Piano Teaching and Housecleaning

Less than a month after Danielle was born our piano teacher called me up to let me know that she was getting too busy in her nursing program and would no longer be teaching piano lessons. I cried for about a week over it. I may have been slightly affected by my hormones at the time, but I knew there was no one else that I felt could teach them. I called all possible leads, and short of driving an hour one-way every week, there were no openings or options.

I admitted to myself that I could probably teach them at least as well as our teacher had, but I was so overwhelmed with our new little one and keeping up with my other responsibilities that I just didn't know how I could fit one more thing in and still do a decent job.

I prayed for about a month about what to do, and finally the answer came to me. I could spend the money that I used for piano lessons and use that to hire someone to clean my house. After asking around for a good person we found Jan! She came the first time and whipped my house into shape in just four hours. The three things that I love the most that she always cleans are the washer and dryer in the laundry room, the inside of the microwave and the top of the trash can. I know those are small things, but I can guarantee you that they were never cleaned before she entered our home. She comes every other week for the same price that we spend on just three 30-minute piano lessons. I don't know why we never thought of this before. Just when it seems like my life is spinning out of control, Jan shows up and brings order out of chaos.

I started out teaching my 4 kids piano lessons and have learned a lot after researching piano books, lessons, and strategies for teaching. I still have a lot to learn, but I feel more competent than I did 2 years ago. I have to turn down requests almost weekly to teach others, and I have added 4 others to my lineup. It is very rewarding to see all of my students making progress and getting better. I also have been surprised by how much I enjoy teaching even the younger children. This is definitely a new addition to the titles I go by as "The Responsible Woman." Probably the greatest encouragement I got was from my own children who have told me that I am an even better teacher than they had before.

It is just another lesson to me that what can start out as a challenge, often turns into a blessing.

Out of Control

This has been a hard week, where I knew all week that I had too much to do in not enough time, but I had to do it anyway. As a result it felt like I did everything badly. I snapped at my kids, snapped at my husband, ranted and raved at my life spinning out of control.

I guess some weeks are like that to let us know what we can and can't handle. I couldn't handle this week, and I don't want another one like it. Somehow, the kid's school got done (ungraded), though they weren't read to this week except on Thursday. I managed to finish a powerpoint to teach at the Adelante Life Skills class, video-recorded a counseling session, re-read a few chapters for my career class and took my test into the late hours, traveled for two days to Denver and enjoyed the Science Museum, played the piano at our friend's baptism, created another powerpoint presentation for my Wimba class next week, attended a ward conference and a multitude of other duties.

I am so tired this weekend.

I read a really wonderful story in the BYU Alumni magazine told by Elder Craig C. Christensen that helped me see how to balance more clearly:

"Several years ago Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was asked how to balance the demands of family, Church, profession, and personal interests. Elder Nelson first acknowledged that finding a perfect balance is virtually impossible. He then compared trying to balance competing demands to flying an airplane. He explained that at times certain aspects of life will cause the plane to tilt to one side. Later, other demands may cause the plane to tilt the other way--back and forth, side to side, as we address the many challenges of life. The key, he explained, is simply not to crash. He recommended that we invite someone, perhaps a spouse or other trusted friend, to always be there, hands firmly planted on the control stick to help bring us back into balance when necessary. Finally, Elder Nelson stated that everything we do in life--how we spend our time, how we invest our talents--should be connected to bringing us closer to the Savior."

This week, I will have to tilt my life back toward my family and get back in the direction that I want to go.

Counselor

I have jumped into my practicum this year, which I am doing at Adelante, La Puente and PALS. Adelante is a transitional housing program which works with families coming out of homelessness. They have assistance with housing for two years, and during that time they are required to work or go back to school, attend life skills classes, go to counseling, have home visits to set up budgets and learn home management skills as well as take parenting classes. All of these activities help them to be prepared to get back on their feet and prevent future homelessness. La Puente is a homeless shelter and PALS is a program designed to work with the children of the Adelente families as well as the children of those who are guests at the shelter.

I love the work I am doing and the variety between the different programs. I feel like there are so many people in society who have unmet needs that have never been given family or community support, and this is a way to meet their needs. It is also discouraging to see the price of addictions, lack of education, and abuse. It is one thing to criticize the drunks on the street, but after having a conversation and hearing their story, I have learned to judge less and love more.


At the start of this semester, I was starting to really worry about how my time away would affect my family. My children are used to always having me around, and Danielle particularly struggles when I am gone. Nathan misses me when I am distracted with assignments that have due dates looming ahead. I still have a busy church calling that demands my attention. I felt strongly that going back to school was the right choice, but this semester I was starting to have my doubts about whether the timing was still right.

We took our family to the temple last weekend to seek guidance. As I sat in my session my mind swirled with questions and concerns. Near the end of the session I felt calmer and a question was posed to me that I felt was the answer to my prayers: "What is another name for the Savior?"

The answer that came directly to me was simply, "Counselor."

It feels like such a blessing and privilege to take upon the name of Christ in a different way than I had previously considered. These years are busy ones, and I feel to live in such a way that when I look back, I will have no regrets as to how I spent my time.

I work hard to meet the needs of my family, and I make sacrifices along the way. My days are longer and my nights are busier, but I can rest after my labors knowing that I followed my Heavenly Father's plan for me.

2012 New Year's Resolutions

1. Finish my Practicum and complete 5 classes toward my Master's degree.

2. Continue to run 3 days per week.

3. Lose 20 pounds.

4. Blog twice a month.

5. Read 2 books a month.

6. Finish the Trek to Martin's Cove and Rocky Ridge.

7. Learn a new piano piece.

8. Read the scriptures daily.

9. Eat 4+ vegetables a day.

10. Go to Hawaii!

Mimic

Danielle has reached a fun stage where she likes to mimic people. She copies things that we do all the time and keeps us laughing with her antics. She also has gotten more independent and doesn't want us to help her do anything. If I so much as open her yogurt, she will refuse to eat it, even it has been ten hours since her last meal, and yogurt is her favorite food. She has also become a hoarder with her new Princess Rider. When we can't find a wii nunchuk, a remote or keys, we just need to look in the seat of her secret stash. What a firecracker!

Tonight she wandered into the bathroom with me, and while I was using the bathroom, she decided that she needed to feed the cat. She opened the cupboard, with me trying to explain to an almost-two year old that the cat already had enough food. She must have known that I was indisposed and unable to stop her, so she grabbed a handful of cat food and deposited it in the cat's dish with only a quarter of it ending up in the water bowl.

Once I was free to go after her I stopped her from grabbing her third handful and blocked the cupboard door, while she furiously screamed at me for letting her kitty go hungry. I scooped up the water dish and dumped it into the toilet before I refilled it with fresh water. As I was standing at the sink, Danielle grabbed the food dish and dumped it in the toilet. I'm sure it made perfect sense to her.

Fall Happenings

This past fall felt like quite a blur to me. Between homeschool, college, my calling, our trip to Washington, and life in general I didn't have a second to slow down. This Christmas Break has quite possibly been the best of my life. And happily, it isn't even over for a couple more weeks. I have had a time to slow down, stay in my pajamas, deep clean, read, organize, watch movies, pay bills, catch up my budget for the past four months, play the piano, clean out the garage, and sleep in. Plus, I told the kids they were on their own for breakfast and lunch, and sometimes even dinner. I have had time to call my own.

Now it's time to catch up on my blog and summarize the highlights from this past fall.

I nearly forgot to take a picture of the kids in their Halloween costumes. I was going to snap a picture when they went to the Trunk-or-Treat, but the battery in my camera was dead. In the chaos of trick-or-treating I didn't remember to take a picture until they came home and were cold and tired. Luckily, I did get a shot though. Brandon didn't go out this year. He passed out candy and then hung out with some of his friends for a while. Andrew was a boy scout, Connor was Draco Malfoy again, Nicole was a hippie, and Danielle was a bunny rabbit. They got plenty of candy.
A few days later I was in charge of our Stake YW in Excellence. We used the theme from Cami's ward, "Welcome Aboard." It was a lot of work but was a huge success.

That same weekend our friends the Fletchers came down from Walden (Nedlaw) to visit us. The kids didn't sleep all weekend, and they had so much fun. They invented a new sport called "Dally Diving" where you dive off the couch head first into a pile of sleeping bags and pillows. They played it for hours.
Next up was Thanksgiving. We shared it with our friends the Tolleys and had excellent food as well as excellent company.
The day after Thanksgiving, Nathan took the boys out to go hunt for our perfect Christmas tree. They found it, and we had fun decorating cookies and hanging them on the tree that night.

Danielle loved the Christmas tree this year, and she didn't mess with it too much. Connor was old enough to help string and tie them this year.

Brandon could reach the higher branches this year. He has passed me up in shoe size and is just about to be taller than me.

Andrew isn't too far behind Brandon.

We sang around the Christmas tree as many nights as possible.

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving was Connor's Pinewood Derby. Last year, he was the first of the Cherpeski boys to place at a Pinewood Derby, getting 3rd place. He told me on the way there that he was going to get 2nd place this year. I was worried that he was going to be disappointed, but low and behold, he really did come in 2nd!

I gave Nicole a cute new haircut.

I also discovered that Danielle finally has enough hair for a cute hairdo.

Connor took a few good shots of the deer in our yard after we had gotten a little snow.

Andrew's birthday snuck up on us. It was his party year, and his dream party was to invite his two closest friends, Bryant and John to play Memoir 44 for seven straight hours with pizza and cake during a break. They had a wonderful day.

He also got another cake on his actual birthday.

We were all relieved when Christmas Break finally got here. My semester ended, and I still have straight A's. I enjoyed my classes this semester and learned a ton, but I needed a break. We have been relaxing as much as possible.

I was such a bad photographer/mom I didn't get a single shot of any of Brandon's Football/Basketball games, or Nicole's dance/gymnastics, not to mention their swim lessons. Most of the pictures I took were honestly an afterthought. I don't want to run another marathon like that for a while, but I probably will next semester.

Brandon has been catching up on his reading, although Hockey started this week, so we'll see if I get a picture of that.
Andrew has been playing Memoir 44 by himself and anyone else who doesn't mind being skunked. In the rest of his spare time, he has been solving his rubiks' cubes (2x2, 3x3, 4x4, and 5x5).
Danielle has been playing in the dog's kennel.

Connor has been fine-tuning his lego-building skills.

Nicole has been playing with her friends every chance she gets.

It's nice to have a little breather, before I jump back into the chaos.

Smithsonian

This is my final post from our trip to D.C. Both times I had been to Washington before, I had a taste of the Smithsonian, but only enough to whet my appetite. I really wanted to see more of it. This trip was more of a feast. Because there were just to two of us, and we are in better shape from running this year, we covered a lot of territory in one week. We did a run through of many of the museums we have been wanting to visit. I had favorites from each museum.

The holocaust museum didn't allow any photography, but it was the most emotional museum for me. There was a scale model of Auschwitz with that still haunts me. It makes me wonder if there was more our country could have done.

The Museum of American History had the hat the Abraham Lincoln was wearing the night he was shot. I was surprised by how small it was.

The Museum of Natural History was full of interesting things. I really liked the gem exhibit and I saw the Hope Diamond again with a new setting.

The National Archives wasn't nearly as accessible as it was pre-9/11. Still, it was good to see the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.

The Air & Space Museum was impressive. I loved seeing the command module from Apollo 11. I was really wishing our boys were with us to see all the airplanes they love.

The Newseum was something new to me and ended up being one of my favorite museums. They had a powerful exhibit of all the headlines from September 11th. They also had a history of headlines.
The art museum was amazing as well. It was so impressive to see the brush strokes of Renoir, Monet, Picasso, Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh. I loved it.

We also got to see the second Air & Space Museum near the Dulles Airport. I will never to to the small one again. There was no comparison in the size and scope of the airplanes on exhibit.

My favorite part of the trip ended up being Mt. Vernon.

I loved it there, and we were there on a day with perfect weather. I looked in the same mirror that reflected our country's first president. I saw his home and was sobered to see his slave quarters and realize that as much as I honor him, he was still a product of his culture. He had an amazing view from his front door:

The scariest part of the trip was definitely the escalators coming up from the subway. It felt like we were coming out of the "belly of the beast."

I'm so grateful for our wonderful trip and that I was able to share it with my best friend and eternal companion. Happy 15 years!