Today I am Loving {65}

 When you hit the wall with all the packing,

and load in the car just a wee bit loopy, 

to finish the night off,

with summer.

Today I am Loving {64}

When the piano babies have their last day and will no longer crowd around your kitchen table, and you feel the need for some kind of change, but then you wake up in the early morning and stumble around the corner, in total shock as to what you are seeing.

Today I am Loving {63a}

When all year you wait for tomato sandwiches via farmer's market fare, and then, it's time.

Today I am Loving {63}

When the piano baby has such a great last lesson she begs for another one, but when she discovers she has left her bag at home (with all she needs to accomplish her plan for the day) it brings her straight to tears, so you come up with a back-up plan involving many sticky note options, and sprawl across the floor, to learn.

Today I am Loving {62}

When you are waiting for a package that is absolutely not crucial to your life, but you are working from home and need a brain break, plus the sun is bountiful and the breeze beauteous, and so you walk to the post office, twice.

Today I am Loving {61}

When you awaken in what the children call "LoLo's bed" to see the morning sun aglow, and are reminded of the Glory of the Lord, His promises to remain.

Today I am Loving {60a}

When the recital is over and has left you with the rewarding "we worked hard and we are wiped out" feeling, and so you lounge, and talk.

Today I am Loving {60}

When it is recital day, but first there is quality Quint & LoLo time.

Today I am Loving {59b}

When the dear ones have been painting their new house all day, and at the end of it, you whip up some delicious calzones with drinks to accompany and set the yard, for being.

Today I am Loving {59a}

When you are pretty much out of money, 

and also --you think-- out of food, 

but you discover just enough remnants in your refrigerator

to make a salad, such as this.

Today I am Loving {59}

When the recital is approaching and the rehearsals are happening not quite close to home, and you're doing all the driving but you have a moment of hands-on-the-keys and I-just-love-this, and you arrive at home so groggy groggy and climb into your bed though there is sun still (late) shining, and you wake in the morning but groggy is still with you and so instead of doing the playing work, you sit, and you listen, and you realize: everybody has an opinion, and yours is just as valid.

Today I am Loving {58}

When the year comes to an end and the piano baby looks 

at all the things that she has learned,

and remarks on all the things she thought she couldn't do but can,

and asks for all the things she has grown into.

Today I am Loving {57}

When you copy the music just a wee bit larger, and are relieved to discover it is not your skills that are failing you, but your vision.

Today I am Loving {56}

When you take the drive in order to have an afternoon in a hot sweaty church because there is the work that needs to be done with the longtime friend, and then you go back to her home to prepare the dinner while the children and grandparents play with joyful laughter, and then there is the good simple food and the tired peaceful being,
wrapped in early evening breeze. 

Today I am Loving {55}

When there is piano work inside while the sister lounges on the chair nearby simply just to be with us, and the brother is out on the porch with his book while the little one sleeps on the lap of the friend near the pond out in the yard, and at lesson switch time the girls prepare drinks, and distribute them to all before coming back in while the brother works on the sixteenth note song, to clasp their mugs and to set up the stools, to play the note-reading game that they love.

Today I am Loving {54}

When the campfire fades to nothing and the stars come to glowing overhead, and the air touches perfect while we talk here lazy quiet, and there is laughter, warm hearts.

Today I am Loving {53}

When you climb back in the beautiful bed to talk with Him, and you wrap yourself in sheets still warm while pond sounds trickle over your ears, and the birdsong wings all around from every window side.

Today I am Loving {52}

When the prayer cabin day speaks the hidden things,

in breathtaking simple.

Today I am Loving {51a}

When you are having an evening of the catch-up kind,

and after you dig through the heart things but before you go over the mind things  you run to the store to get a spontaneous treat,

and as you dish it up you say "are we going to be ladylike?" 

and the good-for-the-soul friend says,
"I don't feel the need to be ladylike at all"

and hence, you divvy, and devour.

Today I am Loving {51}

When the research meeting is full of deep thoughts, 

and just as much in laughs.

Today I am Loving {50}

When you return from the time away
to find the ground is running running,
and out from under it the questions rise and the sadness swirls,
and you sit with Him and He reminds you:
He is the One who tells you the Truth,
He is the Face that blazes straight and into yours
like Risen Healing Victorious Sun.

Today I am Loving {49b}

When you balance the arm weight to get the gradation of sound that you want, and you realize all it is that you have learned to know...but then, you turn the page, and feel as if you have never seen this piece in all your life, and so you dig in to a different kind of work. 

Today I am Loving {49a}

When there is such color.

Today I am Loving {49}

 When it is the season,

to bloom.

Today I am Loving {48}

 When it is summer,

 and you take care of life,

and barefoot.

Today I am Loving {47}

When the dear one is in town and you are making her lunch, 

and you go out to your garden, to get the dill.

This week I was Loving: Piano Camp Edition

When piano camping with my dear friend Kristen,

we put together our brains
[which for many years we have claimed to share,
to the adorable bafflement of the children],

and come up with GENIUS.

We have some good times with sweet littles (and, as was the case this year, the wee  littles), but we also consider it to be a week of refreshment, simply enjoying being in each other's presence after these long years of friendship.

During a piano camp vacation,
there are certain things that always happen,

like extraordinary snacks
[which may or may not lead to
healthy antagonism between the teachers, as in,
"Miss Kristen, did you eat my cucumbers?!"
and of which the children love to take part], 

 late night games [or as late as two people who need to corral small children into wunderkinds in 4 short days can handle],

 and the crafting of dinners beyond belief
["this is the most beautiful plate of food I've ever eaten!!"
being a common piano camp theme].

[Food preparation is key for piano camp success,

and food planning comes first,

before we even think about that piano...]

There is also always her Ben's ice cream, 

for which we always place our order early in the week
[and for which we shall now take a moment of silence,
as it is so good!!!].

Usually there is the exercising [given all the good food eating]

often in the form of walking [since this is one of the tenets on which our friendship was built, years and years ago, along the beach in North Carolina and then through my sweet little Princeton neighborhood].

We walked one morning around her new neighborhood,
and then the next day we walked around the town,

 including the sites on the campus, old and historical.

[Kristen is an excellent teacher in all realms, so she filled me in on the history of this school that began as a girl's school in pre-Civil War days. When Lee's army retreated through this little town and Grant's army was close behind, the girls were trapped and couldn't get to home. Grant unloaded cannons off of wagons, put the girls on them, and had them taken to the nearest available railroad line.]

Then we went further into town, where there's the old tobacco factories, now turned to furniture warehouses, 

 where any style of furniture you want may be found. 

 [I found these chairs, and nearly fell down dead with desire.]

When Kristen needed to return to campus for a business meeting,

 I wandered around the town,
scoping out all the antiques they have for sale.

[I found this panel, and--once again!--nearly fell down dead.]

The next morning we decided our walk of
the day before needed to be one-upped
[speaking of nearly falling down dead].

 We headed out on the High Bridge trail,

 a 5 mile path

 that leads to this bridge, first built in pre-Civil War days,
and burned when Lee's army was trying to get away.

[If you would like to see a depiction of the battle, you should go to the local Riverside Diner, where you can eat your very delicious meal directly underneath a quite large mural, bearing Confederate flag, burning bridge, and bloody wounds to boot...]

 We stopped in the middle and took in this view, resting our feet and drinking our water, before heading back the 5 miles we came,

and bumping into this little guy.

We closed out our week

 with a recital (of course),
but after we got the little ones through their playing (will they make it through their quartets in one piece?!) and their bowing (could the wee littles be any cuter?! Or more oblivious!?!?) and their post-recital popsicles (because we are all about food afterall...), we headed over to an old high school building, which put Farmville on the map and is now an informative museum.

Back when segregation was taken for granted, the Farmville school for black children was far less than equal. The students organized, and went on strike. They presented their case to the NAACP, who made their school one of the cases in Brown vs. Board of Education.

After segregation was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the white community of Farmville organized,
shutting down all public schooling

 by scrambling together a private system for the white children.

 During the five years that the public schools were closed,

 Martin Luther King Jr. visited to boost morale,

 and ultimately Robert Kennedy stepped in, hired teachers (since none in the community would work for the public school) and re-opened the public system. [Read the above quote to put it in perspective.]

 Kristen [who is, as I mentioned, an excellent teacher] had had a tour with one of the students of the original strike, and she was a fount of information. It was very interesting, and very very sad, especially since the legacy of these years still lives in this place.

We closed out our lovely week with a movie on the lawn,

Meet Me in St. Louis, [which is--by the way and quite ironically, given our afternoon--full of racist moments...] during which we were granted a meteor falling through the sky, marking our Piano Camp vacation a success from all angles.

You know you have a good friend when you [in all your introvertedness] have spent 6ish days with her and could easily do 6ish more [and when you have taught her husband the phrase "Introvert Time", and she--though quite verbal in her dislike of said phrase and the subsequent teaching-of-said-phrase-to-said-husband--loves you all the same].

And since we only managed to [sort of] accomplish #5 on this list
[in the course of changing the lives of these children!! that is],
I guess we'll have to do it again next year!