Marvelous Pigs in Satin

This week, October began and the cool weather came in earnest. It was “break week” for us for home school. We are trying out a schedule of 6 weeks on, 1 week off this year. So far, our schoolwork has been very productive; the new Alveary curriculum I am using makes it so easy to get our work done consistently each day. However, it’s a very full curriculum, and takes me from 8am-2pm each day to finish teaching all the lessons. Peach Pie’s (9th grade or Form 4) school day is 8-3; however, she works mostly independently. Her day includes 50 minutes of violin/piano practice, 20 minutes of playground games/Pilates, and 30 minutes Nature walk which most high schoolers wouldn’t probably get to enjoy during school hours.

Because it was break week, I was able to help my sister Mary a little as she finished up projects at the home they are selling.  Tuesday, I prepped walls for painting, and Wednesday, I babysat her pre-schoolers and baby.  

Wednesday, I also got a fun haircut. I’ve wanted to get a faux hawk pixie cut for years, and finally decided that it was silly to worry about what people would think and whether I would like it, and that I needed to just live my own life.  I am loving my hair cut. 

Wednesday night I explained to The Scooter Pies that they are big enough to go to sleep in their own bed (and don’t need to be snuggled all the way to sleep in my bed any more) and old enough to stay in their room until the sunlight comes in their window. I have reaped some precious nights of uninterrupted sleep since, and though I don’t want to rejoice too early and jinx myself, feel cautiously optimistic about this wonderful new arrangement continuing.

Blueberry Pie rescued an abandoned puppy near our home on Thursday. The kids have names him Aztec, and he is pretty cute. We are all trying to learn more about how to take care of a puppy. I’ve already explained to the kids that he has to be an outside dog because we have family who are allergic. So we have a crate to put him in at night, and the kids play with him outside when he is awake. I am eager for his vet appointment on Tuesday to clear up some obvious parasite conditions.

Key Lime Pie’s twelfth birthday was Sunday, and we let our girls get their ears pierced when they turn twelve, so Friday, I took her to get the deed done. It seems a bit barbaric to let my girls get holes punched in their ears, but they all look forward to it eagerly. Julia chose tiny birthstone studs, and my wild child looks sweet and girly. I found her watching “West Side Story” all alone, recently, and thought to myself, “She really is becoming a teenager.”

I still taught piano all week. I have 33 students this year, who I teach in 7 group classes and 11 individual lessons. I teach piano from 3-6pm each day Monday-Thursday. Group lessons are best for the students, they learn rhythm and note reading much more quickly by playing ensemble, and they have more fun in groups; but due to some families schedules, some students being at odd places in the curriculum, and some students wanting individual lessons due to COVID, I have more 1-on-1 lessons than I would have ideally scheduled. The Alveary recommended finding a teacher who uses the “Curwen Method” of teaching. So I read a teaching manual written in the 1890’s by Mary Curwen. The method books I already use are quite similar, but she adds in ear training, which is exactly the thing I have been wanting to add to my teaching. In each lesson, she has the students take “dictation.” They listen to a short sequence and have to write the music down- rhythm and pitch. I believe my students will reap multiple benefits from this practice, and I’m very excited about it.

Saturday after leading a masked ACT study group with Pumpkin Pie and 6 of her friends from school, we loaded up the van and headed up to my Brother Peter and his wife Amy’s house to watch General Conference and play with cousins. The resident Captain had Guard Drill weekend and was gone Friday-Sunday, so it was a good day to run away and play.

One of Blueberry Pie’s swim coaches was getting married up north, near Booneville, Missouri, so he drove up to that. At 6:30, he called to tell me that his car had broken down on I-70, so I began the 3-hour drive to go pick him up. He called the Highway Patrol, and they took him to the nearest truck stop so he didn’t have to wait on the side of the road. It was a good evening for him to get stuck somewhere, really. I didn’t have anything planned except watch conference with Amy, and I listened to it while I drove, plus listened to a big chunck of my fascinating audio book. (It is Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor, and I highly recommend it, though it deals with tough realities and some situations are probably PG-16ish.)

Blueberry Pie and I got back to Peter’s house at about 12:45 and crashed on his couches with the rest of my kiddos. Yay for an unexpected sleepover! We stayed and played with cousins until the morning Sunday session of General Conference was over. Amy fed us some delicious chili, and then we drove home to shower and relax and get ready for Dad to be home from soldiering.

Sunday afternoon, my sister-in-law, Kaitlin (Johnny’s Kaitlin) messaged me that I might be able to salvage my scripture journal by putting it in the freezer for a couple of hours. Back story: I bought a Journal Edition Book of Mormon and have been making study notes all year with friXion pens. These ink pens erase with friction (heat).

A week or 2 ago, I discovered that the book had gotten hot somehow, and many of my notes through first Nephi had erased on their own. Following Kaitlin’s tip, I stuck my BOM in the freezer, and it worked! My notes came back enough that I could tell what I had written, and I went back over them with my flair pens. Lesson learned: don’t journal with erasable pen!

Ben came home from Ft. Leonardwood, happy with the news that he will get to transfer to an instructor position with the RTI. This means he will be teaching new officer candidates. It’s a position he has been actively seeking for a long time. It’s still a one-weekend-a-month gig like normal National Guard stuff, but he will have some 2-week trainings this fall to prepare.
It was quite the “break week.” I’m excited to get back to school Monday morning.

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