.
Henry B. Eyering, one of my favorite apostles, gave a talk about keeping a journal to make note of the hand of God in our lives. What a great idea to turn a journal into something truly spiritual, rather than just a record of everyday events. This is what my blog will be today.
This morning I had a hard time getting out the door to church. I had hung the keys up where they belonged last night, but they had fallen into a box of hangers. After searching fruitlessly for awhile, I started praying that one of us would find them. DH found them just a minute after that. We were a little late, but we were in time to take the sacrament and feel the reverence of that beautiful ordinance.
DS-8 is growing up and maturing so quickly. He's been actively looking for sweet things to do for me. He offers me drinks, makes his own sandwiches, turns off all the lights, obeys without balking, etc. I know I'm supposed to be the example for him, but the last few days his attitude and demeanor have set the stage for me. Because of his efforts, I've been able to be more patient and remember that every moment is a teaching moment. We've had more smiles, greater peace, and deeper love. This is an answer to prayer that has come in a very unexpected way. He's teaching me how to be a better parent by being as kind and courteous as I should always be with others.
DS-3 is a bundle of trouble and joy. He's so curious, and his laugh is SOOOO deep and loud. He's starting to talk a little more. Recently, he started making more effort to say his own prayers, rather than mumbling incoherently after I say a phrase to him. He loves prayer time. His faith is so pure; I love feeling the Spirit when he talks to his Heavenly Father. He is teaching me again to value small moments to tune in with my Father and just appreciate His company. And he teaches me everyday how great it is to love and be loved.
Gospel Doctrine class was interesting today. As usual, there were things that weren't part of the lesson plan that just came out of my mouth. I love sharing the things the Spirit whispers while we're discussing the Gospel. There's such a beautiful feeling of oneness when everyone is learning their own personal lessons from the Lord all at the same time.
DH got an A in his class!!!!!!!!!!!!! His last class on technical writing was very difficult because the professor was nit-picking everyone on EVERYTHING. He got 97%. It's his lowest score ever for an A. He put so much work into it under pretty demanding work, home, and professor circumstances. The last weekend of the class when he and his team were supposed to be working on their final project, we planned to attend the temple with the ward. This meant five hours round trip in the car, plus the time to go through the temple session. When I reminded him of the trip Friday afternoon, he said glumly that he didn't think he'd be able to go with all the work that needed to be done on the project. I was so disappointed. I could hardly stand the thought of going without him. I prayed with all my heart that he would be able to finish what he needed to, that he would remember how very important temple blessings are in everyday life, and that he would know how much I loved being there with him. That night, he finished much earlier than he thought he would. When he said he could go to the temple with me, I was so excited I almost cried.
The Primary Presidency came to entertain the kids in the Stake Center while the parents went to the temple. The Spirit was wonderful. DH and the boys were able to sleep on the drive to the temple, so no one needed a nap while we were there. The weather was clear so that I had no problem driving. On the way home, it was raining pretty hard. DH drove, and with thin traffic we had no problems. He was able to finish his class final project, even though no one on his team contributed or finished what they were supposed to. He really had to scramble. But I sincerely believe that because he consecrated his time to go to the temple with me, he was given greater clarity of thought and objectivity.
We always love how "in love" we are when we've had any spiritual experience. Makes me want to go to the temple every day! Instead, we'll just have to work on turning our home into a temple. Not that we have any slag in our relationship. We just always feel like newlyweds after a temple date, an ordinance, a blessing, etc. Especially me. I get all ga-ga and silly. The home is second only to the temple in sacredness.
No wonder we're so in love....
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Too much music
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Some might think I have too much music.
I say there's just too much music to hear and have.
My husband got me a great iPod for my last birthday. It has 120 GB of memory. I've already filled 61 GB with music. Most of it is classical. I don't mean classic rock or instrumental music. I mean classical. Like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Medelssohn, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc, Rachmaninov, Vaughan Williams, Holst, etc. Any other definition that comes up in conversation makes me smile and wince just a little.
With all that music at my fingertips, I've discovered a new source of enjoyment connected with an almost obsessive-compulsive need: compiling playlists. I'll be listening to a great piece of music and wish the next several pieces were in the same "family" of harmony or orchestration. Why don't I just turn off the shuffle or use the Genius button? BECAUSE I'M DRIVING, DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, and I don't want to limit the list to a mere twenty-five tracks. Not when I can easily make a list where nothing repeats for two days. So I go home and create a playlist. Brahms is so especially loved that he got his own list right off the bat.
The list I made tonight is relaxing movements from Romantic/Impressionist/Post Romantic chamber and symphonic music. I called it the RIP Chamber. It was 2.9 days long. That just didn't seem right, so I found a few more things to make it a nice even 3 days. But I overshot and ended up with 3.1 days.
No worries, I'm not completely OCD.
Some might think I have too much music.
I say there's just too much music to hear and have.
My husband got me a great iPod for my last birthday. It has 120 GB of memory. I've already filled 61 GB with music. Most of it is classical. I don't mean classic rock or instrumental music. I mean classical. Like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Medelssohn, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc, Rachmaninov, Vaughan Williams, Holst, etc. Any other definition that comes up in conversation makes me smile and wince just a little.
With all that music at my fingertips, I've discovered a new source of enjoyment connected with an almost obsessive-compulsive need: compiling playlists. I'll be listening to a great piece of music and wish the next several pieces were in the same "family" of harmony or orchestration. Why don't I just turn off the shuffle or use the Genius button? BECAUSE I'M DRIVING, DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, and I don't want to limit the list to a mere twenty-five tracks. Not when I can easily make a list where nothing repeats for two days. So I go home and create a playlist. Brahms is so especially loved that he got his own list right off the bat.
The list I made tonight is relaxing movements from Romantic/Impressionist/Post Romantic chamber and symphonic music. I called it the RIP Chamber. It was 2.9 days long. That just didn't seem right, so I found a few more things to make it a nice even 3 days. But I overshot and ended up with 3.1 days.
No worries, I'm not completely OCD.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
New Chorus In Town
I love to sing. I mean, LOVE to sing. I'd do it all day if I could.
I've been singing since I was old enough to make sounds. I used to hum the Lassie theme song (on pitch) before I could talk. Even as a very small child, I gravitated toward music with rich harmony. I knew there were different notes being played and/or sung, and it fascinated me. When I was in second grade, my sister learned the harmony for a Primary song she was singing in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for a Conference broadcast. She taught it to me. I WAS HOOKED!!!!!!!!!! Now I understood that harmony had a structure, and I was trying to pick out or invent harmony for everything I heard.
Was I born to be an alto? No, I'm a first soprano. But I absolutely love being part of groups that use wonderful harmony, and I like to sing harmony whenever possible. In the car to CDs, in congregational hymns, to t.v. themes, anywhere music is found I will sing harmony. I love singing second soprano, alto, tenor an octave higher than written, and even baritone up an octave or two. I strongly prefer singing in a group surrounded by a chord of voices, over singing a solo anytime.
With that in mind, here's a sad fact: I haven't been able to sing in a professional or semi-professional group for seven very long years. It's been a painful time of artistic stagnation. Can you hear the wailing violins in the background? Seriously, think Schindler's List soundtrack. Not to mention, I can't sing nearly as well as I used to after seven years of non-singing and frequent laryngitus.
I attended a Messiah sing-along last year with a friend from church and told her how much I needed to be doing things like this again. She's a very social person who knows everyone. She started asking around and found that the new music director at the Methodist Church who had conducted the Messiah thing wanted to start a chorus in our area. HOORAY!!!!!!!!!
We were invited to a brainstorming session last week to discuss how to go about getting it off the ground. Two of the music professors from the local University were there (all will remain anonymous for personal security reasons), the guy who will be directing the chorus, a choir director from the public school system, a new Columbus resident who has experience in community choruses, and my friend and I.
We tossed ideas around for several hours about auditions, expectations, advertising, sponsers, etc. We'll be having auditions two nights in August. The group will be called CCS. That's right, I'm not telling you the group's name on this blog with no visitors. The new resident will be the PR person. I will most likely be the audition coordinator and was asked to come up with an audition form. My friend volunteered to call the people who are rejected and nicely tell them, "...not this year".
I've already finished two drafts of the audition information form. I can't wait to sing again!
Now if I could just get over this cold and get my voice back again....
I've been singing since I was old enough to make sounds. I used to hum the Lassie theme song (on pitch) before I could talk. Even as a very small child, I gravitated toward music with rich harmony. I knew there were different notes being played and/or sung, and it fascinated me. When I was in second grade, my sister learned the harmony for a Primary song she was singing in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for a Conference broadcast. She taught it to me. I WAS HOOKED!!!!!!!!!! Now I understood that harmony had a structure, and I was trying to pick out or invent harmony for everything I heard.
Was I born to be an alto? No, I'm a first soprano. But I absolutely love being part of groups that use wonderful harmony, and I like to sing harmony whenever possible. In the car to CDs, in congregational hymns, to t.v. themes, anywhere music is found I will sing harmony. I love singing second soprano, alto, tenor an octave higher than written, and even baritone up an octave or two. I strongly prefer singing in a group surrounded by a chord of voices, over singing a solo anytime.
With that in mind, here's a sad fact: I haven't been able to sing in a professional or semi-professional group for seven very long years. It's been a painful time of artistic stagnation. Can you hear the wailing violins in the background? Seriously, think Schindler's List soundtrack. Not to mention, I can't sing nearly as well as I used to after seven years of non-singing and frequent laryngitus.
I attended a Messiah sing-along last year with a friend from church and told her how much I needed to be doing things like this again. She's a very social person who knows everyone. She started asking around and found that the new music director at the Methodist Church who had conducted the Messiah thing wanted to start a chorus in our area. HOORAY!!!!!!!!!
We were invited to a brainstorming session last week to discuss how to go about getting it off the ground. Two of the music professors from the local University were there (all will remain anonymous for personal security reasons), the guy who will be directing the chorus, a choir director from the public school system, a new Columbus resident who has experience in community choruses, and my friend and I.
We tossed ideas around for several hours about auditions, expectations, advertising, sponsers, etc. We'll be having auditions two nights in August. The group will be called CCS. That's right, I'm not telling you the group's name on this blog with no visitors. The new resident will be the PR person. I will most likely be the audition coordinator and was asked to come up with an audition form. My friend volunteered to call the people who are rejected and nicely tell them, "...not this year".
I've already finished two drafts of the audition information form. I can't wait to sing again!
Now if I could just get over this cold and get my voice back again....
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Forgot my own blog
The world turns too fast, and I forgot about my own blog. That's okay, no one else reads it either!
We're finishing up a year of homeschooling and are a little behind. No sweat, it's easy to catch up on the stuff we missed. We are considering joining a group called Classical Conversations, but I have a few concerns. One of the reasons I love homeschooling so much is the flexibility, and the fact that I get to choose the curriculum. If I join this group, I lose a little flexibility in my curriculum choices. Their foreign language program has a LOT of Latin and one year of Spanish. I agree that studying Latin is very important and beneficial, and I bought a Latin elementary curriculum to use before I heard about this group. But Greek and German are very important, too. Latin gives you the basis of all the Romantic languages. Greek is also a big part of that basis. German is the basis of many other western languages, and has had a big influence on English. The argument for all Latin and no Greek or German is that Latin makes up more than 50% of English and 60% of Spanish. Hooray. What about the other 40-50%? In true classical education, the students study Latin and three or four other languages. The more languages you learn, the easier it is to learn any other language. You also have a much greater understanding of other languages, whether you become fluent in them or not. If we do end up joining this group, I guess I could be a cruel taskmaster and make the kids study Greek and German in addition to the Latin and Spanish they'll be working on for the Classical Conversations classes. I dunno....
During the last year, I made the decision to leave a dog rescue group that I was part of since 2004. I need to focus more on the hubby and kiddoes, who need me more than the pups needing homes. It wasn't as hard to leave as I thought it would be. The structure of the group has changed a lot, and I really don't miss the drama. I'll always care about the dogs and will endeavor to educate people about responsible dog ownership. I wish them all the best success in their endeavors. I just have to focus my time and energy elsewhere for the next several years.
DH is taking classes online. Instead of ten weeks of classes that require 5/7 days of participation, he's taking five week classes that require the same amount of work in half the time, and the classes run seven days a week. He's definitely more motivated than I could ever be. He has a break for a week, and then he gets to spend a lot of time doing busy work for a computer class. Like he'll learn anything in that class. He's been doing this stuff very successfully since he was twelve. But the certificate matters to some people, so it's good to have. It's not like he's uneducated. He just changed his major five or six times in college. Then he joined the Navy, made it through nuclear power school, but can't transfer the "classified" classes that would give him a PhD in several disciplines. So it's online classes to get a "degree" in software engineering. He's actually said in the past that programming isn't a career, it's a job skill. I love my brilliant man.
A sad thing that happened this year is that DH's sis disappeared about seven months ago. DH was able to take a week off work and go to her memorial service recently. We're pretty sure she fell off a cliff into the ocean on a nature walk. She is very, very missed. I only met her once a few months after Brent and I were married, but we emailed each other quite a bit and got close. She is a wonderful person. I say "is" because she didn't stop existing. She just IS in a new place doing new things. I can't refer to people who have passed on in past tense. That just seems wrong to me. Brent's sis has great faith, great love, and such a fun personality. I have put all of her emails into a special folder of their own. Everytime I see her name on the folder I feel this sharp pang and I want to talk to her. I hope that doesn't annoy her. I hope she's happy and knows how very loved she is. Someday I'll feel more peace about it. Right now I just wish I'd gotten out to visit her, hug her, and have those great spiritual conversations face-to-face. Love you, Beanie.
Right now I have a bad cold and am every shade of ornery. Yes, I am a veritable rainbow of angst. Poor DS-8 got yelled at far too much today, as did DS-3. While we were reviewing math, DS-8 kept making really odd, silly mistakes. I kept getting impatient with him. I finally told him to go check his blood sugar, and if he wasn't low, he was going to be in trouble. His blood sugar was 61. I was in such a bad mood I didn't even feel ashamed of my irritation level. I told him to eat some sugar and sit down for twenty minutes. He didn't want to sit down and rest, so I yelled at him again. DS-3 figured out how to get past a kid-proof door knob and a dead bolt today. He kept getting outside with no supervision. While DH was working on making the door impassible, I tried getting DS-3 into a room full of toys to play with. He kept doing the no bones drop to the floor move. The last time he did it he jerked as hard as he could and my soda spilled all over the floor. So he got yelled at, too. After he managed to get past DH and myself one more time, I threw my hands in the air and said, "I'm tired of being a mom. I'm done." I just shouldn't do anything when I'm sick. My poor kids are going to have complexes.
Maybe I'll blog again this year. Maybe not. Who knows? We'll see.
We're finishing up a year of homeschooling and are a little behind. No sweat, it's easy to catch up on the stuff we missed. We are considering joining a group called Classical Conversations, but I have a few concerns. One of the reasons I love homeschooling so much is the flexibility, and the fact that I get to choose the curriculum. If I join this group, I lose a little flexibility in my curriculum choices. Their foreign language program has a LOT of Latin and one year of Spanish. I agree that studying Latin is very important and beneficial, and I bought a Latin elementary curriculum to use before I heard about this group. But Greek and German are very important, too. Latin gives you the basis of all the Romantic languages. Greek is also a big part of that basis. German is the basis of many other western languages, and has had a big influence on English. The argument for all Latin and no Greek or German is that Latin makes up more than 50% of English and 60% of Spanish. Hooray. What about the other 40-50%? In true classical education, the students study Latin and three or four other languages. The more languages you learn, the easier it is to learn any other language. You also have a much greater understanding of other languages, whether you become fluent in them or not. If we do end up joining this group, I guess I could be a cruel taskmaster and make the kids study Greek and German in addition to the Latin and Spanish they'll be working on for the Classical Conversations classes. I dunno....
During the last year, I made the decision to leave a dog rescue group that I was part of since 2004. I need to focus more on the hubby and kiddoes, who need me more than the pups needing homes. It wasn't as hard to leave as I thought it would be. The structure of the group has changed a lot, and I really don't miss the drama. I'll always care about the dogs and will endeavor to educate people about responsible dog ownership. I wish them all the best success in their endeavors. I just have to focus my time and energy elsewhere for the next several years.
DH is taking classes online. Instead of ten weeks of classes that require 5/7 days of participation, he's taking five week classes that require the same amount of work in half the time, and the classes run seven days a week. He's definitely more motivated than I could ever be. He has a break for a week, and then he gets to spend a lot of time doing busy work for a computer class. Like he'll learn anything in that class. He's been doing this stuff very successfully since he was twelve. But the certificate matters to some people, so it's good to have. It's not like he's uneducated. He just changed his major five or six times in college. Then he joined the Navy, made it through nuclear power school, but can't transfer the "classified" classes that would give him a PhD in several disciplines. So it's online classes to get a "degree" in software engineering. He's actually said in the past that programming isn't a career, it's a job skill. I love my brilliant man.
A sad thing that happened this year is that DH's sis disappeared about seven months ago. DH was able to take a week off work and go to her memorial service recently. We're pretty sure she fell off a cliff into the ocean on a nature walk. She is very, very missed. I only met her once a few months after Brent and I were married, but we emailed each other quite a bit and got close. She is a wonderful person. I say "is" because she didn't stop existing. She just IS in a new place doing new things. I can't refer to people who have passed on in past tense. That just seems wrong to me. Brent's sis has great faith, great love, and such a fun personality. I have put all of her emails into a special folder of their own. Everytime I see her name on the folder I feel this sharp pang and I want to talk to her. I hope that doesn't annoy her. I hope she's happy and knows how very loved she is. Someday I'll feel more peace about it. Right now I just wish I'd gotten out to visit her, hug her, and have those great spiritual conversations face-to-face. Love you, Beanie.
Right now I have a bad cold and am every shade of ornery. Yes, I am a veritable rainbow of angst. Poor DS-8 got yelled at far too much today, as did DS-3. While we were reviewing math, DS-8 kept making really odd, silly mistakes. I kept getting impatient with him. I finally told him to go check his blood sugar, and if he wasn't low, he was going to be in trouble. His blood sugar was 61. I was in such a bad mood I didn't even feel ashamed of my irritation level. I told him to eat some sugar and sit down for twenty minutes. He didn't want to sit down and rest, so I yelled at him again. DS-3 figured out how to get past a kid-proof door knob and a dead bolt today. He kept getting outside with no supervision. While DH was working on making the door impassible, I tried getting DS-3 into a room full of toys to play with. He kept doing the no bones drop to the floor move. The last time he did it he jerked as hard as he could and my soda spilled all over the floor. So he got yelled at, too. After he managed to get past DH and myself one more time, I threw my hands in the air and said, "I'm tired of being a mom. I'm done." I just shouldn't do anything when I'm sick. My poor kids are going to have complexes.
Maybe I'll blog again this year. Maybe not. Who knows? We'll see.
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