Tag Archives: music

When it’s not what you thought it was

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So, Girly decided FIRMLY that she wanted to learn violin this year.  I’ve seen her do this before:  when she was 4 years old she decided FIRMLY that she wanted to learn piano and learned the letters A-G so that she could do so (although she insisted “that’s letters, not piano!”)

So… the violin… which is not even close to what she thought it would be.  And it’s definitely highlighting a lot of challenges we have not seen before…

Continue reading When it’s not what you thought it was →

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Days 12, 13 & 14: Lots of stuff

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So here’s the thing: it was choir concert weekend.  You’d think I’d have learned to schedule my posts when these kinds of things are coming, but alas…  There was a choir rehearsal for Girly Saturday morning for 2 hours, then we had an hour off before BigGuy’s rehearsal (which included eating lunch with the choir).  Sunday we had soccer at 9:30am, call time for the first concert at 1:30pm, finished that and got home by 3:30pm and then had to get BigGuy dressed, fed, and to his 5:30pm call time for his concert.

We did, however, manage to keep up with our seasonal activities…  Continue reading Days 12, 13 & 14: Lots of stuff →

Things that got done today

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Things that happened today:

  • The skylight installer arrived around 8am to install what we hope will be the cure to my Seasonal Affect Disorder (which we have known about forever, but didn’t realize this master bedroom was the cave it turned out to be).  We have tried the special lights and the extra Vitamin D dosing, but my body needs the real deal.  But this also meant I had to get OUT of bed before I was ready.  :/
  • The boy slept “late”.  Yesterday, Husbeau woke the boy and that process woke up everyone else.  I noted to the man that 1) we homeschool so that our kids don’t have to be woken up regularly; 2) that waking the boy from a sleep has NEVER. EVER. gone well; and 3) that the boy has shown multiple signs of fighting off an illness.  I then suggested that he not wake the boy again.
  • Girly watched a lot of Carmen Sandiego.
  • BigGuy got all of his assigned work done except for reading “Science in Ancient Egypt“–a library book that disappeared the second we found the previously missing ($30 to replace) book “The Ancient Egyptians“.  Seriously, people… we FUND a library employee.
  • We went to a friend’s house to play chess and that went quick so the bunch of us walked to a nearby park.
  • On the way home from that adventure, we stopped at ANOTHER friend’s house where the mommies did a peer accountability session and the kids played.  And by “played” I mean that we HEARD Britney Spears singing “Toxic” from the back patio, but we didn’t realize they were watching the video.  When all was set right in the world and they were left only with music, I saw all three small girls jiggle in ways I didn’t know they had ever SEEN before.  Girly has gone on to fake-sing the refrain over and over and over and over and over and over and over.  And explain how 1) she knew it was just pretend; and 2) she wore poisonous lipstick… multiple times to multiple people.  10559929_10152397321458753_1551285787687603624_n
  • We said goodbye to our beloved babysitter, who is off to Sicily.  Wow are we going to miss him.  He was such a good friend, not just someone who watched our kids.  We love that guy and hope he is safe in his travels.

 

Things that completely sucked today:

  • Saying goodbye to someone we love.
  • Not being able to sleep in our bed tonight because the very last tiny bit of sanding and painting couldn’t be done on the skylight in the master bedroom today (the joint compound wouldn’t dry fast enough)
  • BigGuy ate an apple, which means he will wet the bed tonight and I will have sheets to wash tomorrow.

 

Things that need to happen:

  • I seriously need to get to Socratic discussions with BigGuy.  Especially now that he’s been asked to leave the Young Philosopher’s group (which is content for an entirely other post that I wrote, but then had more stuff happen related to it and need to rework that post).
  • We need to prepare this house for the winter.  Get the fireplaces operable and a generator for the freezers and I think we should get a snowblower, but who am I, really?
  • Get that which is still packed UNpacked and organized.  E-f#%!ing-nough already.  We moved in MAY, people.  There is no longer the excuse that this house is temporary or that this house isn’t ours and therefore we don’t want to put systems into place that may not work wherever we land.  We have landed.  (notice I’m banking on that skylight doing the trick).
  • We all need to get on our game with our supplements and eating habits.  I’m the fattest I have ever been and I understand that my trauma therapy for the last year has contributed to that, but dude… let’s go.

I think that’s all the news that’s fit to print over here.  It’s been a day.

“I’m all about the bass, ’bout the bass…”

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So, when we moved from NJ to IL, one of the things that overwhelmed us was that the majority of people we met were Christian.  For a long time, our family identified as Christians and as a result, we felt weird but in kind of a good way: we were no longer the minority.  There were TWO Christian radio stations here and I quickly programmed them into the radio.  They were usually on in the car.  I didn’t have to worry about songs with themes of hooking up, getting drunk or dollah dollah billz, yo.  To be fair, even my beloved ’70s songs often left us in a pickle.  I have a really hard time with my fiery Latina’s favorite song being “Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones.  Ugh…

When we got here, BigGuy was 6-1/2 and Girly was 18mo old.

Our time and experiences here have forced us to better define our beliefs and we realized, we really WEREN’T Christians.  We are Bible-based people that use Jesus as the role model for sure.  We believe that the crucifixion and resurrection took place, but after all of that–we differ from Christians.  The major line in the sand making us non-Chrisitians is that we do not tie our salvation to Jesus.  There are other places we differ.  We don’t see God as a human image.  We don’t dwell on heaven and hell.  We believe that all people are inherently good.  We’re not really big on holidays because every day is a gift.  There are some other differences, but those are the big ones.  That makes us (for all intents and purposes) Quakers.  Our labeling has changed to better reflect the beliefs we have always had.

But at some point, BigGuy started realizing that much of what we heard on K-Love was not aligned to our belief set.  *sigh*  Maturity.

I’m not sure how it happened, but BigGuy took to seeking alternate radio selections unbeknownst to me.  The radio was often on in the basement while they played.  I simply had no clue that the station had changed somewhere along the lines.  Until we were out somewhere and my kids were happily singing along to some mainstream pop song–much to my surprise.  Suddenly, BigGuy was asking for a specific station in the car… and I was thrown into the world of music-with-horrible-values.  Not ALL of it, but a LOT of it.

A few days ago, while in Minnesota, our dear friend was lamenting about the music her kids heard on the bus and my husband chimed right in (he apparently hears more of this with the kids than I do… no clue how or why).  He saw her “I’m so fancy” and raised it an “I’m all about the bass, ’bout the bass”.

I don’t homeschool my kids to shelter them.  Seriously–I don’t.  But I do think there’s a maturity level needed to understand some of the concepts sung about in ALL songs.  Some just create a subconscious comfort level with concepts I’m not going to be happy about.  This goes both for Christian music and secular music.

Needless to say, I’m now creating a playlist of songs that I think are okay for where my kids current maturity level is at.  That’s not necessarily “clean” music.  It is music that might include some questionable stuff, but stuff I feel like we can have meaningful conversation about.  At minimum, understanding-of-the-concepts conversation.  And after seeing this video today of Meghan Trainor with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots doing “All About the Bass” with classroom instruments–I sought out the lyrics.  Outside of men needing more booty to cling to at night (a concept I feel I can explain to both kids), I was really loving this song’s sentiment that women can have curves and not be “fat”.  Plus, I always love a white girl that can carry a song with some soul and rhythm.

So here ya go… enjoy: