Addison and Bryn started piano with a new teacher this summer. She is excellent! Super competent with attention to detail and a kind and encouraging personality. Also like two minutes from our house. Just what we needed. They performed in their first recital with her at the end of September. Leah started piano lessons at the beginning of September, so this was her "observation recital." She'll play in the next one at Christmas time. I am thrilled with these guys's hard work and progress. They did great!

The first day of school came and went a few weeks ago. Addison is in 6th grade this year, Bryn is in 5th, Leah is in 2nd, and Asa is in kindergarten! My child looks like a grown man in this picture! This is his last year of elementary school.   Bryn's being brave this year and decided to join the school choir. She saved a billion dollars to get these Warriors pins so her backpack would be absolutely perfect. And it is. She loves it. Leah has the same school teacher as last year and has added piano lessons with Teacher Tami to her schedule. This little guy absolutely loves school. He's in afternoon kindergarten. Addison, Bryn and Leah's school didn't have any openings for kindergartners to come in on boundary variances, so he's flying solo at the school in our neighborhood. Luckily we've got lots of church buddies there to watch out for him. He's making friends and loving his teacher. His backpack's as big as he is! ...

My Grandma on my Dad's side passed away in March. I've been trying to figure out how to blog about it and not miss anything. We lived about 30 minutes away from her growing up, and she taught almost all ten of us kids to play the piano. That meant roughly 45 minutes of quality, uninterrupted one-on-one time with her each week for about ten years of my life. Plus all the other Sunday afternoon visits, sing-alongs at Christmas time, hugs, kisses, laughs (so many laughs) . . . You can't blog that! You can't forget it either, so I've decided it's okay that I can't blog it. So just a few things to sum her up. First, I have searched my memories, and have discovered that I don't have a single one of her that is negative. Sure there were plenty during my awkward growing up years that where my behavior is cringe-worthy, but she was just sunshine and nurture and safety for me.  She had a great sense of humor and could tell a story like nobody else I...