Monday Musings

Out in my yard today... a very chilly spring day!  Windy, rainy, and 44 degrees.  It's so cold and gloomy that the tulips are closed for business this morning.

New in the yard are some pretty hanging baskets and a planter filled with daisies (my favorite flower), all gifts from my hubby for Mother's Day.  Aren't they beautiful?

The fruit trees finally bloomed last week and I have a lovely crop of dandelions to deal with once the weather stays nice enough for spraying.  Oregano, spearmint, and chives are all growing like crazy.  Now to plant the vegetables.

I'm grateful for... a family that knows how to make special occasions even more special just for me.  Between my birthday and Mother's Day I have been positively spoiled during the past 10 days. Lots of hugs, loving words, good food, thoughtful gifts, and time spent with those I love.  I am blessed!

One of my favorite things... is this cute little devotional book that I received as a gift for my birthday a couple of years ago.

It is filled with lots of little nuggets of wisdom and the pictures are darling.  It's also special because it came from a precious woman who is like a mother to me in so many ways. She has taught me so much about faith, hope, grace, and the love of God. 

This week I'm reading...

I saw the author on a morning talk show a couple of months ago and I was intrigued by her story.  The daughter of immigrant Chinese parents, Ms. Chua decided that she would parent her daughters according to the Chinese tradition, rather than follow American parenting norms.  She is quite honest about both her successes and failures.  Very interesting! 


I'm looking forward to... watching my girls perform several times throughout the next two weeks.  Band night, Orchestra night, and Choir night.  By the time we are finished I really should have my own reserved seat in the auditorium with my name on a little gold placard.  We also have a debate team awards banquet and a National Honor Society induction ceremony for my oldest daughter.  Just 3 weeks left of this school year!

Simple life tip for the week... rather than tossing out those used coffee grounds, reuse them as plant fertilizer.  Sprinkle the grounds around the base of plants, or even directly on your lawn.  Add water to the grounds, let them stand for a couple of days, drain off and use as liquid fertilizer.  Placing a ring of grounds around sensitive plants acts as a deterrent for ants and other pests.  Not a coffee drinker?  Inquire at a local coffee shop.  Most places, like Starbucks, have free bags of grounds available for the taking. 

Will they be musical?

I have spent every spare minute during the last couple of days looking at schedules and attempting to put together a family calendar of events for the next couple of months.  This has been quite challenging since the end-of-the-school-year events are really piling up!  As I was looking at it all again this morning, I had a flashback of a conversation I had with my husband almost 18 years ago.  It makes me chuckle every time I think of it.  Here's what happened...

I was in the third trimester of my pregnancy with our first child.  David had just come home that evening and we were talking about the events of the day.  Out of the blue, he asked me if I thought that this baby would be musical.  I was a bit surprised and a little frustrated with this question for a couple of reasons.  First of all, my worries were primarily focused on the overall general development of this child.  I was working with developmentally disabled adults at the time and I knew what could happen if there was anything less than normal physical and mental development.  If my work wasn't a big enough reminder, there were many other well-intentioned but mislead folks who would ask me if I thought that God had given me my job to prepare me to have a developmentally disabled child.  In case it isn't obvious to you, the easiest way to stress out an expectant mother is to suggest that there might be anything less than a perfect outcome to the pregnancy!!!  So I was thinking a lot more about ten fingers, ten toes, strong heart, and normal brain than I was thinking about other characteristics.

Second, I thought he was being silly because it seemed like such an obvious conclusion that we would have a musical child.  My husband was a music education major in his senior year of college at this time.  He could play and teach others to play virtually any instrument.  He had spent his entire childhood involved in musical pursuits.  Band, choir, piano lessons, musical productions, and family jam sessions...it must be in his DNA.  Hadn't he wooed me with his amazing singing and song-writing skills?  How could he wonder such a thing?  My family tree is also full of musicians and I spent many hours in musical pursuits, as well.  Piano lessons, choir, band, countless performances at church and in the community.  In fact, there were many who were surprised that I didn't pursue a degree in music.  There was no question in my mind.  This little one would have some kind of musical talent.

Without hesitation I told my hubby that I was sure our child would be musical.  His quick response was, "But what if our child isn't musical?"  It was then that I realized just how concerned he was with this issue.  I said that I was pretty confident that would not be the case, but we would have to wait and see.  It might take a while for those talents to manifest, so we would need to patient and then help nurture whatever abilities our child might have.  I didn't realize at the time just how quickly we would know.

Since David was a full-time student and working a couple of jobs to support us, he would often get home late in the evening.  He really wanted to be a good daddy and spend some quality time with our new little daughter every day.  So he took on the responsibilities of giving her an evening bath and her bedtime feeding.  He would rock with her in the rocking chair and sing to her every night before tucking her in.  One night when Hope was about two months old, I heard David summoning me from the other room.  "Hurry, hurry, You've got to hear this!"  I ran into the other room and heard the most beautiful sound.  Hope was making this high-pitched little noise with such a pure tone that it immediately brought tears to my eyes.  She was "singing" along with her daddy!  I looked at David and said, "Well, I guess that answers that question."  And as she grew it became more and more apparent that she had the musical DNA.

When I was pregnant with our second child, this issue surfaced again.  And as before, it wasn't long before little Brianna started "singing" with us.  When she was about three years old, I was listening to Brianna sing with her big sister while riding in the back seat of our car.  Brianna was singing something different than the melody that Hope was carrying and for a brief moment I had the thought, "Oh no, maybe she can't match pitch very well."  Then I realized that she was actually harmonizing with her sister.  Extraordinary!  Yup, she had the musical DNA, too.

Piano lessons, dance classes, choir (Hope is a first soprano- she still has that high voice with the pure tone; Brianna sings second soprano or alto- always harmonizing), band (Hope- clarinet; Brianna- flute), jazz band (Hope- tenor sax), orchestra (Brianna- cello), musical productions at church and in the community, and playing and singing with the worship team in their youth group; our girls have grown and developed their talents in so many ways. 

And so, as I finish writing in all of the upcoming performance dates on the calendar, I chuckle once again as I consider that question posed so many years ago.  Will they be musical?  Hmmm...YES!!!