My weekend

I am in the middle of this book right now, and it is wonderful. I read it several years ago... but with the amount of books I read, the story lines have a tendency to run together. I should have this one done by the beginning of next week!

Just as a side note: I love the way he describes one of the characters with asthma. Me, being an asthmatic myself, was in awe at the analogies used. He nailed the descriptions of what it feels like when you can't breathe! I forgot how wonderful these descriptions were! My Dr explained it like this: Take a deep breath, then only let half of it out. Now, try to breath in again, but only let half of it out. Do this several times. That's what its like for a person who has asthma (are you trying that now? hee hee).


I am teaching the YW at church "How Firm a Foundation", sung to its original tune of "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" (hee hee are you trying to sing it to see if it works? It does. It's hard, but it does) Our theme for girls camp this year is STaND (stand for truth and new devotion) and this song is perfect... there is a wonderful story about the Pioneer Women at Haans Mill and the 7th verse of this song. I found out that when Emma Smith put this song in the 1835 Hymn Book, (which was written back in the 1700's) she put the last 5 verses in quotation marks. She thought that the first two verses sounded like a prayer coming from the singer, and the last 5 an answer from The Lord.
I love that!
When you sing the song, with this knowledge, the song (at least for me) will take on a whole new meaning. Especially verses #3, #5 and #7 :
v3:
"Fear not I am with thee; Oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.
I'll strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand.

v5:
When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
They dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

v7:
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes:
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake

So, with that information, I am having the girls sing the first 2 verses to the tune of "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" then we are transitioning into the tune we now use and singing verses 3, 5 &7. It should be lovely. I hope it has the effect that I can hear in my head. That is always the difficult part. I can hear how I want it to sound... but actually making that happen is sometimes more difficult. I am just now deciding that it needs a more dramatic ending than what the written hymn offers.

My friend, Sherrie, is playing the hymn for us in church, and doing a wonderful interlude. I bet (hint hint, nudge nudge) she will come up with something dramatic for the ending?! :>)

Thats my weekend. Nothing but reading, lots of warm, wonderful sunshine and music (and hopefully a ride on the new train!). Just a very pleasant weekend. What do you have planned?