just another morning here

Good day all round here, in our various places. Well actually I’ve not checked whether Steve had a good day at work or not but he’s gone out now so I’ll have to wait.

Abbie spent most of the day with Grandma & Grandpa. She was pleased about this for a number of reasons, not least their undivided attention! She had already asked Marg to help her with a viking tunic, so they did that together which was a great help (ok, I know even I could have managed to cut/sew a tabard, but now I don’t have to!). The other main reason Abbie was happy was so that she didn’t have to get dragged around to the other two’s musical events!

Anna played in a cello concert this morning – very well as usual. Annoyingly so, in fact, as she’s been rushing through the piece sounding like a screeching horrible out of tune thing at home!! So she might find me the most annoying mother in the world (and i’m sure I am) for making her practice daily but she does at least admit that it pays off, when she knows she’s played nicely and receives compliments from other parents.

From Anna’s concert, she, Joe and I went on to have lunch in town. I haven’t been to Macdonalds in town on a Saturday lunchtime for a long time and I’m not sure I want to repeat the experience anytime soon, but it did make for some fascinating people-watching.

Then we carried on from there to a Suzuki Group lesson in a village hall out on the other side of town. I have been quietly dreading it for weeks, given my experiences with any combination of Joe, violins, and groups of unknown people before now! However, it turned out really well. We got there early enough for Joe and Anna to play in the park for a while beforehand, then went in and got started. Josiah started to do his usual ‘I’m not going to join in’ routine, until the point where it got so exciting that Anna dashed back to the van to get her cello so that *she* could join in, so he decided he would as well. Anyone want to know what the excitement was? Oh yes, they were balancing hula hoops on their bows. You would have thought Anna had never eaten a hula hoop before, she moved so fast!

Anyway, Joe joined in then with a number of games/activities before giving up towards the end; he didn’t ‘perform’ either of the pieces he’d prepared to play with the others but he’d given the whole thing a good effort so I was really pleased with him. He finds this sort of group thing really really difficult, especially with a bunch of people he doesn’t know. He wouldn’t stand with the others, but had to stay near me – that was ok though as the line of children snaked around to where I was sitting anyway! It was definitely a help to have Anna there joining in with him (and she enjoyed it too – must make sure she can manage to play Twinkle on her A string before the next one!). And tbh they played one of the performance pieces a fair bit faster than Joe’s been playing it so I’m not sure he would have kept up even if he had joined in, so probably better (for him at this point in time) not to have done it and failed, than to have tried and felt like a disaster. I think he actually enjoyed himself, which is just the best outcome I could have wished for, that is the whole point of learning an instrument and playing with other people. I really enjoyed it too, actually

So that was our day. We picked Abbie up and stopped for a cuppa with Grandma & Grandpa, then came home. Cleaned out the hamster, hoovered downstairs, washed the kitchen floor, then settled down for a film before dinner.

Joe and Anna played their Bach Minuet together for the first time and it sounded lovely. Well, they had to stop at every repeat sign as the first time Joe missed the timing and the second time Anna hadn’t realised there even was a repeat at the end (doh), quite funny to hear Josiah telling her about the music when usually she knows more than he does about stuff like that. Anyway (don’t know how long this will last) they’ve agreed to practice together every day so that they can get it even better together

Despite my best efforts, including a large monetary reward on offer, Josiah spent the portion of the violin thing that he could have joined in with on my lap saying ‘I can’t do it’, and ‘I don’t know if I can’ (by the time he’d finished wondering if he could, the moment had been and gone ). Of course he could have, but I don’t know, was it all too much or just my own self fulfilling prophecy? Or perhaps something else entirely, as ten minutes later he was asleep on my lap, despite me having given him a really early night last night and him having slept in until at least 9am today.

Who knows. The mind of a 5yo (or this particular 5yo) is unfathomable to me at least and I feel pretty much ready to give up parenting him as I have reached the end of myself over and over and over again and I just don’t know what to do with him. (just a minor aside there!)

Meanwhile Anna was pretty grumpy owing to a sleepover last night at which hardly any sleep was had (unsurprising I suppose) and Abbie was grumpy due to being largely ignored between the antics of the other two.

Still, it was a pleasant couple of hours, the children who did play played beautifully and I have to say that the later Suzuki repertoire is lovely to listen to, I really enjoyed it despite all the agro with my children. And that is the reason why we’ll persevere, I guess – because so did Josiah, actually. He’d enjoyed listening to the children playing before his section – then fell asleep – then half way through he woke up and the 10yo boy who is in the lesson before him (so we see him every week) brought him a chocolate mini-roll, which perked him up and he enjoyed the last part of the afternoon. I finally met the lady who runs the group lessons that we missed the other day and I hope we’ll manage to get to her group in the New Year so that by the time the summer concert comes around, Joe will know the other children and be a bit more ready for the whole playing together thing.

Oh, and Steve’s home, there’s a roast dinner in the oven, and a bottle of wine open. Not sure which of those I am the most pleased about!

Josiah has been invited to his first ever Suzuki violin group thing, which is a concert on Sunday, and the preceding practice on Friday afternoon. I am looking forward to it and yet dreading it all at the same time.

He can actually play all the pieces that they’re playing very nicely, and if he does make a mistake he can usually pick it back up and come in again where he’s meant to.

But I know what he’s like, I know that in a new situation he very often goes to pieces, especially if he doesn’t know people and what to expect of them, and when he does that he ends up curled up in a ball on the floor, or clinging onto my leg refusing to do anything, which is all very tiresome and embarrassing to say the least.

Still. I feel as though we’ve prepared him as much as we possibly can. He’s been to the big suzuki concert and it won’t be anything like as big or as posh as that. He can play the pieces really well, as demonstrated in his lesson this evening. Honestly, when he puts his mind to it he can play beautifully (only so often he does the stubborn ‘I’m not going to do it’ thing instead ). As much as I can (because of course I’ve never been to anything or met any of the people before myself either!) I’ve told him what might happen, what the group teacher might say, and his own teacher and I have both encouraged him loads that he will be fine.

Only time will tell! Of course these things are both this weekend when Steve is away at the Wales Rally which means I’m dreading them more than usual as whatever happens I’ll be on my own – so either he’ll miss the complete meltdown, or if all goes well, he’s going to miss Joe’s first proper performance Ho hum – more will undoubtedly follow here as the weekend unfolds!