Time does not stop, and it is a thief!

Believe it or not, Eliza Claire turned thirteen years old on March 12th of this year.

Of course we celebrated that fact!

Some of us with tears in our eyes – just saying!

We celebrate all family birthdays on Sundays after church.

We call our weekly Sunday get-together “Family Day” and that is what it truly is!

Eliza was very excited about her birthday!

Just look at our beautiful girl!

Big families come with lots of perks – like helpers to open your birthday presents, and built in best friends!

There is SO much I need to tell you about family day, so I will eventually write a post about that!

Family Day is the BEST.

Celebrating birthdays are awesome too!

Eliza asked for crepes for her birthday dessert and of course we obliged!

Very thankful that we could make them ahead!

Ok, you guys, I have been very distracted as I searched and downloaded photos for this post!

I  have been walking down memory lane looking through all of my photos!

Let me just say that all of these children have grown SO much since March!!

I am glad to have these memories kept – they  change so fast.

Eliza had been asking to take violin lessons for quite some time.

She is still taking piano lessons on-line – we use Practice Monkeys and it has been awesome!

We started with them in June of 2021.

Eliza has QUITE the ear for music!

She is a very talented pianist!

I have no regrets with the way we approached piano lessons – this has worked greatly for us in this season of life.

Practice Monkeys offers violin lessons too!

But I was not feeling right about doing violin that way.

I know how to play the piano, but I know nothing about the violin.

Suzuki music lessons require a lot of parent support!

Fast forward this story to February when I found out that there was a LOCAL violin instructor in our area!

How did I never know this before??

I called this instructor from my van while out and about one day, because Blake and I wanted to sign Eliza up for lessons and surprise her for her birthday!

That is exactly what we did!!

Eliza was THRILLED!!

I was able to get Eliza’s first lesson scheduled right after we returned home from vacation in March.

She started her violin journey on March 31st!

Her lessons are held at a church in Viroqua – the church where Addie and Scottie’s wedding was held.

It is only 15 minutes from our home, and walking distance from my in-laws!

Here she is on her very first day!

Lessons started with just information and learning how to hold the bow.

We did not have a violin yet, of course!

Eliza’s instructor gave us the information of where we could get a good violin, and we made an appointment to do so on Saturday, April 19th.

This violin shop is in Madison, which is a two hour drive.

We took the whole gang with us that day!

It was SO FUN!!!

We were able to purchase a beautiful violin for Eliza, as well as a case!

And of course we stopped at Costco afterwards.

When in Madison, we cannot drive by Costco without stopping!!

Eliza’s first violin lesson with her violin was on April 24th.

She was HOOKED!

And she was able to play in her first recital on May 17th!

We loved having Scottie, Addie, and my mother-in-law Lilli join us that day.

So, how to find the words for the rest of this post….

I am not yet at the place that I can talk (or type!) about this without having tears in my eyes.

We are AMAZED at the GIFT that the Lord has given Eliza.

She is truly GIFTED with the violin.

It astounds us still.

She has an incredible talent with this!

It comes so very easily to her, and she absolutely loves it.

I have never, not once, had to tell Eliza to practice her violin.

She practices, on her own, for over an hour and a half every single day.

Eliza had a 30 minute lesson once a week, that turned to a 45 minute lesson once a week pretty quickly.

Once in a while during the summer, Eliza’s instructor got some other kiddos together to have some group lessons as well.

Once school started after Labor Day, group lessons started back up as well.

The group meets every Monday for one hour, and then Eliza has a private lesson every Tuesday for 45 minutes.

At one point during a private lesson, Eliza’s instructor told Eliza “Ok, get your music book out so I can show you something.”

Eliza and I both looked at each other confused and I said, “We are supposed to have a book? You never told us that!”

Eliza had just finished learning the eighth piece in “said” book – which we had never seen!

The instructor’s eyes got wide as she said “You don’t have a book?? How in the world did you learn all of this???”

Eliza told her!

“You gave me the download of all the songs! I listen to them and then play them.”

I WAS DYING ON THE INSIDE, just so you know the whole story here.

Eliza’s instructor set her violin down and told Eliza to do the same.

I was already frantically searching Amazon on my phone for the book we needed to buy!

But her instructor then said, “Eliza, I have only had one other student like you! Let me show you a recent video of her and where she is at today.”

We watched.

I cried because it hit me right then that Eliza truly is gifted in this area.

Her instructor also told her, “I don’t know how I am going to keep up with you!”

We got the book!

And now we have book two!

Because she blew through book one and is half way through book two just seven months after holding a violin for the first time.

Soon after school started, Eliza (and all of the other students!) started working really hard to be ready for their solo performance at a recital that was held on November 8th.

There are so many students that the instructor had to have two separate recital times!

Eliza was not even nervous!

She was SO excited!

And she played a beautiful piece -Gavotte by Francois-Joseph Gossec.

We had seventeen family members there that day cheering her on!

It was remarkable!!

This past Saturday Eliza participated in a Christmas concert that was planned by her instructor as well.

There were 30 violinists, one cello, and one pianist playing together on Saturday and it was BEAUTIFUL.

SO BEAUTIFUL!!!

This evening we are headed (with 22 other violinists) to play at a nursing home.

Of course, Eliza is very excited about that too!

And so am I!!!

Wow, will I be grateful to have this post to look back on someday.

Eliza Claire is a precious child, she loves the Lord, she is kind and beautiful, and she is my sweet baby turned friend.

The BEST part of the fact that these kiddos refuse to stay little is that you get to watch them learn and grow and thrive and live out the things they love.

It will be a JOY to see what the Lord does with the rest of Eliza’s story.