bring on the honey and lemon...

(plus a dash of cayenne pepper too, if you really want to know...)

I woke up this morning and about an hour before church I noticed my voice felt a little scratchy'ish, and I hoped I could get through the day ok... Primary went pretty well, although by senior primary I was glad that I could stop singing quite so strong and let them carry it... Then a quick rush home to get the kids fed, then off to ward choir. that finished at 3:35 and hurried home to find a front room filled with kids. (it's ok - I was expecting them. I just wasn't expecting them to be early and me to be late...)
It was a group of kids from our senior primary. I am preparing them to sing prelude music for our annual primary program. We usually have the program in November, so it's still a ways away, but the songs I want them to do are goign to be a challenge, so they will need lots of practice time. I had several songs I wanted to do, but planned to whittle them down to 3 or 4. the kids out voted me and decided they'd rather start singing 5 minutes earlier and do all 5 of the songs I suggested. If all goes as planned we'll be singing:

* Where Love Is (pretty much straight out of the book)
* Beautiful Savior (also from the book, with the descant on the 3rd verse)
* I Am a Child of God (an arrangement that included an obligato for flute or violin)
* I know that My Redeemer Lives (a challenging arrangement that I'm not sure we can pull off - but the kids wanted to try. if it doesn't work we'll just have them sing the melody and have an instrument play the harmony part)
* I Wonder When He Comes Again (I think this will be the first one I cut if things get too tough. it is another challenging arrangement with 2 parts. The other option would be to do the same s with I know that my Redeemer Lives, and have them sing the melody while the instrument plays the other part...

Today was our first practice, and I was trying to play and lead and teach all at the same time. I think that I will need to have a "real" pianist come, and maybe even another adult to come sing so that the kids have a solid voice to follow when we split into parts. The practice was WILD - the kids couldn't stop talking and yapping and singing opera style and all sorts of crazy stuff, but I am just please that there are so many of them that show and interest and want to sing harder things. I love these primary kids so much, and I am startin to worry that "the powers that be" are contemplating releasing me. That will be a SAD day for me! (my vocal cords will probably enjoy the rest...) I figure I may as well go out with a bang and enjoy the chaos of trying to teach these kids to sing in parts and hold their own. Feel free to wish me luck - I think I'm going to need it!