Drum 101

Well, we took a drum class this week and while I did know most of what we learned, I did get quite a bit out of it.  Pastor David Hare has been coming in for the past two weeks to teach us about music.  Last week we took a piano class and a music theory class.  So, as you can tell we have been given all kinds of lessons in music.  It's a lot of information to take in especially for people who aren't musicians but for those who are it just adds to or reinforces the knowledge that we already have.

I've been playing drums for years, but mostly on a kit.  I never really had anyone to teach me the fundamentals of what percussion was.  Things like low position, medium position, and high position.  I always did those things but never knew what they were called.  I was lucky enough however to have had someone teach me percussion rudiments up to paradiddle's.  I learned those from a friend of mine in High School Marching band so I was still able to stay a little ahead of the game in the basics.  For those who don't know what a paradiddle is...it's a drum pattern of RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL.  R standing for right meaning you hit with the right stick and L standing for left meaning you hit with the left stick.  All of this I had learned before but it was great to be able to reinforce the knowledge and get some practice with it that I hadn't gotten in a while.  One thing I do need to work on though is the fluidity of my left hand in comparison to my right.  I'm right handed so naturally hitting with my right stick is going to be a lot better than my left.  It'll be like when I had to learn how to kick with both feet in soccer.  It took me a while but I practiced it all the time and eventually was able to be good with both.

Anyway...I enjoy all of the music classes that we've been able to take because I love music and it's great to be able to learn and become more skilled at the things I do know.  You can never learn too much of something and you have to know it to get better.

Body Shop

This week we spent two hours with Tim on the LHS track and I spent one hour doing weight training.  With Tim we did a lot of endurance running and I clocked my mile in under 10 this time which shows a 20% increase from the beginning of the year.  The weight training I did was the normal stuff.  Bench presses, close bench presses, tricep extensions and dippers.  I also did bicep work and some core.  All of this works my endurance and my strength.

Body Shop

This week's body shop was spent out on the LHS track again. Lots of running and other exercises. Tim resurrected the medicine ball push ups and we did some things with the other equipment. We ran a mile one of the days and after each lap we'd stop to do 10 push ups on the medicine ball and then run stairs before starting the next lap. A mile was 4 laps of that. It all continues to work on the same things. Push ups work on chest and triceps and even core while the running helps cardio and heart rate.

Teamwork

Funny.  But so true

This is something we've been learning all year but it seems that we haven't quite gotten it yet. We haven't applied it but I think we're finally getting it now. If only we had learned better towards the beginning of the year it could have saved us a lot of trouble. Better late than never though and we're learning better than ever. It took an extreme intervention to teach us but we're getting it. We've been building teamwork and looking for leaders through Tim's body shops every morning at 6. We do numerous team building exercises teaching us that in order to succeed we have to work as a unit...as a team. Law of the Big Picture: One is too small a number to achieve greatness. This is something that as a community and a team we have been failing to understand. In order for us to succeed in ministry, in body shop, or just in everyday life we have to work as a team. No one can act alone or it ruins the whole machine. Once the machine stops working it gets rusty and falls apart. We can't have that and we're all coming to that realization. Even small things like getting to the office on time or helping each other out with schoolwork or anything we're struggling with. We have to notice the needs of the members in the team and help them so we can keep the team working the way it should be. We have to work together. I think moving forward from here we're going to be a lot stronger and more focused on the team rather than on ourselves.

Body Shop

This weeks body shop was intense...there really aren't words for it. Lol It was good though. I actually got 4 hours in this week instead of three and they were all done with Tim. Tuesday-Friday was spent waking up at six o' clock and running laps around a track. We ran with 10lb medicine balls, did relays, and we did stations once as well. At one point we had to run a mile as a team and between each lap we had to stop and do 35 push ups on the medicine ball. This all made me pretty tired but it is definitely building teamwork in the community and I'm thankful for that. All of these exercises will increase endurance, strength, and cardio. It's great preparation for the Appalachian trail. All of this starts back up tomorrow and we'll be seeing that track for the rest of the week. Lol

Personal Ministry

My personal ministry for the month of March was spent doing a lot of yard work. Haha  And this was over spring break. I still got a break but my family loves to utilize me for this. An hour and a half was spent raking my front and back yard. This may not seem like a lot but my parents love to just let all the leaves accumulate until the whole yard is nothing but brown. After I did this I cut our grass which took me about 2 hours. I was using our old push mower which loves to resist the grass it's cutting. If that makes any sense. It is the weirdest machine. Later that week I went to my grandparents house and mowed their lawn and there's is quite bigger than ours so it took more like 2 1/2 hours for that one. Their back yard goes mostly uphill so that was fun...haha. They love for me to do work though, so they were nice as always and brought me water and other things so I didn't get too tired. All in all these weren't bad at all. It was actually a really nice time to take a step back and reflect on a lot of things. I always try to take opportunities like those to think about everything. The last thing that I did for personal ministry was mow my Nana's lawn. My Nana is my grandmother on my mom's side and she lives by herself. Now...her yard is a few acres, one of which is downhill. Lol I enjoyed doing this though, along with all the other ones. This one took me around 3 hours with all the weed eating and everything too. (which I did with the other ones as well) These were good personal ministries and I was glad to be able to help out my family for nothing. Made me really feel like I was back home.