My youngest child auditioned for a special singing group at our church and made it. I felt that he had a really nice voice. His father and I both encouraged him to try. He was kind of sheepish about it and almost didn't go. But at last he went and just yesterday he received a letter telling him that he made it into the group. But he was so excited about it, NOT, that he just sort of non-chalantly slips it into the conversation we were having. My daughter and I both stopped and asked him what he had just said. We thought he was joking. But he repeated his answer, still without much emotion.
A couple of his friends are also in the group. I think that will make it special for him. I'm glad he doesn't think that he's great and superior because he's in this group. The goal is not to think you're better than someone else. Just to enjoy the opportunity and priviledge of being in the ensemble. This will give him an opportunity to learn more about singing. I really hope that he can make in into one of the college tour groups when he goes to college. It pays for entire year of college. The flip side is you have to tour all summer. I don't know. Sounds like a deal to me.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Autumn-Day 2
Wow, what a morning! It was the kind of cool, crisp morning that makes you feel so alive. As I told you before, I like my sweaters. I had a cozy sweatshirt on this morning and it was absolutely perfect for the day. My youngest got in the car for school and promptly turned on the seat warmer. I argued that it really wasn't that cold. I got the Junior High type, "Mom, you're crazy" look.
After returning home I stood outside for a bit because the feel of the air and the scent in the air was working hard to remind me of something. I just couldn't come up with what it was. All I know is, it was one of those feelings that make your heart beat a little faster. I personally could feel it trying to drag me back to a time in my childhood.
It's getting close to Halloween. I can remember the Halloweens spent in the south. Most times we could actually show off our costumes and not cover them up with heavy coats. However, even in S.C. the air could get quite crisp by the end of October.
When my brother and I were 4 and 5 years old people frequently thought we were twins. We were actually 11 months apart, I being the older. My mother had the clever idea to dress us as scarecrows for a community party with a costume contest. She sewed cute patches on some faded jeans, did a clever make up job on our faces and then stuffed us with hay. It stuck out at our ankles and wrists. I think it was poking out at the neck, too. I remember thinking at first how fun it was to be a scarecrow. Then it started itching. We had to endure for quite sometime to get throught the contest. All said and done, we didn't win. Bummer! I have to say we were the cutest. Ask my mom, she'll tell you.
Well, I've been everything from princesses to gypsies. Maybe I was a ghost once. I have to say I'm appalled by some of the really gruesome things that walk the street now. Those days were so simple. That was back in the day when you didn't have to be afraid of a rice krispie treat or other homemade treat. Now everything has to be produced and individually wrapped. I used to get some of the best cookies you've ever eaten. Those were the days.
After returning home I stood outside for a bit because the feel of the air and the scent in the air was working hard to remind me of something. I just couldn't come up with what it was. All I know is, it was one of those feelings that make your heart beat a little faster. I personally could feel it trying to drag me back to a time in my childhood.
It's getting close to Halloween. I can remember the Halloweens spent in the south. Most times we could actually show off our costumes and not cover them up with heavy coats. However, even in S.C. the air could get quite crisp by the end of October.
When my brother and I were 4 and 5 years old people frequently thought we were twins. We were actually 11 months apart, I being the older. My mother had the clever idea to dress us as scarecrows for a community party with a costume contest. She sewed cute patches on some faded jeans, did a clever make up job on our faces and then stuffed us with hay. It stuck out at our ankles and wrists. I think it was poking out at the neck, too. I remember thinking at first how fun it was to be a scarecrow. Then it started itching. We had to endure for quite sometime to get throught the contest. All said and done, we didn't win. Bummer! I have to say we were the cutest. Ask my mom, she'll tell you.
Well, I've been everything from princesses to gypsies. Maybe I was a ghost once. I have to say I'm appalled by some of the really gruesome things that walk the street now. Those days were so simple. That was back in the day when you didn't have to be afraid of a rice krispie treat or other homemade treat. Now everything has to be produced and individually wrapped. I used to get some of the best cookies you've ever eaten. Those were the days.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Scents of Autumn
I just took number 3 to the bus for school camp. A freshman in high school. He'll be gone until Friday. As I got back home I noticed a smell in the air. It is beginning to smell like fall. Now it is September and leaves haven't started falling much yet. I wonder what that smell is? Perhaps the result of some recent rains. Maybe it's the dreaded molds that are going to wreak havoc shortly. I don't know.
When I was younger fall was a favorite season. I have always liked wearing sweaters and walking in leaves. Of course the bad part is the leaves must ultimately be raked up. I got some whopping blisters on my hands as a youngster.
In S.C. and especially in Charleston even after the leaves fall there is plenty of green. Pine trees galore! My husband really didn't like it much. He wanted to be back in the midwest where, as he put it, "They have a change of seasons." Of course I recognized the change of seasons. He just needed to open his eyes.
As a comparison, when I was in college my freshman year they told us during orientation that we wouldn't need our winter items until after Thanksgiving break. And I knew from experience that on Easter we didn't need our winter coats anymore. Now I live in the midwest and we have to pull out our winter coats by Halloween and don't get to put them back in moth balls until Mother's Day. Easter is probably the hardest thing to get used to here. I get tempted every year to leave my coat at home. Then I step out the back door. BRRRR!
I really don't mind living in the midwest. We are near Chicago, IL and that offers quite a lot to see and do. There are those days that I would prefer not having to deal with such a long winter.
When I was younger fall was a favorite season. I have always liked wearing sweaters and walking in leaves. Of course the bad part is the leaves must ultimately be raked up. I got some whopping blisters on my hands as a youngster.
In S.C. and especially in Charleston even after the leaves fall there is plenty of green. Pine trees galore! My husband really didn't like it much. He wanted to be back in the midwest where, as he put it, "They have a change of seasons." Of course I recognized the change of seasons. He just needed to open his eyes.
As a comparison, when I was in college my freshman year they told us during orientation that we wouldn't need our winter items until after Thanksgiving break. And I knew from experience that on Easter we didn't need our winter coats anymore. Now I live in the midwest and we have to pull out our winter coats by Halloween and don't get to put them back in moth balls until Mother's Day. Easter is probably the hardest thing to get used to here. I get tempted every year to leave my coat at home. Then I step out the back door. BRRRR!
I really don't mind living in the midwest. We are near Chicago, IL and that offers quite a lot to see and do. There are those days that I would prefer not having to deal with such a long winter.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Tilt-in Windows and Big Fans
Classrooms when I was young weren't air conditioned. When we started school in the fall it would be rather warm. We would all be sitting in our desks working hard and the teacher would walk over and open the window sometimes all the way. Sometimes just a little. The air would get somewhat heavy from all our little bodies, especially after recess. Perhaps the teacher was having hot flashes, too. I've always been a little cold natured. I have wondered what might have possessed the teacher to open the windows on occasions.
Classrooms are such tidy little arrangements. Straight rows of desks all facing a teacher's desk and blackboard. When I was a kid the desks were wooden desktops and seats with metal boxes underneath for all the books. They're, what?, plastic or something now. Classrooms had a definite smell to them. I think the wood helped. Maybe the ancient buildings did, too.
Oh, I remember when I was in second grade. In the back of the classroom was a huge barrel. It was brown. It looked like some of the generic packaging we see today. The printing and wording gave it a somewhat military feel. It had supplies for an emergency. I don't know how long it had been there or what the school system was anticipating. I remember thinking that maybe we were going to war and that maybe some people from far away would drop a bomb on my school. That was in 1966. Looking backward, maybe the Cuban Missile Crisis was still too fresh on the minds of the adults in the world.
The way it seems to me now, I guess we've always had some kind of terrorist at our door. Cuba, Russia, or Afghanistan. Children probably have the hardest time assimilating the information at hand. I know that barrel brought all kinds of imaginary scenarios to my mind.
Classrooms are such tidy little arrangements. Straight rows of desks all facing a teacher's desk and blackboard. When I was a kid the desks were wooden desktops and seats with metal boxes underneath for all the books. They're, what?, plastic or something now. Classrooms had a definite smell to them. I think the wood helped. Maybe the ancient buildings did, too.
Oh, I remember when I was in second grade. In the back of the classroom was a huge barrel. It was brown. It looked like some of the generic packaging we see today. The printing and wording gave it a somewhat military feel. It had supplies for an emergency. I don't know how long it had been there or what the school system was anticipating. I remember thinking that maybe we were going to war and that maybe some people from far away would drop a bomb on my school. That was in 1966. Looking backward, maybe the Cuban Missile Crisis was still too fresh on the minds of the adults in the world.
The way it seems to me now, I guess we've always had some kind of terrorist at our door. Cuba, Russia, or Afghanistan. Children probably have the hardest time assimilating the information at hand. I know that barrel brought all kinds of imaginary scenarios to my mind.
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