Sunday, January 31, 2016

Daily Bible Reading Challenge

  Did you spend time in God's word this past week? Did it is cause you to worship God more? Did something really stand out in your mind as something that you really needed to hear? Did it prompt you to action? Did you find an interesting fact?

  I enjoyed this past week of reading. There are so many different scriptures that would be fun to share but I will limit it to one scripture section per question. :-)

  What did I read that causes me to worship God more?
I really enjoyed reading Psalm 104. That chapter is full of praise for God and speaks about how well He planned things and just about his creation. I really love the whole chapter but I'll share just a few verses with you:

  "He sends forth springs in the valleys; they flow between the mountains;
The give drink to every beast of the field; The wild donkeys quench their thirst.

Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
They lift up their voices among the branches."


"I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
Let me meditation be pleasing to Him;
As for me,  I shall be glad in the Lord." Psalm 104:1-12 & 33-34


What scripture touched my heart?

"Because lawlessness in increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved." Matthew 24:12-13

The sadness of this one pulls on my heart strings. It tells us that many will cease to love God and will not endure to the end and be saved. This also prompts me to action to pray that I too will not fall into temptation and to warn others.

What can I apply to my life?

So I do have two different verses to share here. That is because in my reading I just happened to hit the same story in both Luke and Matthew and both times it made me be convicted to action in this area. It also goes along perfectly with what I shared above.

"Keep watching an praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Matthew 26:41

"When He arrived at the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." Luke 22:40

This year has been one that I really have wanted to have a deeper relationship with our God and Father and grow in my prayer life and this was such a good reminder to me of my need to pray so that I am able to resist temptation.

Interesting Fact:

 I was reading aloud to the kids from Luke and we all found this verse very interesting:

"And He said to them, "When I sent you out without money belt and bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you?" They said, "No, nothing." And He said to them, "But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one. For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in Me, And He was numbered with transgressors; for that which refers to Me has its fulfillment." They said, "Lord, look, here are two swords." And He said to them, it is enough." " Luke 22:35-38

 We just found that whole sword thing interesting especially in comparison with these verses in Matthew that talk about a situation later that same evening....

  "And Jesus said to him, "Friend, do what you have come for. "Then they came laid hands on Jesus and seized Him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew out his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father,  and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?" Matthew 26:50-53

We just thought that was really interesting.

  Did you read anything interesting this week? I would love to hear what you got out of your reading!

Friday, January 29, 2016

A Storyteller's Anthology by Douglass Feavel {Book Review}


 I have been reading a new book lately - one that I received free for purposes of reviewing. It is called "A Storyteller's Anthology" and it is by Douglas Feavel. It has been pretty fun and interesting to read.  In Douglas' introduction he explains how he became a storyteller and how that has been useful. He says: "Within a skillfully crafted, well-presented story, a substantial amount of teaching can be presented - and presented in a manner more certain to be solidly embraced and remembered. A good story is an open door to opportunities. Sometimes the story does not just encapsulate or deliver the message; at times, the story is the message, by which I mean it is deliberately left open to multiple personal interpretations and practical take-aways. How does information become easy to remember? Move it out of the realm of pure facts such as names, events,  and dates. Those are the kind of things we encounter - and don't like - in a final exam. Transform the message into a song, poem or story."

  This thought process goes along perfectly with the way I try to homeschool our kids and teach kids classes at church. I think that learning can be fun and that stories and music and I would also add acting/activities can make learning much more interesting. When something is interesting it also tends to stick a lot better.

 In the book Douglas Feavel tells about his reason for the book and the process taken to write in in his Preface and introduction and then the remainder of the book is made up of all sorts of stories. Most of them are true stories of people and some of them are what he calls Parables. Not a story that he knows to be true (at least not for sure) but one that still teaches a lesson.

   I have enjoyed reading the book to myself but I have also taken the time to read quite a few stories aloud to the kids. They found the story of Tommy Thompson a man who invented equipment that was able to go very deep into the ocean and helped him recover gold (millions of dollars worth) that had been lost in a shipwreck during the time of the California gold rush. It was a fascinating story from the view of history as well as science and actually politics/human nature too.

  He has stories from history such as the one about Pheobe Anne Moseby (more commonly known as Annie Oakley) and ones from recent times such as the one about Rick Rescorla a Hero from both the Vietnam war and the 9/11 attacks on the world trade center.

  This book is one that I am happy to have on our book shelves.

   If you would like to purchase this book you can find it on Amazon. I also noticed that you can get it free for your Kindle if you have one. If you would like to enter a giveaway for this book please go here.



Monday, January 25, 2016

Fried Egg Pizza - Aaron's New Invention

 The other day we were working on our monthly menu and thinking about different foods and Aaron thought of the idea of making "Fried Egg Pizza". It sounded rather unique but he thought it would be good and wanted to try making it sometime. So we put him in charge of making supper tonight so that he could make his fried egg pizza.

  He made a whole wheat crust first. Then I had thought he was going to have a tomato sauce but he said no "that would be gross". So then I asked him if he was going to have cheese. Again, "no" - he doesn't like cheese with eggs (silly boy!).
 "So just eggs on crust?"
"Yes."
"What about maybe having a white sauce?"
"Okay."

So he made the white sauce and put that on first and then eggs on top which he sprinkled with spike (a seasoning salt that we like).
 It went into the oven to bake for around a half hour or so. Until the eggs were set anyway.
We ate it with green beans and it was really quite yummy!
Not very "pizza like" but yummy never-the-less. I don't mind if he wants to make it again sometime.

Our ducks and chickens are laying good now so we are blessed with plenty of eggs which is so nice!

 Have you ever had an egg pizza before?

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Daily Bible Reading Challenge

As I said I would last week here are my questions that I was asking myself as I read and then the one verse for each question that I chose to share today. I would love to hear what you gleaned out of your Bible reading in the comments!

By the way my Bible reading was out of Matthew (individual morning reading), Luke (Breakfast reading with the kids) Psalms (afternoon reading with the kids) and Genesis (individual nap-time reading).

What did I read that causes me to worship God more?
 In Genesis chapter 21 we find the story of Hagar, Sarah's maid whom she told Abraham to have a child with, being sent away with Ishmael (her son) because he had been displeasing to Sarah. Looking on from my perspective this seems like such a sad story of a mixed up/broken family - and it is but it is a reminder that even in our messed up brokeness God is still there watching out for us and loving us. This is the verse that really reminded me of that and caused me to worship God more:

"God heard the lad crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him." Gen. 21:17 & 18

What scripture touched my heart?
"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?' And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said , "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children,  you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck,  and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 
  "Woe to the world because of it's stumbling block! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!
  If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame,  than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. If you eye cause you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.
  See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven." Matthew 18:1-10


That last verse in particular I find incredibly touching and neat!

What can I apply to my life?
This year is one that I am really wanting to grow in my prayer life and so this verse jumped out at me as one I need to apply to my life:

"And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." Matthew 21-22

Interesting Fact:
In Genesis chapter 20 we read about Abraham and Sarah traveling to Gerar where Abimelech was king. Abraham told the king that Sarah was his sister and she agreed and so Abimelech took Sarah with plans of having her for a wife but thankfully didn't go through with that completely before God sent him a dream and told him the full truth so Abimelech returned her to Abraham. What I find really funny is this happens after(Gen. 18:11) we learn that Sarah is advanced in age and past child bearing years but still she must have still been so desirable that Abimelech wanted her.

 What makes this story even more interesting is that Isaac and Rebecca (in Gen. 26:7-11) play this same trick on Ablimelech again but thankfully Abimelech figured out the truth before anything happened.



I enjoyed "treasure hunting" as I read through the Bible this week. I hope you have been gaining from your reading as well. I would love to hear your thoughts on what you have read!

Saturday, January 23, 2016

An Upstairs Bathroom Tour

 So little by little I am making it around the rooms in our house to give you an online tour. Today I decided to show you the kids' bath upstairs.

  We went with a rather outdoorsy theme in here. Ken got to choose the paint color for this room. He was shopping with me and I asked his opinion on colors and he really liked this one. It wouldn't have been my first choice but it is growing on me. I have been amazed at how well it coordinated with our tile and then the wallpaper border that we got. This was the first room of the house that we tiled and my Dad came to help me do it which I really appreciated!

   The vanity is made out of Oak and has the solid faux granite counter-top sinks like we have in all our bathrooms. Ken really likes double sinks so both of our upstairs bathrooms have them. This bathroom also got to have light fixtures that were intended to be outdoor light fixtures. The laundry shoot doesn't actually go all the way down to the laundry room (though that would have been fun) but just into the hallway closet where the laundry basket sits nicely out of the way. It was designed to keep things looking neat and tidy.

   I made the rug on the floor and Mara made the wall hangings in the picture above.

   I have liked our hookless shower curtains that I got for less than $20 on Amazon. The canoe paddle used to belong to my brother. When I was still a teen he thought it would be neat to have a picture on it so I drew a picture and then he wood burned it on. Eventually it broke once when he was using it. I ended up getting it when he didn't want it anymore. I wrapped up the broken spot with twine and thought that it would make a fun decoration.

 It was fun with how well it matched up with our wallpaper border (which features both cattails and paddles in it).
Mara made this cross stitch and it went well with the wallpaper border too, so it gets to be in here also.
 For the curtains we thought it would be fun to do some leaf pounding. So using some fabric that we already had Mara collected different ferns from around here (this summer - not lately) and pounded their design onto the fabric.

First we laid out a pattern.
 Then she taped them in place (using painters tape - masking tape also works). And then she pounded on them with a hammer but not on the table - we use a scrap piece of lumber for that. Here is an older post that explains flower or leaf pounding in more detail.

  One of the interesting things about pounding leaves or flowers is finding out what color that they actually dye the cloth. Many of these leaves/stems ended up more brown than I anticipated. That's okay- brown works too.

  So that is our upstairs bath. We have more ideas for decorating in there still but I already think it is kind of fun and interesting and best of all - it works. :-)





Tuesday, January 19, 2016

God Provides

  Aaron's snowpants were getting pretty ratty looking not long ago. Last year they got some holes in them and so one day when he was over at my parents Mom grabbed them and patched them (As I was rather re-occupied with house building).

   But this year they now had holes in the patches, the zipper broke and they were really to little. It was time for them to go. I thought I had more for him in storage but I looked all over for them and couldn't find them. Aaron and I had decided we would make him a pair because I hate spending money unless I truly need to and I had some nice heavy carhart looking material that we could use - we just had to figure out the inside layer. I had taken the material out to get ready to make them one day but we didn't get to it that day after all and the next day we went to homeschool Co-op.

  Some of our friends that have given us many hand-me-downs for the boys over the years were at co-op too. Guess what they had for us (among other things) that day? Of course,  a snowsuit in Aaron's size. Their youngest had outgrown it and had reluctantly given it up (I guess the boys -theirs and ours - really like the full snowsuit) and so Aaron was blessed to receive it.

  I just thought it was so cool that just the time we were really in need of new snow gear for Aaron, that was what was given to us. I makes me realize yet again how God is truly aware of every single thing going on in our lives and He abundantly provides.

  I should have a picture of Aaron in his "new" snowsuit but I don't. But it is keeping him warm every day as he does his chores and plays outside and he really likes it.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Daily Bible Reading Challenge

   At the beginning of this year I challenged you to read the Bible every day (with the goal of reading it all in one year) and then strive to learn from it and let in change your life. I have been working on that (the applying it to my life is always a work in progress) and I am hopeful that you are too or that you would be willing to.

   On Sundays I am going to do something different this year. As I read the Bible each week I am going to be asking myself some questions. My goal is to truly learn and grow from my reading - not just read to be able to mark it down on a chart. So the questions are these:


  • What did I read that causes me to worship God more? Is there a character trait of His mentioned that causes me to love him more? Is there a record of something great that He did?
  • What Scripture touched my heart? Basically just what verse really jumped out at me as what I need to hear and learn from just now.
  • What can I apply to my life? What from what I read just now do I really want to try to put into action? What action can I take?
  • Did I learn any interesting facts? Either from the scripture itself or from study I did to learn more about the scriptures that I am reading.
I will be thinking about these things every time I read and jotting things down throughout the week and then share a favorite answer from each category to share with you on Sunday. If you would like I thought it would be really fun if you would do the same and then share your answers each Sunday in the comments.

 So here we go for what I read this past week.....

What did I read that causes me to worship God more?
Matthew 10:28-31 "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows."

From this I am reminded that God is in charge.  That he can protect us from the very worst possibility which is Hell. I also am reminded that God knows us intimately and really truly cares about us. That definitely leads me to worship. 

What Scripture touched my heart?
Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

These verses really jumped out at me because I read them not long after a discussion with a friend where she had mentioned not feeling at peace or at rest and I was trying to figure out how to describe the peace and rest that I have found. I realize that there are many people who don't feel at rest or at peace both people of the world and those that are trying to follow Jesus. This verse says to me that God's plan for us is to have rest for our souls. I want to help others to get to that place.

What can I apply to my life?
Matthew 16:24-26 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"

  These verses made me just really stop and think- Am I really denying myself to follow Jesus? How can I better forget about the fleshly, proud me and instead focus on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and follow Him? Do I try to hang on to my ideas? My dreams? Have I truly laid it all at His feet and submitted my life story to Him? This is something that I have done but I think it is something we need to also be continually doing and sometimes we(I) get distracted from that. This is something that I will be praying for the Holy Spirit's leading in this week. I will be looking for ways that I should be denying my fleshly ideas in order to better live for His glory.

Did I learn any interesting facts?
When I was reading in Matthew 15:21-28 about the Syrophoenician woman there were some things that made my wonder and to search further:
  • Where were Tyre and Sidon? I didn't remember though I am sure I have studied it before in Bible college or some class. I found them on my map and they are North and West of the Sea of Galilee on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is 35 miles from Capernaum to Tyre. It is impressive how much walking Jesus and his disciples would have done getting around from place to place. 
  • The Canaanites of the area were a people that were very into Fertility rituals with the gods and goddesses.
So that is some of my gleanings from reading the Bible this past week. I actually read in Matthew, Luke and Genesis but ended up choosing everything from Matthew.

  What did you read this past week? I would love it if you would care to share some of what you were touched by in what you read!

Saturday, January 16, 2016

An Interesting Week

    Hello Again!
This week is minutes away from being over and I hadn't even said "Hi!" yet on this blog of mine. I hope you are all doing well! This week has been interesting and though there was quite a lot of time spend relaxing I didn't manage to actually write a post.

   On Sunday our church started it's turn for hosting Servants of Shelter (a program that let some of the homeless stay in church buildings). After church we had a fellowship dinner and then stay around for a while and helped to get ready for the people to arrive at 4 pm. We left before they arrived as I needed to take the kids to their monthly 4-H meeting.

   Sunday evening we ended up playing a family game and then I needed to get to bed early so I could be up by 4:15 am to head out for my shift at S.O.S. . For some reason when I need to get up early I have a hard time getting to sleep - It is very rare for me to have trouble with that otherwise. So I greeted Monday with less than 5 hours of restless sleep. That's all right. :-)

   Megan decided she wanted to go with me so I helped her set her alarm. By they time I was dressed and ready she was down in the living room waiting for me. At SOS we had our quiet time (people were still sleeping) and then made sack lunches and pancakes for breakfast.

   We got home before Ken left for work at 8:45. Monday is our big cleaning and laundry day so I did get the mopping done and laundry but I was dragging. We also did school work and I taught 3 music lessons, took Jonathan to his robotics meeting and then made one of my best meals lately (I have not been feeling very inspired with cooking lately)- fried steak chunks with Shitake mushroom sauce, brown rice and broccoli with cheese.

    On Tuesday I got up from a good night of rest (we had gone to bed earlyish because Ken had a cold and wasn't feeling good) but I was still feeling really tired. Worse than the day before. We got going though with schoolwork and I taught my three students that morning. During the teaching my stomach started feeling off too. Uh-oh! I wasn't sure if there was really a problem though so I decided to skip lunch (I wasn't hungry) and immediately take a nap and see if I felt better afterwards in order to teach my 5 afternoon students. I took a long nap but didn't feel any better when I got up so I figured that I would call them. Before I could make it to the phone however I lost my breakfast. Okay, so now it was quite obvious that I was sick.

   So I cancelled the rest of Tuesday's students and Wednesday's students too and I did a lot of sleeping the rest of that day and the next. I did also read a fun book about the Depression. It was amazing how very little I got done! I felt so very thankful for my kids who are pretty compassionate and helpful when one is sick and who can totally run the house without me.

  Wednesday night Ken brought home a new game he had ordered "Ticket to Ride". It is one we have played with others before and enjoyed. Since we didn't have church because it had been cancelled because so many were sick with the same thing I had and SOS was going on and we just didn't want to spread germs around any more and even if there would have been church I wasn't feeling good enough to go anyway. So our family had fun playing our new game instead.

   While playing our game my Mom called with the news that my sister Keren was in the hospital to have the baby. She had been sick too and had gone into labor 2 weeks early (I wonder if stomach flu can help get things going if you are basically ready physically anyway). So that was exciting. At least for most of us. Ken wasn't quite so happy. Keren is his only employee just now at his insurance agency and he has been looking for someone to replace her (for months now) but has found the search quite difficult and still doesn't have anybody hired.

   My nephew Ephraim was born around 10:30 pm. He is adorable and healthy. This is the first nephew or niece that was born in the town where I lived. We are very excited to get to be around him often.

  Thursday was a day of trying to catch up a little around the house and thankfully I was feeling good again and so we did go see Ephraim and his parents. What fun! We also went to help out at SOS that evening and serve supper.

   Friday morning I had a wedding flower consultation and that afternoon we had an ice skating party. The kids had handed out invitations for the skating party at homeschool group last week. A nice group of around 40 came.

  The boys had used the drill with a long big to carefully test the ice depth and it was plenty deep. So they shoveled a nice long and fairly skinny rink near our shore line. They worked hard to get it all ready. We made snacks too and had hot chocolate and tea. Mara thought it would be fun to have hot chocolate outside on a fire on the bank and so the kids did get a fire going and we heated water but everybody ended up coming in for the treats.

 It was a chilly day hovering around zero but it was warmer than it had been and lots warmer than it is now and people dressed warmly.
 The challenge with the rink definitely is the getting up and down the bank. I tied a rope on a tree at the top so that people could hold on to that to try to help pull themselves up.
 The boys made an obstacle course with piles of snow.
 Quite a few got to skate for the first time and enjoyed it.
Vange kept working to keep the "rink" cleaned off. We have a rope tied to a tree on the bank that they use in the summer to hang onto to jump into the water. Skaters had fun holding on to it too to help them do fun tricks. I still haven't skated this year but hope to soon. During the party I spent most of my time inside with the large crowd that was in there staying warm, eating and playing games.

  This morning Megan and I helped at SOS again. The program allows 20 people to use it but there aren't that many just now (which seems to be a good thing!) - the last two nights there have only been 4 men and the most we had was 8 one night or so.

 Well that was my week. Interesting but good too. How was your week?

   

Sunday, January 10, 2016

A Wax Doll for Megan

 I had mentioned that my favorite gift to give this year was a wax doll that I made for Megan. I thought it would be fun to tell you more about it.

  Megan has been expressing a desire for a wax doll for the last couple of years and so having never seen one available to buy I started thinking about how I could possibly make one. I had been mulling on this every so often for a year or so but hadn't truly come up with a plan. But when I heard her mention it again, shortly before Christmas, I decided I would just jump in and try.

 First I got some wire with which I made a very rough looking frame.
Then I cut an old t-shirt into a long strip and started wrapping it around the wire frame.
This was what it looked like after I had it totally wrapped. Rather mummy like, I think.
The next step was melting wax. I had to do this on the stove in the kitchen so I had to encourage Megan to play outside and then go read to get it done. My wax was mostly beeswax with a old white candle thrown in and a red crayon. I would dip the top of the doll and then let it dry a little and then dip the bottom half. I get rotating back and forth until it seemed to by sufficiently covered. As I got close to the end I worked to shape a chin and nose with my fingers. At the very end I pressed in two small beads for the eyes.
Her body shape is nowhere near perfect but it works.
The next step was to paint on her face. After that I worked to glue on her hair. I planned on using craft glue because I figured that hot glue would melt her but I could get my craft glue to work so I tried hot glue and it actually worked fine.
 The doll was done. She just needed clothes. So I quickly made a dress, shawl and slippers. I decided she looked kind of like a Spanish senorita so I gave her a flower in her hair and a fan too.
 I am not sure if Megan has given her a name yet or not. She has been thinking on it.
 She is a little flat faced and has fat hands but Megan has a wax doll now and she is happy. It was a fun project.

 Have you worked on any fun projects lately? Did you make any handmade gifts for Christmas? I love to hear from you!


Jenny Marie

Thursday, January 7, 2016

National Music Museum Tour

   This past week we went down (and over) to Nebraska to go to my Grandpa's funeral. Ken stayed home to keep his office open and so my sister and brother-in-law went with us instead. The route we went took us quite near Vermillion, SD - Home of the National Music Museum. We decided that on our return trip we would go there. I had been there as a child (before my sister was born) but nobody else had been there.

   We were very happy that we stopped! To start with all the kids were able to get in free as well as my brother-in-law who is going to college online (The lady at the desk told us that all students - any age - any school were free). So my sister and I each paid our $10 entrance fee and then we were ready to go. Also I noticed that if you should happen to make it there on Friday everybody gets in free that day.

   We were the only people there on a cold, snowy morning during Christmas break and the lady at the desk was very glad that we stopped. She set us all up with little electronic devices which we were able to use to listen to many of the instruments and also hear more information about them and to watch a few videos that went along with some of them.
Our family really enjoys music and instruments and this past year we have had a lot of fun adding more instruments to our home collection and learning to play them and so it was inspiring to see all the instruments there. We had fun trying to find "our" instruments. Aaron loves to play the mandolin so he was on the lookout for those. In the picture above he is next to a relative of a mandolin (it is smaller and a little different).


 I loved these Scandinavian fiddles!

 So many instruments were made in very creative ways!

 Megan loves to play the piano. We saw oodles of pianos, some really fancy, some very old and a lot that were quite different from pianos that we have now. Many of them had short keyboards and there were quite a lot of "box pianos".
 Aaron wanted to get my picture by the Pochettes (I think). It is basically a pocket fiddle. They are called after the french word for pocket.
 Jonathan is our banjo player. Here he is by a little banjo that we found.
I had fun noticing various instruments that looked like they were made by amateurs. It made me think that it would be fun for us to try making some instruments.

"My" piano of choice. Isn't it lovely? It would have been so fun to try playing a few but I totally understand why were were not supposed to touch.
Keren's pick.
Aaron in the room that was full of instruments from other countries.
Isn't this impressive?
Jonathan and Mara enjoying some of the more unique instruments.
Megan really enjoyed using the electronic device that was available for learning more about the instruments.
Mara plays the Ocarina (along with the piano and violin and penny whistle), we found a few Ocarinas there. The blue and white one behind her was her favorite.
We had fun dreaming about getting a harp one day and admiring the ones there.

Some more fun and unique looking instruments.
All in all we were very happy to have visited the National Music Museum. I highly recommend it. If you are not able to go in person their website does have virtual tours on it and tons of information about instruments. 

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