Author - Amy

Two weeks ago I told you that I would share a photo of the make-shift kitchen we set up after we moved into the basement of our new house. It wasn’t photo-worthy last week but this week it was.

To be honest, I can’t believe I’m even showing you this! You must think I’m crazy, but I don’t care! We’re finally living in our new home and that to me is amazing.

The top left photo is my “cooking area” with a toaster oven, George Foreman Grill, Induction cooktop, basic oils and seasonings, Ultimate Cutco knife set (I used to sell them in college), cutting boards, and hot pads. The crates below house some of my basic bowls, storage containers, and frequently used utensils.

In the bottom right photo, we see the microwave, coffee maker, toaster, and water kettle. The tubs and bags below the table are holding the paper serve-wear we’re using to minimize dishes, plastic wraps, and baggies, etc. I just try to think of it as camping on steroids.

The best part is yet to come when, later this year (sometime between April and July), our kitchen cabinets will be done and then I can show you the pretty kitchen!

Now that you feel better about the kitchen you have – go cook something wonderful!

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One of my favorite “under 20-minute” podcasts is the Nutrition Diva’s Quick and Dirty Tips. As with the majority of podcasts I listen to on a daily basis, I only listen to the ones that interest me the most (or you eventually go on podcast overload). Here’s one of my recent Nutrition Diva listens:

3 Myths (and 1 Truth) About Grain-Fed Beef

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What’s In Season: January Produce Guide. I always seem to find myself craving orange juice in the winter. Unfortunately, I don’t like eating oranges because I hate the membrane, but citrus is definitely a big one this time of year!

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“Frustrations” by Piano Addict. I love the opening quote on this post…

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How to be Honorable.

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Hands Separately Practice – Useful or Not?

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Recently I’ve determined I really want to try and incorporate more fish into our diet. So, last week we had this super-simple and really delicious Cod Sautéed in Olive Oil with Fresh Tomatoes. 

On my recipe list for this week is another super simple Poached Cod in Tomato Sauce, and bookmarked in my recipes tag in Evernote for the future when I have a better setup is a this a-little-heavier-on-the-ingredients recipe Macadamia-Crusted Sriracha Ranch Salmon.

After seeing my kitchen you understand why my recipe list includes only recipes with minimal ingredients!

My piano was long overdue for a tuning. The start to the semester is always a good time to give a little extra care to our instruments. This time around, my sostenuto pedal needed to be adjusted. In order to fix it, my tuner had to pull the key bed out which was a perfect time to give it a little cleaning!

Besides dust, other items that had found a home below included a sticker and a key letter-name manipulative that students set on top of the keys when they’re learning key names. All in all, I would say we weren’t doing too bad!

While we’re on the topic of piano care…

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My Local Music Teachers group met last Friday at a local piano shop for a program on piano care. One of the items they recommended was the Cory products for cleaning your piano keys and polishing the body of the piano. Pay attention to the finish of your piano before choosing the polishing product.

You can get a kit on Amazon that includes the Key cleaner and polish for super high-gloss piano finishes.

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“Naked Piano Week”. Exploring the piano and understanding how it works is something I’m sure we all think is important but likely forget to do. Ideally, I think it would be nice once a year to set aside one lesson to refresh with students how their instrument works!

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This blog post on using multiple computer screens by Rosemarie Penner was an excellent idea to share on productivity for teachers. I’ve been using two screens for a couple of years and should have done it sooner. My husband has been using 2-3 screens at work for even longer. It’s not hard to set up and it saves a lot of time flipping between screens.

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Speaking of flipping between computer screens/windows, if you’re not using some of the basic keyboard shortcuts (like “Alt-Tab” for switching between windows), you will save yourself a lot of time by learning some of those shortcuts. Here are shortcuts for Windows users and shortcuts for Mac users.

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Several of you have emailed me after I write the post on how I manage internet content. Part of managing internet content is also managing your email inbox. Here’s a podcast I listened to a couple of years ago that helped me improve how I manage my inbox.

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Oxo products are amazing. See what items Oxo employees love.

My absolute favorite Oxo product is the cutting boards. I would recommend owning all three sizes (especially the 14.5″x 21″)

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Like Nicola, I started using My Music Staff this year. One of the biggest things I like about it at the moment is having professional-looking invoices emailed to families. Check out Nicola’s review.

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What a lovely thing. See how this woman transformed a rotting tree into a useable space for her neighborhood.

This is my photo of the week because mostly because it encompasses what I’ve been meditating on these last few days. James is one of my favorite books of the Bible. Plus, since we’re just back to lessons this week, I didn’t take any photos of studio happenings.

If you’re on the Piano Pantry email list and read December’s Secret Letter, then you’ve heard the news that we moved! (Hence no Friday Finds the last two weeks). We’re finally living in the basement (future studio) of our new house while we finish the upstairs. Next week, if I remember, my photo of the week will be my crazy makeshift kitchen!

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How to Handle Sentimental Clutter – whether you’re moving or just de-cluttering after the holidays, this is good advice.

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WunderKeys now has a Level 1A – this is big news!

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One of my students started playing Tum-Balalaika from Faber 3B Performance this week, so we Googled “Balalaika” and came across this amazing video.

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SETH GODIN | The thing about arguments…

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8 Easy Ways to Create Work-Life Balance (using self-care habits) from piano blogger Rosemarie Penner.

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A 7-pound bucket of Nutella. Tempting.

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The Best Guide on How to Buy, Care For, or Sell a Piano

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A new collaborative project by Jennifer Foxx.

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Types of posts that have to stop in 2019. I can’t say I disagree.

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A few podcast ideas from one piano teacher to another.

I’ve finally learned my lesson over the years that I should not wait until the last week of lessons to give my students their Christmas presents. Why? There have been plenty of years where students didn’t come to the last week of lessons and thus I had a handful of gifts left. It just felt strange giving it to them in January.

Next week is our last week of lessons so this week was the gift-giving week. The ornaments I gave out this year were a breeze as they came pre-wrapped in cute little gift boxes with ribbons around them. Easy! That’s my cup of tea.

The other lesson I’ve learned is that I try to purchase next year’s gift the year prior, then I don’t have to worry about what to get my students when Christmas comes around next year. There have been plenty of years where I was down to the last wire getting an order in time. It was such as relief this year to find this box of ornaments all ready to go!

You can find the ornaments pictured above on Amazon.

(As always a reminder that anything linked to Amazon is an affiliate link which simply means that if you happen to purchase using that link, I receive a small percentage back at no extra cost to you which helps me maintain this website).

We’re in the long-stretch to Christmas break. Keep it up!

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Ear infection. Yuck! I haven’t had one of those since I was a kid and yet here I am, fighting one this week (along with other cold symptoms). Consequently, I’m using a lot of my go-to tips shared in Germ-Alert: A Studio Teachers Guide to Staying Healthy. (Or maybe telling you I’m sick isn’t a way to get you to read my tips to staying healthy…hmmm…I think I have that backward. 🙂 )

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THAT person is more important than your phone. Yes, Amen. I try to always keep this in mind when going through a drive-through. More than once I’ve found myself driving away and realizing I never even really looked the people in the eye that took me money or handed me food.

Be intentional at acknowledging people.

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The best pack of stickers I’ve ever spent money on. I tell my students even I want to earn one of these stickers! 🙂

Koobar Year-Round Holiday Stickers Variety Pack (400+ stickers)

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I’m always up for a good list of recommended podcasts. Thanks, Leila.

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While we’re on the topic of lists, Rosemarie Penner at TheUnfinishedLesson.com has created a couple of lists on her Top Must-Have Teaching Apps and Top Must-Have Business Apps for the Studio.

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If you need some help organizing those apps, watch my video on how I organize my devices in App-land Madness.

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One of my students who has been with me for more than 5 years has always had TERRIBLE posture.  It is a continual battle to get him to sit up and not slouch.

This past week I finally had a revelation to have him sit on one of the vestibular wedges I purchased this summer after being at Joy Morin’s Piano Retreat where we talked about technique/posture, etc. The instant effect was astounding and he even said that he noticed himself sitting taller at school (even without it). I wish I would have thought about this years ago…

Personally, I’ve been using this one on my teaching chair this entire semester and absolutely love it.

Happy Friday!

In this weeks featured photo, my sweet little student was using some of our favorite winter-themed Japanese erasers to lay out the notes of the E minor scale(s). (I would suggest buying two sets since it only comes with 7.)

Recently, I shared my love for these erasers in the post Piano Teacher Must-Haves: A Minimalist’s List.

I love teaching all three forms of the scale at one time. We always start with the natural minor so they understand the relationship between the relative major and minor. This is also the reason why I use moveable DO with
LA-based minor. It makes not only the “theory” but the audiation of major and minor keys so much easier to understand! To execute the minor all you do is start on a different note of the scale (LA).

Enjoy this week’s links!

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Here’s what your resume should look like in 2019.

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My senses are enjoying the gentle and tantalizing scent of this Coconut, Vanilla, and Tangerine Essential Oils Body Lotion. Diane Hidy’s first shared it a few years ago in one of her Christmas lists. It’s a bit of a splurge, so I’m using it sparingly, but it might make a great gift for someone you’re not sure what to get!

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One concept I don’t have a game for in my Master List of Manipulatives is for Crescendo and Decrescendo. There are plenty of piano games out there for dynamics in general, but I like how this one from Teach Piano Today is specifically for crescendo and decrescendo only.

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It’s about that time: 3 Gentle Ways to Review Your Life in the New Year.

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Washing the Dishes May Help Relieve Stress. This past year I’ve been hand -washing most of our dishes because the dishwasher in our rental is old and doesn’t do a great job anymore. I’ve actually been enjoying the somewhat liturgical practice and motion of hand-washing the dishes and even when I have a good dishwasher someday will likely continue to hand wash as much as possible. Not only that, but dishes just fare better with the gentle hand-washing.

One small downside to hand-washing is the skin on my fingertips tends to get really dry and annoyingly catches on things like my clothes. So, I finally started using dishwashing gloves and my hands are thanking me. These Playtext Living gloves ones are the best I’ve found. Plus, each season there’s a fun new color.

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Congratulations to Tim Topham on the release of his new Inner Circle Piano Teachers App (now Top Music Pro)  and to Elisa Milne for her new Shop!

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Thoughts on making time stand-still.

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In past Friday finds, I’ve shared this fun lego piano.

Piano Street recently posted a video of a complex concert grand piano in Lego form that hopes to someday make it into retail production. Would this be amazing or what?

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A fascinating video on how real Parmigiano Reggiano is made in Italy.

Now that our bellies are full of turkey, we can fix our eyes to the Christmas Season! I hope you had a joyful time with your family around the Thanksgiving table making memories and sharing joy and laughter.

(Due to the holidays, I took last week off from FF so if you missed the Thanksgiving Edition posted two weeks ago, you can catch it here.)

The turn from Thanksgiving to Christmas is practically a phenomenon as we seemingly go to sleep on Thursday and wake up Friday to the world transformed.  ‘Tis the season! Are you ready?

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The photo above is at our City Hall. I follow a fun Instagram account @the.joy.of.it that posts a lot around the holidays. The owner of the account even shares photos sent to them, so I passed this one on. If you follow the account you may catch it sometime!

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As you prepare for the upcoming season, you may consider: Is it Time for Us to Rethink How We Give Gifts?

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For all you Chai fans – Caffeine-Free Chai Mix.

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If you’re struggling to come up with another gift idea for your students, have no fear, help is here! Christmas Gift Ideas for Your Music Students: Who Couldn’t Use Another Idea?

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What you may not have known about IKEA.

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Some great suggestions for the Advent season on The Art of Simple.

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I am absolutely loving this Peppermint Chapstick by S.W. Basics. It’s made with beeswax, cocoa butter, olive oil, and of course, peppermint! A tiny touch of the season on my lips.

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A gift guide for new cooks.

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If you don’t have an Advent calendar yet, you can get a CHEESE one at Target!

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Group classes don’t have to be stressful  – sometimes it’s nice to just keep it simple.

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Winter is fighting with Fall here in Indiana. We’re not sure what season we’re in. It’s been colder than usual though and last Sunday I appreciated the opportunity to keep my oven on for an extended period of time making  Slow-Roasted Sweet Potatoes.

The way the slow roasting completely permeates the flesh of the potatoes is incredible. The potato stood on its own two feet with absolutely no butter, brown sugar, or maple syrup added. Just beautiful orange-fleshy sweet potato.