It's May!

It has finally rained.  And the yard is so pretty right now.  Iris, daisies, columbine, lily of the valley, phlox

I saw a dietician on Monday to discuss how to lower my cholesterol / triglicerides levels.  She said I was basically doing all the right things – I just need to eat more soluble fiber (beans, etc) and less carbohydrates.  Now I just need to start doing it.  I suppose there is an app for my phone to help me keep track of all this?  Any suggestions?

Tuesday, Steve and I visited the HR office to get more retirement information.  We learned that our health insurance will go up.  Boo!  And, as a result of the visit, we have more information to gather from various sources as we enter into a new financial bracket (a lower one – I guess we shoulda been playing the lottery all these years, huh?)

I worked at sprucing up the deck on Wednesday.  I haven’t put anything in the planters yet but the squirrels are still digging in the dirt, knocking over pots, spreading soil all over!  Since then, I have bought some dollar-store whirlygigs to put in each planter.  Hopefully, the movement will scare those buggers away.  Stay tuned.

Movies watched:  I am taking off two days this coming week since I have some personal hours I need to use or lose so my class will watch the Music Man during class.  I created a worksheet for them to fill out as they watch so Steve and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie again so I could glean questions.  “Madam, not one poop out of you!  I mean peep”

My Netflix was The Identical.   Haven’t seen it –or even heard of it?  Go look it up on IMDB and then watch it.  PG rating.  Ray Liota in a different type of role.

Steve and I watched Return to Me.  We laughed. We cried.  Even after watching it dozens of times.  So what.  And, we decided that Bonnie Hunt needs to make more movies. 

Candlelight Lodge had their Mother’s Day Tea on Friday.  I was asked to provide music – big surprise – and I found my friend, Morgan, to play string duos.  She also is a marvelous soprano and she had some old time Mother’s day music (That Wonderful Mother of Mine, M-O-T-H-E-R) which she sang with me accompanying. 

Later that afternoon, Steve and I went to listen to the Boone County Tick Pickers as they performed at the Terrace Retirement Apartments “happy hour".  The lead singer/guitarist is in the MMCO and he is quite a character.  His four-man combo (guitar, bass, dobro, and washboard) was very entertaining.  Below is sort of what he played.  Not as new and colorful.  His looked like it had been run over by a car.  And, instead of a glove, he had thimbles on a few fingers.  Pretty cool.

 

 My studio recital was Saturday.  

 

 Molly Vornholt, whom I have taught for seven years, graduates from high school this month and then she heads to Grinnell.  She and I opened the program with a movement out of the Vivaldi double cello concerto and she ended the recital with The Swan and Tarentella.  It has been so great to see her blossom as a musician over the years.  As you know, I have been trying to use up fabric scraps and so I made a musical lap quilt 

 

for Molly and for my other senior, Rowan.  Here is Rowan playing in her school concert a few weeks back.

 

The Geenen family – Siri is in Prairie Strings – was honored as Missouri’s Musical Family of the Year on Saturday. That is her mother on piano and Solveig on the far right and Linnea in the middle.

 

Sadie and Trissy were groomed on Friday.  So beautiful!