One of the most difficult parts to learn in the opera I just finished was a scene that incorporated “Shall We Gather at the River” with a Finnish Lutheran Hymn. In that scene, I was assigned to be a Methodist, and so I sang “Shall We Gather at the River” which is a hymn I’ve song…
A few weeks ago I sang an opera aria (Vissi d’Arte from Tosca) at a funeral. After the service, one of my neighbors came up to me and said, “Who knew that the woman who runs up the hill to the bus stop in her pajamas every morning could sing like that!” After I overcame…
Can you imagine waking up in somebody else’s life? Or, at least, it feels like somebody else’s because you can’t remember anything about your previous experiences, not even your own name? Heather Justesen has written a book exploring just what that might feel like. In Blank Slate, Adrianna, a well-known concert pianist, is in an accident and…
If you read my blog at all, you know that I have not one, but THREE children, and you may think that this is an odd book title for me to be reviewing. And you’d be right. Lisa at TLC Booktours asked me to review this book on the premise that some of my readers might be…
Bad Habits? I definitely have more than enough of those. Unhealthy thinking? Unfortunately, yes. I struggle with that, too. Sometimes I wonder why I can’t control my actions as well as I would like. Self-discipline and moderation have always been a little elusive to me. I have my moments, but I also have my moments, if you know what I…
Summer’s here. At least, it is schedule-wise. The weather has yet to prove itself, but it has given us a few nice days, anyway! As for our summer schedule and activities, I decided to go a little easier on the kids this year. Which means no math workbooks–at least not daily. Or any others, for…
Like many of you, I love Jane Austen’s books. I mean, I’ve read Pride and Prejudice so many times that I’ve lost count. My husband isn’t a reader of fiction—he prefers things like biographies and music text books—but even if he were, I highly doubt he’d be very willing to pick up any of Jane Austen’s works….
Normal. What does normal even mean? I have often wondered this in my life, and I admit to spending time worrying that I don’t fit in with the “normal” people and trying to figure out how I can become more normal. But, I’ve come to realize that what is normal for one person may not…
After we got back on the ship from Belize (where the baboon pooped in my hair), my brother rented out the FlowRider on board for just us to use. It was amazing, even though I wasn’t about to try my hand (or feet, or any other part of my body) at surfing. I had a great…
I love listening to some of the NPR shows like This American Life. The topics and stories they come up with fascinate me, especially since they are usually about the lives of ordinary people like you and me. StoryCorps is another project that NPR has done, which gives people the opportunity to record an interview…
Every single day of my life, for the past 10.5 years, I have second-guessed myself, worried that I’m not good enough and wondered how anyone could have entrusted me with a baby or a toddler or a tween or two or three of them. Every day as I hear things I thought I would never…
Dr. Phil once said something along the lines of “Don’t worry what people are thinking about you, because they probably aren’t thinking about you.” I’ve thought about this a lot since I first heard it, to remind myself when I do something particularly embarrassing or when my hair isn’t working quite like I’d like it to,…