Music, Morning to (Almost) Midnight

I took the kids to a small concert hall downtown tonight because I'm insane for an evening of cultural enlightenment. As the musicians were warming up, Christian commented on their initial cacophony,"They sound terrible."

He changed his tune once they changed their tune, and we enjoyed an evening of very talented violinists performing Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky.

We owe the idea of attending the concert to a friend of Mike's, and someone the rest of us are getting to know. She was also there, and while we were only able to visit briefly before the performance and for a few more minutes during intermission, I am glad she invited us, and am looking forward to doing other fun things together. Maybe she would like the concert series at our church, which are quite well done. I am going to try to make it to some of them this year, hopefully with all the kids (they are free!).

This morning after I got Christian to school, the girls and I went to the weekly class we attend, where we learned many new songs in order to help us remember the facts for this week. History songs, Latin songs, math songs, English grammar songs...you can learn pretty much anything if you sing it.

We also went to the dentist's office today, and the kids received "A"s for their good check-ups. The hygienists kindly reminded us to floss. Daily.

In between the dentist's and the concert, we spent a few hours at home; the kids hung out in the back room listening to songs on Michaela's computer. Then on the way downtown, Christian offered up a crazy solo rap/song that went on for a full twenty minutes. Michaela wanted to tell him to be quiet, using less diplomatic terms, but I thought if he kept it up he might lose his voice altogether. What we discovered is that his voice can last a very long time. He did manage to rein it in by the time we reached our seats (and it may or may not have helped that I had told them if we needed to leave early for bad choices, they would be paying for the tickets themselves).

Two out of three kids are now sleeping, and the quiet of the house is music to my ears after a busy day. I'm so grateful for the sweet soul-swelling sound of classical masters and for the sweet sound of silence too, and all the other music of a day. A time for each...