Summer

Recently one of my all time favorite shows, Gilmore Girls did a reunion type series in 4 installments labeled Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. I'm going to try and catch you up on the last several months of my life by first bringing you Summer.

Last fall I wanted to brush up some of my piano and music theory skills and was pleased to begin working with one of the best musicians in our area. As it turned out she wanted to learn how to play the organ so we traded services. Susan is a local private music teacher and a talented performer on the piano and flute so of course she is taking to the organ very well.

She and I together with my Hubby on his euphonium gave a recital in August as part of the Organists of the Keweenaw summer recital series. Each summer the local organists put on recitals on local historic pipe organs to raise money for their upkeep. For our recital we used one of the oldest tracker pipe organs in MIchigan. I often wondered if I was crazy for putting myself through the stress of practicing and performing on an unfamiliar instrument, but once the evening was over I was glad we did it. I haven't. decided if I'm ready to do another any time soon though. 

I had great fun taking some inquisitive friends D and J on an organ crawl of some of those historic organs this summer. We had a good time getting to know each other better and formed fast friendships, especially between me and J. They live in FL during the winter and before they left we had established a routine of meeting for breakfast one day a week for breakfast. We have a lot in common, she's a very good listener and she really supports me in my work and ministry on the organ. J told me that after D, who's cancer is in remission, got home he fell fast asleep on the couch and when he woke up he said his dreams were of organ music! Warmed my heart! 

I was proud to see several of my piano students perform publically at Calumet's sesqui-centennial celebration this summer. The plan was to have different performing groups at each intersection downtown but because fo rain they put us under a small tent in the part which was right next to a large tent of vendors and the very loud MTU pep band. We also had to borrow a keyboard that unbeknownst to us arrived with no music rack, bench or power source. My students rallied like professionals and made the most of a difficult situation by helping me find solutions to each problem and then put on excellent performances that made people stop and take notice. It was a learning experience for each one of us and I was so proud of each one of my students!

Unfortunately I took a picture of each student that participated but I can only find few in my files. Where the rest have disappeared to I have no idea. I'm rather upset. 

Well it was quite the summer filled with music. I discovered some of my weaknesses but also some of my strengths and in these few instances I believe I wore my crown well. 

Winter Wonderland

We've had some strange weather this week...warm for this time of year and instead of snow we've had fog with a light mist at times which has resulted in this white coat covering all the trees. If it wasn't so gray it could be quite beautiful.

If the sun ever comes out, what a display that will be! I took the afternoon off today. Maybe it's this dismal weather that has me so lacking in energy but I've practiced almost every day this week and I just couldn't bring myself to go over there again today. I did my grocery shopping this morning and decided I'd stay home and work on a few cards this afternoon as I have no students scheduled, but here it is 3:30 and I haven't even had the energy to begin.

I have however managed to read my daughter's newly printed portfolio from cover to cover. I just got the news, she is graduating on the 20th...MAGNA CUM LAUDE...and yes, I'm just a tad proud!! 

Tomorrow is my piano studio recital. I was asked by one of the parents (a professional singer) to accompany her on the organ while she sang Gesu Bambino. I was honored and worked very hard to adapt the piano music to work on the organ and then learn to play it. After putting in hours of practice I get an email yesterday from her saying that she, like many people in our area has come down with one of the nasty bugs that has been going around and since hers is the sore throat/fever variety, she will not be able to sing on Saturday. UGH! Oh well, I hear my mentor's voice as he's told me before that practice is never for naught. It's ok too, because I really didn't feel comfortable with the piece and if I was going to do it I wanted to do a good job for her. So many of our families have been ill and I've had so many cancellations this week that I really don't know what to expect for tomorrow, but whatever will be will be. 

Sunday morning is our church's Christmas program. I will be playing the prelude and postlude as usual as well as a solo on Still, Still, Still, plus all the congregational hymns...there are quite a few. I think I'm ready...I feel pretty good about those pieces, it's just up to whatever happens in the moment...God help me.

So here I am with an entire evening ahead of me...all to myself. Hot tea, frosty trees, twinkling lights, crackling fire and Christmas music...I think I'm ok with that.  

Christmas Music

It was a good weekend. Friday night Hubby and I went out to supper to celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary, then he took me to hear my mentor play the organ in their church's annual Lessons and Carols on Saturday. How I love singing the carols while he plays!! Saturday was also my ATC trade, it was nice to see the ladies from the Scrapbook Store again. How I miss the convenience of the store. Sunday of course was church - it went very well despite the fact I haven't been feeling well. The Lord truly stepped in and worked through me as I played - I did not do anything in my own strength that morning. Sunday after church Hubby and Daughter went out to get our tree. It's still sitting naked in the living room! 

It is shaping up to be a very busy week this week. Today I have a practice time I must get in, then I'm meeting with one of my piano parents to practice with her. I will be accompanying her while she sings Gesu Bambino on Saturday when she sings in our annual Family Recital. She is a professional vocalist who has sung opera in years past. I am very honored she asked me to accompany her but I'm also very nervous as I've had to rework a piano accompaniment to work on the organ and I'm not sure I can manage it very well. Following my practice with her I have 5 lessons to teach this afternoon/evening. 

The rest of the week holds a full teaching and practice schedule, Friday I'll practice with Mary again and Saturday is our recital. Sunday is the Christmas program at church and I haven't even begun to practice the hymns and carols the congregation will be singing that day. I also have two solo pieces to put together for that as well as possibly a duet with Hubby. 

It looks like no one is going to play my little game, so here are the answers: 

 Left to right: a) Heiki Lunta (local myth) b) Jack Frost c) Zeus

 

Left to right: a) Pegasus b) Sirens c) Icarus

Fairies

                                         Left to right: a) mermaid b) Apollo c) Aphrodite

Next month's theme is "your ethnic heritage".  As usual, I have no idea what I will do!
Until next time...

Time to put my feet up...

However, not by choice. If you've seen my Facebook posts, you're probably already pretty well caught up on things here, but I will expound a bit.

The concert went fairly well...I, of course didn't do as well as I had wanted. Despite my mistakes, it seemed quite well received, everyone else was amazing and the program content excellent. The photo above is of everyone who performed, including a guest violinist and a guest flutist. Hubby and Mentor both seemed pleased. This is what Mentor had to say when I sent him the pictures this morning: 

Hope you slept last night!  I was singing Praise to the Lord the Almighty over and over......  I did get to sleep,

Congratulations on every aspect of the recital; it was all quite wonderful. The organ really does sound good in the space; less is always more and then when you need the oomph, it is there.....  Lots of fun!

Corbin said, "The organ really sounds good....and she really can accompany a hymn, can't she?." and I was glad to hear that come out of him. 

Be happy.  Then get practicing ha ha.

DLS    

One of our music directors wants me to work up more chorale preludes so we can include them in our worship before we sing a hymn!!! Our Pastor wants me to play my grand finale for something....perhaps a "music night" for evening service? Both he and his wife loved it and one if not both of their children have an interest in learning something about the instrument. 

Several people are already talking about doing something for Christmas. 

On my way to practice this afternoon, I fell and put a gash in my knee. 

Six stitches later and I'm trying to rest with it elevated and iced. My music isn't ready for Sunday, the house is a mess and I have a full teaching schedule tomorrow! I guess I'm pretty much stuck in the recliner at least for tonight. On the upside, in all reality, I could have broken my ankle, hip elbow, knee...all were involved - so I'm considering myself quite fortunate. 

My unsung hero in all of this is Hubby! He spent hours and hours to see to it that we found the right organ, he arranged to get it here, he installed it, makes adjustments on it when necessary, advertised for the concert, listened and offered advice when I practiced, printed the posters, printed the program, set up tables and chairs in the gym, was MC for the concert, served in the kitchen for the reception and did all the clean up after! THEN when I fell today, he was right there to pick me up and drive me to the Dr., closing the business when he was already behind schedule. LOVE THAT MAN!!

Summer Happenings

Well, once again, it's been a while since I've blogged. I'm here attempting to catch you up a bit on the goings-on in The Little Turquoise House. I actually had to go back to my last post to see what I wrote! 

Hubby's business has been doing fairly well with the new machine. We are just praying that it continues and is steady. 

All our kids were here for the 4th weekend. Daughter #1 and Hubby arrived from Chicago late Thursday night, 

Daughter #2 came in from her internship in Detroit Friday morning 

and Son and Fiance pulled in Saturday morning. Yes, you read that right...fiance! They are now officially engaged! I'm trying to give it all to the Lord. Her family is not very involved in her life and probably won't do much, if anything for the wedding, so since they are planning to get married here in town, I will be acting as both mother of the groom and mother of the bride. It is set for October 18th so we have a lot to do in a short amount of time. 

Our church gave a baby shower for a couple of sisters who are expecting their babies a week a part. My kids grew up with them so I felt strongly that I should go. I made a couple of cards: 

Did I tell you the scrapbook store is closing? I'm so sad about that. I can't remember if I shared with you all about the bookmarks I made. I'm planning to teach a class on how to make them before the store closes. If it actually happens, it will be a "last hurrah" for the store...probably the last class ever.

Hubby has been doing trail work, cutting wood for winter and gardening. He drove the tractor in the Pasty Parade a couple of weeks ago to advertise the trails and the Deer Chase. 

The garden is getting a slow start due to our cool weather and isn't doing very well, then to add insult to injury, a deer came through last night and ate some of our kale and beet greens! GRRRR!! 

One pleasant surprise: our roses bloomed! These are special because my mother-in-law moved this bush whenever they moved and then she gave us a start when we moved into The Little Turquoise House. Hubby says he only remembers it blooming twice in his lifetime. This makes three! It's called a Black Prince...why, I don't know. It is beautiful though and we are enjoying the lovely blooms and the scent is amazing! I've been having fun taking photos of it. I sure hope it blooms again next year. 

I had so many things I wanted to get accomplished by the 4th this year, I have completed about half of them. I did get my studio completely reorganized and I'm so thrilled about that! 

This week I have had to put the house back in order after everyone left...it's amazing what a disaster is left behind after 6 dogs and 7 people share a small space and only one bathroom!! 

Organ Recital plans are beginning to come together. I had a meeting with the other organists this week and they all "met" the new organ for the first time. It was neat to watch them enjoy the different sounds and have so much fun, especially considering they all play on pipe organs regularly and our is "only electronic". 

My mind jumps from recital plans to wedding plans and back again. 

Suki got a haircut right before her "cousins" arrived. She doesn't like sharing her home with so many...I really should have taken pictures while they were here. 

Because of something someone dear said to me this week, I leave you with this final thought as it is the highlight of my week: 

I will try to catch up with all of you in between students tomorrow. God bless you all. 

Wednesdays Wanderings

Recital plans continue. I met on Monday night with my two fellow organists who have consented to help and it was decided May was much too soon and so I am now trying to choose a date in August. I have to avoid "Musical Mondays", "First Friday", Wednesday nights because of prayer meeting, Thursday "music in the park" and it has to be before the 14th as two of our musicians will be leaving town. That basically leaves Saturday the 2nd, Tuesday the 5th and 12th and Friday the 8th which might not work for my Hubby. UGH! I didn't realize this was going to be so complicated! When it was just my Mentor and I, it was so simple...only two schedules to work around. After the date is chosen then I'll be stressing over the music and putting the program together.

I have had so much on my mind this week that I just look at my 'To do' list and thumb my nose at it! I've decided to just try to manage only the most urgent things this week and try to get back to my projects on Monday.

Daughter #2 told me that Daughter #1 and her Hubby are not going to be able to make it for Easter this year, but Daughter #1 hasn't contacted me personally. Hmmm...

I thought I'd share a couple of things from the internet I found interesting this week:

The Little Turquoise House is small, so I have a difficult time imagining myself living in a house like this. Maybe if it were just me, but then again, there is no room for a piano. Could you live with so little and in such a small space?

I subscribe to a feed called Non-Consumer Advocate. I don't agree with everything they promote, but they do have some good ideas on saving money. Since I love antiques and things of the past, I found this article about a woman who lives as though she were in the 1930's very interesting and the pictures rather amazing. She says the only modern things she owns are her laptop because she needs it for work and a refrigerator because she hasn't found an ice-box that works well and because no one delivers ice anymore. Part of me wouldn't mind doing this, but I don't think I could take it to that extreme. What decade would you choose? I'm partial to the 1950's.

Have you seen this 80 year old woman dance??? I wanted to embed the video but I couldn't get it to work. WOW! I don't know about you, but I find her inspiring. Not only is what she does amazing, but she has such a graciousness and elegance about her...a true lady. I love the reaction of the judges - especially Simon.

Well, time to get some lunch and head over to the church for practice time. I'll be focusing on Easter music today. I won't be playing the offertory on Sunday, I'll just be responsible for the prelude, hymns and postlude. I do want to do a good job on the hymns though and I hope we get to sing some roof raisers!

Unload

The graphic at the top is a reminder to me today, I have a lot on my mind - a lot to unload.

I didn't realize it's been a week since I last posted. I'm taking a vacation day of sorts today - most of my students have cancelled their lessons this week due to spring break. I did have a couple from a homeschooling family that was to come today, but they came down with some intestinal crud that is keeping them home. My only student today will be my online student. So I've decided to run with the lack of schedule and just relax - I don't even have to cook because I have enough left-overs that we need to eat. I'll get to all the important stuff today, just in my own time.

The weather on Sunday was GORGEOUS! I took Suki for a walk and wore only a light sweater and the neighbors were outside shoveling their deck so they could uncover and use their grill.
Notice the deck handrail and the black spot in front of him is the grill...he's digging down to it.

Almost done - note The Little Turquoise House in the background. You can't see us, but Hubby and I were actually watching them from the window.

Today it's dark, with a cold wind/rain going on. We're supposed to get snow on Friday with a possibility of 8-10 inches. I just hope they're wrong.

One of our local music teachers has been recovering in the nursing home from hip surgery for many months now and it was finally determined by her family that she will need to move into assisted living this week. I understand she is planning on continuing to teach some students, but is giving away most of her music and lesson materials to the rest of us teachers who might be able to use it. I went to her home yesterday to look through the 8 large boxes of music while the family was busy moving furniture. I thought it would take about an hour - two hours later I had to finally just throw in a handful of sheet music to be sorted through at home. I brought home one box...FULL.

Though I'm not very "close" to this fellow teacher, it still makes me sad to think she is at this point in her life already - maybe because she is not the only one I see around me that is "getting old" and failing before my eyes. My dear friend/teacher Gordon who is dealing with cancer, my friend Jeannie from the scrapbook store who has taught me so much about scrapbooking and cardmaking is facing depression while trying to heal from her fall and my mentor who has his own set of physical issues and depression - I've watched him age 10-15 years in one and it is breaking my heart. It's difficult to think that I'm entering this stage of life and I find myself kicking and screaming like mad.

Now we've finally come to the heart of the matter. As I've said in recent posts, we are trying to plan a recital to be played on our "new" organ at church. The idea is to showcase the new organ and rejoice in it's arrival. We wanted to have a "dedication" but that seems to disturb the Pastor for whatever reason, so I've about nixed that idea except to say it will still be a dedication in my heart and mind no matter what is publically said or done. The idea was conceived in October, but since then I have felt a general lack of support from those involved. I knew something was really wrong the last couple of times I had mentioned it and I didn't know what to do or say or how to clear the air. One of you said that if I was supposed to talk about it, the right time would come. I'm here to tell you I took that advice to heart - I waited and decided when I went to practice yesterday that I wouldn't mention it at all and if he did then that was fine.

He did.

He opened up and unloaded everything I had feared was brewing inside of him the last few weeks. He told me about everything that has been on his mind, much of which is not music related but important in his life now. He told me about the nightmares he's been having, one of them having to do directly with the recital which tells me this is really eating away at him. He told me he isn't a "recital person" which I knew...neither am I so I get it. I understood everything; I wasn't surprised at anything he said and I think I handled the situation well - which does surprise me. I told him I if we did this I wanted us to be able to...maybe not "enjoy ourselves" but at least find joy in our efforts, that the last thing I wanted was for this to become yet another burden for him to carry. He sort of flippantly said "maybe in the fall", then changed the subject. I later brought it back and asked him directly if he thought he would genuinely feel better about doing it in the fall and I watched him consider it, then he honestly said he didn't know. I told him part of me wants to just do it now and get it over with while the other part of me is fine to wait and even happy to wait if it means him being more comfortable.  We decided to wait before saying anything to anyone else (except I told Hubby) and that we would think about it this week and pray about it and he'd let me know. I'm not going to mention it next week, I will once again let him if he feels ready to discuss it again. In the meantime I'm trying to prepare myself for him to back out completely. Hubby really wants me to do this recital - I don't know if I can do it alone, I know I don't want to.

We also talked about his upcoming retirement in a year which is also heavy on his mind.
He is looking forward to it and wants to "freelance" - being able to continue to practice, play the organ when it is needed/wanted and substituting for other organists when asked. He's afraid though that once he retires, the church will find less and less use for the organ (already starting) and he'll be putting his organ shoes away for good.

If that were to happen, the organ would fall into disrepair. It is 20 years now since it's rebuild and already has some needs that should be addressed, but efforts to get help up here have failed and expenses are mounting. 

The thought of that possibility - of no longer climbing these steps with heart pounding anticipation, 

of looking up in amazement into the organ, 

                        of spending hours filling this room with music - just breaks my heart.

I struggle to stay positive, to enjoy the time I have there however long/short it may be - because I don't want to waste this time bemoaning what might happen. I'm trying to come to peace with the fact that no situation is permanent and all good things must come to an end at some point and to be grateful (which I am) for all I have learned, experienced, and felt here. It truly is a rare opportunity that I have had and I am beyond grateful for having been chosen for such a gift. 

Prayerfully yours~