This is Addie at her piano recital with her awesome teacher, Sister Ward. Janice Ward is the wife of our Stake President and has been very patient, sweet, and good to Addie. She also has a hard time taking photos with her eyes open. On the fifth attempt she asked, "Did I keep them open?" I just smiled. Good enough! So...anyway...Addie has been playing piano consistently for over two years. But she just doesn't really like it very much. Does she have to keep playing? Jason says yes. I say no. My kids are kind of getting tired of my saying that I started awhile back. "We are strong and we can do hard things." They want to give up on something or they complain and I say, "You are strong! You can do hard things! I know you don't want to go to school today and that its scary. But you can do it. Because you are strong. And you can do hard things."
So...they're starting to get used to me saying this and haven't begun rolling their eyes yet. Andre wants to quit soccer sometimes and its just a flat out no. "Son," I say, "God has given you a talent. We're in a place where you are being coached by professional soccer players from all over the world. You have doors opening up right now that you would never have had. And I see when you are playing that you really do love it. So, I know it is 107 this afternoon and that you'd rather just stay home and play on your 3DS. But I have your special water/spray/fan and a jug of ice water and its only an hour. It will be a hot and hard practice today but you can do it. You're strong. You can do hard things."
But piano? Does she have to keep doing it? She wants to dance and sing. I think two years is enough. Jason says that it was all for naught if we let her quit now. Hm...stay tuned for our decision...
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I took some pics recently for one of my WA yw who is now engaged. When I loaded them, I realized his eyes were closed in pretty much every single picture. Amy told me some people are eye closers. Once she identifies that she's got one she literally takes like five burst shots for every picture. Heehee.
Also, did I ever tell you that was one of Leisa's big things? The "you can do hard things"? She always talked about that as well as resilience.
And yah, that's a hard one about Addie. I get the doing hard things and not giving up, and I'm sure, when she's grown she might think, "dang, I should have kepot it up so I could play piano." But I also don't think our kids have to do every single thing. If something is just not a match I'd likely say drop it. Who knows.
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