Xylophones and Pinckneyville: Crossing things off the bucket list

Downsizing is an incredible amount of work! 

I suppose one could simply rent a dumpster and empty the contents of their house into said dumpster and call it a day. But even that would take a bit of work (unless one also hired workers to carry the contents of the house to the dumpster for them). We don't have the luxury of a dumpster—and doing something like that would eat away at my conscience forever—so we've had to figure out what to do with everything. 

We took a load of old paint cans to be recycled here. We took old electronics to be recycled there. We took 20-year-old towels to the animal shelter. We took dozens of loads of stuff to goodwill. We've given away a billion items on the Buy Nothing Group. We left a bread machine in the kitchen for a friend who is in Mexico until after we leave. We meticulously disassembled our broken organ and snuck it piece by piece into the church dumpster over a number of weeks. We sold a few things. And yesterday we took all our glass to the park to recycle it.

*****

Years ago—in 2022—we got a case of ginger beer for Christmas. We kept the bottles so that Miriam could make a xylophone. By October 2023 she still had not done this, but she did manage to smash an entire box of said bottles on the cement floor of the basement while we were recovering from the Great Flood of 2023. That experience must have really taken the wind out of her sails because the rest of the jars sat for another nearly three years. 

I came very close to simply loading them up to take them out to recycle but then I thought to myself, "Come on! It will take all of two minutes to make a xylophone!"

So I grabbed the cracked funnel (that we haven't tossed yet but which we knew we weren't going to pack halfway around the world with us) and filled those bottles with varying levels of water. 

Boom—xylophone done! 

Extremely scientific. 

If I had wanted to take more time on this project we could have used a tuner to get actual notes. Or I could have used a larger variety bottles to make it trickier to know what order they would go in (though we did throw in an experimental bottle or two into this activity). Or, I suppose we could have done any number of things.

After holding onto these bottles for, oh, four years, however, I was simply proud of us for doing anything with them at all (aside from smash them on the floor). 

Alexander had the most fun playing with them, I think. 

Miriam's Organ Recital

Our stake (largely through the efforts of Sister Hammond) arranged a farewell organ recital for Miriam this past Sunday. Miriam has played for stake conferences, our ward, the Magnolia (Spanish) ward, stake Easter events, stake Christmas events, and so forth. She has loved getting to use her talents in this way. Sister Hammond keeps a little sign with (a paraphrase) 1 Corinthians 10:31 on the organ, "Do everything for the glory of God" to help remind her while she plays the organ that...that's why she's sitting there. 

Miriam also feels that music contributes to worship, with variations and flourishes helping people listening to the same old song feel something new and different and—God willing—divine. She has, at times, received pushback for playing classical music during postlude, which she thinks is rather funny because much classical music was written for worship. Our current bishop more or less gives her free reign but that doesn't mean everyone in the congregation approved of her choices (and, boy, did she hear about it...but she's pretty good at ignoring superfluous advice). 

One of Miriam's favourite composers is Bach (despite her program last night being full of French composers). He began most compositions with the inscription J.J. (for Jesu, Juva, meaning Jesus, help) and ended them with S.D.G. (for soli Deo gloria meaning glory to God alone), indicating that his music was his worship. It sounds like he was a fan of 1 Corinthians 10:31!

Healthy (like a horse)

Miriam is going to two separate organ camps/workshops out in Utah later this summer. So she'll actually be flying out to Utah by herself and then flying to Doha by herself (which is incredibly brave for a 16-year-old, I think). She's excited though! 

One of these events is a Pipe Organ Encounter, which is hosted at Timp Lodge up in the mountains, with trips to BYU and SLC to play on organs. She's very excited for this camp because they have at least one hike planned for the kids (which is one more hike than she got to go on at YW camp...not even joking). 

We had to turn in some permission forms for her (since it's several days of overnight stay and so forth). Andrew helped her fill out the forms on InDesign (so we could type on the forms) and under "current health conditions" he jokingly wrote "healthy (like a horse)":

Miriam reacted so strongly to that that he went ahead and submitted it in that way!

Miriam was aghast. 

Spring Recital

Zoë and Miriam had their last spring recital with Ms. Deb's studio on Saturday. It's been so wonderful to be part of the studio for so long, not only to see our own kids improving, but to see the progress the other students have been making. The tiny girls that Miriam used to help teach have all grown into beautiful little pianists (and Zoë's good friends with them since she also used to be in the group lesson with them). 

It's been fun! Miriam at least will continue zoom lessons with Ms. Deb...until we find an organ teacher for her in Doha (which I'm doubtful we'll be able to do) or until she leaves for college). I'm sure we'll be able to find a local piano teacher for Zoë. 

Zoë played Allegro by Alexander Reinagle and Hurry Scurry by Robert Vandall:

Anna Lapwood at UGA

I don't even know how I got a ticket to Anna Lapwood's concert, honestly.

We were so excited when we saw her on the list of performers on UGA's docket for this semester. I marked the first day of ticket sales on the calendar and Miriam and I were both poised and ready to buy the minute the portal opened. 

But somehow the show was completely sold out—like, immediately. 

It was rather disappointing. 

But life moves on.

We planned instead for Miriam to head out to Utah with Grandpa, intending for her to hang out with Rachel until the semester was over (Rachel comes home on Thursday)...

But then I was talking with someone on campus about Miriam and Anna Lapwood and they were like, "Seriously—her show is sold out? She can't be that famous!! You should check again."

First of all, Anna Lapwood is that famous. 

But, second of all, there's no harm in trying, right?

Ice storm: before and during church

We woke up to a world glazed over with a thin layer of ice (not the half inch we were predicted to get, which is probably for the best). Our power went out a time or two in the morning (and about a dozen more times throughout the day), but only momentarily. We were quite lucky on that front. 

Some of us had a hard time sleeping last night because they were so excited about the storm, and so perplexed about the weird noises frozen rain makes (yet somehow she is sleeping through all the ice crashing onto the roof this evening—make it make sense!). When Phoebe woke up she wanted to explore the ice. 

She found that it was interesting.

And tasty. 

Christmas at the nursing home

This afternoon we went to a local nursing home (The Addison of Sandy Springs) with some homeschool friends to give a lunchtime performance. The little(r) kids and I sang "Little Baby in a Manger," which I taught the kids in primary...but we really only focused on the first verse so I needed my phone to keep the other verses straight.

The kids sang this song for stake conference (like, all the youth and primary kids in the stake, thus the reason I scrambled a bit to teach our primary at least the first verse and chorus—because it hadn't been on my list of songs to teach originally). It was fun to get to sing it with them since I missed out on hearing them at stake conference.

IOOF's Organ Advent

The International Online Organ Forum asked members to record and submit themselves playing a Christmas piece, which they'd then review and select from the pool to publish during advent. Miriam recorded Angels We Have Heard On High (arranged by  R. Elliott) and submitted it just before the deadline. I'm sure she would have done it sooner but November was a messy month with travel and sickness and (for me) finals so finally I helped her film it on, like, November 30 or something! 

Miriam was thrilled to be selected for December 11 (the 12th day of advent)!

From the other players listed, it's becoming clear why she'd like to go to Europe to study organ (there are a lot more organ(ist)s in Europe). 

Swimming and Organ Awards

Saturday, as mentioned earlier (I think), was a busy day, but the kids have come off conquerers!

Here's Benjamin with his ribbons from his swim meet:

Both his relay teams won first place (he swam a 50m leg of breaststroke in the medley relay and a 50m leg of freestyle in the freestyle relay, as one does). He got second place in the 200m IM (individual medly—so 50m each of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle). He got third in 100m backstroke, and fourth in 50m freestyle. So not a bad day for him!

A busy week

Zoë had her first day of gymnastics this week. She was worried she was a little too old for starting, but I told her that I was her same age when I started gymnastics and that helped her feel a little bit better. She had a blast!

Successes

Zoë's been practicing French braiding my hair while I've been reading our nightly novel to her and Alexander. After showing her how to do it once she tried it and did it...a little loose and sloppy...but obviously a French braid. Then she undid it and tried again and again and again. And she's getting quite good at it.

This morning she did Phoebe's hair in a French braid:

Organ harvest

The keys on our organ are brittle. You can see from this picture—with its jaw pried wide open—that it has a few missing...teeth: 

Reading lessons and other things

Working so much on pronunciation with Phoebe has naturally led to phonics, so we've cracked open Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons again. So far we've done about 10 lessons and then started back at square one. And then we went through about 20 lessons and then started over again at lesson 10. And now we're just past lesson 20 for the second time, and it was perfect timing because the letter we added today was c and what sound does c make? 

/k/...which Phoebe just figured out how to produce! 

The poor thing was struggling so hard with the word "cat" today (she keeps saying "tac" instead). Typically she has substituted /t/ for /k/ so "cat" would be "tat." I suppose "tac" is a step in the right direction. We worked for a while on saying /k/ first and /t/ second, but it was a real challenge for her. 

At first she wasn't a huge fan of reading lessons but now she often asks me for lessons (even over the weekend when we don't "have to" do schoolwork). 

The other day she decided to pull out her reading lesson book so she could give one of her baby dolls (one of my baby dolls) a reading lesson. Here they are skipping way far ahead:

Miriam on the organ at Christ Church

Here's a video I know Grandpa has been waiting for! 

When the girls were in England (with Grandpa and Darla) they toured around Oxford and Miriam got to play on the organ at Christ Church. Their guide, George, is helping her with the stops at times and told her she should apply to be an organ scholar there. She's been looking into it, but she'd need a number of AP examinations with a score of 5 to qualify (but—one down, right?) and she's not sure she wants to take that many AP exams...

Anyway, here she is playing one of her pieces (she's embarrassed about her playing here, but it's her first time on the organ and each organ has a different feel so it's understandable that she would make a few mistakes):

Good Friday

Phoebe and Zoë wore matching dresses for tonight's Good Friday concert. They're dresses that Darla's girls used to wear when they were younger.

First Ever "Christmas in February" Concert!

We have certainly been slacking off with formal piano lessons this semester but last semester we were on top of things! We had nearly weekly lessons and were so prepared at Christmas that Alexander was playing the piano every chance he got...and yet somehow we never sat down to do a little recital. 

Oh, his sisters had their fair share of performances. We attended and performed at concerts and at church. We sang songs around the piano at Grandpa and Darla's house. We sang songs around our own piano. 

And yet Alexander and I never recorded our Christmas duets.

Alexander has been very good at self-directed piano study the past couple of months. He's moving through his book and learning songs. We have impromptu lessons (where someone will hear him making a mistake while practicing and will run in to intervene because we all know these primer songs forwards and backwards, having been through them ourselves...and then over and over again with each child...) but so far nothing formal. He's been pleased with his progress, and yet...he's been hanging onto his Christmas books.

All the other Christmas books have been filed away on the shelf until the next season, but his Christmas books have remained in rotation because we still needed to film our duets!

First it was okay because it wasn't Christmas yet. And then it was only Boxing Day. And then it was just that liminal space between Christmas and the New Year. And then it was still Christmas somewhere because Three Kings Day (Epiphany) was still coming up, and Orthodox Christmas. And then...the semester started...but it was all snowy outside and that was kind of Christmassy. And then we were a month post-Christmas...and then...well...we're more than two months post-Christmas and it's beginning to feel like we're putting things off.

Alexander even asked Daddy to buy a special cord we could plug into the piano so that we could record from the piano to our device, cutting out any potential Phoebe noises. And the cord came. And then it was, "Oh, we have to learn how to use it first..."

It's the little things

The Buy Nothing Group has been amazing this last little while. Not only did we adopt Gary, but we also got this cool teeter-totter and some supplies for a Nerf gun battle the young men in our ward want to have. We've also given away a stroller and hopefully our water table will be picked up tomorrow (as it turns out...I am not a water table parent and my kids are not water table kids—my children do not demurely splash in water...it's all or nothing for them). 

This post isn't about the Buy Nothing Group, though I do have some pictures of my kids enjoying their new-to-them teeter-totter:

This post is about granting wishes, however.

The devil's interval (and other tales)

This week has been a little...bit much. 

I didn't actually have to go into campus, but I did go to a conference in Atlanta (LRA), where I ended up leading a mentoring session (by myself) for an hour, which was super intimidating and stressful. But I did it. 

I Saw Three Ships

This morning Andrew took Miriam to record "I Saw Three Ships" at the Johns Creek United Methodist chapel—on the organ from Trinity Church. It's a lovely organ!

And Miriam plays this piece phenomenally well! I'm just in awe of her talent!

Grandpa reminded me the other day that I can boast that I taught her how to play the piano. And that's true! I did! I taught her how to play the piano so well that I soon had to find an actual teacher for her (Aunt Linda) and we've been on the hunt for more and more advanced teachers for her ever since!

She's working with Ms. Deb right now and it's been wonderful! Ms. Deb is as excited about Miriam as we are! We love her studio!

Natural back, Cool Joe!

For Christmas the primary children will be singing a medley of "Samuel Tells of Baby Jesus" and "Star Bright" that Miriam arranged. This week I worked with the kids on the variation to the tune of "Samuel Tells," which lowers the part a bit for the primary boys and young men to sing more easily. And then we turned our attention to "Star Bright." 

We have three little Korean boys in our primary and they knew that we'd be learning a Korean part for the song (we're doing English, Spanish, and Korean), so they started chanting, "Korean first! Korean first!"

How could I not do Korean first then? 

I introduced the kids to the Korean words a couple of weeks ago and it was...rough. 

So this week I listened and listened and listened to the Korean (thank you, Google translate) and paired sounds of the Korean with similar sounding words in English...like this:

당신은 밤을 (Dancing 'n pummel)
낮으로 바꾸죠 (Natural back, Cool Joe!)