VBS

VBS is done. The last hurdle between us and the beach is past.

Excepting of course the insane day of packing tomorrow. Especially since the seat belt in the middle row of the Chevy somehow got wrapped around the recline handle and is completely jammed and stuck. If the dealer can't fix it, that annoying little problem is going to really mess up our travel plans. Ugh.

Back to VBS. Last year the president of Augsburg Fortress left a comment on the blog after some random comments I made about the quality of the VBS songs. In case she stops by again, here is my opinion on the Baobab Blast:

Thanks for the guitar-friendly keys. That helped a lot - and I really got better and better at my B-minor this year. The only issue then became that a few of the songs were written a little low for the voice ranges of kids. But mostly, not bad at all. Overall, there were not as many duds as I thought there were last year. That said, none of the songs really jumped out at me as WOW! Very much straight down the middle. I would say this: The theme song last year was quite complicated in spots - and that's okay - we have a whole week to learn it - it's GOOD to have that song be a little bit more involved and require some more work. At first I was annoyed by how difficult "Discovery Canyon" was to put together, but it was worth the work. This year's theme song was, on the other extreme, too easy. We had it learned the first day and had nowhere to go with it. Make the big theme song the toughest, most musical thing. I heard from somewhere that a lot of other people were whining that the music wasn't authentic African. Whatever. I like the effort to provide a mix of styles. Keep up the good work, Augsburg Fortress. Not bad at all.

Anyway, back to our lives. Tomorrow is the insane day of packing for a week at the beach with 4 kids 6 and under. The real insanity starts Sunday at...around 3am when we all get up to pull an all-day drive to HHI. No hotel this year, no stops inbetween. A straight shot all the way down there. Hopefully they sleep the first couple hours, then breakfast in the car. Gonna stop at a random park in Fletcher, NC for an extended picnic lunch, hope it's not raining and not ungodly hot, let the kids run around, then finish the deal. God help us we must be out of our MINDS!

Check back Monday morning to hear how the adventure went. After that, check back for beach pics!

Hope everyone's summer is going well. God bless!

Matt