I've been wanting to share some of these odds and ends with all of you for some time, just some little things that have made our days sweeter - or at least tolerable - depending on how much sleep Gabriel has accrued in the past 24 hours. Oh yes, the sleep disorder has become family-wide, but Mike and I are putting a new plan in action, so perhaps things will improve. It always feels better to have a plan. Even if it doesn't work, or is ill-conceived, we're grabbing hold of the reins and that is reassuring.
But what am I talking about? This is to report on the happy, engaging, merry stuff of our days as we inch along towards December 25th. Perhaps you might take some inspiration from our list - or share with all of us some of your favorite things that have been filling your winter days.
The Nutcracker
Frances, Grandma Lala and I went to see the ballet last year. That was exciting, to be sure, but by the endless little solos of sugar plums and other dancing sweets in the second act Frances was downright limp with the effort of it all. "The is a VERY LONG ballet!" she would periodically remind me, in a 3 year old's stage whisper. This year we read E.T.A. Hoffman's original story instead, with pictures by Maurice Sendak. I'd never read it before. The three of us absolutely loved it. Even Gabriel would sit with us during long chapters because he was entranced by the illustrations of the Mouse King and Princess Pirlipat and all the other creatures therein. There is some odd business involving Blackamoors, and of course the fact that Marie marries herself off at the age of 7 is a little strange too. (Sorry for that spoiler!) But it's totally forgivable, because of the fantastical, loopy, engaging nature of both the story and the language.
Sufjan Stevens singing Christmas songs
This is very sweet and cheery stuff. It can transform our kitchen from a chaotic room in which my attention is divided too many times over for me to complete any one task successfully into a merry, sparkly place where people both small and big break out into spontaneous song and dance routines. I'm still burning cookies and forgetting my coffee in the microwave, where it is cooling for the second time this morning, but I'm doing it all with a genuine twinkle in my eye.
Mama singing Christmas songs
Good thing children are so forgiving. No one snickers when my voice cracks during Silent Night, no one protests when I can't remember the words for the second verse. This morning I rocked in Gabriel's room, snuggling with both tired children, who requested song after song after song. Frances sang a couple with me and that nearly made me cry. Then in the middle of The First Noel, or maybe Hark the Herald Angels Sing, my sensitive boy lifted his head from my shoulder and looked up at me with a quivering lower lip and a sheen of tears in his eyes. Oh, did you get sad Gabriel? He looked back at me and slowly nodded - a tiny bit - and one shining tear escaped from the corner of his right eye. We hugged more and Frances kissed his head and then I kept on singing. All this before 7:30 in the morning!
Ginger Tea
A little cold virus has been softly yet persistently knocking on my door for the last week or so. I think he finally gave up on the door and squeezed in through a crack yesterday, as evidenced by a sore throat, but I am not dismayed. I have ginger tea! Inspired by a recipe in a handed-down magazine, I have a little pot of water and ginger slices pre-pounded with a mortar and pestle (by small, eager hands) simmering on the stove most of the time. The tea is very strong and spicy. When mixed with a little lemon and honey, it makes my virus cower in fear. How satisfying!
Rainbow Quest
Some of you may have linked to Elizabeth Cotton and Pete Seeger on one of my recent posts. When we found that clip on youtube, I decided we needed to see and hear a bit more, and so we've been watching the Stanley Brothers and Doc Watson on Pete Seeger's early 60s folk show, Rainbow Quest. I know I have recently shared our video ban, but I'm no purist, and this is delightful to watch. I am aware that I may be making our kids even weirder ('What are Transformers ? Hey, let's pretend we have no teeth and play fiddle in an old time bluegrass band instead!!). Today I say: who cares! Join me, friends! Let us raise our children to wear lumpy wool sweaters and play the banjo!
...and Much Cheesier Musical Selections
We were the lucky recipients of a short DVD featuring the Music Together Band playing to an audience of bouncing, grinning, unabashedly enthusiastic music directors from all over the country at a program conference. Gabriel has been going to Music Together classes these past few months. To all you suspicious, even snide parents out there - and I know, I used to be one - it really is fun to share stuff like this with your kids. Frances's early years were spent listening to 60s pop music and favorite indie bands (of the de-sexualized, Belle and Sebastian type variety), with a little Bach thrown in. So this is a definite shift. Some of the MT songs push my tolerance level a little, but when I see my children dancing around, it doesn't bother me a bit.
I knew I had really gone over to the other side yesterday. Frances was home sick from school and we watched this DVD together. A bespectacled, bearded man who goes by the name Uncle Gerry was singing in a batik vest - you can see him now, belting out a song about body parts in Spanish - and I was singing louder and dancing harder than either of my kids. Oh, it was fun! I am shameless; I love to dance and sing!
Cookie Cutters
After making these gingerbread cookies and these delicious chocolate-salt shortbread cookies the cookie cutters have been out and about in our kitchen. And so I've succumbed and joined millions of mothers in cutting heart and star shaped sandwiches for my children. (Can we ever go back? I think not.) But since I am a frugal housewife, I insist that the shape be served with the remains. A lesson in negative space, perhaps?
Today I gave Frances her 'second breakfast' - a heart-shaped open-faced cream cheese sandwich, with two pieces of sandwich on either side of her heart. Frances exclaimed: it looks like it has wings! It looks like GOD!!
If some part of God is a heart-shaped piece of homemade lumpy whole wheat bread spread with cream cheese - well, that sounds alright to me.
2 comments:
Awhile back I was watching an interview with Pete Seeger on PBS, and as I watched I really believed that more regular participation in creating music might cure many social ills: alienation, lack of community, perhaps even hyper-consumerism.
Emily, I do not doubt it! The camp counselor in me has been allowed back out of her cage since having kids, and I enjoy music with them so very much. There are so many things like that - things that are good for kids and so one pursues them as a parent, but the truth is these things are good for everyone (good food, music, dancing, playing outside, etc) and shouldn't be reserved just for children and the people who take care of them.
I hope you are enjoying some of these things (as well as some sleep) with your little ones.
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