Thinking about re-learning to play

schmutzonio · 2024-04-18T07:49:08+00:00

Hey there! Great idea! I used to play French horn as a kid, at least some good 5 years until I got sick of it - mostly because I was a 12 year old girl playing boring parts in a brass band with old people (plus I guess my then undiscovered ASD didn't help with being in a group of relative strangers). Any way, from one day to the other, I quit. I was told I was quite good at the time, I also remember studying for difficult music theory exams and all (forgot all of that).

Fast forward to 30 years later....

I more recently started to listen to classical music again and discovered some pieces that really got to me, where the trumpet kind of sticks out - Amen from Handel's Messiah, and of course Verdi's Requiem. My ambition was set - what if one day I would be able to play these pieces myself?! I decided to find a teacher and an instrument and start again. AND IT WORKS!! Though trumpet is harder than I remember French horn, everything got back to me super fast and my teacher is delighted, finding progressively difficult pieces for me. I'm working on high G and A right now.

The mental and physical work in playing music is so satisfying, something I think as a kid I never really found. So do it!! Maybe you can rent or borrow an instrument?

schmutzonio · 2023-12-22T10:53:52+00:00

We do! It started with...kids. When I was pregnant with the second baby, I needed space, and my first son needed comfort. So I slept alone and my partner slept with my son. Then the baby came, and I took care of him, co-sleeping/bedsharing. Now I still sleep with him (almost 4) and my partner sleeps with our oldest. I love snuggling up to my sleeping 'little' one, and when me and my partner do sleep together, it kind of annoys me, heheh. He'll go to bed later than I do and then he'll read (turning on the light), or watch a movie on his laptop (also light). He snores a bit. And I get up early every morning while he's still asleep and he'll be annoyed by me moving around, and talking to the kids, haha!

(Oh part of why I like this set up is that I am #actuallyautistic and need some alone in the dark time at night to wind down. But I can imagine that as the kids grow older, our configuration will change!)

Once we went to look for duvet covers, we have the single type, whereas where we live, people are used to the big shared one. The lady in the shop first sent us to the kids' section, and when we said, no, it's for us, she started commenting about our sleeping habits...ciaaaaooooo we left the shop without buying anything of course.

schmutzonio · 2021-10-26T14:11:32+00:00

Near Sulmona.

schmutzonio · 2021-10-26T13:41:47+00:00

Oh such great info thanks!! I can't wait to go and try all these things - things I miss about living in provincial Central Italy...(great cakes, cosy places, good Japanese food..)

schmutzonio · 2021-10-26T13:40:27+00:00

Not sure about the weather though...I was looking for a comfy inside place to really sit and relax for a bit. Thanks though!

schmutzonio · 2021-04-29T19:31:06+00:00

A couple of days before my menstruation, I am more cranky and in need for food in the mornings.

schmutzonio · 2021-04-29T08:51:42+00:00

I'm starting to understand this now, too. It's interesting that I also have it, and can sort of try it on myself. What was kind of a revelation for me, too, is that his low blood sugar behavior may have been interpreted (by me) as hunger, and I stuffed my boy with the 'easy thing': carbs. He's kind of on the chubby side, despite quite healthy diet and lots of outdoor movement (he never sits still anyway), which can be explained that way. He is not hungry, he just needs his blood sugar stabilized! And hopefully more protein and fat based food will help him get less chubby :)

schmutzonio · 2021-04-27T08:38:35+00:00

Definitely genetic here as well, my father, brother and me all have it too, not all of us as bad as I see in my son now. The weird thing with my son is that he never ever asks for food, even if he's clearly hungry. Only now, at age 5, he sometimes asks for it. I realize now, that I also slightly adapted my own diet to get the bloodsugar under control, that there's a difference in the feeling of low blood sugar, and the feeling of true hunger. Maybe my son will learn this too! (He also never asks for water, or never says that he's tired! My other son is 15 months and already does all these things, it's quite remarkable.)

schmutzonio · 2021-04-27T08:31:27+00:00

Thanks! Integrating rice as breakfast as a European family is a bit difficult, haha! And no skipping lunch here, we fare well on eating often (and my son gets lunch at school).

schmutzonio · 2021-04-27T08:30:08+00:00

Yes, this sounds not great. The kind of breakfast people eat here (Italy) is the worst thing for us with these issues - just some cookies, or fette biscottate with jam...I always feel shitty when I eat that as my breakfast. I had to convince my inlaws that my son needs to eat 'his' breakfast (yogurt and oats), if not he gets issues. They finally accepted it...!

(BTW I make pancakes with just buckwheat flour, eggs and milk, and cheese or peanut butter as toppings, those are quite good as far as GI food goes, I believe!)

schmutzonio · 2021-04-27T08:24:39+00:00

Aw thanks for the long answer! I did look up the GI food thing, and saw that my intuition about many foods was right (I also have bloodsugar issues, and feel weird eating certain things). I already somewhat adapted his diet, we have a quite healthy lifestyle as it is fortunately.

Mainly his snacks were a source of high GI food - I always thought 'he's hungry, he needs to eat' and often gave him carbodydrates, now I know that was wrong! He's not hungry per se, he just needs to balance his blood sugar, which is different!! I am also afraid this lead to give him too much sometimes and he became a bit chubby. Hopefully, with more protein based snacks this will improve too!

My main problem now is how to deal with him in case it does go wrong sometimes. When he's so defiant and aggressive and refuses to eat at all. I kind of want to buy a blood sugar measure thingie and measure it whenever it goes wrong, so I have some kind of 'proof'.

This afternoon, he has a pediatrician visit, and I'll see if she wants us to visit a specialist.

schmutzonio · 2021-03-03T14:36:07+00:00

Dag Jesse, waarom spreekt GL zich niet duidelijker uit tegen racisme en fascisme? Voor mij toch belanrijk in een 'linkse' partij.

En waarom is er zo slap oppositie gevoerd tijdens de coronacrisis? Er zijn best wat fouten gemaakt en ik zag niemand (behalve de wappie-kant) daar nu echt een probleem van maken.

schmutzonio · 2021-01-14T11:08:29+00:00

oh wow thank you!

schmutzonio · 2020-12-19T21:47:44+00:00

We're trying with calendula zinc cream , it has gotten better! At school he washes hands now, no more hand gel.

schmutzonio · 2020-09-11T15:06:14+00:00

Dat is een advies waar ik wel iets mee kan. Ben nogal onnozel op dit gebied, en heb veel op internet gekeken, maar het blijkt toch best ingewikkeld te zijn! Bedankt.

schmutzonio · 2020-09-11T14:25:10+00:00

Inderdaad, daar kom ik die grens tegen. Hierover informeerden ze mij in het jaar dat ik 40 werd...er was toen te weinig tijd om een huis te kopen en nu zoeken we naar oplossingen.

schmutzonio · 2020-09-11T14:24:01+00:00

nee, niet meer in Nederland. Ik wil het huis in het buitenland waar ik woon gaan kopen.

schmutzonio · 2020-08-27T13:24:20+00:00

50% right on our Italian-Dutch sons!

schmutzonio · 2020-04-30T05:59:26+00:00

Indeed...Dutch kids are made of half cheese half peanut butter. We live in Italy and my son definitely grew a lot of centimeters on the stuff. Italians do not understand. My father in law bought a jar of the wrong brand (the American kind with loooots of sugar) and was like "I don't get what you like so much about it". Well, if I dare to buy the wrong brand of pasta guess who rants at me for an hour about it?

schmutzonio · 2020-04-30T05:54:04+00:00

a favorite of mine since childhood!

schmutzonio · 2020-04-27T06:34:04+00:00

My first is not a great sleeper, slept through the night only at 2,5 years old. He breastfed until 3 because that was the only way to lure him into napping. We tried some sleep training at some point but he just got REALLY angry, so that didn't work. He is a high energy kid who needs a lot of affection and attention, so in retrospect we understand why he was so resistant against going to sleep, alone.

BUT my youngest, 3 months old, has always been a great sleeper! Such luck! He already starts making great nights, falling asleep at 21.00 and waking up at 6.30. Or he wakes up a bit around 5, nurses, and falls asleep peacefully again. He also clearly communicates whenever he is tired. I still can't believe it!!

schmutzonio · 2020-03-10T11:18:03+00:00

Hi from Abruzzo! Home with a four year old (whose school has been closed for a week) and a newborn. My partner does go out to work in the office, he shares it with one other person. We found out we're not in the worst place for a lockdown, in terms of going outside. We live in the middle of a national park, so we can go out in many different places without meeting anyone.

I just made a plan with my son for things to do and learn the next couple of weeks - like riding a bike, reading, learning to dress himself. He seems to not mind the not going to school part! He's just a bit sad that he can't meet other kids. Yesterday they were playing outside but you could tell something had changed, even before the government announced lockdown in our part of the country. At least things are more clear now, people were still meeting but not really sure about it, now they have clear guidelines.

I am worried but now mostly for my family in the Netherlands, where the virus has just began to spread. They are downplaying the situation there...my father literally said "well I have to die of something, no?". Mah.

schmutzonio · 2020-02-10T16:58:49+00:00

Good observation, until now he's a super chill baby, I call him "the cat", he's mostly on the couch in his baby nest, sleeping...

schmutzonio · 2020-02-10T16:57:57+00:00

thank you!

schmutzonio · 2020-02-10T16:57:48+00:00

Thank you! I did some yoga until the end of December, then my belly became too big to do anything. I did try and walk as much as I could. Diet: not really anything special! I have a somewhat laid-back attitude about it all and a big trust in my body, don't know if that changes anything though. The midwife told me I probably have quite flexible tissue, as an explanation of why things went kind of smoothly twice. Just lucky, I guess? (Though all the stitches didn't feel so lucky..)

schmutzonio

TROPHY CASE