What is a Timmism?

What is a Timmism, you ask? Well.....obviously, I made it up, but my children and I know what a Timmism is! Timmisms are funny stories about my funny husband's adventures in the wide, wide world. Large families are famous for their outrageous, funny stories. In our family, Tim, has many crazy, out-of-this-world experiences as he is out and about with our kids. I thought it would be fun to periodically relate some of Tim's adventures as he navigates through life as the dad of twenty-two children!

Timmism #1:

The other day, Tim was standing in line at WalMart with a full cart. Since Tim is the resident cook at our house, he is totally in charge of the menu. He was making dirty rice that evening for dinner. He uses the Zatarans rice recipe. So...he has six boxes of Zatarans rice and six pounds of hamburger meat....plus a cart full of other multiple foodstuffs. The lady in line behind Tim made a comment about the significant number of rice boxes in Tim's cart. She asked if he were cooking for a party, to which Tim mechanically replied, "No, it's just for the family dinner." The lady had a "shocked and amazed" look on her face, and was just about to say something additional when Tim said, "Actually, I'm a gormet chef". She said, "Oh, really?" Tim said, "Yes, tomorrow night I'm cooking macaroni and cheese". The woman didn't say another word!!

Contrabass Flute.......This is Truly Amazing!

A Facebook friend of mine plays the flute. Recently, she had the opportunity to play a contrabass flute. This instrument is amazing! I didn't even know such an instrument existed! Check it out!

A Totally Perfect Day!

A surprise visit from our daughter, Tweets, and our sweet grandbaby, Baby Tweets, makes for a perfect Saturday!

Does Formal Training Stifle Creativity???

This post is mostly about creative people and their art. While I have quite a few creatively gifted children as well as  gifted extended relatives, I'm going to focus on my son, Alexander (Alex), in my discussion. The question I'm posing to you, my readers, is: "Does a university degree or formal "education" in an artist's expression such as a musical instrument, dance, mediums such as pen and ink, painting, mixed media etc., or voice training hinder or facilitate one's creative gift or gifts? From another perspective, "Does formal training in one's art damage or rob that person of his creative soul"?
Yesterday, my daughter, Tellanova, her fiance, my husband and myself discussed this topic over dinner. My daughter and her fiance  are professional musicians. Both of them attended the same elite music school in Boston, Massachusetts. One opinion presented was that formal training tends to remove spontaneous expression making one's art conform to the status quo of what is "normal" in that genre. Another perspective is that when exposed to a wealth of information from an "expert," one can glean tremendous knowledge that can only serve to make one's art eventually better. Indeed, in the early stages of study students may adhere to a strict standard, but eventually, over time, a student blends his own creative juices with the acquisition of formal training to produce a better product than if he had not been mentored by an expert in his field.

This question brings to mind my son Alex. Alex has never been to a prestigious music university, but he plays the piano quite well. Alex, a Filipino, came to our family when he was nine years old. While Alex is blind, he taught himself, while still in the Philippines, to play the piano. It didn't hurt that Alex has perfect pitch! Our family was stunned when we heard him play. I felt a tremendous responsibility to give him every opportunity I could to pursue his musical talent. So, when Alex was about eleven, I enrolled him in piano lessons with a classical piano teacher who had previous experience teaching people who are blind. Until then, Alex had only played the pop music he heard on the radio. (Alex also has a photographic memory.) Alex was quite accommodating to me, never complaining about his classical training and practicing everyday. As time passed, I noticed that Alex did not play the piano for fun anymore. He didn't seem to have any interest in music. His music, while playing the notes perfectly, lacked a sense of spirit. After, two years of classical training, I stopped the classical piano lessons. I thought that Alex would be overjoyed to be rid of the pesky scales and music by such composers as Bach, Mozart and Schubert. I imagined him with a big smile on his face, hammering out the pop tunes that he so loved.  Not so..... Alex didn't sit down at the piano again for almost two years after we had stopped the classical lessons. Those lessons had zapped him of his spontaneity and passion for music! I worried that he would never again return to the piano. I was so relieved when finally, he did sit down at the piano again and play.
This was an important lesson for me: what I think is an outstanding opportunity is not necessarily the best choice for someone. I'm just happy I realized that the classical lessons were hindering rather than furthering Alex's musical creativity before I made him take years and years of lessons. 
So, readers, do you have an opinion on this topic? Have you or someone you know actually had their artistic creativity harmed by "formal training"? I'd love to hear what you have to say!!

The Gardens at the Greenery

In our large family we are constantly celebrating birthdays!! When the kids were growing up, and now still, birthdays were major family events! Now, most of my "kids" are twenty-somethings with a few being a thirty-something. Recently, we have transitioned into weddings also becoming a frequent major family event. One of my daughters, Tweets, has been married over four years now to her sweetheart, Mr. Tweets. Recently, they had their first child, my new grandson, our Sweet Prince! Now, I have two more daughters engaged to be married within the next eight months. Penny and Tellanova will soon be a Mrs. to their Mister. Tellanova is getting married to a fellow musician in our hometown which we lovingly call Gingerbread Town! When searching for wedding venues; it didn't take long to find The Gardens at the Greenery! The Greenery is one of the finest landscape nurseries around these parts. They also dabble in the wedding venue business! So far, these gardens have top billing.

Did you have a garden wedding? Did a family member or friend have a garden wedding? Do you have a wedding story to share? Or....if you are a large family, are you, like us, celebrating frequent wedding events?

Lunch at the Dove's Nest

Waxahachie has many wonderful local restaurants. We have several pubs, tea rooms and home style diners on the town square. Suzanne has been home visiting for the past several days. Before she headed back to Austin, she, Soo-Jin and I had lunch at the Dove's Nest, a nationally famous tea-room.

 The food was "melt-in-your-mouth" good, but the dessert, a Brownie Sundae, was totally scrumptious!! Ivy and Abby made it clear they didn't want dessert, but when the sundae showed up with three spoons.......How could they resist??

Good food and good company.......It just doesn't get any better than this!!

The Bard Prison Initiative

I listen to Public Radio while I'm driving. This evening I heard a program on the Bard Prison Initiative. This is a privately funded program in five New York State prisons supported through Bard College. Similar programs are now imitated by several colleges in the USA and worldwide giving an incarcerated man or woman the opportunity to go to college while in prison. Budgets for all publicly funded programs were cut in 1995, ending educational opportunities in 350 prisons. According to my research, (www.bard.edu), to date, since 1999 when the Bard College project started one hundred fifty- seven degrees have been issued. The program enrolls approximately two hundred students across the five New York prisons. The results have been good, with the number of released convicts that find employment high and the number that re-offend low. All in all, I personally think the concept is a good one. If the incarcerated men and women are going to be released at some point, why not make the possibility that they would re-offend less? Isn't this better for society?
 Some families of victims object to the program questioning the moral value of making prison a positive place where a criminal can get a college degree. They point out that prison should be a place of punishment. I totally understand their argument. The anger and violation at being the victim of a crime is horrifically dark and ugly; the sense of evil is overwhelming.  However, while I do think that there are some crimes that are so horrible that a person should never be released, if an inmate is eventually going to be emancipated, why not attempt to lessen the possibility that he will repeat a crime?
While listening to the radio program and then reading about the program online, I was encouraged that this program exists. While I do not believe every criminal can be helped by education, I do believe that a good number can, and ultimately, isn't that better for society?
What do you think?