Playing with Shaving Cream

One of my favorite sensory activities to do with littles is letting them play with shaving cream. I buy super cheap cream at the dollar store and then squirt it onto the table. He spreads it around, smooshes it, and can even write letters or draw pictures in it. It's such a great tactile experience!

Quartus was excited to discover that "I can shape it!" He tried piling it up like a sandcastle and was just tickled when he saw that the way it collected around his hand created what he thought looked like a robot's "gun hand." He also found what looked like a mouse and a chicken.

Sometimes I add a few drops of food coloring and let him mix that in for another fun element. It's also very entertaining for me to watch him try to wipe cream off of a place that he doesn't want it but actually end up making a bigger mess!

Cleanup is super easy. When the kid is done, he gets escorted to the bathroom with his hands in the air. The shaving cream comes off easily with water. Then I scoop up the majority of the mess on the table with paper towels and then it gets wiped down with water, too.

First Day of Theater Class

The kids do a theater class one semester per year. It's such a fun enrichment class for them! And it gives them about 3 hours with other kids, learning from a teacher other than mommy. 

For two years, the girls got to attend while the boys and I hung out at the park and library (class is a couple towns away so it doesn't make sense to drop them off and then come home, just to turn around and drive all the way back). 

Then Tertius was old enough so it was just me and Quartus for a couple of years. Now Quartus is a five-year-old big kid and he's enrolled for the first time.  And now I'm on my own and I don't quite know what to do with myself!

I think my feelings of excitement and sadness when saying goodbye to my kiddos on the first day of theater class is pretty close to how other parents feel when dropping off their kids on the first day of school.

And those feelings were intensified since my "baby" was going to his first day of essentially Kindergarten. I'm so proud of him and all the things he's learning and the fun kid he's turning into, but it's also hard to see him grow up and get more independent, like the others.

Tertius was super cute when it was time for the kids to line up and walk from the cubby/gathering room into the rehearsal room! Quartus is nervous in new situations but Tertius made sure that his brother felt safe. He grabbed his hand and got in the back of the line with him so they could walk in together.

They're going to have a great semester!

I Finally Got My Piano Tuned!

My piano is a hand-me-down from my Aunt. I've had it for maybe about 3 years and it was in need of a tuning! If the stickers inside the instrument are to be believed, it hasn't been looked at since 1986!

I finally had it tuned yesterday and I highly recommend my guy, Jim! (If you live around the Sacramento area, I'll give you his contact info.)  He did a great job. Jim's an old family friend so I absolutely trust him to be an honest, hard working man. I also know that he's an accomplished musician so I could trust his ear.

His story of becoming a certified tuner is fascinating. Here's the short version: Heavenly Father led him to this path, he studied a year-long piano tuning course in only 2 months, and then passed the test with only missing one question (the highest score the school has ever seen), and then was able to explain to the tester why the one question he missed was poorly worded. So, yeah, it's safe to say that he knows what he's doing!

Jim spent some time explaining to me what he was going to do, and then at the end he explained what specific needs my piano had. This was important because he thought he would have to remove the "action" (all the hammers and keys) to clean and fix sticky keys and he didn't want me to freak out if I saw him tearing my precious instrument all apart 😂.  He also gave me some helpful tips for properly caring for it.  And a really neat lesson on American A440 vs European A432!

Another cool thing that Jim does that really sets him apart is this little portable vacuum he uses. As a free bonus included with his tuning services, he vacuums around the hammers and keys. Now I won't be embarrassed when I open up the piano to show new students how the instrument works because there won't be a layer of dust on everything!  lol

The piano sounds so good now!  It turns out that he only needed to tune 20% of the strings but it's amazing what a difference that 20% made!  The keys that were the worst were D and E directly above middle C.  He had to stretch and retune them 3 times because they kept slipping back to an out-of-tune state.  This makes sense considering my piano hasn't been tuned regularly and not at all for a few decades. These keys also get a lot of use! But they sound awesome now!

I'm back!

I've been quiet on all my social media for about 4 months.  I'm dealing with a bit of a personal crisis and basically had a nervous breakdown.  After that, I stepped back and haven't been posting anything here or on my personal Facebook.  I didn't want to clog up everyone's newsfeed with the depressing, negative stuff that I wanted to say, and didn't have the energy to fake happy.  I didn't have the energy to do anything!  Also, most days I wanted to scream from the rooftops, "I'M NOT OK!" while at the same time I wanted to crawl under a rock for embarrassment.  And so I kept the screaming internal, and occasionally to my best friends, and posted nothing.

This summer was not fun.  I was mostly in "survival mode" and just trying to get out of bed every morning, keep our regular routines in place, and keep the kids clean and fed.  After several weeks of wallowing, I finally started to come out of the fog a little bit.  I made a list of the things I was going to prioritize my limited energy on, and a list of things that I want to start doing again but will have to add later.  Blogging was on the second list.

I still won't be posting on my personal social media like I used to for the foreseeable future, but I really miss blogging and think I'm ready to get back into it.  Working on this site is something I really enjoy.  This is how I document family memories, share the gospel, and support fellow homeschoolers!

So I'm back.  Before my freak-out, I had a few posts finished and scheduled that I cancelled.  Those are going to go up first before new ideas.

Yes, I'm still struggling. Don't expect anything inspirational or introspective for a while. But at least I'm  slowly trying to make my life better. Slowly. Trying.

Anyway, here's to a new year of school! May yours be wonderful!