Here’s something remarkable about the harp:  the instrument never really sounds bad!  Even a beginner harpist sounds tranquil and peaceful.  Watching The Banana at her harp lesson and when she practices at home convinces me that the harp is a bit complicated to play:  there’s so much coordination and the…

  We had a snow day last week, and near the end of the day, right when I was actually planning on everyone getting a lot of things done, like reading practice and viola practice, violin practice, piano practice, spelling practice, etc., Dr. Peds decided to introduce them to Monopoly.…

The Devious Snail: (while rubbing my shoulders) All work and no play turns you into what you are today. Me:  And what is that? The Devious Snail:  (said incredulously) A parent.

Today is History Day at the middle school.  What this means is that for days on end, my middle schoolers have been spending almost all their spare time working on the laptop and the computer in my office finishing up research, locating images and quotes, and writing the student composed…

Subzero cold snaps do amazing things for music students.  We had three days in the middle of this week without school.  About half of my students were still able to come to their lessons, and probably because they didn’t have a lot to do since everyone was mostly stuck inside…

These images are from a few weeks ago.  I didn’t get around to sharing them right away because it was a little crazy around here. Mr. Trouble on Feet and I both really love this particular winter hat.  

After arriving home from Chicago, I was all set for a super productive week.  I haven’t seen my students for a bit, and I was ready to jump into teaching and catching up on a huge pile of computer work (is it still a pile if it’s a digital pile?…

Mr. Trouble on Feet travelled to Chicago with me to take our host daughter back to meet her chaperone and group at the airport so she could travel back to Eastern Europe.  He has been saving up Christmas and birthday money, along with every other scrap of money he’s encountered…

We hadn’t been down to the beach for a long time.  This is what happens in winter.  Even though we love to go to the beach in every season, (in fact, winter is one of the most beautiful seasons for beach going) we get busy with our routine and forget…