The Sound of Music

Our big event for January was purchasing a used piano! Jonah started piano lessons in January and is very excited to learn to play. We heard about a fantastic piano teacher who lives near the boys' school. Her name is Ms. Josephine and she is wonderful! She especially enjoys teaching boys and understands sensitive boys (how perfect is that)?!

So far, Jonah loves to practice and this week's highlights are "That One Sheep Song" (a.k.a. Mary Had a Little Lamb) and "Old MacDonald!" Hitting the wrong key can be very frustrating but playing it through correctly is very exciting!

Toby creates "mood music": for example, low notes mean that scary bears are coming. Toby is eager to begin lessons too, and loves to sing along if we play a song he knows.

Ken is teaching himself to play and is finding it easier since he plays guitar.

I have been patiently trying to dredge up my old piano abilities from the depths of my memory and have re-discovered how much I enjoy playing. Thank-you, Mom, for making me take piano lessons for all those years, and I do wish I had stayed with it!

The sounds of music, and yes, sometimes just noise, echo through our little house every day and have added a nice soundtrack to our days...

Typical Week

I thought I would give you all a run-down of this week. Mind that this is a fairly typical week.

MON: Sheri and the boys go swimming at the Y with a family friend we've had since Jonah was in pre-school. 7:00 - 9:00. Ken gets home after his after-school duties (5:30 or 6:00), does dishes, laundry, and writes a short blog online.

TUE: Jonah has swim lessons from 5:00 - 6:00. Toby plays in the childcare area (coloring most of the time) while Sheri reads or rides a bike. I typically go to Bible Study from 6:00 - 7:00 but my school is having a family math night from 6:30 - 7:30, so I won't make it to Bible Study this week.

WED: I have a union stewards meeting from 4:45 - 6:30. (Fourth Wed of the month is union meeting night for me.) I then go to choir practice from 7:15 - 8:45. I'll eat dinner at about 9:30. (I give a choir member a ride to and from practice and church, so I get home a tad late.)

THU: I have my after-school duties again until about 5:30. Nothing else is on the calendar for this Thursday.

FRI: Fridays are pretty uneventful for us. We're all so tired by Friday that we don't do much by the end of the week. I'll come home early from school ("early" means a little before 5:00). We will probably have guests over for dinner -- Sheri's parents are in town and we would love to cook BBQ ribs from the half-hog from the organic farm we have in the freezer downstairs. Yummy.

That's it. This is the way most of our weeks go. Throw in an occasional Trustee Ministry Meeting for Ken, Community Outreach Ministry Meeting for Sheri, Spaghetti Dinner/ Bingo for Books at the kids' school, or other special event, and you've got a typical week at the Becks!

Best seat in the house?

Where was the best place to view Obama's inauguration? Was it on the Mall in DC, seeing it in person? At home with a loved one? At work? With strangers somewhere public?

I think I had an awesome seat yesterday. It was in my classroom. A classroom full of black, Hmong, Hispanic, Native American, African-American, and white students. A classroom that has about 80% free/reduced lunch due to low income. A classroom where each student now has a connection with a president of the US that they have never had before. I'll never forget the seat I had on that day.

After watching the inaugural address, we divided fractions.

Main Priorities

I have a large 3-ring binder that I use at school. It holds the school calendar, notes from meetings, answer keys to quizzes, and other stuff that I want to keep handy.

On the cover of this binder I inserted a quote. I don't recall the source of this quote so I cannot verify it's authenticity.

Treat others as they are and they will stay that way. Treat them as though they already are what they can be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming. -- Goethe

I had a guest speaker in the classroom this week. She is from a not-for-profit program called Project Success. She visits my students each month and talks about goals, priorities, the arts, and other things.

This week she was talking about the play "Two Gentlemen of Verona" by William Shakespeare. (A key component of Project Success is free theater tickets for the students and their family, transportation and childcare provided.) She talked about how the priorities of the two main characters changed during the play.

She asked the students, "What are your main priorities?"

She then asked the students, "Do your daily choices reflect those priorities?"

I thought about my priorities. I thought about whether my daily choices reflected those priorities. I thought about me carrying around a quote from Goethe in my binder. I thought of my relationship with my boys, my wife, my family, my friends, my students, my colleagues, and God. (Not necessarily in that order.)

What are my priorities? Are those priorities evident in the way I live? In what I do? In my family's budget?

What are your priorities? Do your daily choices reflect those priorities?

First Beck Blog

I'm not too crazy about blogs. The world is full of opinions and most of them aren't worth the time to read, much less post. I hear about people who stay up late blogging and can't help myself but think, "Don't they have something better to do?"

So I was very surprised the other day when Sheri asked if we should have a family blog.

Several images came to my mind. I pictured folks reading about our meetings, events, lessons, games, etc. which fill up our weeks and leave us breathless and cross-eyed by Friday evening. I pictured myself spending way too much time typing something nobody's going to read anyway. I pictured family and friends reading our blogs and confirming our dullness, poor spelling skills, and excessive use of commas. I pictured all kinds of people reading something I posted that was meant to be funny but taking it the wrong way and getting mad at me.

But in the end I decided, "What the heck? Let's try it."

The love we feel towards our family and friends is worth the time it will take to post a few thoughts and pictures. I might just have an opinion that may just inspire someone. I might just make someone's day a bit brighter. Better yet, our friends and family may get just a tad closer, warmer, and more open.

"Don't you have something better to do?"

Something better than getting closer to our friends and family? Something better than letting folks know how the boys are doing? Something better than to share? Become just a bit more open to friends, family, and the world?

Actually, I can't think of anything better to do.