Hello again from Anna Beth. I hope you're all having a great week. It's been a pretty fabulous one for me, what with The Giver finally happening! We rehearsed for a couple of months, and on Tuesday and Wednesday, we performed for hundreds of kids at four school day performances, in addition to the public performance for all ages on Tuesday night. It was my first time in a play of that scale. In school plays, I'd always been in the chorus, in the background. I was in a play at Harlaxton, and we did perform for a small primary school, and then again for the students at Harlaxton, and I did have a speaking part, but it was only one scene. And then suddenly, there I was on Van Meter stage, with a mic, entering and exiting, in lots of scenes, in front of hundreds of people...and it was amazing! It was so much fun. The cast and crew were fantastic. I love my kids, and I'm going to miss them! Everyone was so sweet and energetic, and we all really got along well. It was also really great to get to pray with the cast backstage in our prayer circles we had before (almost) every show. Jonathon, who played my husband, is a strong Christian, and it was really exciting for the two of us to get to pray with the children in the cast and kind of model for them what it's like to talk to God on a relational level. Several of the kids saw the prayer circle (suggested by one of them, not any adult) as a superstitious thing; like, if we don't pray, we won't have a good show. So it was nice to get to tell them about how God wants us to talk to Him to have a relationship with Him, not just for good luck or rituals. I know that at least a couple of the kids are believers, and I pray that they'll all come to know the Lord. They're all such great people! 
And speaking of great people, Jill was a great stage manager! AGHUGHHH EVERYTHING WAS SO COOL AND FUN!!!!

And there you go, Theatre Thursday. Actually talked about theatre stuff this time. Yay me! ...Even if it was just one big rant about how amazing it was. You all know by now that I communicate in big rants. :)

In other news, I posted the first Throwback Thursday video on our channel, but you'll have to look and see for yourselves. I'm not going to tell you what it is...let's just say you should...Expect Squirrels. 

In other other news: AGE OF ULTRON TRAILER! AVENGERS 2!!!! What did you guys think? Let me know in the comments! I'm excited!

And, last but not least, here's song for you. It's Foxes performing Don't Stop Me Now (originally by Queen) (aka the song from the flashmob I was in in London!) in a really nifty jazz style arrangement. It's the song from Mummy on the Orient Express, one of the most recent episodes of Doctor Who.

And this is me, signing off. Have a lovely night, all.
-AB

Hey, guys. I know I haven't blogged the last couple of Thursdays. Woops. But I have an idea...not for the blog, per se, but for our YouTube channel (if you've forgotten, this is it). 

Throwback Thursday! That's the idea. It involves minimal effort, and it encourages friendship, nostalgia, and lots of laughter, I'm sure. All you have to do each Thursday is upload an old video you just have sitting around on your computer. It doesn't matter what it's a video of, but bonus points if it's something super fun we've done together. It doesn't have to be edited. It can be short or long. It doesn't matter. The point is sharing memories. 

So if you're in, upload a video on our channel on Thursday. Be sure to label it TBT and give us a little bit of context in the description. I'll upload one as an example, even though it's not Thursday. Oh, and shoot me a facebook message if you've forgotten the youtube password. 

Do it!

-AB

Hello, all.

There's a rustling outside my window tonight, the gentle brush of a hanging fern against the glass, reminding me that new winds are blowing. It has been hot recently, but the weatherman promises rain, and with it, respite from the wilting heat. Autumn is approaching: the crisp, cool season of light jackets and pumpkin spice everything. 
I like a change in season now and then. That electric, promising tension in the air. The anticipation of things that will soon make life very different. 

A re-awakening. 

It seems odd to say that in a season of dying, of falling, of darkening, that something is being awakened. Yet there's some magic in seeking small adventures on quickly cooling evenings that makes me feel so alive. I neither wither from heat, nor shrink in the cold. Instead every nerve, every fiber, every molecule of me is alert, tuned in, and ready. 

For what? I don't know. 

Change, I suppose. Change for necessity. Change for survival. Change for compliance, for pleasure, for sanity. For every reason and none. Change, perhaps, for the sake of changing. 

As the days shorten and the chill begins to bite at our fingertips, slowly we, like the weather, will change. But as the seasons cycle, there will always be something to bring us back around to the beginning. To where we came from. To where we've been, who we've been. Around and around to another change of season. 

Another opportunity
to be 
re-awakened.

-AB