Music that touches not only the ears but the heart

Where words fail, music speaks. --Hans Christian Andersen

That's exactly how I feel about piano/classical/church music. It touches the heart in ways words cannot. There is tremendous power in the music we subject ourselves to. Beautiful music has an amazing ability to bring the Spirit into our lives while degrading music has that ability to drive the Spirit out. I strongly believe that music is one of the deadliest weapons the adversary has in his arsenal. I know. I've been there. Not too deep or too heavy, but enough that I thought I couldn't live without it. Like all things, music is a wonderful gift God has given all of us if we use it in the right way, in moderation. In our house, New Age piano trumps rock-n-roll any day. Period. Enough said.

The other night Tyler and I treated our kids to a Jon Schmidt concert, right in our own backyard . . . well, not literally. One day I was browsing his site and happened upon his upcoming events and saw he was coming to Tooele. I knew immediately I had to take my kids, and the $5 tickets were a steal.

Awhile ago my gracious mother presented her ticket to me so I could see him perform in Price when I was home one weekend. After that initial concert I knew I had to introduce him to the family. I had heard him before, but the concert made it so much more alive, and several weeks later I took Ty to a performance at Thanksgiving Point.

This last performance was very intimate, in a minuscule performance hall, and the sound was superb. Jon Schmidt is labeled a New Age artist, but a New Age artist who turns that sound upside down by adding a little classical or rock-n-roll. His music engaged my kids who were dancing and clapping and loving every minute of it. And the best part of the evening was the advice he gave to the kids in the audience: If you want to become good at anything, you have to put the time into it whether it's the piano or basketball or dance. He challenged them to try and practice 10 hours for one week and see if that did not make them better musicians. High fives to him.

Jon Schmidt, you're welcome to play any time at our house, preferably live and on the grand piano we don't have. But we'll take the mp3 version as well.

My greatest birthday wish

Isn't every mother's wish to have her family together? I know mine is. And I couldn't have imagined a better birthday present than to be able to take my children to the temple.

The Draper Temple open house.

And we did.

In a huge snowstorm.

That doesn't normally happen in March.

What was supposed to be a much shorter drive took longer and I was a little anxious and sure we wouldn't make it on time since our session was the last of the day. I will admit that I had several thoughts along the way that maybe we should just forgo this expedition and try and make it to the Oquirrh Hills Temple open house in June. But we pressed on and I'm so glad we did. The peace that came over me was wonderful. I will never forget the feeling I had as Tyler and I and our children stood in the celestial room soaking in the grandeur of the room. I got a tiny glimpse of heaven that day as I imagined that this is really what HEAVEN is like, surrounded by family, never to be separated.

Later that evening as the kids and I knelt down for family prayer, I made them all promise me that someday we would all make it back to the temple.

Together.

As a family.

Just like any mother could hope for.

The season that never ended

I LOVE basketball season. I especially love watching my kids play. I love watching them develop into better players. I love rooting for them. I get loud, but hopefully not obnoxious. Both Kiersten and Erik played Jr. Jazz basketball this year, and unlike last year had a tournament at the end. Kiersten's team (the Celtics) was defeated in the last game of the season which was technically the first round of the tournament, but Erik's team (the Hawks) surprised us all as they advanced game to game. It's been a week of basketball every night including practices at our house.

The second play off game was against a team they had played before and lost to. It was intense with Erik's team winning by one point. Erik led with 12 of his team's 22 points including the basket that put them ahead for the win.

The third game was against a team that had yet to play a tournament game. How they made it to the third round I'll never know. We pulled off a win there and advanced to the fourth round opposite a team that later went on to win it all. During the first half Erik's team really stood a chance of possibly winning. The second half wasn't so great.

I was pleased with how well his team played, making it to the final four. I have mixed emotions right now . . . I'm excited to have my Saturday mornings back, but I will miss being the cheerleader at basketball games, not only for my kids but the entire team.