Plaasabilities

"Sunkissed" Brilliant sunshine illuminates a colorful maple tree in front of the Sugarlands Visitors Center. Great Smoky Mountains National Park  © 2014 Kristina Plaas, All Rights Reserved I've had this weekend circled on my calendar for many months. It was Stake Conference for the Knoxville Stake, a regional cluster of 10 congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in and around Knoxville, TN. It was my responsibility to arrange for music for several large meetings. It takes time, much thought, networking, and a lot of prayer to make the music happen but in previous conferences I was able to do what was needed to without huge issues. I can't say the same this time around, mostly because I have been so overwhelmed with personal & family issues that I haven't had the energy to devote to long-term planning for conference music. When I'm in a tight spot and need things to get done and done well, I turn to trusted friends. I also smi...

"Frost Away" The fog was just beginning to lift near the Walker Camp Prong Crossing on Newfound Gap Road. Great Smoky Mountains National Park © 2014 Kristina Plaas, All Rights Reserved Sundays are always very hectic for me in late fall. It's what happens when you are a church musician who is given the added responsibility of organizing programs for large regional meetings and Christmas. Most of us love Christmas music but making those musical events happen is a huge challenge. Given the changes in my life the last few months I haven't been as effective in meeting those challenges as I would like. I see everything that either needs to be done or that I haven't done well and feel, um, discouraged. I keep giving myself the guilty "should" lecture, listing everything I should have done but haven't. Add Sunday night fatigue to the mix and the results aren't good. Tonight, just as I was about to cave and have a very nice, personal pity party I...

Today wasn't the greatest day for me. A weather front pushed through, my fibromyalgia acted up, I had too much to do and no energy to do it. It's a recipe for a bad mood. So I did the best I could to take care of daddy, procrastinated everything non-essential, and accomplished two things: banana bread and knitting. The banana bread was not because I was feeling inspired to bake, rather I didn't have the heart to waste overripe bananas. I didn't have one key ingredient to make my old standard recipe so I tried a new one. It was excellent! Daddy loved it so that was good. Today is Thursday and I look forward to Thursday nights all week because it's time to knit with friends at The Yarn Haven. I love to knit, though I don't get as much done as I did a few years ago. I love my knitting friends even more. These women have been my cheerleaders as I crawled my way out of near total disability with fibromyalgia, battled my demons, and slowly reclaimed an active l...