30 Days of Thankful: Day 6

I have so much to be thankful for. But today, I am going to be thankful for the Chorale. Every Wednesday I get together with 100 others singers and we sing beautiful music. Oh, tonight it wasn't so beautiful. But, by the time we practice it for a few more weeks it will be.

I am thankful to be able to make such beauty each week.

We sing Bach, Handel, Christmas carols, several beautiful renaissance pieces in Latin, some Baroque German piece that will have a brass section in the concert, and a fun version of the 12 Days of Christmas where each verse is in a different musicological style. Fun, fun, fun.

And I sing with great people, so that makes it so much better.

It is my own little beautiful spot each week.
K

30 Days of Thankful: Day 5

Well Shoot. I wasn't thankful yesterday. Well I WAS thankful, but didn't write it down. I guess it goes to show my human-ness...

So today I am going to be thankful for the extra blanket last night. It stayed on my bed ALL NIGHT.

It has been COLD here. Today the high was in the 40's, and it was wet and windy. Just raw outside.

Actually, we were SUPPOSED to get snow last night (roll of the eyes) but alas there was NONE. Many of my students were very disappointed this morning. I, of course, was not disappointed at all. :)

So, last night it was very cold. And I am so very grateful for the extra blanket. Actually, I will add that I am grateful for he abundance of blankets I have. Last week I unpacked one of the last boxes, and now I have several blankets or quilts or comforters in each closet.

Here's hoping I get to use the extra blanket more in the coming weeks.
K

30 Thankful Days: Day 3

Today I am thankful for service. For the opportunity to serve.

I heard someone say that service is one of the best ways we can see God because we take our eyes off of ourselves.

Today was church, and I served. I was asked a couple months ago to help prepare communion on the Sundays that we have it. So this morning I went to help prepare communion. I really enjoyed working with the other lady to get it ready, and to have it prepped for the second service as well. It is not a huge deal to get there early, and I enjoy the job.

After service, Pastor thanked us for our service and said he got to serve communion to someone for the first time because they professed faith in Jesus today.

It was a privilege to be a very small part of that.

I pray that continuing to serve will be a big part of my life.
K

30 Thankful Days: Day 2

OK, since I spent today doing stuff around the house, today I will be thankful that I have a house.

And I LOVE it! Not the chores, particularly, but the house. :)

I moved into this house 9 days before school started. Anyone who has worked in a school knows how crazy the start of school is. So I did the best I could in 9 days. But now, that I have some time, I am doing the things I didn't get done at first. Over fall break I hung pictures up on the walls, and unpacked the last 10 boxes. I also did some organizing in my office, but there is still a little bit of that to go. Now it is just the things that I look around and think that I'd like to change, or rearrange a little. Nothing earthshaking, but just little things.

Today I was very productive, and got several chores done, so I am happy about having the house.

And also about being done with chores. :)
K

30 Days of Thankful: Day 1

I feel SO together!

TODAY I realized that this is November, and that last year (or the year before, or the year before that...) I did 30 Thankful days with my friend Dawn. And in that moment I decided that I would be thankful again! :) Really I am thankful lots, but you know what I mean.

Today I am thankful for my students. I got several precious first grade hugs yesterday, and it made me realize how much I love what I do. For those of you that don't know me, I am an elementary music teacher. So every day, I have 12 classes of elementary kids, ranging from 1st grade all the way through 6th grade. We sing, we play instruments, we learn about the orchestra. We learn about and listen to the great composers. (I LOVE Beethoven, BTW.)

Those sweet little First Grade hugs as they came to and went from class made me remember how sweet it is to be loved by lots of little people.

Not to mention the enthusiasm they had for singing "Skip to my Lou" and "She'll be Comin' 'Round the Mountain when she comes". TOP of their lungs. AND after we finished, they begged to do it ALL BY THEMSELVES. Who am I to say no? :)

Yesterday I went to the symphony with the whole 5th grade. It was an AWESOME field trip, and I LOVED it. What a great job I have when I get to go on field trips to the symphony!

So that's my first day of thankful.
And here's to 29 more, hopefully all bringing a smile to my face like today's thought of singing first graders did.
K

music

Yesterday, I went to the symphony.

With my sister.

My sweet friend Miriam gave me the tickets, and I thought about a lot of people I could ask to go with me. But then I remembered the last time I gave a symphony ticket to my sister, and how much she enjoyed it.

So I asked my sister. And we went.

It was truly a lovely evening. We went out to a leisurely dinner, and then got to the hall about an hour early. So I had a coffee and we sat there and talked.

It has been a LONG time since we sat and had a sisterly talk - It was sweet.

And the music was divine! They played the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24, and selections from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. The piano soloist for the Mozart was SO much fun to watch. She was incredibly expressive and did the whole thing without music. Then in the Romeo and Juliet, there were several times where there was a pause in the music and I said under my breath, "wow".

That is a perfect expression for last night.

Wow.
K

birthday

It has been a lovely day.

Today was my birthday. All day.

The PTO at school put a happy birthday card in my box, and it had a stupid tiara attached to it, with bright pink lettering that says Happy Birthday. So I wore it. All day.

Besides making my head hurt a little, it meant that EVERYBODY that I saw today wished me a happy birthday.

And I got sung to by several hundred elementary school aged people.

Also, my sister and nephews and adopted sister came by school this morning and presented me with some balloons (that I tied on my classroom door) and a Starbucks, and cards that my nephews wrote to me. What an awesome way to start the day!

AND, every time I went to the office, the office ladies sang happy birthday to me.

Tonight I had rehearsal for the Chorale - the group I sing in. THEY sang to me too, and it probably was the most beautiful happy birthday ever.

So all in all it has been a great day.

Still reveling in the birthday joy,
K

Callie

This is Callie.

I know it's hard to tell what is cat and what is bed. But she's there.

Right now she's sleeping, making little cat snoring noises. :)

And I do realize she probably looks naked to you. But, Callie's hair is very white, very fine, and very prone to matting up and knotting. So, a couple times a year she gets a "Lion Cut". There is a cute little ball of fur at the end of her tail, and cute tufts of fur around her cheeks. But the bonus to this "haircut" is that now when you pet her she feels like velvet. SO SOFT.

Anyway, I realized this morning that I enjoy having a cat again. It's been several years since I lost Sam and Max, and I didn't realize that I missed having a kitty. Even one who is as vocal as Callie.

Today she came downstairs and starting meowing at me VERY EMPHATICALLY. Since I had just fed her, I finally figured out that she didn't like the open window above her bed. There is a light rain falling and a cold wind, and she didn't like it. Once I come up and closed the window she went right back to bed.

But I was petting her this morning and as she purred at me (sounding like a tractor) I thought about how fulfilling it is to pet a cat. She purred, and I petted away.

It's good to be the (kitty) Queen. :)
K

heat

Oh. My. Word. The heat.

Objectively, the heat hasn't been THAT bad - we've had worse.

But my school doesn't have AC, and the "normal" heat we've had the past 2 weeks has been awful.

I am SO ready for Fall to actually arrive...

Still sweating a little,
K

weird

New house weirdness:

I now have a cat. Used to be Mom and Dad's cat, but now that they are back and forth between here and the mountains, the cat stays with me. She is sweet, but it is weird having a cat, 6 or 7 years after losing Sam and Max.

Things sound weird here. There are weird noises that I'm not used to, like creaking and such. Not to mention sleeping with the window open and the different neighbor noises. Huh.

I keep forgetting to lock the front door. I usually go in and out through the garage, but other people reliably come and go through the front door. And usually I forget to lock it again.

Laundry in the bowels of the earth. I got spoiled having the laundry 2 steps away from my bed. Now I (and my dirty clothes) are on the 2nd floor, and the laundry is in the basement. Huh.

Light switches. Half of the light switches DO NOT OPERATE ANYTHING! It is maddening...

Mail. I have the nicest mailman. He brings my mail to the door, because the post office can't seem to get me keys to the box. Hand delivery of the mail. Awesome.

Randomly driving to the other house, then realizing that I don't live there anymore. Huh.

SO many things to get used to.
K