introductions

I met Mr. Tupman this morning. He hopped out of the row of radishes I was weeding, rather frightening me by his sudden appearance. I jumped up and let out a shriek - he jumped and let out... well, you know toads. He gave me a suspicious glare and hopped with great dignity into the row of squash at the other side of the garden. Time will tell if he will continue to grace the garden with his presence.

looking

Well, I finished (nearly) my arrangement this morning, but now I've cold feet about submitting it. The publishers that already stock a cappella women's ensemble music don't take submissions and the publishers that take submissions don't seem to carry a cappella women's ensemble music. Submitting is free (if you don't count blood, sweat, and tears-of-rejection), so maybe...

Working on an old hymn arrangement of mine, hoping to submit it for consideration for publication sometime soon.

Bought a plane ticket to visit my cousins.

Practiced with Mama for our upcoming music audition (!!) to play at a local coffee shop some Saturdays. My talented mom taught herself guitar in highschool and has continued to play. I was going to play guitar with her on "Here Comes the Sun," but I can't keep up (I've only really been playing for a year and a half) so I'll probably stick to vocals and perhaps djembe. :)

Tried out a mom and pop's Middle Eastern restaurant with a few girl friends tonight. It's a favorite of RD's. I would say their sage tea (hot or iced), za'atar pitas, and seasoned fries (they had a name that I've forgotten) were my favorite. I still like chai tea better, but the sage tea was a unique experience!

RD, C, and I went to the closing evening of a Christian music conference. "Our God is God" was my favorite of what we heard. Some of the music was disappointingly fuzzy in the theology department. Crescendos and timpani and emotive phrases just don't make up for truth in music. I am grateful for music that is true and beautiful.

student quotes 1

Yesterday, towards the close of his lesson, JR turned the page to see his next piano piece. The concept reinforced there was a 4/4 time signature, with a counting exercise and an example piece to practice at the bottom of the page. Plus a colorful cartoony picture of two giraffes. (Incidentally, the name of the piece was "Two Giraffes." Handy that.) JR's comment was, "Look Miss Anna! Two Geraffics!" I love teaching.

words

Do you ever roll a word around in your head simply because you like the sound of it? (I do!) Some of my current favorites are wistful, quelquefois, and lavish. You can almost hear the costly extravagance in it. Lavish.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us. Unearned, unconditional, costly, extravagant, redeeming love.


Here's the rest of the verse, 1 John 3:1:

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him."

no room for a sneeze

As I become well-acquainted with the warning labels and recommended application instructions for wall covering paste, the current state of my bathroom reminds me of the childrens book, "No room for a sneeze." The story is about a wise man's advice to a man who finds his house Too Small for his large family. The advice is to keep bringing more animals to live with them, until the house is practically a farm menagerie. When the man is nearly desperate with the tight conditions of his house, the wise man tells him to send all the borrowed animals back to their owners. After emptying and cleaning, the house seems enormous indeed.
My bathroom is filled with stacks of 5-gal buckets in an attempt to flatten the water-warped floorboards. Even though there will be five or more girls using it in a week and a half, hopefully it will feel big when we take out the nine bucket pyramid.

I'm looking forward to some cousin and Abbie time soon. :) Mama and Sarah are at the church for a meeting with the events coordinator. I'll be making some Wedding Week Stollen, probably tomorrow. And praying - that God would be glorified throughout this process, that He would give us good weather, and that He would richly bless this coming union of two of His children.

more news

I got that hair cut, finally. The first time I went to a salon for a cut was July of 2008 (a month after I was Maria in Sound of Music, so I was free to cut it!). Before that, Papa or Mama trimmed my hair. That first one was a great cut. Some six months later, I returned to that academy and got my worst cut yet (for my hair texture, it was AWFUL). Next, I cut my own hair while at camp, on a weekend, in the bathroom with the kiddie scissors from the craft room. That was pretty bad as well, but decent, cheap, and fast. :) Next cut back at a different salon, I had to ask her to actually cut my hair so that it'd be shorter, thank you, than when I walked in... I guess she assumed all I wanted was a fix-up of my craft-scissor cut? And finally this cut! This hair dresser was convinced my hair was NOT curly, I didn't really want it that short, and she let simply piles of hair get down the back of my shirt. And obviously a hair salon doesn't have anything more handy for removing spiky hair stubble from the elastic on your camisole than scotch tape... The cut itself took probably 40 minutes. The total experience with self-clean-up? An hour. BUT I like the cut. A lot. :)