March, ALREADY?!?

Oh my, 2010 is rip-roaring away... It's the third month, and I''m just now getting used to writing 2010 on my attendance slips at school. Sheesh!

March in the world of middle school choir means that UIL competition is very close at hand. In the years since I was in school, our district has started a Pre-UIL contest so all the groups get a dry run going through the process, and for us, that's happening next Monday. Here it is Thursday, and our first big time contest is MONDAY! We got to go through everything today with our accompanist for the first time. The two accompanied pieces will go just fine. The a capella number will be a challenge. With only 17 singers, the likelihood of holding the pitch together is questionable. Oh well... I can't be married to the idea of scores. This is a valuable experience, and as long as my students do their best, I'll be pleased, and I'll lavish them all with praise.

On a personal level, I have school stuff coming up, keeping me away from my family, on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday. Then the next week is Spring Break. PRAISE GOD for Spring Break!! It couldn't be coming at a better time! A whole week home with my kids! And on Tuesday of Spring Break, my baby turns FIVE YEARS OLD! That seems absolutely CRAZY!

Little Girl will be 5. She's already been registered for Kindergarten. She's reading little books with one-syllable words quite well. She's counting to 20 and beyond. She's so very ready for Kindergarten. Her teacher told me a story about Little Girl's recent social life. A little girl in another class, "Brittany", and she had been buddies since the very beginning of the school year until a few weeks ago, when "Brittany" told Little Girl she didn't want to be friends anymore. Little Girl was very upset, and it took a few days of recess before she finally went looking for someone else to play with. Then a couple of days ago, "Brittany" tried to play with Little Girl again. When Little Girl is upset, she does this thing where she puts her chin to her chest and just puts her head down. It looks so very pitiful. Anyway, that's what she did when "Brittany" wanted to play with her. Obviously her little heart was still hurt over the whole thing. Her teacher encouraged her to forgive and play with "Brittany" again, and after a little while that's what happened. It's so sad to hear of my baby being hurt by another little child. At the same time, I want her to learn the hard lessons of forgiveness too.

Big Girl is doing quite well these days. She's a snaggletooth with 4 loose teeth right now. The two front ones are all crooked, and I think other kids with teeth like that play with them more to speed up the process, but not Big Girl. If there's pain involved, she'll go out of her way to keep it from hurting. Even if that means no teeth pulling at all. When she lost her first one, she lost it in her sleep and swallowed it. The Tooth Fairy was gypped! At school, she's been interviewing 2nd grade teachers whenever she meets one. She'll ask them if they have a quiet class. Never mind that the kids in those classes now won't be the ones there when she's a 2nd grader! Socially Big Girl is still doing well. She has come to me talking about her best little friend at school, and that she's noticed that the other girl is constantly telling her what to do, and that she doesn't want to be bossed around all the time. This is a big deal in her social awakening. She's also learning to forgive her friend. We had a talk the other day about forgive our friends as many times as they mess up and to not count. I mentioned the old "seventy times seven" and so then she started talking about only giving 490 chances... my literal-minded baby! I hope she can learn that lesson without too much heartache.

When it comes to this stuff, I think I'm more protective of Big Girl than Little Girl. Little Girl is deep, and sensitive, but she's also tough. Big Girl will remember getting hurt in a different way than Little Girl. Big Girl will be more afraid much more easily than her sister... In a lot of ways it's good that I'm so busy with my job that I can't be a hovering mother keeping them from every hurt, because that's exactly what my "Mama Bear" heart wants to do! These little hurts and the lessons that come with them, are important in their social development. That's not to say that I want them out there getting stomped on... I just don't want their first heartaches to be huge life-altering things. Just like everything else in this life, everyone needs to start out with training wheels.

Hubby is doing pretty good. He's starting to get involved in playing with a worship band again. Unfortunately the band in question is not at the church we're currently attending. At least he's playing again. He's a much happier person when he's making music.

That kind-of reminds me of someone else in this house... ME!

And Big Girl too... It has been confirmed to us that she really does have perfect pitch. For anyone unfamiliar with that, it means that she can decipher the exact pitch of a sound. She has named random notes played on a variety of instruments in a number of ranges and timbres, and can name the pitch accurately. She's done this with a flute, violin, trombone, piano, and even a glass harp! It's amazing! She first started doing this with a video my mom had at hear house for the girls to watch. Since then we've been quizzing her every now and then, and she can do it. She also has an amazing sense of musicality in her. She "hears" her piano pieces with crescendos and ritardandos, and plays them that way. She's got to make music. It's just IN her.

That's all I've got for now... Well, I could go on for quite a while, but that's all I've got TIME to blog!

Maybe I'll blog about Little Girl's birthday present... She wants a super-suit with a cape and mask. I'm thinking I'll try to make that over Spring Break!