Smorgasbord

I have a whole list of things I want to write about, so this won't end up being too coherent...

1) I wrote a guest blog on my mom's family history blog, so you can just skip right over here to read it.

2) We got a piano yesterday!  It was advertised on freecycle, and Jared went and checked it out.  All the keys work, so we mobilized a little team including my brother and our group class co-teacher's teenage son who came with a van and trailer.  It's only a small spinet, but it was quite a trick to get it down the steps of the front door and then figure out how to load it onto the trailer, because the yard and driveway whence it came are quite steep.  But after several attempts we were successful.  Getting it in the apartment was also a challenge, because we don't have a lot of space, and we had to partially take the doors off the hall closet to get enough clearance to turn the corner into the 2nd bedroom/office.  I scrubbed on the piano case some last night, but there is a lot more to do to get it cleaned up.  For example, most of the keys have stickers on them.  And then we'll have to work on the tuning procedure.  It's not horribly out of tune, but it needs some work.

3) Here's a beautiful passage I read this morning:

The child cannot, by anxiety or power of its own, add to its stature.  No more can you, by anxiety or effort of yourself, secure spiritual growth.  The plant, the child, grows by receiving from its surroundings that which ministers to its life - air, sunshine, and food. What these gifts of nature are to animal and plant, such is Christ to those who trust in him. He is their "everlasting light," "a sun and shield."  He shall be "as the dew unto Israel." "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass."  He is the living water, "the Bread of God ... which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world."

4) Anne's new trick she learned yesterday is blowing raspberries with her lips.

5) It is most definitely acting fall-ish around here, and I'm not sure I'm quite mentally prepared.  The days have been getting significantly shorter, and the rains have started already.  Today was the first day of school in our district, and all the surrounding districts will be following suit next Wednesday.  And Jared and I have been doing all the usual beginning-of-school-year secretarial things that music teachers must do: fall lesson scheduling, revising policies, handing out payment stubs...

6) This morning I submitted a proposal for the Suzuki Conference next May to give a presentation on the holistic development of sight-reading skills in string students.  I've had it in mind for a year and a half already.  If I get selected, it means I'll be forced to spent money to fly to Minneapolis to attend the conference AND to visit my good friend Beth.

7) Some little teaching breakthroughs this week:

• Suzuki's Allegretto is in the following form A-A-B-A, better known in kid-speak as chair-chair-door-chair.  That I already knew, but it turns out that the door section has some nice counterpoint.  If you know the tune, sing the B section to yourself this way:  "Who is there?  *knock knock knock* Who is there?  *knock knock knock*"  Then you can have the student play just the knocks while you do the "Who is there?"s and visa versa until the student actually gets it.
• Bach Minuet 1 has three "endings" which kids get confused.  The first and third are the same.  If you account for all the repeats you get the endings in the following order: 1st - 1st - 2nd - 3rd - 2nd - 3rd.  This we know.  But when you have a kid who is having mega-trouble with C#'s and C-naturals, you may finally realize that at the beginning of each section you should have the kid stop and say what ending is coming next  and whether they'll play C-sharps or C-naturals.  And it so conveniently turns out that the 1st and 3rd endings are preceded only by C-naturals, and the 2nd ending is preceded only by C-sharps.  Wish I'd thought of that when I was teaching a certain little boy in Rochester.  
• Also, if kids don't get the difference between C-sharps and C-naturals, you may have to go one step further than labeling those two pitches.  You also might need to label a neutral third, which we ended up calling "C out-of-tune".  So then you practice a scale or arpeggio pattern or a bit of a piece, and you have the kid "guess" whether you played C-sharp, C-natural, or C-out-of-tune each time.  And then you switch the game around and they get to play it and you have to "guess" which of the three they played.  And they're allowed to play the wrong one on purpose.  It's working like a charm for one little boy up north.

Mulled cider

Some people have mulled cider.  I have mulled mind.  Here's what I've been mulling over in my mind:

1) A little paraphrase of Matthew 10:5-10

Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions: "Don't go to the atheists or Hindus or Muslims or animists or even the Jews or the Mormons, but only go to the Christians - God's lost sheep.  Go and announce that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with HIV, mental illness, and addictions.  Give as freely as you have received!
"Don't take any money in your wallets - no cash, no checks, no credit or debit cards, no banking apps on your phone.  Don't take a suitcase or backpack - not even a change of clothes, a pair of flip flops, or a jacket.  Don't hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve to earn compensation."

2) Matthew 12:18-21 which is a quote of poetry from Isaiah that surely I've read how many times and never noticed before?

Look at my Servant, whom I have chosen.
He is my Beloved, who pleases me.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not fight or shout
or raise his voice in public.
He will not crush the weakest reed
or put out a flickering candle.
Finally he will cause justice to be victorious.
And his name will be the hope
of all the world. 

How could I not want to love Someone of this description who is going to make sure justice is done, who is gentle and nonviolent, who will be good to weak and ill persons and who will be cause for hope to all?

International layover

Before there was Roy there was Ran.  If you don't recall, Ran is from Beijing and lived with us during his first semester of college in Alabama.  He was here in Seattle on Friday on a layover between his Beijing > Seattle flight and his Seattle > Atlanta flight.  A bit jet lagged, 'tis true, but we had fun nonetheless.  We picked him up at the airport mid-morning and drove downtown.  We did some sight-seeing at the Pike Place Market, the Seattle Art Museum Sculpture Park, and the City Center.  He got to order some Chinese dumplings in Chinese.  He said they were quite delicious.  We got to see cheese being made, view guys tossing fish, and watch all kinds of musical performances including a guy playing a violin like a cello, South American panpipes, a bluegrass with homemade percussion, and a dude playing dijereedoo.  After we had exhausted our downtown viewing and our parking payment, we drove over to Alki beach and walked quite a ways along the path by the water, viewing water, houses, mountains, islands, and downtown.  Ran mentioned that he thought all cities should have a beach, because it was so nice.  Afterward we popped by my brother's since Ran was hoping to say hello to Jeff and Linda.  And then he came home and visited his three kitty friends (especially Black Bean).  When he lived with us in Alabama, I couldn't figure out how he'd made such good friends with BB until one day I saw him sharing his hotdog with the little guy.  BB was very glad to see him, although we hadn't laid in a supply of hotdogs before he arrived.  After dinner (spaghetti, not hotdogs, alas) we hauled him back to the airport for his next red-eye.  Ran was eager to meet Anne, and I think due to the China one-child policy he's had very little opportunity to meet any babies before.  I suggested he sort of play with her like she was a cat, and it worked pretty well.  He brought her a couple of little wooden toys from home which she will enjoy.  We already got one out for her and got it started.

...In baby chronicles, she cut her first two teeth (lower front) this past week and discovered the joys of playing peek-a-boo.  Also she discovered that she can move the sun canopy on her car seat, although not in a way to help block the sun.  It's just fun to move it.  And then she gets upset if the sun gets in her eyes.

On the usefulness of professional societies

I happen to belong to three different professional music teachers' societies.  One in particular has afforded me the following opportunities in the last year or two:

• Students have found me via the directory
• The association stores my credentials
• I have been able to refer students to qualified teachers in other areas
• I have been able to publish articles in the journal
• I have been able to read others' articles in the journal
• I have attended conferences and workshops where I have been inspired and informed by others
• I have presented at a conference
• I have met other teachers, making friends and networking
• I got my part-time subbing gig
• I can enter online discussion forums and find answers to teaching questions and logistics

There are probably other benefits.

But the most unusual one is as follows:

A cousin who lives a couple hours north of us is having to move on a tight time table, and is needing to offload some items.  One of those items is an old family doll bed, and I am the designated recipient at this time.  But the question is, how do we get this thing here given the constraints on both of our ends?  Well, in a brilliant flash of insight, it occurred to me to leverage my professional contacts for this unusual purpose.  Via said organization, I know a violin teacher in Cousin's city who also teaches in north Seattle on Saturdays, and said teacher is willing to accept doll bed drop-off from said cousin and bring it along with him.  And said teacher ("teacher # 1") teaches on Saturdays at the home of another teacher I know ("teacher # 2") who lives in north Seattle.  Teacher # 2's home is in the same neighborhood where I am subbing for yet a third violin teacher ("teacher # 3") through October.  So teacher # 2 is willing to hold doll bed for me for a few days until I am up in the neighborhood to teach on a Tuesday.  How do you like that?  Nice and tidy: no wasted gas, no panicked day trips, no packing headaches, no shipping fees.  Not that I'd mind a little trip up to visit Cousin and see the scenery, but the time constraints don't work out well for either of us.

Oh, the professional organization I'm talking about is the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Last night was a bit slim in the sleep department, which had actually nothing to do with being the parent of a four-month-old.  We will now meet two of the actors in last night's drama:

Neighborhood Bulldog: This man is tough, and he looks out for the neighborhood.  When there was a hole in the fence that stray people were coming through, he bugged the management until it got fixed.  Ditto when our stairwell light was out.  When there was a problem with the trash compactor and trash was piling up  at the complex, this is the guy who called the county health department.  And when the mom of some of my students parked in his spot, he was here knocking on the door and letting her know she needed to move her vehicle to a visitor spot, friendly but firm.

Mr. Sewer Mouth: I was going to refer to this man as Mr. Potty Mouth, but it occurred to me that Potty didn't really convey the limits of his vocabulary sufficiently.  When he's not at work we can enjoy the sounds of his death metal music.

The story which follows is pieced together from speaking with Neighborhood Bulldog, as well as witnessing events myself:

Apparently on Thursday (I wasn't there myself), Mr. Sewer Mouth and his girlfriend were walking by the building when a small child under the age of ten leaned out of an upstairs window and called Girlfriend a rude name.  Later, Mr. Sewer Mouth went and knocked on the door of said apartment and cussed out the residents, the adults of which are not English speakers.

This apparently wasn't sufficient payback, so Mr. Sewer Mouth (and I witnessed this) was cussing out a whole pile of kids under the age of ten on the playground by our building rather vehemently sometime on Friday.  I considered calling the police, but decided not to, because there was another adult present (although it didn't occur to me at the time that said adult doesn't speak English and might not know how to call the police).

So Saturday night (this is last night), Anne was asleep in bed, and Jared and I had finished our evening rituals, so to speak, and walked into the bedroom to climb into bed, wherein we heard Mr. Sewer Mouth directly outside our open window speaking, no, yelling, rather obscenely and another individual who was rather soft-spoken.  Mr. SM was saying things like, "If that kid were 18, I wouldn't let it go down like that, do you understand?"  And, "Your BLEEP-ing kid is already calling people a BLEEP at the age of six.  What the BLEEP is wrong with you people.  Just you wait..."  Then the other individual raised his voice and we were able to hear that it was Neighborhood Bulldog, who then let loose with some nasty names directed at Mr. Sewer Mouth, and suggested that he was going to call the cops.  Mr. Sewer Mouth more or less dared him to, and then said, "I'm going upstairs.  You wait right here."  At which point I decided that Mr. SM was either being a big chicken and was running away or he was going upstairs for a weapon.  So I called the cops first.

Anyway, four cars showed up in under three minutes, and they spoke with both men in question and seemed to have resolved the issue for the time being.  Apparently Neighborhood Bulldog and his friend, the non-English speaking husband in the apartment where the kid called the name from, were out walking in the evening in the parking lot and saw Mr. Sewer Mouth, so they went to ask him how to sort things out and Mr. Sewer Mouth became menacing.  Neighborhood Bulldog told the police he didn't have any tolerance for guys who pick on old people, women, or children, and if Mr. Sewer Mouth tried this again, he'd whoop his BLEEP and then call the police.

Conclusions:  the adrenaline made it hard to go to sleep, and when I finally got close to dozing off, someone starting shooting off fireworks in the parking lot.  And then I got woken up again in the fours for a long time after Mr. Sewer Mouth walked by again conversing with someone.  And by conversing, I mean cussing at.  But I cheerfully dragged myself out of bed this morning to teach my 8:30 lesson.  When baby wakes up from her nap, Jared and I are running eight miles, so help us all.  And, the baby is maybe teething?  We'll know for sure in a couple of days.  So back to the neighborhood, my other conclusion is that Neighborhood Bulldog and Mr. Sewer Mouth need Jesus, just as I do, and just as Mr. Rogers does.

This was not actually the post I was going to write.  What follows is what I've been mulling over the last couple days:

I've been reading and rereading the greatest sermon ever.  Very simple, and very tough.  It calls for a radical overhaul in living.  I need to let it soak deeper into my psyche.  I, for one, am not living up to it.
And coupled with that I heard half of a sermon on Judas Iscariot.  I didn't get to hear the other half, because Anne needed some attention.  But the gist of what I heard was that Judas, contrary to popular opinion, had many fine character qualities, and was well admired by the other disciples.  He was not evil to the core but went down the wrong path almost imperceptibly one choice at a time.  And he had plenty of opportunities to go another way.  He loved Jesus, but he chose not to obey the Holy Spirit little by little.  And he is someone that many/most of us can easily identify with.

And then I read an article in a magazine about religious freedom which was looking at how Christian theology has shaped attitudes toward religious freedom in the Augustinian/Calvinist traditions and the Arminian traditions, and my head was starting to explode with some unexplored theological presuppositions in my own brain.  And I don't think I'm going to detail any of that unless I'm sure I'm standing on firm ground.  Because... I'm pretty sure my eleven readers include people of the following spiritual bents:  Presbyterian, Catholic, Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist, Lutheran, megachurch, Bible church/house church, agnostic/atheist, spiritual, and non-religious.  I'm not quite ready to start offending people yet  ;-) because my own theological tent is loosing some pegs, and I will have to do some work to get new ones in place.

IKEA haze

I looked up some authoritative info about introducing solid foods last night.  She's not ready yet, but I wanted to know what we should be looking for and how to do it.  I feel informed now.

Feathers is afraid of all rain.  It is barely drizzling right now, and she is hiding under the table.  She may have been traumatized by the thunderstorms we used to have in Alabama.  I, for one, am SO glad to be out of tornado/thunderstorm country.  We've had exactly three thunderstorms here in a whole year.  And they've all been pretty mild.

Today I am finishing switching out all of Anne's clothes to the next size - I already started a few weeks ago.  I don't like doing it, because I get sad about her outgrowing everything, even though it's so fun to see what new things she is learning and doing.  I'm about 99% sure that she has some new t-shirts made for her by one of our group class kids with musical puns on them, and she's going to be wearing one of them to class tonight.  The t-shirt maker will be so delighted.

I finished Paul Tough's book How Children Succeed yesterday.  It is in particular of interest to educators and public policy sorts.  You might want to read it if you have interest in one of those categories.

I think I finally have my fall schedule for my up-north teaching sorted out.  Not quite as much work as I wanted, but it will be good none-the-less.  Hard to believe I only have two more months after August up there and then I'm back to only teaching at home.  Praying for a few more students!

I've been dreaming about our current apartment, our condo in Bhm, and our apartment in Hsv after looking at my IKEA catalogue.  Sort of an IKEA haze.  I like how compact all their design pictures look, because those are the sort of places I have lived and will likely continue to live.  In particular, I enjoyed a couple of bedrooms shared by multiple people which were divided with a hanging curtain.  I like!  ...In Hsv and Bhm we had intended to stay something on the order of five years, but each ended up being just one year.  In April of both years I suddenly got everything organized the way I wanted it (I was feeling slightly sentimental) so I could have it "for real" for a bit before I left.  As it was getting on toward summer this time I was feeling the itch to move - I don't live in a place for two years in a row, do I?  But then I got the IKEA catalogue and was thinking about fun reorganizing schemes and how things will change with our evolving child needs around here, and then I got all sentimental and decided I wasn't in a hurry to move, because this is the only home that Anne has ever known... Anyway, who knows what will happen?  Our lease will be up at the end of June and then we'll either stay for another term or move somewhere else.

I also dreamed about my sister-in-law Sara last night.  I think we were about to do something fun like visit the chocolate factory, but I'm not quite sure, because I was woken up at that moment by a hungry little someone.

And, I was mulling over props for a little photo in honor of my sister, the UT Longhorn fan.  She gave Anne a UT cheerleading outfit to be worn this fall, and there's going to have to be a picture or two or three.   I think I'm having too much fun playing dress-up with my kid.

In case you (e.g. Edith) aren't on FB, here are a couple of the latest and greatest:

(Anne finally outweighs this cat, but the other two still have pounds on her.)

Good Things

Today's list of good things:

• I was hardly sore today despite my long run yesterday.
• Baby sleept peacefully in the stroller during my walk.
• I had the chance to talk with the Lord during my walk.
• Ripe blackberries picked during my walk.
• Got an email from a good friend.
• Fish tank at the pediatrician's office was a hit.
• My girl is tall - 85th percentile at four months.
• The baby slept for 4 1/2 hours this afternoon!  Allowing me to teach, practice, and clean in peace.
• Laying out a towel on the living room floor to create a makeshift "counter" on which to make cinnamon rolls so that Annie could watch too.
• Clean laundry.
• Vacuumed floors.
• Nice weather.
• I got my first IKEA catalogue in the mail.  I realize I'm behind the times, but I'm suddenly a fan. It's fun to look, even if I don't buy anything.
• Teaching some great music today in addition to the Suzuki favorites: Bach E Major Partita, Beethoven Sonata No. 8, Barber Concerto, and Tartini Devil's Trill Sonata.
• Jeffrey and Linda stopped by for a visit!
• Our parking lot got re-tarred and repainted lately, and today I realized that our parking spot, #91, got repainted to be #90, and so where I should be parking now is NOT the sump pump dump.  Which is awesome, because the sump pump dump spot is quite treacherous in the rainy season.
• A great phone call from a friend in Idaho - maybe some fun plans for next summer!!!!

Too full

Life has been way to full for any recreation on the internet lately, aka posting on my blog.

Annie and I flew to Texas a week and a half ago, and I was really worried about it, because she is one who wants to be always on the move and always seeing new things.  And how are you going to do that when you are on a three or four hour flight and are stuck in a cramped seat and don't want to bug your fellow passengers?  But it turned out for the flight down and the flight back, she was a perfect angel, sleeping in the sling for two or three hours at a time, and the rest of the time smiling at everyone around us and making friends with them.  Quite endearing, actually.

The time in Texas was wonderful, other than being HOT.  So basically that meant that we stayed indoors in the A/C the whole time.  Don't ask what that did to my workout schedule, aka training for half marathon.  However, my sister is doing Insanity, so I did that two days with her.  Indoors.  In the A/C.  I have to say, it was pretty insane.  So here's a partial list of who we got to see:

• My mom and dad
• My grandmother
• My sister and brother-in-law
• My brother and sister-in-law
• Our good family friends
• Some neighbors
• Two sets of great aunts and uncles
• Piles of first cousins-once-removed
• Piles of second cousins
• A pile of second-cousins-once-removed, aka Anne's third cousins:

Other items of note from Texas:  

• We watched all three of the Wallance and Gromit shorts.
• We watched home movies from the mid-80's in which it was decided that Anne and my sister look related.
• I practiced every day using my sister's violin, so I'm still in the running to hit 100 days in a row.
• There was a lot of cooking and delicious food.
• My mom ran the laundry, and I personally didn't put anything in the wash for five days.  This is sort of a miracle for someone with an infant.
• One morning several of us went on a long walk in the heat.  By long, I mean timewise, not distancewise.  The heat kept us at a very leisurely pace.  And we saw a guy with a very Hobbit-Dwarf looking beard standing in knee-deep water holding a mongo snapping turtle with his bare hands.  
• My grandmother told us some more interesting stories from her childhood.  
• We celebrated my brother's and my birthdays which were coming up.
• Anne was pretty much the star of the show at every family gathering.  A friend of mine once mentioned how handy a dog is for meeting people.  Well, I'm going to say the same about having a baby.  I guess they pretty much are the cutest members of the species...
• Anne actually slept and napped well in a strange bed for the most part.

Speaking of which, she hit four months on Wednesday, and I think she is reaching a new level of maturity in her sleep habits.  For example, she has now developed an actual, discernable sleep pattern.  She is generally in bed from about 9:30 pm to 9:30 am (with a little nursing here and there).  Then she takes at least a cat nap during the day any time she's been awake for two hours or so.  And I can now determine her sleepy noises.  AND - here's the grand prize.  Most days she is taking a two or three hour nap sometime in the afternoon.  And yesterday, we were hanging out at the Seattle Suzuki Institute, and after the morning classes, she and I found a dorm lounge unused where I turned out the light, turned a sofa around to the wall to make a crib, fed her, and laid her in said crib on her blanket, and after talking to her hands for a few minutes, she conked out and slept for two-and-a-half hours.  Folks, this is huge.  Huge.  I'm not a cry-it-out/sleep-training kind of mom with this kid, and I'm telling you, this is huge.

The other item of note from Texas was the diaper disaster which happened in the airport while we were waiting for our return flight to board.  The disaster extended to all parts of the car seat. So Anne and I and the stroller/carseat assembly spent at least thirty minutes in the special needs bathroom (and let me tell you, we had some very special needs) where Anne lay on the counter screaming herself hoarse and I used lots and lots of paper towels and water to attempt to clean things up a bit.  I can't tell you how glad I am this didn't happen on board the plane.  The awfulness of that is too much to contemplate.  The morning after we returned home, I took pictures of how the carseat works before disassembling it (it's like one of those 3-D jigsaw puzzles) and ran every conceivable part through the wash, including all the buckles.  The next day, I used the photos and spent thirty minutes, at least, reconstructing it.  Successful.  And it's very clean.  No question.

So we got back from Texas on Monday night.   Between 11:30 on Tuesday and 11:45 on Wednesday I did all my teaching for the week.  And I got two new students.  Yay!!!  And then I spent Wednesday afternoon through now hanging out at the Suzuki institute.  Watched some great teaching.  Got to chat with a lot of teachers I know both locally and non-locally.  Met up with two of my former students in attendance who moved away in June.  Met some new people.  Attended a couple of recitals.  This was all pretty exhausting with a baby in tow, because I was trying to keep her quiet in the classes and all.  But I'm not sorry I went.  And there was the amazing two-and-a-half hours when she slept in the dorm "crib" at naptime.  I didn't get to attend any classes for that chunk, but I got quite a bit of reading done on an apropo book called How Children Succeed, which I've been dabbling in for months.  And.  I lost my cell phone.  And.  I found it again.  Hallelujah!

Working on the weekend plans...  It may or may not be busy.  I may or may not watch a movie my parents gave me for my birthday.  I may or may not teach a violin lesson.  I may or may not spend six hours in the car to go hiking with my brother.  I may or may not see Leah on her layover.  

Next week won't be so crazy.  Jared is taking an all-day class Monday through Friday up at UW, but I won't be tagging along or flying anywhere or trying to keep the baby quiet through more than a handful of my own lessons.

I am either going to go take a nap now or do some of the things on my list for the rest of the day, which mostly includes practicing, laundry, and various forms of exercise.