spring!

We have decent weather today.  I don't remember if it supposed to rain or not but being this is April and not May, I would say chances are very good for rain.  I put out the trash bins for tomorrow, well, Bob actually took the trash bins out for me.  They were really heavy today as they were very full.  I will have empty bins again after tomorrow.

Bob was struggling a bit through his lesson today.  For some reason his fingers just wouldn't behave for him.  This is very, very rare for him.  I teased him a bit by saying his fingers want to go to the garden and work not play the piano.  After going through the songs and parts of the songs again, he was back on track.  He will be ready for the spring concert in May.  He will be playing Volare and a Bach Invention.  His Mozart Sonata will not be ready as we are only on page 3 but that is okay, these pieces take a long time to learn as they are long.  I love this sonata that he is learning, simply love it.  It is one of my absolute favorites of all time.  Mom loved it too.  When Frank played it last year or so, Mom was so cute, she would bob her head in time.  You could see she was singing the song in her head.  I so miss her listening to all the lessons.

I have Emily tonight for her 2nd lesson.  What a cutie.  She is missing her front tooth and you can see it trying to come in.  She is 7.  She is very excited to learn.  I love students that are very excited to learn.  It makes my job super fun and you can really get the student excited.  With a student at that age, I don't use the word practice, I just tell her or him, to play their songs several times through a day.  it seems to work okay and they do it.  I also say that they can play for their dolls or stuffed animals.  I used to put my dolls on the floor, arranged in an audience fashion, and then I would practice my clarinet.  I loved, and still do, playing my clarinet.  I don't play as often as I used to, which isn't very good, but i am getting back into the swing of practicing it.

Richard may be coming for the weekend.  I am excited.  I haven't seen him since Momma passed away and well, quite frankly, I can't say I enjoyed visiting him as I was so sad and upset at the time.  This time, if he is able to come, I will enjoy my brother's visit.  He is such a good big brother.  I simply adore him.  I also adore my younger brother (who for some reason likes to tell everyone he is older than me).  At this point, I do not see either one of them very much so it will be good to see them both.  I don't think the boys have seen each other in about 6 years.  That is an awfully long time not to see your sibling.  Fortunately, I see Andrew every so often at Uncle John's.  Richard I don't see as much since he lives about 3,000 miles away from me so I am thrilled when I do get him here.

Not too much happening today, getting the trash out was the big job of the day.  I have to clear up the living room before Friday and make up the bed in Mom's room.  I need to put the Christmas tree back downstairs and the decorations in the furnace room where they belong.  I plan to read some more of my writing course.  I am on chapter 14 now.  Only 4 more to go and then I am done with the initial read through.  I had some ideas this morning at about 4 am.  I am going to put a notebook in my room for when I can't sleep and I come up with some story lines, or ideas.  I used to do this all the time.  When I was in college, I used to call the answering machine and say my ideas or sing the tunes in my head for when I was writing music.  Mom always chuckled at that.  She would check the machine and her my notes to myself.  She never minded.  Sometimes she would write out my ideas that I put on the machine for me so I would have them when I came home.  She was very good at dictating notes.  The melodies or lyrics she would just leave on the machine.  That was not her forte.  I always had her listen to my songs or read my stories.  I even had a recording studio in the family room for about 10 years.  I no longer need it as everything is digital now and that was all analog but it was fun creating Christmas tapes for everyone in the family.  I miss doing that.  Mom would listen to them all the time.  Sometimes I would be like, Mom, I don't want to her me sing, and she would say, too bad, I do.  She was very proud of my musical abilities.  She loved that I am a teacher.  She was so proud of that.  Well, if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be a teacher or a musician.  She got me started on loving music at a very young age.  She would hum some melody and I would hum it back.  We did this starting when I was about 2.  We had music in the house all the time when I was small.  I so miss those days at times.  Now when I hear certain music or certain songs, I can smile and remember her.  It doesn't hurt all the time to remember her, just some of the time.