Eclectic

As we finish off the year, I just wanted to mention a few things that have not made it to the blogosphere.

Daniel auditioned for our district’s youth symphony playing clarinet (which he had only been playing for about 9 months) and got in. It has been a great experience for him, exposing him to a lot of different music. He has really enjoyed it so far. In the school band he is dividing his time between saxophone and clarinet. He has been teaching himself to play the flute as well and is confident enough that he played one song with the ward choir at Christmas.

Matthew played flag football again this fall. He really loves to play but he has a hard time keeping up with the other kids just because his legs are half the length of theirs. He always seems to have a ball in his hand and a number of his balls have been grounded because he is determined to throw them in the house. Throwing footballs indoors is definitely a no-no, so we have had a number of clashes on that point…

Matthew and Malia played “Adobe” for about a week while Matthew was off-track. They have played this way periodically since Kev started working for Adobe, but this time Matthew (with some guidance from me) made laptops out of file folders. Malia looks just like Kev does when he is scrutinizing something on his computer.

Nathan has had art this past semester and he has loved it. He is sad it is almost over, but he is super excited to be in choir next semester. He is also excited to audition for the school musical. Auditions aren’t until February, but he is already prepping. I have to say that I’m kind of excited to have a kid that enjoys the same things I did when I was in school.

I was released from my calling as primary chorister in November so instead of having three callings (choir director, primary chorister and nursery music leader) I am back down to one. When I was released, they told me they didn’t have another calling in mind for me yet. I just laughed and told them I was really, really fine with having just one calling for a while. I did, however, feel like the bishopric member I was talking to was understanding about how wearing it can be on a person to be called to the same callings over, and over, and over again. He told me the primary president had already asked for me to be officially called as the nursery music leader (previously I was filling in for a sister in the ward who was diagnosed with cancer and passed away earlier this year) and that the request had been denied. I’m really thankful for him. Honestly. A chance to do something besides primary or music (and usually both) would be great.

And so another year passes much too quickly, leaving in its wake a few bigger kids, a bit older mom, and a plethora of memories.