She’s Definitely One of the Techie Generation

I’m currently teaching primary which means Malia and I are in sharing time together. Today one of the primary presidency members asked the kids, “What do you do if you have a question?” Malia raised her hand and answered, “Ask my mom and dad.” Then the presidency member asked, “What if they don’t know?” Malia’s response? “Ask google.” All the adults in the room laughed, me included.

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.

All Dolled Up for the Holidays

Today was the annual Christmas program at church. I normally look forward to this day, but this year I just felt stressed. I got up later than I should have so I was running a few minutes late which is pretty rare for me and always makes me feel on edge. We arrived almost on time for a quick choir practice and discovered that another ward was already in the chapel even though our block starts first-one of the side effects of having four wards in our building right now. A quick relocation to the primary room gave us about 15 minutes to practice before our meetings started. I sat in Relief Society for twenty minutes before heading off to do the music in nursery and then it was on to primary. I had forgotten to bring some things so there was a last minute change of opening songs. Sharing time was all of 5 minutes long (I kid you not-one short video) so I was unexpectedly left with 35 minutes for music. Wow. A bit of advance notice on that one would have been super. At least the kids were more reverent than expected, although that was probably just because half of them were home sick. As soon as primary was over it was off to Sacrament Meeting where I proceeded to miscount at least three times which threw off my pianist and my choir (bless them for fumbling through and getting back on track). And then when the primary kids came up to sing, I was all prepared to lead them but got the songs in the wrong order. That didn't confuse the kids, but it did make me feel totally out of it. I was completely wrung out by the time I got home.

Most of the time I manage everything pretty well, but on days like today I feel like I have too much on my plate.

But doesn't Malia looks cute in her Christmas dress? She was pretty excited about it. :-)

Sing, Wiggle, Repeat

I just got a new(ish) calling. Once again I will be a primary chorister. It’s good thing this is a calling that doesn’t freak me out or make me feel completely overwhelmed because I’m still the choir director too…guess it’s time to dust off the file boxes and pull out the wiggle worms.