A few good days

I did a lot of things on my to-do list this weekend. I found a home for a few things that were out of place in my room. I worked on my new drawing and made some progress. I went for a walk yesterday, but it was so windy I felt like I was going to be blown over any moment. I went through a lot of my writing last night, editing and thinking over what my next step should be. I'm in a difficult place with my writing now. I came to a place where I was fresh out of ideas, so I stopped working on continuing the story and have been working mostly on rewriting the beginning for a few months. It really needed it. Since then, I've come to a place where I'm out of ideas in the rewriting of the beginning and I was beginning to despair of ever getting anywhere with this mountainous project. After looking through my work last night, I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. I figured out how much more I need to do to rewrite the beginning, and was pleasantly surprised to realized that it's not much! Only three or four chapters. So, that gives me incentive to keep steady work on it.

I watched the movie version of The Woman In White yesterday. The book was so good that I hoped the movie would at least be comparable. Ugh. It wasn't even close. The girl who played one of the main female roles was Molly from Wives and Daughters and James Wilby from A Tale of Two Cities was also in it. Still, the movie wasn't good. I could deal with the slight alterations they made to beginning, but about midway through, everything got so mixed up. They seemed to just make sure the main points of the story were similar to the book without caring how many twists and turns they used to get there. Why couldn't they just go by the book? The book is so great. It's like a Dickens, a Sherlock Holmes mystery, and Jane Eyre all in one.

I have quite a collection of hymn arrangements and am thinking about making a recording of them this summer. I wish I had made it before I got carpal tunnel syndrome in my hands and was able to practice and play more than I do now. It's a lot harder for me to play now. One of my friends has made a couple of recordings and she tells me it's really fun and worthwhile, so I might give it a try later this summer. I'll just need to pick my favorite arrangements. The choices I have are:

In The Garden

It Is Well With My Soul (arranged with Claire de Lune)

Holy, Holy, Holy

I Will Arise And Go To Jesus

As The Deer

All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name (arranged with the Hallelujah Chorus)

The Lord's My Shepherd

You Are My All In All

This Is My Father's World

Near to the Heart of God

O, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus

We Gather Together

The Old Rugged Cross

Jesus Loves Me (arranged with Clarie de Lune)

How Great Thou Art

I Am A Poor, Wayfarin' Stranger

The Water Is Wide (a duet with my sister)

I have another arrangement of It Is Well, but I would have to learn it first. My two hardest hymn arrangements are How Great Thou Art and Poor, Wayfarin' Stranger. Because my hands aren't as limber as they used to be, I don't think I could try both of them, but I would definitely try to get How Great Thou Art ready. With all these hymn arrangements, I actually don't have one of Amazing Grace that I enjoy. I have one in a early level 1 book that was okay and then a hard one that my teacher gave me when I asked her for one, but I never liked it. It's just chord chord, cho-ord chord, with no pretty melodies at all. Out of all these, which would be your top 5 to compile into a CD? And, do you have a favorite that you don't see listed? I have two books of hymn arrangements that I haven't learned yet, so it might be nice to learn something newjust for the project!