Hi friends!!!!  I am so excited to share my new merchandise with you (buy here) !!!  I have partnered with my lovely friend Betony Coons to create some colouring pages that go alongside 2 new tunes from the Live at The Space EP!  

These are $5 for the pair and are so fun to relax with!!

Trouble Won’t Go

Magnolia

I am also slowly rolling out the Favourite Lines Line, thank you for contributing your favourite lines!  You can now get these Lyric Mugs, I hope you enjoy them!

The choices are:

“growing gardens out of my wounds” - flying low

“one more encore, one more dance” - autumn parade

More to come in the new year!  Order today to ensure you get these before Christmas!

As we enter the second month of being displaced we must move from being a flood victim to a flood overcomer, and I think the best action is thankfulness!  This blog is my attempt to document and publicly thank so many of you who have helped us in our most desperate time of need!  I am sure to forget someone, so please forgive me :)

For those of you who have shared concern and your time and space thank you!  Many of you have cleaned our home, yard and RV, watched Hudson, sent money, donated items, hosted us, our trailer and our dog Sam, endured emotional ups and downs, cried with us and entertained us!  Thank you a million times over for giving so graciously to a burnt out, frustrated, exhausted and afraid family.  We can only hope to repay you in the future.

Some special thanks to:

Our moms and dads, siblings and extended families.  You have been the first line of defense and a safe place for us.

Our extended friends and spiritual family, you have carried us with your words and prayers, we miss you!  Especially Joanne + Theo who have kept me afloat and to my Colorado (and TX, WI, KS etc) friends you are so beautiful, we love and appreciate you!

Our High River friends, how you have helped out of a place of great lack and uncertainty, your resilience is astounding!

Special thanks to The Elliots, The Vaille-Muirs, The Blackmers, Jodi+Brendon, Sharon, Chad, The Pawlitzkis, Yvonne + Rick, Ashlee + Rob, The Walkers, The Smiths, Sandra, Jim, Angela and all the other High Riverites I've missed.

Thanks to Shauna + Mark for hosting us on your property, we loved our time with you!  Thank you for the help with the bobcat and Sam as well, we are so grateful for your generosity.

Thank you to the High River Fire Dept. who has been a source of strength and practical help in this time, we are so excited to be a part of your team!  

Special thanks to the folks who selflessly hand clean our sewage-filled basement, strangers and firemen from the Calgary Fire Dept, we send blessings your way!  

Thank you to Caleb for cutting down that massive lilac tree too!

Thank you to Neighbor Link who refilled our tanks with food, toiletries and toys immediately following the flood.  

Thank you to Chasin' Tails for loving Sam and taking care of him for us the week after the flood!

Special thank you for the donations of money and tools from the following folks as well!  My Aunties and Baba,  The Gillespies, Urban Bridge Church, HCM, Dwight Listmayer, Julie Rohr, The Thorntons, The O'Hairs, Robyn Mchugh, Amber Epp, the Lauries, Rick Duncan, the Marushys, Lisa's your parents and brother, Jill Righton, and I am POSITIVE their are more of you I have missed.

Thank you to the folks at Partick Artists who have helped me reschedule shows and have shown me abundant grace in this and previous seasons of trial, I love being on your team!

Special thanks to Lorna Dueck who has adopted our family and continues to share our story nationwide on Context!  We also have felt the love from CKUA (Grant + Baba), CBC (Katherine Duncan) and other media outlets interested in our story.

Also thank you to the folks at DRP, Intact Insurance, the Town of High River and MLA Rick Fraser who have taken an interest in our story and are working hard to help us resolve house problems! 

We are also so grateful for the Salvation Army Church in High River, the Red Cross and the agencies at the Welcome Center who are helping us get back on our feet.  Keep up the amazing work!

There are so many of you who have offered to take care of Hudson, sent love and prayers and built up a tide of gratitude in our hearts.  We appreciate everything so so so much!  THANK YOU!

In the first few days since being displaced by the flood our family has been focusing on how to live in a land of limbo.  Last Thursday we were so thankful to find a pet-friendly hotel room in Calgary where we regroup and try to stabilize our family.  We also had the joy of having my parents come to help us get organized and give our 3.5 yr old son a bunch of love and attention.  Gary was still helping at the High River Fire Dept almost everyday, and we were anxiously waiting for news on our homes, business and town.  There were alot of tears.

Once the reality started to set in that we would not be able to return to our RV/home for a long time we started to shift into looking at long term living options and replacing our living essentials. 

The twist in our story is that on June 1 Gary and I bought a house in the SE part of town, close to the Sobey’s grocery store, and were 3 weeks into our renovation.  Luckily our basement and main floor were essentially empty, aside from some tools, supplies and appliances and thankfully most of our household items were in storage.   Unfortunately the RV we had planned to live in all summer, while renovating the house, was damaged in the flood.  Our personal items, clothes, toys and basic living essentials were all in the bus. 

Many of our friends and neighbors were not so lucky and have some heart-wrenching days ahead when they learn which personal/sentimental items have been taken by the floods. 

So in this land of limbo we needed help.  As everyone in our town found a safe place to sleep and recovered some basics to live I started to witness the power of the Margin of Giving.  I have learnt that everyone has something to give, and when we pool our emotional, financial, material and hospitality resources hearts can be mended, chaos can be stabilized. 

 Here are some of the larger general examples of people helping out:

Over 15,000 secured shelter in homes, billets, hotels, shelters that first night.

Friends and strangers offered us homes, and trailers to live in.

Hotels gave discounts, kennels boarded animals.

Thousands of dollars donated from the public and private sector.

Emergency personnel have been working around the clock in High River and other areas securing flood zones.

More specifically I have seen:

The Nanton Emergency Shelter staffed by the most hard-working and loving Hutterite colony families from the area, with constant smiles and warmth on their faces.

The folks at Neighbour Link providing pillows, bedding, clothing, toys, food, toiletries and so much more.

Friends lending us things like a suitcase to put our items in, taking the dog the the off-leash park, a home-cooked meal, a place to park our trailer, extra maternity clothes and baby items, new blankets and household items even.

Money donations, and benefit concerts.

A dad and his two daughters ride their horses through the Nanton campground each evening to let the kids ride/pet the horses.

A water pump and hoses!

Hundreds of hugs, shared tears and hours of prayer.

Not one person could provide all of these needs, not even one ministry or community could do this, but when everyone gives a little out of the extra they have our family’s needs were met to overflowing.  We thank you from the very bottom of our hearts, I have been humbled and blessed beyond anything I could imagine.  

I hope to share more stories and some photos of folks as we continue to clean up and rebuild.  Thank you for your interest and care!  

Keep in touch with me at:

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Hey friends!  We are so excited to invite you to vote on which Honeycomb Tombs song gets video treatment next!!!

We can't wait to see which song is your favorite, just click here to vote!

The song with the most votes will be made into a video early in the new year!  We are excited to announce we will be partnering with Wade Yamaguchi of Yamo Films! 

Here is an example of his work!

He is an extremely talented videographer who has recently worked with Jason Mraz as well, he shot the astrolabe time lapse in the middle of the video!!

Friends!

In the spirit of the season we are now selling all my digital music for 50% off on the website from now until New Year's Day!

Thank you for your support and Merry Christmas!

Special thanks to Amy Dwight for capturing the concert at Cocoa Nymph in Vancouver last month!  Here is a little video she put together for me!