The Inspiration Within the Chaos

Every musician that has kids out there knows how hard it can be to stay on top of your game. The days fly by and often you have to remind yourself of that thing they tell parents of newborns, "If all you did today was keep your children alive, then you accomplished so much." Even when sleeping, a parent could be woken at any moment by their little sweethearts' blood curdling screams over their dream that their balloon flew away.

Generally, my practice time gets scheduled into my teaching days away from home. However, lately that is just not enough. I have a lot of notes to learn for the Spring, so I'm like a practice time junkie at home. I see my husband come out of his home office with what could possibly be idle time and I'm all like, "Can I get some practice time in? Just give me a half hour? 15 minutes? 5 minutes? Just a taste, man? Come on!" Once I get into my practice session, it's on. I love playing the clarinet and it feels so good to just focus on that.  Given the chaos of a day spent with an exuberant preschooler and an infant that just loves her mama, getting immersed in embouchure and perfecting my five over three feels so right.

Amidst the craziness, this week I knew I had a blog post to write and I gave some thought to what inspires me. Almost every time I sit down to eat with Charlie, he marvels at the varying sounds that different food make while chomping away.

Listen to the carrot.

Listen to the avocado.

Listen to the rice cake.

Listen to the raisin.

We haven't been spending much time outside lately, but when we do...

Mommy, look at this giant stick!

There's beans in that tree!

Where did all the ice go?

The sun melted it.

I want to watch it.

He hit the dryer with the palm of his hand, then the washing machine and then the wall.

Mommy, they're all different.

Then he picked up a drumstick and hit them.

With his arms bent and his palms facing up, Mommy, they're different again.

Here is a picture of the collection of clarinets Charlie made for me earlier this week. If you are looking for some inspiration, come on over! We have lots!

Today's weekly inspiration is brought to you by Jenny, 5HE's clarinet player, and an awesome mommy to Charlie and Ruby.