The Last One Ever!!

We've hit quite a milestone today - Madeline has her last piano lesson ever after school today.  She's been playing for 6 1/2 years, because we started her in the middle of the year, and we decided that she could be done with the mandatory 'discipline training' lessons that are oh-so-good for you even though you can't see that in the moment...  I sure hope she's like so many others and is grateful for them in the future.  In the present, though, she is ecstatic to be done and I am pretty happy about it myself.  She is a very musical girl, but sitting to play is just not how that flows out of her.  Get her singing along, maybe, but then she's more likely to stop playing and just sing.

One more week of practicing, a recital next Tuesday night, and then she's finite-o.  Whew.  To celebrate, here's a look at the girl and the keyboard over the years.

First recital.

Halloween Recital.

New keyboard.

Tidbits from the past week or so...

Madeline and Cailey - a friend from her other (red!) soccer team - playing against each other in their first high school games.  Wearing the same #21, too.

I gave Nolan another haircut.  We did the top / front sitting on the back deck Tuesday, and wasn't able to do the back until Saturday... You have to find the right balance of cooperation and quiet!  Then when he showed Dad, Dad thought it would be a good idea to style it up all spiky.  Pretty cute!

A downside to writing more letters is that I was getting a little too excited for the mail to come each day, thinking that writing more meant getting more... silly me.  But then I got TWO!  Kadence and Zach picked out cards and wrote in them and took them to the post office to send to Auntie - I smiled all day long.  They're sitting on my desk making me happy even now.

I found a great surprise when I was purging our bookshelf last week.  Back in 2007, I got bookmarks from my nephews with their school photos on them.  I had one in my bookmark box that I keep on the shelf, but had no idea where the other two had disappeared to, and that had made me sad a few times over the years.  I found them - in some of the books that I had been working through and forgotten, I guess - and that made me pretty happy, too.

Did you know there are three verses to Row, Row Row Your Boat?  We have a book of nursery rhymes that we've been pulling out at bedtime, and Row, Row Row Your Boat has been a favorite that I have sung hundreds of times lately, before putting him down for a nap or bed.  I'll leave you with this now and hope it gets stuck in your head.  You're welcome.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently on the tide.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

To the other side.

 

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently back to shore.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Home for tea at four!

Media Star!

This past Monday was Music Monday:

Astronaut Chris Hadfield and Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson have collaborated between earth and space to co-write the official song for Music Monday 2013. The end-result features Hadfield playing the song from the International Space Station, while Robertson and the Wexford Gleeks, a TDSB school choir, join him to unite in song with schools and communities across our nation.  

At 12 pm Eastern Time and at the exact same time across Canada (...11 a.m. Central Time...) schools and communities from coast to coast will be united by the Music Monday theme song, “ISS – Is Somebody Singing.“

(quotes from the Music Monday site.)

 Madeline's school was one of the ones in SK that was participating, and had some media coverage of the event.  She said there were just a few students interviewed, and she was interviewed twice!  I got the links from her music teacher and wanted to share with you - enjoy!!

News Story - (in English) - This link also has the video with the song. 

Radio-Canada - This one's a video, in french.  Choose the Monday, May 6 link (lundi 6 mai), and it's at 4/4, 2:45.

(I think it's funny that these are both radio stations, but one is a printed article and one is a video...)

Nolan's 8th Month

Just a few shots, as promised, of our favorite little man:

Loves playing the piano.

Seeing M off on the first day of school.

Granny & Papa came to visit!

Bowl and spoon drumming.

DIY: Passive Humidifier for a Piano

This is a passive humidifier.

This is a passive humidifier in the context of our piano.

A passive humidifier is something you can make for free at home to keep your piano at the right humidity, which helps keep it in tune.  Our piano tuner told me how years ago, and since I was reminded of it when I had to open up the piano top remove it before it went away yesterday, I thought I'd put a helpful little tutorial up here for you and your dry, going out of tuneinstrument.

1 - Collect 3 2L pop bottles.  Cut the tops off.
2 - Get one wire hanger and cut the long piece free, leaving just the curve on the ends.
3 - Punch holes on each side of the pop bottles and thread the wire through.
4 - Get 3 strips of felt, long enough to hang over the wire and down 3/4 of the way to the bottom of the bottle.  I used a few scrap pieces sewn together to make it a little thicker.  These are your wicks.
5 - Fill the bottles with water; one almost to the top, one 3/4 full, and one half full.  Every month or so check the levels and top up the lowest one.

There you go - simple as pie!

This is our barren living room.  The piano was picked up yesterday, given away to whoever would take it off our hands, the same way we got it.  We plan to get a smaller electric one that will fit in that spot better, and sound way better.  Plus, it will be way easier to move if we ever need to do that.  We will watch for boxing day sales and see if we can't find a good deal then.  Madeline had her recital last night, and has a couple weeks off lessons, so not being able to practice will not be a hardship for her at all.  While that spot is open it's a good chance to fix up the paint, put on the baseboards and the grate.  So much work on this house...

And finally, this is M going through all the stuff that was in the piano bench.  Lots of books and recital lists and broken pencils - enough to keep her entertained for a while!

The Commandments... In Rhyme

I was making a little progress decluttering and came across this poem I had copied out in a class while my professors sang it.  I will share it here with you, but you'll have to come up with your own tune, or track down Paul Beckingham and ask him to sing it for  you.

The Ten Commandments

Thou shalt have no God but me, 

Before no idol bow thy knee.

Take not the name of God in vain, 

Nor dare the Sabbath day profane.

Give both thy parents honor due, 

Take heed that thou no murder do.

Abstain from words and deeds unclean, 

Nor steal through thou art poor and mean.

Make no willful lie nor love it,

What is thy neighbour's, do not covet.

May some of you find this useful as a fun tool to teach your kids the Word.

PS - Spell check did not like 'decluttering' and instead, recommended cluttering, sputtering, fluttering or muttering.

Dear Blog World, I`ve missed you.

I`ve been busy creating... although I can`t point to a pile of stuff and say, `Look!`  I have been making a few more things for my craft sale this Saturday - a few more magic bags, some tie-onesies, and more magnets.  Along with the little snowmen and the ribbon rings, I should have enough for a table, nicely spread out.  Carla and Suzanne are joining me, but we got another table next to me that they`ll share.  I hope there`s no blizzard for this one.

While I was waiting for the Jessica Sprague course Inspiration Everywhere to start, I got out my Holidays in Hand album that I did last year, through another one of her courses.  I haven`t looked at it since January, and had lots of fun taping down a bunch of stuff, and getting ready to add to it this year. I figure that it wasn`t something I didn`t complete; it will be an ongoing album of our Christmas memories until it`s too full for more.

Then on Monday the new class started, so I`ve been playing around with some of that stuff, starting an Art Journal...  Today`s assignment was to make a mix CD of songs to inspire creativity.  I rarely listen to anything, so I`m not sure if I`ll skip that one or not.  Maybe I`ll get a mix CD for Christmas.  I know a couple of people who I would love one from...

Off to bed now - I don`t have to stay up late finishing my book for book club tomorrow, because this month is Animal Farm by George Orwell.  A good short one.  Good for us, Ladies - that was well planned. 

Down By The Bay

Down by the bay,
Where the watermelons grow,
Back to my home,
I dare not go,
For if I do,
My mother would say...

Did you ever see a bear
In his underwear?
Down by the bay!

Do you remember this song? We had so much fun singing it tonight - It popped into my head and I started singing it; Sean gave me a funny look, like "I remember that!" and joined in. M didn't know it, but caught on pretty quick (even started to do the echo without being coached!)

We couldn't think up too many that we remembered, so just made them up:
Did you ever see a Ward, driving a Ford?
Did you ever see a pig, dancing a jig?
... D o w n b y t h e b a y!

What are your favorite verses? Or come on, make some up!! Leave us a comment with them!

In other news...
Mother's Day today. I received a beautiful purple birdhouse, hand painted by M at school. She tried to give it to me last night she was so excited. (And maybe trying to stall bed time a bit.) I didn't expect anything else, except a carnation from church, which is pretty predictable, but when I got downstairs there was a gift bag on the table in my spot. It had two cards in front of it, one from each of them, and two gifts inside. I picked M's out first - I recognized the wrapping from the night before. Then I was surprised to find that Sean bought me the zoom lens for our camera!! How exciting. M's friend T came over for the afternoon and I went to the park with them and took some pictures. So fun.



A funny thing she said...
Yesterday started out chilly, but warmed up enough to enjoy finally raking the lawn. I couldn't get enough being outside, so M and I went for a walk in the evening, too. As we were walking, she said, "Mom, I don't want to go camping in the mountains." (We're planning to go to Jasper for a week for this year's big camping trip.)
"Why not?" I asked.
"I'm afraid we'll fall off. And of the bears."
HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! She's afraid we'll fall off the mountain!!!
"Madeline - Have you ever been to the mountains?" (I'm her mother - I already know the answer to this.)
"No."
"It's not like that. And we'll camp at the bottom." (HA HA HA! I'm still laughing.)

Coming tomorrow...
I finished five layouts tonight; I'll take pictures tomorrow when the sun's up and I don't need a flash and will have them up tomorrow for you to see. They were mostly done at scrapbooking on Tuesday, but needed finishing touches at home, so I did that tonight.

This is M stuffing cannelloni for supper the other night.


And her she is winning the game of musical chairs at the last Girl Guides meeting of the year on Wednesday.


What's that? You want a soccer update?
First game we lost 6-1, second game we lost 6-3.
It can only get better from here!!!

Ok, I'm done.
Talk to you tomorrow!!

Google Reader

Have I mentioned Google Reader to you? It's a great way to keep up with blogs that I like to follow - I just open the reader (I have it bookmarked right under blogs) and it shows me what's new in the blogs I'm interested in. I've been reading mostly stuff by scrapbooking people, but I'm starting to remember other blogs that I wish I was remembering to read more often...

Like this one. The Kennys are a family that we fell in love with when we were in Kenya this spring. It was so good tonight to catch up on all the stuff I haven't read yet. I love seeing some familiar faces and places in their pictures, too. It helps to not see that trip as an isolated time, but as a chance to step into a ministry and into lives that continue on long after we've left.

**********

I added a music player. :) I've wanted to do that for a while. Let me know if the auto start is annoying... I've heard it can be if you normally browse with tunes in the background. (It was while I was editing a few things on the blog and every time I opened a new window, a new song would start over top of the one already playing!) Also, let me know what you are listening to these days - I'd love to check out some new stuff. Two of the songs on my short list are ones I heard on other blogs first...