Been a long time. A very long time.

But I've been practicing just about every day. The only days I've missed have been days I've been out of town. However, I have become pregnant sometime in April or May and since then I've been practicing less than I was at the beginning of the year. Some days I'm satisfied with playing through a piece once or twice because of exhaustion, nausea, or what have you.

But I've been working toward an e-recital that happens this week, and just submitted my piece. Want to hear it? Have a listen here. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I've made several mistakes in it, and my recording device just doesn't pick up the dynamics the way I would have liked it to. But, I've always been nervous performing in front of an audience (even if that audience is my digital camera set on "microphone") and this was the best recording I could get with the restrictions I've had on time and location. I wasn't able to record at home because my piano is so horribly out of tune that the song would have sounded much, much worse. I recorded this on a grand piano at my church, and was amazed at not only how much better it sounded, but how much better I sounded on that piano. It was much easier to play my piece on that piano, compared even with the fairly new (less than 10 years old) and well-maintained uprights that I had been playing on earlier.

So, I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labor, while I prepare for the fruits of a different kind of labor, coming up in January or February. We're anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first boy, and we couldn't be more thrilled! The girls are very excited to get a brother to play with (and dress up, and otherwise annoy as much as possible I'm sure) and I'm excited to have a little boy to add a little diversity to our estrogen-filled home!