Hymnal

Just to let you all know, my page-ironing worked very well! It did not turn out "like-new," but it is a whole lot better, and easier to turn pages. It did take a long time, the hymnal has nearly 500 songs, but it was worth it! Hope my random craziness will help someone else!!

I'm wacky, I know

I did something last night that I have never done before. I ironed the pages of a hymnal!

Let me explain. No, I’m not completely losing it, I had a purpose. :) The hymnal for the piano here at church is one of those 3-ring deals. I use the word “deal” loosely because sometimes they are more trouble than they are worth! That was getting to be the case with this one. All of the pages were bent and many have holes that are ripped out. It’s a bit disheartening to open the hymnal, trying to play for congregational singing, and have half the pages fall into your lap.

So I decided to try to fix some of them. Many had the corners folded over on the side that the holes for the rings are. This was making the book thicker than it should be, which in turn was making it hard to shut. If the book wasn’t shut carefully, things would get even worse. So I reasoned, if I can flatten out those corners, maybe the whole thing will lay flat again.

So I brought the book home and tried it out. I set the iron on the lowest setting and turned the steam off. I took out the first page and put a cloth over it to see how it would work. I did a couple pages that way, but found that the cloth wasn’t really letting the heat get through, and therefore wasn’t really doing much. So I licked my finger and felt the iron. I decided it was cool enough to just iron directly on the page. So that is what I did. I got over half the book done! It is kind of a slow process, but I think it is working. I’m excited to get them all done and see how it looks!

Some of the pages are in such bad disrepair that I am going to have to pick up some reinforcers for the holes. I don’t like to do that, because it makes the book thicker than it should be and can be even more trouble than its worth, but some are so bad that I will have to.

Hopefully I will finish ironing the pages tonight, and pick up the reinforcers tomorrow. I will let you know how it turns out!

Teaching Theory

I've mentioned before that I teach my 3 youngest siblings piano. This summer we are changing our schedules just a bit to allow for a slightly more relaxed schedule. So every other week we have regular lessons, and on the off weeks we have a theory lesson... which is much more fun! I've been doing a lot of research and printing many different things for these theory lessons to make them very interactive but fun at the same time. And they are learning, and don't even realize it! They seem to enjoy the different things we do. Stephanie is joining us as well for these theory lessons, since she is done with her lessons for the time being. Here are the things we did at our last theory lesson:

I made this staff and notes primarily for Carrie, but Rachel got some enjoyment out of it too, I think! I had made the staff for my piano pedagogy class 2 years ago at school, but I have found myself using it over and over again! This time I had the brilliant idea to make notes and different time signatures for her to arrange her own measures. It was easy to make with a black sharpie and white card stock. I made 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures, several bar lines, quarter notes, half notes, dotted half notes and whole notes. She seemed to enjoy being creative and coming up with her own rhythms. This will be easy to add to as she learns more symbols as well...rests, more time signatures, and eventually sharps and flats.

Here is a rhythm "game" that I downloaded from musicmattersblog.com. All I had to do was print out the sheets and cut them into fourths, and I had four each of all the notes and rests. I printed an extra page of the quarter notes, since those get used up quickly. For this activity I had Justin and Stephanie work together, and Rachel and Carrie work together. I would clap a two- or three-measure rhythm for them, and it was their job to arrange it into the correct measures with the right notes, rests, and bar lines in the correct places. Here is an example:
I had harder ones for Justin and Stephanie than I did for Rachel and Carrie. It was interesting because sometimes one would think it was one way and the other would think it was completely different. I would let them arrange it both ways and then tell them which was right.

This was a good review for them to refresh their memories as far as which notes get what counts in different time signatures.

I downloaded these grand staffs from Susan Paradis' Piano Teacher Resources (susanparadis.wordpress.com). One is just plain and I gave this one to Justin with dimes to use on it. The other one is Peppermint Candy-themed, so I one of those to Stephanie and Rachel with candies to use on them. She also has one that is candy-corn-themed, but I did not have any candy corn for them to use, so we will save that one for this fall. I read off triads and their inversions for Justin and Stephanie to arrange on each of their staves, and intervals for Rachel to arrange. This was thought-provoking for each of them! Stephanie and Justin seemed to have the most trouble with 2nd inversions, so we will be reviewing those again shortly! I enjoyed using these staves as an alternative to just having them fill out a worksheet or something... made it more interesting for them, I think!

We ended our theory evening by playing "The Goofy Piano" game from Susan Paradis' blog. She has it all set up to download and cut out 22 cards... 21 notes and one "Goofy Piano" card. The game is played like "Old Maid", and the person stuck with the "Goofy Piano" is the looser! Because we were playing with 5 people, I decided to add more cards, so I printed off some more of those rhythm cards that we used earlier from musicmattersblog and cut those to size. I ended up putting too many, because the game took FOREVER!! But it was still fun, with Stephanie going out first, leaving Rachel with the "Goofy Piano." It was a fun ending to a fun evening! I think some time in the future I may take out the "Goofy Piano" card and use the rest to play a game like "Go fish." I am just trying to think up a catchy musical-sounding name for it instead! Any suggestions?

Coming soon...a giant-sized keyboard and grand staff, a game using skittles, and a magnetic matching game for the refrigerator! You won't want to miss out!

Graduation!

Here are a few pictures from graduation:

From left to right: Ben Linville, Caleb Getty, Me, Andrew Minion, Christy Godfrey, David Brubaker. We had all been through all 4 years of college together, and were inseparable! I don't think I could have made it without the friendship of these 5. We had a blast with everything we did!

Me and my family. My dad graduated with a Certificate in Bible degree, and I graduated with a Music degree.

My mom's brother and his wife, Brian and Judy Gower.

My grandparents! I am so glad they were able to come spend the special day with us.

I ordered this purity ring a couple of weeks ago. Isn’t it pretty? A close friend of mine also got one, hers has a ruby instead of an amethyst. We looked online at some different ones, but we both liked this one the best. The picture does not do it justice at all!

After I got the ring, I got thinking about the meaning of purity. We know the obvious meaning of purity and of a purity ring...saving yourself for your life’s mate. A ring is the token of this purity. But what else? There must be more to it than that.

I looked up the meaning of purity in the dictionary, (like any good Bible College Graduate :) and got two results. One was freedom from immorality, especially of a sexual nature. The other was freedom from adulteration or contamination. This meaning kind of intrigued me. Our world today is so plagued with sin and wickedness, how could anyone be free and pure from contamination? It seems impossible, and it probably is impossible to not be influenced and tempted by the world. But just because we are influenced by the world doesn’t mean we have to be contaminated. Contamination happens when something poisonous is added to make the substance impure. (Another dictionary definition for you!) If we allow things from the world to poison us, to enter into us, we become impure.

So what are these things of the world that can contaminate us? Certainly we know the obvious things, drinking, drugs, etc. But what about other seemingly harmless things the world has to offer? Here’s a couple of things that come to my mind:

Speech. So often I feel like I use words that aren’t wrong, but may be just “lazy” words. The Bible tells us that we should do all to the glory of God, so shouldn’t that include speech that is “excellent?” Also so many times at school I was convicted about how often I talked about other people. Its not gossip if its public news, right? But was it necessary to talk about them, probably not.

Manners. A friend of mine recently blogged all about the bad manners in our society today, and I totally agree with her, so I won’t re-state it here! It does seem today like manners and any sense of etiquette have gone out the window. (BTW, etiquette is defined as “the customary code of polite behavior in society.” Certainly does not sound like our society!!) I could say a lot about that, but I will just say that it is a challenge to me as I see so many bad manners to make sure mine could not be included in that category!

Ministry focus...or lack thereof. Now I know that not everyone is called to full-time ministry, and thats not really what I mean. More just a willingness to live a life pleasing to God instead of centering our lives around money and a job and on and on the list could go with what society offers us. It is so easy to get busy with life and leave God out of our busy schedules and daily activities!

These are just a few of the ways I thought of that I am tempted to get contaminated by the world. A few years ago I was reading a book by Dr. Jim Berg, and this thought really struck me: why is it that we as Christians take what the world has to offer and clean it up enough for it to be suitable for a Christian? Why can’t we as “little-christ” have a higher standard and ambition than that? Obviously we have to use the same resources as the world, that is a little different, but in those areas where we can become contaminated, what the world has to offer seems so shallow to try to “dress up” for the Christian life.

Well, I will end my rambling thoughts, but this idea of purity in every area of my life certainly has made me evaluate several areas of my life and prayerfully make some changes! I hope that this purity ring will not only represent physical purity but also a purity of a life that is pleasing to God in every way.

Minion Wedding

Here are the promised pictures of the wedding! Sorry it took me so long! :(

Here are Andrew and Holly at rehearsal dinner.

Here are the bridesmaids, flower girl, and the back of Andrew's parent's heads!

Here are the "groomsmen," ringbearer, and bride and groom. You have probably already noticed that the second "groomsman" is a girl! Christie and the man on the end filled in for a couple of the guys that were coming from NC...they had a flat tire on the way, and did not make it to the rehearsal. I am sure this is the first and only time Christie has been a groomsman!! :)

They all looked so pretty!

"I now present Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Minion!"

I was able to play the piano for the prelude and postlude. I enjoy playing for weddings!

I was accompanying 3 of Andrew's siblings. Nate was also a groomsmen, and had to fill in in the instrument wing at the last minute for his brother, who got sick the night before. Stephen was supposed to play the cello, but Nate filled in with his viola. (Figure that one out??)

Carrie was a beautiful flower girl!!

...Maybe a little too beautiful!!

And they are off to Charleston, SC!!!!