Wednesday, December 22, 2010

HMK Tour

Well, The How Many Kings Tour was a great time. We played 15 shows in 18 days and I think we are all glad to see our families again! But if you're gonna be away from your family, I couldn't have asked for a better group. It was a blast, full of great shows, new friendships, meaningful conversations, lots of laughs, and a couple bus adventures including spending a night in Kentucky on the side of the road due to a legit snow storm (the Iowa in me has to clarify whether it was legit or not...it was) and unloading all of our luggage and merch from under the bus on the side of the interstate and taking a shuttle to a show. I can never say it was uneventful. :)

Thank you to everyone who came out to see me at the shows, you made my nights!! And to all of the new faces I met along the way, thank you for welcoming me in and supporting my music!

I hope everyone has a great Christmas!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Highlights

Well I finally got to rock James to sleep for his nap today. The best 5 minutes of my month. Some other highlights from the past few shows:

-Being in my hometown (Cedar Falls, IA), seeing family and friends and eating my moms monster bars!
-an awesome gift of self purifying water bottles for the whole tour crew from my high school friend, Johnni. Thanks Johnni!! We love them! She also gave me a super warm pair of socks that came in handy for my next highlight...
-watching the snow fall in Eastern Kentucky! The down side of the beautiful blizzard that night was that our bus had to pull over on the side of the road instead of driving home for a day off, to a day whose to do list kept getting longer and longer... in the end I got back to Nashville around dinner time when I should have been there for breakfast. Not too bad considering the craziness of that 24 hours. After a crammed full day yesterday, ending with a great show in Elizabethtown, I got to come home for one more day with my favorite two boys on earth.

Four more shows left, North Carolina, Maryland, Georgia and Ohio. Thanks to everyone who has come out to the shows already this month! Hope to see some of you still.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Sweet Faces

Almost every show night there is someone who is Jesus to me. Someone who looks in my eyes and tells me just what I need to hear. Sometimes it's a friend, or someone I know, but often it's someone I've just met.

Each night, in Waukesha WI, Minot, ND and Edgerton, MN, there were those sweet words that kept me going despite my fatigue (this schedule is tiring!)

In Shawnee, KS it was a Sandy who made me feel so loved. Sandy thanked me for the sacrifices musicians make to listen to the call they feel on their life. (I started tearing up...) She empathized with how hard it is for me to be away from James at his age and told me about her two grown kids. Her eyes reminded me of my aunt Janet, who has always had kind eyes. My favorite moment was when her husband Kevin, as he introduced himself said, "I'm the lucky one" and pointed to Sandy, smiling. Thank you for your sincerity, your encouragement, your reminder of why I do what I do.

1 John 2:28
And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Zeeland, MI

Thank you Michigan for a great show! In addition to there being coffee available in almost every room (my kind of people ;), I will remember Zeeland by what was written on the white board in my dressing room. It was a great reminder to me all day:

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Madison, WI

Starting to find a rhythm.

It's been awhile since I existed on this schedule. Going to bed after midnight and waking after 8 or 9. My body is as confused as my heart, after two years of domesticating myself. It is a good kind of stretching. I know myself well enough to know that if my little world isn't shaken up every now and then I am in danger of building a cocoon around my heart.

Thank you to the sweet girls who ran my merch table last night and who, after witnessing my uncontrollable yawning, brought me a coke to wake me up! I don't drink coke, but the offer itself woke me up! So sweet.

We loaded the bus to the first snow of Madison. It was, like every first snow of the year, beautiful. I have several snow songs that have never made it on to a record...perhaps I'll have to resurrect them this winter.

There are 2 other girls with me on this tour, and we decided the bus needed a makeover, here is a pic of some of our work from last night. NOW, it's a Christmas tour. :)

Friday, December 3, 2010

Hastings, NE

Thank you Hastings for welcoming us so kindly. Our first show went great thanks to your generous hearts. It’s crazy how briefly lives can intersect, how our stories will have this same page to share.

I want to say thank you to the woman from Arkansas who hugged me last night and told me “You go girl” in a quiet and motherly tone. I fell into her arms after a long day like I would have fallen into my own mothers arms. I needed that. I wish I could remember your name now, it started with an A and was really beautiful.

I am tired, I miss my boys terribly, and I am grateful for this opportunity to sing about Jesus.

Here begins a month of lights and sound and turkey sandwiches. But mostly this month is about:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
1 John 1: 1-4