Uplifting, encouraging, personal songs of worship, surrender and spiritual growth, from a thankful heart. Expressions of gratitude for God's goodness and provision. Inspirational/folk/country/Praise & Worship mix! Praying it blesses the listener, glorifies God and points to the hope we have in Him!

Gratitude. A thankful heart. A lens to view

Uplifting, encouraging, personal songs of worship, surrender and spiritual growth, from a thankful heart. Expressions of gratitude for God's goodness and provision. Inspirational/folk/country/Praise & Worship mix! Praying it blesses the listener, glorifies God and points to the hope we have in Him!

Gratitude. A thankful heart. A lens to view our days through, and a way of living that most of us need more practice at! God’s word tells us many times to give thanks, and it opens our hearts to recognize and wonder at His goodness that surrounds us. The songs on this album are personal expressions of worship, praise, surrender, awe and gratitude. Several of them contain the word itself, and the others concern blessings and truths that I am so grateful for. Wash Over Me Lord speaks of the pure cleansing water of the Spirit, represented in the cover photo, which also symbolizes for me, God’s life-giving Spirit pouring over and into us, and then flowing out through us – His eternal river which cannot be contained or stopped! That particular song emerged from one of the most profound personal spiritual experiences I have ever had, and it is intensely emotional for me to sing. I believe that comes through in the recording, as does the Spirit, Who so powerfully was present in the studio. All these songs have a backstory of lessons learned, inspiration given, struggles processed, and Divine words breathed. I share them with the hope that they will impact and encourage you as they have me, and with the prayer that God can use them to draw us all deeper into the Living Water and a life of gratitude. This project was definitely a gift. Completely unexpected. And undoubtedly, orchestrated by the “Tapestry Weaver”. Everything fell into place so quickly and perfectly. And the many prayers encircling this project have been so obviously effective. There have been more than a few overwhelming moments (in a good way!) through this process, and it has been a further lesson in Gratitude! (For more details, see my crowdfunding blog!) Once again, I am so incredibly thankful for my brother, Gene, making this possible with his financial support of much of the recording. I also appreciate contributions from others toward this album, and I am especially grateful to my husband, Dennis and our children for their encouragement and love. Always, I am humbled and in awe of what God has entrusted me with. He alone is worthy of praise. Thank you so much to Steve for his incredible insight, musicianship, arrangements, vocals, mastering and ability to bring out the best with his easy-going demeanor and skillful studio direction. It is such an honour to work with someone of his calibre! Also, I again appreciated how Cole from Contrast Recording seamlessly handled the engineering, made the virtual recording session a breeze, and captured the vocals so well. I am truly filled with Gratitude!!!

The Weekend Sessions Intro It’s been 30 years since we had our first group recording weekend to capture some of my songs. Those were marathon sessions when my singing friends would join me to learn 20 + new songs, figure out some arrangements, practice and then record them live in a friend’s living room. By Sunday evening, they could barely

The Weekend Sessions Intro It’s been 30 years since we had our first group recording weekend to capture some of my songs. Those were marathon sessions when my singing friends would join me to learn 20 + new songs, figure out some arrangements, practice and then record them live in a friend’s living room. By Sunday evening, they could barely remember any, since they had to learn so many!! Our voices were pretty worn out by the end, and our fingers calloused from picking guitar strings, but we also created so many cherished memories and even some amazing harmonies at midnight!
It seemed like a fitting time to celebrate this milestone with a re-release of some of the “highlight reel moments” from those first 4 albums. I narrowed it down to these group songs for a variety of reasons. Some are songs that “stuck” and have become part of our church song repertoire, some are just plain catchy with fun harmonies, many are simple scripture choruses and others feature great banjo, mandolin and guitar by Darryl and Ken. I can still hear the smiles in our voices after some of their fabulous “riffs”! Live recording is in itself very challenging, but considering the basic equipment, time constraints and new material, we ended up capturing some very special moments. There is certainly not perfection here, nor highly polished sounds – simply a shared love for singing praises together and enabling the songs be heard. I am so very grateful for all that I learned about the recording process, for our host, and all the singers, musicians and technicians who gave of their time and talents to share these weekends with me and made them possible. Never could I have imagined that all these years later I would continue to be able record albums in my own home and have the music be available worldwide. Earlier this year I was also able to record my first professional EP, so now I’ve come full circle back to these humble beginnings. More than anything, I am filled with gratitude to God for His gift, how He generously pours the songs into my heart, and for the opportunity to share them. May they always bring Him glory. Enjoy this journey back to the archives, and I hope you will discover a few “new” favourites!