It's the Little Things

Things are humming along here in our lives. School is definitely back in full swing and clubs and extra-curriculars are too. Music lessons re-started this week, and both of my kids are participating. Andrew has piano and euphonium lessons (he decided to return to the keys instead of continuing guitar....he is my boy after all!) and Emma is beginning flute. She has desperately wanted to and we have discovered that she's a mite small yet. Her arms hardly reach down the length of the flute when she holds it in the right spot. We will probably work her into it with some recorder lessons, but keep the flute as part of her practice and lesson schedule so she doesn't feel disappointed. We have practiced making noises by blowing into a soda bottle today and we have made some "twee" sounds, as Emma calls them, on the flute's head joint (which is basically the mouthpiece).
Andrew was thrilled to discover that, since his lessons are no longer on Thursdays, he can join the chess club at school.
Sigh.
That boy will be the death of me. He wants to do everything. I told him we'd look at it and make a decision soon. I'm feeling very much in-the-trenches right now and as such am indisposed to making new commitments.
I mean, it's not a bad thing. This is the part of mothering that I always meant when, growing up, I said I wanted to be a mother. Their interests are growing and they are unfolding as people right in front of my eyes. It's very exciting!
But still.
It's kinda sad when one of the most beautiful things you've seen all day is a warm ray of sun glinting off an instrument case.

Rather, it's kinda sad when the most beautiful thing you've noticed all day is a warm ray of sun glinting off an instrument case. Because that's the most still and quiet you've been all day - the most able-to-notice-things you've been all day.
I've always been one to look for the beauty in simplicity - to find things that feed my soul wherever I am. But still. People looked at me a little weird when I whipped out my camera in the lobby of the music studio and started snapping shots of a beat-up euphonium case...

DAILY BLISS: music teachers gushing over my son (his piano teacher said that talent and ability were "just oozing out of him") and a gorgeous, deep-orange to velvet-midnight-blue sunset.