Girls, gigs, gifts and games

I'll take a break from my trip blogging for a bit of an update on what's been going on since the trip.  I'm quite proud of myself for making it mostly through our anniversary trip!  Just one more day to blog about!

It has been a mostly uneventful summer-- we didn't plan anything other than the anniversary trip because we weren't sure until the last minute what our moving timeline would be, and where in the state of Massachusetts we would be living at any given moment.  Normally the girls might do camps or we might take some smaller trips, but this year we just kept things open.  It has actually worked out very well to just mostly stay home.  It has given us a chance to settle in and get unpacked at the new house, and we have had plenty of time just for resting after a busy year.  Given everyone's low motivation level to get out of the house in the past few weeks, I'd say we really needed some down time.  It has been wonderful.

I have been teaching as a part of my school's summer lesson program; I had ten students plus a string quartet this year, meaning a full day of teaching once a week.  That program is now over, so the last part of August is more open.  I have also had three different wedding gigs in the last two weeks, as well as my regular Sunday night Schola, so I have been bopping in and out of the house quite a bit while M has stayed with the girls.  Singing wedding gigs is always interesting as no two weddings are alike.  For one wedding the bride wanted several motets by Tallis, Palestrina, and Josquin as prelude and service music, and then for the mass parts we sang almost all of the movements from Palestrina's Missa Brevis.  My sight-reading skills were definitely put to the test that day as it was just a quartet of singers (one person on each part) and I only knew one of the motets ahead of time, but the music was certainly beautiful and satisfying to sing!

After that wedding I took J to her friend's birthday party.  She had stayed with my sister-in-law while I sang for the wedding (they did a farm trip!) and then I picked her up afterwards and we went straight to the party.  She had an absolute blast swimming and playing with all of her pals from her old preschool.  The ride home looked like this:

At another wedding the couple had requested all gospel swing music (from the Mass of Glory) and the bride herself sang the communion meditation, which I would have been way too anxious to do on my own wedding day, but it worked for her!  A singer colleague of mine is writing a book about wedding music and her experiences, and the more I sing and perform for weddings the more I feel I could also write a book about it.  So many crazy stories to tell, and you get a completely different experience each time, so you really have to be ready for just about anything.  It keeps you on your toes for sure!

I came home from that wedding exhausted and starving, and found this happy sight of my little family waiting for me, lovely table set and dinner waiting, cooked for all of us by N.  I had to dump my stuff and take this picture before digging in to my food, just because it was such a nice thing to come home to.

Here's another wonderful meal made for us by N (with a little help from Dad)... grilled Beyond Burgers, oven fries and grilled asparagus.  May I highly recommend grilling your asparagus?  It was SOOO delicious!

The other girls have each had a chance to attend some friends' birthday parties; it has been so great to be in town and able to say yes to party invitations!  At one party for a friend of L's I showed up with all four girls (M was working that day) intending to drop L off and come back later, but this wonderful family invited all four girls to stay and jump on the trampolines!

I think little Miss J had the most fun and was just over the moon to be included with the big kids.  Our girls really have the nicest friends here.

There is N's birthday party to tell about also, but that probably deserves a post of its own!  She did an amazing job planning the whole thing and putting together games, etc. while I was busy gigging.

I'll just tell you about one more special day before ending because it's time for dinner!

L had an orthodontist appointment back in our old town one day, so because I had a gift card for a salon that I had never used, I booked an appointment because I've been wanting to do something different with my hair.  It was the most relaxing three hours I've had in a long time!

You can see L very patiently reading in the background... she finished an entire chapter book while she waited and after that I gave her my phone so she could borrow a library book on my Kindle app.  She finished the entire second book as well because my appointment took about 2.5 hours.  I got a lot of hair chopped off plus highlights.

After her orthodontist appointment a donut treat was in order:

It was so nice and special to spend some one-on-one time together.

The "after" shot :)

That's all for now folks!  Hope your summer has been awesome too!