Creating jewelry out of chaos!

Yesterday I learned how to braid hemp into jewelry at MOPS. Fun! Now I have some motivation to untangle the mess the boys made of my ball of hemp! 

Music Festival

I had my first two students play in the music festival yesterday. I'm so proud of both of these girls as they are eleven and it was the first time they played in the festival. And one of them practices on a keyboard without weighted keys. And they're playing with kids who have probably played in festival quite a few years already. They both did very well and while there were some flaws, much of it gained some positive remarks from the adjudicator. I was so proud of both of them.

Let's Get Real Monday

My 15th birthday...The memory this picture invokes is the piano where I spent hours singing songs like "Fly Me to the Moon" and Tiptoe Through the Tulips". 

Let's Get Real Monday

This is for Randi's "Let's Get Real Monday Challenge". This picture shows me enjoying the sun and a romance novel. I was never much for the great outdoors unless I had a book in my hand.

What do your kids do for fun?

I take great delight in the imagination of our boys.

A couple of weeks ago, Rory helped himself to my salad spinner and filled it with mud and 'planted' wheat seeds. They sprouted and grew and then he cut them down and fed them to our guinea pigs much to their excitement.

This morning while watching Blues' Clues, Rory decided to do his 0wn version of it. He painstakingly traced around his hand on three pieces of paper and colored his handprints blue. Right now he's taping them up around the house and in a minute he'll be in here for me to write down in my 'handy-dandy notebook' (he handed me an old newspaper for that) his clues.

Here I go!

(PS - I'd love to hear what your kids do that's fun and imaginative)

An Old School

The boys are sitting in an old school house in a village a few minutes away. The community has kept it nicely and it's neat to visit. Maybe this is the closest the boys will come to sitting in a classroom if homeschooling continues to be our education of choice. 

A High Vantage Point

Ladger is watching TV and I guess P2 thought he'd enjoy the show better up high. 

Sisters...

This Sunday was neat because our team was leading worship and across the country my sister was part of a new worship team at her church for the first time. As you can imagine, I couldn't wait to get home and phone her to find out how it went. They had some good feedback and I was so happy for it - she's been wanting to be part of something like that for a long time.

Today, it's back to routine. It's amazing how much I crave it after a crazy week like the last one.

Here's the face looking at me this morning!

 

Finances, Fumes and Fun.

It's office day!! That means that I get to do what I love...bury myself in the computer and financial records while Ladger takes over Rory's schooling. Mind you, it's not totally without a hitch...Paxton just came in and I'm about to keel over from the fumes (dirty diaper). And he's found some keys which he put in a Christmas tin. You can just imagine the noise of that shaking. Plus I have to make a mental note of where those keys are so I won't forget when I need them!

We had our MOPS meeting today (Mothers of Preschoolers) and I was in charge of the craft time...part two of two sessions on calligraphy. And I just about jumped out of my skin when I saw the group which was almost three times as many as last week. And then the photocopier was locked up and the pastor out of town so I had to go home to gather some extra supplies and copy some extra instruction sheets and liner pages. But in the end, all was well and although calligraphy is not everyone's cup of tea...at least we can say we all tried it :-) Next time we'll be learning how to make hemp jewelery and I'm looking forward to that - especially since others will be leading that session. *grin*

The neat thing was having new moms come out. It's exciting to see our group continue to grow - it's particularly neat considering that we live in a rural area where our general population tends to shrink rather than grow.

This week our worship team was asked to fill in for another group. I agreed to it and then discovered that some team members can't make it. And then I found out that our regular practice time on Saturday evening is impossible because of a concert being held. So I think we'll go with a much smaller team and enjoy a more acoustic sound.

I know why I write best at night. It's the one time of the day that's quiet in our house. It's just after lunch and I'm ready for the day to be over. R5 takes so much of my time and energy for schooling and then when that's finished, it seems he drains what's left with constant noise and wacky behaviour. I think I'm getting a good case of spring fever - I know a couple of boys who need to go outside and work themselves out. And I know a mom who needs to find some peace and ability to function in the midst of chaos.

Do you hear some classical guitar?

I changed my background music to a Carcassi guitar piece. I just love classical guitar and since I don't perform anywhere else - you lucky folks get to be my audience. Actually, it's great practice to record something - shows how well you know a piece. And then it's a joy to share it...with you.

I have a day off today as there is no school. So I actually took a nap this afternoon - the boys are still sleeping. It's a sleepy kind of day with thick gray dreary clouds and a light snowfall. I started R5 on history today with an intro on what history and archaeology is. He is particularly interested in archaeology. He figures he's going to bury one of his toys in the backyard so he can dig it up - could be an interesting summer. I think Grandpa has found some arrow heads or something at one time - I'll have to ask him about it so he show them to R5. That would be cool.

I've started learning copperplate calligraphy - here's a sample piece I wrote when I was feeling a little weighed down. I love writing out scripture in calligraphy as it makes me slow down and really think about it.

Blog Bungler

Some of you may have noticed my 'new' look. It happened by accident. Last night I couldn't sleep around 3:30am so I had the brilliant idea of making a blogging entry with one of the pieces I recorded but then I made a big boo-boo and lost most of my template. What a mess at that hour of the day! So I was grateful for the Blogger templates which enabled me to get up and running again without losing the rest of the night. Moral: Don't mess around with your blog settings in the middle of the night. One doesn't tend to be terribly bright when sleep deprived!

It's nice to be back to a 'normal' week. I did some recording that was quite fun - musical festival pieces for students. I've put one of them as background for this blog for a short while. (if it works *grin*)

Tomorrow's a Big Day!

We're watching the weather with bated breath this evening. Earlier the roads from Swift Current to Regina were closed and in very poor condition...a lovely March blizzard. Tomorrow morning, Ladger and I are supposed to hit those roads to be part of Telemiracle. A few months ago, Jerrim Rushka auditioned and made it and I get to play piano for his number. Our time is between 3 and 4 pm on CTV-Regina's station. Any prayers for safe travel would be appreciated!

Update: By morning, the conditions had improved somewhat and so off we went. Most of the way one lane of traffic was passable but I'm thankful we didn't have to use the other lane (deep snow and ice in parts). On the way back, we ran into the longest line of vehicles (mostly semis) that I'd ever seen in Saskatchewan. A semi overturned and must have blocked the road for quite some time but as we got there the traffic started to move through.

We had a nice relaxing dinner and then off to Telemiracle where it was neat to be backstage for awhile and watch all the happenings from behind the curtain. Jerrim had two presentations to make but he got no notice - they just announced it from the stage and voila he was on. And not only that but somehow they missed their cue to get the piano onto the stage for his performance so he got to stand there in an awkward wait until Beverly Mahood came over and rescued him with some small talk for a few minutes while the stage crew got the piano out and set up. So that was our bit of excitement but once things got going, it seemed to go over fine.

So we all had a good day.