Thank you Clark

Does this piano look lonely? It has hardly been played since our piano teacher, the wonderful Clark, quit suddenly over Christmas vacation. We still had one paid lesson remaining, so he came over today and gave each of the big girls a final lesson.

He really isn't coming back, so I have to decide what to do now. Do I try to teach them myself? I'm not a good piano player, but I am ahead of the girls and can use the books to teach them. Do I contract with a woman I heard about from my church? Do I just give it all a rest and try again next year? Getting the girls to practice just 15 minutes a day is a Herculean task. I will decide by week's end.

Weekend festivities

I had a fun end-of-the-week. Thursday night was the the evening Relief Society meeting and we made cards to be sent to military members who are away from their families this Christmas. They might be overseas serving, or in a hospital either here or abroad. The cards will be delivered via the American Red Cross. I brought macaroons for the dessert table.

Saturday evening was C & E's piano recital and these pictures prove I did accompany them.

I practiced hours and hours to prepare a simple accompaniment that went with the girls' melody line. Did I say hours and hours?? Over several weeks?? I am so not a piano player, although I pretend to be for FHE and other such family events. I knew I could play with E pretty well because hers was easier, but at the last minute I asked the piano teacher to accompany C. But when it came time to introduce her piece, he gave me that puppy-dog look and I changed my mind again and played with her. I had to drop a few notes but it went better than I expected.

The girls were cute and the music was great. They went in order of skill, so my girls were near the beginning and culminated with a 15 year old that is already a wonderful piano player. The teacher is a senior in high school and my only dismay is that he'll be off to college in less than a year. We'll never have this kind of sweet deal again when it comes to piano lessons (good price, he comes to the house, the family loves him). Here he is with E.

I brought macaroons for the dessert table. :-)

Sunday night was our ward's annual Christmas music and stories. The children sang first and it just about brought tears to my eyes it was so pretty and perfect. They sang "Angels We Have Heard On High." Ward members were asked to present favorite Christmas memories and they ranged from traditions in a Mexican/American family to a Christmas in the military in Afghanistan, interspersed with singing Christmas carols. Outstanding. Oh, I brought macaroons for the dessert table. LOL And when Conor got home he asked if there were any left. They were a hit!

This morning I got up and checked my email and found a forgotten picture from someone's camera. It's Kevin's graduation day 18 months ago. Today he leaves the Brazil MTC to go to Florianopolis to start the proselytizing part of his mission.

Homework & piano practice

You will very, very seldom hear me complain about being a mother. I'm so happy to be one that I don't think it's right to complain. HOWEVER, can I just say a few words about homework and piano practice? Time-consuming! I spend most of the time from the end of work at 4:30 until nearly bedtime simultaneously making dinner, listening to the daily chatter from the girls, and cajoling them to do their homework. We eat dinner in the middle somewhere, then back to homework and piano practice. Some of the girls need very direct and firm supervision to get these things done and it's hard to keep on them and do everything else.

Okay, so there.

Now the good part: we have two little piano players in our house! In fact, they are going to each play a piece in the Primary Talent Show this Thursday. Each piece will be performed in sixty seconds or less. Maybe a little bit more next year, but I'm pleased as Punch they are able to perform this year.

And about that homework? I see my daughters reading more each day, learning two-digit multiplication, and learning parts of sentences. Cool. And to think doing homework reinforced it all!