Having older children can be busier than I ever thought! Although I do have more blessed hours of the day at my disposal while the kids are in school, once they get home it's go-go-go! The daily rehearsals for Oliver are taking their toll--keeping kids out until late at night, often on busy school nights. I'm finding myself unable to keep up with any kind of volunteering schedule (and keep in mind I was never excellent at this in the first place), and things like Cookie Fridays and Friend Fridays are being replaced with Order Pizza, Plant the Entire Family in Front of Movie and Fall Asleep Halfway Through Fridays.
There are definitely good bits, though. My love of January remains intact, and we have begun the year optimistically, with a new theme: "Better than we Found It," and are working toward putting more good things into the world. I mean, I managed to put two birthday parties into the world this month, didn't I? Admittedly, one of those required emailing three of my friends (resulting in four friends for Emerson--there are unexpected benefits to having twins as friends) two days before a hastily planned party on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and talking them into dropping their kids off for an afternoon of Laser Tag while I tried to catch up on my book club book in the lobby. The other one required the making of a (not entirely unimpressive) penguin birthday cake that Sera had fixated on almost a year ago, coming up with about 3 rather lame penguin games, and then planting Sera and her friends in front of about 30 minutes of Mr. Popper's Penguins (which is a pretty hilarious movie, you have to admit). Strangely, I find that the inspiration and creativity that used to drive me make birthday parties really special is just kind of waning--mostly I'd rather put my energy into different things now. Ultimately, I think this is a good thing. I'd hate for my kids to be outgrowing parties while I was grieving giving them up, you know? Maybe the birthday party energy will be replaced with some more useful kind of energy. Like house-cleaning energy? Ha, not likely.
Maybe some of that energy is cropping up in my (semi-)professional life. I added two additional classes in January, bringing the total to eight! I've streamlined my curriculum over the last couple of years, and I'm looking at the possibility of franchising it out in the future. These classes are such an easy, rewarding way to give young children an excellent music foundation, and I feel selfish keeping the knowledge of how to run them to myself. I have a lot of details to look at before I can move forward, but the seeds have been planted, and I hope one day they'll grow into a fruitful tree.
Speaking of music educations, two of the other wonderful events from this month included Emerson's and Sera's school plays (as though we were short on plays in this family). Sera decorated her own snowman costume for the kindergarten snowman play, deciding to be an artist snowman. She recited her lines beautifully and did a great job singing with the other snowmen--kindergarteners are the best! Emerson's second grade musical went around the world, and featured songs from Brazil, China, and Ireland. Emerson knocked it out of the park with his huge smile and his really beautiful singing voice.
As for the Oliver rehearsals, they have been going well. I think our whole family has much preferred the more manageable rehearsal schedule for the orphans, especially as we are able to take advantage of carpooling. I really enjoy the families we have been carpooling with--one family, the Bennetts, also has two children in the play, and both boys are spectacular when they fall into their British cockney accents on the drive home. Most of the time I just shut my mouth and listen and laugh as all four kids carry on entire conversations in character. The costumes have been made and fitted, and I've stayed to watch a few of the rehearsals and to check out the sets and . . . I'm really thrilled that my kids get to take part in such a great production. I'm also not entirely un-thrilled that we are closing in on the end of it and will all be able to take a break before too long.
Oh! One final exciting thing happened in January! My sister and her family moved from South Dakota to Philadelphia (our old stomping grounds) and were able to stop through for a visit. The kids loved getting to see their cuzzies for the first time in quite a while, and we had a great time going to dinner with them, but mostly just talking and enjoying some time together. I have been blessed with the best sisters in the world, and I don't get to see them nearly enough. We wish Chelsi good luck on her pregnancy (her fourth--they've worked even faster than we did!), and hope her family enjoys their stay in the City of Brotherly Love (haha!).
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