headin' to London

Amy's folks are starting the big push to raise support to head to London with World Harvest Mission. We are proud of them. Can you imagine heading overseas when you are SO OLD! Just kiddin' guys. We have the queerest ambitions to join them someday if our communal Pappa is up for that. In the meantime here is the latest possibility for their brochure cover. Like it? Let me know. matthew@artiswork.org

Moving

Doesn't it feel like we were JUST doing this yesterday? For those of you who've been tracking our lives, it should. Seeing as we are preparing for our FIFTH move since we were married a little over a year ago in January. The first was the move into our Fort Collins townhouse. We were there seven months. The second move was into our basement apartment also in Fort Collins...with a short one month stay. The third move was into our Philly friend's basement for two months before we could make our fourth move into our Willow Grove apartment. We've been here since September of 2004, a grand total of seven months...tying with our first Fort Collins abode. Now we are in the process of our fifth move that is HOPEFULLY semi-permanent (aka: More-Than-Seven-Months permanent!) We worked over the weekend and really hard-core last night going more than 5 hours without a break. And that's just 1/4 of the house...maybe. Even though I feel as if I toss & give away so much with each move, it never seems to make much of an impact. Box by box, shelf by shelf, room by room...the task feels unbearably tedious at times. But we're making progress and have some hope at the end of our tunnel. Instead of making this move on our own or with one other couple, like we've done in the past, we have tons of awesome volunteers offering to give themselves to us all Saturday. What a relief!! That is definately helping my mood as I just get things in boxes...knowing there will be friends to help us transport it come this weekend! My 18 week pregnant body was not liking the packing and lifting of just one night, so I can't imagine how much it'd hate me after a day of moving without some other able bodies to help! We're plenty excited to get down to Mt. Airy and be able to LIVE in this community we've been "commuting" to over the past few months :0) We'll have a house-warming party to celebrate next weekend. It will be an exciting weekend this coming one with the move on Saturday, Easter Sunday, and our first ultrasound on Monday! We'll keep you all posted on how everything goes over the next week.

OCMS

As some of you all know, my love for bluegrass began early in the small coal-mining mountain town of Cedar Bluff, Virginia where my dad was pastoring his first church (sounds like a great movie intro, huh?!). With K-mart as the big town attraction, there wasn't much to do besides going to the local library on the weekends for some good ol' bluegrass concerts. The only ones I vaguely remember were going to hear John McCutcheon and dancing around with Callie to "Rubber Blubber Whale". But like most of you all, those early memories stick with you and later on in your life something reminds you of those carefree times being a kid and you can't help but migrate towards them. For me, that's bluegrass music. For you it might be smelling homemade cookies like the one's your mom made or smelling fresh-cut grass and remembering Saturday morning tee-ball games. One of my favorite groups is Old Crow Medicine Show since they've got the authentic, old-timey sound down...unlike some of the more "refined bluegrass" out these days. I always try to hunt down their show, but they usually stick in the southern part of the country. But this weekend they'll brave the north and head up to our own Philly! Just in case you're in our area, I thought I'd pass on the news. They'll be doing a free concert at the World Cafe studio at noon tomorrow (3/18) and a regular concert Sunday night (3/20) at 7:30pm at the World Cafe theater. That one's $15 if you buy the tickets in advance. You can find them here. We'd love to see any of you all there! They're seriously great in concert. Breaking fiddle strings, going through packs of guitar strings, definitely getting into the craziness of the music. If you're not into bluegrass...they'll get you into it :0) Enjoy the rest of your week, everyone!

First Birth Class

Amy and I just started doing birth classes. Not the typical lamaz stuff you think about mind you, these classes are more geared toward me (the husband) as coach, and Amy (the wife) as athlete. Its not necessarily sports minded, but that analogy will do. Its real intersting, we're learning a lot, and its helping us to make informed decisions about everything from unmedicated child birth to circumcision (shh. hushed tones :) All of this is making me a little daydreamy about our little hidden one. I wonder what she will look like, I wonder whose eyes he will have? Hopefully Amy's stunning good looks will be favored. The image is some work I have been doing to develop the website for our midwife. I am doing it all pro bono as an exercise in learning and community, and who knows, she may recommend my work to somebody interested in paying later on? Anyhow, hope you enjoy. The other images can be seen HERE. Ta, ta fer now. Matthew

February at the Smiths

Well Matthew endured plenty of grueling hours trying to fix these link issues on our blog and deal with Blogger's bug but now freshly into March we finally have our blog up and running again. February highlights...MANY trips...including our 6 days in Colorado and fast weekend trip to Charlottesville to be with my family as they announced their next big steps, going to London full-time with World Harvest Mission. In the midst of that we enjoyed our second Valentines Day together, hearing our baby's heartbeat for the first time, and finding our NEW APARTMENT down in the city and close to our now TWO other pregnant couple-friends. It was a definately a fast and furious month. The apartment find is a huge answer to many prayers. After looking at a lot of dives, we came across this incredible find and ended up being able to rent our place and settle on this one all in a weeks time. We can't wait to be closer to the city, our church and especially these growing friendships. Thanks for bearing with us and all our blog issues this month. Now that things are cooking again, we'll keep this page better updated.