Snapshots of a Day

Number One:

I spent the morning at Cara's house working on a craft project. She had the day off from school because of the Jewish new year, and I had the morning free, so we had made plans to get together. We decided to use the time to make tile coasters following this tutorial. It was a nice, relaxing morning... so good to do something home-y and domestic.

I selected my color scheme to go with our new couch and pillows in the living room:

A view of the little pads on the back:

Now we just need a coffee table to put them on!

{I think these coasters would make a nice gift idea. So, my dear family members, if you happen to receive a set of coasters for Christmas this year, just pretend to be surprised. An appropriate response might be: "Oh, how ever did you think of this... I've never seen anything like it... coasters, fancy that!"}

Number Two:

I had a half hour to practice in between Tierra's lesson and Elaine's lesson. Elaine and her father walked into the room and heard a few measures of Biber, and her dad, who has quite the dry sense of humor, said, "Okay, that sounds very good... I don't think you even need to have a lesson today, Sarah, but you can stay here for Elaine's lesson if you want to." Funny guy... but the best part was seeing nine-year-old Elaine, usually so quiet, smile and laugh about it.

Number Three:

For some reason, this conversation struck me as very sweet... perhaps because Elaine is usually so reserved.

Sarah: Do you think you can listen to Lightly Row ten times this week? It will make it so much easier to remember where the long bows are.

Elaine: Yes, I think I can do that...

Sarah: Our brains have a way of remembering music we listen to. I still remember all the songs I listened to when I was your age... it kind of amazes me.

Elaine: My mom says that about music, too. She remembers musicals really well, all the words.

Sarah: Oh, musicals are the best... I still remember all the words to the ones I used to listen to, too. Do you watch or listen to musicals with your mom?

Elaine: Yes, like... is Annie a musical?

Sarah: Definitely... that's a good one. Except I used the think the part on the bridge was scary. You're probably braver than I was, though.

Elaine: Well, I can never tell what's really going on in that part. Is it a bridge?

Sarah: Yes, I think it's a drawbridge... and I just remember thinking Annie would fall.

Elaine: Yes, it's kind of scary, but I'm usually okay.

*pause*

Elaine: Whoah, I just thought I saw a horse trot by in the hallway out of the corner of my eye.

Sarah: Wow, that would really be unexpected.

Elaine: I like horses. And I rode on an elephant once, when I was three. I kind of remember sitting on it, but I can't remember how I felt about it.

{Aren't kids fun to talk with? I love having little windows into the things they think about.}

Number Four:

This is what the practice chart of a very frustrated seven-year-old violin student looks like.

Poor Teaghan... I took one look at her crumpled chart and asked her, "Were you angry at your violin? Or having a bad practice day? What happened?" She replied, "I was angry at Allegretto!"

Number Five:

I had a rather disturbing encounter with a squirrel in our house yesterday, scampering about the T.V. room faster than my eyes could track him. This encounter ended with me attempting to barricade the squirrel into the T.V. room, despite the fact that said room does not have a door, and leaving a Havahart trap with peanut butter in the middle of the room to entice him. My attempts failed, resulting in a very small squirrel roaming freely about the house and evading all our diligent attempts at detection.

This evening Nathan had his own encounter with the squirrel, who had apparently taken refuge in the attic but finally reemerged. After a few sprints up and down the stairs after the little guy, we both managed to get him into a bedroom upstairs and shut the door.

At this point, Nathan may have said, "As long as we have him isolated in one room, I suppose we could just leave him in there for a few days..."

And I may have answered, "Sure, as long as we feed him!"

And he may have looked at me like, "My dear woman, you are missing the point..."

So instead of leaving the squirrel alone in the room, we entered the bedroom, where I guarded the space beneath the door and Nathan chased the squirrel in circles around the room (right across my feet at least a dozen times... eeep!) and finally, chased him right into the Havahart trap and closed it quite swiftly, with the squirrel inside.

Look how cute he is!

We thought about keeping him for a pet, but decided to set him free outside.

So that was an adventure.

{Please don't think of us as the most disgusting people you've ever known, just because we had a fugitive squirrel in our house.}

And that was my Thursday. How was yours?