Year-End Review

This Friday is the end of our regular school year schedule, and I'm not quite sure how it came up so fast.  This past Tuesday and Sunday we had our end-of-year studio recitals.  My Bible study ended for the year two weeks ago.  The schools here don't let out until June 17th, but we are switching over to the new "schedule" on May 31st.  There isn't much of a regular schedule.  It's way more random.  So this means I am switching off the wall calendar, which only holds small anomalies of scheduling and is stuck to the wall, to my white three-ring binder for the summer, wherein every single day is different.  This summer appears to hold so far:

Three or four weekend trips to Oregon
A week-long workshop Jared will teach at in Tennessee
A three-week-long workshop Jared will take in Pennsylvania
A two-week trip for Anne and me to Texas
Midwife appointments
Dental appointments
Putting our Alabama condo on the market and hopefully selling it
Decisions about re-signing our lease and/or moving
An overnight 10th-anniversary getaway for Jared and me
Observing two days at the Oregon Suzuki Institute
Taking Book 4 again at Japan-Seattle Suzuki Institute (where Jared will be teaching)
Teaching a three-day Suzuki workshop in Tacoma
A camping trip to the beach
Church camp meeting
Saying goodbye to at least four students
Six or more summer lessons each for continuing students
Starting with seven new-to-me students
Digging deep into Russian music with about eleven of my students who will be performing on an all-Russian recital in November
Finalizing the 2016-2017 teaching and recital schedule and best-case-scenario maternity leave plans
Working with our group class team to figure plan for next year's group classes and performances
Playing on the playground as often as possible!

Sunday night after our final studio recital, I went with Jeff to St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, north-east of downtown to their 9:30 pm choral compline service.  Afterward we stayed for the thirty-minute organ recital.  I have mentioned before that I tend to be very attracted to Anglican services.  I think I appreciate the reverence for God and awe of His holiness.  I've been thinking about worship quite a bit since we studied the book of Revelation this year.  Our group was so diverse in its thinking about Revelation, but we could all meet on the ground of worship as portrayed in the book, and maybe that's really the central message of the Bible's final installment.  The Bible also describes God as near and personal, and I think that's why I'm attracted to the house church idea, although I've never participated in such an endeavor.  I think it's so easy for church to get pushed really far one way or the other - God is remote and we must stand back in awe and perform our duty, or God is our buddy and we can just chat with him and he'll give us what we want...