Tuesday Evening

Do you see the hymnbook that Clark is holding?  It is tattered and torn and not only falling apart, but actually fallen apart.  This is the very hymnbook that I learned the hymns out of and now Clark uses it.  There are hundreds of little marks throughout the pages I made to mark sharps and flats in songs.  Clark, however, is quite a bit harder on it than I was and sadly it needs to be replaced. 

When I was 13 I was called to play the organ in an LDS ward in California.  It was terrifying and I practiced those hymns to death.  I would get bored so I would play them fast, jazzy, staccato-- any style to teach my fingers what to do.  I still remember the first hymn I ever played in church, "With Wondering Awe".  I played it so much that to this day I don't think I could play a wrong note if I tried.  I also remember playing "The Iron Rod" super fast in church because that was how I had practiced it.  I was so embarrassed when my family told me afterwards that I'd played it way to fast. 

I am in the process of picking out Christmas recital songs for all of my piano students, so I suppose piano is on my mind tonight.  Just a little trip down memory lane this evening.

Elinor has had a breakthrough.  She and I spent the last school year going the rounds getting her to focus on getting her school work done each day.  School days were long and when she chose not to do her work it carried over to the next day-- making for some long school weeks.

We're almost three weeks into this school year and this girl is on top of her school work every day!!  To quote her this evening, "I've gotten my school done every day and I don't plan on stopping!"

Hallelujah!!!  

Someday when all of my children are grown and gone I will attempt to count up all the pets we've ever owned.  It will be some obscene number.  It is already some obscene number and the younger three haven't even had any pets yet.  Currently we house "Fugitive" the garter snake (center), "Zeus" the rabbit (left), and "Pebbles" the cockatiel (right). 

Aren't you glad I told you where the animals were?  Lest you be confused thinking Bethany was holding a snake and Clark was holding a bird.

Side note about Pebbles-- we finally clipped her wings.  It was super easy and now she can't fly around the house.  I don't like any animals moving around the house and the bird was no exception.  Well, the bird roaming free would be better than the snake, but still--good cages make good pets.

I must give credit to these kids.  They really do take good care of their animals and I can't complain because I don't have to do much of anything.  The only thing I do is draw attention to any stinky animal odors and then they quickly get things situated.  I guess they know I mean business.  I'm mean that way.

I have no interest in hearing anyone else's food log.  I really don't care what you ate today or any day.  And I completely realize nobody wants to hear what I did or didn't eat today.  And yet, I am now going to use this blog as a sort of food confessional.  Sorry.

I baked 100 English tea scones for a progressive dinner our Relief Society did this evening.  I used tremendous amounts of butter and cream and the scones were scrumptious.
And I ate 40 of them.  With copious amounts of cream and jam.  And I don't feel nearly as bad about that as I should.

All right, it wasn't really 40 scones, but I am pretty sure it was in the double digits.  And there were plenty of leftovers so I'm probably not done with the scone damage this week.