Life has been humming along. Some of it quickly, some of it slowly. All of it BUSY. It’s been a while since we’ve blogged or updated so we wanted to give you an update on all things Musical and Murphy-ish. Consider this the Christmas letter that we never sent you, may it bring you joy, love and stress as you experience our life like we do. If it takes you two weeks to finish reading, that’s okay we’re apparently not in a hurry.

2017 started off with a lot of traveling. Good thing God provided a way for us to upgrade to a minivan! We got to lead worship at two conferences early on this year. One with kids in tow for MCO (Medical Campus Outreach) in Savannah. Another conference was sans children (thank goodness), to a little conference held mostly for pastors and youth staff called Crieff held in Flat Rock, NC. We also led worship for the missions conference at First Pres. here in Augusta, which included lots of fun new sounds. Allie got a chance to tour the Canadian side of Niagara Falls on a girls weekend, and then we all turned around on spring break for a family vacation and visited Lake Lure, NC with some close friends. As fun as that all was, we are home bound now through the summer which is helpful and much more restful.

Mike has continued to pursue and be diligent to his seminary classes as he takes Hebrew 2 and Systematic Theology 2 at the same time this semester. YIKES. He has also continued to bring his best to his job, developing new sounds and songs for Sunday evening and morning services. He has continued to develop our budding little gospel choir, adapt organ and guitar arrangements to spice up a few more modern songs into our Sunday morning services, and continues to bring out exciting new stuff like the hammered dulcimer on Easter Sunday. He also has met weekly with our recording engineer to produce our album during the mixing process. Mike Murphy just does not stop. Seriously. There is literally not enough of him to go around (if someone could figure out how to clone him please that would be awesome…k?).

Allie is 29 weeks pregnant with a girl, potentially named Ivy Elizabeth (but shhhh you didn’t hear that name here). It should go without saying that making a baby is hard work, but she has still written some songs, had opportunity to lead worship at a few women’s events, and continued to be creative around the home. To her non-artistic credit, she has gained skills in areas above and beyond her natural tendencies as she has continued to learn and grow in family organization, as well as fulfill behind-the-scenes tasks to creating an album. Design Album artwork? She’s on it! Research song copywriting? Check. Digital Distribution, what is that? She’s not sure, but she WILL find out.

Jesse is 4 going on 14. He is a joy around the house and is always creating something with paper crafts, cutting, taping and drawing (don’t leave him alone with a role of scotch tape cuz very creative, potentially destructive, things WILL happen). He hums a lot and loves pretending all sorts of fantastical stories. He rides his balance bike (a bike without pedals) like a pro. He also has the new Beauty and the Beast soundtrack fully memorized which can be heard around the house weekly, or…”for EVERMORE”….

Molly isn’t quite 2 but sure acts like it. It has been fun watching her come into her own personality, and she is proving to be quite spunky! Her inner glimmer and sass can be present in her ever expressive eyebrows. She’s got the “how dare you” grimace down pat. She of course is brother’s constant shadow whenever possible. She is becoming quite the singer and has numerous tunes mastered in baby mumblings. We will down the road definitely say of her that she sang before she could fully talk (which they always said about her mommy…aww shucks).

As far as the Album is concerned we are chipping away at it as best that we can, realizing that we can’t move as fast as we once thought possible. We’ve been so encouraged by what we have heard, but also discouraged about how slow the process has been. But truthfully isn’t that just life? Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And we wouldn’t want to speed it up and sacrifice artistic integrity just to complete it. Mike continues to meet once weekly with our engineer as he produces the first general round of mixing. Then we hope to pick up the pace and Allie will join in for last revisions/edits. We’re racing baby three’s arrival early July, but are becoming less confident in completion before our life gets thrown in upheaval over the arrival of another little one. Pray for us as we continue to trust in God’s sovereign timing.

Meanwhile we will keep plowing the fields ahead and have so enjoyed sharing the process with you. Continue to pray for our family as we transition from this season into the next: a family of four hopefully with an album completed…soon…ish. Many hugs and high-fives to our supporters and followers, we are thankful for you guys!