Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today I would like to wish my mom a very happy birthday. Mom, thanks for being such a great friend, confidant, and sister in Christ. I love you dearly! Hope today's a great day and that you know how very much you are loved and cherished by your family. Thank you for being YOU!

I'm not sure how many of you out there read the Living Proof Ministries Blog (Beth Moore's blog), but they shared that Beth's dad passed away this week. You can go there to express your condolences if you wish, or just read a great post by her daughter Amanda about the legacy of her late grandfather.

There's also a really cool thing underneath it called The Columbia Commission that another blogger created in its honor. I had never read this before and found it to be particularly encouraging to me today. I wanted to share it here, but you can see a bigger version and learn more about it from the artist herself.

Blessings to you all today.

Oh what a beautiful weekend!

Suffice it to say that the lawn is mowed, the garden almost ready for planting and the yard primed for summer fun. The weather was absolutely goregous (right now, it looks as though the sky is going to dump buckets of rain to bring those May flowers).

On Friday afternoon, Cody, Caden, Ozzie and I enjoyed a little picnic out on our front lawn and then walked down to the park so Cody could burn some energy. He ended up meeting several his friends from school there and then played with them until the early evening hours. He had a blast. Saturday, after teaching a couple of hours, my friend Charity came over and we all (yes, Ozzie came along too!) went to a forest preserve and had another picnic together. (Daddy stayed home to work on his master's project, but he did his work outside!). After dropping off the boys, Chair and I headed off to IKEA in search of some new chair pads for our patio furniture. Unfortunately, I didn't see any I fell in love with, but ended up with some that were orange (I'm not a fan of orange, but they were only $6.50 a piece!). I'm sure Charity will never go shopping with me again, as I was incredibly indecisive and must have gone up and down the escalator five times changing my mind and putting things back. She found a cute kitchen rug, so I suppose not all was lost!

Yesterday, after church, we did yard work and got things looking nice on the outside. Ozzie spent most of the day out with us and his snout is green from rolling in the grass.

Last night after dinner, we took a nice long walk with Ozzie to McD's where we all feasted on vanilla ice cream cones and french fries. So much for a calorie-burning walk! We had a really nice weekend...productive and fun. Can't ask for any more than that!

P.S. I would post pictures, but I can't find our camera charger and the thing is dead. I'll update soon...

My Son....the Budding Conductor and Pianist

I'm so thrilled. My son Cody has taken an interest in playing the piano. I couldn't be happier. I have tried very hard, not only as his mom, but also as a piano and voice instructor, to not push him into playing. I have tried to nurture his desire to play by only giving him a lesson when he asks. So far, we've had three formal lessons. The rest of the time he is playing songs by ear. His favorites are the "Superman" theme, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," "America the Beautiful" and "Jesus Loves Me." He spends much of his time playing and plunking out (by ear) whatever the song choice is for the day. Like mother like son.

My studio will be holding a recital in May, and I made sure I didn't ask Cody to participate...on purpose. I didn't want him to feel pushed and I figured he'd tell me if and when he was ready to perform. A couple weeks ago he approached me and said he wanted to play in the recital. Again, BURSTING with excitement, but acting like it's no big deal. I walk a very fine line!

So my little Cody will be performing the Superman Theme. However, he's been very explicit in his instructions. "Mom. Make sure the people watching know that this is not a words song. No one is going to be singing along. I'm just going to play it. "

Okay, buddy. Sheesh! He's already becoming a temperamental musician! : )

A Divine Appointment

Well, I'm sure all my faithful readers are wondering...how did the audition go?

Okay, you probably haven't given it a single thought. After all, you do have lives.

But just in case you were wondering....

It was a divine appointment. This sweet woman walked through my front door, sat on my couch, pulled out her digital voice recorder, and listened to me serenade her to the best of my ability.

After I was done, she said I was hired. Unless of course, upon hearing my audition, her mother-in-law ("mil") decided otherwise. This woman, we'll call her "R", is married already. She and her husband were married a couple of years ago by the court and have decided, now that they are Believers, to get married in the church. That is the happy part, but in other areas, she's really struggling. And R cried. And cried, and cried. Suffice it to say that she does not have an easy life. She and her husband are living with her mil currently, and mil is paying for the wedding. Mil has made every decision about this wedding, including what dress R will wear. She has decided to pull them out of their church home and place the entire family (they have four children between them) into a completely different church for silly reasons I won't even get into here. R has an eight year-old daughter and triplet two year-olds, and her mil spends every waking moment telling R how she can do a better job raising them. And I am only barely scratching the surface here.

I didn't intend on getting into so many details...but my heart really went out to her. She feels powerless to control anything about her life, let alone her wedding. Her husband is supportive, but it seems he too has to bow down to mil's authority on pretty much everything since she is footing the bill for everything.

I prayed with her, attempted to encourage her, and just tried to listen as she poured out her heart in frustration and sadness.

We closed our conversation with her saying, "Well, once my mil hears this recording of you singing, we'll get back to you and let you know for sure if you've been chosen to sing in the wedding. If it were up to me, I'd hire you on the spot." We talked about price, how many and which songs she'd want done, but again said she had to defer to her mil on this.

My parting words to her were:

"Well, be sure to let her know that I only deal with the bride on these matters. Be sure to tell her that I will only talk to the bride. "

She gave me a coy smile, wiped her tears away, and I haven't heard from her since.