Friday, April 1, 2011

Band Secrets

This simple family story is just a cute little incident involving a secret.

My oldest daughter is finally in band for the first time and she is so excited and happy. Since we don't have a lot of money and certainly no extra money for a new instrument she took up clarinet and borrowed her big brother's old clarinet to play.

I usually pick her up from school on Friday afternoons because the student council sells concessions (candy and pop) after school on Fridays and the line is so long she'd miss the bus if she went. So on this particular day she comes to van walking quickly and smiling from ear to ear. A sure sign that something went right during the school day.

So, being the curious mom that I am, I ventured a guess and said,"So, looks like you had a good day today, what happened?"

She was more than willing to share that her band teacher had said that she was one of the best sight readers in the band and doing fabulous for a first year musician. He had invited her to stay after school and practice with the intermediate band and to go to contest and play with both the beginner and intermediate bands. She was bubbling over with pride and joy to be so honored.

My response was just, "Wow, that is great! He really thinks your a great player! Did you tell him that you had three years of piano lessons, so you know how to read music?"

My darling little daughter turned and looked at me with a huge grin and glimmer in her eye as she said, "No way mom! What he don't know won't hurt him!" and then started to laugh with me.

I had to agree it wasn't hurting anyone for him not to know and it sure made her feel special that he thought she was such a great beginner. :-)

No thanks

This simple little family story is one that really warmed my heart.

I set my mind on opening my own store and after a year of researching and convincing crafters to sign leases for a store that I didn’t have an address for yet. I finally found a building with gracious owners who were willing to let me buy on a land contract and to allow me to set the monthly payments for what would fit our budget. My little family story starts inside the store as we were tearing out the layers of old walls.

The girls and I were at the store and were working on tearing the drywall down. My oldest daughter received a phone call from a friend that didn’t live far away asking her to come over and play. She politely refused the offer and then starting ripping drywall off the walls again.
A few minutes later the same girl and her mom (a friend of mine) knocked at the door of the store. We let them in and they again invited her over to play. She again refused politely saying that she wanted to stay and help. Then the mom asked her why she would rather work at the store tearing down the drywall than go play with her daughter.

I’ll never forget her answer; it brought tears to my eyes. My daughter responded to her by saying “I want to stay here and help my mom. This is her dream to have this store; she has been working on it and planning it for a long time. I want to help my mom make her dream come true.”
Those were the words spoken by my eight year old daughter who would rather work with her mom than go play and have fun with a friend. Those moments, they are the ones that I cherish.