Mother's Day Etc.

Here's a somewhat belated Mother's Day report. It turned out to be a really nice day, long, but nice. SD and I play in our church bell choir. We play at church only about once a month, so we play at both services that Sunday. That meant trying to be at church by 7:30, which for me means 7:35. The first service performance was somewhat of a disaster and included a page turning mistake of epic proportions. Oh well. We did a lot better the second time around, but I was more focused on the earlier failure. It was nice that we had a little volunteer appreciation coffee between services, so with all of the down time we got to enjoy some treats and some good Fair Trade coffee.

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In the afternoon we went to a concert by a local choral group in conjunction with Monroe Crossing, a Twin Cities Bluegrass group. (There is a link on the lower right of the page to hear some of their newest music) It was a wonderful concert, but the room was pretty warm and I was very tired, so I nearly dozed off a time or two. Fortunately, more coffee and some cookies at intermission perked me up. Part of the concert was a "Bluegrass Mass" and had all the elements of a worship service, very interesting. After the concert, we returned home with the two couples we went to the concert with and their families joined us for dinner at our house. We provided the main dish and everyone else brought something. DH made Key Lime chicken on the grill and homemade asparagus pasta with a yummy alfredo sauce with asparagus in it. It was very delicious, I wish I'd taken pictures. The others brought a salad, bread, cheese and crackers, and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

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I'm feeling a little down about the state of our school system. We had a meeting at work yesterday. There was more of the same-"no news yet" -where my hours for next year are concerned, but I'm becoming pretty sure I'll lose some time. They've raised class sizes to the point that there will be as many as 32 in each third grade class next year and even more in 5th grade. Just two sections of each. Each will, I'm sure, have some challenging kids, so when you throw in some para cuts, etc., that will (in my opinion) make for a disastrous situation. We've got some great teachers, but it is going to be really tough and not fair for the kids. Think about that when you hear someone talking about how great teachers have it with "three months vacation" and all. We have a parent meeting tonight for band parents to hear about the "enhancements" for next year. Our new superintendent (once again IMO) wants to get rid of music in the schools so those areas are seeing lots of cuts as well. It will be interesting to see how they are going to sell it as an enhancement. It's discouraging and I feel bad that I've been taking my kids quality education for granted up to now.

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I almost forgot to mention that TB provided me with my only Mother's Day gift this year. He had been shopping with a friend the night before and picked me up a copy of Dream Girls. I thought it was very sweet. In all fairness, SD has promised to help me with some of the yard work I can't do because of my back. DH allowed me to buy tickets for a play in the cities in a couple weeks as a special outing as well. CS remembered to call, so that was nice. He has finals this week, so he's super busy.