I suddenly realized this week that Thanksgiving is next week. What…already? Next week? Thanksgiving is next week? Yikes!!! Actually, I am very excited about Thanksgiving! This will be the first Thanksgiving in years that my brother, sister and I will be together. My parents, my brother and his family, my sister and brother-in-law, Andrew’s parents and his brother and family are planning to come. I believe I have counted about eighteen of us! There is still a lot of family that will not be here. They are in our thoughts and we will miss them very much! Andrew and I are hosting Thanksgiving this year. We are kind of the in-between location for my family. It is very exciting!! Did I mention the fact that I love that we are all going to get together?! I have started to think about the menu for this Thanksgiving feast. Our families are not very adventurous eaters. I am going to stick to the traditional thanksgiving food. We will have an oven roasted turkey for our meat. (Maybe some ribs too…Andrew has a small smoker and we have talked about having a second option.) My mom is the dressing maker in our family. She learned the recipe from my grandma. (Here is a secret for you. I don’t like dressing! I know, weird, right? If I liked dressing I’m sure my mom’s would be the best ever!) Creamy garlic mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. Alesia (Andrew’s mom) makes a wonderful sweet potato casserole. I don’t really like sweet potatoes, but I love hers! It has a wonderful pecan topping on it! We will have fresh steamed green beans and carrots, home made macaroni and cheese, cranberry sauce, stuffed eggs and rolls. For dessert I am going to have pumpkin pies, apple pie, (Jamie and Krista, Andrew’s brother and sister-in-law, are bringing the apple pie) and carrot cake. Doesn’t this sound wonderfully delicious! My mouth is watering and my stomach is growling as I type!
Some family are coming on Wednesday and staying through Saturday. I am going to need to do some extra meal planning for next week too. Stay tuned for next weeks menu!
My piano students are working diligently on their pieces for recital. (For the most part!) As their teacher I always get anxious and probably more nervous than they do leading up to recital. Just like with Thanksgiving, the recital date is sneaking up on us! I have been pushing my students this week to make sure their pieces are learned. We only have a couple lessons really before recital. I have a student who is working on Chopin’s prelude in D-flat major (the raindrop prelude). As of Tuesday she still needs to learn the third page. It is the part where the key changes to sharps and is probably the most difficult part. She is talented and smart, and I know she can do it! I encouraged her to learn it before going away for Thanksgiving next week! I have another student who I’m also a little concerned about. She consistently forgets to bring her recital pieces to her lesson. We haven’t worked on them as much. It’s not that she doesn’t like the pieces or doesn’t want to practice them. That is just who she is. She is a fun, carefree kind of student. In the past I would cover for her by making sure I always had an extra copy of her music in my bag. She is getting older and part of taking piano lessons is about learning important life skills, like responsibility. I haven’t covered for her this year. We’ll see what happens. I am having faith that she will come through for me. (Did I mention I’m a little nervous?) I also have students who are ready for the recital and have been for weeks. That’s just the way it is. Every single time! I’ve learned that being a teacher is like being a cheer leader. Sometimes it is the most important thing I can do. Just picture me in the audience quietly cheering my students on!
During all the hustle and bustle it is important to take time and be thankful for everything we have. We have so much! Here is a short list of things I’m thankful for.
- Good Health
- A wonderful, handsome husband
- Beautiful, healthy children
- Jesus, His love and the gift of salvation
- Our families
- Good friends everywhere
- Our country and freedom
- Our jobs
- Food
- Beautiful Clothes, House, and cars
- Music
Treble Mama 