October in Indiana is gorgeous. Okay, maybe not quite as gorgeous as in Connecticut, which is our default awesome autumn, but still really gorgeous. Certainly it beats out Saskatchewan--we spent some serious laugh time just remembering the cold fall morning in Regina (in like, September) when we watched a tree with barely-yellowed leaves just sort of drop all its leaves at once without so much as a breeze--not quite the beauty pageant we get here, anyway. We have been loving the drives to and from Aaron's university, the YMCA, dance classes, Joy School, and church this month.
Earlier this month we had the chance to attend parent-teacher conferences for the kids (the only ones held all year at our school, for some reason), and things are going well! We were especially proud of Asher, who brought home straight A's for which we know he worked hard. Of course, his teacher did mention that he's going to need to step up his game in the organizational department if he wants to keep his grades up, because she has actually pulled stray papers from his desk when he has forgotten to turn them in, and there are occasionally students who stay after class or stay in from recess and organize his desk for him. Oi! Addy's teacher pretty much raved about her, telling us that she is a good friend and a good leader and a hard worker. And also that she needs to work on forming good test-study habits. Emerson also got some raves, and I think may be in the best first-grade class ever. His whole class seems to be full of wonderful helpers and the most enthusiastic learners (for which I'm sure his teacher must deserve a big hunk of the credit)! He really is loving school so much this year. Joy School for Sera is still going swimmingly, and despite the fact that it's a lot of work with just three moms, I'm so glad I didn't bail on my last child and just send her off to preschool.
The piano classes have settled in, and despite all the hard work it took to get them started, I'm so glad I have the opportunity to teach them! I'm not sure there are many things as fulfilling as starting with a group of kids who may or may not be able to match pitch, and to watch them blossom over the weeks into little musicians who understand this foreign language of music, and who can churn out one song after another. It really is the most fun!
In other musical news, our church primary classes just performed their annual children's program. As the music director for the primary, I was so proud to see the work they've done over the year come together! Our congregation is quite small (though it's kid-heavy), and I remember last year visiting Cincinnati and hearing their much larger primary perform the week before ours did, and feeling a little let-down after hearing our much smaller program. Though I've been nowhere near an ideal music director (Printed up flip-charts left at home? Check! Flip charts never even printed in the first place? Check! Organized list of monthly songs given to pianist on the last week before the month is over? Check! Improvised actions to about half the songs? Check! I . . . probably shouldn't go on, because I'm a little embarrassed about how many times I've shown up to fulfill my calling only halfway prepared), I do care a lot about teaching the children, I do love each and every child very much, and I do happen to know the words to all the songs really well, which allows me to go around the room and find children who aren't singing and sing right in front of them, looking them in the eye, until they finally feel obligated to join in. After a full year, there are only about three kids left who consistently avoid singing if I'm not looking directly at them (I stand in front of them a lot), and the rest are pretty darn good little singers! My favorites are the junior primary (ages 4-7), who absolutely sing their little hearts out for me. I feel like it's so important to get them to love singing before the "too cool" factor hits, because once you really get them, you can keep them for life. They did such a beautiful job singing this year, and there were even some lovely small-group songs that added a lot to the program and gave some of the children a chance to really let their voices shine.
In less exciting news, whether I wanted to or not, I got another year older this month. And I'm afraid I have in fact reached the age where the years pass too fast. I'm afraid I didn't meet as many of the goals I set for myself this year as I had hoped to, which makes me feel, well, kind of old. Luckily, my birthday this year started just the way I like it. Even though I am usually the first person up (not at the crack of dawn or anything--usually around 7:30 or so), after I had gotten the kids up (and I had showered and gotten dressed), Aaron talked me into laying back down in bed so that he could lead all the kids into our bedroom to sing our special Happy Birthday song for me. Addy had led a card-making campaign (I love her so so so much for this, because it really does matter to me, and I don't have to ask the kids for it--she gets them all together and tells them what's what), and presented me with a wonderful folder full of their pictures and sweet words. That perfect start to the day, coupled with Aaron whipping up an amazing omelette and some English muffins for breakfast for me (his omelettes, seriously, they make every day into a birthday . . . or Christmas . . . or whatever) put a smile on my face all day long.
Halloween this year was both laid-back and fun. I'm writing this so long after the actual day that it's a little hard to remember the details, but we had a were-wolf, Fancy Nancy, Buzz Lightyear, and a lovely little Princess Sera. The years when we use on-hand costumes are always a little more relaxed than the years when we go all theme-y, so it was just dress up and trick-or-treat this year. We meant to attend the church "trunk-or-treat" party, but we ended up spending most of the day in Cleveland, where we picked up Esmerelda. Esmerelda, you ask? Well, she's the new(-er), very fancy minivan Aaron upgraded us to this month. Spencer Murdoch, our sidekick for the last six and a half years, has nearly 200K miles on him, and we meant to switch him out at some point during our stay in Canada, but between foreign car prices and import costs and such, and then with another move piled on top of all that . . . it got postponed until now. Our kids forgave us a little bit for making them miss the party when they got their first taste of watching a movie on a flip-down screen while driving. To be honest, it's a pretty sweet gig, and Aaron spent a few minutes trying to figure out if there was a way to get a monitor up front for the driver until I convinced him (mostly convinced him) that aside from being illegal, that would be a terrible idea. For now, we've decided that the best car movies are our own home movies, which we rarely get around to watching, but which are excellent for bonding--we've laughed and laughed over 1-year-old Sera and 3-year-old Emerson tromping around the living room with Santa hats, singing Ho! Ho! Ho!
Back to Halloween though, Aaron and I clung to this (probably) last year of going out trick-or-treating with all our own kids. Aaron masterminded a high-school choral festival with the King's Singers while they were in town for a concert, and because of scheduling, it could only be held on Halloween. It ended just as trick-or-treating began, so we started without him, then met him on a street corner and followed the kids (who are all independent and stuff now) around as they traipsed from door to door. We didn't take enough pictures, but we wound up with exactly the right amount of candy--it lasted about a month. As for the King's Singers, we were able to take the whole family to the (free!) concert they gave at the Presbyterian church downtown the next night, and even though it veered more to the sacred than the hilarious (appropriate for the choice of venue, I suppose, though we had hoped the kids would get to see more of their funny songs), we all really enjoyed a wonderful night of music.
Well, that's about all my memory is willing to give me for October. If I can trudge through November's post quickly enough, there's a chance that I will be able to get the whole "home networking" thing working well enough to go back and post pictures for the last six months or whatever it has been. Looking forward, I think maybe the monthly blogposts should make the New Year's resolution list for next year.
Earlier this month we had the chance to attend parent-teacher conferences for the kids (the only ones held all year at our school, for some reason), and things are going well! We were especially proud of Asher, who brought home straight A's for which we know he worked hard. Of course, his teacher did mention that he's going to need to step up his game in the organizational department if he wants to keep his grades up, because she has actually pulled stray papers from his desk when he has forgotten to turn them in, and there are occasionally students who stay after class or stay in from recess and organize his desk for him. Oi! Addy's teacher pretty much raved about her, telling us that she is a good friend and a good leader and a hard worker. And also that she needs to work on forming good test-study habits. Emerson also got some raves, and I think may be in the best first-grade class ever. His whole class seems to be full of wonderful helpers and the most enthusiastic learners (for which I'm sure his teacher must deserve a big hunk of the credit)! He really is loving school so much this year. Joy School for Sera is still going swimmingly, and despite the fact that it's a lot of work with just three moms, I'm so glad I didn't bail on my last child and just send her off to preschool.
The piano classes have settled in, and despite all the hard work it took to get them started, I'm so glad I have the opportunity to teach them! I'm not sure there are many things as fulfilling as starting with a group of kids who may or may not be able to match pitch, and to watch them blossom over the weeks into little musicians who understand this foreign language of music, and who can churn out one song after another. It really is the most fun!
In other musical news, our church primary classes just performed their annual children's program. As the music director for the primary, I was so proud to see the work they've done over the year come together! Our congregation is quite small (though it's kid-heavy), and I remember last year visiting Cincinnati and hearing their much larger primary perform the week before ours did, and feeling a little let-down after hearing our much smaller program. Though I've been nowhere near an ideal music director (Printed up flip-charts left at home? Check! Flip charts never even printed in the first place? Check! Organized list of monthly songs given to pianist on the last week before the month is over? Check! Improvised actions to about half the songs? Check! I . . . probably shouldn't go on, because I'm a little embarrassed about how many times I've shown up to fulfill my calling only halfway prepared), I do care a lot about teaching the children, I do love each and every child very much, and I do happen to know the words to all the songs really well, which allows me to go around the room and find children who aren't singing and sing right in front of them, looking them in the eye, until they finally feel obligated to join in. After a full year, there are only about three kids left who consistently avoid singing if I'm not looking directly at them (I stand in front of them a lot), and the rest are pretty darn good little singers! My favorites are the junior primary (ages 4-7), who absolutely sing their little hearts out for me. I feel like it's so important to get them to love singing before the "too cool" factor hits, because once you really get them, you can keep them for life. They did such a beautiful job singing this year, and there were even some lovely small-group songs that added a lot to the program and gave some of the children a chance to really let their voices shine.
In less exciting news, whether I wanted to or not, I got another year older this month. And I'm afraid I have in fact reached the age where the years pass too fast. I'm afraid I didn't meet as many of the goals I set for myself this year as I had hoped to, which makes me feel, well, kind of old. Luckily, my birthday this year started just the way I like it. Even though I am usually the first person up (not at the crack of dawn or anything--usually around 7:30 or so), after I had gotten the kids up (and I had showered and gotten dressed), Aaron talked me into laying back down in bed so that he could lead all the kids into our bedroom to sing our special Happy Birthday song for me. Addy had led a card-making campaign (I love her so so so much for this, because it really does matter to me, and I don't have to ask the kids for it--she gets them all together and tells them what's what), and presented me with a wonderful folder full of their pictures and sweet words. That perfect start to the day, coupled with Aaron whipping up an amazing omelette and some English muffins for breakfast for me (his omelettes, seriously, they make every day into a birthday . . . or Christmas . . . or whatever) put a smile on my face all day long.
Halloween this year was both laid-back and fun. I'm writing this so long after the actual day that it's a little hard to remember the details, but we had a were-wolf, Fancy Nancy, Buzz Lightyear, and a lovely little Princess Sera. The years when we use on-hand costumes are always a little more relaxed than the years when we go all theme-y, so it was just dress up and trick-or-treat this year. We meant to attend the church "trunk-or-treat" party, but we ended up spending most of the day in Cleveland, where we picked up Esmerelda. Esmerelda, you ask? Well, she's the new(-er), very fancy minivan Aaron upgraded us to this month. Spencer Murdoch, our sidekick for the last six and a half years, has nearly 200K miles on him, and we meant to switch him out at some point during our stay in Canada, but between foreign car prices and import costs and such, and then with another move piled on top of all that . . . it got postponed until now. Our kids forgave us a little bit for making them miss the party when they got their first taste of watching a movie on a flip-down screen while driving. To be honest, it's a pretty sweet gig, and Aaron spent a few minutes trying to figure out if there was a way to get a monitor up front for the driver until I convinced him (mostly convinced him) that aside from being illegal, that would be a terrible idea. For now, we've decided that the best car movies are our own home movies, which we rarely get around to watching, but which are excellent for bonding--we've laughed and laughed over 1-year-old Sera and 3-year-old Emerson tromping around the living room with Santa hats, singing Ho! Ho! Ho!
Back to Halloween though, Aaron and I clung to this (probably) last year of going out trick-or-treating with all our own kids. Aaron masterminded a high-school choral festival with the King's Singers while they were in town for a concert, and because of scheduling, it could only be held on Halloween. It ended just as trick-or-treating began, so we started without him, then met him on a street corner and followed the kids (who are all independent and stuff now) around as they traipsed from door to door. We didn't take enough pictures, but we wound up with exactly the right amount of candy--it lasted about a month. As for the King's Singers, we were able to take the whole family to the (free!) concert they gave at the Presbyterian church downtown the next night, and even though it veered more to the sacred than the hilarious (appropriate for the choice of venue, I suppose, though we had hoped the kids would get to see more of their funny songs), we all really enjoyed a wonderful night of music.
Well, that's about all my memory is willing to give me for October. If I can trudge through November's post quickly enough, there's a chance that I will be able to get the whole "home networking" thing working well enough to go back and post pictures for the last six months or whatever it has been. Looking forward, I think maybe the monthly blogposts should make the New Year's resolution list for next year.
