Last Saturday I went to a Suzuki piano graduation concert for two reasons. First I volunteered to help serve food for the reception, and second I thought it would be a good idea for my son to see it. Alex, 9, takes Suzuki piano, and he is expected to graduate from Book 1 in January.
Before I get into the lesson that I learned I want to plug the Suzuki program here. We are fortunate to live about 2 miles from a fabulous teacher and we are learning soo much about music. Alex is progressing kind of slowly, having taken piano for two years now, but I think he is getting a good foundation. He has had the opportunity to play in about 8 or 9 recitals, as well as see some very wonderful student musicians perform. It has been a learning experience for the entire family.
So anyway, I go there to help with the food so that the parents of the children graduating won't have to miss seeing their children perform and/or get their awards. After a little running around, I find myself helping by carrying bags, boxes and pans of food in from a car in the parking lot.
I wish I had some idea of the quantity of food, but it was enough to feed about 300 people. There were brownies, lemon bars, strawberries dipped in chocolate, cheese squares, humus, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, green beans and asparagus. It wasn't exactly meal food, but there was alot of it. The desserts were in little dessert cups and the vegetables were arranged in giant baskets in a very decorative fashion.
It turns out that the person I was helping is House Manager for a family whose child is performing in the concert. The family donated the food and this lady prepared it all as well as set it up. Needless to say she did a super job and the food not only tasted wonderful but was beautiful. It was amazing.
This experience was very educational and inspirational for me. First of all, when I think of the fact that being a house manager is actually a job, I realize that I do perform tasks that are marketable. I also learned that much can be accomplished in the home if it is taken seriously in a professional way. I'm sure I have always known these things, but you know, it was one of those aha moments. I re-realized something that made an impact in my life for today.
At the end of the day when I was telling Lee about all of this he told me something that some people might think waas insulting, and maybe I would too at some other time. But I took it as food for thought on Saturday and I am still pondering it. He said that I could be a better manager of our home if I were to put my intelligence to work. He told me that he thinks I am very smart, but that I often go through the day without really thinking about the work I am doing. I think he may be right.
What makes me think that he may be right is a situation that occurred while I was helping this house manager on Saturday. She had asked me to place the desserts on plates, and that is what I was doing. I had the big boxes on a chair and I was holding the plates in one hand and using the other hand to pick up the desserts and place them on the plate. I was completely filling up each plate with one layer of the dessert and then moving on to the next plate.
While I was doing this, the house manager's employer came out to help, and she started doing the same job I was doing. But she decided to put the plate down so that she couuld use both hands and get it done faster. She also decided to put multiple layers of the desserts on each plate so that the food wouldn't have to be replaced as soon. What a brilliant idea. Needless to say, she jumped in there and used some brains to get the job done.
To me it was much food for thought. After all, figuring out how to do things more efficiently can provide many advantages. More can be accomplished and more free time can be had.
It was between 2 and 3 p.m. and I caught a glimse of him as I was preparing to mop the kitchen floor. First he was on the neighbor's stairway railing and then he hopped on the ground and appeared to be eating something. Perhaps he found a lizard or some sort of bug. Then he found a favorite perch on top of their playset. I'm sure he was looking for one of the little bunny rabbits that are often seen running through this yard.
Not a great shot, thus the reason I was sneaking out around the bushes with my camera. Unfortunately he saw me and flew away. 
