I could start my post with all sorts of caveats, that I know it isn’t normal, that so many in the world are still struggling, etc. But, we are a fully vaccinated household, the vaccines are still working well against the variants, and we are doing things again and it is wonderful!
Louie is going to work in person most days. I have a lot of students coming to the house for lessons. It feels more like a workday when he is gone, so we both get more done.
We’ve done a few social activities, which is great! We had dinner with friends Saturday night, I had my first lunch with a friend date since the before times, and we went out to dinner last night at Louie in Demun for Louie’s stepdad’s birthday. (It was delicious, though we ate too much and then went to bed so I woke up in the night and tossed and turned a bit.)
We had purchased “Young Friends” tickets to Opera St Louis for Sunday night, and enjoyed a little picnic first and then saw Highway 1 by William Grant Still.
Anyway, it’s been hectic here, but after a week in Arkansas it’s been a lot easier to handle it. I needed that break, and right now, I need another break, but I know it is coming up soon so I am doing well getting through my schedule. I think I’ll teach through July then like I said and take at least one more week off in August: I’m still waiting to hear more certainly when various family members might be visiting in August and that will inform my decision on time off. I’d love to take another trip somewhere, but I think it might just be a staycation with family visiting, with maybe some day trips.
We are planning to camp this weekend, however. I have reservations for two nights at Cuivre River State Park, but currently the weather is looking…not great! We’ll see what happens with the forecast over the next two days I guess. Thunderstorms and camping are not super fun, nor fun for the hiking we hoped to do on Saturday in between our camping nights. I made reservations because things get pretty full around here on the weekends, but who knows how the weather will be, right?
We’ve had some good stuff happening from the garden. We’ve been eating peas, chard, lettuce, and raspberries!
That’s it for now…people keep asking me do I have a lighter schedule in the summer. The answer is YES because I don’t have any 7:15 am classes, but I took a bunch of new private students, a few for probably year-round and a few for just summer lessons (keeping up between school orchestra years). I wanted to make sure to replace my graduating seniors, but many of my now-graduated seniors have not stopped lessons yet…so there are some busy teaching days! July is a bit lighter as people get more into camps and vacations, but I won’t fool myself. My schedule won’t be any lighter until I really make it so sometime. I have been fortunate during this time to have an incredibly full violin and viola studio with inquiries nearly every week for possible new students.
I have started 5 beginners in the past month and it’s been fun! I haven’t had so many beginners at once (not counting my school job) in over a decade, so it’s great to try some new strategies with old favorites. I could go on about how I teach beginners, but this isn’t a violin specific blog, so I won’t, but feel free to reach out 🙂
Keep your fingers crossed for the weather being decent this weekend! and tell me, what have you been up to this summer so far? Any interesting activities?
