We have been enjoying a wonderfully relaxed, no-commitment, stress-free, minimal-labor Christmas vacation.  Two weeks away from school and work, and nearly two weeks of video games, screen time, (catching up on) neglected projects, eating out, and sleeping in.  It has been faaaaabulous.

The kids have had play dates and sleepovers, we have visited with friends and family, and we have enjoyed doing something we get few opportunities to do normally… nothing.

Personally, I created a small list of things that I wanted to accomplish during this break. These are projects that are not necessarily important to anybody else, but require time - and sometimes a large chunk of time.

The first item on my list was to make a large batch of Zuppa Tuscano, a recipe from a friend, that uses kale. We don't cook kale here very often (nobody particularly cares for it), but we get some each summer with our vegetable CSA shares, and this soup is very flavorful.  So, I made a triple batch, served some for dinner, and put the rest in the freezer for random meals during the winter.

Speaking of recipes, the other larger project on my to do list involved entering all of my favorite recipes from two recipe binders into my recipe software.  Several years ago I purchased Cook'n  software to store all of my recipes. The plan had been to put all my favorites into Cook'n so that I would have one place to go where I could search by ingredient, or some other keyword, to find the recipes that I wanted. During this break I finally finished entering my favorite recipes into the software.  I still have a collection of Pinterest recipes to add, but the box sitting on the floor of my office (the one that held my recipe binders and loose random recipes) is now (finally) gone.

The next two projects on my list involved shopping on the Internet. First, I needed to order tablecloths for my table. It is not always easy to find tablecloths for my slightly smaller-than-normal dining table when I just walk in to Bed, Bath, and Beyond; I can either find the right size OR a color/style that I like, but not usually BOTH.  Thanks to Amazon, this is no longer a significant problem.  While I was browsing the pages of Amazon, I did some searching for drinking glasses. We purchased several sets of drinking glasses when we finished building our house several years ago, but after years of children, entertaining, and carelessness, it was time to replenish our supply. Amazingly, Amazon was able to provide me with not just any glasses, but the exact same glasses that I already have. A perfect match.

Next up on my to do list; prepared two computers to be donated to our kids' school. Prior to Christmas we started making some computer changes in our house and the end result was two decent computers that we no longer need. With little time and effort we could prepare those computers to be donated to the school.

That leaves the last thing on my to do list.  It's a creative project, something I have been wanting to do for a year now. It's a project that I pinned on Pinterest, but just never made the time to do.  Now it's done; homemade ornaments for my Christmas tree.  The timing really couldn't be better; a few years ago our tree tipped over and several ornaments were destroyed, then this year, for whatever reason, several more ornaments were damaged during the decorating of the tree.  Now I have six new ornaments done in some of my favorite colors.

With that done, my holiday projects list is complete.  I love the fact that I accomplished these many things, and yet still feel like this was a quiet and relaxing vacation; the ultimate success in my book.  May the rest of 2015 be as relaxingly productive as this Christmas holiday has been.

Happy New Year.

Gettin' in the Mood for Christmas

Katherine and I went to the Old Brick Church in Williston where they are running a music series through the fall and winter. Tonight they had a concert harpist who has been playing with an orchestra in Philadelphia for many years.   And an "Grammy nominated" flutist who runs a chamber music group here in Vermont.

Katherine has expressed an interest in learning to play the harp.  When she learned that the harp had nine pedals on it to shift each string from natural to sharp to flat, she started to back down from her position...until the harp started to play.  Katherine had brought her Kindle along (we were plenty early in order to get good seats so she thought she might need something to read), but as soon as the music started she closed the Kindle and kept her eyes glued to the harp.

When we got home, I was enjoying all the lights on our house and thought I'd take a couple of pictures.  It's amazing how helpful these lights are in helping me get into the celebratory mood of Christmas.

This little tree is covered in LED lights, and is now covered in snow.  It looks like a candy tree...or maybe that's just my sweet tooth talkin'.

 
This is our front door.

Never Say "Never"

When I was younger, I used to say that I could never be a teacher (except maybe to my own kids), much less a music teacher. After all, genetics and upbringing (both my parents were music teachers/band directors) can only go so far, right?

Well, maybe not. It seems that, despite my best efforts (I was a business major), a part of that family business has been passed on to me. The only difference between my parents and me? They were trained for this gig...I am not. There are other significant differences between us...not the least of which is natural ability...but I'll do my best to to not shame the family. :)

Tonight I am arranging a hand chime version of O Little Town of Bethlehem for my general music students.  Trying to get a group of largely musically inexperienced first through fifth graders to play a song on the hand chimes is...well, it's about as difficult as it sounds.  Cross your fingers.

Call Me Old Fashioned

You can call me old fashioned if you'd like, but this blog post articulates many of my thoughts on hymnal use.  I think I would add another functional reason like 'hymnals are easier for short people see', but these fifteen reasons are a solid start.



15 Reasons Why We Should Still Be Using Hymnals

Katherine's Piano Recital

Up until the week before the recital, Katherine had been telling her teacher that she was NOT going to perform. She told me the same thing one day and I responded with a cool "yes you are".

By the time she was done, Katherine was prepared to play three pieces for the recital. Not bad for a girl who wasn't going to play. And she did a really good job, despite being really nervous.

Happy Mother's Day

After my kids took me out to dinner in a mom–gets–to–pay kind of way, we went to Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream on Church Street. Ben & Jerry's offers free ice cream to mom's on Mother's Day.

I told the kids that I wanted a picture with them, but they were pretty reluctant. After the ice cream, I finally got a picture. I'm not sure that I will be hanging it on my wall, but it was a sweet and to a pretty relaxing Mother's Day.

Fond Memories

On Friday, Patrick and ten of his classmates (all the junior high students...all eleven of them) went to New Hampshire to compete against eight other Christian schools from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut.  Represented by 213 students, these schools came together to compete in 49 different events in 5 categories: Bible, Art, Academics, Speech, and Music. 

Trinity Baptist School - Junior High

 Our students participated in twenty-four events and brought home many first, second, and third place ribbons. Trinity's new hand chime choir competed against three other handbell choirs who were well-established and experienced ringers.  We didn't place, but they did their best and performed admirably.  As their teacher has been out of school quite a bit in the past few weeks, I was asked to substitute teach the chimes as they prepared for competition.  On competition day, the teacher asked if I'd direct them since they were clearly used to me by now.  It was fun to be directing a choir again, although I do miss my old handbells.  At Trinity, everyone participates in hand chimes, regardless of musical knowledge or ability.  That can create some musical challenges, but also demonstrates a good message that participation is more important than winning.

Patrick competed in the Small Ensemble category with fellow seventh grader, Sophia.  They played Irish fiddle tune "Road to Listoonvarna", which is apparently the only song Sophia can play.  Patrick made it work by scheduling an extra guitar lesson specifically to work out the mechanics of this unknown piece.  And I spent some time at school helping them practice together; to stay focused, work on their stage presence, and fine-tune their timing.  I also helped them stretch this super short (only two lines of music) song into a performance piece by adding a second run through the piece where Patrick plays chords to Sophia's melody, and then adding the tag at the end.



The really cool part of their performance was what happened before the competition.  Their duo was the first event of the Small Ensemble category.  We arrived at the judging room about ten minutes before they were to start, but the room was empty.  We went inside and took our seats, and waited for the judges to arrive.  While I was setting up the camera and the seats were filling, one judge walked in and took a seat.  Patrick (probably in an attempt to quiet some nerves) started playing the guitar.  His friends coaxed him on to play this song or that song and he just kept playing at their request, telling stories and working the crowd the whole time.  One parent spoke out and asked if he knew any scales.  Patrick immediately ripped off two flawless scales and then went right back to playing songs for the crowd.  Eventually the judges were all seated and ready and gave them "the nod" to start their piece.  This is Patrick vamping for the crowd.

Proud smiles for Sophia and Patrick as they take home first place for The Road to Listoonvarna.

It's fun to watch Patrick get so jazzed about music (Did you see what I did there?  Jazzed about...oh never mind.)  We have definitely turned the corner from forced practices to having to take the guitar or mandolin away so that he can get his chores done.  He takes either the guitar or the mandolin to school almost every day, and is always looking for opportunities to use his music at school.

As Trinity has seen a consistent drop in enrollment, our resources for things like music instruction have taken a hit.  A once vibrant and active music program has been reduced to interested musicians taking private lessons, and a patchwork of volunteers coming in to teach music history and songs for concerts.  Changes are afoot for next year...exciting times.