My "Mommy Moment"

Abigail is 7 and she had her very first piano recital last night. She did very well.

We started piano lessons with Abigail sometime in February. I didn't want to give her lessons but Daniel is insisting I give all the children lessons. He feels it is wasteful to pay somebody else to teach them to play the piano when I'm a very capable pianist. In a way he is right. I just don't want to give my own children lessons!

When we first started, it was very hard for me!!! I've been been playing the piano since I was 7, so to have to THINK about all those basic and try to explain them to a 7 year old was no small task for me!! But once she had the basics, it went better. I'm pleased with how well she seems to have picked it up. I have students who have been taking lessons longer than she who are still struggling with some things she has already nailed down.

She was very excited about the recital. Memaw and Pappy couldn't come this time so Memaw sent us to JCPenney's to buy Abi a new dress to wear. Last Saturday I had her play her song for the residents of the nursing home where we volunteer and she did very well. I wanted her to have SOME experience of having played in front of people before the recital!! How very intimidating to go on the platform in front of all those people (possibly 100?) and play that giant black piano that mommy plays all the time!!

At the recital last night, she trotted right up there, sat down, and played her song from memory with minimal mistakes. She kept saying "I played the 'C' twice". Cracked me up. But it was kinda difficult to leave "teacher" mode and enter "mommy" mode for the recital. Plus, I'm such a perfectionist myself that I wanted to say "it was ALMOST perfect". I bit my tongue and congratulated her. As we were leaving she was already talking about what song she wants to play for her next recital! LOL She has no clue how much better a pianist she is going to be in the next 6 months or a year. She is so happy with her current accomplishment that she can't see past it to realize that by the time the next recital rolls around, she is going to think these beginner songs are silly!

A Little Blessing

God has given us a little blessing! Yesterday evening I was taking Abigail shopping for a new dress for her upcoming, first ever, piano recital (thank you, Memaw) and when we walked outside, there was a rabbit sitting in the grass in the yard. I tapped on the window to have Daniel bring Elijah and Lydia upstairs so they could see the rabbit. It was so close and so still!!! All the children were enjoying looking at her and then Daniel told them they could chase her.

Once she moved, I noticed the grass was disturbed so I walked over to look. Initially, I thought Elijah had taken his toy shovel and dug somewhat of a hole but then it occurred to me that the rabbit had been digging that hole. No doubt, "it" is pregnant! I yelled at Daniel to tell the children to leave her alone as I was confident she was burrowing to be able to birth her babies soon! All the children came over to see her "nest" (not sure of the proper word for a rabbit "nest"). Daniel and I then discussed the possibility of her coming back to the hole since it would be surrounded by our human scents.

Upon returning home from our shopping trip, Mommy Rabbit had returned and was digging again. The children had to go upstairs and look at her through the window one more time before bed. I was hoping there would be baby rabbits this morning. I don't know. When I look outside, Mommy Rabbit isn't there but the hole is still there covered with all the grass. So I'm dying to know if she birthed her babies last night but I know better than to go check!!! I'm off to google the birthing habits of untamed rabbits!!!

Thank you, Lord, for our little blessing!!! Please keep the landscapers away for a few days so their mowers don't kill the babies!

Monday Musings - Its Been a While

I've neglected my blog lately. I don't know why. I enjoyed it for a while and for some reason just stopped. So I'm off again.

I'm quite moved by a book I read recently called The Son Of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of the founders and leaders of Hamas. Truly, a phenomenal book and story. I'm currently listening to an interview with him on Interfaith Voices where Yousef is TRYING to tell the interviewer that Islam is NOT a religion of peace. He has given her chapter and verse from the Quran, yet, she won't listen. She keeps arguing with him that no other Muslim she has ever interviewed as ever stated that Islam is a religion of violence.

Religion is not measured by how well its followers adhere to its teachings. Religion is measured on the merits of its holy books. If one claims to be a Christian, yet they don't adhere to the teaching of the Bible, they aren't a Christian no matter how strenuously they CLAIM to be a Christian. We don't measure Christianity by how well one follows the Bible. We measure Christianity by THE BIBLE. Its the same with Islam. Islam is not this watered down religion of "peace" we see in the United States. True Islam is the murdering of the infidel, defined as any person who does not believe in the god of Islam, who is NOT the God of Christianity. There is a key point in this issue of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God. My God, the one and only true God, had one begotten Son. The god of Islam never had a son and does not recognize Jesus as God. Thus, the god of Islam and the True God of Christianity are not the same.

I strongly encourage all to read his book and listen to this interview. It is eye opening and the truth about Islam.