Practice Practice, Mozart Concerto #23. 1st movement

2011 is upon us and January is already onto its 5th day. As I advance in age a bit each year, the speed of time passing is felt faster and faster......

2010 was a tremendously busy year for me. 2010 started with a request from Japan to come and speak at a convention in November. But it happens to be a pretty big one... to which I felt a bit intimidated at the beginning. If you know me, I prepare well for events with thorough search and research and writing. I over did it, I almost thought but... I felt it was just right. I spent 10 months preparing for lectures which totaled about 27-28 hours in length in Japan between Nov 24 th to Dec 2nd at 4 universities, one convention and a few other engagements. But that is not the main course in my life.
It is my family that I live for ultimately... my hubby and my boy.. they give me so much to live for in life. They are also extremely kind and tolerant of 'not so perfect wife and mother'. I was gone 5-6 days a month each month ,,, at least... some months more,, like 14 days in June, 17 days was spent away from home in October between my Trip to South Africa, Baltimore Maryland and Nashville, TN, , and finally, I left them right before the one of the most important holiday week, Thanksgiving and I was away for 14 days till Dec 9th. No one complained.

When I returned from Japan after the massive power lectures,,, Christmas was in full swing.
I just could not catch up with the swing... it was over before I knew it. But, boy did I enjoy it...
Although I did not get to see a glimpse of snow this year, I still enjoyed it.

After Christmas, our small family packed up in our Toyota and drove out to Dallas for a few days of shopping... serious shopping for LEGO! We had great finds in Dallas and all came home happily ever after.... ha ha. Told you , we are crazy . We also ate well,,, while we were out.

Through it all, Erik did not let down his practice pace for his Concerto Competition.
My hat off to him for working hard and having the courage to "want to enter" the competition.
Everyone has a gift given from above and it is fortunate that he feels he has a gift. Reading and playing the piano are two gifts he names.

The video is a moment from the beginning part of the lesson on Jan 5th. His competition is in 10 days. Our goal is to ENJOY it. We are already enjoying this beautiful music day after day. Whatever happens, we are proud of the hard work Erik has put into and the time his teacher, Dr. Yang has given Erik to grow. He is an incredible teacher and we are loving the experience. We are surprisingly not stressed at all. So enjoy listening to him practice with his beloved teacher. I will probably take this video down after a while,,,the recording , the sound is just not blog material.. but I knew some of our friends would still enjoy this.

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