by Rachel | Personal Development
It feels like just yesterday, a whole summer of maternity leave stretched in of me. Parker was born one week after the end of my spring session, so I’ve had an incredible 10 weeks to do very little else than enjoy my sweet baby boy. And now — cue the sad trombone — there are only 2 weeks left.
But before you start to feel too sorry for me, I have to say that when I do go back to work, I have it pretty good. I’ll be home with Parker from the time he wakes up until 3 pm, when I’ll make the “commute” to my home studio (just a few rooms away). While I’m with students, my mom and mother-in-law will take turns coming over to stay with the baby until my husband gets home from work, and then I’ll be finished no later than 8 pm each night.
Even though I get to spend most of the day with Parker, and I don’t have to leave the house to go to work, those 5 hours away from him will still be tough at first. I’m pretty sure all moms feel this way at the end of maternity leave; I’m just glad that I have a job I love and is worth the time apart.
Overall, I’m really excited for September 3rd…but I’m not counting down the days just yet. Tomorrow we head to Florida so that Parker can meet his great-grandma. A few days of family time in the sand and sun is the perfect way to wind down what has been a beautiful summer.
by Rachel | Personal Development
When you’re almost 10 months pregnant, you can pretty much expect to have a fairly tame birthday. And although it was a BIG one, I was juuuust fine with that.
My day started with Sadie jumping on the bed to wish me a happy birthday at 5:30. Luckily after Zach left to get me some breakfast (my favorite bagel and smoothie from Panera), she snuggled next to me and we both went back to sleep until about 8.
The rest of the day was spent with my mom, going out to lunch at Incredibly Delicious, playing tourists at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, and then enjoying the nice weather at Starbucks — my belly made a nice shelf for my drink, as you can see in the picture.
That night, the whole family went out to dinner at American Harvest, and then we did dessert and presents afterwards. I got completely spoiled with a Keurig coffee maker, some furniture and goodies for the nursery, and gift cards to spend on myself. I couldn’t think of a better way to ring in the big 3-0!
by Rachel | Personal Development
I was on the elliptical machine at the gym listening to Pandora a couple of weeks ago when this song popped up (on the Rihanna channel of all places!). The title was “What Can I Do? (But Love You)” and I was shocked to realize that the singer was Joy Williams from The Civil Wars, one of my very favorite groups.
I immediately downloaded the song from iTunes and listened to the entire EP nonstop for a couple of weeks, and then decided that I wanted to learn to play that first song that had caught my ear at the gym. Unfortunately, the sheet music was nowhere to be found…I couldn’t even find the chords. So I learned it by ear instead.
It’s been a long while since I sat down and played music for myself. By that, I mean music that isn’t new repertoire for my students or for a gig, but purely for my enjoyment. So it felt really good to learn and practice this song, under no pressure or time constraints whatsoever. After a couple days of playing, I decided to record it.
My recording is definitely far from perfect, but the best part is that it doesn’t have to be, since it’s just for me :) Spending the time learning and playing this song was an excellent reminder that I need to do more of this. It’s good for my inner musician and good for the soul!
by Rachel | Personal Development
I tried my best not to seem distracted this week, but the truth is, I was busy preparing for my first non-theatre/non-classical/non-children’s music (that’s a lot of non’s!) performance ever. My audience was a little different than what I’m used to on a daily basis…in fact, since I performed in a bar, my students wouldn’t have even been allowed to attend :)
Because music is such a huge part of my job, it’s easy to forget that it is also a personal hobby and something that I’ve done for fun almost all my life. I’ve been spending a lot of time writing and playing for myself lately, so having the opportunity to perform in front of an audience was a big thrill. Here is one of my original songs, “Second Chance Dance,” which I wrote for my husband last Valentine’s Day (and is based on the story of us):
If you’d like to hear more of my non-children’s songs, and read more about my foray into the world of singer-songwriters at www.rachelrambach.com.
