My life is a Musical

My life is a musical....really, I mean it!

You have no clue how much music is a part of our lives, unless you live with us for a week.

Someone in our house is ALWAYS singing. First, we sing a song every morning for devotional before scripture study. And of course, the kids all have their favorite songs at bedtime that I have to sing to them when they go to sleep. We have traditional songs we've made up for dressing time, bath time, and good morning time. But that's not what I mean by always singing.

My husband is a funny guy, always joking around and being silly. He usually does this, however, with a song. Especially when he's happy! The happier he is, the more he sings. He picks up any old tune (usually a kid one or a nursery rhyme, but really it can be ANYTHING) or makes one up to sing about his chickens and rabbits, or what he's cooking for dinner, or how he's going to tickle the kids. Or how he has to go to work.... It's an ongoing thing.

The first time I remember hearing Scott sing like that was back when we were dating. I think we were waiting in traffic at a red light and he began singing a silly song at the light to make it turn green. I laughed my head off. That's when I first thought, "This is my kind of guy, this is my kind of weird." I sang right along with him from then on about all kinds of little things. It became a fun game for both of us. It fit our personalities.

What's hilarious is how it's become a part of our family culture. In any normal day, you can hear me sing out to the kids to come do their chores, and it's like a whole opera chorus singing back to me. Dorathy sings, "Not right now, I'm reading a book". Courtney sings, "I didn't hear you!" Christopher sings, "I'm coming right now, Mom!"

Dorathy always sings the best songs while cleaning up. She makes up heartbreaking songs when she's sad. Christopher will be singing while he's building things or doing his outdoor chores. Christopher will often sing to his rabbits. Courtney sings while drawing, or when she's crying.

Angel's singing IS her playing. She sings stories, she sings in all her games. She goes outside and sings to the butterflies and birds, just like Mary Poppins, and then acts like the animals will just fly to her call. It so sweet and innocent. One time when we were on a hike, she said, "Please Mommy, Wait a moment...I need to sing a little song to this flower." She soon had a crowd of other hikers around listening to her. Angel sang a song a capella for the recent Homeschool Talent Show. It is song she made up herself called "Butterfly, Butterfly"

Now even Julianna has begun singing. Her favorite song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but the nursery leaders at church tell us she sings ALL the time. Surprisingly, she has been our latest singer. When Christopher was 15 months old he began singing the ABC song and other nursery rhymes clearly, with all the words. At the tender age of 2, Dorathy could sing every primary and nursery song you could think of...ALL THE VERSES. She had these preschool music tapes she listened to over and over in the car when she was a baby. She loved them so much, she cried when each song was over for the few seconds space when one ended before the next one began. Even now, Dorathy has scores of hymns memorized...once again ALL THE VERSES! Now Dorathy is obsessed with musicals and has committed to memory Newsies, Joseph, and several others.

I believe Courtney was my earliest singer. One morning when I went to get her up, my then 10 month old baby sang to me the melody of "Good morning to you" that I sing to each of my little ones every single morning. I couldn't believe it!!! I've never heard a baby that young carry a tune!!! She could sing all kinds of melodies before she could even speak words.

If you want to test the truth of these statements, just come over to my house anytime and start singing a conversation...pretty soon my home turns into an opera show with everyone singing what they are saying instead of talking it. You can imagine that this can get pretty loud and confusing. It often drives me NUTS. In order to get people to stop it, I'll often put music on to distract them...at least that way they sing WITH the music instead of all competing with eachother over who can sing their arguments the loudest. It's so funny when they ARGUE in SONG....ridiculous.

Last week, I heard a singing fight:

"Give me that toy!"

"But I had it first!"

"No, it's mine, it belongs to me!"

"It doesn't belong to anybody, we have to share!"

(grabs it away)

"Hey no grabbing!"

(I send kids separated to time out, then I hear...)

"It wasn't really my fault...it's not fair....I always get in trouble" Sob...sing...sob

We have a number of rules in our house to keep the singing from getting out of control.

1. Dinnertime:

We have a strict rule of NO SINGING AT THE TABLE. Singing turns into a huge competition, and just singing "pass the salt" turns into a huge hullabaloo, with everyone singing different things, so we had to make this rule just for our sanity and peace. I put on quiet dinner music and tell the kids,"If you can't hear the background music, you're talking too loud." People laugh at us for this singing rule and think its funny, but this was a real serious issue in our house! It was the only way to eat a peaceful quiet meal! We've designated the kids favorite meal of macaroni salad as singing night at my house. So, if you want to see a real dinner show, come over when I'm serving macaroni salad. Every once and while during a normal dinner, we forget this rule ourselves, and then when someone breaks into song, everyone else hushes them emphatically, "No singing at the table!"

2. Chore time

During kitchen chores, the person doing the dishes gets to choose the music, either what to sing by themselves acapella, or what to sing to on the stereo. Otherwise it became a fight over who could sing their favorite song the loudest.

3. Driving time

My kids think any car time is a drag unless I'm playing...MUSIC! They hate the radio with a passion. (they think the music is bleh and filled with static.) They detest talk radio and commercials. They each want their own favorite music. So we've begun taking turns. They think I'm torturing them whenever I say it's my turn and I turn on the radio. At least they love a good variety of music, and they enjoy checking out CD's from the library. They enjoy Classical music, they love musicals, and they like different ethnicities of music. I haven't gotten them to appreciate opera yet...but I will someday!

4. Christmas in July

Scott adores Christmas...especially Christmas music. But him singing or playing Christmas songs year round was just driving me crazy. So we now celebrate Christmas in July, where he gets to play Christmas music in the middle of the summer. The kids, however, tend to follow in their father's footsteps. They love the Christmas carols so much that they sing them year round! The most frequently requested song at bedtime is "Angels we have heard on high." Maybe Christmas music is so popular among our kids because we have a child by the name of Angel! :)

As loud as my house sometimes gets with all the singing and music playing, I hope it never stops. I can't wait to sing all together with my family and have everyone be able to fill in all the parts. Dorathy and Christopher have already developed such an ear for music that they make up their own harmonies very well. Dorathy is beginning to hear and understand the alto portion. music is a very important part of our family life, and it has blessed us in a multitude of ways.

One example of the power of music in our family: we used to have a terrible time with contention and fighting in the car on the way to church. It's always so ironic that on the Sabbath day, a day where we are suppose to enjoy peace and rest to go and worship the Lord, that the kids can be so cranky and fussy at just at each other's throats. Nothing Scott and I did seemed to work to diffuse the tension. Then one Sunday, the Lord answered our prayers and we were struck with inspiration. We would sing on the way to church! We've found out that our drive to church is perfectly timed so that each kid gets to sing one church song of their choice with the family. It immediately lessons the tension, the fighting and tears disappear, and all the kids calm down and are ready for church by the time we arrive at the chapel. Good music always invites the Holy Spirit. It has been a real blessing in our family.