Hmmmm, This is Not. Good.

When Handyman and Peter were gone for three weeks, I found that the amount of housework required to keep the home tidy was drastically reduced. Drastically. Laundry loads went down from at least 6 a week to a squeaky 2, size 12 shoes didn't clutter up the doorway, power tools didn't anonymously accumulate on my counters, and things generally stayed put.

So, I naturally used the free time to get lots of sewing and crafting done. Lots.

Somehow, though, things started to creep up on me, and before I knew it, the house looked like this;
and the floors were imitation fly-traps.
I'm sure there is some sort of psychological meaning to this particular arrangement, but I'm not sure what it means.
Can you tell that I'd been knitting a lot?
Very scary indeed.
What's a gal to do? Clean? Slave? Head for the nearest train depot?

Hah. Nope! Be smart and get someone else to do it!

One of the payoffs to teaching lessons is that I can usually find a student that is willing to swap 1 1/2 hours a week of cleaning for a free lesson. I figure it fair trade, since teaching takes away from my time to clean (being optimistic that I even would clean in the imaginary free time), and the wages work out to about $7.50 an hour.

Yup, this gal is my patron saint.

Teaching and Sleeping

Yesterday, when I was teaching, Breanna got a little sleepy and decided to take a little nap. I thought she looked so cute, I just had to snap a few pictures.

A Cultural Extravaganza

Last Friday my students had their recital, which I themed "A Cultural Extravaganza". I always try to have a theme for every recital, as it makes the evening much more enjoyable for the audience.

We had songs from all around the world, and even some songs from "Dreamland" and the land of Oz (i.e. the musical Wicked). I was so thrilled with how well everyone did! On the whole, I think it was a fun evening.

In keeping with our "Cultural" theme, the refreshments were ethnically based as well. There were polish something-or-others that I can't pronounce, Scottish shortbread cookies, All-American favorites, and lots of other great goodies. The students were kind enough to bring the food, and it was a lot of fun tasting the different snacks.

My SiL was kind enough to snap photos for me, as I was otherwise occupied during the course of the recital. Not all of the students are shown in the slideshow, as there were quite a few of them performing that evening. (The recital lasted about an hour and a half).

Thanks to everyone who performed, to the wonderfully supportive parents, and to everyone who brought food!

What a Day!

Oh my goodness, I am SOOOO glad this day is almost over! I don't mean to say that this has been a bad day, just an extremely busy one.

This morning I woke up early because I start teaching at 8:15. I teach three sisters, and one plays violin, one plays the viola, and the other plays cello. I always laugh at their cute house slippers they bring (I'm a cruel teacher, and don't allow students to wear shoes on my nice floors).

I have a few hours break, and then I teach from 3:00 till 6:00. Usually I put Peter down for a nap before the students come, but today I let him stay up a while.

BIG MISTAKE. He was very fussy and whiny. I'm so embarrassed when the kids are fussy, because it's so unprofessional. I figure that if the students are paying me for lessons, then they should get my full attention. However, sometimes there are just "those days". Thankfully, all of my students are very sweet, and don't seem to mind if the kids are occasionally distracting.

Breanna was pretty good, thankfully, although she did decide to have an enormously smelly . . . . . during the middle of a lesson. Let's just say it was too toxic to ignore, and had to be dealt with right away!

One of my students was so sweet to give me a Valentines card she had made herself. Even though I am tired and very ready to be done teaching this evening, I still feel so blessed to be able to teach music.