Reporting from the scene.

Children's choir. The dreaded children's choir planning meeting happened on Tuesday and it was a laugh fest. (And that's not even sarcasm). The theme of the concert is "peace." After we had a mostly full program a google search revealed "War what is it good for" as an option. While joking at first (as in hey do we know any good bari sax players), I actually made an arrangement combining it with "Get up, stand up" and a Shel Silverstein poem about a chicken who won't hatch for socio-political-environmental reasons. If it flies it will be amazing! I have to convince the coordinator that while protest songs may be controversial, they are indeed a part of our history and worthy of study.

School- I got my schedule this week. The number of times I am scheduled to see kids for music has gone from 2 times to one time a week. The number of recess duties I have has gone from 0 to 6 a week, the number of classes I will be monitoring while they do math at a computer went from 2 to 6. It is the most ridiculous waste of a music degree I have ever encountered. And I find it very difficult to believe that the 1/2 hour of screen time a week added to their schedule will raise math scores. It's a work in progress. Ugh.

High school music appreciation- for the win. The weird part is saying things and having kids write them down. The other weird part is how much I have to talk. The fun part has been their answers and ponderings. I've only met with them once but I feel good about what is to come.

So my favorite part of the whole thing is that at 9:30 am I was talking about truth and beauty to high school students and at 11:30 am I was helping a first grader learn how to pump his legs back so he could swing.

The reason I am able to post today is because it was Saturday number one of reclaiming some of my own time back. Cousin was used to shopping and lunch every Saturday which was fine when it's all aunt had to do in a given week. And when it was the only going out and about that cousin did. Now that both of those situations are changed, I have finally changed the shopping routine. We went at 8:30 am and I was home by 9:30.

There is now plenty of time for finishing sleeping in, food prep, laundry and some WiiU Zumba. In fact last week at this time I was just starting what I have already finished today.

The food plans for the weekend include making more oats and honey bars (the oats and nut ones were a little overwhelming), preparing some vegetarian chili, and making a Mexican "casserole" (more like a tortilla lasagne) with salsa, refried beans, and cheese. Light on the cheese, heavy on the beans.

The salad in a jar was an amazing success. One change to be made is to make sure the ingredients are plenty dry when they go into the jar. A little moisture can really horse things up.

And that's all the news that is the news. Stress level-3.5/10 which is pretty good.