Jered (husband) believes I have some funny little phrases that I regularly use, and “these days” is one of them. When I say something along the lines of “things just aren’t going my way these days” he finds it extremely funny. I’m not sure why! I haven’t written a blog in a while, mostly because “these days” there isn’t a ton going on musically for me. I believe I mentioned Jered & I bought a new house with a commercial catering kitchen attached to it, back in December…
So that has been our main focus “these days”. I’m working full time at the YWCA coordinating events, and then I’m working pretty much full time doing all the administrative work, prepping and serving for our Catering Business (Catering by Gail – yes once upon a time there was a Gail, there no longer is, we’ve kept the name for the sake of returning clients for the time being – that is my daily spiel). Jered spent two years recording my album, making my little baby, my little dream come true. So now it’s my turn to pour into his dream, and I’m more than happy to do so. Things have been going well and we’ve been busier than we can handle really, so that is a blessing. *insert plug about if you need catering call us, here*
Just the other weekend I was part of the LOVE.MERCY women’s conference at C3Edmonton. I was involved in the planning, the “activating” and I even performed a little. I was really excited to incorporate the YWCA into my “extra curricular event coordinating” and we made the YWCA the charity of choice for our annual gifting. The phenomenal 70 women who attended raised $3,200 for the YWCA’s Lakeside Haven Retreat for women and their children rebuilding their lives after domestic violence. When I met with Linda Beth (conference head honcho) and introduced the idea of fundraising for the YWCA, I had hoped to raise maybe $500. This far far exceeded my expectations and I was so thrilled, and blessed by my church family and their friends. I am already very aware of the fact, but this definitely reinstated the idea that a small group of women can really change the world when they come together for a cause!!
As part of an art show, wine & cheese environment we had going on the Friday night of the conference, I got up and played for about 30 minutes. It was more of a background thing, so I was happy to just plunk away at the piano and enjoy myself amidst the socializing of the ladies. I sang my newest song called “To Write Love On Her Arms” in public for the first time (inspired by a charitable movement with the same name, feel free to check it out here). I haven’t had time to do a ton of songwriting lately, which is odd because usually when I’m going through a lot, I write a lot. So this has been a quiet, and slightly frustrating time for me songwriting wise. After singing this song, I had a few lovely ladies come up to me crying, sharing that this song really touched them. This is the best feedback any songwriter can ask for. So to those women who had the strength to come share with me, thank you. In a season when I don’t have too much time to write or perform, that little tidbit of connection really fed my heart and songwriting soul.
~LNG