Bleaching, Pressing, Packing

Tonight I have begun packing for my upcoming trip. Tonight? you wonder. Well, rightly so. You see, I have a tendency to wait until the last minute to do important stuff, like make sure I pack my toothbrush and plenty of socks, so I decided to remedy that situation by starting early.( Four days ought to do it :) Hopefully I won't forget anything...
Recently I finished a book by Alexander Solzhenitsyn entitled One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich , a rather horrific account of life in a Soviet labor camp. It was cleverly written and kept me interested throughout, though the heart-wrenching part was that it really happened to real people. I have now begun Ana Karenina by Tolstoy and will write my thoughts on it when I finish it.
Our garden is blooming profusely now- no more scraggly plants and weedy-looking areas. Most of our produce this season has been green, from cabbage and collard greens, to green beans and asparagus. Even the tomatoes are green! (They're just beginning to ripen now :) Our biggest dilemma has been the cabbage, though. I suppose when we planted the vegetables we didn't pay much attention to the labels- instead of broccoli and lettuce, it has ALL turned out to be cabbage! What to do, what to do!
Anyhow, the folks down our road and the families at church have been thrilled. Plenty of cabbage for the rest of their summers.>grin<
Well, I think I'll stop for this evening-more later.

To Illinois and Beyond...

I just got the official schedule for my upcoming week at the Illinois-Wesleyan Summer Composition Institute. Yes, I'm nervous, but excited,too! Everything from 20th century orchestral music to modern-day film composing is planned to be covered, as well as techniques and ways to develop compositional ideas. All paricipants will be writing a small piece for piano, cello, and flute while there, and at the end of the week it will be performed and recorded by faculty. Right now, I'm trying to get last minute preparations ready, as well as trying not to panic about switching planes during traveling. (I've heard way too many stories about missing flights) But I'm sure everything will be fine.
On Monday morning my dad and I took our trailer up to the Livestock Auction in hopes of finding the right cattle to add to our stock. We didn't see anything there that really persuaded us, so we just went about doing a handful of errands and getting ready for the soccer games that night. He and I coach my brother and sister's team, the Crew, and this will be our last week for the season. Several games had been rained out , so we're playing four to finish the season this week. Monday night, we won 9-0, and yesterday we won again, 7-1. Thursday and Friday will determine if we get to be undefeated this year, so we'll see what happens...
Mom and dad went up to Charlotte today to buy some clay so that my mom can turn more of her pottery (wow-is she an artist!) and tonight my siblings have piano lessons. I usually go too; however, tonight is my turn to milk our dairy cow Hershey, but I'll talk more of that later.

Inspirations...

So many people ask me where my inspirations come from when I’m writing a piece of music. I find it hard to specify one specific emotion or object since many times it is a combination of many different things. But certainly I can name a few , such as the faerie tale-like beds of flowers that surround our magical farm, the green forests filled with quiet whispers and hidden mysteries, or perhaps the rain, which comforts me and fills me with peace. I hope you enjoy the pictures of our farm below, filled with the blooming flowers of spring. Perhaps you will then understand how I inspired I sometimes feel…

Lots to work on...

I know...it's been a long while- a year? Well, quite a bit has transpired over the last twelve months.
Not only did I finish the scores for Cinderella, but my family and I finished the entire theatre and performed two very succesful shows at Wingate University. Following those performances were several others, and plans and scheduling are underway for the upcoming 2009-2010 school year. We're targeting elementary and middle schools...
On this past Monday, the official recordings were done at Wingate University for our upcoming production of Snow White, already being booked for next year. I am thrilled about all the possibilities that await us regarding the theatre and I anticipate the months ahead...
I'm wrapping up my junior year of highschool and have been looking around at universities and conservatories for after graduation. To be truthful, the process seems a little daunting, what with resumes and application papers, but I AM very excited ,too. I guess we'll see where it goes from here...