On this Good Friday, steep your heart in the message of this song, recounting the willingness, the obedience, the great sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Lead Me to the Crossby Hillsong United Savior, I come,Quiet my soul,Remember Redemption’s HillWhere Your blood was spilled for my ransom Everything I once held dearI count it all […]
Eleven Lessons Learned in 11 Days of Parenting
From Tuesday evening, March 11th to Friday evening, March 22nd, we were entrusted with the care of 3 children while their parents went on their first-ever private vacation (to Hawaii!). Their kids are Catherine-13, Jacob-10, and Sarah-6. We moved ourselves into their house, which helped keep their lives relatively similar to when Mommy and Daddy […]
Early Morning #YouthMin
At 6:30 this morning, in the midst of the busy week of musical dress rehearsals, taking care of 3 kids for 11 days, and being busy with my normal responsibilities, I drove around the village picking up a van load of middle school girls to take out to breakfast. I’m Melanie, I’m crazy, I love […]
The Preview of Beauty and the Beast
It’s show week again for the local high school’s spring musical. I can hardly believe it’s been an entire year since my first experience in the pit orchestra. (Last year was The Sound of Music, remember?) I was honored to be asked to participate as one of 4 adult instrumentalists in a 25 member orchestra. […]
The Husband of a Runner
If you’ve read the updated version of the blog’s “About K & M” page, you will know two facts – a) I am a runner. b) Kevin is not. Despite my greatest wishes. For as long as we’ve been a couple (going on nine years!), one of my biggest hopes is that Kevin would become […]
{A Night of Choral Music is} Good for the Soul
Monday evening was the fruition of many months of planning. The Spring Arbor University Chamber Choir — of which I am an alum — came to our cute little village to put on a concert in our historic church sanctuary. It was a fantastic success! My beloved choir director, Dr. Livesay, contacted Kevin and me […]
Pinning in Spring
As much as I love winter, and I loved the chilly run I got to go one today, it’s March, friends, and I’m ready for warmer weather and bluer skies. In tribute to my happy thoughts, here are some Favorite Finds and Pretty Pins. Lisa Leonard’s new hope[full] line of jewelry and scarves, with proceeds benefiting Jungle Kids […]
Bringing “Hostess” to a Different Level
Sometimes I feel like I’m not really an adult because 90% of my life is spent with teenagers. And quite frankly, dear friends, I love it that way. It’s hard not to compare my life to other adult friends, to see how many real-live-grown-ups they have over for dinner on a regular basis. I convince […]
Dare2Share 2013 | the Follow Tour
In April 2009, I co-lead my first youth group trip (ever) to Dare2Share along with Pastor Dale. We took 7 kids all the way to Chicago. February 2010, Kevin and I lead our second group to D2S, this time in Columbus, OH. And in February 2011, we took our largest group ever (21 teens and […]
Sister Shoot | Sammie & Allie
One of my hopes for the time I had in Florida watching my cousins (for some reason, I keep wanting to call them my nieces), was a photo shoot. I love any opportunity to practice my photography skills and I think it’s fun to work with low-key family shoots like this one would be. While […]