Can you believe it is March already?? I feel like February flew by, but that’s because it was a short and busy month, I suppose. And the weather has been so crazy, warm, snowstorm, warm, cold, warm, etc. Let’s see what March does with the weather!

It ended up being a little longer than I thought since my last blog. I have really been trying to post at least once a week, and we are a little past that, so I have more to share with you.

I got my Mom’s Storyworth book yesterday: last year we gave her a subscription to Storyworth, and if you have a parent or grandparent who likes to write and enjoys looking back on their life, this is a fantastic thing! If they don’t like to write, you will likely have less success. Mom enjoyed writing stories, editing them, and adding pictures all year long. You use the questions Storyworth recommends or add your own, and people can read it along the way as well (if you want them too.) We have really enjoyed reading the stories all year long and I’m thrilled to have this tangible book to look at whenever I want.

Since we left off with my last blog post, Louie and I have gone to a number of events. One of our favorites was seeing the play Moby Dick at the Repertory Theater of St Louis. Neither of us has read Moby Dick, so we hoped that it was still a good idea to see the play. We weren’t wrong! We had great seats (cheaper than opera for sure) and really enjoyed the entire production. The actors climbed all over the set, way up high sometimes, and there were cool effects with flowing cloth to represent the water. There was a time near the end when there was a tidal wave and two of the actors ran up parallel aisles bringing a giant cloth over our entire audience section and it was very effective! Every time we go to see a play we want to see more, but it’s somehow harder to fit into our schedules than concerts are. I think I feel like spending the money for concerts is work related, which is just silly, because I don’t need to worry about that all the time.

The set at the beginning of the show.

We also went to see Brahms X Radiohead at the St Louis Symphony, which was a mashup of Brahms Symphony no. 1 and Radiohead’s Ok Computer. It was definitely an interesting idea, and while I’m not sure whether I liked it, I’m glad we went.

The cats have been enjoying the sun. They also love when the radiators are hot. With the weather being warmer, there tends to be more sun but less hot radiators, so they probably don’t quite understand what is going on. Life continues nonetheless.

Sometimes Muriel looks very cute. Other times she hisses at my students when they come in!

I’ve been doing the usual teaching with a few extra concerts dotted in recently. The quartet played for a Lent concert, I played for a choir concert and at a church. This weekend is gig free, but tomorrow afternoon is Festival of Strings at my school job, which means an afternoon spent tuning violins and violas, wrangling cats, I mean 4th graders, and watching a whole bunch of kids play together, which is always fun to see!

Yesterday I went to the Art Museum’s Art in Bloom event with my friend Manuela. I had not been before and didn’t know what to expect: it was a bunch of different flower arrangements placed around the museum. Each one was inspired by a different piece of art. We had a good time trying to get pictures and see how the flowers and the original artwork coordinated.

It was pretty crowded there, and we were there Friday morning. I suspect today will be even busier.

And then last night we went to a wine dinner at the Whittemore House. It was “women in wine” and all the wine makers were women as well, which was a lovely change. We had a nice meal, learned a bit, and enjoyed the company of our friends. (That sounds weird, but it was a wine dinner, so I need to write more formally.)

Since it’s the end of the month I should also report on some of my yearly goals.

February goals, revisited: I decided not to worry about the baking challenge this month: I didn’t have much time but also didn’t want to make a fancy dessert for just Louie and I and just wasn’t feeling inspired. I also decided not to make marmalade this year but make a note for next year. We didn’t get a hike in but got quite a few long walks. We had a dinner party and I had several lunches with friends. I continued to floss and do my Duolingo every day, got some good workouts in and ate relatively well. (I could do better with those last two.)

We attended Film Club and I attended Book Club and enjoyed both of those. I think my attitude stayed PRETTY good as far as FOMO and I have also started sharing my thoughts with friends more which has also helped (funny how getting out of your own head helps so much, hmm?) We also made progress towards our summer vacation plans.

March goals: Keep up the personal goals: good diet, exercise, hiking, lunches with friends, flossing, duolingo, book and movie clubs.

Enjoy a lovely trip to Chattanooga with my parents and Louie. Have a relaxing few days of Spring Break.

Get my taxes done. Spend at least a few hours dealing with the boxes in the garage and do some yard work as well. Stay on top of all my paperwork and admin/emails, etc.

I may do some baking: perhaps, either the month’s baking challenge or a loaf of whole wheat bread.

Well, there you have it. March looks like it should be a nice month?

Well, we made it through January, the longest month ever.

It was a whirlwind of activity. I don’t know quite how I made it through, and honestly, if I can make it through this week and to next weekend, life should get much easier. I know people always say that, but it really is true for me, things really will be a little easier. (HAHAHA!)

I’m well into week two of playing Funny Girl. It’s 8 shows a week on top of my regular teaching, and the hardest part is getting enough sleep, which I haven’t been doing. Yesterday was really helpful though, as both of my college students canceled on me so I ended up having about 5 hours off during the day, during which I caught up on emails and other paperwork and even had time for a nap and practicing. Thursday (that’s today) is my normal morning off so I slept in a bit and now I’m doing more emails and stuff. The admin load lately has been heavy, but mostly because of doing makeups for all the gigs and getting ready for the Music Club Federation Festival which requires sign ups by Valentine’s Day.

Sigh! So much work!

My goals for January: I met some and I didn’t meet others. We did go to the neighborhood Film Club meeting and watched the film already for next month’s. I baked bread, and had lunch with some friends one day. We had wanted to do a hike but the weather was just so cold we decided not to. I have not been as active as I would like, but I have been eating better than in the past, so that’s good. I’ve been doing a lot of stretching and making sure to stand up often. I did some needlepoint one time but haven’t done any since then. Oh, and I have been tracking my books: I read over 20.

I did stay up on my flossing and DuoLingo. In fact, we are planning a trip this summer to Sweden and Finland now, so I decided to sideline my Norwegian learning and start learning some Swedish first, which is similar but different. I have no ideas of being fluent, but I would love to be able to read some things and have a better sense of the world around me while we are there. And yes, I really want this trip to happen, though it seems far away (August) and lots can happen between now and then.

I also did some longer range planning for the year besides what I just mentioned: we blocked off a vacation in May as well and made plans to meet up with my parents halfway between our homes over Spring Break. Louie and I both work hard, many hours, and while it’s tempting in the music world to never take vacations (actually somewhat frowned upon by some!) the beauty of being a teacher/self employed is the ability to take breaks. And if you don’t block them off, those dates will get filled in (I actually messed up a little over Spring Break and should have reserved more time than I did, but lesson learned for the future: plan ahead more).

February goals: more social activities (we may be able to have a small dinner party), two lunches with friends, at least one hike with Louie somewhere local, maybe even two to make up for it, bake for Sally’s Baking Challenge (even though this month looks tough..), exercise more than this month, and keep staying on top of things (I have managed…for the most part). I would also love to make some marmalade, and I’ve made plans for these things in the calendar this month. I realize I am mostly focusing on the fun goals and not any of the house goals, but I also think that is okay: it’s a short month, and though life will be slightly less busy, who am I kidding. But inside projects are a good idea either way, as February weather can be unpredictable (with the idea of getting a hike in, as the weather currently is terrific for hiking, so maybe it’ll stay that way.)

I also want to continue working on my positive attitude and focusing on having an abundance rather than a scarcity mindset. I’m not sure if I mentioned that before, but I keep reminding myself: I truly have everything that I need, and if I keep reminding myself of that, it helps keep feelings of envy and FOMO at bay–if I focus on the positive and what I have, rather than what I don’t have, it is SO much better!

So there you have it. A new month, new me (just kidding, always the same me) and of course, cats..