A challenging goal keeps things interesting. . .

I've been inspired by my friend Crystal (who's doing a cooking challenge on her blog) who was inspired by the movie Julie & Julia (in which Julie makes a goal to make her way through Julia Child's cookbook on her blog). But since I'm no cook and really have no desire to be, I decided to do a similar challenge on a much-longer timeline with music. I have a book of piano classics called "Piano Pieces the Whole World Plays," which is really challenging. My friend Michelle lent me hers a while back and I liked it, so I ordered my own copy on ebay and voila! here I am. I try to practice every day (in some ways to show Bianca that she needs to learn to work for things she wants to be able to do well, like her own music) and wanted to learn one of Chopin's Nocturnes. It happens to fall on page 7. Song #1. Nocturne in E-Flat Major (Chopin Op. 9 No. 2) I've been working on it for a while.

This gave me the idea--Julie worked her way through Julia's cook book. Why can't I work my way through this piano book?

It will take me a while (sometimes even months) to work my way through songs before they'll be ready to post, but I'm planning to post them on my blog as I feel they're ready. I'll start out here (in the below video) with my first Nocturne. Bear with me. I will always, always make mistakes. I have no reality issues where I think I'm ever going to be perfect, just better. =)

Bianca's music's first public appearance

Bianca doesn't go to Providence Hall, the charter school in Herriman. In fact, she's still 17th on the waiting list. BUT her piano teacher was putting a video together for Providence Hall's "reflections" contest and Bianca's composition made it on as background music. On the Providence Hall charter school web site, just click on "Night at the Museum" and when they get to the musical composition portion, the background music is Bianca's "Birds' Chorus" song.

Inviting the muse to stay awhile

I like to keep things on schedule. I have a certain time that I like to have dinner, clean up the house, have the kids in bed. But last night, since we had to see the dentist in the afternoon, my entire bedtime schedule was thrown off. And I have this horrifying tendency to hurry my kids along, especially Bianca when she's dinking around on the piano instead of practicing her assigned pieces for the week. But last night, I was busy folding and putting away laundry and I decided to just let Bianca dink around. And fifteen minutes later, she had created a new song.

I told her, however, that we didn't have time for her to write down the notes on her lined-music paper so could she just record herself and then she could take it all down later. After she videotaped herself and after she was finished practicing her assigned music, she wanted to watch the video. This video shows the way her brain works to come up with her music. I like watching the way she experiments with chords and tries to come up with the melody she's looking for.

It's hard with all the homework and practicing and chores and everything else an eight-year-old has to do to come up with a couple minutes to just tinker on the keys of a piano. I should let Bianca do it more often. I'm going to try to make an effort to sit back and not hurry her anymore when I can. Because for a lot of creative types, when the muse comes, you have to entertain it. Otherwise, the muse may not hurry back. Maybe some nights the homework can slide. Maybe sometimes we can be behind the schedule. After all, when a guest is in the house, you should definitely not hurry them out but allow them to linger--even if the guest is something as intangible as the muse. [This was the beginning of Rain on a Dark Mroning.]

Mothering is a lot like playing chess

Bianca's getting ready for a chess tournament. She loves these things. She's still learning, but she has fun. And everyone gets a medal no matter where they finish, so Bianca loves to go so she has another medal to hang on the post of her bed. However, Bianca hadn't been going to chess club at school (which happens on Mondays and Wednesdays at lunch recess) because she'd rather play with friends. So I said, "No chess club, no tournament." However, I told her I'd still sign her up IF she played chess with either me or dad every night until the tournament. She agreed. After all, she received a marble chess set (straight from Eric's last trip to India) for Christmas and she likes to try it out a bit. So after doing multiplication flash cards and reading a chapter from Phantom of the Opera, we play chess (if Eric's not home from work) by the fire.

I'm a beginner. Bianca taught me how to play, and I admit that I'm not good. I'm still learning how to strategize and how to correctly use my pieces. And I'm overly aggressive (probably because I like to get the game over with so I can sit back and relax for the night). That's my time. Anyway, I've only won once. Bianca usually beats me. And Eric totally crushes me. But I'm a good sport (usually) and again, I'm still learning.

It's also no secret that I'm struggling with getting Portia to sleep at night. She's done with napping. And when I put her to bed, she just comes right out of her room. She has lost most every toy she's owned at least once (including dress-ups, all her Care Bears, her coveted Angelina Ballerina dolls, you get the point).

As usual, I put Portia to bed before Bianca and I started our chess game tonight. Out comes Portia. Once. Twice. Thrice (there goes the bluebird night light). Four times, five times, six times. I hate to spank, but. . . Seven, eight. And now here I finally go in to Portia's room, lay her in bed for the ninth time, and say, "The next time you get out of bed, you lose all your Angelina Ballerinas (which is only four of them as she's already had most of them taken away and can only earn one back per night). And that was it. I haven't heard a peep from her room since. I had my pawn in position to take out her king all along, and yet I didn't know how and when to use it. It would have been so much nicer had I said that the first time--then no spank, no dark room, no frustration.

I admit it: I'm still learning--at mothering and at chess.

Playing in the snow

The first time it snowed this year, I was so excited for Bianca and Portia to play in it, but Portia wouldn't have anything to do with it. But today, out of no where, Portia decided she wanted to build a snowman. So, she convinced (without too much effort) Bianca to go out and play in the snow with her. They threw a lot of snowballs, made some snow angels, and then sculpted their masterpiece snowman. Afterwards, we sat by the fire and then had hot cocoa. Ah yes, this is what makes childhood fun. And I'm glad they got out there today because it's raining all the snow away tonight.

Ice Skating

Bianca doesn't do any sports. It's not that I haven't given her a chance to do them--we tried soccer, gymnastics, dancing, gymnastics, soccer again, gymnastics again. She is excited at the beginning but then it always just fizzles away. So here we are, on to her next thing. It's ice skating. They do ice skating lessons at the South Jordan skating rink and the lessons are really reasonable. I signed Bianca up for beginner and they moved her up to advanced on the first day. I took her this past weekend and was shocked with how quickly Bianca was picking everything up. And she was one of the (if not THE) best in the class. So here I am, dreaming and fantasizing about how she's going to be going to the Olympics. Yes, I know I have a problem. This will probably fizzle out too. But you never know. . .

Lights at Temple Square

We don't do this every year, but we had a completely blank Christmas week, so Eric and I bundled up the girls and headed to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. They were so beautiful and it was wonderful--but I just wish I could find a time to enjoy them without ALL the other people. It was still fun!