Category: Music

Music of the Season

It’s been a solitary six weeks of painting. I am almost finished, so there is hope for posts about something else. To break up the monotony of the work, I listen to music of all kinds. It’s funny how I can look at a room and remember what I listened to when I painted it, even if it was five years ago. It was the Wicked soundtrack for the basement hallway baseboards in 2013; I remember John Denver, Mindy Gledhill, David Archuleta, and the Dixie Chicks for Paige’s walls in 2017; Mark’s room was painted almost entirely to Classical 89. This is my playlist recently:

  • The Sound of Music Soundtrack
  • Coco Soundtrack
  • Some of Hamilton
  • Josh Groban
  • Tabernacle Choir
  • George Ezra (repeat 16 times)
  • Harry Potter audio books
  • A lot of classical music, including all of the piano practice going on when the boys come home

Sometimes I just turn on the TV for company. I chose these shows recently:

  • Lark Rise to Candleford series
  • Jane Eyre (1983)
  • Fixer Upper
  • Love it or List it
  • Boise Boys
  • All Creatures Great and Small BBC series
  • Upstairs Downstairs series (BBC 2012)

I am almost ready for Christmas music, but I am holding back the urge to listen to it. We don’t want to overlook Thanksgiving!

Catching up

Mark was honored as an Eastmont Patriot of the Month for citizenship, leadership, scholarship, and extra-curricular activities. Woot!

I helped make this quilt for a new baby in the neighborhood.

Every conversation at our house includes a status update on my massive painting project and Richard’s apple harvest. I stopped counting gallons of paint, but Richard knows exactly how many pounds of apples were produced.

Court of Honor

Missionary

BYU Homecoming Spectacular 3rd row seats. Awesome!

It’s Inktober for Paige on Instagram.

ONE page of a piece Timothy is working on. Legit!

Did I mention I am painting a lot? It feels like our house is finally becoming our own. I waited a long time to paint because I knew what a big job it would be and I didn’t have the time. So far, I have spent about 17 full days on it. I have not had this kind of time…ever in my life to devote to such a project. Someday I might post “after” pictures, but you could also come and visit.

Jazz, Art, Band, Choir, Twelve, AP

Richard and I had plans to go to Timothy’s jazz band dinner dance this week, but I was sick and had to miss it. Mark went in my place. I really missed out on a great evening! Timothy was able to play with some seasoned jazz musicians and play some of my favorite big band music. He is the trombone player on the second row in the video.

Today is Mark’s 12th birthday. I am happy for him, and a little sad for me. This week he displayed some work in an art show, played trumpet in a band concert, and sang in a choir concert. I couldn’t get a good photo of him in the back of the band. However, I bet you can spot him easily in the choir. He is ambivalent about the choir experience for many reasons, one being his section.

It’s the Fathers and Sons campout tonight, so we will celebrate Mark tomorrow night with all the good things.

Each day but one this week Daniel or Timothy took AP tests. I tried to warn them, but they took the classes and tests anyway. 😉

 

 

Old, Last, and New

Losing trees is one of the saddest things. The previous owners’ daughters called this grove and the stepping stone path through the periwinkle “the beautiful.” I will miss the flicker of light filtering through the leaves. It hurt my heart to see two trees go, but aspens don’t live forever. The trees really called to me when we looked at this house the first time, and I feel some nostalgia for the days when there were tall aspens lining the path.

Speaking of moving to Utah, that was almost six years ago. Leaving Tucson meant leaving the incredible piano ensemble experiences our kids had every spring, where they played duets on a stage with twelve grand pianos. There is nothing on this scale here, but there are “monster concerts” the kids play in the mall with five pianos. It was nice to hear the boys perform duets together one last time before Daniel leaves.

We came home from the monster concert to discover that the corsage Daniel ordered for prom was the wrong color and the flowers were wilting, so I made my first wrist corsage on Saturday. I felt more stress about this corsage than I thought was possible over some flowers and glue. Daniel went to prom with McKenna and I just hoped the flowers would stay on that wrist corsage all evening. I probably should have hoped he would have fun, but that was a given since he was with McKenna and happy friends.

Couch conductor

10:30 pm Sunday night. I am recovering well from a hand laceration. Richard still has no energy after the flu. The boys play trumpet and piano while we rest.

Last Sunday Timothy gave a talk in church with 30 minutes to prepare. He did so well!

Timothy and Mark played in a piano recital on Tuesday night.

It was a good week to be a parent.

Daniel advanced to a regional level in the Sterling scholar competition.

Daniel was named a National Merit Finalist.

Paige began work towards a summer internship in New York.

I finished hand-quilting my international doll quilt. I will finish the binding some other day.

Richard and I watched the John Adams miniseries, except when my eyes were closed during the violence and 18th century surgeries.

We watched Wonder. Tears streamed freely for me.

I can’t type this week as my hand heals, so this is it for a while.

Senior Christmas Performances

We have heard a lot of beautiful music at Temple Square and the high school in the past seven days. Here is a sample of Daniel playing piano at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building today.

I love these concerts because they give us time to sit and reflect at Christmas time.

We stopped at the vending machines where you can donate livestock, food, water, and first aid supplies last week. Today my mom came, too. The vending machine had to be restocked as we stood in line. Chickens and goats are very popular items.