We're very slowly getting back into lessons after our vacation last week. Very slowly. I always like to think that after a vacation we'll all be nicely rested up and eager and ready to jump back into things. Not so. It seems more difficult! Why is that?
Last Thursday morning the big boys got a pass from lessons while they marched in a Veterans' Day parade in downtown Austin. I wish I could have gone down to see them! Their Den leader took pictures, though. Joseph got to carry the flag! Not that easy for the 1.3 miles of the parade course up Congress Street to the Capitol.
The boys got Burger King happy meals on the way home (lucky boys!), and got back just on time to get ready for piano lessons and violin lessons. I had a Relief Society activity in the evening (putting together care packages for soldiers-- a good activity for Veterans' Day, huh?), which made for a bit of a late night for me.
On Friday we were supposed to have a full docket of lessons. Normally Fridays are easy days-- 1/2 lessons, but since the boys didn't do any lessons to speak of the day before, I wanted them to make up for it on Friday. I was met with huge resistance. I tried to explain to them how public school kids are expected to make up the work they miss on days they are absence, but I don't think they were convinced. As it was, I ended up having to do some errands in the afternoon, so they got off easier than I would have liked.
Ben and I were asked to play some music for a wedding Friday night at the church. So I drove to the music store to find some wedding-appropriate violin music. Then we dropped by the violin shop to get a new bridge for Brigham's violin. Brigham just moved up to a half-size violin-- the same one I learned on! It's still a very nice instrument.
The wedding in the evening was nice. It was such a good example of the power of Mormon women! The wedding was of a sweet couple who have been investigating the church. They have 3 little girls, but never got married. So on Tuesday they decided to get married so they could get baptized. And on Friday there was a beautiful wedding with the cultural hall all decked out and a wedding cake and flowers and a photographer and live music. It was really amazing. Who needs a year or more to plan a wedding? Ask some Mormon women and they'll throw something awesome together in 3 days! :-) It helps that we have some really talented women in our ward, though. I know the plans for the wedding were greatly expanded from something simple in the relief society room, to a much more formal event, and I know it was a lot of work for everyone involved. And there may have been some who wondered if it was really worth it. But, with the seriousness of wedding vows, and the focus of our church on family, I thought it was entirely appropriate that a big deal was made. And I hope it was worth it to everyone involved when they saw the faces of the newly formed family.
There was one sour point in the evening, however. Toward the very end of the reception, Ben had finished playing the piano, and I had put my violin away. Brigham came to the piano and started playing. He opened up one of the piano books Ben brought and played "Melody" by Schumann. Then I told him to play the Mozart Twinkle variations he's been working on. He has it memorized, which surprised both of us! (Just variations 1-3, not the whole thing!) A number of people came by to compliment Brigham on his piano playing. As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed that Joseph was extremely grumpy. I was surprised because I had thought he was having an OK time. As we were getting our stuff out to the car, he finally came out with it-- Brigham got to play the piano, but he didn't, and now everyone would think that Brigham was better at the piano than Joseph was. That broke my heart a little. I told him that Brigham isn't better at the piano, he just happened to have one song ready for performing, and another that he had the music for! Joseph is working on his Christmas recital piece, but it's not performance ready yet, and the Hedwig's Theme that he perfected a couple of weeks ago wasn't exactly appropriate for a wedding. Joseph really is a good piano player. He and Brigham, like with everything else, both have their strengths and weaknesses with piano, and they are different from each other. Brigham is a good sight-reader, and has a real knack for improvising. But Joseph is much more intuitive with rhythms and has great hands for powerful chords. His teacher just a couple of weeks ago told me that she could see him playing one of the Rachmaninoff piano concertos when he's a teenager, because he is so good with that style of music. Anyway, I told him that I was really sorry, and that it really wasn't fair that everyone got to hear Brigham, but not Joseph. I promised him that I'd figure out a way for him to get to play the piano at the ward Christmas party so everyone in the ward would have a chance to hear him play, too.
Having twins is hard! It's difficult to praise one twin without the other feeling like he is not praiseworthy, at least not in that particular way... I have to be careful about how I handle that with other people around. Instead of saying, "Yes, Brigham is really talented at the piano-- he loves playing," I need to say, "Yes, Brigham is really talented. Joseph is also an amazing piano player-- they both love playing." Ah, well. By the time we got home, Joseph was in good spirits, and I think no lasting damage was done.
Saturday was a tag-team day for Ben and I. Both of us were scheduled to go to a Stake leadership training in the morning, but of course the boys were home and it was Mosey's last soccer game, so I went and left Ben with the boys.
In the evening, we were both supposed to go to the adult session of Stake Conference, so Ben went to that and I stayed home with the boys. Between times the boys all worked hard in cleaning the cars and straightening up the house.
Yesterday was Stake Conference, which is always nice because it means 2 hours of church instead of 3 (not that I mind 3 hours, it's just nice once in a while to have only 2!), and in the afternoon we drove out to a park in Georgetown that has several acres of pecan trees.
The boys collected a big pile of pecans which we've been working on all day. Yum. In the evening I had a Relief Society committee meeting at our house which lasted 3 hours (!!).
Today I was determined to have a very good, efficient, effective day of lessons. Mosey, however, was not. He had a pretty terrible, rotten, no good, very bad day. He only actually completed one lesson (math), and that was after 3 1/2 hours, much of it spent in the closet. I don't know what came over him. I think I handled everything right. I gave him lots of choices. I never lost my cool. I think my expectations were entirely reasonable, and I followed through with the consequences I set forth for him. But for whatever reason, he was bound and determined not to cooperate. Finally, at about 5:15, he got himself banished to his room for the rest of the night. I went upstairs with him and lay with him in his bed. He struggled and yelled for about an hour, and then finally settled down. Eventually he lay cuddled next to me and planted kisses on my cheek, so I guess I was forgiven. He fell asleep at 8:00, which meant that I was up there with him for almost 3 hours. I really hope tomorrow is a better day. I was reminded of some of what we went through with Joseph a couple of years ago. Joseph has almost entirely grown out of all that, for which I am extremely grateful.
The day was pretty good for the other two boys, though. I just wish I were better at keeping to our schedule. The problem, I think, is that I've only scheduled 30 minutes for piano practicing, when in reality they each take about 45 minutes. And we never get through with breakfast and dressing and chores until 8:15 or sometimes 8:30, so by the time the big boys are done with piano (their first lesson), we're already 45 minutes or an hour behind "schedule," and I get stressed out. I think I just need to accept that their practicing is going to take an hour and a half, and rearrange our schedule to reflect that.
Oh, one more thing. The boys and I finally finished the wall art project for our front entryway wall. I printed a bunch of 5x7s and mounted them on pieces of foam board that I cut to size, and then put them up on the wall with mounting tape. I love it! It's a big wall, and I can add more as time goes on.
1 comment:
I love your picture wall!!!
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