Resurrection Day!

And we had a beautiful one. The service today went quite well, and the weather was phenominally gorgeous (leaving my allergies to springtime out of it -- I can at least feel that the temperature is ideal, even if I can't see anything through the watery eyes, and can't wipe them dry for the sneezing fits.) We even took a walk down to the beach this evening and my wife picked up shells for a craft project.

The choir sang this morning, which is more of an adventure than you might think. We're a patchwork group, to put it mildly. Two of the singers live in Pennsylvania, so they were only able to practice with us once (fortunately, they have both sung the songs before; we're not going to talk about how long ago that was, though.) At the practice they made, one of our other key members (the only other bass) didn't make the practice (though he ran through the part separately). I'm enough of a musical purist that I like to have parts and arrangements when I direct a choir, even if it requires some inventiveness. We have two ladies who sing tenor (along with one man who tries and will be able to carry a part at some point, if I can keep working with him. Maybe.) My sopranos couldn't sing some of the lines as written, so I had to rework some spots, and assign one very strong young lady to carry the top line by herself in some places. You already know about the basses -- one from Pennsylvania, and one who habitually misses practice. At least I had one alto at most of the practices (the other is the other Pennsylvania person.) We have also been limited to about a twenty minute time slot following the Sunday morning service, as the only time in which any sizeable portion of the group will be in the same place at the same time. The Lord is good. Every comment I received after the service was extremely positive (and I didn't go soliciting comments -- not much point, when you've done all you possibly can and the performance is over.) My hodgepodge group came together and sang from the heart, and even the most honest of critics thought it was great. Now to get ready for Anniversary Sunday (church's 150th anniversary this year.)