Complete Joy

It's interesting to see what can make your child happy.  For my daughter, it's books.  When I come home from the Goodwill book store with a book she's been wanting or even a book from a new series that looks interesting, her eyes light up and I get a hearty hug and a big thank you.

It's been a while since I've gotten a reaction like that from my son.  You see, he likes to program computers and build or fix electronics.  I don't really know much about those, and I certainly don't feel comfortable ordering something along those lines so I always leave that to hubby.  

Today I got a reaction from my son and it really made me happy to see him so happy.  I asked my son a few months back if there was an instrument he wanted to learn and he said violin.  There just so happens to be a local orchestra made up of homeschoolers, so a couple months back my son went to try out a violin as well as a couple other instruments (all stringed). 

Someone is just a little happy

After lots of contemplation about the commitment it would take for the next school year, he asked me to sign him up.  He's been begging me to get him the violin now even though classes don't start till late August or early September.  I've been pricing things online and found that the place recommended by the group leader had a "blemished" violin kit in my son's size for $39 less than than the kit I had been looking at.  The violin itself was a model one above the one I was looking at which means I got a better quality violin for $39 less than the one I was going to get. 

And the blemish?  In addition to the neck being lighter than the rest of the violin (see pic below), there are 2 small places (smaller than a pea each) on the back of the violin where the clear coat is missing.  Otherwise, it's perfect from what I can tell.

I actually like the color difference