I am a fan of music, the kind of music that fills the house when someone has talent. With that in mind, I finally ‘bit the bullet’ and five weeks ago I started lessons for my youngest daughter.
I want music in my home, and I figured that I can learn while she learns and perhaps share what I’m learning with the other children. What I’ve learned so far… is everything, every day we get some quiet time together to go over her lessons and I’m astounded what five weeks can do. (For example, I covered her eyes, asked her to play the D key, then the C key, then the A key, and she was able to reach out and play it, flawlessly.)
Here’s a short video I took of her beginning efforts on the C – Position from the other day.
Personally, I’m amazed. I’ve never seen someone pick up an instrument from scratch this quickly, and now that she’s moved onto the ‘real’ keys, she’s flying full speed into memorizing the treble and bass cleft and she has already memorized where all the keys on the board are!
Storms are one thing, but this… this is something different, powerful, and beautiful!
I have done it! I have redefined what fatigue is! Today, when I woke up so early that it was still dark outside, the only thought that I was coherent enough to have loop inside my mind was "ouch, I'm tired." Despite that, I was up and awake. (awake'ish)
I have learned something… I have learned that women trainers, can be brutal! And, I've taken advantage of that as I work out each day. There's no room for resting, barely room for breathing, and the reward is that I'm already starting to feel a difference, and when I can tell the difference between the tears and the sweat I'll be able to see a difference too!
Taking the children to school was like a chapter from "Rich Dad, Poor Dad." My son and I got into a discussion (or lecture?) about how a banks saving account works. This led to talking about compound deposits, and how the stock market works. I'm not sure he understood, he is 10 after all; but he seemed to catch on very quickly and ask the kind of questions that let me feel like I wasn't talking to a wall.
Home work was as fun as ever, it feels like; as soon as we finally conquer the monster, it's time for bed. Not with all of them, but with enough that I feel I need to find a better way. I think, what I should do when they get home is give them an immediate hour of just crazy 'exhaust yourself to a stupor' time, so that then they can focus on the work at hand. (Good idea blog people who read this, thanks)
I wish I could say ever dinner was healthy, I try. I feel like I could make up a million excuses about why I can't always feed my children the way I eat. I could even make a list, I think anyone with children knows how picky they can be, and I do believe it's about choosing your battles. For dinner I made them macaroni and cheese, trying to smuggle the healthy in while no one was looking. Dinner is always great though, even when it's nothing fancy, we sit and talk around the dinner table and come together in ways that, if neglected, don't come naturally for most families.
I love this time of night, where the children are snuggled so sound in their beds… but what I love even better is when you know that their life can't be that bad, because laughing like that (cute little belly laughs) in their sleep, means the world is okay.
