Piano Teaching?

A lady in my neighborhood just called me the other day because she is moving and wanted to offer me her whole crew of piano students.  I have taught piano lessons sporadically before I had kids (I even taught some of Alan's siblings and one of his cousins), but I haven't felt like I've had the time right now in my life with my young kids.  I would have to hire a babysitter to come play with my kids, something I know that other moms do while they teach piano or voice.  However, I feel like as a mom I am already ignoring my kids often enough just with the housework and cooking and exercising I do, so I would feel even worse if I hired a babysitter so that I could ignore them even more hours a week.

It is a big dilemma.  I had a couple of amazing piano teachers growing up and I would love to teach as well, but I just can't justify being away from my kids right now.  Another problem is that when all of my kids are old enough to be in grade school, I would still be ignoring them because teaching would have to take place after school hours.  It's actually a lousy set-up to try and earn some extra money and "fulfill a need" that I have in life.

I have a friend whose husband is a seminary teacher, so he comes home at like 3:30 and watches the kids while she teaches piano in the afternoon.  That is an ideal situation, as far as piano teaching goes.  

I guess it all boils down to the fact that I could make teaching work out if I wanted it badly enough.  I must not. Ha ha.  :)

Arches

Most of the group--my sis-in-law and brother and a couple of Jared's cousins are missing.

Last weekend we went on a trip to Arches National Park with both of my brothers and their families (minus my sis-in-law and her newborn baby). The weather was looking cold and lousy, so instead of camping with them, we decided last minute to stay in a cheap motel in Moab.

Despite the cold and the wind, we never got rained on, and it was overall an extremely fun trip. Jared got really excited about all the arches and other famous landmarks, and he has already made a mental list of things we didn't get to see that he wants to see on our next trip. Jared was also thrilled about staying in a motel. This was his first time staying in a motel where he could actually remember it.

Jared did not even complain on any of the hikes we went on--he loved all of them! (Well, he did complain about the cold--but not that he was tired on the hikes.) I was so proud of him. Maggie also turned out to be quite the little hiker. She wanted to walk as much as possible and even walked the almost-mile to Landscape Arch all by herself! (It was more like "guided wandering" than hiking, but it worked out.)

One of the Windows

Turret Arch

Both "spectacles" with the nose in between

Double Arch

Sand Dune Arch. Our kids played here forever!

Landscape Arch

Jared and his cousin Collette

I didn't take any pictures of the last half of our hike on Saturday because it was just too cold and windy for people to pose for a picture. But we also hiked to Navajo Arch, which I had never seen before. It was a fun trip and we are looking forward to our next trip there!

Happy Easter

We had a lovely Easter weekend at our house. On Saturday we hosted my ENTIRE family over for the traditional dinner of ham, funeral potatoes, etc., which is a big accomplishment! Our house doesn't easily accommodate so many people, so we had to move around furniture to be able to set up some extra tables and folding chairs.

It ended up working out pretty well, and the weather decided to cooperate so that Jared and his cousins could play outside on our playground and have an Easter egg hunt. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries during the middle of the dinner, so I didn't get good pictures of the egg hunt nor the singing of "Happy Birthday" to my Mom and Alan. (We like to combine holidays in my family.)

It was a good excuse to dust off my china, silverware, and crystal goblets.

On Sunday, we had an awesome visit with Alan's brothers Spencer and Mason. We were originally hoping that we could host a nice dinner with about half of Alan's family (the half that wasn't out of town for Spring Break), but it turns out that no one could come for dinner except Mason. I think Spencer had pity on us and came to visit anyway, even though he couldn't stay for dinner. :)

Alan and Mason had a good long talk about Mexico, since Alan served his mission there and Mason will be leaving for his mission there in less than 2 months!!

Mason also brought treats from Alan's mom so that our kids could have another egg hunt. They loved it!!