She Did It Again!

The pianokeys are black and white but they sound like a million colors in your mind.
~Maria Cristina Mena, The Collected Stories of Maria Cristina Mena

The Princess was judged on Saturday after practicing two piano pieces for months, actually we had to change one a several weeks ago because of her hands were not quite able to make the stretch in a couple of places on the one she had chosen. She was disappointed in herself as she still was weak on dynamic variations on the first piece and had something that the judge called a "memory slip," but as typical of her, she recovered well, which the judge told her that she saw as a positive.

We went out for lunch at Outback afterwards to celebrate, since her father was not home this weekend, but she was not in a celebrating mood until I asked her how she did on the second piece, which she felt she nailed perfectly. I then reminded her that the scoring is weighted for different things and each piece is judged separately, then the scores of both pieces are combined. That is when she brightened up a bit and said that maybe then she would score well enough to get the five points she hoped to get.

She also told me that the judge told her that she was really good at piano and, with a smile, that she should never quit because if she did that she would have her piano teacher call her so she could come "get her." I thought this was something she told all the students that day, but on Sunday when I talked to her piano teacher, I found out that this compliment was solely given to my daughter, who was the eighth of the nine students judged.

It is nice to know as we approach the our nine year anniversary of her first piano lesson this May that it is worth all the time and money. However, it is not just that she plays well, it is that she performs so very well and that is a gift that God must have given her from the beginning.

Yes, the child scored 95 percent overall, which is a "superior" and she earned five points toward her next trophy. A trophy is given at 15 point intervals and the most a student can earn is five points for the year so it takes at least three years to get a trophy and the Princess wants one every three years.

As to my husband not being home this weekend to celebrate with us, he was stuck in Indiana with the same cold/flu I had over two weeks ago, so he did not feel like flying back home for the weekend at all. I know it is the same thing because it starts with sneezing and the sinus are draining constantly, but the headache is horrible and your strength is zapped yet you cannot sleep but a few minutes to maybe two hours at a time and then you are awake for hours before you can nap again, which is the most annoying part of the thing. My husband is exposed to so many more people than I am, but still he usually gets a cold only about once in two to three years. When he gets one, though, he really gets it. Today he felt well enough to go to work in the afternoon when the customer opened, as they had a very bad snow storm and stayed closed this morning. I am hoping he will be finished and well enough to come home before Friday, but as things go....

~ My Lord, thank you for the gift You have given my daughter. May she use it to honor You always.~