Random Snapshots of A Day

Mrs. Twinkle Stop Stop, Mrs. Twinkle Stop Stop, Twinkle Little Baby Brother, Twinkle Little Baby Brother. The old familiar Suzuki rhythms have begun again. Annalise has been learning doing violin for over a year now, but is working slowly she started out with only 10 min. lessons each week and now she has moved to a little longer lessons. Lynnae teaches her violin during the week which is doubly beneficial as it gives Annie a wonderful opportunity to learn and solidifies for Lynnae everything that she has been learning thus far. Annalise is talented and has the potential to do very well; her struggle is focusing, which at six is an understandable problem. Lynnae has been playing violin for several years now and performs a wide assortment of music, from classical to Celtic (her favorite is Celtic fiddling and she would spend all of her time on that if she was allowed). She has improved considerably over the years and has even occasionally accompanied music for some of our church functions.

Huckleberry, Huckleberry, Mulberry, Mulberry. These are the common rhythms heard from the budding pianists in our house; we manage to employ the piano for over 2 hours worth of practice every day; that does not include the time that people sit down and play for pleasure which is quite often. Jonathon and I quit taking piano lessons several years ago, but we still love to play. I don't practice as often as I should, but I do play the piano for Sunday School and that helps to keep me accountable for getting in some amount of practice. Leisel is still taking lessons; some of the composers that she is working on include Bach, Tchaikovsky, and Mendelssohn. Cosette has been taking piano for two years now and is making rapid progress; she is very talented in music and has a gift for playing by ear. Kayleen has been taking for about a year and is doing very well, enjoying challenging herself on pieces aside from her regular practice.

One important item of the day I neglected to put up on my other post A Day in the Life, was one of Leisel doing her schoolwork. She does Alpha Omega's computer school curriculum and is doing very well. In fact, she seems to be sailing through Algebra with only occasional help from Jonathon, whereas, it took me over a year and a half to finish Algebra and it was stop and start all the way. Anyway, Leisel does all of her work in the Den on Daddy's computer; she is by herself, but at least she is downstairs where everyone else is.

Finding something to amuse Ania and Austin before and after school can be somewhat of a challenge. They are both a bit of a "loose cannon". We do have a craft drawer that they love to get into, but sometimes their way of playing can be very messy. Somehow play-do never manages to stay on the table where it is supposed to be.

When I have a free moment I love to knit. Right now I have been making several scarves; I made one for Leisel that is a ribbed scarf 6 feet long, I am making a fancy cabled one for Jonathon, and am working on another one with a feather and fan pattern.

Jonathon comes home from college about 2 o'clock in the afternoon and his routine is usually to lay down on the couch and go to sleep until dinner time. :-) I'm just kidding, that actually has happened one or two times, but usually Jonathon does have homework that he needs to complete and so he works on that between his looooong blinks.

Another routine, which must be mentioned, pertains to our baking crew. Lynnae is our coffee cake, elaborate lunch, dessert maker all wrapped up in one spunky, red haired ball of energy. She loves to get the young ones wrapped up in her enthusiasm for baking and together they come up with some delightful concoctions.

I make the plain, uninteresting evening meals that everyone must eat, even though they would rather feast on Lynnae's delectable desserts. This picture is of me making dinner; it look as if I just tasted whatever it was that I was making and is not a great commentary on my cooking. :-)