Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Lulled into laziness

Good habits are important.  Often we form these "good" habits purposefully.

On my honeymoon  over 20 years ago, I bought a bagel slicer (why? I don't actually remember!) Since then, we have always used it, just because it's an amazing way to keep from slicing yourself rather than the bagel!


Well, we moved to a new house (apartment) which is temporary,  about 3 months ago.  My son works at a bagel shop and brings extras home for us frequently, so we have bagels quite often  (yumm!) :) 

Our bagel slicer was not as convenient to find as it had been in our old home, so we have all just been slicing them with our sharp serrated knife and no bagel slicer guide. 

You know what's coming next,  right? 

Yup, I sliced off my fingertip last night. 

So we took the time, finally, to get that bagel slicing guide out to avoid future injuries.  We could have done it earlier, but frankly, it was just pure laziness on my part.

This has definitely caused me to reflect a little more on what other lazy things I have been doing  (or not doing) and will make the effort to do things appropriately. 

Lesson for the day :)


Sunday, July 28, 2019

Tesla (the car)

I do not believe in my entire life I have seen a Tesla car...until we moved to the state which we are now living in. . .and now I have seen probably 50+ of them! It is strange...but it's become kind of commonplace...no big "wow!" when we see them now :) 


Interesting how many things are different in different regions of the country!

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Thinking ahead a few seasons

It is HOT here in our new state!! July 20th and 99 degrees F (with humidity thrown in to boot!)  So what am I doing to beat the heat? Ironically I'm working with wool sweaters  :) I'm hiding out in our cool basement (thankfully!!) and working on my felted wool mittens which I make for Christmas craft fairs.  Definitely an unseasonable activity, but getting the jump on the craft fair season  :)




Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Music & Creativity - Foundation Course by Simply Music -- my REVIEW

Our family enjoys music and the children have taken (or are taking) music lessons throughout the years, on different instruments. They have all taken piano lessons for several years (a few years back).  We were asked to review the Music & Creativity Foundation Course by Simply Music, so we gave it a try!




This piano course is a video-based course. The program requires that learners have a keyboard (48 key or more) available to them, as well as a reliable internet connection (for the streaming videos). They also recommend a sustain pedal and headphones and earbuds (and hopefully a connection to your keyboard to the earbuds/headphones so that you can practice without others hearing, and so that you can "layer" the sounds so that you can hear your part of accompaniments).   Simply Music provides the learners with a practice keyboard (basically just a printable paper picture of the keys which some may choose to practice the finger movements on) as well a soundtracks which are used throughout the course, a reference book, and a publication called "Music and the Art of Long-Term Relationships."  The e-book is a good way to help you understand the theory behind this music-learning program...I'd recommend that you read it to figure out why they do things the way they do. 

Reading their .pdf book, "Music and the Art of Long-Term Relationships" is essential
in order for you to understand this method of learning music.

This paper "practice pad" is available for students to reinforce the finger patterns
 without being on the actual piano or keyboard
The student begins the lessons at the "quickstart" section which has them playing notes along with the instructor in a pattern.  As the lessons progress, the instructor gives more patterns and the student copies them and plays along with him.  He does a great deal of talking, about theories of music and playing as well as tips for playing.

When a student completes a lesson, they click the button to mark the lesson as complete and then move on to the next lesson (and you cannot move on to the next lesson until you've marked the previous one(s) as complete).

These lessons are taught differently than you may be familiar with.  The note names are not used, but finger position on the keyboard is used to describe which notes are to be played.  The instructor gives diagrams to help the student visualize the patterns of playing (with numbers given to correspond with the fingers). The instructor begins by reminding the students to start with "five over five" (fingers over notes) in order to play what he calls the "finger sentences."



Each lesson combines lecture and practice on the keyboard. The thought is that the student will practice so that their fingers have the muscle memory to repeat what they have learned.  

There is a lot of focus on the rhythm and how things sound good together.  A couple of quotes which I liked were "...will make a difference in your creativity and that spills over into other areas of your life." and "A lot of times natural smooth rhythm will just emerge naturally."


  (click play to get a little taste of the lessons!)

One of the things which we liked was that you can view the lessons on a device such as a phone.  This made it easier to view the lessons while at the keyboard. 


My 14-year old daughter was the one who tried out this program (I did as well).  The program was not at all what we had expected, and we found it very full of the instructor lecturing, without a parallel amount of learning to play the piano. I did not like that the note names were not used, but rather a finger position was used to teach the student to play. I see piano lessons as a gateway to understanding and enjoying participation in music and it seems a bit limiting to not teach the names of the notes or music reading.  I understand that this program (Music & Creativity -- Foundation Course) is kind of focused on enabling the student to enjoy and use improvisation, but for me that would not work as well without a better basis.  For my daughter, who is well into playing and reading music, it was frustrating that the lessons begin at such a basic level and that you cannot skip ahead without going through the earlier ones (at least to mark them complete).  All in all it was not what we prefer and we would not recommend this program.

But hey, it might be what you like, and did I mention that this course, Music & Creativity -- Foundation Course, is FREE?  Yes, so truthfully, if you'd like to draw your own conclusions about the course, check it out, make an account, and try it out for yourself!  I certainly admit that my opinions are not the only valid thoughts! :)   If you'd like to read what other reviewers thought about this program, please click on the link below: 



Learn to Play the Piano with Music & Creativity - Foundation Course {Simply Music Reviews}

Crew Disclaimer

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Burger/sandwich sauce

I love to make this delicious sauce for burgers or sandwiches...kind of a basil-y, kind of sweet sauce...maybe like a coleslaw dressing with basil--

Here's what I do...put some mayo in a bowl (how much depends on how much sauce you'll need). Add 2 or 3 Tbsp of sugar and a spoonful of pesto (or some kind of basil paste--see my pic, I was out of pesto but had this). Add just a splash of vinegar (probably just a tablespoon or so).  Stir all together and let sit for 5 min or so to let the sugar dissolve.

And that's it! It definitely enhances a burger or a sandwich (or a veggie burger, whatever!)




Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Bears!

Yikes! This suburban city-ish environment  that we have moved to is full of bears! Really weird.  They are around in unexpected spots...picture one is from our bike ride last night on the bike path right in town...picture two is in the parking lot of our apartment complex! So strange...we're not in some western mountainous state or something...we're in urban Connecticut! Wow.




Sunday, July 7, 2019

In Praise of Sweat

Okay, so I won't make you look at a picture of sweaty me :) BUT I do want to say that I am so thankful for sweat! :) What a cool (haha! a pun!) thing...and great way for a body to keep from overheating!  Seriously, I can be with a bunch of people, and say we're hiking or something...I'm usually sweating and then I'm cool...they are hot and miserable...but dry. 

I am definitely used to people laughing at me for my sweaty look...but then I'm nice and cool! :)

Do you sweat a lot? Do you appreciate it? You ought to!