Sweet Trilling

     Tomorrow I hope to announce that all cardboard save boxes of stamps to be transferred to Beth's house and books boxes are gone. The end of organizing the Master Bedroom and closet is near. The time for pictures and finishing touches approaches.
     Georgia heat arrived in full measure, but the couple of hours spent at the theater seeing Brave with my family provided a nice respite. The movie was cute and a bit intense with some of the bear fights. The typical Disney princess defies her parent(s) and finds her true love. This movie marks a slightly different twist, but I won't be a spoiler. 
     As I mentioned yesterday, the accompaniment to breakfast al fresco comes from singing birds in the nearby trees. Today, warbling sounded from my guest room closet and birds did not get in there. Having gotten all closet boxes except those containing books emptied, a number of items lay scattered about the closet. After the movie and a trip to "my" gigantic Home Goods store, Beth and Katie came over for lemonade and cookies. Ever the house explorer, Katie prowled in the closet and found my old recorder. She sneaked off into my bedroom and we could here some squeal and squeaks. Katie walked back in, headed toward the closet, and in typical perfectionist fashion said, "I can't do this," and headed to put it away in the closet.
      Because both she and her sister have a tendency to think they should just be able to pick up something and do it, both her mom and I jumped on the learning and practice bandwagon and gave the speech in chorus. "You can't do everything perfectly or even a little bit without instruction and practice. Even the great musicians practiced and took lessons..." As might be expected with such a trite commentary, Katie continued to head for the closet to put the recorder away. And then I said, "Wait, I'll give you your first lesson." as if I could teach someone the recorder. But, pulling my foot out of my mouth, I put the recorder in and showed her the fingering and the blowing technique for a pleasant sound.
      Off Katie went to my bedroom again, coming back in about five minutes with some good sounds and some muffled ones since her fingers were not tight enough on the holes. Clearly she felt good about making a sound, but needed to work on quality. At that point, she went into the guest room closet and began to practice some more. Soon she was making bird trills and warbles and clearly enjoying her capabilities. She asked to take it home, but her mom and I agreed that was an activity for Mimi's house. Katie obediently put it away and said, "Next time I come back, you can give me another lesson." JOY!!

       And now I have to practice so I can give her another lesson.