This weekend I had the pleasure and privilege of participating in a local choral festival with a fabulous, talented, and accomplished director as well as a wonderful organist and several instrumentalists (harp, oboe, flute, and handbells). We had nearly a hundred voices, most members of church choirs in the area. Although it was a large group, singing with an exceptionally skillful director turns even the hard work parts into a pleasure. One comment this man made has stuck in my brain even more than any of the music or technical tips.

He talked a bit during the first part of the rehearsal about why we were there, and about the experience of singing with each other, music created from our voies working together to create a . His comment was, "If everyone got together and made music with other people once a week, the world would be a very different place."

I think he's right. Choral singing is, as most group musical endeavors are, about more than each person making our own music well. It depends on each voice being in tune with their neighbor and fitting their contribution into the group. It means holding back, perhaps, so one voice doesn't dominate or stand out, or so another part comes forward when its line needs to be heard.

It also means letting go of the distractions of judging each others' performance, allowing those thoughts of how someone else should be doing something better or differently melt away into the unified sound that is the choir. It means giving, not only giving of our talents in performance or worship, but giving of our egos to become a unified group and to allow others to join with us as equals in making that joyful noise.

And that, my friends, is peace and harmony that sticks with me long after the final note has sounded.

I started making music as a young child, took the obligatory clarinet lessons in grade school, and then started to LOVE it. Through high school, I played four instruments (clarinet, sax, trumpet, and handbells), sang in two choral groups, was a drum majorette, I directed a small handbell choir at my school, and I toured for two weeks each summer with my church handbell choir (we were, I will say as humbly as I can, Very Good). I did not go on to become a music major; in fact my playing dropped off sharply in my 20s. I never did get far on piano, guitar (not for lack of trying), drums, or anything else one could reasonably expect to play casually as an adult.

Many years later, when the kids were babies, I began singing and ringing again, and it lit me up inside. My kids started piano lessons just over a year ago and my husband has set up his recording gear again and we've been slowly accumulating instruments in the living room which the kids can pick up and play with any time, and there is music everywhere and I am in heaven. Wednesday and Sunday evenings (choir and handbell rehearsal at church) are my weekly therapy.

When tendinitis in my wrists cut short my goal of becoming a halfway proficiant pianist, I had my clarinet refurbished, and started playing that again. Tried guitar lessons again too. Stupid RA had made my fingers stiff and sore, so those have been sidelined for a while as well.

Can't stop me from music now, though. Today I bought a (cheap, student) trumpet. Hey, if the kids are going to be well-rounded musicians they'll need a little bit of everythng, right? So I picked it up, 30 years since I've last played brass, and I did this:

http://soundcloud.com/tabinfl/angels-we-have-heard-on-high/s-N58fJ

It's still in there, somewhere! I can still music!

I love the idea of this place. I tire of the daily parade of endlessly recycled images and headlines, sappy photos with even sappier text overlaid, whatever little shiny nugget of internet caught someone's attention long enough for them to click the "share" button.

I enjoy reading thoughtful stories about people's lives and interests. I like seeing opinions that differ from my own, and perhaps engaging in some friendly debate on one topic or another.

The difficulty, for me, is that I have little time and even less brain to compose such things myself. That other website fits my life perfectly right now. Two minutes here to snap a photo and toss it to the tide, hoping it will wash up on my friends' and relatives' shores. A few seconds there to catch up on a neighbor kid's antics and acknowledge with a single click. A moment later on to chime in with a sentence or two that might encourage a struggling friend. My support network, social calendar, and pocket photo album over coffee, all in one place.

(Cue the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the ever-declining depth of thought by today's young people, and how online sharing is destroying real community.)

No, that's not it. I passed "young" by anyone's standards, save maybe the retirement home ladies in my church choir, a decade back. I deeply cherish the face-to-face time I spend with friends and loved ones. However, as a mother of three active young children, and a homeschooler to boot, my time and attention are under near-constand demand. Those face-to-face times are rare. When they do happen, they are usually punctuated by the needs of little ones before any serious discussion can ever get off the ground.

I am stealing the time to write this right now from the quiet half-hour (if I'm lucky) between my awakening and the rest of the family stirring. These precious moments I usually use to pry my eyes open with a first cup of coffee, scan my email and whatnot to catch any urgent messages, and begin putting together the day in my head. I check our calendar, pore over lesson plans, and organize materials. If I can get myself to bed a little earlier at night and give myself a bit more time in the morning, I have a stack of reading and other projects, for my own benefit and my family's, piled to the ceiling. I have a blog I post to irregularly, when I can string together enough thoughts to make a paragraph or two.

And now my husband and my children are awake and foraging for breakfast, and thus my day begins and my attention span ends, until tomorrow...

OK, here's a youtube-y link of my goofy kids earlier this evening. Hoping they work harder on math, because I don't think this is gonna do it for them.

"Inspiration: what's up with your kids?"

As it happens, I just wrote a blog post about my math-loving, creative, artistic daughter making her own Life of Fred book: http://www.mommyvan.com/2014/10/the-best-freds

Life of Fred is a hilarious math curriculum popular among homeschoolers, but would also make a great supplement for anyone who wants some fun off-the-beaten-path reading with their kids. Fred is a five year-old professor at KITTENS university, and his sidekick is a doll named Kingie. They make all sorts of cool discoveries about math and many other topics, and reinforcing those concepts as kids read (or listen) is a bonus along the way.

To celebrate the add media buttons working on my ipad now, here's a preview:

So, here I am. Thanks Mark. I didn't really mean to leave off my last name, but I tend to be cautious in new places and didn't realize I wouldn't be able to change it.

I made biscuits with my girltwin today, first one on one time with her in a while (husband had the other two out to lunch). I'd show you a picture, but the 'add media' thingies are not working on my ipad.