Category: Teaching (Page 1 of 4)

I guess I lied earlier in the week when I said I would “post pictures of the recital tomorrow” because here we are 5 days later… but so many exciting things happened this week that I just HAD to write about as well.  🙂

We had another great Spring Recital.  I had two Seniors this year (one at each recital) that I had to say goodbye to.  It’s always sad to see them go, but also so exciting for them as well… Chloe performed again, like a pro, hopped right up on the stage, played and then happily bowed before bouncing off the stage again.

Also, I’m not sure if this will work or not, but my last student at the 2:00 recital played “He’s A Pirate” from Pirates of the Caribbean.  It was awesome.  I had a student play it a couple years ago, and I remember loving it just as much then.  I’m glad she asked to play it (and even memorized it!).  Her mom took a video and posted it on Facebook, so I’m going to try and link it here… but it might not work.  Let’s see…

https://www.facebook.com/angela.watschke/videos/pcb.10208363067849567/10208363045048997/?type=3&theater

Sorry I just dropped off the face of the earth internet.  😉  Things got busy leading up to my recitals, as always happens.  Then the Saturday of my recitals I spent over 4 hours trying to get my printer to cooperate.  Sadly I still don’t have it fixed.  But I was able to get it “fixed enough” to print the programs for the recital the next day–it just took much (MUCH) longer than I had anticipated.  Plus, by the time I got them printed and folded I was so frustrated that I just sat and stewed for a while.

Anyway, the recitals went wonderfully well:

Our Annual Recital Day Picture. This time with Maddie!

2:00 Recital

4:00 Recital

After cleaning up from the recitals the next day, I went over to my friends’ house and we (plus 2 other friends from church) make our annual Christmas goodies!  We do it every year now–get together at someones house and cook up a storm for a few hours, the divide the goodies.  It’s awesome.  I love the variety of things that we end up making.

yummm…. we made 15 different kinds.

Then the next day I cleaned up the house (it REALLY needed it) and prepped for cleaning carpets on Wednesday.  We rented a carpet cleaner bright and early on Wednesday morning and I slowly made my way through all the carpets in the house.  I decided to leave the large items that don’t move (like beds and pianos) and just cleaned the areas around those, since they really aren’t getting dirty under those anyway… It was awesome to wake up the next morning and see all those sparkling carpets.  (Figuratively, of course.)

Ready with my carpet cleaner and coffee!

Then of course, the next day was already Christmas Eve!  But more on that tomorrow… for now, I’m off to bed!

Our nanny called in unexpectedly sick last Friday, ten minutes before my students were coming… So, after a moment of panic and a quick phone call to Tim, I decided that I could manage it by myself.  Chloe went to the park with friends, Josiah played in the backyard, and Maddie sat (semi) quietly with me in the lessons.

My teaching buddy

We laughed at how this was probably the only time it would work so well to have the kids alone here while I was teaching (at least until Maddie is older).  Josiah and Chloe are at a wonderful age where they can play mostly by themselves, and Maddie is at an immobile age yet.  It was definitely an exciting afternoon here!

Today I’m officially back to teaching again.

My time management skills clearly need a bit of tweaking… but the first week back it always a bit of a struggle for me.  It won’t take long before I’m back into the swing of getting myself moving sooner in the morning.

But for now, I’ve gotta finish tidying up the main floor before my lessons come!  Toodles!

Yesterday was my Fall sign-up day.  It’s a crazy morning, but like always, it feels so good to have it squared away for the rest of the year.  I opted to do sign-ups a week later this year in hopes of giving families more time to figure out all the other activities everyone is doing.  Schedules for sports aren’t always out yet so many people don’t know what days practices are or even meets.  So, I tried to hold off a little.  I haven’t had any feedback yet if it was helpful or not but at least I tried!

Today we enjoyed a delightfully lazy day.  It rained most of the day so that helped put us in a relaxed state of mind.  We meandered around the house, colored for a while, pulled out all the new toys they got from their birthday party, watched a movie tonight and I even let them go out and play in the rain for a while.   Oh, and I’m pleased to say I even squeezed in a low key workout video during their quiet time.

Tomorrow we have one of the nannies coming for a “trial run” with Maddie.  It’s easier if they can come once before the school year starts so I can have time to talk them through things now that there will be THREE of them to watch.

Can you believe we are already over half way through August?  Wowsa!