Louie had a cold last week and over the weekend, and I woke up with a bit of a sore throat. I’m hopeful it’s not happening though, and I’m drinking lots of water. I tend to get sick around Easter for unknown reasons (seriously, my timehop app can prove it) but this time I’m determined not to. (It is completely out of my control.)

Well, after that literary start, welcome to today’s post. I thought I’d blogged about the weekend already, but that must have just been instagram. My weekend was pretty busy—this month is full of gigs and makeup lessons, so I had some of that over the weekend. We also had a dinner party at a friend’s house, dinner with Louie’s family, and best of all, a recital by Gil Shaham as part of the Great Artists Series at Washington University. As nice as it is to go to the symphony, it’s really awesome to see solo performances by world class musicians—it’s a different artistic experience entirely. I wish there was a monthly concert by some great string player! I guess you have to live in New York for that sort of thing.

We also got to enjoy the amazing weather a bit. Louie and I took a hike in Broemmelsiek Park. This was in the book I use, but it turned out that the park had been changed quite a bit since the book was published. We still had a nice time hiking.

This reminded Louie of Horseshoe Bend in Colorado.

There are always lots of nice bridges in local parks.

It was a muddy path, but nice to wander through the prairie and woods.

I also decided to go for a run…it had been quite some time. Last spring I’d hurt my knee a bit, and then I just stopped running. In any case, I thought it might be a good day to get back at it, and as a sign, when I opened Runkeeper there was a new program to follow to get back into running. So I’ve done two of the days, and it’s been a challenge, but fun. I seem to recall there was a period of time I enjoyed running, and maybe that would be a thing I could do again. I’ve been doing Walk At Home videos by Leslie Sansone, and Blogilates Videos with Cassey Ho, and I’m ready to run too.  I’ve made out a schedule, and especially towards summer I have more time.

I know people say you have to make time, but sometimes the time just isn’t there, or sometimes I just need to get some sleep more. I do occasionally work from early in the morning until late at night, and if there’s more than one or two days of that, I really start to value my sleep. Don’t we all? I know I’m hardly the busiest person in the world, but some days it does seem like it! Other days are like today, where I have the morning off to get caught up on work, practice, and work out AND I’m done teaching by 7:15, in time for an “early” dinner and an evening to relax a bit.

The students have their annual Music Club Festival this weekend. I’ve got 9 performing, and we’ve been working hard to get ready. I’m hopeful that they will be successful! I also have two doing Solo and Ensemble this weekend, but that’s through their schools so at least I don’t have to do anything more. Sometimes it seems like more trouble than it’s worth to do these events, but I do think the kids learn a lot and it’s a good goal to work towards. I don’t do group lessons and only a few of the students have orchestra at their schools (not many in the city have that opportunity), so it’s hard to keep them motivated.

Between that, various church services, two concerts Friday (noon and evening), teaching, and a band gig at the Schlafly Tap Room Saturday night, I’m definitely hoping I’m not getting sick, as this is a busy two weeks with excellent health. But I’ll manage either way: I always do! The weather is gorgeous, spring is definitely here, and there is less than a month left until college classes are done! (To me, that means summer is here )