Listen To The Song Of My People

Good morning to you all and I hope you are having a glorious last day of April. I know I am procrastinating instead of getting some much needed paper work taken care of, but it can wait another few minutes til I've finished my coffee our chat today! Ha!

I am staring out my bedroom window at an endless blue sky and that warm Spring air coming in the window and it just feels so darn good! Right now it blissfully quiet except for the birds chirping and the occasional dog bark, but soon this silence will be broken by the neighborhood 'battle of the bands'.

I don't know how it is around your house, but here in little suburbia, weekends are a pressure keg of 'git her done!'. If you aren't up to date on the local red neck lingo... Basically it means everyone is up mowing lawns, heading to Home Depot, gardening centers, Walmart etc etc and then they start working outside... with 'their' music.

Now don't get me wrong... I'm pretty open minded about most types of music. If I get a choice.. I'm usually going to put country on. (I usually don't get a choice... Ha!) And this is where the problem comes is...no one seems to agree on a music genre around here. One neighbor has rock blasting, another has pop... Some teens down the way play stuff that make my ears bleed...each competing to be louder than the other. Sigh.. I'm getting old!

But something wonderful happens later in the day. As people finish their chores and head inside or off to other places, one by one all the competing 'bands' go silent until all you hear are the birds again, and maybe some children laughing and playing. As the sun sets, sometimes we have a fire and watch the stars come out. The kids like having their music on then... and if I'm really lucky, they even let me pick my country station!

Here's to warm Spring days and listening to the songs of their people!

Music to My Ears?

Good afternoon everyone! I have had a case of the 'lazies' today that I just can not seem to shake off. No matter how many times I am told its just my Fibro or just my Rheumatoid Arthritis acting up, it still feels like I am being lazy and wasting another perfectly good day. But in any case, I have my mug of hot chocolate, and sitting comfortably and anxious to catch up with every one. So welcome everyone to my kitchen table!

I have had a very busy week. My medication cocktail seems to be working quite well which has allowed me to enter the real world outside my bed room! (Ooohhh...aaahhhh!!) The only area that still needs work in my energy levels but I can cope with that. I have been out shopping and on a small road trip yesterday with my husband, the eye doctor and even a huge Costco run! Oh life is truly grand!

All my boys have had some really great accomplishments these past few weeks also. My oldest is in college working on a computer program certificate and had to build some electronic kit. To me it looked very complicated and to all the guys in the house it looked very impressive ( there was lots of ohhhs and ahhs when he first brought the kit home) Well, he came home the other day very proud of himself ( and he should be! ) as he had completed the kit and had scored high marks on it!

My middle son worked really hard this past week on an essay he had due for mid terms. And you have to understand, he has AD/HD so sitting down to read and write an essay are far from his forte. Well, my son spent an entire week going in at lunch time and any extra class time he could to get help and finish writing his paper. He came home with a 77%! I am so very proud of him!

And last but not least, my youngest son has been practicing very hard to earn his bag pipes. You see, he joined the Air Cadets last year and decided he wanted to learn how to play the bag pipes. Well....thankfully they don't just hand them over. You start with a part of the bag pipe that's called a chanter. It kind of looks like a recorder, and it is not very loud. He has had that now for about a year and he has faithfully practiced that for about a year now. We have gotten used to the sound of the chanter and kind of been lulled into a quiet acceptance of the inevitable.

You have to understand, I am a strong advocate for my children to take music. My boys have played the trombone, trumpet, baritone bass (I swear that was the AD/HD...the biggest shiniest instrument in the room...Ha!!) guitar, drums,and bass guitar. So adding bag pipes to the mix isn't a stretch for us, just something different.But I do have a confession to make here....I have to admit, I hate the sound of them. So bless my son's heart...if I'm home...he practices outside only. Ha!!

Well...few weeks back, my son walked proudly in after cadets with his new instrument in hand. Oh he was so very proud! After months of practicing his chanter he finally had his hard earned trophy in hand! So of course we needed a demonstration  from the musician! He quickly assembled it, spent a few moment blowing mightily and then let out this racket of a noise! The dogs started howling...his face was all red from huffing and puffing...kids were yelling at dogs...I was giggling at dogs and thinking holy smokes...what in God's green earth have we gotten our selves in to??

Well, in the past few weeks, we have learned how well our dogs can sing, how many dogs are in the neighbourhood and even bumped into people I have never met before and had them ask me which one of my sons is playing the bag pipes. Ha! He practices on the front deck and gets so excited and encouraged when people stop their cars in front of the house and watch him. He takes them to school so he can practice there, takes them to friends' houses, and even begged to take them to youth group tonight.

He has worked so hard for those bag pipes and even though they aren't the 'coolest' instrument to be playing he pours his heart and soul into them and I am so very proud of him. All 3 of my boys are like that. They have such a strong inner core. When they have a goal or a  passion for something nothing can stop them. They practice, study, read, or what ever else they need to do. The things my young men have already accomplish astound me. My oldest is a 2nd degree black belt and in college, my middle son plays high school football and has fabulous grades even though he struggles with his AD/HD, and my youngest is in air cadets, playing his beloved bagpipes, and doing wonderfully in school in an almost unmodified school program which is huge because he has lots of learning disabilities he has to over come and also struggles with his AD/HD.

So the beloved melodies of the bagpipes accompanied to the singing of the dogs...ahhh...music to my ears! Enjoy your weekend everyone!