Summer Begins

With the start of summer coming on, I have been keeping quite busy. Memorial Day weekend brought my son and daughter-in-law up for the long weekend...it was nice to have them for longer than usual. Past visits have proved difficult for them and their two large fur-babies...the dogs are quite needy and finding a place for all of them to stay that was both private and quite was a challenge. They decided they wanted to try reclaiming a room from our old apartment which is over Hubby's print shop. Since we bought our house and moved out of the apartment he took it over for added shop space and it's quite full and quite the mess. I helped them clean out a room and make a bathroom look less like something you'd find at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. :P It was exhausting work, but they seem to be comfortable with the result. 

Here I am pictured with one of my piano students. I carried 15 students for most of the season and Saturday the 4th 11 of them participated in our spring recital. We had several with fast fingers...some of that due to nerves. I try to tell them when the adrenaline kicks in things can sometimes get out of control. Even with some mistakes, everyone seemed to handle it well. I took this week off to catch up on some things here at home before I start summer session for those who want it. I think I’m only going to have about 6 and most of those will only be once a month to every other week depending on their needs. I think I’m the most flexible teacher in the area when it comes to scheduling.

I’ve been working on spring cleaning a little at a time and trying to sell some of our extra junk we no longer use or need. It’s quite the job to sort and make decisions, take pictures, write up descriptions and post on websites...time consuming too.

I have been working with a fellow pianist and teacher this winter. We have traded services to better ourselves. She is working with me on the piano to sharpen and enhance my skills as both pianist and teacher and I am teaching her the organ. It’s been a good experience for us both and on August 26th we will be joining together in a recital. We will be using a very historic organ in the area and one of my favorites. Our recital is one of several to showcase the organ and raise funds for it’s upkeep. 

Tomorrow is another ATC trade - this months theme is "Holiday-you pick". I'm trying to use up all my scraps that I won't be needing for scrapbook pages so my holidays were chosen with that in mind. I did four on Easter using the song text from Easter Parade: 

I continued on with New Year's...not the holiday I would normally choose, but again, I had supplies to use up:

The two in the middle are my favorites. Using more supplies I went on to St. Patrick's Day and made two for Christmas. The one in the middle is my favorite of this group:

It seems my to-do list is ever growing. There never seems to be enough time in each day to accomplish all I should do. There has been some curiosity from some of you as to the goals I've been referring to lately. I will be sharing some of those with you in coming blogs so stay tuned. Nothing earth shattering, I assure you. 

I'm off to the church this afternoon for practice time.

Hubby and one of our church members have been making some repairs on our church organ. I am very thankful our friend is good at soldering. We still have some work to do, we did find out a repairman is out of the question due to expense.

Hubby and I thought we were going to be given an organ for me to practice on at home. It would have been very helpful for numerous reasons but the deal fell through. I still hope to obtain one at some point.