Best and worst of 2016

In the category of "better late than never."

Band and letting go

When we moved to Oregon and the kids could go part time to school and the 6th grade had a band it was like a long time dream come true for me.  I have loved their band experience.  The two flutes of my fantasies and a fun saxaphone as well.

  

They all enjoyed band in middle school.  Especially in 7th grade when their band director was a lot of fun.  I loved it when I could see them during a concert.  

They all played their freshman year at Glencoe.  What's not to like about teens in formal attire, right?  

But that's where the one-band-path stopped.  Jenna wanted to play her flute again this year.  (Yay!)  Jared (who had hated marching band with a passion) chose to be in 0 period Jazz band instead of regular band, so that the marching band issue wouldn't be raised.  And Rachel wanted to take other classes, so she dropped band altogether.  

It hurt my heart, but I knew she needed to make her own decisions.  As great as released time seminary is (and it *is* great!) it takes the place of one elective.  I could understand that Rachel wanted to have another elective class instead of having both of her electives taken by seminary and band.

Now Jared is talking about not taking jazz band next year.  He's really enjoyed it, but it does mean that he has an early start 4 days a week.  And once wrestling and lacrosse start, he's so busy every afternoon and evening.  I can tell that the schedule is wearing on him.

It's not like they were ever going to be professional musicians, I need to remember that.  It's provided them experiences and memories that they will always have.  I just need to keep remembering that it's their lives, not mine, and be grateful for the years of band we've had.  

Reading the Book of Mormon

Four years ago I wrote about my super slow scripture study program.  At the beginning of 2016 I felt like I should read the entire Book of Mormon during the year, so I abandoned my slow study somewhere in 2nd Nephi and embarked on a different experience for the year.  On December 30th that I finished the "Read the Book of Mormon in 1 year" challenge. That is much faster than my typical scripture reading, but it was a good experience. It reminded me that over the last few years when I've felt like I've known few things, I've known that I love the Book of Mormon, that it helps me feel the spirit, and that my life is better when I read it.

The interesting effect of having just pushed through and read the assigned amount every day (almost) for the year is that by the end I was desperate to be able to slow down and read more about different verses, figure out what they meant or how they were meaningful.  2016 made me excited to go back to reading slowly again.  Back to 2nd Nephi I go!