Wednesday the 14th: Music of the Week

 Today we modeled for the students what taking solos to festival looks like. It's hard for the freshmen to know whether they want to try out for this optional exercise or not, and it's also hard for them to understand the work it takes to memorize a piece on your own. While we help them with recordings and practice time, it's primarily something they undertake by themselves.

Tuesday the 13th: Food!

 Last night I made French Onion Soup, which takes FOREVER and makes the whole house smell like caramelized onions. This is not a bad thing! Then we did our first taste test of Christmas: the Husband bought chocolates from three fancy places, theoretically in similar flavors, so that we could compare. Last night we did caramel chocolates. I preferred the one from Christopher Elbow (best contrast of chocolate and caramel) and the boys preferred Andre's (more chocolatey but milk chocolate and very smooth middle).

 

Monday the 12th: Saint of the Week

 What to know about St. Antony: 

Father of Monasticism; as a young man, heard the gospel Mt 19 (give all you have and come follow me) and followed it literally after giving his money to the poor and providing for his sister.   He visited hermits to learn their way of live and then lived in solitude in the desert; founded the first monastery of monks; fought against Arianism; what we know is from St. Athanasius, who studied under him in the desert

 St. Antony is my son's patron saint, so I try to make something nice to celebrate him for the day. 

 (Picture found on Pinterest: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Anthony_the_Great.jpg)

 

Friday the 9th: Bowling triumph

 You should know by now I'm not much of an athlete. I do walk every day and stretch every day, but coordination and stamina and strength...are not part of my skill set.

My sister-in-law invited us to go bowling for her birthday with her family.There were 8 total, divided between two lanes. SIL's family was way, way better than us, and my husband was way better in our lane than the rest of us. My baby brother and I were about 5 points apart after 3 games, so he challenged me to a death match to try and wipe me out.. His line is third, mine is second. A strike and two spares put me way ahead--my highest score for any game that day! He was very gracious in his defeat. 

 

 

Thursday the 8th: Food of the Week

*Tomorrow I'll be traveling to a tournament, so the boys of the house are going to have homemade runzas. I'll pull them out of the deep freeze tonight and put them upstairs. 

*Tonight I'm making Southern Cornbread from a Cook's Illustrated recipe, and we'll have that with a jarred soup from Aldi.

*Last night we had Sweet Potato Casserole, also from Cook's Illustrated. I put the filling and streusel together the night before and had someone in the house combine them and put it in the oven before I got home since I had a long day back yesterday. The casserole was great, not too sweet, the nuts on top were wonderful, and I picked up some hamburgers to have with it.

*Tuesday the Son made Apple Oven Pancake from the 2024 Betty Crocker Cookbook.  It was not as good a recipe as my mom's, and the Son struggled to beat the eggs enough, but it was still good.

*Monday we picked up Raisin Cane's because my husband was out of town from Sunday to Wednesday.

*Sunday we had tacos! It's one of our go to meals and it was delicious.

 

Wednesday the 7th: Music of the Week

 I'm back at work today, and I got five new songs to start learning:

 

"That Old Feeling" by Sammy Fain and Lew Brown, arranged by David von Kampen

"The Luckiest" by Ben Folds, arranged by Kerry Marsh 

Messe Breve the Kyrie by Leo Delibes, edited by Douglas J Walczak

"A Red, Red, Rose" by James Mulholland from Four Robert Burns Ballads 

Tuesday the 6th: Trip to Amana

 *I don't even know the last photo I posted since November is a lifetime ago, but my two most recent pictures (minus 1) are from a walk along the Millcreek in Amana, Iowa. It was cold and icy, a little shocking since we came from 50 degree weather, but we visited some new places and stayed in Amana at Hotel Millwright for the first time. We weren't able to walk the entire Millcreek but hopefully next visit we'll do a thorough walk of most of the Amanas.