Harmony

A capella ensemble singing is one of the joys of my life. I'd always rather sing than listen to it. I had the opportunity to sing in an ensemble in college in which we did quite a bit of a capella repertoire, and we traveled all over the state recruiting for our university.

Since those days I haven't really had that in my life all too often. I did manage to pull together an ensemble at church over the last few years, but even then, we never held it together to perform more than 4 songs, doing one special here, one special there.

I had not anticipated the latest venue for a capella singing that is now thrilling my heart.

At bedtime with the girls, our routine includes a story, prayers, and a song. We just simply sing whatever song is chosen for the night. Until last week, that seemed like no big deal.

Last week, Big Girl started to harmonize. She spontaneously sang higher than the melody. She's such a spot-on singer that I knew she was doing it on purpose. For the first phrase or two she fished around a little, and then she locked in on a third above the melody, the perfect harmony line for, "God Is So Good," the song we were singing that night, and have sung every night since. Her confidence has increased, and she is able to do it without any fishing around for the notes.

I am more and more excited by Big Girl's musical development. There is so much of music that can't be taught, not really, and she seems to have all of those things in her. I can't wait to see what she does with all that...

Until then, we'll sing a capella at bedtime, harmonizing to our hearts' content!

John the Fisherman

Here's the song in my head today. I blame my darling husband. It's really his fault.

"John the Fisherman", by Primus.

It was on in his car last night.

The Joys of Home Ownership

Ownership has its privileges. It also has its liabilities, or responsibilities, whatever you want to call them. This week ours has been a broken sewer line from the house to the street.

It all started with a swampy, wet spot in the yard. Hubby was concerned. It was less than 10' from where we know our sewer line back up/clean out spot is in the front flower bed. It could either be a broken sewer line, or the irrigation system. Well, there's only one way to find out, so he called Roto-Rooter to come do a free estimate on our sewer line. That was Monday.

Turned out that we do have a break in our sewer line, but no where near the sink hole. To find out what the sink hole problem was, we had to do a dig test. That turned out to be the most expensive hole in the ground I've ever seen (pictured). The problem was a leaking valve for the irrigation system. The Roto-Rooter guy who dug the whole would not/could not fix the problem.

That afternoon, after the Roto-Rooter guys left, I called every irrigation service company I could get a phone number for (in our area, of course), and managed to find a guy to come fix it almost immediately. That was good. All that was left when he was done was muddy grass, and he raised up the access panels that had been covered over with grass. One problem down.

The bigger one to go.

We had three options for fixing the broken sewer line. One was to take out the tree sitting right on top of it, which was out of the question. Only God can make a tree. That tree is beautiful. It's almost as tall as our two story house. Another options was to run a new sewer line at a diagonal across the lawn, between our two big trees, as far from the root systems as possible. That would also require us to put a clean-out thing on the street end at our expense, as codes and rules have changed in the last 10 years or so, since this house was built. That would cost around $5000. Not a good option. The third option was to run a pipe around the tree for significantly less $. This option was our choice.

Tuesday morning the work began to run a pipe around the tree. That meant lots of digging for most of Tuesday. The plumbers on Monday had located the pipe, thinking it went straight under the tree. So the guys on Tuesday started digging a trench going around the tree to the left. After about 2.5 hours of digging, the guys ran into a giant rock. It's not surprising in this area for there to be giant chunks of limestone not too far under the top soil. So the guys came to me around lunch time telling me that they needed to rent a jack-hammer to break it up if they were to continue. Of course, that meant extra $$$.

Later that afternoon, the jack-hammering began. Let me tell you, being inside when that was going on right outside was no picnic. I'm sure it was no picnic for the guys doing the work either, but at least they get paid for doing it.

After breaking up the rock and digging for a few more hours, the guys made another discovery. They thought they should have been running into the pipe, but they hadn't yet. The pipe didn't go straight under the tree like they expected. It took a 45 degree turn to the right exactly under the tree. That meant all the digging they had done on the left side of the tree was in vain. They had to start over on the right side. They didn't run into any giant rock on the right side of the tree (which is probably why the pipe was laid there to begin with), so the jack-hammer rental was a completely unnecessary expense, and waste of time.

Hubby and I both were pretty upset about all that. We had paid a ridiculous amount of money to this company to dig up the wet spot the day before, and then we just paid for a jack-hammer rental that was completely unnecessary for the job. And if they hadn't spent so many hours going to get the jack-hammer, and digging the wrong way, they'd have been able to finish the job in one day. Instead they left it looking like a crime scene and came back to finish the next day.

There is a silver lining to this whole cloud. We found this problem without a flood of raw sewage in the house, which is a major plus, and now it's all done, and we won't have to think about it for another 15 to 20 years, or so they say. The way it is now, they still expect the tree to interfere, but not for a long, long time.

We did end up disputing the charges for the jackhammer. What ended up happening was that they reduced the charge for the hole they dug for the irrigation system valve leak. Fighting that was a huge pain, and I had some very angry plumbers sitting in their van for an hour while everything was sorted out between Hubby, the plumbers and their supervisor.

I delayed the laundry I was planning to tackle on Monday, and didn't get to it until Thursday. Let me tell you, it was so nice to drain all the water I wanted without having to worry about whether or not my pipes were being cut. And by the time they left, I was more than ready to not have strangers right outside my window, on my front lawn.

One of my least favorite things about being a stay-at-home mom is that I'm the one who has to deal with all the repair/service people when there's something like this to be done. It seems like I'm always having to report back to Hubby to tell them what the guy said, and then remember the questions he wants me to ask and all that. I look forward to the day when I'll go back to work, and then it will be up to Hubby to work from home, or go in late or whatever, to deal with this stuff himself.

Mother's Day

I have the best mom. I mean no offense to anyone, or anyone else's mom. I just know my mom is the best mom in the world.

Just thought you should know.

Yesterday she and Dad came over for lunch. I made a roast and it was pretty great. I finally learned Mom's secret for making lump-free gravy. She shared some of her awesomeness with me. She's really fantastic.

Dad and Hubby went to a baseball game after lunch. Hubby got the tickets from someone who couldn't use them, it being Mother's Day and all. Mom and I were fine with them going. The present to us was that we didn't have to go.

I got the most precious Mother's Day present ever. Big Girl made me a figurine of a rose (pictured). She also made me a card at school, and another one at church. She's such a doll. I know when they passed out babies at the hospital (back in October of 2002), they gave me the best one. She's grown into such a sweet girl.

Little Girl has not needed a pull-up in over 3 weeks. I couldn't be happier about that. She's doing so well. Her attitude issues have been so very much improved too. When we's in a sweet/cute mood, she adds a Y to nearly every word. Blanket becomes "blankety", food becomes "foody", cartoons are "cartoonies", and it doesn't seem like there's any word she WON'T modify when she's in the right mood. She's very funny, and very much the life of the party. I think I got the best baby they had in March of 2005 for sure.

I had a lovely Mother's Day, and I love my family very much.

Today I have "Monday, Monday" in my head by the Mamas and the Papas. It is Monday, after all. Have a great day!

No-Fun Day

I can't believe I forgot to blog about the big time hardball incident with Little Girl last Friday. I've been so distracted I even forgot about it earlier today!

I've shared before about my trading days off with another mom who has a daughter Little Girl's age. Last Friday was a rescheduled day for a trade, it was to be my "day off". That meant Little Girl was going to spend the day with her best friend.

I don't remember what started it, but by the time it was time for her to get dressed for the day, she was throwing her pants rather than putting them on. Obviously that was unacceptable. I did spank her, but even after that she still didn't want to comply. I did something she didn't expect. I gave her one last shot to obey. If she chose not to obey, she would forfeit her day with her friend.

Wouldn't you know it, she chose to disobey.

That was the end of her choices for the rest of the morning. I had to go to Wal-mart for something, and I made her ride the little seat in the cart, which she really hates. I didn't talk to her like I usually do. I did nothing to make the experience enjoyable for her.

When we got home, I gave her a choice of sitting on the blue couch (our typical time-out spot) or sitting on her daddy's chair in our office, next to where I was. She chose the latter. There were no TV's on, and nothing for her to do. She started singing at one point, and I shushed her. "This is a no-fun day for you. You made your choice this morning." I said stuff like that throughout the morning, reminding her of why I was not letting her do anything fun.

At about 10:30, I offered her the opportunity to change her attitude and make a better choice. By then she was ready to do just about anything I asked her to do.

By forfeiting my morning of freedom away from her, I made some major headway in the battle. I know that if I don't get this matter of authority settled now, the consequences later are much, much higher. I'd rather pay now than pay later.

I felt like mother of the year.

Things haven't been so hard with her this week. I've gained some ground. I don't plan to give it up.

Parenting Hardball Style With a Smile

Last week it seemed like every time I turned around, my authority was being challenged. If you are a frequent reader, then you probably have a decent grasp of the differences in disposition between my two daughters. If you didn't know already, then by the end of this post, there will be no doubt.

Last week, I think it was Wednesday night, I sent the girls upstairs to put on their pajamas. They are both old enough and capable enough to undress and redress in pajamas independently. Little Girl sometimes struggles with removing shirts, but for the most part, she can do it. Big Girl has been dressing herself for so long now that I don't remember how long it's been. Anyway, I gave them both several minutes to work on the dressing for bed task before I joined them upstairs to check on the progress made and help Little Girl if she needed it. Big Girl was still wearing her clothes from the day, and hadn't done any more than take her shoes off. In my mind, she had not followed directions and I was disappointed in her.

Me: I'm disappointed that you didn't follow my instructions.
Big Girl: (Beginning to cry) I'm disappointed in myself!

She's the easy one in lots of ways.

Then there's Little Girl. I don't know how many times I have said "do this," to have her answer back, "I don't WANNA do that!" She'll either say the words, or let out a very whiny, rebellious little squeal which means the same thing. Neither of those responses are acceptable to me (or her father). Last week I was all over her case every time she responded that way. I'd say, "That's not the right answer. The right answer is 'Yes, ma'am.' Let's try again." When I didn't have time to do it over and over, or if she continued to rebel after a couple chances at the do-over, I upped the ante. She spent a lot of time in time-out, when I had time for that, and got a few spankings when I didn't.

I have realized that it is very important to press her to say, "Yes, ma'am." It's not so much that the words have power in and of themselves, but more that it signals surrender on her part. I have also learned that by requiring her to SMILE and say it generates an actual change in her countenance, and attitude. When she refuses to do either (smile or say, "yes, ma'am"), is shows her commitment to the rebellion of the moment, and requires me to act. I'm realizing that when I smile first, that makes it easier for her to obey.

As a parent, I don't really care about the obedience of the moment so much as I care about her learning to obey in general. The words she uses to surrender are less important than the surrendered heart.

I hope and pray that as she learns to obey me, her little heart is practicing for obeying God later. That's what it's all about.

And for Big Girl, I hope she doesn't get wrapped up in pride because of her quickness to obey. The elder brother of the prodigal son had just as much to confess, but his was more complicated.

I love these girls so much. I pray constantly that I'm doing the right things to shape their little hearts.

Thank You, Chicken Little

In a complete overreaction to the swine flu non-epidemic, Big Girls' school district called off all extra curricular events from the day of the decree last week some time through May 11. As a result, the PTA's biggest fund raiser of the year for Big Girl's school was canceled.

Part of me was really bummed out about the cancellation. There's no telling how many things the PTA would not be able to pay for without the funds from the carnival. It made me sick to think of all that prep work being done for naught. A waste of many mommies' time and the PTA's money that they would not be able to recoup.

There was another part of me that was glad to not have to round up volunteers from Big Girl's class. Getting people to work for something like this is like pulling teeth, and I had one volunteer before the thing was called off.

Well, in a display of forward-thinking leadership, the district gave a big ol' "NEVER MIND" to the former decree. Now the carnival is back on. Word came yesterday, May 6th, that the carnival is going on as scheduled for May 8th. That means I have less than 2 days to round up 6 volunteers. I would have been sending out e-mails, gently reminding the parents to let me know if they could help, but instead, I sent out an e-mail saying that it was off, and I didn't need anyone.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is my LAST year as homeroom mom. This has been a blast... (what's the emoticon for rolling eyes?)

Next time we have a non-epeidemic break out of any kind, I suggest we all light our hair on fire and run around in circles flailing our arms. That would be just about as helpful.

Productivity

I am making headway in my constant fight against sloth today. In order for me to have any productivity in my stay-at-home mom life, I have to start the day right. I have to wake up, and make myself STAY awake through the morning routine, getting Big Girl's lunch together and walking her to school, and then I have to put myself in an active state of mind when I get home.

Two things have really helped me today.

One is that I put my shoes on, and left them on when I got back home after walking Big Girl to school.

The other is that I put my pocket radio on as I walked home. I like to listen to the radio (Laura Ingraham Show, and Rush Limbaugh) during the day, as I do stuff. I don't usually start my radio listening as early as I did this morning. Listening to the radio keeps me from getting stuck in front of the TV. It also engages my brain, allowing me to think about things other than the mundane ordinary tasks in front of me. I do the same thing with my iPod after the radio shows are over.

I wish I did that every day. I wish that every day as a stay-at-home mom could be like today has been so far. It's not even noon yet, and I've already done some major house-cleaning tasks that don't get done often enough. There's still more to do, after I finish my lunch.

I wish all my readers increased productivity, and a blessed day.

Oh, and Happy Cinco De Mayo!