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!)

A Musical Number for Carter

Grandpa flew out to Utah for our cousin Carter's baptism this weekend and suggested that we perform a special musical number, specifically a special organ arrangement (Ryan Murphy) of "I Know that My Savior Loves Me" (Bell and Creamer). 

Grandpa gave us a copy of the music in September and I taught it to my kids by singing it for their lullaby every night for the next six weeks! We recorded it for family night a couple of weeks ago and...it went alright. 

There were a few complications. For instance, we couldn't sing in the chapel because the organ drowned out our voices. So we sang in the hallway, but then we had trouble hearing the organ...so Andrew stood in the doorway between the hallway and the chapel trying to conduct both our little choir and Miriam at the organ so that we could kind of be together. It's not the best recording ever made—we have some loose cannons in our troupe (*cough*Phoebe*cough*) but it'll do.

The kids sang their little hearts out. Grandpa played it at the baptism this afternoon. It's like we were there...but also not...

Perhaps we'll brush it off for a musical number sometime.

I suppose another complication is that although it's an organ and SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) piece, we only had the organ music, so we kind of made up where our voices were supposed to come in and sang in unison rather than in parts. We could learn parts if we were invested enough...

For now, though, it's time to turn our attention to Christmas music.

 

It actually isn't Handel...it's Beethoven.

 I didn't sit and listen to Music and the Spoken Word this morning, but it was on and some of the kids were watching—Miriam in particular was sure to watch it. When I walked by the room and heard the 'Hallelujah Chorus' from Beethoven's "Christ on the Mount of Olives" playing, I poked my head in and said approvingly, "This is a cool arrangement."

"Oh, it actually isn't Handel," Miriam said. "It's Beethoven."

"I...didn't even try to guess the composer, so..."

"Oh!" Miriam stammered. "I just..."

"Did you think it was Handel?"

It was clearly not Handel, but I had missed the introduction to the song, while she had not, so she knew it was Beethoven.

"No! I knew it was Beethoven. I thought you thought it was Handel."

"Weird," I said. "Because...once again...I didn't even make a guess."

We spent the rest of the day joking about liking things (and having those things not be by Handel). Miriam took those teasings like the champion she is. 

But then in the last few minutes of the last session of General Conference, it was announced that the closing song would be 'The Glory of the Lord.' I looked over at Miriam.

"Not that 'Glory to the Lord!'" she insisted.

And then President Nelson started speaking quoting from Handel's Messiah and before we knew it—yes!—the Tabernacle Choir was singing Handel's own "And the Glory of the Lord."

We all laughed for several minutes before settling down to enjoy the song.

Sting, Crash, Splash!

Would you look at this adorable bee clinging to our mountain mint?

A swim meet and pneumonia

We had another "home" meet on Thursday night. 

I mentioned that I sang the national anthem with the kids last week, since they weren't comfortable doing so on their own. But this week Zoë practiced until she felt comfortable and then sang the national anthem solo...and a cappella. The national anthem in the United States has a rather tricky melody and uses quite a large vocal range; it's not easy to sing. Zoë would have preferred to have accompaniment, but she did alright singing a cappella.

Miriam's Music

Miriam recorded some beautiful pieces on the organ today. She made a goal to record one piece per month and fell a little behind in March and April and May between breaking her arm and going to Austria and preparing for her piano auditions. She recorded three pieces from various angles and edited those views together. All in one day!

Here's "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing":

Spring Piano Recital

On Saturday between helping Grandpa move out of his place in the morning and into Darla's house in the afternoon, Zoë and Miriam had their end-of-year piano recital and awards ceremony. I should probably clarify that "year," in this case, refers to the school year (which our piano studio follows). My littler kids were confused about all the different meanings "a year" can hold—a fiscal year, a school year, a calendar year, a leap year...

Anyway, we had a crew helping at Grandpa's house in the morning, and then parted ways—Rachel and Benjamin went up to Darla and Grandpa's—and the rest of us went to the recital.

A couple of the moms were talking about Phoebe, asking me if she was the same little baby they'd seen at the recital last year...and she was the same baby—just a year older! 

Here she is in May 2023:

Signs of growing up

Alexander just came upstairs to tell me that in addition to the songs I assigned him for piano, he's also been working on the C major 5-finger scale with both hands. 

"You just play them at the same time and it sounds amazing. Like, I have both my thumbs on middle C, like this, and then I play with my second fingers—which would be D on the right hand and B on the left hand—and it just, like, together it sounds so beautiful!"

*****

Yesterday we had our last official day of co-op classes, though we still have a field day next week. Rachel wasn't here (obviously, since she was in Vienna visiting Uncle Patrick, though technically I think they were in Bratislava on Thursday) so I had to teach her preschool class for her, which went well. 

St. Patrick's Day and Primary and Organ and Stuff

 

Today was St. Patrick's Day...and Sunday. Alexander was very excited about this combination of events (he had trouble keeping both feet on the ground).

One week later...

I was thrilled to test negative Tuesday of last week because Thursday was my second-chance night to see Hamilton! Grandpa and Darla picked Miriam and I up for dinner (at Waffle House) before heading downtown.

It was fun to get to know Darla a little bit better! We've been meaning to spend more time with her after meeting her (on January 22, right?), but she didn't end up coming to the zoo with us (and Amanda) because her granddaughter was sick, and then that ended up being a little fortuitous because we all came down with COVID (though miraculously, Amanda and her family did not!). Miriam got to spend quite a bit of time with Darla while she was staying at Grandpa's house, but...the rest of us did not. All that is to say that it was nice to get to chat with Darla a bit more. 

Miriam on "Mighty Mo" and a belated Christmas "recital"

Yesterday Miriam's organ teacher invited her to attend "The Mighty Mo Tour" at Fox Theatre in Atlanta with her. I imagine its name comes from its manufacturer—the M.P. Möller Organ company—but I haven't really verified that. 

At the theatre, they listened to Ken Double (the organist) play some pieces and also got to go on a tour of the stage. Mighty Mo's console apparently lives in the basement, but can rise up when needed. It was originally built in 1929—but has undergone some extensive restoration work since then—and is currently the "second largest theater organ, [and] it utilizes 3,622 pipes ranging from the size of a ball point pen to 32 feet tall and wide enough for a man to stand in." Miriam tells me its pipes stand in 47 ranks and that it has 415 stops (which is a lot of stops).

She was very impressed! It's been a while since she played an organ of such a grand instrument, though to be fair...

She played on the Aeolian-Skinner organ that was once int he Trinity Church in New York (but which now resides in John's Creek United Methodist Church) about a year ago, and it has 120 stops and 161 ranks.

She's also played on the organ at the Tabernacle at Temple Square (formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle), which is one of the largest in the world. It has 206 ranks (11,623 pipes)! The Conference Center organ is smaller (7,708 pipes in 130 ranks). 

Anyway, here she is playing Prelude and Fugue in F Minor by Bach:

With Miriam Heiss at the organ

This evening our stake had a Christmas musical fireside and all of the kids (except for Phoebe) got to participate. The primary kids (Benjamin, Zoë, and Alexander) sang 'The Nativity Song' and 'Estrella de Luz.' They missed yesterday's rehearsal (because we were busy dismantling that clubhouse), but I'd worked on the music with them on my own so they still went up to sing. I love how our stake often (even usually) does something in Spanish at each event. We have two Spanish-language units in our stake; I think it's only fair to switch off on which language is being privileged (or utilized).

The youth (Rachel and Miriam) sang a song together that no one in our ward knew about until today. So that was interesting. At the very least their bodies made the choir look bigger.

Miriam also participated in a youth orchestra (comprised of one violin, one cello, two basses, and Miriam at the piano). They did very well together. 

Miriam also played 'Angels We Have Heard On High' at the organ. She'd practiced at this building on this organ several times and nothing had ever gone amiss, but in the middle of her performance the air conditioning system kicked on and blew her music away! First one page fluttered away, but she wasn't too concerned because she'd already finished playing it...but then the page she was on flew away, too! Fortunately another pianist up on the stand retrieved it for her and put it back up, but it was a real knuckle biter for a second there. 

My hands flew up to my mouth and everything. 

Once again I didn't take any videos of anything! But people from the stake were filming it, so I hope they'll distribute video of it. Who knows. Otherwise, perhaps we'll record Miriam playing her piece after church next Sunday.

After church today, Grandpa recorded Miriam playing a couple of pieces on the organ. The first is 'Still, Still, Still':