Random thoughts somehow tied together...

Today is Easter Sunday, 2014.  Last year at this time I was lost in my own sort of Blah!  I remember the thoughts as I reflected on the first Easter that all my kids were not home.  It was tough, but it was also a reminder that Easter isn't about who you spend it with.  It is about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord.  He has risen, INDEED!!

This year I was happy to have all the kids home.  James and Hannah played in our tiny orchestra at church.  That was a blessing.   The music was a wonderful addition to an already glorious day.  I cooked the traditional roast, rice and gravy, and green beans.  We had dinner and then Scott hid eggs for Hannah and James.  He is so clever.  He told H and J that some of the eggs (golden and blue ones)  contained something extra special.  Of course that sparked some "friendly" sibling competition, but the prizes were typical Scott.  A folded napkin, pop gun bullets, a plastic ring.  Nothing to fight over to be sure.  I love Scott's sense of humor.  

Changing thoughts, two days from now, on April 22, it will be 9 years since my grandmother "Nanny" passed away.  There are still many things that remind me of her.  For example, she taught me how to cook a roast.  It was her meal for company.  We always had one when we visited her house in Mobile.  Her love of flowers is another reminder.  Huge azalea bushes surrounded her red house on Hunter Avenue in Mobile.   She always had containers of flowers on her patio...well tended and cared for.  The first few years of my marriage, she would always send me home with something to plant...daisies or a hydrangea bush.  

Nanny's last birthday with us...age 97

The Easter Lily...even though that isn't the right name.

Christmas Cactus

That brings me to the thoughts behind this post.  In December, God gave me a gift.  No one else would ever appreciate this except me.  When Nanny moved in with me in 2003, I brought a  Christmas cactus from her house and kept it on a table in her room.  I have never in 11 years seen a flower on that cactus.  I also dug up some kind of bulb from her flower bed and planted it in my own flower bed.  I believe the bulb is some type of lily, and each year it bloomed in the spring it would add one more flower.  Last spring, no lily flower.  I think my bushes choked it out.  Nonetheless I was pretty sad.  I looked for my reminder of Nanny and all that she meant to me, and it wasn't there. Well, as you may have guessed, that year  in December, the  Christmas cactus was in full bloom.  I didn't do anything different.  I gave it the same amount of water and light.  It just bloomed...all over.  Not just one tiny flower but plenty.  God's gift to me.  His reminder that he remembers me.  He knows me inside and out, sins and desires and goodness.  He knows me well enough to cause a flower to bloom and remind me that I am His.  

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  Matthew 6:28-29

Blessings,

M

Moody Music and More part 2

Since my last post, I have logged five more hours of auditorium chair sitting at Honor Bands, so I thought I would give my readers a little glimpse into the "more".  My previous post focused mainly on The Alabama Choir School, but here is a glimpse into the instrument world.  These pictures will highlight Hannah's first District IV Honor Band at the Univesity of West Alabama, and James' last. Lots more auditorium visits in my future, don't cha think!

James' first  Honor Band
Samford, 2009

James' last Honor Band UWA 2014

Hannah at her 3rd Honor Band, but first
at District UWA.  She wore a skirt but changed
before the picture.  

Middle School Honor Band

2009...

2014

High School Honor Band       

Two fine musicians

Moody Music and More

Once upon a time, way back in 1988, the Holtkamp organ was built in Moody Music Hall, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  I attended the first ever concert played on the organ.  I was a junior in college.  Aside from one Hilaritas concert, I don't recall any other occasion when I entered the Hall in college or grad school. Little did I know just how many hours I would spend in this acclaimed building in years to come.  Last weekend during an honor band concert at Moody Music Hall  I was reflecting on how things in life come full circle.  

Holtkamp Organ

The Alabama Boychoir Tour Boys Spring 2009

 Some parents of young children participate in "bench sitting".  This would be hours upon hours watching their children play various sports.  While I have had my fair share of bench sitting, I can now say it has been replaced with more hours of "auditorium chair sitting".

So when did it all begin?  My oldest son joined The Alabama Children's Chorus in 2004, when he was in the third grade.  The Alabama Choir School holds its concerts at Moody Music Building.  There are four concerts, two in the winter and two in the spring.  Thus began my tenure as an auditorium chair sitter.  Once again, I was watching concerts at Moody,  only this time my own child was on the stage.  S stayed in the choir until he was in the 8th grade.  He moved up into the Alabama Resident Boychoir and finally, the Alabama Tour Boychoir.  Meanwhile, middle child joined the choir.  He began in the Resident Boys, and moved on to the Tour Boys and is currently in the Chamber Choir.  You might guess that third child joined as well.  She began in the Children's Chorus in second grade due to a generous scholarship, and has continued on ever since, working her way through Resident Girls and Tour Girls.  

This is the only year that all three kiddos participated in the concerts.  The boys were in tour choir and Hannah was in Children's Chorus.  

The math for these concerts probably seems easy enough, four concerts per year for 10 years.  But...band enters the equation.  Honor bands and even middle school band concerts begin in the 7th grade.  Middle child and youngest child are band members.  More auditorium chair sitting.  Keep in mind the chair sitting often applies to practices as well as performances.  I've also done my fair share of backstage volunteering.  Little did I know what was to come when I sat at that first ever Holtkamp organ concert.  Time is a strange mind boggling thing to ponder.  

So...aside from the thirty-something Choir School concerts I have attended, add to that performances in school auditoriums or at the Bama Theater.  Yep...somewhere along the way J and H became interested in children's theater, so I added  new venues to the auditorium chair sitting.  

I suppose I am now living vicariously through my children.  I have a background in music...cornet player and choir member...but I have always had terrible nerves and don't like to be in the spotlight.  I have done my auditorium chair sitting through beginner band performances which sometimes need earplugs, great moments on stage and not so great moments on stage, and worked my way up listening to superior performances coupled with the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra.  Music and theater are a major part of my life as a parent.  Kudos to the directors for countless hours of practices, the parents for chauffeuring the kids around, and auditorium chair sitters everywhere.  See you at the next concert!   M

Handsome singers!