Big Blessings in a Little House

My job last week? Find room in our 1600 sq. foot house for two very large objects. Hmmm....we could get rid of the refridgerator...or we could put the bath tub outside...

Don't get me wrong-we have plenty of house. It is far more than we need, but it isn't very accomodating for big things, like great danes, or curio cabinets. Even so, we were recently blessed with two large gifts from grandparents: a piano and a train table.

We spent yesteday putting together the train table in my former study-now study/train room. Conveniently, the directions were missing page 2, the page that tells how to put the actual table part of the train table together. But after some trial and error, the boys have a train table that fits beautifully in this room. And J loves it. That's an understatement. He LOVES it. Thanks Granny! I'll have pictures of the boys playing with it later.

Considering my boys being boys and the spacial issue, we used our piano gift dollars to purchase a digital piano. I never would have considered this before, but I was really impressed with how far they've come the past ten years. On grand piano setting, the tone is better than any actual grand I played at the showroom. Other pluses, considering it's for the boys? It has a volume control. It has weighted keys, like a regular piano. They aren't ugly looking keyboards anymore. You can hook headphones up to it, or hook it up to your computer for recording. It plays 65 songs on its own. You can add accompaniment. Did I mention it has volume control???? Very important, and therefore even I can even play it while the boys are sleeping.

We put the piano in what used to be the dining room, now the dining/music room as my cello and music had to move into the dining room also to make room for the train table in what used to be my study. Get it?

Anyway, it came to pass in all of this piano frenzy, Tim decided that he wanted to learn how to play the piano. And since J hasn't yet distinguished his right from his left, nor can he say his letters or numbers (all necessary skills for basic piano), I had time in my schedule to take on another student. Tim's only had one lesson, but he was really excited about his new ability to play "Old McDonald Had a Farm" and "Merrily We Roll Along." J was pretty excited about it too and chimed in with the harmony on my pitch pipe. Very cute. You better be ready for your next lesson, Timmy!

















So, our house is officially full, and we couldn't be more grateful for the gifts we have!