Our Family Project

After a few years of piano lessons, Eliza has really started to take off!  I love it too.  I can always tell when she is bored because I will hear her playing through her lesson books. It has taken a few years, but she's now loving piano lessons and playing the piano.  Back in September our piano teacher took a break because she had a baby.  Eliza decided she wanted to go back to piano lessons in November knowing how to play all the songs in her performance book.  So, she frequently practiced them without my nagging.  And, that habit has continued ... I rarely have to remind her to practice her piano.  The only thing I wish she would learn is when  to play.  Many times Jon and I are in the kitchen trying  to have a conversation and she will be playing every.single.song as loud as possible.  It's so hard for me to ask her not to play when she has the desire to play.  But, alas, sometimes we do.  She's pretty good ...

My children have been on a slight piano lessons hiatus.  Their piano teacher had a baby in September and needed some time off.  (And, before you ask ... this is NOT an announcement: I am NOT their piano teacher.)  They haven't been playing the piano as much recently, and we have had more free time in the afternoon because we don't need to rush to piano lessons.  And, while it's been nice to take a break, I am so eager for my children to get into piano lessons again. Eliza has grown a lot during this hiatus.  She has challenged herself more, and she's gone ahead in some of her books; playing just because she wants to.  I love it.  She is finally to the stage in which she can read music fairly well, and she can sight read, and she can pretty play what she wants to.  (Mind you, some of the time it doesn't come out right, or she takes it really slow.  But, she is trying because she wants  to try!) It's been fun to see my children progres...

Tonight was Eliza's first performance in a musical.  She was one of the lucky few who was given a speaking/singing part.  And, she did a fantastic job!   It was a rendition of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, but with a little country-western spin on it.  So, it was called: The Taming of Katy Lou. Eliza's character was originally called "Stinky Pete," but because of the lack of boys in the cast, a lot of the boys' parts were given to girls.  Eliza played up the country accent really well too. This girl was made for the stage.  She had overly dramatic expressions, used her whole body to show emotions, and had the best projection of the whole cast.  All, from her tiny self. It was so wonderful to watch her perform tonight ... and do it all on her own!  She knows for sure she's found something she loves and wants to continue to do for years and years.

Recently, Jon and I spent some time watching the PBS broadcast of the 25th Anniversary performance of Les Miserables, the Musical.  And, let me tell you, it was phenomenal (even with Nick Jonas's less than stellar performance ... don't get me started).  It was so inspiring that Jon decided to actually read the book the musical was based on. The summer before my senior year in high school I received a letter from my forthcoming AP English teacher explaining that each entering senior enrolled in her class was to read the entire unabridged English translation of Les Miserables before school began in August.  Or, perhaps it was that only a specific length of the book was to be finished.  I don't remember exactly. However, I do remember seeing my friends during summer break and we were constantly asking each other, "Where are you in the book ?"  At one point, one of my guy friends told me to skip pages 830-886 (or some random number like that).  He explained...

My girls had their first singing group performance on Saturday.  It was amazing to watch them greet the elderly before the performance.  Some of the girls did a fantastic job feeling comfortable meeting strangers that like to hug; and other girls (like mine) were a little bit more timid.  It was a great experience for them. I almost always have a hard time getting good pictures of Kate, so I focused on getting a lot of pictures of her in the hopes that one or two would work out.  The result made Eliza feel a little bad.  There were so many pictures of Kate and very few of Eliza.  I was counting on the pictures of Eliza to be good (like they almost always are), but very few of them worked out.  I wasn't in the best place to get pictures of Eliza.  Oh well.  Seems there's always one of whom I don't get enough pictures. Here's their group getting ready for their next song. I had to take a picture of this little girl on the right.  I...

A couple weekends ago we sold our piano. It has been very bittersweet for me. We needed to sell the piano so our living room would look bigger and more open to potential home buyers. And, to be honest .... it wasn't the greatest of pianos, and we always said when we moved out of this house (at least if we were to move cross-country again) that we would sell it and buy a new piano after reaching our new location. So, when I listed the piano on Craig's List all I thought about was a new piano ... one that would be a little easier to keep in tune, one that would be a little smaller, and one that would have a better sound quality. Little did I realize how much I would MISS this ugly piano! A day has not passed in which I haven't turned the corner from the kitchen, or walked down the stairs, with every intention of sitting down at the piano and playing a restful tune. I MISS THIS PIANO! Playing the piano is so relaxing for me, and it's been really hard to not have a...