May 18, 2011 10:40 p.m.

Whew!  It sure feels good to be here on the other side now.  I have a feeling that this is going to breath some fresh air into this blog.  I really appreciate all of you who crossed over with me.  It really is wonderful that I have good friends in real life, and in the blogosphere, who are interested in reading about the lives of Chips and Sweet Girl.     About 35 of you made it over here.  A few didn’t quite make it, unfortunately, and I haven’t been able to reach most of my international visitors, but I am happy for how everything worked out today.   Thank you, thank you , thank you!

May 17, 2011

I am very happy to say that so far I have 22 readers who have indicated an interest in continuing to visit this blog.  Thank you, and unfortunately there are several who I still have not heard from so when you see this post, please send me an email ASAP (email address in previous post) and let me know.  And to Dawn in Nebraska, I surely hope to hear from you, whether you have a blog or not.   You’ve been a great visitor and I will miss you if I don’t hear from you.

It won’t be long now. 

 

May 15, 2011  4:30 p.m.

Well, readers, unfortunately, at the request of my husband, it looks like I am going to have to take my blog underground and make it by invitation only.  I really hate to have to do this, as I was really enjoying an extensive and growing readership, especially with many newer readers from the community which is a part of our homeschooling curriculum.  But, it seems that some folks are bent on spoiling my fun.  It is such pathetically juvenile nonsense.   They have no shame.

I will no longer be able to acquire any new readers, which really disappoints me.

So I am leaving this post up for a few more days, and hoping that most of you promptly send me an email to let me know that you want to get an invitation to continue reading. 

 

My email address is billberna at bellsouth dot net.

Here is the information I will need in your email:

1.)  I need to know your email address to put you on the list.  It is possible that you need to have a Google account and a Gmail address for it to work. (not yet sure about this, though)  If so, please tend to that first and send me the Gmail address.

2.)  Also, if you don’t mind (for my sake) let me know a bit about yourself including first name and through what means you have come to read my blog, as well as your location (city, state, country), what we have in common, etc., so I “recognize” you.  Please don’t let this part scare you off.

3.) In addition, in order to approve you as a reader, you need to give me the URL of your own blog.  I am truly sorry about this, it will eliminate some, but it is the only safeguard I have to ensure that I am only approving readers who I want to approve.  I have no other means to invite you without this info.  (there are certain personal friends who are exceptions to this requirement, so you guys, don’t worry).

I eagerly hope to hear from all my Followers, and from most of you, and not lose too many readers in this process.

It is a sad shame that I have to do this, and I know it is an inconvenience to you all, but some people never learn, and to recall what I wrote a few posts ago: 

People who think they are clever

often turn out to be the losers

in the end.

May 14, 2011 10:14 p.m.

 

Home Again…

….. and not feeling especially good. 

Today was our 17 wedding anniversary.  But, it was a miserable day for us.  Not just the competition itself, but also experiencing, once again,  lack of consideration and respect from others. 

But I will talk only about the music competition.  Things did not go well for Chips, and I will not go into too much detail here on the blog.  We had a seven hour trip home, enough time to do a full post mortem analysis.  When I got home, I checked my lesson notes from the past few months and confirmed what we had suspected all along.  Some last minute decisions were made by our teacher, just two days before the competition, that significantly changed the way she wanted Chips to play his concerto.  It was, perhaps, a last ditch effort on the part of our teacher to add more “flash” to his performance, perhaps due to her fear of his very skilled opponents.  It was a recipe for disaster, and unfortunately, Chips was the unhappy casualty. 

On the way home, I sadly looked back at him in the van, seeing how he was feeling so incredibly dejected.  A boy who can play violin so splendidly should not be feeling this way!  Something is not right.  Fortunately, by the time we neared home, he was his normal self, laughing and giggling and pretending with his sister, enjoying games of “Go Fish” and “War”.  Chips is so incredibly resilient.

So it has been an especially hard experience for us.  For those of you who are interested, please email me and I will share the whole story with you.

billberna  at  bellsouth  dot  net. 

Strangely enough,  Chips’ duet partner just switched over to another teacher this week.  Hm…

May 11, 2011 10:27 a.m.

Scarcely unwound from this past weekend, and now turning our attention to the coming competition.  For Chips, this one is a much bigger deal than last weekend was because it is not easy to even qualify to participate.  (This is in sharp contrast to Federation where every student who gets a “Superior” rating in their local audition is allowed to attend at the state level).  Our teacher, Miss S., is one of the most respected string pedagogues in our metro area.  And it has been three years since she has been able to send any student to this upcoming competition.  So you see, it is a bigger deal.

We are full of thanks to all those who really have taken a sincere interest in Chips’  accomplishments.  In addition, we are thankful for the way that his teacher, Miss S., and his accompanist, Miss O., have bent over backwards on Chips’ behalf to give him the best possible chance on this coming Saturday.  Both ladies have unselfishly given of their time, attention, and energy to help Chips.  They have scheduled extra (free) practice sessions at various locations to provide extra coaching.  Since Miss S. is unable to play the piano part, Miss O. has often been willing to meet  with us to work on the piece.  She will be meeting with us again tomorrow, and even on Friday, to give Chips every opportunity to do well.  She will also be making a ten hour round trip by car, with an overnight stay, to make it all happen and to stand in for our teacher whose doctor has not allowed her to travel so far.   We are so amazed at the dedication of such people and feel blessed that we have two dedicated teachers who are involved in this competition now.  Folks are bending over backwards to make this a good experience for us.

Also, we appreciate all those friends who have taken a sincere interest in our kids’ violin playing, their performances, their ups and downs, successes and failures, and who have been truly supportive of us all along the way.  Friends from the music community, friends from church, work … You know who you are.  So no matter how it all turns out, we know we always have a strong support system among you.

Our objective now is to make the next days go smoothly, and to help Chips stay properly focused on the short term goal,  because there is no telling if or when the opportunity will arise again.  Hopefully nothing will come along to undermine our efforts.  We also have a lot to do in the next couple of days, especially as we are trying to keep up our homeschool schedule at the same time, so I will be offline (i.e. not blogging, not online, not on computer, etc.) until after our return.  Thank you friends.

Nearly a half century upon this earth and I thought I had seen everything, but this weekend topped all.  When we were out of town for our state competitions, we happened to enter a local restaurant for lunch.  While we were eating, I noticed a family with two children at another table across the dining room.  The children were involved in the competition and the family appeared to be well-educated.  The child had gotten up to stand on top of one of the chairs and the father was standing alongside; he had whipped out about 20 inches of dental floss and was proceeding to floss that child’s teeth right there in the restaurant dining room while people were eating lunch. 

It just reminded me of how many people, no matter how old, or how educated, simply don’t have a clue.

Which led me to think about things I have learned over the years.  Tidbits on wisdom.  Here are a few.
When you lose someone's trust it is very difficult to earn it back.

May 8, 2011 9:45 p.m.

We are back from our first state competition.  It is the FFMC convention, affectionately (or not) referred to by students and teachers in our state as “Federation”.

So, let me tell you about the Federation experience, our annual pilgrimage to the city of “ Jax” for our “day of atonement”, our musical self-flagellation, our competitive penance.  You are beginning to get the idea, perhaps?

Federation, for this violin mom, is like a pregnancy all compressed into three nights and two days away from home, with hours of heart-pounding labor and frequent adrenaline rushes, all to culminate in giving birth to … a ribbon.

A ribbon did you say?

To begin with, here is today’s photo of Chips’ dresser.

Do you see that red white and blue ribbon on the wall?  That is the newborn of the family.

Other special features of Federation include….. sleepless nights in a hotel with beds that are too soft, tossing and turning and reliving  dozens of moments of the day, only to repeat the tossing and turning on each successive night.  Didn’t I call it “emotional sandpaper” a year ago?  I still feel the same way.

No, Chips didn’t get any award for his solo this year, or for his concerto, but we are very happy that his duet got an award.  It was fabulous, it really was.

And poor Sweet Girl, she was robbed.  Her Minuet One was flawless, her bow control was right where it ought to be, she perfectly set the bow all four times, her tone was lovely, her bow distribution was correct as taught, she remembered the dynamics, her intonation was spot on.  She got robbed, I say.  We are still scratching our heads over that one.  And we were so certain that she was the tops; we led her on to believe that she would get something, so she was disappointed to tears when it didn’t materialize.  Another lesson learned.

But we all survived, and we are all stronger in character because of it.  And now, let me tell you the good things about Federation…...

• something about Federation bonds our family together like nothing else.  There is no other time all year long in which the four of us connect like at Federation.  We ride the emotional rollercoaster as a family unit, coaching our kids and keeping their spirits up, engaging in soul searching, and reminding ourselves why this is what we do and why competition is a good thing.

• we remind our kids that music is God-given and to glorify the Lord in their performing.  And I am taking more joy in the successes of all the other kids we have known over the years, even when our own kids don’t come away with what they hoped to.

• something about Federation makes our kids pull out all the stops and do the performances of their lives!  WOW WOW WOW!!  I have never heard Sweet Girl play Minuet One so beautifully.  Our teacher actually said she played it “perfectly”.  She said that Chips and his partner played their duet perfectly, too.  I still can’t get over the fact that she used that P word twice in the same weekend.  It might be five years before we hear her say it again.

• something about Federation makes us do all the things that we don’t do all year that often, like go out for ice cream, order special sodas at Cr*cker Barrel, stop by for M*cDonald’s french fries, and any other simple pleasure we can dream up that brings a smile to our kids’ faces.  Can you say “comfort eating”, boys and girls?

• Federation holds a free exhibition of two exceptional senior student musicians each night, and it is such an inspiration to experience such superb performances.  This year, we got to see three pianists and one violinist.  Wonderful.

• oh my goodness, did I say how awesome the boys’ duet was?  It was stunning.  They played Tartini Sonata in D major, allegro assai.  It was truly, truly supercharged.  They played it with such intensity and passion, at quick tempo, with seamless communication between themselves, and plenty of testosterone, like a musical political argument, if you can imagine such a thing.  I so wish we could have been allowed to videotape their duet.  It was unforgettable.

Here are the duet partners with their Honorable Mention ribbons.

Lord willing, they will probably be duet partners next year, too.  And don’t let the diminutive size of that boy on the right fool you.  That kid is heading for Carn*gie Hall.  You’ll see.

Another Federation down.  Now to focus on J.S. Bach for our next competitive experience, coming soon to a blog post near you.

and p.s.  Yes, I spent Mother’s Day and my birthday totally exhausted and wanting to nap all day.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011 11:30 p.m.

I don’t know what has been keeping me away from this blog.  I have so much to tell you and so little time in which to do it.  Much will have to wait for another post.

Our children are heading to two different state violin competitions this month.  The first contests are on May 6/7, in J*cksonv*lle.  Then on May 14th is another contest, in Tall*h*ssee.  I don’t have much time to go into the details, but both children have been working hard all year for this.  The competition is very stiff this year, too.  It is just the way everything fell together this time.  But as of right now, both of my violinists are not discouraged.  They are working on doing their level best-est.

I am also in need of wisdom regarding whether our children ought to join a local youth orchestra.  Right now, my gut feeling is “yes”, although it will be costly in terms of time, gasoline, and money.  I hope I am not just being impulsive.  Like I said, I need wisdom in this decision (our violin teacher is of the old Russian school of thought that orchestras should be deferred as long as possible, so I know she will not be happy with the idea.  Even our Suzuki school director has mixed feelings, so I am really on my own here.)

But first, please pray that the upcoming competitions, regardless of the outcome, will be positive and God-glorifying experiences for both our children.  Can’t help it.  These weekends are always emotionally charged.

Also…

…. in other news,  Mamma has got herself a new K*ndle!

Yessirreee, this Luddite woman here is joining the brave new world of ebooking. 

It is my

“Birthday (5/8) / Mother’s Day (also 5/8) / Wedding Anniversary (5/14) All Rolled Up Into One In The Same Week” gift.

Happy happy happy.

April 23, 1011 11:41 p.m.

I am just thrilled to be able to share this video. Ray is a very long time friend of our family's. His wife and I have known each other for about 35 years. Anyway, Ray was the recipient of a heart transplant, and yesterday he got to meet the family of the woman who was his heart donor. Such a blessing, and a blessed time to meet, during Easter weekend, a time when we cherish resurrection life. See the video and article below:

Local Woman's Heart Goes On In Central Fla. Man - Health News Story - WPBF West Palm Beach

How neat is this?


p.s. of course they got some of the facts wrong, in particular Ray's city and county of residence. Remember, the news media always gets something wrong.

April 21, 2011 1:20 p.m.

Just in case anybody is still thinking that “birthers” are a fringe group in America, here is the #1 bestselling book on Amazon.com today.    Just couldn’t help noticing.

April 20, 2011 7:33 a.m.

Here is an historical bar chart of the history of Federal surpluses and deficits.  The picture tells it all.  I normally don’t like to get too political on this blog, but seriously, to think – the Dems and Reps arguing, almost shutting down the Federal government, over whether to cut the budget by $32 billion or $40 billion and finally settling on roughly $38 billion.

(Double click on the photo to bring it up in full size.)

Can you even see 38 billion on that graph below?  It is like slicing off a sliver of a stick of butter.  What a joke! 

Looks like the joke’s on all of us. 

 

April 19, 2011 7:04 p.m.

Sorry to leave you hanging, friends, really, I am.  But this past week was anything but typical.  There were so many different things going on; we have been out of our routine, and unfortunately the first thing to go was my bloggy life.  I hope you don’t feel too neglected.

Thank you to Linda, and anybody else who was concerned about our well-being over the past week, especially as my prior post was so foreboding.  Sweet Girl, I am happy and thankful to report, is completely back to her normal healthy self, and has been for several days now.  So much so, that she happily went swimming yesterday for the second time this season.

Besides, that, Monday the 11th was Chips’  11th birthday!  He had a nice, quiet day at home with us.    His birthday was a bit unusual in that the celebrating part of the day was long in coming.  We always wait for Self-Reliant Man to arrive home from work before celebrating anyone’s birthday, however Self-Reliant Man was slow in getting home that day.

It went something like this: in the morning, he drove his silver car to work, except he got a third of the way there and the car started acting up, so he drove back home and instead took his red car to work.  After work, he began the drive home except the red car turned out to have a problem and had to be driven into a side street and parked because it never would have made it all the way home.  This was when history was made, for Self-Reliant Man determined that he would not be able to fix his car on the side of the road and that he would actually need a tow!  This is the first time this has happened in all the near 17 years we have been married, ladies and gentlemen.  Usually Self-Reliant Man is able to fix his car well enough on the fly to get it home, even if it requires a quick trip or two to the auto parts store in the process.  But he knew that type of miracle wasn’t going to happen this time, so Self-Reliant Man called a tow truck.  Did you hear that, everybody?  SELF-RELIANT MAN CALLED A TOW TRUCK!  Whew.  Got that off my chest.  Here is a photo from that eventful evening.

This is the silver car, that could not make it to work in the morning.

And this is the red car that could not make it home in the evening.

These are the two children who are enjoying every minute of the experience, as well as the husband who is not enjoying the experience. 

Any questions?  Yes, we recovered from the history-making day, and yes, Chips eventually had a pleasant evening celebrating his birthday with cake and presents.

Other highlights from the week included…

Another Science Day at our house, this time to learn all about BLOOD!  That is our wonderful teacher holding up a giant model of a red blood cell. 

Here was our first brave participant in the blood typing part of the lesson.  What is your blood type?  Do you know?

Speaking of science, here are Chips’ models of hydrocarbon molecules.  I know I didn’t know what a hydrocarbon molecule was in sixth grade.  But then, there are a lot of things in the Calvert Sixth Grade course that I never had that early in my education.

Finally, best of all, is the next photo…

Here is a peaceful moment of team work between Sweet Girl and Chips, folding the laundry together.  This was too sweet to miss with the camera (although it isn’t that rare, this level of mutual cooperation certainly isn’t an everyday occurrence, you know what I mean?)

So, bloggy friends, things are moving along pretty well at our home.

So far this week, other opportunities have included:

1. Both children did a violin performance for a very elderly woman who is in hospice care, the mother of our neighbor, and the actual owner of the violin that is being loaned to Chips.  I have to say that, although she was largely unable to speak, this lady thoroughly enjoyed the music!

AND

2. Today and tomorrow the children are taking the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.  They actually eagerly anticipate the “Iowas” and consider these days to be “free days”.  Go figure.  I am glad that tests don’t make them nervous.

AND

3. Today we paid a visit to a luthier to have an adjustment made to the violin loaned to us in this post.  Nothing serious, just an error in setup on the part of the violin shop it visited last (way up north of here in Vermont).   This is a man in his seventies, who supports himself staying very busy in his in-home shop where he doctors string instrument such as violas, violins, cellos, and basses.  A neat short documentary about him is here.  It was neat visiting him today, after seeing him in this video. 

Well, I am truly humbled if you made it this far in this post, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

April 9. 2011 10:13 p.m.

Today is the fifth day of Sweet Girl’s pneumonia symptoms.  Unfortunately, things aren’t turning peachy as quickly as we expected it would back on day three.  She is still having her ups and her downs in terms of energy level.  I am trying to respect her condition and get her to rest as much as possible, even when she doesn’t feel like it.  This is not easy to do with an eight year old who is as physically active as Sweet Girl.  This evening was the first time we took her out in public since Tuesday.  A meal at Z*xby’s, a short supermarket trip.  It wiped her out.  We will have to take it more slowly, I think.  Please keep her in prayer for a rapid and solid recovery, and that we will have wisdom in how and when to reintroduce her ordinary activities.  We haven’t expected violin practice all week, and we did just a half a school lesson on Friday, but even this proved to be too taxing.  Much of the time she feels okay, but she goes through periods of feeling tired at various points in the day.  

She has been watching a lot of videos, and reading a lot of books all week long.  Funny videos tend to make her cough.  This is probably a good thing, no? (to clear out the lungs.)

I had pneumonia when I was in fourth grade, and I don’t remember how long it took to get over it.  I just remember it was December, up north, cold and dry, and I did not have to go to school for a long time.  One week?  Two?  I just don’t remember.

April 7, 2011 11:22 p.m.

Something old, something new, something borrowed…..

I happened to mention to my neighbor friend, Gail, on the phone two weeks ago that Chips had just graduated to a full-size violin.  That was when she told me that she had a violin, but that it was still up in Vermont with a friend to whom she had lent it out for a few years.  The friend plays in a string quartet.  My neighbor was looking for an excuse, however, to request it back, and telling her friend that a young man next door might want to use it would be a perfect excuse.

Unbeknownst to us, her friend came down to our sunny state for a weekend getaway last weekend, staying at the beach with our neighbors, and at Gail’s request, she brought the violin with her.

Two days ago, Gail called to say she had the violin and was bringing it over to our house.  And she did, although there was a thunderstorm warning in progress at the time.  She got it to us, and ran back home in time for the downpour.  Her purpose in bringing it here was so that Chips could play it all he wants, thereby keeping it in good condition, because “a violin needs to be played to stay in good condition”.  Presumably, this could mean years, as it was for her friend in Vermont (5 years).  She spoke as if this was a win-win situation. 

Now let me tell you about this violin.  It is Italian-made, 1926, and comes with a beautiful octagonal pernambuco German-made bow.  This violin has nice warm tones and Chips reports that the bow handles very nicely, and is lighter and better balanced than his 3/4 carbon fiber bow (that we were so proud of two months ago, remember?)  His full size violin, that we already own, sounds to him like “ice” (his words) in comparison.  I tried to get a sense of the value of the instrument through Google, and let’s just say that although we don’t know the “price”, we do know we have been nicely blessed.  This is a fine, vintage instrument.  We can’t wait until our teacher sees it on Monday.  What will she say?  This is definitely a win situation for us.  Dare I say that it might sound even better than our teacher’s violin?

Here are the photos.  The new violin, the one we own already, is 12 years old but in violinspeak one would consider it to be “new”.  It is on top.  The vintage Italian violin is on the bottom. 

The cases (new one on top, old one on the bottom),

and the instruments (new one on top, vintage one on the bottom).

So I ask you, how nice (and trusting) is Gail, and how “cool” is this?  This is a very happy, happy thing for us.    Now, bring on the competitions!

April 7, 2011 10:10 p.m.

The good news is that Sweet Girl continued to improve a good deal today.  Her energy level was up, her cough was down.

The bad news is … nothing!   We have no bad news to report here at Breezy Point today.  Thanks be to God!

Happiness is…

being too sick to do school lessons,

but not too sick to watch a favorite video.

April 6, 2011 4:11 p.m.

Hi everybody, and thank you for praying for Sweet Girl!  She had a pretty restful night last night, once I got her to bed (around midnight) and appeared comfortable whenever I checked on her.  The oral prednisone helped her a lot.

I took her to her pediatrician today, and she listened to her chest – still heard some mild wheezing, so she wanted me to continue the nebulizer for a couple more days.  But after looking at her past records (she has had just 2 or 3 illnesses with wheezing through the years) she views this asthma situation as somewhat isolated, and doesn’t think we will need to continue on with asthma meds (or nebulizer) after Friday.  In fact, she said she probably won’t have to come back again until her well visit in the summer, unless she takes an unexpected bad turn in the next couple of days.

So, Sweet Girl feels better, and that means I feel better.  She has been more active all day today, but this afternoon it caught up with her and now she is napping.  I am very thankful for the progress she has made over the past 24 hours.  Things are looking much better today than they did yesterday.

So neat that there are so many readers in the blogosphere who pray and care!  Thank you!

April 6, 2011 2:45 a.m.

What a difference a day makes. 

Over the weekend, Sweet Girl  did some sneezing and had some mild allergy symptoms, we presume, from the mounds of pollen in the outdoor air due to the season.  She never was one to be an allergy sufferer, but all of us were feeling symptoms around here, so we weren’t too surprised at this.

On Monday evening, she went to bed but had just begun to develop a cough.

Yesterday (Tuesday) morning, she woke up feeling lousy, exhausted, with a low grade fever, and not wanting to eat, read, or do anything except lie on the sofa.  She complained of chest pain when coughing.  She felt nauseous by late morning.  And then by midday, I noticed she had developed a pattern of labored breathing.

Got her to the pediatrician’s office by two, and we were there for 2-1/2 hours.  It took two breathing treatments to get her where she needed to be.  Turns out she was diagnosed with an attack of asthma and concurrent asthma-induced pneumonia. 

Friends, I don’t know what to say except this all came up in the span of a half a day.  Monday she was healthy, Tuesday she was very sick.  Monday, I had a healthy daughter, Tuesday I have an asthma sufferer.  This is a first for our family; none of us has ever had asthma.  I do remember that Sweet Girl had a lot of eczema when she was a baby and that this is sometimes a warning that asthma could follow some day.  Well, I am sorry to say that she is eight years old now, and it has arrived.

So when Self-Reliant Man arrived home from work in the evening, he walked in on the sight of Sweet Girl receiving a nebulizer treatment.  A bit of a surprise for him, too, I might add.  And the kitchen counter is now adorned with zithromycin, prednisolone, albuterol, and a plastic tube, mask, and machine.  Welcome to the asthma club.

So now I am up in the middle of the night checking in on her breathing, giving her another dose of pednisolone, and setting my alarm for another hour later.  At the moment she does feel comfortable, so I am not going to get too bent out of shape over the fact that her breathing is rapid.  Doctor told me not to overreact at this.  After all, she does have pneumonia, too. 

We have another appointment in the morning.

All prayers gratefully accepted.  This, too, is for a reason, I know.

April 2, 2011 10:01 p.m.
In my life this week...
When I have time, I am cutting and pruning vines, cabbage palms, low hanging branches, and tall weeds in various places around our yard.  This is a never ending job, and even though I spend hours doing it, a casual observer cannot tell I have done anything.  However, I mustn’t let that deter me.

In our homeschool this week...
Sweet Girl completed her third test set in Calvert School’s third grade course.  We made the decision to split her test over two days’ time, and it made everything much more relaxed.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...
Monday evening brings a Mom’s meeting with one of my homeschool fellowship groups.  Tuesday brings kickball (P.E.) with the other homeschool fellowship.  Wednesday brings an early morning chapel performance for Chips and his friend, J, at a local Lutheran school.  They will play the same hymns they played at the talent night and dinner theatre.  Then, hopefully, things will slow down toward week’s end.

My favorite thing this week was...
Seeing the children performing their little hearts out at our church dinner theatre last night (April 1st).  It was an entertaining, hunger satisfying, and exciting time for all who were involved.  I hope to post more videos of this event soon.

What's working/not working for us...
My staying off the internet until one o’clock every weekday has been helpful in allowing us to get done with lessons at a reasonable time.  I have also enjoyed, very much, keeping up with Chips’ literature, history, science, and geography reading, even though they are those dread textbooks.  I am particularly enjoying geography, now, as we are doing some in-depth learning of all the eastern hemisphere countries.  Yesterday, I read about Israel. 
Sweet Girl’s social studies textbook is turning out to be a little more enjoyable than I expected it would be.  When I first saw it, I wanted to barf  was dismayed, to say the least, but I guess it is because I had such low expectations of this subject that I am enjoying it all the more.  Strange…
What’s not working is the internet being “down” when we have extended rainstorms, as we did on Wednesday and Thursday.  We went 24 hours without functional internet service, and it put my students behind on the online portion of their work.  Chips is behind by about 7 videos.   I hate having to rely on a robust internet connection for homeschool, especially when we don’t have such a connection!

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...
I am always thinking ahead to the day when we start high school.  And as I think, and peruse websites, the Potter’s School Classical Track is becoming more and more attractive to me all the time.  But I still have plenty of time to make this decision.
I also really agreed with this post over at Old Earth Creation Homeschool blog.  We cannot rely on the magic textbook for the high school subjects.  Our students are young enough that they still need more guidance.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...
None other than our son, Chips, in his performance here yesterday evening.  We still cannot believe what we hear and see, and we are so proud of him and his on stage poise and confidence, no matter the size of the crowd.  The Lord has really given him a gift!

April 2, 2011 8:14 a.m.

Yesterday was the annual dinner theatre production at church.  It was a fundraiser, and those who attended enjoyed a nice dinner as they watched the show.  Chips and Sweet Girl are members of the children’s chorus, and were able to perform “It’s a Hard Knock Life” from Annie and “So Long, Farewell” from The Sound of Music.  They had a lot of fun on stage with props, dressed and acting like hard-working orphans with brooms, rags, et al.  On “So Long, Farewell”, Chips got to sing the boy’s solo line with the high G, and got decent applause for doing so (even though he wasn’t too keen on taking the part).

Chips got the opportunity to play two hymns with his friend, J, who is a piano whiz kid, just as they had for our homeschool talent night.  And J played “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” piano solo, which he did well and confidently.

But the video I have to share right now is of Chips playing the J.S. Bach Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, 1st mvt.  Although the performance got off to a rough start, he settled in quickly and finished it off just fine.  The room is noisy (dinner is being served) but this is probably the only opportunity I will have to record him performing this piece (the state competitions will not allow recording). 

So Chips, take it away. . . . .

 

April 1, 2011 3:33 p.m.

It promises to be a Reallybig Show, tonight, folks.



A reallybig, reallybig show!

Details to follow in a future post.