Wednesdays. They are the only day of the week I have to wake up early, and so, obviously, are the only days the kids EVER sleep in and are normally preceded by a largely sleepless night.
So, of course, I was up at 2:00 in the morning sitting on my deck in a bathrobe trying to get my restless limbs to settle down. I think I screwed up my medication- I forgot to take it Sunday and Monday, so I took one Tuesday morning and another Tuesday night. By everything I was advised, it should have been fine and wouldn't even affect me for a couple more days.... but I popped awake with the sun at 6:30. Yawn yawn. At least I'm happy, right?
I taught one great lesson this morning, and we had a calm day. The house is in good shape, I worked on organizing piano studio supplies and making lists of what I'm missing.
I invited the kids to do a project with me after they finished their chores: Gak! Equal parts white glue and water, and then drizzle in a mixture of 1 tsp borax in 1 cup warm water until you have the consistency you want. Stir and knead! SUPER fun, Cocoa thought it was amazing. Mimi left almost immediately to go read, but princess sparkle pants is hard to impress and doesn't really care who knows it. We are working on her social skills.
At 2:30 I realized that we had to LEAVE for dance class in about ten minutes- Cocoa and I dropped the girls off and came back to adventure a little bit. We walked to the mail box, then walked to the creek. I tried to get him to eat flowers with me from the garden when we got back, but he wasn't buying it. I heartily enjoyed a snack of nasturtiums and borage.
After we picked up the girls from dance I made a beef stir fry from a cookbook Aunt LoLo gave me (she had an extra copy.) It's the real deal, guys. Her mother-in-law uses it- I can't imagine a higher endorsement than that. MaMa is a fabulous cook and lived in China until she was an adult and moved to the States. I loved the stir fry, J said thank you, Ernie RAVED about the meat (she is all about meat), Cocoa ate the rice out of his bowl and snuck away when no one was looking, and Mimi acted like I was trying to poison her. Cads! I thoroughly enjoyed our beef stir fry, with sirloin, carrots, mushrooms, peppers, and shallots.
J and Cocoa packed up for a night at the beach with the scouts, and the girls and I left for town. I swapped with a child who had a conflict tonight, so the girls read in the foyer while I had my lesson. My teacher....I swear, she could spend a month on three measures, and a year on a page. It's exactly the nit picky heckling I need, but it's really pretty funny. Can I please give more oomph on those notes, and lift my hands gently but please don't really left- see? Don't leave the keyboard. Nice wrist rotation, but not too much. Dynamics please, but block them. That's all just one measure. After two years with her, I think...I am starting to be a pianist. And I think I have left accompanying behind me for a long while. I started lessons because I was injured, and I have spent two years learning to play without injuring myself, and I have learned it is a long and deliberate process. As soon as I go back to sight reading at breakneck speeds for hours at a time, I get injured again. Sad, because I really love collaborating...but then again, I have been rather "used" for about 20 years. Maybe it's time for me to stop stepping in to fix everyone's problems, eh? But...I learned a lot with the trial by fire I've been through as accompanist for everyone and anyone, at with hardly any notice most of the time. I'm the back up, I don't get advance warning: I get a binder two days before the show. HA! (Can't say I don't really, really enjoy the adrenaline though. I do like that bite of challenge.)
We stopped at the library after my lesson, and then Target for some supplies. All the kids were in bed by 10, and the sun has barely set. We are almost to the longest day of the year!
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