How I learned the Hallelujah Chorus

Dear Georgia,

Happy Birthday!

My birthday story for you is coming, but before I forget I wanted to tell you how much fun it was to sing the Hallelujah Chorus this Easter. And how challenging.

First, I am an alto by choice and ability, but made the mistake of letting the choir director, Tom W. Harris, hear me squawk out some very harsh, sort-of high notes. He stuck me in the soprano section! My throat has been sore ever since.

Second, I don't read music. Not a lick. I still count up the number of notes from middle C both on the sheet music and on the piano. To cover my sad musical failure, I have developed a decent ear and I can get the tune of most pieces that I sing if I hear it a couple of times. It does limit the level of music I attempt to sing. I gladly confess I mostly stick to hymns, folk songs, and show tunes, poorly executed. I know this isn't the hardest music ever written (I remember Doug Bush saying once that Handle was for amateurs) but it was way beyond the way beyond of my ability to hear, play, or sing.

Third, because it wasn't MY church choir I was singing with I only started to learn this piece the Wednesday before Easter! I have proven myself as a procrastinator but this was beyond the pale! The Wednesday rehearsal I fumbled my way sheepishly through by not singing. I was so lost. I was so embarrassed. I was desperately trying to figure out a way to get out of my commitment. Couldn't one of my kids start throwing up? Or perhaps I could fall down the stairs and break my leg?

I went home and turned to my favorite library of music. Youtube. And low and behold, ask and ye shall recieve, the Lord doth provide, there was the answer to my prayers! No, not videos on how to fake food poisoning or how to start a temporary scarlet fever epidemic, but HOW TO LEARN THE HALLELUJAH CHORUS!!!!!

I played and sang with the following 3 videos so much in the next three days that I was sure the neighbors were going to call the cops. "Officer, there is a woman in pain next door. She is being tortured! Rescue her!"

So, did I succeed? Well, that depends on what success means. I still can't read music. I still am not a soprano. BUT I hit all the notes! My vocal range expanded! My confidence expanded! I increased my determination to keep trying to learn how to read music. AND I had fun! I had so much fun! I want to do it over and over and over again! What a great song! What a fun musical dance and puzzle and play! It left me positively giddy! Perhaps these videos won't give you the same experience that I had, but for your birthday I wish you that same feeling of accomplishment and joy that I felt on learning to sing the Hallelujah Chorus.

xoxoxo

h

First: the s l o w e d d o w n version so I could follow along with the notes that I couldn't read.

Next, on tempo, with other people hitting the right notes.

Then, on my own with a bunch of people singing something completely different.

Last, with the choir and orchestra! Yeah me!

xo

h

Bunny Cake

Dear Georgia,

I saw these here and had to try. They made Maggie and I so excited that we ignored our headaches and crackly coughs so we could make them. We thought it would be cute to put carrot cake inside. But I wouldn't do that next time because the carrot chunks kept clogging up the nozzle of the bottle that we filled the bunnies with. So fun!

Double Glazing

Dear Georgia,

I can't get these to show side by side as I would like... But that isn't the point of this post. The point is I found a video that told about glazing -- a watercolor technique where you apply paint on top of already dry paint. I thought I would give it a try. It ended up being so much fun that I painted this triptych of easter eggs. I know that Joh has been playing around with watercolors and so I wanted to post a link to the movie in case any one else will have the "how to make flat things look round" light bulb go off in their brains too. There are 8 segments to this video series. You can bop over to them by clicking here.

I think one of the things that was such fun about this little exercise is that I haven't even been able to see the color changes before and now I can see them and play with them myself. I even put them on my fridge with my kids art. (And I suppose that this is my virtual fridge, too.)

Challenge: No Impact Week

My family and I are going to take this on. Will you join us?

Love is in the air

Dear Georgia,
As you know, I am traditionally not a valentine's day person. But I thought I might change that when I saw these. I didn't want to pay the 5 bucks for the pattern and I didn't want to be restricted by their rules (thou shalt not sell made items, thou shalt not share pattern) so I came up with my own.


I don't want to take away from their little buisness of making and selling patterns so I won't give a blow by blow of how to make them, but when I get to my computer I will write a blip on the magic bag bottom. (snicker, titter, hmph! splutter, HA HA HA!)
Josie's (aka Ellen) bag is made out of a dress she grew out of. Mimi's is my favorite. Emily is the baby of a friend who I helped in making her own. And I thought I was over pink, but these make me squeel like a little girl.

snow goats

Dear Georgia,

Once again, I am telling you the same news I told Aunt Phil in a letter this morning. It isn't that you aren't inspiring enough, because you are, but I am being lazy/unmotivated/busy/efficient (I am not sure which -- perhaps a mix of all) and just copying what I already wrote.

I love the blue of snowy mornings and evenings. We had our first real snow this morning. It wasn't our first snow fall, but the first that covered the ground. I am quite content with snow that only stays from mid December to New Years Day. I have lived here long enough now to know that isn't where we are headed. Now that it is here, I think we can be assured of its presence until early April. Sometimes I wish I could hibernate and miss all the slush and gray slop that will come about Februaryish. But then I would miss mornings like this one that ascend out of night darkness through shades of lightening blue to glorious blinding white.

Snow on the ground will mean problems for the goats. The goats are already a problem for me. I was ready to get rid of them this fall and give up on the whole farm experiment. They are too smart for their own good and have figured out how to get out of their stall and then out of the barn all on their own. That wouldn't be so much of a problem if they would stay back in the pasture or fields, but they wander toward the road. Last week I found them two doors down!

I was helping in Josie's kindergarten class later that morning and told the kids about my 40 minute adventure of trying to catch Snowbell and Pearl. One of the little girls in her class piped up "Hey! I saw some goats in my back yard this morning! I bet they were over here too!" Her house is about 3 miles away in the middle of the village. We all got a good chuckle out of that, but it got me thinking about stories and how it would be fun to have a story about what 2 goats see when they come into my village. So I started on a goats eye view of Seneca Falls. I think I will pick 12 "sights", one for each month of the year. I thought of painting the pictures, but after my first attempts I can see I will have to learn to take photographs. Speaking of which, this fresh snow will make a lovely back drop! I have to hustle out and take December's photos before the light is gone!

xo

h

Of mice and moms

Dear Georgia,
I am cheating today. This letter was really to Aunt Phil, my grandma's baby sister. When I heard she wasn't feeling well I had another flood of missing Gigi. Aunt Phil has always held a tender spot in my heart. Especially since the summer that I lived with Gigi. She was somewhat of a fairy-godmother in my memory.
I thought that if I sent it off without making a copy I would forget about these few moments that I have recorded. They are common enough to forget. But since I have written them once, they can become a journal post of sorts.

Dear Aunt Phil,
Sam has renamed our cat. Instead of Puff he has taken to calling her Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. She has turned out to be a great mouser.

Maggie found her as a 4 week old kitten in the fields behind our church about a year ago. The kitten wasn't abandoned but Maggie's Sunday School class must have scared off the MamaCat when they caught the kittens. I think it must be the wild cat part of her that makes her such a great hunter. Every morning we have something new torn apart for us as an offering on the front porch. She seems to know that we are happiest when she brings us mice and other rodents because she rarely brings us birds. I guess that doesn't have to means she doesn't go after them, just that she doesn't bring them to us very often. She did find a baby robin that had fallen out of it's nest this past spring. The neighborhood kids were all taking turns "guarding" it, but as soon as they got bored and wandered off... well, how do you console a mama robin? It was a moment of reflection at any rate.

This morning she found her prey inside the house. A family of mice (and we do hope that it is a small family and not an extended colony) has taken up residence somewhere by my children's bedrooms. What does that tell you about the state of their rooms? ICK! We caught one of those wee mousies on Thanksgiving morning hiding behind the toilet that was getting scrubbed. He made quite an uproar as he leaped a whole flight of stairs in an attempt to escape, but we caught him in a canning jar and then took him out side all quaking and alert. We left him in a sheltered spot on the far side of the pond. We gave him a handful of wheat and a scoop of peanut butter for his Thanksgiving dinner.

His brother wasn't so lucky this morning. When we came onto the scene he had been played with enough to either have him beyond confusion or begging for his own death. Puff would toss him in the air, wrestle with him, then let him run away, ready to catch him and play with him again. The poor thing would run right back to her instead of trying to get away. When he finally stopped moving she ripped open his stomach and ate his innards.

My kids are pretty good about cleaning up after their pets, but I don't think I will be able to convince them to do this job.

xo
h