Its Sunday today and it was a beautiful Sunday indeed. I enjoyed a lovely cup of coffee this morning while I watched Sunday Morning and I couldn't help but remember my daddy and miss him so much. He watched Sunday Morning with his coffee every week before church, and it gives me such a sense of him to smell the coffee brewing and imagine the comments he would have about what was going on in the show. Every time I drive down the road and I see the beautiful wildflowers and the scenery I take it all in as if my dad were right there with me. He loved nature, he loved being outside and every time I see a sunflower I think of him and it makes me smile so big inside to remember him and how wonderful we all had it for a while. He is so missed in our lives, but I try to remember that because Christ died for us, my dad is now living eternally and forever with Him in His kingdom. Its taken me a while to get to the place where I can find peace in these thoughts....but I think I'm almost there.

After church and my weekly grocery shopping this afternoon I drove up to see my sister and had dinner with her and her family. I love spending time with them because they are so much fun, and I love them all soooo much! Their youngest, Hannah, is such a character! She painted my nails today and they're - well, most of the nail is covered with polish any way. I'll probably get lots of questions about them, or stares, but it'll be funny. So we had bbq pork strips on the grill for dinner with cheesy potatoes and peach cobbler for dessert - one could not ask for a better, more scrumptious meal, it was so yummy! On the way home after dinner I really enjoyed some praise time while singing along w/ Barlow Girl - what a wonderful day to praise our Lord!

In other news, I've been trying hard to get my voice back in shape - teaching has really taken a tole on my energy and my vocal development. Its such a struggle to go back to the school in the evening to practice when I've been talking, singing and teaching music all day. My voice is tired and I'm physically tired, but I think I'm making some progress. I've had lessons with my voice professor from college and I'm beginning to get back on track. So much so that I turned in applications for the Wichita Grand Opera-which I have yet to hear about-and I'm going to start working on making an audition CD for a performance competition happening early in 2011, so that prospect is very exciting! Above all, it feels good to get back where I was before I was teaching, although I'm not all the way there yet, and I just love singing!

I just finished skyping with my friends from Hays, and it makes me miss them so so much! I have a wonderful 1 hour conversation about things happening there, things happening here, and just life in general. I'm blessed with good friends, and I miss them, they're so much fun! But now its late and its time for bed...except I'm not tired, so this might be a challenge.

And lastly, here are my meals for the week:

Monday: Breakfast for Supper! - Pancakes, Eggs and Bacon

Tuesday: Baked Fish Fillets

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Chicken Noodle Soup

Friday: Singles Group Picnic

Saturday: Sausage Casserole

Sunday: Leftover Sausage Casserole

Ok, so here it is. Its Thursday and the week started out really good, but somewhere, out of nowhere my mood changed, and off and on I've been in a funk for half the week. I feel the beginning of a cold or allergies or something not good coming on, and I realized I'm in need of strong juice! But I'm going to try to get lots of rest and drink lots of water and such, hopefully I'll nip it in the bud. I'll probably get some oranges today and really enjoy some vitamin C.

Yesterday with the weather being rainy and yucky outside, the kids were responding with unfocused craziness. They seem either uninterested or too wound up to focus, which can be very frustrating...and they're not the only ones. I've been a bit unmotivated this week, perhaps I'm not getting enough sleep at night.

Today I've been pretty nervous, probably for no good reason, but I sent my applications in for the Wichita Grand Opera auditions, which are a week from Sunday...I have a lot of work to do, thats if I even get an audition, I may have waited too long. Its nerve wracking, especially since its been difficult trying to keep up my voice while teaching and singing all day long. Mostly I'm just tired physically and vocally after school and I don't have the energy to practice. But I've had a few lessons with my voice coach and he seems to be pretty satisfied/hopeful, so we'll see what happens.

Its been a while

So its been a week or two since I've posted, but seeing as no one follows this blog yet, I don't think it matters. Not a whole lot has happened since the last post, but I'll go ahead and talk about my week and post my new week's menu.

In the last post I talked about my recent knee surgery and recuperation - its getting stronger, but not as quickly as I would like. My knee cap is still doing that funky sliding thing and when I talked to the doc about it again (well, via his secretary leaving me a message) he said that he wants to send me to physical therapy which I'm not thrilled about. I'm sure they're pretty expensive and I'm still trying to pay off the original surgery bills...not a happy camper. He said my knee cap is used to all that junky tissue being in there, and now that its gone the knee cap doesn't know where to sit, so its sliding all around. I'll probably wait for another week or so to see if it gets any better before I decide for or against the physical therapy. This didn't happen last time I had the knee scope - but then again the doc said there was a good possibility that they didn't get out all the tissue the last time, so it was probably worse off than before my scope in high school. Yesterday I was walking from the piano in my classroom to my desk and when I stepped on my left leg I cried out in pain and nearly collapsed to the floor. That's not normal...my poor accompanist was right there next to me and had to catch me.

Last week was a difficult one for me. Aug 31 marked the 1 year anniversary of my father's heart attack, followed by Sept 6 being the anniversary of his death. During the week was difficult, I felt very much alone and missing him a great deal. I was reliving the memories and happenings of our time with him in the hospital the week before he died. On the up side though, it wasn't all bad, painful memories...my siblings and I posted many many things on facebook that were wonderful, happy memories, and they made us smile and remember him so fondly. I had a very bittersweet moment with my 8th grade choir also. We were rehearsing a section of one of our songs, "The Journey," and when I picked out the music prior to school starting the words hadn't really meant anything to me. The words to the song are, "Though the road has been so long, now I'm going home...to the place where I belong, I'm going home...going home, going home, I am going home." And with the already difficult week, the music and the words hit me out of no where like a sack of bricks, and I started crying right there. But of course, it was so lovely, so I didn't want to cut them off, so I kept directing while crying, and my poor students didn't know what to do - they were looking around at each other wondering if they should stop or keep going. I finally cut them off and explained to them what was going on. Most of them were with me last year when it happened and they were understanding and sympathetic. So afterwards we were able to have a wonderful teaching moment where I could actually show them how music can move you and effect you in a way that almost nothing else in the world can. And then after that we were able to laugh about it b/c one of my students said, "Ms. Steinert we thought you were crying b/c we sounded so bad..." Haha - we all got a kick out of that.

We didn't have school on Monday, which was the anniversary of my father's death, and I had spent the weekend with my mother at home, which was very nice. On the way home that day I drove in silence and took in all the country scenery. My dad loved being outside, and he loved nature and it was very refreshing, while still a little painful, to try and focus on all the things that I love about him, miss about him and the things my family has said about him over the past year. I miss you so much daddy~

So, with Monday being Labor day, we didn't have school, so we have a short school week, which is nice. But I'm having such a difficult time with one of my choirs and their interest in singing. I need and want to make my classes more fun all around - but I'm not that creative of a person, so I'll need to do some research and looking into it...music and choir was always fun for me, so I didn't ever need to be entertained in other ways during choir or band...I realize that not all kids are going to like being in choir, although some really do, but it still makes me sad when they aren't enjoying singing. I'm sure the more I teach the more I'll get over that - and still find ways to make it fun for those who are usually bored. One idea I got today from the high school band director was giving out silly bands for those who knew their part and knew it well. I loved that idea, and silly bands are SOOOO in right now, I think the kids will eat it up! I wonder how much they are, I think I have to be sure to get some.

I'm very much looking forward to my weekend to get some much needed rest...I have been waking up every night, several times during the night, and I don't know why! It makes me mad and sleeping and not want to get up in the morning, so my prayer time this week has suffered greatly! I've been asking for better discipline and this is probably how God is answering my prayers...trying to make me stronger by making things more difficult :) For when we pray for things, does God give them to us or does He give us opportunities for us to show these qualities. Haha...we'll see how I do next week I guess.

Lastly, here is my week of meals - even though its now Thursday, and the week is almost over, here it is anyway:

Monday - I don't remember what I had for dinner, but I planned on this day, so it wasn't in my plan - haha

Tuesday - Hamburger Quiche

Wednesday - leftovers

Thursday - SAI meeting-eating pizza there

Friday - home made pizza (mom's recipe)

Saturday - grilled salmon and baked potato

Sunday - Tacos

I bought some soy beans at the store and so I think I'm going to try a chinese appetizer recipe too - yum!