The boys and I took another field trip this morning. Our pastor’s daughter had a birthday today. They invited a few homeschool families to join them for a concert at the local college, and then lunch and games at a nearby park. It was an absolute thrill to hear a live symphony orchestra. The music was combined with a screen show and narration teaching about our solar system. With each planet they also featured an instrument from the orchestra. They weren’t able to cover all of the instruments.

As my kids have gotten older and started moving on to high school, we’ve had less of these kinds of homeschool “experiences”. I wish now I had written about and recorded more details from those days. Most of my collection of pictures I had was lost one day when my phone shut off and wouldn’t turn on or charge. It was a replacement phone from another one I’d lost, including more pictures, and something about the replacement one would not allow pictures to upload to the icloud. There was a way they told me I could do it manually on the computer but I never took the time to do it.

Obviously covid contributed to the end of more official outings. Recently our piano teacher had to drop the boys and I as students after picking up another job. It was disappointing to lose her as a teacher. I don’t know what this means for further lessons for the boys. I wish I had the skill to teach them myself. As for me, I’ve wondered if the piano playing dream and desire is just another one of those things I need to let go of in order to peacefully go on with my life, though some things just nag at me if I’m not doing them. The boys don’t fight it, but the need for them to practice comes with a weight. I keep thinking I could teach myself if I was dedicated and practiced every day.

The boys had a good time today too. It made me happy in the auditorium to look over and see them enjoying the show. I momentarily wished I’d taught them more about music and instruments, whatever more general knowledge I had from my own school field trips, band experiences, and music appreciation classes, so I was thankful when the show included the featuring of the instruments. I know better not to get too bogged down with the mom guilt from all the things I haven’t done. If there’s something I’ve done wrong, I can ask for forgiveness. Otherwise I remember that God has his own story for them that he is writing. I knew with homeschooling that I’d be exchanging the inclusion of some good things for others. I’ve also much more deeply learned that the bigger things in life that I’ve actually done, always came with the help of other people to make them happen.