After a long school year and a whirlwind trip to Universal Studios, I am finally settling into my summertime schedule.  My History of Conservative Thought course did not “make” this summer, as I only had one student enroll (the course really needs a minimum of three students to work well), but my dance card is full enough with lessons and other obligations and engagements.

Next week I’ll be running my first ever “Rock and Roll Camp” at my little school.  It will essentially be a condensed version of the Music Ensemble class I run throughout the school year, squeezed into four three-hour days.  The plan is to end the final day with a short concert.  I’m waiting to hear back on who is enrolled and what kind of instrumentation we have, as that will determine the song selections, but I think it will should be a fun camp.

After that it’s the return of Minecraft Camp, a perennial favorite.  At last count I have either ten or eleven campers signed up for that camp, which is quite good.  Minecraft Camp is the most lucrative camp of the summer, and accounts for a good chunk of my supplemental income this time of year.  I missed out on it last year, as I was very sick, so here’s hoping I’m good to go this summer.

Otherwise, it’s a pretty full schedule of lessons on Mondays and Tuesdays.  Once everything is cranking at full speed, I’ll have between eight and ten students in any given week, including my nearly-six-year-old niece.  One of my long-time students, a talented composer, only does lessons twice a month.  One of my new piano students will do two days of lessons every other week, to coincide with when she is at her mother’s house (the one with the keyboard).  Suffice it to say that some Mondays I will have at least six students.

I’ll also have more time to dedicate to Lamar Town Council, and hope to work more closely and regularly with our police chief.  We’re still attempting to hire police officers, but the county’s Sheriff office is helping to cover some of our weekend shifts, which helps in the meantime.

Finally, I’ll be doing much more writing (including catching up on posts from this past weekend).  My hope is to get a one-week lead of posts filed on the blog, and then to shift over to writing some short stories.

That’s it for now.  After several days of updates, I’ll be getting back to, you know, actual content tomorrow.  It’s amazing how leaving town for a few days can throw everything out of balance, so I’m looking forward to establishing a routine this summer.  Hopefully it will be restful, but productive.

—TPP