There are a lot of "noteworthy" events this last month in the Lloyd home. We had a lot of "first" experiences lately that have helped each of us to learn and grow....
Nathanael sang in the school's Solo and Ensemble Festival for the first time. He sang "The Roadside Fire" and was accompanied by his aunt Tammy. It is a difficult piece but I thought that both he and Tammy performed well. However, we were a little unprepared in that we didn't realize that he had to have another copy for the adjudicator and all the measures numbered. It had been 20 years since I had done this and I did not remember and Nathanael did not seem to remember hearing those instructions. Thankfully, he was towards the beginning and so the judge just reminded everyone else to have these things done. It was a learning experience and it was good to see him do well even though he was very nervous. Nat also had the opportunity to go to New York for the first time on tour with the choir. It was very exciting! Travis was able to go as a chaperone and it was his first time to New York City as well. Hopefully, they will share with us the highlights of the trip in next month's blog.
Lindsay participated in her first Feis (pronounced "fesh") for Irish dance. A Feis is an Irish dance competition. She competed with the Reel and Jig. It was so fun to watch her because she is so graceful and does such a good job. However, she did not place as high as she would have liked and truly we wondered what she missed points on. She was disappointed but felt that she performed her best and was satisfied with that knowledge. It was a good experience to learn that even though you may not get the results that you want, you don't give up and continue to work hard and do your best. She also was asked to speak in the Young Women's New Beginnings for the first time. She was chosen because she was one of five that had earned their Young Womanhood Recognition Award last year. She wrote her talk herself and I did not even have the chance to look over it quickly before she spoke. However, she spoke with such depth and maturity that my heart swelled within me. She did not need my help at all and I was amazed at what an incredible young woman she is.
Ethan received the Aaronic priesthood at the beginning of the month. He was able to attend Young Men's for the first time. He also had the opportunity to pass the sacrament for the first time. It was kind of neat to watch him pass the sacrament and be able to hand his trays to his older brother, Nat. Ethan is turning into quite a young man. He also had a "late night" instead of a themed party to celebrate his birthday with his friends for the first time. He seemed to have a good time. Ethan finished up his Jr. Jazz season and is continuing to play futsal and is rehearsing for the school play next month. He has been a very busy kid lately!!
Clarissa also participated in her first Feis for Irish dance. She was so nervous about it that she literally made herself ill. She was so sick that she couldn't even attend class the day before to have some extra class practice. Thankfully, Lindsay had worked with her for a couple of weeks and so Clarissa knew the dances and could do them well. The day of the competition, she was extremely nervous and not feeling quite up to par. It was a blessing that the younger girls went first so that she could "get it over with". She was amazing! You could not tell at all that she had been so sick just hours before. She also was able to place in her division which made her so happy! It was so good for her to learn that even if you are scared and fearful that you can overcome those feelings and do well. She learned that she can rise up and do hard things!
Zachary has really gotten into "Star Wars" for the first time this last month - which unfortunately led him to his first (and it better be only) theft. I was visiting teaching at a new sister's home. She has a little one that also likes "Star Wars". On the way home, Zac was showing me a "Galactic hero Star Wars" figure on the way home. It looked like others that we have. Later, Ethan asked me if we got a new one for Zac. I was shocked! Ethan explained that the one Zachary was playing with was not ours. Great....I called this sister and apologized and we returned the figure. I did have a talk with Zachary about not taking other people's toys, however, he seemed to be "distracted". Hopefully, we won't have to have these little talks in the future...
My "moment of joy" came when I was having a follow-up meeting with a sister in our stake about her ward conference. Zac was the only child there-her kids were all at school. She told him that he could play with the toys in the corner-which he did. After a while, we started to wrap up and Zachary came running up to me and exclaimed, "Look mommy! I cleaned up!" I looked at where he was playing and sure enough, he had cleaned up the toys and put them in the corner just as they were when we got there. Awesome! The best part is that I did not even ask him to do it-he did it on his own.
No comments:
Post a Comment