Here at home and around the country

Another Sunday already!  Before I go any further, I want to share a picture from last Saturday that I apparently forgot to use the last time I posted.  As we were driving along the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, I snapped this one.  Some of the river on the other side was covered with ice.  I thought it looked so majestic.

It seemed there wasn't a whole lot to post about this week.  Besides all my normal music / church secretary responsibilities and activities, my main focus has been on getting all my lesson plans and worksheets ready to shoot my next set of Music@Home video classes - The Musical Scale.  Of all times, when I'm planning a video that will require more singing than any of the others, my voice has some "frogs" in it.  And in practicing for the video, my shoulder is complaining bitterly from doing the scale hand signs and writing on the board.  I think I'm just going to have to become a lefty.  It's very discouraging, actually maddening.  Prayers would be greatly appreciated.

How many of you were taught the Kodaly hand signs for the scale?  Kids think they're fun.  I'm excited that I was even able to get a very reasonably-priced license from the company that owns the rights to Rogers and Hammerstein's music to teach the Do-Re-Mi song from Sound of Music.  I used to teach that to every kindergarten class, and they LOVED it.

The weather was all over the place this week.  On the one or two days that the temps went above 50 degrees we had rain.  On Thursday morning cold temps were ushered back in with blasts of crazy wind and alternating sun-snow-sun-snow-sun-snow-sun-snow.  It all depended what time you looked out the window. I took this picture of the sun trying to peak from behind the wind clouds Thursday morning.

And it's been snowing lightly pretty  much ever since.  It does look beautiful - better than brown.  I took this picture as we were leaving for church this morning.

And this one on our way home.  I think it snowed at least another inch during church.  

Austin was here a couple of times this week - Friday evening and this afternoon.  He is CRAZY over M&M's.  I usually have some in a trail mix, but recently Dick got a couple of these, probably left over from Christmas.  It's a big M&M tin with two little serving-size packs of M&M's inside.  So he gets one pack when he comes.  On Friday evening he discovered that the empty tin was excellent for spinning.  Remember how he used to spin everything?  Still does, I guess!

Sorry this is so blurry.  But I think you can still see that look of delight on his face!

He's always been such a picky eater, but lately he's really been expanding his tastes.  He amazed me today when he asked for lettuce, hahaha!!  So Dick pulled out the Spring Mix he uses for his lunch, and he and Austin munched away - no dressing or anything!  Here's the proof!

He got mad at me though when I wouldn't let him have a second pack of M&M's.  I said we'll save them for the next time.  He claimed that he's never coming to my house again, and if he does, he's not eating any M&M's.  Little drama king!  

This week I made another collage.  Jeremy has been busy doing home improvements since he moved from a sleek, new condo into an old house last Fall.   I was amazed enough when he made his own curtains, but when he sent me a picture of the over-range microwave he had installed, I was really impressed.  So was Dick!  He said, with a good bit of satisfaction in his voice,  "Maybe some of my mechanical genes DID rub off!"   Here's my before/after collage.

Dick also had another proud moment.  Anthony was in Anaheim, CA for the NAMM Show (National Association of Music Merchants) last week.  Dick was listening to Gov. Mike Huckabee's radio show and heard him say that he too is at the NAMM Show and would be doing his radio show from there.  Dick texted Anthony and told him to look him up.  (Dick LOVES Mike Huckabee.)   Late that night Dick received a text, this picture with Anthony's caption, "Found him!"  

And while I'm going around the country, showing what our kids are up to, here's some bragging about Lisa.  As you know, she's a YOGA instructor.  Last week she was invited to be on a segment of a local TV talk  show.  The segment was about fashionable exercise attire, but in addition to showing her attire, Lisa also got the chance to show how she does a YOGA pose.  It's just AMAZING how flexible she is!!  If you don't  have time/care to watch the entire segment, Lisa's portion starts at 2:50 - about two minutes long. 

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(By the way, this link will not work on a mobile device, but it should work on your computer.) 

This week Sophie's school had International Day.  She makes a pretty cute little Austrian girl, doesn't she?

Look what Sammy figured out how to do.  Oh, the possibilities!!

Boy, I really should post more than once a week!  This has gotten LONG!  Congratulations if you made it all the way through!