"One thing at a time"

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family members. Everyone is busy and so is our family. But we would like to take a moment to stop and wish all of our friends a very special Christmas. Personally, I struggled this year more than others to slow down and enjoy the season in a way that the season deserves. This year is yet another year in which we saw Erik grow and mature in many ways. He is so much taller and I am almost sure that he would be taller than me soon! His hands have grown quite a bit making his piano playing more powerful. Erik worked very hard on academics, piano, lego building and whatever else that comes his way. He spent many hours a week on practicing piano this year again. Some of you may recall that he participated in a Piano Concerto Competition in January. Erik is preparing for yet another one for this upcoming January. I never thought that, some of the music books I purchased yrs ago would come in handy for Erik. Erik played quite a few pieces from my Beethov...

Today, I spent about half and hour playing with my son. I play the flute but I am not at all an expert like my son is with his piano. But I love the music and what it does to me when my mind is tired. I have been frantically working on my course assignment for my doctorate class at the same time I have been working on all the lecture preparation that I am giving in Japan in a few weeks. Lecture is very technologically demanding these days. I have made three sets of slides, each set is like 40-50 slides. Some have video, some have several photos with music embedded in it to enhance the learning and enhance the delivery. So, I probably put too much energy into the creation of my slides/video/audio combined presentation. So I decided to take a break and had fun practicing a few pieces with Erik. Erik was able to sight read this peace so we put something together for fun. Another video is from the reformation Sunday this past week when Erik presented his offertory at Church. A mighty fortr...

Bare with me, this is not an interesting post to most of you. Erik is loving his French class this year. But, in order to take French and fit it into his schedule, we ran into some scheduling glitches at his school. Erik has been fortunate to enjoy advanced Science and Math last two years. (we have some thoughts about what they consider advanced, though). He took Algebra I and Biology I in 8th grade. So, this year, he was supposed to take Advanced Honor level Chemistry (meaning his AH class buddies from last two years would be in it) and AH level Geometry (again with the same group of AH kids from the last two years). But in order to take French he was advised to take Algebra ll with the 10th graders (and Geometry next year with the current 8th graders who would be 9th grade next year) and he was also placed in regular honors Chemistry with 10th graders (meaning they are not advanced honor track kids). So, for two of the major classes he is thrown in with big, unfamiliar 10 graders! (...

Everyday is new but everyday brings challenges. I don't know why I do this to myself but I seem to bring on extra task to myself...I can complain and say I did not ask for it but after all, I am allowing it to fall on my lap, so to speak. Today, I spent lazy two hours in the morning just looking back at some of the writing I did in the past or past recordings of my son. Some where in the back of my mind was this nagging sensation of "get up to do your laundry" (which I did while being lazy) or practice flute or piano, or what is next on my agenda for the health informatics course I am taking, or don't you need to go to the bank to do that errands,,, etc etc....And, of course I am thinking about the three talks I need to create for Nov in Japan and 5 talks to be given in Feb also in Japan. All the preparation takes time. One our of talk may require 40 hours of preparation at time if it requires research. So, I have quite a few things on my plate but I am reminded that ...

I would have to call the year 2011 an appliance year of my life! Last night's sudden demise of my short lived refrigerator was disappointing to the least and discouraging to my budget. Let me name all the appliances I had to replace this last 10 months or so. In November, my dryer took a permanent leave of absence leaving the position open for a new staff to fill. It was only several nights before I was to leave for Japan for a two week visit to teach. We quickly found one and replaced it. A few days later, My mac wen ton strike, again leaving me little choice but to fire him and to replace him with a new Pro guy. The timing was quite trucial since I was to leave for Japan in two days. In the spring, I recall, April, my washer was replaced with a newer model. We found an excellent replacement while we were looking for a dishwasher for our church. So, by this spring, our 17 ys old washer and dryer both retired. Well, my vacuum cleaner also decided to claim senior citizen status, ...

This is bit of a delayed entry, I must say. Last week, I had a strong urge to get my painting gear out for the first time in almost 3 yrs or more. I experienced so much inspiration this summer that made me want to reach out to a painting brush and a few tubes of paint while traveling through beautiful New England states or Northern Michigan. Of course, traveling in a car won't afford you a space of luxury to "paint" but I could not shake off the feeling or the need to create something from my image that I accumulated in the month of our traveling. I sat down one afternoon after I spent a whole day planting, repotting, cleaning, etc..I was thirsty for something that fed my creative element..it is an inspiration born of the creation that declares the glory. Although Van Gogh is not necessarily the closest human being I aspire to want to be, but I can not help it that I enjoy breathing the air he breathed when he held his brush. I don't know or understand all the eccentr...

Academia and what it cost to be involved with it too deeply is overwhelming at times. I asked Erik, "what do you think about your mama being a student again". I know he still remembers when he was 4 yrs old and I was at Vanderbilt working on my MSN in Neonatal Nurse Practitioner training. Then I got cancer at the end of the game instead of being relieved from the academic study and enjoy the new career. I was not sure what his reaction would be. "Oh, by the way, it is mostly on line although I would have to be away maybe a few more days a semester than I already am". He thought about it and said, "Cool". What are you studying?". I told him that the course I am taking is called, "Health Informatics" and it is about information technology and health care data or education. He looked at me and said, that would be cool... What is it going to give you? You already have masters! When I told him that I ma working toward a doctoral degree, his ey...