more for music lovers

My taste in music is all over the map these days. With time off this week for my school's Spring Break, I've been listening almost 24/7 because I don't get to as much as I'd like. Here are some recommendations I'd like to make, so take 'em or leave 'em. I should mention that none of these artists are particularly "new," but I've just been finding out about the. We don't get to catch on to everything as quickly here!

John Mark McMillan
Probably occurring most in my playlist this week is this singer/songwriter out of Charlotte. He's got a folksy rock sort of style and sings a lot about God's character and real life. You might have heard the song "How He Loves," originally written by JMM but covered by bands like David Crowder and others. His voice is not pretty, but real.

Citizens
Chris has actually been listening to this group, which is surprising because he does not often voluntarily listen to music. A self-proclaimed "high energy indie-rock band" from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, this group does some new stuff with old hymns. I like their song "In Tenderness."

Alabama Shakes
This band kind of has their crazy own little southern rock/soul thing going on. They were nominated for Best New Artist of 2013 at the Grammy Awards. I like their song, "I Ain't the Same" and a few others, too.

I'm also listening to some Mumford & Sons, but they have been on the scene for awhile.

April already?!

As happens with most years, this one has accelerated after our school's winter break. I can't believe that the last time I posted anything was in JANUARY! At any rate, here are some random goings-on in our lives and a few snapshots to let you know we're still alive. We've a had a roller-coaster February, March, and April, but we love where we are and what we do.

Jordan
During the National Day weekend in Kuwait, we traveled to Jordan to visit our friends who previously taught in Kuwait. We did some sand-boarding, desert camping, doing the "Harlem Shake" (check us out!), eating lots of good food, and snorkeling in a matter of four days. It was an awesome time of catching up, and we hope to do something like that again.

 

National Day
Before our trip, I had the customary National Day extravaganza celebration at school, complete with a bazaar, food, dancing, and traditional outfits. My students are so adorable in their little dara'as.

Bowling Tournament
The Young Adults from church had a bowling tournament on three Fridays during March, and since Chris and I lead one of the life groups, we got to go have fun with them. These guys and gals take bowling seriously...fun!

 

Sri Lanka/End of March
At the end of March, Chris and his friend Kyle went to Singapore to an English conference, where Chris presented his foundation English program's methods for assessing grammar. GUST (the university where he teaches) sent him there with a nice stipend, which was great for us. On the way back, Chris and I met in Sri Lanka and Kyle carried on back to Kuwait. We spent 4 or 5 days there, mostly relaxing and spending unhurried time together. We also ate a ton of amazing seafood and swam/snorkeled each day at a beach we found the last time we were there, and we visited a turtle hatchery.

Easter/Early April
Easter for us was fairly low-key this year. Chris worked on Easter Sunday, but we had a big dinner hosted by some friends in our life group on Monday night. We sang some songs, took communion together, and enjoyed a great time of conversation. Also in April, Chris' flute quartet gave a recital in the auditorium of his university, and lots of our friends and his students came to support him. Thanks, guys! I will try to get some better pictures of that up later.

  
End of April
Finally, here we are at the end of April, when we celebrate Earth Day. My class made Trash Monsters out of reused tissue boxes and paper on Thursday, since we are on our Spring Break at school. We have one full month to prepare for the International Day show, when my students will be performing "Be Our Guest." My class is studying France this year, so we are doing a little throwback to Belle and Beauty and the Beast. It's every 1st graders dream, really. I also went to a women's retreat yesterday, held for ladies from all of the Lighthouse Church's services. There were 350+ women there, and it was seven hours of amazing worship and teaching. It proved to be a much needed respite and a great way to start off my week-long holiday.

 

 

Well, there you have it. That's the last few months in a nutshell. I'm sure I'm omitting something in there...until next time.