures and sew them together, though I will do that again soon in another project. That is a skill that I want to improve on.
Because I wanted this little journal to open flat for easy writing, I didn't want to put a stiff spine into it. Instead, I used a piece of cotton cloth glued to the spines of the glued-together composition books to provide strength but no stiffness.
Before gluing on the cloth, I glued a little ribbon to the spine to use as a bookmark.
I cut out the cover boards (which I wrapped in a geometric kraft paper) to the exact dimensions of the composition book covers so that they would not get in the way of the book opening flat.
I even inserted pretty cover papers at the beginning and end of the book to make things nice and neat.
I'm really pleased with how this one turned out and I had a lot of fun making it.
On Wednesday, the young men and young women in our ward got to go to the temple construction site and have a little presentation by the temple missionaries. We got to see the site map, the room layouts, and ask questions before trotting over to the construction site. The missionary couple in charge of publicity, who are from Simi Valley, California, did an excellent job, and as they shared a couple personal stories about how temples have blessed their own lives, the Spirit grew very strong. I had a tender moment as I received some very personal answers to some questions I had had about other things. Funny how even when a temple is still only a metal support structure and how, though we were sitting in a single-wide trailer on the site having this discussion, one can still feel the Spirit so strongly. I am very grateful for that experience.
The temple will, all things going optimally, be finished early in 2024. I am so excited to have a temple five minutes from my house!
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| There will be a copper spire that will add 30 more feet in height on the top, but no Angel Moroni blowing his trumpet, as was traditional on so many of the earlier temples. |
Tonight I had choir rehearsal. Last week, both the regular accompanist and the back-up accompanist couldn't be there, so I was asked to play for rehearsal. I'm not saying I'm nearly as good as the accompanists, but I held my own for a rehearsal. As it was solo tryouts last week, I stayed a little late and helped out on the piano for those, too, but I had absolutely no intention of auditioning myself. I haven't auditioned for a solo in years because I am surrounded by much better soloists. I'm a good member of the choir, blending in with my alto part, but I don't have the voice or breath technique for solo singing. I would love to have the voice of an angel, but I accept that I do not.
Anyway, I walked into the rehearsal room this week, and Denise immediately pulled me aside.
"I've decided you will be singing this with Dallyn [the best tenor, who does have a lovely solo voice]." She showed me what part she meant, which is the higher (alto) solo part at the beginning of "Mangisondele Nkosi Yam."
I was taken aback as I had not auditioned for any of the solo parts. Like I said, I know my limits in that regard.
"Why?" I blurted out.
"Why?" she laughed. "Because I need someone with a rich alto sound and round vowels."
Okay, so Denise has lost it. Fortunately, however, the solo part is not long or particularly exposed, so I will do my best. I sing that solo part up until the "amen, amen" section, when two other soloists (thankfully) take over.
If you want to hear the piece, it's below.
(We are not doing all the fun jungle noises at the beginning, but I really like this recording of the song, which is the Swahili version of the hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee."
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