Please Have a Seat

Please.  Have a seat.  Any seat.


The Neil is performing his Sophomore Piano Recital this coming
Saturday February 18 at 1:30
in the Madsen Recital Hall on BYU campus.  He’ll be playing 40 minutes of perfectly polished Mozart and others.  Refreshments afterward.  Come one, come all, we would love  to see you.  RSVP for more details and to find out what we’re having for refreshments.  Really!
We had a preview performance yesterday.
   
Bronwyn, just minutes before, had graduated from her next level in Suzzuki with her violin.  The T’s had fun trying out their upcoming recital pieces on this Steinway beauty.  And then got engrossed in their latest Redwall adventure.
 


Campus was so pleasant yesterday.   This drake and his lady charmed us.
   
Anna is no stranger to a Steinway herself.

And Caitlin was looking all cute and polka dotty so I had to shoot her.
Now my blog must become a photo blog.  Neil needs to choose one of these images for his flyer this week.  Tell me which one you want, Neil, and I’ll email you a high resolution copy.
    



  
  
  

My Funny Valentines

The way to press 9 yr old twin boys into making valentines is to assure them they can use their pocket knives.



Crayons, wax paper and an iron.  Everything old is new again. 

Aunt Spooky Strikes Again

Every Thursday after Piano With Nan, we stop on the way home to pick up our mail.  Every time we pick up mail Mark and Kyle vocalize their hope that there is something in it for them (not that they are sending any outgoing mail that would give them any reason for hoping. Still, hope springs eternal . . .)  Today, Kyle comes back with an arm load, and happily announces that there is a package for them! Not the first of its kind – it is eye and brain candy for 9 year old boys.  The kind of candy a mother is happy to have her boys gobble up.  Discovery Kid magazines full of the treasure of stunning photography and information.  Tonight, there will be lots of conversation at the dinner table beginning with, “Mom, Dad, did you know . . . ?”  Aunt Spooky (aka Aunt Cheri) has extended her Halloween treating into February.  Nothing spooky about that. 

The Josh

The Josh is Posh.  That’s all there is to it.  I feel like I can say that because we watched him grow up.  One time, when our ward was performing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a very young Josh stunned us with a voice that riveted everyone.  I thought it was a recording and was trying to figure out who was lip syncing.  Gradually, it became apparent that that rich, mellow, melting voice was coming from none other than Josh.  I haven’t heard him solo since – but I long to.  I’ll never forget that happy surprise. And now, here I get to photograph his chiseled mouth and dimpled chin, and the whole of a generally all-over gifted young man.

When he brought out his black trumpet I couldn’t stop snapping images like these.

Good luck to this wonderful Senior Man.

Button Lamps–A Pioneer/Liz Tip

Liz is at my house!  Talented, fun, organized Liz.  We have been trading skills lately, and, today she is here to help tame my kitchen pantry.  There’s the bucket of lard I haven’t any idea what to do with.  I never use the stuff.  I am in a I’ll-do-whatever-you-suggest-mood and brace myself for adding another item to the ‘give to someone who’ll use it’ option.  (who do I know that uses LARD ?!)  But no – Liz is not only talented, fun and organized – she is frugal.  And SHE says, “I’ll show you how to make  button lamps and you can put it in your emergency supplies.”  I am intrigued.  A What Lamp?

  

Here’s what I needed: the now-interesting lard (or any fat or oil), a 3x3 in. piece of 100% cotton fabric, a penny (the pioneers would have used a metal button, hence the name), thread, and a plate to set it on to burn and, of course, matches.  Set the penny in the center of fabric and gather the ends up with the thread into a charming li’l bundle.

Ta-da. See?  Isn’t it as cute as a Hershey kiss?

 

 

Coat the whole thing with the lard and set it into a smearing of the stuff too.

Now, strike a match! (yelled the NOSM-private family joke-sorry.  Call me to name where that saying comes from.)

Add fuel to your little button lamp by pouring a tablespoon of oil or melted solid fat to the base.  It will wick up the oil and burn quite brightly for about a half hour per tablespoon. Keep adding as long as you want light.  But remember, this little baby is a one time burn.  After she goes out, you’ll have to fashion a new one.  If you’re using a solid fat and have no electricity, just melt it over the flame in a metal measuring spoon or cup.

Liz tells me that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about doing this in her book  The Long Winter.  I remember loving that book, and read it while enduring a long, Canadian winter.  But I don’t remember that part.  The boys are going to love this while we finish reading Farmer Boy.  My Wolf Cubs are going to hear about this too.  I maintain that being frugal is most fun when you don’t HAVE to be.