1. I sent my MIL a packet yesterday, half of which she will bring back on her next visit to add to Hardi's memento box (or to start the next one). When she goes thru the existing 2 boxes (hasn't seen 'em yet), we can purge any that H doesn't want to keep "forever." She comes annually, so that can be a nice annual activity.
2. I started picking this year's Advent music the other day; our new Deacon is going to take a service for us so I needed to get her picks done ASAP anyway. This involved rotating the year ending out of my carry-all (I use an old, beat-up Bible case), putting in the new year's Musician's Handbook we use for planning, and today I labeled the binders holding the previous 3 years' worth.
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That Handbook has become a sort of weekly snapshot-- no, textshot-- of the Sat. Svc.-- people, illnesses and recoveries, deaths, parish activities, music "learnings," etc.. At some time during each service, I jot in the attendance and anything notable that's going on. I'll also refer back as the 3 years in the liturgical cycle as they rotate-- "What did we play LAST time for this set of readings? Do we wanna do it again or is there something new we might like to try?" It's a good reference as well in case the seasonal packet of lesson inserts may not always come home from the parish office the day I decide to sit down to plan a block of services. Of course I could look up the scheduled readings online or in the Bible, but I like to have the printed version to scribble song ideas as they come, and those old copies offer that info previous info, as well as the song titles we actually used.
It's a simple and nifty system. :~) --> A new fella was going to join our band. So I offered him a planning resource; he retorted that he always prefers to just wing it without regard for the lessons the people are hearing. "The Spirit guides ME." I smiled a silver-haired smile and responded gently, "Guides me, too.... Never been in charge of a music program, right?"
We call it "Liturgics," but any performing musician knows the difference between a set and a jam: even folk music in church benefits from planning a "set list"! :~)
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Did I already post that I organized our players' binders into a new bench-shelf in the church? So handy to be able to easily stroll over during the service and grab a binder to swap in a different song if a requestor comes in after the serice has started. No longer hiding far away in a dusty room with shelves I can't reach. Prettily arranged, too; the bench came to us when we arrived, from my predecessor. A nice visual for me to meditate upon-- all the memories collected into that bench and those binders. Hardio fixed the bench-- by cutting off and retrimming the parts my predecessor's dogs had chewed up! :~)