How he looked.

How he felt!

August 19, 2011 4:50 p.m.

Okay, it is time for the update on music plans for this year.  This year, there is

beaucoup de musique

buckets of music

Boo-Koos of music  …. 

for both my musicians to learn.

Our violin teacher is always at work behind the scenes dreaming up multiple labors for my children to slog through  use as a means of developing their musical skills and raising the bar annually.  Her scheming planning begins as early as the evening of the final competition and/or recital for the season.  This year is no exception. 

I’ll begin with Sweet Girl’s musical “plate”.  Besides being new in an orchestra this year, Miss S has Sweet Girl moving along on these pieces:

1. She is finishing up Book 3 of the Suzuki series right now as she polishes up Bach Bourree – allegro (piece #7 in the book).

2. For Federation next winter/spring, she will be playing a Rondo by J.F. Dandrieu for her required solo piece.

3. She will be playing Bourree and Minuet by Hasse for her elective solo piece, also for Federation.

4. She hasn’t announced it yet, but she might be planning a concerto piece for Sweet Girl’s first attempt at competing with a concerto piece.  We shall see.  Hopefully this will be the year that Sweet Girl perfects her vibrato as well.

Now here is the musical plan for Chips.  Chips, too, has joined orchestra, and has been selected as the Concertmaster for the orchestra he is in (hence the photos above).  I am not sure what impact this is going to have on his musical workload this year.  Again, we shall see…..  I think he will be very, very busy.

Other music on Chips’ “plate” includes ..

1. MTNA Junior String Performance Competition – first time Chips is old enough for this.  Miss S says it is a “prestigious competition”.  Not sure what that means, but he will be playing three pieces by memory, one after the other.  They will be:

Haydn Violin Concerto No. 2, 1st mvt., allegro moderato

J.S. Bach Partita II, 4th mvt., “Giga”, BWV 1004

Paganini Cantabile in D major (a piece with a million shifts!!)

This competition is going to be in November, but I am not saying in what city it is going to be held.  Ha!

2. In addition, he will be studying Dancla’s Air Varie Op. 89,  No. 5 as his elective Solo piece for Federation in 2012.  As well as hopefully recycling two of his MTNA pieces for Federation.

Unless, of course, Miss S has other tortures ideas planned.

That’s my musical update!  I am hoping for a good musical year in our family!

August 18, 2011 7:57 a.m.

I cannot remember which blogger buddy inspired me a few weeks ago, but since then I have been seeking to earn the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award.  I cannot believe I am actually doing this in the doggiest dog days of Florida summer, but I am.

Now mind you, I haven’t been able to get my children interested in doing this, but maybe that is because the requirements are doubled for children (a solid hour of physical activity a day, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks sounded a bit much for them).

Anyway, all I have to do is 30 minutes of physical activity per day, for at least 5 days a week, for at least 6 out of the next 8 weeks. 

I chose 30 minutes of aerobic walking/jogging each morning.  I cover four laps around the perimeter of my property, for a total of 1.5 miles.  In addition, I swim laps around my 24’ diameter round aboveground pool – each time I do this I swim for 15 minutes continuously, covering about 16 laps. 

I don’t have to belong to a gym, and I don’t have to leave my property.  For now, it is working out very well.  Plus, I do notice an improvement in my energy level and sense of well-being, especially on the days I do the exercise.  I am already nearly 3 weeks into the program. 

For more information on the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award, check this website.

August 16, 2011  7:38 a.m.

Remember the movie Out of Africa, starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep?  To this day I always feel a special connection to Meryl Streep because she was the speaker at my college graduation.  She began her address to us by singing:

Que sera, sera

Whatever will be, will be,

The future’s not ours to see,

Que sera, sera..

Then she went on to tell us about how she never could have imagined her future when she was our age.  She never guessed that she would be washing Robert Redford’s hair in the African savannah.  It wasn’t a particularly erudite speech for a college graduation.  Rather, she was reminding us, in her movie star way, of the sovereignty of God.  Of how God weaves us into His story in a way that we can never predict, and never fully understand, until all is revealed.

Well, I am happy to say that we are finally out of Africa.  In sixth grade Geography, that is.  We had a particularly trying day yesterday, a day in which too great a percentage of Chips’ work was offloaded until the end of the day.  There are certain things I expect of him to do the first time through his work; I have told him repeatedly, and yet he still claims not to remember.  Again they were not done, and I had to keep at Calvert with him until late in the evening, and I was very unhappy about it (because it was all preventable) and I was unpleasant and the evening was unpleasant. 

I am trying to teach Chips study skills, so that he (and I?) do not have to suffer so much in the grades to come.  I want him to take notes on his reading, gosh darnit, especially on Geography, because Geography is not easy to remember and keep straight in your mind at test time.  Chips has been doing great on his Calvert tests, but Geography weighs him down.  Especially as we have been stuck in the African continent for the past two months (or so it seems).  One can’t help but get all the facts about all those countries confused.  I hate to say it, but with only a few exceptions, those African countries do blur together in one’s mind.  Chips is very happy to be out of Africa and moving on to Asia.  He feels certain that he will be able to keep those countries straightened out in his mind much better.  I hope so.  The fact is, he needs to take notes on his reading, that’s it.  I have been urging him to do this for Geography since January because I could see the difficulties coming.  Fast forward … he still ain’t taking notes, or very (VERY) slim ones at most.  He is able to get away with little to no notes much better with Science and History, but Geography – well, that’s another story.

On a brighter note, we have finally gotten to the point in sixth grade where we are reading The Phantom Tollbooth, and this book is going to last us through the rest of the course.  Hooray!  This is a book I remember enjoying very much as a young person, and Chips is liking it, too.  Lot’s of fun in this story, clever, and lighthearted. 

P.S. Part of the reason our day was so long was that I had a doctor’s appointment.  But that’s a topic for another post.  Nothing serious.

August 15, 2011 10:34 p.m.

If you haven’t checked into this blog for awhile, if you thought I wasn’t posting for weeks, the reason is that this is a private blog, and as such, it has no RSS feed.  Therefore, even if you are subscribed to this blog, or “follow” this blog, you will no longer be notified of new posts.

Sorry about this, but it cannot be helped.

To stay up on the new posts, you need to become a Follower over at my public blog, http://breezypointer.blogspot.com .  It’s sole purpose for existence is to point you to my new posts over here.  Thank you for your attention to this, and I am sorry my blog has to be so darn inconvenient.

Have pleasant dreams.

-- BPM

August 15, 2011 10:18 p.m.

I apologize for being so silent for so long.  I think I have been encumbered by a severe case of “writer’s reluctance”.  This is a condition in which I found myself thinking about many things, but not especially caring to set pen to paper.  I have to admit, as I continue along with this blog, I find I am getting more careful and selective about what I write about.  In the old days of this blog, about three years ago, I would often write about anything I was thinking about with little filtering.  But now I feel a greater conviction about being selective.

Well, I must tell you about a way in which we were blessed this summer, behind the scenes, with little actual effort on our part.   It was truly the Lord’s doing.  But to understand this, I need to refer you to an old post from two years ago regarding a situation that has prevented our kids from becoming direct students at our violin teacher’s studio.  Basically, she has had a no-compete clause with the owner of a certain music school we’ve been part of for eight years now.  This means that we have been stuck paying the high rates of the music school in order to stay with our teacher. 

Things are a bit different this year, though.  Chips and Sweet Girl have now become the only students of Miss S.  who are still part of that school.  All the rest of her students are her “private studio” students.  In addition, she had earlier notified the school owner not to send her any more new students; that she was only going to take private students from now on.   (Corollary: if our children leave the school, this effectively terminates our teacher’s employment by that school).

We just wrapped up the summer quarter at the music school, and I was dismayed to note how high the tuition rates have gone up.  I asked the school owner if this new price would be sustained into the Fall quarter, and she said that it might be lowered some; that summer brought low volume, so they had to make up for that somewhat.  But at least she realized that we were “price-sensitive”.  I also asked Miss O, another teacher at this school who also teaches violin at our church.  I asked her whether or not she would be able to temporarily (legally) take my kids on as students at our church.  After all, seeking lessons from Miss O at our church would save us $26 per hour of instruction time!   Can you imagine how that adds up in a year?  (We get about 90 minutes of instruction a week).

Well, she (Miss O) didn’t answer my email, and she avoided seeing me at church for a few weeks, so I read that as reluctance on her part to entertain my question.  I knew she had a sense of loyalty to our present teacher, and wouldn’t want to take our kids for that reason alone.

What I didn’t know was what she was doing behind the scenes on our behalf.

When the summer term ended, we went to our supposed “next-to-last” lesson with Miss S and told her that we could no longer afford the high rates of the school and would have to terminate our lessons with her for a year until her contract period was over, before we could go back to her.  In the meantime, I had started asking around to find a possible temporary (one year) teacher.  I dreaded this task, but figured we had no other choice.

And then a miracle occurred.  Miss S told us that a few days prior, the owner of the music school had called her and told her, rather “out of the blue”, that it would be okay for her to take our children as her private students.  Just like that.  Her explanation was, “It’s time.” 

And, Miss S also told us that she would even match the discounted rate at our church!  (due to insurance issues, our church is unable to hire Miss S).

All we can conclude is that Miss O had gone to bat for us with the music school owner.

Well, to say we were happy and relieved  is an understatement.  All I can say is that we have truly been blessed behind the scenes.  The Lord, working in people’s hearts, on our behalf.  He took care of us again.  And the resulting cost differential more than adequately covers the new tuition for orchestra and for additional competitions. 

Simple miracles that mean much.  How neat is that?

August 4, 2011 7:07 p.m.

A homeschooling mother of eight children I know has been treated for leukemia this year and just recovered from a stem cell transplant.  Yesterday she posted a status update to her Facebook, something like this…

Liver ultrasound this morning, a couple short errands, reading lesson with R, cleaning up our bedroom, signing up for homeschool P.E., ordering school books for the fall, made ham scalloped potatoes for supper, sending a wedding gift, finishing up a scrapbook... days like these make me feel like... SHE'S BAAAACK!

Lord, forgive me for any time I have complained about all the meaningful tasks that I have to do in a long day.

God created us for work.

Last week when my children were in music camp, it was a change to my routine.  I had a few hours to myself each morning for four mornings.  On three of these mornings I visited different branches of our county library.  Each morning, I noticed that the computer areas were always about full of people sitting at a PC and staring at the screen.  They stayed there the entire time I was there.  They were doing seemingly serious work on the computer, except when I stood behind some of them, I discovered that they were playing computer games and wandering around Facebook.  Grown adults in their most productive years.  Adults who were either unemployed or underemployed.  It made me wonder how many such adults were filling the computer screens of the libraries of America.  ??  How many such adults were filling the computer screens of their homes in the same way.  ??  Today’s computer has become yesterday’s daytime TV. 

Cruel punishment.  I think of stories I read about prisoners in work camps in Eastern Europe back in the early 20th century.  How their captors would make them sweat and slave away over several days moving a huge mound of dirt from the west end of the compound to the east end.  Right down to the last shovelful.  And then how they were made to move that dirt pile back again to the west end.  Meaningless, hopeless work.

I thought about how I am not unemployed, nor am I underemployed.  No, I might not be on any company’s payroll anywhere.  I might be considered by the world to be a retired electrical engineer, a stay-at-home mom, a homemaker, a housewife.  But I am definitely not underemployed.  As long as I have to pick and choose what I have time to do among many tasks that I would like to do, as long as I have to be thoughtful about the number of activities that I schedule into each week so as not to overload us, as long as I struggle to shore up time for private reading and exercise, as long as I go through most of the day without getting a spare moment to collapse into my recliner, then I am definitely not underemployed. 

Our violin teacher yesterday reported to me that one of her other students has just begun to be “home-educated”.  She was curious about this, and asked me what my home teaching day was like.  When I told her, she sat shaking her head with a smile.  Meaningful work.  I am blessed with much meaningful work.   I am very blessed.  Thank you, Lord, for giving me plenty of what you created me to do.  May I always stay employed by You, always doing construction work for Your Kingdom.  Thank you for filling my days with so many important tasks that I have to prioritize.  Thank you for sparing me from the horror of too many hours to fill, like those unfortunate souls in the public library.  I am among the most blessed of all.

Thank You for meaningful work. 

We will probably have much meaningful work to do in heaven.  We should start to enjoy it here.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.  Genesis 2:15.

For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.  We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.  For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

2 Thessalonians 3: 7-10.

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise! 
It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler, 
yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep? 
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest— 
and poverty will come on you like a thief
and scarcity like an armed man.  

Proverbs 6: 6-11

The lazy do not roast any game,
but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt.

Proverbs 12:27

August 3, 2011  7:42 a.m.

Miss Emily bears down on Hispaniola.  Pray for those folks; they have had a bad couple of years.  Doesn’t look like it’s going to become a hurricane.

Forecast is looking better for our state, though.  I am thankful for that!

August 1, 2011 9:53 p.m.

We’re in for a hurricane this weekend.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Not of the storm, but rather of the homeowner’s insurance hikes which are certain to follow.

August 1, 2011  1:24 p.m.

It’s the first day of August, and that means another hot month is done and gone, and 2-1/2 more months of heat are left.  In other words, we are just past the halfway mark of our hot and humid season, and I, for one, have had quite enough by now.  Even our swimming pool is warmer than it ought to be.

We have completed all our summer camps, including the music camp at our church’s music conservatory.  I still haven’t been given a photo of Sweet Girl, but she spent part of her camp time learning a few tunes on the harp.  It was her first experience playing a real harp, and she enjoyed it quite a bit.  One day, she even got to play a full adult size harp.  Also, Chips got to play the church organ, and he really liked this.  A highlight of camp for him was getting to climb up at 18 ft. ladder to enter one of the organ chambers, where many of the 4,000 + pipes are installed.  He thought this was pretty neat.  Only 5 children in his age group had signed up for organ, so he got a lot of personalized attention that week.

One special event we enjoyed last week was a summer field trip with our homeschool fellowship group.  I don’t have any photos because we weren’t allowed to take any, but we had the privilege of visiting an air traffic control tower!!  This was completely up Chips’ alley, and the rest of us, too.  We thoroughly enjoyed this tremendous sneak peek into the daily experience of such a very important career.  I wish I had photos to show you all!!!

We are now back to the Calvert routine, and this has always been difficult because we have had three different Mondays that were first lesson-days after camp, and that has always been an adjustment.  But for now, all is well.

I must include some photos from these summer months. 

Earth Science was part of the Calvert 6th grade course this summer, and although I am not a great fan of this branch of science, I have to say that the series of science texts used in Calvert’s middle school courses goes a long way toward making even Earth Science interesting.  Chips has a rock exhibit all ready for our homeschool “show and tell” day.

Sweet Girl continues to be our budding and willing writer, and often will retreat to her room and desk to do so.

When it is too hot to even go in the pool (yes, this does happen some days) we are thankful for air conditioning and old toys that we haven’t pulled out in awhile.

On Sabbath mornings, Chips has been known to pass the time waiting to leave for church in creative pursuits.  Here he has learned that he can earn two tokens at the same time by combining mental and physical exercise into one activity – earning him a red token (for physical exercise) and a green token (for mental exercise) simultaneously.

Sweet Girl is always so happy on those days following a library trip.  Here, she is reading The Wind in the Willows.

Even an optometrist visit in the rain can be an adventure.  Especially when you get those crazy looking “post dilation” shades.  Like who needs them when it’s raining?!?!?  Goofy kids!

One evening, we saw the Winton Family  at our church for an evening of Christian bluegrass music, and a southern style supper.

And now, a few Calvert highlights.  For those of you who haven’t seen our word wall in awhile, it is still alive and well.  We have had a word wall since Chips has been in first grade.  This is its sixth year in service, and its last year, too.  Sweet Girl will not have a word wall in Fourth Grade.  She really doesn’t need one now, but it really makes our school room look productive, don’t you think?  (And I think she would be disappointed if we didn’t keep it going).  After each ATS test, I always clear off the old words to make room for the new.  Or else, our wall would have long been overrun with words.

I was so proud of Chips volunteering to help Sweet Girl with her research report.  He offered to type it up for her if she dictated it.  There they are going at it together.  It turned out to be a great research report on our local community’s history and geography.  This was a Calvert third grade project for Social Studies.

We still do these little art assignments, too.  Like making clay pinch pots and coil pots.

While waiting for Daddy to get home from work, a break away from electronic technology to rediscover a tabletop game.

And here is the photo we were given of Chips playing the organ inside our church sanctuary.   You can see the delight in his face!

So that is how we have been enduring the heat.  How about you?