tiredness.

finally a day of relaxation and staying home-ness.

I think that's the craziest Christmas I've ever had.


it was crazy fun! but now I have to stock up on energy for NY at campfire.

they're gone. but the partying continues.

my relatives left at 6:00 this morning. and yes, I got up to say goodbye. (I didn't cry!)

haha. and then I went back to bed. It felt good.

So today my whole family, minus me of course, went to Blue Mountain with my mom's brother to go skiing/snowboarding for the first time ever. Lucky them. I'm staying home...and going to another Christmas thing...and protecting my very important limbs from breakage.


What do I do at home all alone? For a whole entire morning? Well, pumping the stereo is a given...maybe I'll work on my puzzle.....and take a nap:)

it's begun.

partying has begun....

and their visit is almost half over already:(


I like jamming and recording with Curtis (my "pretty much" super tall, fun, ever-laughing cousin) he reminds me of Chris Muis:P

yeah. I love Christmas for all the family fun.

CHRISTmas.

I was sitting on the couch by the tree reading my Bible and it hit me all over again.


Christmas is not about trees. It's about a baby, who is called

Wonderful
Counsellor
Mighty God
Everlasting Father
Prince of Peace

Amazing love. Amazing miracle of love.

house invasion!

my aunt and uncle and four cousins from NC are coming tomorrow night!!

I'm super excited. even though my room will be invaded by my two younger sisters for almost a week. it's worth it.

when your mind won't stop.

i fell asleep listening to Jack Johnson last night.

trees.

Christmas trees smell so good. mmmm...so good!

I love looking at them, looking at the presents underneath.

"Christmas" is so pretty.

christmas is in the air.

my Christmas looks like it will consist of:

• opening gifts and hanging out with my family
• my aunt and uncle and four cousins from NC
• food, tons of it!
• playing in church on Christmas morning
• sharing gifts
• caroling on Christmas Eve
• skating with my church
• family gatherings
• sleeping in as long as I want
• maybe reading a book
• practicing piano...
• Christmas music, hopefully Sufjan
• meeting lots of new people
• and hopefully, lots of snow...just no snow storms please:)

I'm pretty excited...only two more days of studying and finishing cards and gifts. Wow, I can't believe it's actually almost here.

thoughts on version of the Bible.

i think i like the NIV. i've been hearing it a lot lately in church, and hearing it in youth group Bible studies too. and i think i like it. sometimes it has words that i like better or i can identify with easier. and other times it has way better sentence construction!

it won't stop.

it just keeps snowing. and snowing and snowing! and it's so beautiful. better than beautiful. gorgeous! so much gorgeousness:)

.

snowed in.

church was cancelled this morning.


oh snow. i love the cozy feeling it leaves you with when you're "snowed in" and you have a coffee in your hand as you watch the snow coming down. and you're home with your family.

yet, i still would rather go to church.

coldplay.

on sunday i heard this song for the first time. i almost cried.

and now i'm borrowing Nadine's zen and i've been listening to it over and over.

i love it.

FIX YOU

When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse
When the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

High up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
If you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I...

Tears stream down on your face
I promise you I will learn from the mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I...

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

i like the relaxing sound of coldplay. and their songs about feelings and life. even though they don't always give hope...the hope of Christ. it just triggers something in me.

"You're will be done"

2 Corinthians 12:9-10:

'But he said to me,

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power

is made perfect in weakness." Therefore

I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses,

so that Christ's power may rest on me.

That is why, for Christ's sake,

I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardshps,

in persecutions, in dfficulties.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.'

i'm blogging this for Ben and Anton:)

yup.


because i played a harpsichord on Monday before the choir concert.

and i didn't just play anything on it. i played a fugue.



wish you could have heard it. it would have made you laugh.

sorry everyone else....there's an inside joke here:)

yes!

someone's stress is over tonight.

i found it.

http://www.myspace.com/dustinkensrue

the other songs aren't my favorite. but Please Come Home is pretty good.

friends forever.

a recent email from a dear friend since i was small, who i have so many precious memories with, and a prelude played by another friend last night, and reading blogs, and talking to people has renewed my passion for this song.

i can never thank God enough for people. and more than that, for friends.

Words: Deborah D. Smith
Music: Michael W. Smith

Packing up the dreams God planted
In the fertile soil of you
Can't believe the hopes He's granted
Means a chapter in your life is through
But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long to live as friends.

With the faith and love God's given
Springing from the hope we know
We will pray the joy you'll live in
Is the strength that now you show

But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

concert.

it went well. very well indeed.

Sonia is close the the best director ever.


all praise to God for His indescribable gift of love.

christmas.

choir concert in 5 hours. i'm the pianist for the highschool choir.

oh dear.


i'm getting sick of Christmas and the holiday festivities haven't even begun.

oh dear.

dance with all your might.

i've decided i like dancing.

ie. square dancing


i'll teach you sometime. it's so much fun.

~~~~

and weekends are very nice.

yeah.

sometimes that's just how hard rain comes down.
~unknown

please come home. please come home. I love you.

i've gotten a lot of good songs from a good friend lately. i really like this one. it is based on the story of the prodigal son from Luke 15:11-32. i know, i know...songs aren't the same when you're just reading the lyrics rather than hearing the musical version. but i couldn't on the mySpace site for this song, so...this will have to do

. . . . . . .

Well, I woke one morning
Found you staring down at me
You said "I'll take my share now, father please"
And you took your money
And you took your leave
You drilled my heart and turned your back on me

And you hit the town
And you hit the bottle hard
You race 'round in your fancy cars and you blow all your money
On brothels, beds, and bars
Before you know your broken times get hard

I still stand here waiting
With my eyes fixed on the road
And I fight back tears and I wonder
If you're ever coming home
Don't you know son that I love you
And I don't care where you've been
So please come home

And now you've hit bottom
All those open doors have shut
And you're hungry stomach's tied in knots
But I know what you're thinking
That you troubled me enough
Nothing could ever separate you from my love

I still stand here waiting
With my eyes fixed on the road
And I fight back tears and I wonder
If you're ever coming home
Don't you know son that I love you
And I don't care where you've been

Yes and I'll be right here waiting
'Till you come around the bend
And I run to you and hold you close
Won't let go again

So, please come home
Please come home

Don't you know son that I love you?
And I don't care where you've been
Please come home

~ Dustin Kensrue

overflow.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

flow over Your rivers into my life. of:

joy
contentment
love
compassion
kindness
selflessness
trust
patience
hope
humility
faith



i am called to worship You.
i will wait for You

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

exams=stress

so apparently some people thought my last post was
interesting:)

- - - - - - - -

and here I sit while millions of people my age are stressing about exams. I'm glad I'm not one of them. I just stress out for them because I know what exams are like. Well, not four in one week, but I know exams are stressful. I think I'll be there in the spring. Don't get too jealous of me yet:) My time is coming. One Advanced Harmony 5 exam and one History 5 Romantic Era to the Present exam within two days in May, and a lovely Practical ARCT Piano (with two parts, one playing, and one teaching) exam in June. ugh. So while I support all you in exams right now, I expect it all back in a few months. :)

commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established. proverbs 16:3

a little look at what i study day in and day out.

okay. so this is a really boring post. i don't blame you for not reading the whole thing. or not reading any of it. but here is a small itty bitty glimpse of what i study and teach myself everyday in music history. like i said, this is only a very small portion of it.

its pretty exciting. but boring. at the same time. if that's even possible.

- - - - - - - - - -

The life and music of:

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Robert Schumann was born in Zwickau, Germany, to a bookseller who passed on his literary love to his son. At his mother’s insistence, he studied law, first at the University of Leipzig, then at Heidelberg. During this time, he immersed himself in the poetry of Byron and Goethe, attending an occasional lecture, and surrendered himself more and more to his passion for music, daydreaming at the piano. After convincing his mother, he returned to Leipzig to study under one of the foremost teachers of the day, Friedrich Wieck. He practiced intensively to make up for his late start, but physical difficulties in his right hand fingers ended his hopes as a pianist. He turned to composing, and in a burst of creative energy, composed his most important piano works while still in his 20s. His literary bent found expression in The New Journal of Music, which he founded, and under his direction, it became one of the most important journals for music criticism in Europe.

In the 1830s, his hectic life was intensified by his courtship of the gifted pianist and composer, Clara Wieck, daughter of his teacher. Her father opposed the marriage with a vehemence that bordered on the psychopathic. Clara was his supreme achievement, and he refused to surrender her to another. The couple was forced to go the court against him, and in 1840, they were married. Robert was 30, and Clara 21. This was Robert’s year of song, in which he composed over 100 Lieder, which represent his lyric gift at its purest.

The two musicians settled in Leipzig, pursuing their careers side by side. Clara became the foremost interpreter of Robert’s piano music, and contributed greatly to the spread of his fame. But neither her love, nor that of their children, could ward off the growing withdrawal from society that plagued her husband. Moodiness and nervous exhaustion grew into a severe breakdown in 1844. The couple moved to Dresden where he appeared to recover. However, the periods of depression returned even more frequently.

In 1850, Schumann was named the director of Düssendorf, but he was ill suited for public life, so he had to retire from the post. He began to complain of unnatural noises in his head. He continued to experience auditory hallucinations, once even rising in the middle of the night to write down a theme he imagined had been brought to him by spirits of Schubert and Mendelssohn. This was his last melody. A week later, in a fit of depression, he threw himself in the Rhine river, and was rescued by fishermen. Clara had no choice but to place him in a private asylum near Bonn, where he died two years later.

Schumann is the true romantic. His piano pieces brim with impassioned melodies, novel changes in harmony, and driving rhythms. He often attached literary meanings to his music, giving them characteristic titles. He was especially fond of cycles of short pieces connected by a literary theme or musical motto.

Schumann ranks second only to Schubert in composing Lieder. A common theme he liked to use was love, especially from a woman’s point of view. His four symphonies are Romantic in feeling, and communicate a lyric freshness that has preserved their appeal.

- - - - - - - - - -

like i said. i don't blame you for not reading all of that.

:P

a gift.

someone i've worked with for the past two summers gave me a really amazingly good Christmas present at LW.

druppies!! and not just a few....a huge bag of them. double salted and everything.


oooh man. so good....and addicting:)


and embarrassingly enough, a funny story is attached to them...cough cough.


thank you Sarah!

tired.

Living Worship was great! Wentworth was good.

. . . but my vocal chords are dead. and i'm super tired.



i need a week to catch up on sleep. and get my energy back.


before next weekend hits.