More Catching Up

Taking full advantage of the camera on loan to me, I thought I’d post pictures of our newest blessing:

Sharon said she thought I should give the piano a name like my sewing machines: Sassy Pfaffy, Sergio, Lady Katherine of Kenmore, and Selma (who is of course retired…saved from an untimely death and is on display on top of my kitchen cupboards). I hardily agree. I’m working on it. Any suggestions are welcome, though.

(the spot you see on the picture I think is the camera, not the piano…I checked!)
The kids have enjoyed “playing nicely” on it in the mornings while no one is napping. Silje will hopefully start her piano lessons next week, depending on when her music books arrive in the mail. Still waiting. Until then, she’s pouring over Knut’s old beginners piano books.

It amazed me how instantly this piano changed the feeling of our living room. We still need to hang a picture over it that I’ve been saving just for this spot. I need to figure out what to decorate the top of the piano with. I’ve been saving things for so long with no where to put them, that it will be fun to go through. I already know what Christmas decorations will go here, but it’s a bit early for that. I think eventually, I want to make a small hardanger runner to lay on the top. Or maybe something less…lacy. We’ll have to see.

I know. This is the second picture that I have in my house that my mom has in her house as well. I couldn’t help it. My mom inherited it from her mother because she always liked it. I’ve always liked it too, and actually wrote down all the information I could find on my mom’s last time I was there so I could do an ebay search to find one for myself. However, I happened to find this print in a very nice frame last time I was thrifting at Goodwill in my small little town.

As soon as I saw it, I knew it was supposed to go over the piano. Not only have I always loved this picture, but it reminded me of the story Sharon told me about how her father gave her the piano when she was a 6 year old girl. It makes me think of Sharon, wanting Silje who is also 6, to learn to play so badly. It makes me think of dreamy days, enjoying simple pleasures that our age of video games, wiis, television, and instant everything seems to forget. Things like playing a piano, picking flowers, reading books to each other, and staring at a fire in the fireplace.

Surprisingly, the kids have not been annoyingly pounding on it at all since we’ve gotten it. They take turns, and always touch it gently. I know David will have a tough time with knowing Silje know how to play it before him, but I also have no doubts that he doesn’t have the patience to learn to play it yet. He’ll need at least another 2 years before I consider sending him to lessons.

The bad thing about having the piano now, is that it has brought to my attention how messy all of my homeschool things look piled up next to it. If you give a mouse a cookie… he’ll want to buy nicer looking storage for the homeschool things so the room looks as nice as the piano. However, I have hopes that when I get around to reorganizing the back hall closet, and shifting some things in there to other closets that make more sense, I’ll have room in that closet for some of the homeschool supplies, and they won’t be out in the open looking messy anymore. That at least is the hope.

We’ve been saving for new furniture for that room for almost 2 years. By December we plan on buying at least a new couch for that room. I’m thinking we’ll actually wait until January because that’s when all of the huge furniture sales come. Knut also has plans to finish the facing of the fireplace (if we could only agree on the style) and soon… this room will be complete.

Can I just say, I cannot wait for Christmas this year. We weren’t home for Christmas last year, and this year will be the first one we’ll put the tree in this room. (The year before we put our tree in the dining room because there was literally nothing but boxes in the living room.) This year, we’ll be home. We’ll have a tree, a new baby, a fireplace (though Knut told me not to get my hopes up about having the mantel done for stockings to hang on) a piano with a child playing some one-note-at-a-time carol. *sigh* I can’t wait.