Fat Tuesday

     Today is Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras as they like to call it in the South, and in France, I would imagine.  So today is the day that we act like gluttonous monsters so that we can fast for Lent.  Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, we have mass at 6:15.  School is still having Jazz Band practice and regularly scheduled Wednesday meetings, and probably lots of other things that I am not involved with.  It is too bad that we cannot schedule around Ash Wednesday.  The schools used to know that Wednesday was Religious Education night.  They didn't schedule extracurriculars on Wednesdays, but I guess we have come so far away from God that we just don't care anymore.  They all love getting off of school for Good Friday and Christmas Eve, but where are they the rest of the year?
     I love all the opportunities that my kids have at school, but enough is enough.  My daughter, who loves math, decided not to be on the Math Team this year.  She said that she needed a break.  She scored higher than 92 percent of the 7th graders in the state on her WKCE test.  I am sure the Math Team would have loved to have her, but I understand why she didn't do it.  You can only be in so many places at once.  She is working very hard this month on her Solo and Ensemble pieces.  She is doing a solo on the oboe, a woodwind trio piece with a flute and clarinet, again she is the oboe, and she is doing a oboe and flute quartet (three flutes and herself).  She is also performing with the Jazz band, playing the clarinet.  It is perfect timing, between basketball and track.  Solo and Ensemble at our school is on Saturday, March 19, so she has two weeks left to practice.  She put on a little concert for us last night.  She is sounding great.  She has a high school senior tutoring her on the oboe.  She has another lesson today.  He is going to UW Eau Claire, I think, for music.  He is going to need teaching hours, so he is teaching my daughter and another oboe player from eighth grade.  He is an amazing musician, we are lucky to have him.  Last week, they broke down her music to show her where and how to breath.  That is a huge help.  He told her it would take time to get used to it, but it would come with practice.  I wonder what she'll learn today.