Desk cleanup

This has been a long weekend. I have been really fighting the winter blues . The walls really start to close in on my . So this weekends project was to work on the the desk in the corner of our kitchen. Thursday was spent taking everything off the desk and shelves and shopping for supplies. Friday my husband was home all day so we spent most of the day on this desk. We took off the mobile home strips primed,taped ,spackled then put on a spray texture and finally painted . We decided to take the railing off the shelves and put on a corner round. (Only three extra trips to the store -not bad for us.) Most of Saturday was spent organizing and tossing out stuff and putting it back on the shelves. We are pretty pleased so far with how it turned out. It needs a little personalization now but so much cleaner looking and less busy looking (vinyl wallpaper) .

This week I would like to take the magnet paint and paint the back of the cupboard . A great way to hide away alot of the notes and stuff .

I have had a curtain on the desk (to hide away the junk) ,I picked up one that I really like but not sure if it should be put up or not... the curtain will need to be cut off and shortened to fit right as well as the tassles that are way too long. ( now that it is clean is it needed--hmm)

Trash to Treasure

A few weeks ago our neighbor called me over , she said she had some wood she thought I could maybe use and would I like to take home this table. She is trying to get rid of a few things . The top was half off and the legs and sides needed to be put all back together, also a few scratches. It has been sitting around for the past couple of months. I finally had a couple of days to kill ,so put it al back together, lightly sanded it down, restained it with some stain that was in the cupboard , then the next day painted the raggety Ann on it. My husband put the varnish on the top . Fun project. Now where to put it.

Last week there was no choir, I know cause I was the only one who showed up. ( .."oh I guess we should have let you know huh").

and this week we practiced three songs. One a hymn ,not a problem (thank you). the other two still can't play and in my opp ion not good for our small choir. Song #1 a pianist from another ward has agreed to play if we can work out the parts ahead of time..."but you are going to be able to play song #2 right"..."No ,i can't ,I have told you that many times, still wish we could work on something else." he shrugs his shoulders, smiles and walks away.

I come home in frustration and tears again. is it time to be released?!

Gratitude

Cultivate a Gratitude Attitude

Keep your thoughts positive, Thoughts become your words.Keep your words positive, Words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive, Behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive, Habits become your values. Keep your values positive, Values become our destiny." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Thank God for Dirty dishes.

Thank God for dirty dishes, they have a tale to tell
While others may go hungry, we are eating very well
With home and health and happiness, We shouldn't want to fuss,
For by the stack of evidence, God's very good to us.
.................................................................................................................

Someone posted this poem on facebook the other day and when I saw it I was thrown back to my primary days as a young girl . As girls we were supposed to set goals and learn many homemaking skills , memorize scriptures, ect... we would earn badges and put them on bandilo's.(we were the last group to have the bandiloe) Gaynotes, Merry Miss and Firelights. Out teach Sister Josie had us girls over to her house for an afternoon, we made aprons and cooked in the kitchen having a wonderful day. She had this poem on her wall and of course we all loved it. She took our picture that day and later sent it to us along with the poem. What a sweet memory ,so glad to have had good parents and teachers who taught us the importance of homemaking.

Frustrated!!

I am so frustrated , that I could just cry, if fact that is just how I came home from Choir practice.
In our church all the teachers of the classes ,scouting ,music and ministers are all done by the members of the congregation. no one gets paid for their time or the work they do, it is all voluntarily done as our way of "building up the kingdom" . We are each given a "calling" which gives us that chance to help out in some way...usually it is for a short period of time before they shuffle people around...
My calling is to play the organ usually once a month...at one time our congregation only had three people in the ward who played the organ, one moved away and the other two had very stressful callings already so seeing as I could play the piano , I was "called" to play the organ. Are you kidding me, you do understand that these are two completely different instruments that you play totally different. I have never had that much confidence anyway so if I could only play in another room so no one could see me and have it piped in than I might be OK. Well no such luck.
You will be blessed for accepting the calling and I can honestly say that I have been in most circumstances...I can play the organ now (under protest) and have found that I won't die if I make a mistake...I fake it fairly well most of the time, and have found abilities beyond my own.

My other calling is the Choir Pianist. This one is more difficult than the first one. I enjoy playing the piano for my own enjoyment but not comfortable in front of others, well as choir pianist you are front and center. I am not that good of a pianist , mediocre at best, and this seems to be one of those callings that you never get released from. In the ward we were in I had this calling for 9 years under 4 different directors. Each has their own style of leading and practicing. After those nine years needless to say I was burned out, and also a little frustrated when they would complain that they needed a soprano and where to find one, (Hello sitting here at the piano)
Anyway with the change of ward boundaries I was released. Yea . And I have to admit that I wasn't very supportive for the next year. I didn't go to sing either just needed time to recoup .
Well fast forward and guess who is the piano player again...yup that's right. Me.
(Sigh!)

My frustration has come from this particular director. He is a very sweet man and I love him dearly , but is very difficult to follow. He "feels" everything so deeply that he wants to put lots of emotion into the music so leads very slowly, and never the same twice.
The Bishop once asked me to tell all organist not to follow his lead, just play it faster how we wanted. you can't do that .that is not how music is done. Either release me or him ,but don't encourage me not to follow him.
We have a very small choir , some of which do not read music, so it important to learn each part individually. He doesn't seem to get that ,just wants to jump in and pound it out. There are a few gals that are frustrated because of that and won't come out to practice any more. Also being a small group you really have to be careful to keep the music simple enough be able to put it together. Also as a director you need to pick music that is on the level of your pianist. He doesn't get that either.
Lately the music he has been wanting to sing is so far beyond my abilities that it is not even funny. I have told him that he will have to get someone else to play it . somehow he just thought that I didn't want to...not it at all ,no false humility here,I just honestly can't play it. So trying to be a team player I have been trying to find music that can be put together easily and not too difficult to play and he just seems fixated on the couple of pieces that he remembers and loves and wants to do that I can't play...this last week not one song that I suggested did he want to practice only the songs that I could not and will never be able to play did he want to sing.
Something is going to have to be said or someone has to help me get it through to him that there is a problem or they are going to have to release me.

Sorry for the long post...just really needed to vent.