Life is Like a Piano...

Life is like a piano.
What you get out of it depends on how you play it. –Tom Lehrer

I am fasting right now, so my energy level wanes during the day, but I needed to lose a good 15 pounds. (Actually more like 18, but I was giving myself some slack.) I did not work in a cleansing water fast in January as I normally try to do. That in part was due to the fact that as I have gotten older, I tend to get leg cramps at night in the winter, even though magnesium supplements help. I also tend to get leg cramps when I fast. The idea of doubling up this cramping challenge in January was not something I was excited about doing at the time.

I decided to do a milk fast, which means I drink about 2 ounces of raw whole milk with 2 ounces of water in the morning and in the evening. I also have been eating about 2 ounces of yogurt in the afternoon. So, while my digestive system is not complete closed down, the milk keeps my metabolism on a high level spurring my body to burn off fat stores faster. I am about half way to my weight goal.

The months that followed January were still too cold and just as I thought I might be able to give a fast a go, we were almost in April. The month of April...I can only describe it as Piano Month or maybe Crazy Piano Month! This year it turned out to be crazier than ever before.

The Princess, who was not particularly interested in going to college and did not know what she wanted to do even if she did, suddenly decided that she wanted to go to college for piano. This same girl that begged me for a few years to quit, yet in the past year has blossomed in her skills and likes to take on challenges.

First, the Princess had decided to do something new, to apply and submit an audition video for the Reinhardt Piano Festival. Despite she did everything as last minute as possible and it took 3 hours to load her 10 minute video to YouTube, which put it after the deadline, she was accepted.

Second, there was the AG Georgia District Fine Arts Festival in which the Princess won first place last year. This year she did not place, but her score was high enough to be invited to the Nationals in Houston, Texas at the end of July. There was more competitors possibly because Nationals are closer and will not be as expensive to attend.

Then she was to perform in the annual Spring Piano Recital that her piano teacher organizes. This year she played four pieces throughout the program and the final piano piece, which was a great grande finale kind of song. 

And my baby girl then turned 17 years old!  

So, after the birthdays, because my husband's follows hers, I decided to lose the extra weight I have been carrying for so long. It is amazing how a fast can also change my perspective about other things as well. I look around the house and think, this can go and that can go. 

I am in the process of selling off all our homeschool curriculum that has been sitting on shelves unused or that we finished (or quit) long ago. Time to streamline. This is her last year and I need to prepare for the next phase of her life and of mine.

My Lord, thank you for giving my daughter such a wonderful gift and now the desire to use it. May she do so to glorify You.

Fine Tuning a Souring Note

Nothing beats a live performance. Nothing. -Jonathan Demme

The Princess will be playing at another restaurant this Friday night. It has the same name as the one she has been playing, but in a different town about 30 minutes away. Apparently, the family owned all three of these restaurants but the one closest to us was sold to a man (friend, probably, or family, I know not) but the menus are the same. My husband approached the owner of this one when we ate there on Sunday afternoon while the Princess was at a park for a youth cookout event.

However, it was brought up in the conversation that the restaurant is not member of a PRO, so if they should come, the Princess would not be able to continue playing. All this week I have been trying to understand what performing rights organizations (PROs) do besides strong arming businesses offering live music to pay yearly fees. Now I understand a bit more. It is supposed to be about songwriters' getting their fair share of royalties and while I am for that, I am just not convinced that PROs really do work in their favor that much better as they claim to do. Not only do some charge a fee to the songwriter to become a member but they hold the venue responsible for the music played because a PRO charges fees according to capacity, as in how many people would possibly hear the music. The restaurant is suppose to pay a yearly fee to display a sticker around the entrance and so that music within the repertoire of whichever PRO the restaurant chose can be performed.

Now here is the ironic part: The Princess has been playing classical music written before 1922, that is before copyright law protected music. She did play about three or four songs that would be considered protected by copyright, so we have eliminated them from her list. The songs that are considered public domain are ineligible for any PRO repertoire. I had been encouraging her to learn more modern and better recognized songs, but now we know that is not in the best interest of keeping her venue. So even if another musician plays copyright protected music and a PRO tries to come down on the restaurant, the Princess can legally still play there because we spent Monday afternoon making a list of all her music to prove that she will only be playing public domain music. That gives her more marketability for small businesses that do not really have music as focal point to bring in business as would a bar with a dance floor. However, the PROs like to pressure the restaurants even if all the music performed there is not under their protection, because someone may play a song that is and the worse part is if songwriter is in one PRO, he or she cannot be in another, so the venue basically is pressured to be in all of them. Besides that I think the fees are a bit steep because coffee shops and small family restaurants offering a corner for budding musicians are really not into making money off the music and rarely pay the musicians.

I talked to the Princess' piano teacher about this and she said she played for years in a coffee shop and just played whatever she wanted without a problem. I mentioned that we are kind of out in the sticks so it probably is not as well monitored around us as it would be places like New York City and LA. However, ASCAP has an office in Atlanta and has been known to hire music teachers to sit in just waiting for any song that would be a violation. Also, it seemed to my husband that this restaurant owner has run into this problem previously or knows someone personally who has. So, we will try to stay outside of their domain and keep with the classical and public domain songs with our list handy and give a copy to the restaurant for their records.

The few newer songs that the Princess has learned have not been popular for several decades and the songwriter would not be making anything from them even with a PRO, which is why I wonder how they really make sure songwriters get their share. Of the four PROs in America, they all have their own structures for fee and membership pay outs some with a minimum, but basically songwriters and publishers only get a share of the fees based on how popular the PRO thinks the song is, as in how much it is played on the most popular radio stations.

We had a couple of copied copies of those public domain songs, but to make this completely above board, we are going to be looking them up to be printed off fresh to avoid any publisher's rights as well.

And all this so a young lady can play a little piano and earn a bit of change!

I have to make a note here that I find to be a bit of history that I just learned. One of the PROs tried to double its fee in 1940, which ended up in a radio boycott of all its music, including promo jingles! The radio broadcasters wanted to prove a point, the songs were popular because they were being broadcasted, not just the other way around. (Remember this was decades before the Internet and any portable recording devices.) During the boycott though, music that was beneath what a PRO would accept was used and at the time they were called such unPC terms as "hillibilly" and "race" and foreign as well as public domain traditional songs, but people actually began to like country, blues, jazz, and ethnic music. Radio broadcasting companies made their point about how much they influenced the music industry, so the PRO came to an agreement with lower fees.

I think the PROs model is antiquated when we consider how well we are connected the Internet today and that there should be a simpler and more efficient way to pay songwriters. Performers know what they are going to perform and where, and the venue can provide them with a number of seats. It seems to me that the PROs could be sure to pay the songwriters and publishers directly for actual performances instead of collecting a blanket fee, from which less popular songwriters do not see a penny, when their songs could be rather quite popular with pockets of local crowds. I know it would be more work for us on the performers' side, but I think the performers should be the ones to pay the fees directly and let capitalism work. It could just be pennies, but it is just like the 1940 radio broadcasters boycott proved: songwriters do not make money and become popular when their songs are not performed, so unless the song was rather popular, songwriters would probably offer performance licensing at lower rates to get more play and then they can raise the fees if they like. That is the only way songwriters are actually in control of their copyright.

I think PROs acting as the music mafia is actually damaging making those small venues disappear where the direct pay model would encourage more businesses to offer live music, instead of clamping it down so hard that everyone is afraid to whistle a tune. One PRO even went after the Girl Scouts for singing campfires songs in 1996 and forget about singing "God Bless America" in public! I mean, really, where does it end? What if I am humming a tune under copyright while shopping in a store? Can the retail store be sued for that?

It is just easier for a PRO to collect from a business or club than individual performers, but it is an outdated way to do it. I would happily pay composers directly a fee per use and develop a relationship to help promote their music if they would reject the PROs. From what I am reading on the Internet, I think other performers would also, but then there will always be some that do not bother to pay. Still, it would not be any worse for the ones lesser known who the PROs do not pay anyway, even though their song is performed.

This is one of those times I want to fix the world, but it has become so convoluted that I also think it would be better to burn it and start over...but then mankind being what it is, the world arising from the ashes of the old would most likely have all the same elements that destroyed it.

There is far more behind the scenes than we first thought, but I thank you, my Lord, for guiding us and preparing us for what may come.

Three Pianos,Two Young Students,and a Princess in a Tizzy

Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it. –Tom Lehrer

Having a new piano that we can see from all angles of our living spaces just makes me think of Christmas, hence the "On the First Day of Christmas" kind of title. And God is surprising us with so many blessings right now that it is as if they are just pouring down on us, like a flooding rain after a years of drought!

It has been discussed with the Princess that besides playing in restaurants on the weekends she can, that she could also take on a young piano student or two. It would not be as much as she can make per hour in tips, but it would be steady and the rewards of teaching would be so worth it, because she will get so much in return. Of course, she does not know this yet, not having the experience. She has not really allowed herself to love to play again like she did when she was younger, but the new grand piano we think will help. What has most motivated her of late is making money at playing the piano and competing.

Her piano teacher told me that when she was in college for music, one of her professors told her that she needed to take on a few students during the summer. I cannot imagine this now, but apparently she simply hated that idea. She had no patience and it grated on her every time a child would hit a wrong note. However, at some point that changed for her and she found that she loved teaching and she had an incredible amount of patience. Then, just as we met, she found that she had a particular gift with teaching very young students that she did not even know she had previously. In fact, most of the parents of younger students have told me that she was referred to them by another piano teacher who would not take younger students or that she was the only teacher they could find that would take a younger student. My Princess was the very youngest she had ever and has yet ever taken, although there is one boy who started just a month in age later than she was and he went slow, until he could play a bit of jazz.

My reasoning for the Princess teaching is that when your own eyes are weary, seeing through another's young eyes can be renewing. Hearing the music she used to play and watching a child progress might be encouraging to her. Also, she will have to teach theory, ear training, and technique. The Princess has wonderful technique, but she has forgotten (or thinks she has) most of the music theory she learned and used to struggle with ear training. I always found that I learned more and it lasted better when I was teaching it and I used to teach the Princess music theory and ear training between her lessons, so I am hoping that works for the Princess.

I was talking to a friend and former neighbor, who moved about 25 minutes south and west of us and finally got back from visiting family in California, about how the Princess may be looking for two young students and she asked how much she was going to charge. We had been discussing it, so the Princess felt that $10 for each 30 minute lesson would be good. I was thinking more like $12 to $15, but since this is her first teaching experience, $10 probably is a good starting point. Experienced musicians and teachers charge around $80-$100 a month for 30-minute lessons. My friend immediately wanted her 9-year-old daughter to take lessons under the Princess and her 6-year-old nephew has been wanting to learn piano also. I was hoping for 4 to 7 in age, but we know the the girl so it will probably work out.

We also had already discussed what days and times, which really would only be Monday or Thursday nights. So my friend and I decided on 5:30 and 6:00 back to back on Monday. Again I was hoping for one child per night, because this is all so new for the Princess, but she will adapt, hopefully. We are not starting next Monday, as that day the Princess gets braces on her lower teeth and will probably be doubly uncomfortable, but the one after. (Prayers appreciated.)

Yesterday we both poured over the books she had used and searched online. I talked to her piano teacher telling her that we have gone from "she (her teacher) and I both thought this is a good idea" to "she (the Princess) has two students so she is doing this. Aaaaah!" This family has been looking for a piano teacher and there are just none around them. They are probably 90 minutes away from Trudy so there is no competition and Trudy is glad to help.

Since we missed a couple of lessons due to the competition and illness of late, I asked if we could come 30 minutes early next week so that she could go over what the Princess would cover in the first lessons. The Princess began younger so she had started with different books than neither one of these children will. She moved into both the series they will start with, but she moved into higher levels. So she never did the first books of the Alfred's Prep Course like the boy will probably need, because Music for Little Mozarts covered much of it, just slower paced for young students. She did not do the first books of the next level Alfred's Basic Piano Library, because it was covered in the Prep Course.

I suggested that she first start them on the digital piano and make the grand or the upright if we still have it, a kind of reward for sitting right (and not kicking). This will give us time to get our minds wrapped around the best way work this all out with the pianos. Piano rich and space poor, but it is what it is.

Speaking of the upright, since the Princess has two students, my husband suggested that maybe we do not sell it, but move it to the basement. That would less distracting for them and allow us to have our living space, because as it is right now, the pianos are in the middle of our living room and the digital is in the dining room, but we had plans for it to go into the hideout room once the Princess moves her clothes and sleeps in the current guest room...and, no, we are not ready for that yet. There is no place to escape to for the rest of us so this is the new plan and I already took off our listing on Craigslist.

However, the downstairs is cluttered with homeschool stuff, my husband's work and hunting stuff, and a desk that needs to be moved upstairs to the hideout room (that needs repainted) along with bin containers filled from the Queen Mother's house. We all need a real vacation but instead we need to use vacation time to clean up all together. I will say thank you, my Lord, that closing went through yesterday so that is the last we have to worry about the house in Florida.

My Lord, so much going on. Some coming to a close and some new things cropping up. Keep us on that path You have prepared for us and help my daughter really love music more deeply than she ever has.

The Princess' Grand Tale

There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind.
-C.S. Lewis

Once Upon a Time...
There was a father chaperoning his daughter, the Princess, to the Fine Arts National Competition, but there were no pianos on which she could practice, so he took her to a piano merchant so she could practice on the pianos there. Afterward, the father told his wife that they absolutely needed to get the Princess a grand piano.

I have always wanted to do that for the Princess, but finances and space were factors that we had not been able to overcome. Once I talked with a woman whose homeschooled daughter won a full scholarship at Reinhardt University, a fairly nearby private college well known for its music program. She was advised by her teacher to get her daughter a grand piano, so they put a second mortgage on their house and they placed the full-size grand in their living room, which was said in a way that I was sure they did not have much living room left to live in. However, since her daughter won a full scholarship, she saw it as a worthwhile investment. I so very much wanted to do this too, but this conversation was a few years ago at at time that we were particularly strapped for money so I knew a grand piano for us just was not going to be happening for a long while. Still in the back of my mind, I hoped for this.

Then I seriously began learning about what elements that makes a good piano, because I really did not know. (I am so thankful for the Internet at times like this.) After I felt a bit more confident about what to look for as to how it should be built, I began looking for a used baby grand with a reputable name that we could afford and fit into our living room. I was more interested in American made, however the Princess' piano teacher has a Kawai upright, which does have nice warm tones and told me that Reinhardt also just bought Kawai pianos. Of course, most people will say that a Steinway is what is mostly used in competitions here.

I found an American made Mason and Hamlin baby grand on Craigslist that I felt was worth the trip to see and hear. When I called Bob Rosenfeld, I learned that he did not just have the one piano but several. He is a piano collector, of sorts, but now he has lung cancer and his wife is having serious issues with her eyes, so he is selling off his collection. He asked me a bit about my daughter's playing and said he had a piano for her, but that I probably had never heard of it.

I immediate thought "Just what we need: another piano that no one has heard of." Whenever we tell people we have an Opus II upright piano, they all say that they have never heard of that brand. Even our piano technician has never seen one, except for ours. We bought it brand new at Steinway Piano Galleries in November 2005, when the Princess was four and a half years old. We call that story the Blue Note Christmas.

However, I made an appointment at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday for us to see what he had. I also called my piano tuner/technician to see how much he would charge look it over and when he was available, which he was not that for that day. My husband's flight was delayed twice the night before so he did not walk into our door until 3:00 a.m. The Princess still had a cold and was coughing a lot. I still had some tummy trouble left over from whatever the antibiotic had done to my digestive tract after the periodontal surgery. None of us was in good shape, so I thought about cancelling, but we went and I reminded the Princess to not get close to the man because he did not need a cold while battling lung cancer.

The Long Journey to a Far Away Land

Before I even placed the address on my GPS, I had an idea where we had to go and knew it would take about an hour to get there. It was pretty much my stomping territory not far from the Princess' piano teacher. However, when I saw it flagged on the map, I knew exactly where it was. I have driven past that home many times taking the Princess to her piano lesson from the Home Learning Center and back again. It has had a "for sale by owner" sign up ever since I can remember in front of their pond and two fake black and white cows. I had never seen the house, even in the winter because it is well-hidden from the road by trees and bushes, but once we entered the driveway, I could see the all brick home shaded by lovely trees and how well the landscaping was done. The road curves there and the house is a bit close for my taste, but it is not seen because of the wall of greenery that keeps their home secluded from the rest of the world. Unfortunately, it is a very busy road that will probably be widened in a few more years, and the traffic is noisy at the front of the house.

A Wise Adviser Guides the Princess in Her Choice
As I wrote previously, the first thing Mr. Rosenfeld did was take us to a large barn behind the house that had a few stables on one side, but no animals, and a cement floor. It also had several covered pianos, at least five if I am recalling that correctly. All of them were far bigger than we would have room for. He uncovered the very first one, a nine foot, 100 year old, concert grand Steinway perfectly tuned and invited the Princess to sit saying he wanted to see her play. She was impressed that the old piano played rather well and had good key action. He was rather impressed with how her hands floated over the keys and told her he knew exactly which of his pianos would be the best for her. We covered up the old Steinway and were led back to the house.

In the garage, only because they had just had a water leak and part of the interior needed some work, was about five or six more pianos and he told us there were more in the house. These were smaller, baby grands and an upright or two. He led us straight to the Petrof.

Since he had mentioned the Petrof when we talked on the phone, I had done some research. He had been quite honest when he told me that it was well known in Europe and used in many schools there. Petrof has been made in Czechoslovakia since 1864. These pianos are well known for their warm tone and bell-like clarity particularly on the high notes. I fell in love with Petrof as soon as I heard the first video I found online of one being played, but in person...ah!

My daughter played it and my husband was already sold. A bit later I asked the Princess to play the Mason and Hamlin beside it. The Petrof looked brand new and the Mason and Hamlin looked older. The Petrof just sounded so much better: brighter, clearer, yet warm. She said she liked the Petrof the best. We were told that the Petrof's original owner was a doctor and it had only been played a few times. I asked Mr. Rosenfeld why had not played it himself and he said that his hands had been so shaky and that the cancer treatments make him weak. He did not say how long the piano had been in his possession, but he did play it a little for us.

I was concerned a bit because we did not have an third party expert opinion there, but...well, Mr. Rosenfeld seemed like a man who likes fine things, knows his pianos, and did whatever it took to keep these pianos in pristine condition, and this one actually looked brand new. My husband, being the better judge of character than I am, felt that he was trustworthy and honest about the pianos he had.

My husband is also the real haggler in the family, which did not use to be my thing, but I have since grown. Still my husband did not even start to bargain nor did I, probably because Mr. Rosenfeld kept coming down in price on his own even though he told us several times that we could sell it for more and that replacement value is around $70,000. He was not the type of person to sell a piano just to sell it. He really wanted that piano to go to someone like the Princess who would play it and he really wanted to see the Princess have that piano, which would have made me a bit suspicious usually and I thought it might be better to try other pianos to compare—although I know that usually leads to me being more indecisive—but I just felt at peace like God had led us there. In fact, when I asked my Lord in that moment, I thought I could hear angels singing as if all of heaven was saying, "Yes!" I just felt the Lord had provided and set this all up for us, for that particular piano, for that moment. And as if it was another sign that is was our piano in waiting for us, it was made in 2001, the Princess' birth year.

When he first mentioned the Petrof on the phone, I looked up his listing on Craigslist. At the time he had it listed for $12,800, which I thought would have been a fair for-sale-by-owner price for a 2001 Petrof IV, when I look for comparisons on the Internet, but he changed the listing to $10,800, which was better. He talked himself down to $8,000 with delivery and threw in some free music he had in boxes, so the Princess would have music that would be familiar to the restaurant patrons, because he really was impressed with her. I wrote out the check on the account that would not cover it until Monday and told him I would call when the money was transferred and available. We quickly picked a few pieces of sheet music, but we realized that he was tiring, so we decided it was time to go. He promised to go through the music and send more along with the piano that would most likely be delivered on Wednesday.

As we were leaving, he began telling us about five acres of property he had close to Reinhardt University with a waterfall of which he owned both sides. My husband said he would like to see it. The price was too high for us and just plain too high, but that will probably not be the final price, so...who knows? My husband is intrigued, but I was just thinking about the next step with the piano.

Searching for Fairy Magic
On Monday, I called Steinway Piano Gallery to get some background on our Opus II that no one has ever heard of, since we bought it there, because we would like to list it for sale with some info on it. I talked to someone, not sure if he was a salesman, manager or owner, but he was rather helpful and informative. He told me that business had been sold since the original owners who made Opus II their house brand with focus on solid-made entry-level affordability. However—and this gets confusing so stay with me here—"Opus" was a trademark owned by Steinway, the American piano manufacturer, which has no ties with Steinway Piano Galleries, the store, other than the store sells Steinway pianos, as well as other brands. The owner of the trademark was not using it, but still owned it. I would think the "Steinway" in the store's name would be a bigger trademark issue.

Opus pianos were only sold for a few years and then the name was changed to Cristofori, which is the name of the inventor of the piano. So, I actually have a Cristofori V430 French Cherry Console but with the Opus name. That was very helpful because even though this model is no longer made, at least I can find them on the Internet for comparative pricing.

Somehow we went from there to why I was selling it and I explained that we had bought a Petrof grand. The man said he used to sell them. Since he was willing to share his piano knowledge, I learned something about our new piano too. I knew that Petrof had come under state ownership in 1948 and that some felt the quality was not consistent until it was reprivatized between 1991 and 1998, which made me happy that we have a 2001. However, he also explained something I did not know. Petrof pianos were less expensive, some even say under priced, possibly because Czechoslovakia changed from their own currency to the Euro in May 2004. Afterward, Petrofs when up in price. The IV is a now retired model, but to replace it with the same size Petrof piano, the P 173 Breeze, which has been improved some, looks like it would cost around $69,000 to $79,000. I have even seen an original retail list price of $79,000 on a 1998 P IV that was sold used for $17,999 recently at a piano store. Regardless of what it was or what it would cost to replace it or what others are selling for, I think it was worth what we paid for it and necessary for the Princess—there is just something more special about playing a grand.

The man proceed to ask me where I had purchased the new one and I told him from a man in the Woodstock area. "Not Bob Rosenfield." I corrected him with "Rosenfeld" and asked why. Then he said he was not going to say anything on that, so then I was second guessing this purchase...and again the Lord was telling me all is well.

The Princess' Slipper
Having purchased the 2001 Petrof IV with delivery set on Wednesday, I began third guessing all of it, but when I would go to my Lord, I still felt that was our piano, actually my daughter's piano. We went to church on Sunday as everyone was feeling a bit better and that evening my husband flew out to work. I would be handling arranging the living and fitting in the very big piano into our shrinking living room.

I looked up the dimensions again. It is just a tad under 5'8" (172 cm) long and around 5' (152cm) in length. Although generally thought of as a baby grand by many, it is kind of on the cusp, and others would say it is a parlor grand or medium grand or even just a grand. I began measuring our space and moving furniture on Monday, because the next day we had errands and I did not want to try to do it all last minute on Wednesday when I did not know when the delivery would be.

There were only three places—corners of the room, really—where this would work, we had originally thought, but the measurements ruled one out immediately. Besides it would be in sunlight, but just in the earliest hour or two have the sun was over the horizon, thanks to our front porch, and we could have drawn the drapes at night. The second corner was where her Opus already was, which would have made it a bit too close to the fireplace that we do use in the winter. The upright does not have that problem as it is against the wall and not sticking out near the fireplace. So, by the process of elimination, the very best fit was in the corner near the steps going up to the dining room. The piano is would be the very first thing people will see when they walked into the door.

We moved everything over towards the eliminated corners to give the piano movers as much room as we could to maneuver, so the following picture is before we rearranged the furniture. They arrived in the afternoon and they really needed a fourth man. Because of my lovely rock tiered garden in the front and the five steps up to the porch, it was not easy to line it up on the ramp and the ramp was too steep for just three men to push up a 750 pound piano. The Princess and I both gabbed a strap and pulled with them and we got it. I must say here, though, watching a piano being moved and set up is a harrowing affair, to say the least!

I asked the piano mover, who is also the piano technician that Mr. Rosenfeld uses, how long he had known him, because Bob had told me already. Twenty years he has been tuning and moving his pianos. I then mentioned that I noticed Bob is rather particular about his pianos so he must be a rather good technician and mover. He agreed that Bob was particular. At that point, I thought that Mr. Rosenfeld has probably been trading and selling pianos for years and Steinway Piano Galleries sees him as competition.

Living Happily Ever After?

It is so amazing how that same piano looked so much smaller in those big spaces with other pianos around and now it looked huge taking about a fifth of my living room space! However, I decided I really like it where we decided to place it because divides the walkway from the front door to the dining room or to the living room and it pulls over the rest of the living room closer to the fireplace, without having to move the TV. It looks cozier but not too crowded that it is uncomfortable, at least for me. There is a bit of a problem: we also still have the Opus in the living room. So for now, my couch is angled between the two pianos so that one end is a bit behind the curved side of the Petrof and the other is in front of the Opus, not against the wall where I would prefer it and would be if the Opus was not there. However there is plenty of space to get round and, well...I like it. The grand is worth it.

It is kind of funny, really. The digital piano is often set up in our dining room, so basically all three pianos are within about ten feet of each other right now. (My Roland keyboard is still downstairs.) But the funnier thing is...well, you will have to read the next post for that one.

My Lord, thank you for this beautiful addition to our lives. My daughter plays it so well. You truly are a God of Wonders!

When Mountains Are Moving

With the right attitude, human beings can move mountains. With the wrong attitude, they can be crushed by the smallest grain of sand.
-Jim Rohn

Saturday Morning
I found a used American made Mason and Hamlin piano on Craigslist and called the number. A elderly man with a low voice answered and he was quick to inform me that he had several pianos for sale and was asking me in depth for what we were looking. I made an appointment for us to see his pianos on Saturday morning, even though my husband's plane delay gave him very little sleep and me even less with my tummy troubles and the Princess still had a pretty bad symptoms from her cold. However, my husband decided he had enough time to go to our favorite farm for raw cow milk thinking that would cure my tummy troubles and yes, it did help so very much!

The man was of Jewish descent and the one thing my husband has learned from working in a Jewish company is that they appreciate value and family and usually bargaining, but this man has lung cancer and his wife is going blind, so he was more interested in selling off the pianos and his little farm/homestead property. When I got the address from him, I knew exactly where he was even though I had never seen the house because it is camouflaged with landscaping from the busy road. Even though it is an hour from our house, I had driven past his house every week during the school year going the back way to taking the Princess from the Homeschool Learning Center to her piano lesson. He has had a "For Sale by Owner" sign on his property ever since I can remember, but then he really was not as motivated to sell it as he is now.

It would be a wonderful property to walk into with an all brick home, large stalled barn, pond and whatever else he had in the back that we could not see all on about five acres, except that the road is very busy and noisy and close to the house, even though unseen even in winter, and it is too far out of range for what we can afford in a county with high property taxes, but would if I could, I think.

Anyway, he asked the Princess to play on 100 year old Steinway concert piano in the barn, which has a cement floor and did not have any animals in it, although he has some in the back. She played and he watched. Then he said that he knew just the piano for her.... I apologize for the teaser, but I will tell the rest of this story later this week, because it deserves an entire post of its own.

Sunday
Finally, both the Princess and I were feeling a bit better so we went to church. We found out that associate pastor, whose real passion is the school, is planning to break off from our church. Nothing bad, I think it just that both cannot grow in the space we have. Also our fairly new Praise and Worship Pastor got a very good job offer in his home city of Chicago, so they are moving back there. All that was a surprise as we were not there for the church meeting when all this was discussed.

We got home and rested, all of us trying to recuperate from different things. My husband, having napped, was about to go out to mow the lawn and that is when the Queen Mother called and she was not in a good mood at all.

Neighbors have been calling the Queen Mother and informing her of many things that we did not feel she needed to know. One was the estate sale. We did not exactly tell her we had an "estate sale," because we knew that how upset it would make her if people were in the house without us being there, but we had told her that we had experts pricing the items so that she would feel that we were not giving things away.

She said that she had wanted furniture that her husband had made, to put where I do not know. Now that would have been two large glass cases for her collectibles they called end tables, a huge TV stand made for a corner with shelves for her collectibles, a large glass encased coffee table for her collectibles, a huge corner curio cabinet for some of her dolls and another corner curio cabinet for all her Hummel figurines and that is just what was in the living room. Need I say more?

Then she wanted to know what this and that sold for because she was sure that they were worth something. My husband reminded her that she had told him that she did not want to know. "Well, I do NOW!" He told her honestly that we simply did not know what the items sold for because they were not cataloged individually. She persisted to corner him, so he told her that everything was around $10,000 to us and that the car was $5,500, but he did not tell her that the first figure he quoted also included the car. He probably missed the opportunity to never have her talk to us again, but he was thinking of her well being.

So, we have a buyer who is very eager to move in, as I mentioned in a previous post. After having the termite treatment and damage repaired, we allowed the keys to go to her. The Queen Mother now knows this because the neighbors have told her that the buyer is in and out and having all kinds of work done to the house, like cleaning the carpets and the air conditioner replaced and such. The closing is on Thursday this week and we felt this woman was not only a serious buyer but that she is motivated by terrible situation requiring her to move as court ordered in her divorce. She is not moved in and promised she would not until the closing, but she is having work done that she understands will be forfeit if the closing does not go through.

The Queen Mother then wanted to know what the house was selling for. My husband told her and she said she felt it was $15,000 too low. He explained that we had two realtors and the bank appraiser all put it around that price, but to get the price she thought we should, we would have had to replace the air conditioner; replace all the windows; replace the (horribly) outdated stove and refrigerator; paint all the interior; pressure wash all the outside and the driveway; and spruce up the landscaping. Then when it was done, we would most likely would have had to pay a realtor fees to sell it. So maybe we could have sold it for more money like she wanted, but it would have been the same or less to us. Not to mention that we would be having to go back and forth to check on the work, let people in the house to do the work, and possibly do some of the work ourselves. It would be another couple of months at least and there would not be enough profit difference to make it worth doing that way...especially when God provided a buyer who did all the footwork to get closing as soon as possible.

The Queen Mother was still not happy when the conversation ended...and my husband left last night to fly back to where he was last week, without mowing the lawn, of course.

Monday (Today)
The Princess still has a cough, but I think I am better. I still am eating light, but not having problems after eating like I was.

We watched the solar eclipse this afternoon with our solar glasses. It peaked in our area at 2:30 p.m. It was not total in our area, so there was a small sliver left that the moon did not cover, but it was still quite impressive, especially since it was a clear day, only slightly cloudy. It is strange to have it seem like twilight yet have the sun so high in the sky, not softening close to the horizon with pink clouds.

However, what interested me were the pockets of light that is filtered through the leaves of the trees that had the same shape, So cool! The first one is when the sun was about half covered and the other two was when we reached our peak for our area which are just slivers.

And I have to say here that while people talk about people acting like lunatics during full moons, they have not met Sharii during a solar eclipse. Yes, he looks all sweet and just lounging around in these pictures BUT he attacked the plants and even me several times and I have the claw marks in my leg to prove it. He tore up into the peach tree then ran up the trunk of the front oak like a crazed maniac. That cat seriously should be caged during solar eclipses! No wonder Midnight finds other places to be far away from him, because she is usually his target.

My Lord, I know that I have been guilty of not talking to You before placing my expectations on other people, but I just ask that You draw my mother-in-law in closely to You so that she has peace and begins to hear Your Words in her heart. Thank you for our healing and the many blessings we are seeing right now. About Sharii...well, my Lord, help him to use that energy to keep away pests instead of attacking the ones who love him.

In the Wake of The 2017 National Fine Arts Competition

The best substitute for experience is being sixteen. ~Raymond Duncan

Teenagers are so complicated. They are sure they are right about everything about which they think they are right and they just do not know what they do not know, so they do not know when they might be wrong and they do not know that they are wrong until...they are there cornered in the inescapable reality of it. My daughter had such a reality check with the competition. The Princess realized immediately after watching a few teens play that she should have stepped up her game. There was really serious competition for her and that is when she confirmed (out loud, if you can believe that) what her father and I had been saying all along: she should have practiced more.

Now in fairness, it was not all her fault, but still it was also. She was acting on advice she was given by Guitar Guy, who told her that she would do better to not play the same piece she had done for the state competition. So, the Princess was determined not to play Mozart's Tarantella for the national competition and tried to learn another piece in time for it. She should have inquired further because she would have found out that all of the competitors played the same piece as they did for the state competitions. They do not expect them ever to try to learn another piece because there is barely enough time after the state competitions.

The Princess did it, but that was her second mistake. She did not really commit to practicing it enough to do it as well as she should have and could have. The real shame was that the Tarantella was her best piece ever, which showcases her very best strengths: nibble, quick fingers with crisp notes. The piece the Princess played is a good piece, but she just did not love to play it like she did the Tarantella, which is funny because she is not fond of Mozart in general and she just really plays Bach.

She was given one superior rating and two excellent ratings, hard to take when the girl had not received anything lower an superior for seven years. She was disappointed but not devastated. Of the 40 some competitors in classical piano, she fell in about halfway, which I thought was still rather good considering the circumstances, but she was hopeful she would be higher up. My husband, being there with her, was able to observe the competitors and most were older than she is and perhaps more experienced. I am still sure that she could have been in the top ten at least with the Tarantella, perhaps higher.

However, she learned something from that competition that will stick with her better than my reminding her to practice. She learned that if she wants to win a competition like that she will have to commit to it and seriously practice.

Last year at this time, I was working on boosting her self-confidence in the aftermath of the J-void incident. Playing at the restaurant helped a great deal. She has actually been paid to play the piano! That reinforced her self-worth, in her eyes. However, typical of teenagers, she then swung over into arrogance as in her mother did not know anything because she was good enough to earn money, which she would throw back at me whenever I would encourage her to learn more songs and to practice to be better for playing at the restaurant.

So, I have come to view this little reality tap back as maybe just what she needed and God provided, although it is hard to watch as a parent. I want her to succeed, of course, but I also want her to learn that she needs to go after the things she really wants, to be self-motivated. I want her to think well of herself but not to think everything she does is good enough, as if she does not need to try to improve. Those are very hard lessons to learn, but fine tuning is what God does.

The Princess wants to try again next year, which is a very good sign.

My Lord, I thought about all the parents who were mostly likely praying the same prayer for their children competing and I knew that there were going to be many more who would not place than there would be who did. I wanted my daughter to be one of the few, like all the parents. I do thank You for the lessons my daughter has learned from the experience and pray that You keep guiding her.

As It Happens...

It is not how busy you are, but why you are busy — the bee is praised, the mosquito is swatted. ~Author Unknown

I started this post two weeks ago and had to tweak the time references twice and I decided to break it up in subtitles to make it easier for...well, I wish I could say for my readers, but in honesty it was for me, because life is just speeding up and we are close to having it change course to a different pace again soon.

The Florida Estate
Two weekends ago was the estate sale for the Queen Mother's things and it was rather pitiful. My husband was there the weekend before it and went back the weekend after it. I was hoping we would get about twice of what we did, but summer estate sales do not do as well in Florida as when the snow birds are there. Plus most of the things were collectibles that do not sell well at all. We did sell the car for fair market value, which is very important as less would have caused us legal issues with Medicaid.

We also have a really motivated buyer for the house, which we are doing without a real estate agent. The woman buying it just finalize her divorce and from that day only has 30 days to move out. There are criminal charges against her husband for abuse, actually he choked her so there was intention to murder her, and was court ordered to buy out her half of the equity in their house. She is doing all the foot work for buying our house. My husband had to go to Florida this the last weekend in July to pick up all the things we were keeping for the Queen Mother in her closet as well as correct the title on the car because he signed it in the wrong spot and then drive back on Sunday so he could drive me to my periodontal surgery that Monday. The buyer, my husband calls her a force of nature, actually had the purchase agreement made out by an attorney and somehow had the house and termite inspectors there on that Saturday, which is unusual for them to work weekends.

The Force of Nature has a very good friend that lives across the street who can look after her ten-year-old son and her work is so close she can practically walk to it, when she had been driving for 45 minutes to an hour in traffic. We had several people seriously interested in the house even though we did not have a sign out, just word of mouth by people in the neighborhood, but she was the most motivated and she had experience with buying houses without a realtor, so she was willing to do the foot work understanding that it was difficult for us because we live out of state. Termite damage was found and so they will treat and repair it at our cost, but after talking with the Queen Mother, we now know that they had termites there years before and it was treated, but probably not repaired as there was no active termites found this time. Closing is at the end of August, but the Force of Nature may need to move in before that and we are working it out with her.

The Periodontal Surgery
The last week of July the upcoming periodontal surgery was looming in my thoughts, especially after getting the call one week in advance. During that call I was told the amount I would owe. Now I had been given two quotes previous to scheduling the surgery. One was surprisingly affordable and the other was more expensive by four times, and it was discussed as recommended but it was not said that it was absolutely needed...at least that is where I understood it be over a month back. However, having conferred with my orthodontist, they both agreed that it would be better if I had more gum material in the front of my lower teeth, especially since I would be going into braces.

I was not particularly happy about the price or the extra work and such things usually cause me to have anxiety, but as I felt that trying to settle into my nerves, I just said, "Jesus." My Lord reminded me that He is blessing me and that He has all this. I consciously decided that I was not going to worry about it and I would just deal with things as they come. I did not take any Valerian all week and I was not even nervous when I walked into the room for my surgery on Monday morning. I was actually looking forward to be lightly sedated and I was awake for much of it. In fact, the doctor was done nearly an hour earlier than expected. He said that everything was straightforward and clean. God has been blessing me as He promised.

I used my polarizers on both of my cheeks immediately afterward and went to sleep with them for most of the day and all the night. Believe it or not, I honestly had no pain and no swelling. Although I have used these polarizers for many things over the years, I am still surprised that they worked so well. I will say that the periodontist used a form fitting hard "bandage" over the two of surgery sites, but not on the one where the back tooth was removed, however I had no pain at all after the anesthetics wore off EXCEPT in one place where I did not have surgery! I mean, the doctor packed in bone grafting material where he removed the tooth not all that gently even though I was completely numb and I still had no pain at all at that site. The ONLY pain I have had is below the surgery site across the front, more like the top of the chin, and I think that is caused by the "bandage" digging into that sensitive area where the back side of below the lip meets the gum. It began hurting before I left the office and icing only made it feel worse. It still feels bruised a week later. I have my post-op appointment on Wednesday so I am thinking that I might have to deal with some tenderness at the surgery sites when that stuff is taken off, but I think my chin area will then heal.

Of course, I can only eat soft foods, which is getting old. I miss my salads! Not much in fresh foods are soft enough to not mess with the "bandages," and I have been having yogurt and/or cottage cheese at least twice a day to four times to take with the antibiotic and replenish the gut probiotics it kills off. I did a very happy dance as I took the last pill of that this morning!

The Competition
While I am still recuperating (mostly from the meds) this Sunday, my husband and my daughter were dropped off at the airport to start their trip to California for competing in the National Fine Arts Festival in Anaheim, California. They registered today and she is scheduled to play on Thursday at 2:20 p.m. Mountain Time, which is 5:20 my time.

My husband told me that they are expecting 20,000 in total attendance! Wow! I do not know how many of them are registered to compete and I do not know how many pianists are competing in classical piano, but I am hoping that the Princess shines her brightest and places well.

The Rain
I am so thankful for the rain we had here last night. My plants were just so very drought stressed and I am the only one that waters them...and I have not really felt like pulling the hoses all around the house this week. Granted, I am not in much pain, but the meds have taken their toll with my energy, plus I was advised not to do much physically so that it would hinder the healing process.

My Lord, whew! So much has been going on! But right now I want to concentrate on the next thing and that is that my daughter does well at this competition. Let her know in her heart that You are there with her.

The Princess Does a Gig

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.
-Ludwig van Beethoven

My husband and I had it in our minds for the past few years that the Princess might play piano at a local family-owned restaurant about five miles from us. It is in a historical downtown of a tiny town and when I say tiny, it was just a a handful of brick store fronts at a passenger train stop that closed down long ago, but this is the only restaurant that has stayed in business in that area for several years. It is has an upscale quality with Italian and Greek cuisine, but not too expensive for the area.

We were hoping to do this last summer, but the Princess was still dealing with some self-esteem issues that, thankfully, seemed resolved now. Since then she has begun to love piano again, especially after winning first place in the Fine Arts competition for Georgia and she was highly motivated to earn some money towards the trip for the national competition. It was estimated to be about $3,000 with one adult and one child, however my husband has sky miles, so the flight may not cost us much or anything at all, and points he could possibly use at a hotel, but they are all booked, so maybe not. Being that it is costly, we began talking about a summer job for the Princess.

Our Youth Pastor hoped to have the Princess work at the YMCA along with her to be a counselor for kids at their summer camps, but the jobs were filled before she was given the information on how to apply. Although she thought it would be better to have an income that was more certain than hoping for tips, it would have been inconvenient because that particular YMCA is a distance from us and coordinating the hours and days with transportation along with the Youth Pastor, who has had her focus more into her new marriage, seemed unlikely to go smoothly.

I was actually relieved when the YMCA door closed, because I felt it was not a good fit for us and I keep hearing my Lord telling me He is going to bless us. So, my husband contacted the restaurant owner and showed him a video of the Princess playing for the Fine Arts competition—on the piano with sticky keys, no less. Still, he was impressed enough to say that he would like to interview her. She was to call him and set up an time for that, so she did and he said he would call her on the following Monday to have her come for an interview, but Monday came and went without a call. Coming back from her piano lesson on Tuesday, I had her call him and take the humble approach that she night have misunderstood him about who was to call on Monday. He did not remember her at all at first, which I took as a bad sign, but then he remembered and just asked her to come on Friday and Saturday night to play from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Now the Princess usually only juggles two to four harder songs at a time so this was going to be a real challenge to prepare several to play for 30 to 40 minutes without repeats. We had already been preparing her by picking out songs she had done over the years, simpler yet quite lovely for background music at a restaurant. She was also coached to play harder songs more current, but at a slower pace and to condition herself to play for a longer time because the longest time she performed for recitals has been less than ten minutes. I knew she could do it, but...well, I am a mother, who felt she was not really prepared, but if she wanted to pull it off, she would because she does have that performer gene.

I had left for Florida on Thursday morning that week and returned home on Monday, so I was not there for her first time. When my husband sent me this picture, I suggested that she use her black music folder to hide the books and look more professional. However, the Princess called me to say that she had been given $64.50 on the first night. I was blown away! I thought she might make something like $20-$40 maybe. This was on a holiday weekend and the first one after school was out, so many people go away or are having cookouts. Previously, I had told her that even though it might not be as predictable as a regular paying job that she might make more money in tips overall, but I did not expect it would be that much!

The next night she called to tell me she was looking at $115 in front of her right then and I first assumed that she meant for both nights together, but then it caught me and I asked, "You mean that is the money you made tonight alone?" Yes, the owner had given her $30 of it but the rest was all from customer tips. When I talked to my husband, I found that he also thought she meant altogether. So for playing relaxing music for six hours she made $179.50 that weekend. That comes to just about $30 an hour!

When I had returned home, the Princess told me how she kind of felt bad, because the busboy had told her how many hours he works and what he makes, but she was wise enough not to say anything about what she had made. I told her what I have always told her: A job that can be done with little training by anyone they pull off the street is never going to pay as well as the job that requires training. She said all she did was sit and play, that it was easy. (This from the girl, who for three years begged to quit and brooded when we would not let her.) I told her it was easy because she has had years of training with thousand of hours and thousands of dollars poured into that training. She brought it up again and her father and I just smiled at each other, and he said, "The best job in the world is the one that does not feel like you are working at a job." The secret meaning is that she loved it, so it does not feel like work.

My husband and I had dinner there on Friday evening. It was rather emotional for me, hearing my own daughter playing the piano as we had a nice dinner together. I knew this was how it could be for her, but I was not sure we would get there. This particular restaurant is in an old building that was sand blasted to expose bare brick inside and out, but the outside was painted when this restaurant moved in. (I actually had met the owner of the several of the buildings in the town when she used to run an antique store there, who told me about all the work she had done to revitalize the buildings.) My point is the bare brick make the acoustics quite good there.

The restaurant owner likes to rotate performers, when others are available, so the Princess will not always be able to play there on weekend nights, when they are the busiest, but her manager (her father assumed that title) found that they did have the following weekend open, which was this past weekend. She earned $65 on Friday and $70 on Saturday. She knew that tips would fluctuate, but still she averaged over $20 an hour. Next weekend is already booked—a boy with a trumpet, which I think would be too loud for the place, but it is not my call. The restaurant owner told her that we can negotiate for other times and I think she is booked for the next weekend. She may not make as much every time, but I think everyone working at the restaurant heard a lot of compliments about the piano music and they will want her to play often.

The Princess is now thinking of continuing to play there throughout the year if they are so inclined and the family owns three of these restaurants in our area although the other two are further away, about 20 to 25 minutes in two different directions. Still, it would be worth it if she does as well at them. Actually, we do not know if the other two do live music yet, but it might be advantageous for her to rotate with them if they do, so the regular customers at the one place do not feel her playing is stale or they see her too often so she earns less.

I feel like we have finally come to that "ah-ha" moment with the Princess and her piano...and Mama is very happy!

My Lord, thank you so very much for getting us past the a very rough time between the Princess and piano. Thank you that she is now seeing what we had envisioned and hoped for. Thank you for standing firm with me as I felt so helpless trying to re-ignite that love she had for piano. I know that it was all in Your plan, but Your plans are not always the easiest paths to take. Thank you for this blessing of seeing the love of music again in the heart of my daughter.

Piano Judging, Competition, and Recital

Don't practice until you get it right.
Practice until you can't get it wrong. -Unknown

I pushed the Princess through the early teen stage of wanting to quit piano hoping that her teacher was right in how many students, who start young, want to quit at that stage in their life, but if they continue on, they do begin to love piano again. I began to see my child enjoying it more last year when she was asked to join the youth praise band at our church, however it got off to a very rough start because the leaders were...well, they were all teens, knowing everything with little evidence to prove it. They had been practicing for months and had never played even one song for the teen service until recently. Thankfully, our new praise and worship pastor decided to take on the youth praise band and they have since performed a couple of times. My daughter is a performer, even though she would deny it at this point, but without a deadline for performing, she was not really excited about what they had been doing with the band. Nice to see that is changing.

I am always amazed and ever so thankful when I realize God has this and I really do not have to worry about everything (because I tend to worry about everything as if it is a career choice). I knew that Princess needed a bit more inspiration that she was not receiving it from either one of her parents or her piano teacher and God provided it in a way that we could not have foreseen. Last year at church camp, my daughter met a boy that I will call Guitar Guy here. Although Guitar Guy goes to a different church about 30 minutes east of us, he and the Princess have become good friends ever since, inviting each other to their youth group functions at times, and they have one thing in particular in common: both are amazing musicians. Guitar Guy excels in ear training, in which the Princess is weaker, but he lacks in music theory, which the Princess knows far more than she thinks she does. He has been very encouraging to her and I think she is beginning to view her talent and music as something worthwhile, maybe even valuable. Of course, Guitar Guy has his own band and they play music that is heavy metal Christian that neither the Princess or I like, but at least this guy has a plan for his life. He wants to go to college to get that music theory and play guitar or bass in a band. Through recordings on YouTube, his band has gained more popularity in England than here and he hopes his band will tour there next summer.

First, the Judging
I am very pleased that I have been seeing this little spark that I had not been seeing for some years in the Princess as I watched her prepare her two pieces for the annual judging. She has never been as fond of Mozart as I have been, but when they were choosing music, her teacher played a piece that she liked. I have to say that she just barely makes the octave stretch on Turkish Rondo, as she is petite with small hands, but she does it. However, it is the Tarantella by Albert Pieczonka that she really loves to play. Both songs are fast and she likes to play fast.

On March 25th she was judged and received another superior rating. This makes her seventh year in a row. The judge mentioned how she holds her hands perfectly and how crisp her triplets were on the Tarentella. This is worth noting because of what comes next.

Second, the Competition
Guitar Guy goes to a church of a large denomination: Assemblies of God. They have a competition every year called Fine Arts. He has competed in it and he encouraged the Princess to compete in it this year. It was started on the following Friday evening, March 31st and continued until Saturday early evening, April 1st. She would stay overnight at a hotel with Guitar Guy's older sister who was chaperoning as well as some other girls. My husband needed to go to Florida as that Friday also was the day that the Queen Mother was being moved into the nursing home, but he did not want to miss seeing the Princess' competition, so we decided that I would stay home, he would go and stay at a hotel one night and drive the rest of the way to Florida from there, as it was about two hours south of us and on the his way. The Princess would come back with the other kids on the church bus, which is how she went down there, and I would pick her up at the church when they got back.

The Princess was actually excited about the competition because she wanted to know how good she was compared to others, as judging alone was not competitive in her mind...probably because she had always done so well. For this competition, she could only play one piece and she chose the Tarantella. There were only six pianists in this age group and three played the Beethovan's Für Elise (which Trudy, our piano teacher, hates because she always says it is so overused, but we had not run into that before this).

The Princess did well, but the judges all criticized her triplets. One wrote they were a muddled and another wrote that her pinkie finger was weak, things along those lines that made me suspicious, since I know that the one attribute that shines with her is crispness and how her fingers are well trained to keep the notes even. She was disappointed that she got two points off from each of the three judges on performance.

When the Princess came home and I read the judges remarks myself, I asked her what had happened. Apparently, they had her class in a room with a digital piano instead of in the sanctuary with the grand piano. The digital piano had horrible key action. Some of the keys even stuck. This is the downside of being a pianist when other musicians can bring their own instruments; a pianist usually has to play the piano available and the hosting church was to provide the piano for the competition. My husband noticed that all the kids had problems and after it was over asked a man from the hosting church to play it...and he said it was "awful." One girl, who was very good and might have won, had slowed her playing in one part of her piece to compensate, but timing changes that counts heavily in the scoring. The Princess has benefited from playing at least two recitals a year in different venues on different pianos and she performs well, which might have been what made the real difference for her.

Yes, my Princess won first place in Georgia and has been invited to the national competition in Anaheim, California in August.

Guitar Guy had won first in guitar last year, but there were some technical problems and he came in third, but he did get first for bass, so he is also invited to nationals. They were the only two who won from the church group, although my daughter said that the girl from their group that sang was far better than the one who won.

Feeling bad for all the kids who had to use the sticky-key piano, I have since called the person in charge of the Fine Arts competition in Georgia so that it does not happen again. The piano should have been tested by the judges before the judging so that the problem was known or that they could have judged on a different piano. The lady was surprised and nice about it and asked me to email it so that she would have it in her folder for the next year.

Third, the Recital

April 22nd was the day of the annual spring recital. Last fall I found a formal dress in a thrift store that would be good for a recital dress and was a style that the Princess likes. She looked so good in it, but she told me that I was sending her mixed signals as this lovely black lacy dress with gold highlights had spaghetti straps, which we do not allow her to wear. (Actually, the straps had to be reattached so it looked strapless at first.) However, I knew that the recital would be around her sixteenth birthday and that we talked about appropriate dressing, as in I would not allow her to walk in the neighborhood with a tank top or a bathing suit, but if we are at a beach or pool, then it would be more appropriate (and what we wear is far more modest in comparison to the others there). This would never be a dress I would allow on a date, if she were allowed to date, that is. However, she is just beginning to appreciate that she looks very good dressed like a young lady, even though she still dresses more like a tomboy most of the time, so I wanted to encourage her to see herself that way. I assured her that if her father and I say it would be appropriate for this recital, then it would be fine.

The Princess played the same pieces as she did for the judging and she looked lovely with her long hair—that is long enough to sit on—pulled back from her face on the side of the audience. She played well and the smile she gave afterward was genuine. She never really can convince me that she does not like performing.

Afterward we went out to dinner and had some interesting conversations as we had invited a friend to the recital whom my daughter called her lost twin when they met at the Home Learning Center three years ago. Although we rarely can get together with her family, we have very much in common with them—besides that the names of our teenage daughters' are the same and, oddly, our former dog and their other daughter had the same name. The mother gave birth to that daughter at the same age I was when I had my daughter. Lots and lots of parallels, but differences as well.

When we brought the girl back, we all talked for couple of hours—I really love that family!

So, the spring piano season is done and now the Princess is setting her sights on the nationals for Fine Arts in August. We all have lots to do before we can get there.

My Lord, thank you for this gifted child and for helping her to see herself as we see her through loving eyes. 

Coffee Shop Recital 2016

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. -Ludwig van Beethoven

The Princess Makes an Impression

La Folia by Palmer/Manus/Lethco

Counting Stars by One Republic

There are just no words to describe how proud I am of my daughter!

Nor words to describe how beautiful she is!

After the Recital
I ended up talking to a mother of one of the students, a girl just a year older than the Princess. We only really get to talk at this recitals and usually one of us has to clear out, but this time she had some health questions for me, so we stayed talking long after everyone else had left. We wrote down our exchanged contact information, because I had lost my phone earlier that very day.

While we were talking, my daughter taking pictures while walking around with her daughter. She is posting the pictures on Instagram.

My husband called to say that Mishka seemed to be relapsing with the Parvo. Although my husband told me that was energetic, drinking on his own, and seemed perfectly well otherwise, he had one bout of projectile diarrhea. My husband had started him back on the hourly treatment protocol. This made me highly concerned because of our experience with Sasha's relapse when the Parvo came back with a vengeance.

So forget that no hurry-worry drive home and then pick up my husband so we could go out to eat, as our tradition after the recitals. I now have serious anxiety. So serious that at one point, right after my daughter was trying to show me a picture she had taken, I just blew through a red light and nearly hit a car that had the right of way making a left turn, which is so unlike me.

The rest of the drive was uneventful but my nerves were raw. We decided to order a pizza and stay at home to watch Mishka. When I finally walked in the door and expected to see Mishka showing signs of sickness, I was happy to see he did not look sick at all. In fact, he was acting completely normal, a bit too normal as we had to pen him so we could eat without him pestering us...he was rather hungry after being sick for a couple of days and on a restricted food allowance after all. I posted an update to Treating My Parvo Puppy so that everything related with his treatment was all on the same post.

Anyway, I had been up all Sunday night and Monday saved a two-hour nap. I went to bed a bit earlier than normal with the idea that I would relieve my husband of watching and treating Mishka around 3:00 a.m. but Mishka was doing so well, he has stretched the treatments out to to every two hours and let me sleep until 5:00 a.m.

When my husband was coming back from work, he stopped in at the church and I then had my phone back! YAY! You just never appreciate all the things you can do on a cell phone until...you lose it.

The Election
I was still tired from the weekend and I had developed a colossal headache before dinner, so I planned not to stay up and watch the election results, but I guess I could not help myself. However, I did not stay up until it was official. Once I saw that Trump had both Ohio and Florida and California voting closed, I was pretty sure it was just a matter of counting the rest of the votes to prove Trump had already won. There have been only two times since 1896 when Ohio failed to go with the winner but Florida made it pretty much a done deal in my mind so I hauled my dozing husband to bed with me a little after midnight. Then I suffered another head-aching hour before I finally slept.

Enough is Enough
So the past few days have been a real drain emotionally and physically. I woke with my head still splitting. I had called to cancel the Princess' piano lesson the night before knowing I had had enough. It is still hurting even as I am typing this out and I have to take the Princess to church tonight because my husband will not be back in time to do it and it is mandatory for going on youth mission trip in Guatemala.

It has been a challenging and highly gratifying week, my Lord. Thank you for being with me through it.

The 6th Time!

As for the piano, the faster her fingers flew over it, the more he marveled. She struck the keys with aplomb and ran from one end of the keyboard to the other without a stop.
-Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

On this day, March 5, 2016, my daughter, whom I still call the Princess here on my blog, again earned a superior score on her piano judging, making this the 6th year in a row. In other words, she has so far always scored a superior rating!

It was touch and go, really. During all the emotional challenges from September to December, my daughter had more difficulty than usual in learning two rather complicated pieces, Toccata and Puck, and she was way behind in what her piano teacher expected if she was going to be in the judging. She finally memorized the pieces but still had fine tuning to do on some timing and dynamics just two weeks ago when she came down with a cold and could not really practice. These pieces also have to be played quite fast, even faster than her piano teacher could ever play, so she admitted. I just was not sure my Princess would pull it together in time and be comfortable with them. Although she did not play either piece flawlessly, she always recovers well and that impresses most judges.

Since the Princess now has a score of 30 points, she will be receiving another trophy soon. Trophies are earned at 15 points increments with one judging per year with different judges each year and the more points, the more impressive the trophy, but there is no trophy that could possibly represent how very proud I am of my daughter.

While this is admittedly a brag, it is also the truth. There are people who can play the piano and there are pianists who perform music. My daughter is in the latter category, even though she still does not realize or appreciate how gifted she is.

My Lord, my God, how can this child not see this amazing gift You have given her?

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.~

2 Busy 2 Blog

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. ~John Lennon

Decades ago, my aunt once told me of a ranch that had an interesting name. The brand was a number "2" followed by another "2" lying on its side, which represented a "lazy 2," followed by a capital "P." It reads like texting: 2 lazy 2 P. This represented the name of the ranch which was "Too Lazy to Pee." I honestly am not making this up.

With that thought in mind I probably should have a blog called "Too Busy to Blog." Sometimes there is so much going on that I just have not time to blog or I may have some time but no energy...or maybe it is just that I feel I have too much to write when I have not been writing regularly.

Perhaps lots of chocolate would help, but "Never Enough Chocolate to..."—well that just is not working, is it?

So, back to the Wednesday (the day I seriously needed chocolate) that was too much to write about, as I wrote in my last post. First of all, it really started the week before when my daughter told me that she had no homework from her science class but preparing for her presentation, because the next week there would be no class. She told me that was when the high school science expedition would be. Although I thought it was the first week in November, I did not question it because sometimes schedules change or I may not have remembered accurately, and surely the girl would have been told correctly in her class! In retrospect, I really should have checked the school calendar, but in part she is supposed to be learning to listen to instructions and little did we both know that she was about to get that lesson the hard way. (Me, too.)

So, with this news we went from the school directly to the Princess' piano lesson and I asked the teacher if we could change her lesson that following week to Thursday as there is a closeout store near her at which I had not been able to shop since the errand day change to Wednesday because it is open only Thursday through Saturday. I told her that I would call to confirm the change later after I checked with my husband, who was going to off that week as well.

Sunday we helped set up for my friend's daughter's birthday party directly after the first church service and I face painted, which means I missed out on watching the lawn twister game and mummy wrapping contest, but all the kids loved having their faces done. We also helped clean up some and then dragged ourselves home as it was getting dark.

Monday I was working on trying to get an appointment for getting my eyes examined while my husband was home so I would not have to drive home with dilated eyes, but our vision insurance, while quite good, only is for private practitioners of which are few these days, particularly in this area. Tuesday I finally got everything settled and found a nearby doctor in the network, but the only appointment time open that week was on Thursday and since I completely forgot about going to the piano lessons on Thursday, I decided to take that appointment even though it meant I would be driving home myself, since my husband was leaving on Wednesday to go hunting.

Wednesday morning, as I am preparing to leave for our errands, is when I finally remembered changing the piano lesson to Thursday, but I had not called to confirm. Nothing like realizing something like that at the zero hour! Still, knowing my piano teaching friend how she would have typically called me to confirm by then if I had not (and I had not) I wondered if she had forgotten also. I was trying to get in touch with her by calling both her cell and home phone numbers about every twenty minutes, but the lady often does not answer her phones and she is not that good about checking her messages...at times. Not all the time, but just at times, which makes me always wonder if this time is one of those times.

So, I decided that we would go shopping anyway having faith in my Lord He work it all out and the Princess would bring her music to be prepared for a piano lesson. I have been needing to stop at the bank and withdraw some money from a trust account that my husband and I manage so I decided to do that, but that ended up being a 45-minute ordeal without resolution because they apparently cannot find our signature cards...again. By then, I definitely was not in a happy place when we went on into the city to go grocery shopping.

Things brightened up for me after I called my husband and he said he would handle the trust fiasco himself. Then the piano teacher called us when we were over halfway to the store saying because she was having dead trees removed from her backyard, she was going to be home all day anyway so we could keep our regular lesson time.

Not even two minutes after she and I hung up, I received a call from a number I did not recognized. The young girl introduced herself as one of the servant leaders (high schoolers that help in the lower grade classes) from Living Science and asked where my daughter was. Oops! Now it was my daughter's turn to be unhappy. I told her that although she was not prepared, she would be there in about twenty minutes. The Princess did not have her backpack; she did not even have a pencil or sheet of paper to take notes. I suggested to her that she could borrow off of someone this one time and dropped her off with an hour and a half of her two-and-a-half-hour class left.

Then I drove back towards the health food stores and did my nearly two hour shopping usually between two to three stores in less than an hour at one store alone to pick up the Princess about fifteen minutes after class and get her to the piano lesson right on time. She assures me, absolutely confirmed, that next week there is no science class, and the first week of November sounded right to me. (I have since checked the school's calendar.) This time I made arrangements for piano lesson to be the next Thursday and we are taking the piano teacher to lunch before her lesson...it could work.

On the way home my daughter said that it seemed as if God worked everything out. If I had not decided to just go hoping her regular piano lesson time would be available, then we would have been an hour from the school and not prepared to leave the house at all. If I had not been delayed at the bank, we would have been in the store with a shopping cart half full and having to leave in a hurry to get to the school instead of approaching a good place to turn north to get to it. Plus, the piano teacher was able to take us at the regular day and time. She is looking for how God fits things together for our good, even when it seems to add to our difficulty at the time. That made the day completely worth it!

We made it home after buying new athletic shoes for the Princess, who now wears the same size as I do (although she is about six inches shorter than me and still has one baby tooth yet), so when she out grows these, I will probably inherent them even though they are not my taste. As the sky darken, we had food to put away, pets to feed, and we finally ate just after 7:30 PM...and my friends wonder why I do not make it to church service at 7:00 PM on Wednesday nights, but then somehow God will work that out with us as well.

~ My Lord, as we try to become more involved with church, it seems we have more difficulties with our managing our time, but whether in the building or not, help us to be Your church at all times and in every situation...and not be too busy enjoy to chocolate and blogging now and then also. ~