Little Bits of Life…

I used to see the kitchen as a place to cook, a place to eat, and a place (occasionally) to clean. Somewhere to store all the hundreds of kitchen gadgets I have accumulated. A place to look for something tasty to snack on.

And then there were kids.

And somehow, in the past 5 years, my kitchen has become much less about cooking or food and infinitely more like a test of my speed, patience, endurance, and ingenuity.

Take breakfast time. I run in circles from one child to the next, as they all want something different to eat for breakfast. The baby has very limited patience for a lack of breakfast food on her tray, and she feels she must "share" her food with me before she can eat it. This entails me holding out my hand while she fills it up with her food, then saying "Thank you" and dumping it back on the tray after which she eats a few bites then wants to "share" again. The 5-year-old has preschool for which we must leave in less than 50 minutes, and she has yet to finish eating, dressing, and grooming. This means every few minutes I issue the standard reminder: "Eat your breakfast before it’s time to go." The 2-year-old inhales, rather than eats, and every time I think I’ve got a second to take a bite of my toast or a drink of my juice, he announces he is now ready for more oatmeal (going on three bowls a day as of late), or another orange, or more bananas, or yet another pancake or waffle. So meals are, to say the least, less than calming.

And then there is cooking. Which is, in my opinion, one of the best parts of kitchens. Or was, I guess I should say. Because now, cooking has become a test of how much I can do with one hand, or how fast I can throw things together while listening to choruses of "What’s for dinner?" "I’m so hungry!" and wailing from the baby.

My favorite kitchen "event" however, is by far and away cleaning up the mess. This, of course, includes washing the table, chairs, and counters, sweeping the floor, loading the dishwasher, and putting food in the fridge. Each of these comes with its own set of challenges, mostly due to the baby and her new-found ability to walk, enabling her to move around almost as quickly as me. When the meal is over and she looks up and says "ow" as cutely as she does, I know she’s done and is asking to get out. So I roll the highchair over to the sink and begin washing her. Except when she gets over by the sink she suddenly feels the urge to eat again and starts shoving everything in her mouth as fast as she can. Which is fine with me because it gives me a chance to get the dishes cleared from the table. Which I do as fast as I can, because the more I can finish while she’s eating, the better.

Once she decides that she really does want out, I wash her and put her down on the floor. Then the real fun begins. My efforts must be equally split between accomplishing the task at hand and defending my territory. Sweeping is a high priority, as she will eat anything she finds on the floor, including parts of dinner that have been partially chewed by one of the older children, pieces of paper from the 5-year-old’s latest craft project, small rocks brought in the house by the 2-year-old, or the magnets off the fridge. (Her latest trick is digging things out of the sliding door track and eating them. I found her with black fingers and small bits of who-knows-what in her mouth just a few days ago.) Next I put the food away in the fridge. (So that when an "emergency" happens and I leave the kitchen to become occupied in another room, the food won’t spoil. Because I will inevitably get caught up in another room picking up toys or playing with kids or getting them ready for bed – this is simply a fact of motherhood. No matter where you are, there is something to do. And I find that unless I completely finish a task, I will find so many other tasks on my way back to the first that I completely forget I was doing it in the first place.) The instant the fridge door is opened, over comes the baby and in go the little hands. She loves anything the shape of a bottle, because the top fits in her mouth. This includes the mustard bottle, salad dressing bottle, soy sauce, water bottles, or lemon juice. So I block from the door side where most of these belong, but she does occasionally get around me. Her next favorite thing to do in the fridge is to find the plastic cups of whatever the 2-year-old had for his drink most recently and try to grab it. She wants to be just like her older siblings, and the best way she can think of at the moment is to drink just like they do, out of their cups. So, as quickly as possible, I shove the food in the fridge, praying nothing without a lid falls over, and close the fridge door. Of course the next priority is dishes, including loading the dishwasher, as a kitchen is never clean until the dirty dishes are out of sight. I rinse the dishes and pile them on the counter until they are all as ready as can be to go in the dishwasher. This is because the instant I open the dishwasher, the baby comes running from wherever she was and uses the dishwasher as her jungle gym. If I turn my back for even a second, I find her inside the dishwasher. She finds every scrap of food and in her mouth it goes. Then she "loads" whatever she can find into the dishwasher for me – her magnets, socks, toys, or the dishes she gets from the drawers or cabinets (most frequently my lids, but occasionally other things such as my napkin rings or cake pans). Then she attempts to "unload" for me by removing any dishes she is strong enough to lift out of the dishwasher herself. So I load, as fast as I possibly can, doing my best not to break anything really important, and close the dishwasher, wiping the beads of perspiration from my brow as another meal has been (fairly successfully) completed.

Needless to say, the kitchen has become something of an adventure for me as the years have gone by. But I like to think I’m improving with each child. So bring it on. And when the guys in the Olympics organizing committee add Kitchen Tending as an event, sign me up. I’ll bring home the gold.

If you, like me, have a desire to see a little snow (what little we had here completely melted today) then take a look at these fancy looking snowflakes. If you’ve got some paper, scissors, tape, staples, and time (these are a little time-intensive) then you can have your very own 3D snowflakes. Everyone who has come in my house since we hung ours has commented on them. They’re very stunning! And easy enough your young children can make them, if they have the patience and a little coaching. My 4-year-old made several of her own.

My piano, long awaited and often dreamed of, has arrived! No, it’s not a name brand, and no, it isn’t worth a million dollars, but it is mine, it’s here, it’s beautiful, and (did I mention?) it’s HERE – in my house! I’d say it sounds wonderful but that’d be a lie. It’s out of tune. Terribly out of tune. But once we get it tuned (in a week or two) it’ll be great and then I won’t cringe every time I play it. And when it doesn’t make me cringe, I’ll post a link to a song or two played on it. In case you needed some piano music or something. 🙂 For now, be satisfied by a link to pictures.

It is SO wonderful to have a piano in the house again! It does add a little to the noise factor as the smaller kids don’t know how to do anything but pound on it, but for the most part it is wonderful to have the sounds of a piano filling my home again. And, as my favorite stress reliever, it’s great to have. There’s nothing like playing a rousing version of Eye of the Tiger or Stairway to Heaven when my nerves are stretched past their breaking point!

There’s really not much else to say. I LOVE my piano. It took forever to get it here but really, the wait is over, it’s here, it’s great, and that’s all that matters!

Years ago I received, as a gift, a silk scarf from Italy. And it has made a lovely addition to the top shelf of my closet, as I haven’t known what to do with it, being the fashion dummy that I am. It dutifully sat folded and unopened, in the original package, until today, when I decided that I would finally take the time to try and figure out how to wear it. And I must say that I was rather pleased with the results of my search. Take a look here to see several different ways to wear a long scarf. I’m inspired, and maybe I’ll wear it again someday! In fact, maybe I’ll learn to be a little more adventurous in my clothing choices. My [slightly younger and infinitely more fashionable] sisters are going shopping with me over the Thanksgiving holiday to help me update my wardrobe a bit, now that I’ve lost some weight and it has begun to appear I like wearing tents instead of shirts. It’s a little nerve-wracking for me, since I’m still wearing the same styles I wore in high school (which is to say no style at all really), but I’m confident that in their capable hands I will, at least once, wear something that looks a little less like I got dressed in the dark closet of a stranger’s house after making my clothing selection from a box under the stairs while blindfolded. And then they’ll go home and really, after that, all bets are off. I’m not exactly fond of change. (In fact, it took me an hour of changing my scarf-tying before I found a style I liked, and then another hour of wearing it around the house before I convinced myself I could actually wear it to church. Where I received more compliments than I have ever received in one day on my clothing (three, I think). Quite an accomplishment.) But change has found me (and my waistline) and so, therefore, I feel I need to do my best to embrace it and at least pretend I can deal well with it. After all, it has been almost 10 years since I graduated high school. Guess I can’t keep up that act any more.

So after all our looking around for a piano, we finally found one we thought we’d be happy with. And we bought it. It fit all the bills – Kimball needed a decent sized baby grand (over 5’5"), with a good sound, and I needed a black finish with modern style legs and a price tag under $6k including shipping and the first tuning. And we managed to get all that, as well as buy a new piano – not used. Added bonus! Two drawbacks, however, in that the piano was bought sight unseen, and that it was going to take 8-12 weeks to be delivered. Sight unseen we figured we could deal with since it has a full money-back guarantee should we decide it isn’t as great as we thought it was. And as to the shipping time, what was another 2-3 months after having been without a piano for a few months already? It wasn’t like we needed it for anything at the time, other than to have the piano to play. More of a luxury than a necessity. So we bought the piano online, at the Piano Superstore, on July 24th.

And we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And then we called, after 2 months had passed and we still hadn’t heard from them about when to expect the piano. (They were supposed to call us and let us know what day it would be delivered.) And they told us it would be a few more weeks, or maybe another month.

So we waited.

And waited.

And called again. Some sob story about how they didn’t know what was going on or whose fault it was that we still had no piano. The 12 weeks was up, and we should have heard. But still nothing. So they did some digging (because we kept calling them back until they actually did), and told us it would be just a few more weeks.

So we waited, again, and began to wonder if we had been scammed.

And as we waited, Kimball did some research (more research – we’d looked before we bought) and found out that this Piano Superstore really does appear to be a reputable company, and that people do actually receive pianos from them, and that they really are decent instruments.

So we waited, and called again. And this time, after yet another episode of being told they didn’t know whose fault it was, we told them we were going to start looking around again for another piano elsewhere. And they told us they didn’t blame us.

So while we waited, we started shopping again.

But you see, there were so many good things about the piano that we already purchased (yes, they charged us and actually took our money the day we ordered it) that it was difficult to find something comparable. So difficult, in fact, that we gave up on that and decided that since we had waited so long anyway, we may as well keep waiting. You see, they claim this piano we bought was made in the same factory as the Yamaha G Series pianos. No way I’m ever going to be able to afford a Yamaha right now, but if I can get a knock-off then that’ll do fine for me! So we tried (rather unsuccessfully) to patiently wait some more.

And we waited.

And then we called again, and the story we got was that our piano had been detained in customs. Apparently, this company (Piano Superstore) buys their pianos from the factory (in China) in huge lots ($4 million worth at a time). Then the pianos are sent to the states, once they have paid for their $4 million of pianos. So they order them, the factory holds them until Piano Superstore gives them $4 million (which means that many, many people have ordered pianos from the superstore), and the pianos are sent over. And it just so happened that ours got stuck in customs over in New York for months, for who knows what reason. But at any rate the piano had been released (just that day, in fact) and the next step was for a shipping company to pick it up in a week or so and drive it from New York to us. Which was supposed to have been completed by the end of this week or the beginning of next (by Thanksgiving was what we were told).

And so we waited.

And because we’ve been put off and (seemingly) forgotten so many times, we called them again. Only to find out that our piano is going to Kentucky (or some such place) to spend Thanksgiving, as the shipping company will be taking the week of Thanksgiving off. Now don’t get me wrong – I’m all for people spending the holidays with their families, but come on – I ordered (and paid for!) this piano MONTHS ago – we’re talking nearly 4 months ago now – and I am getting antsy for it (for an example of why, read this). But I keep telling myself that I’ve waited this long – I can wait a few more weeks. (Until the week of December 10th, in fact, or so their story goes now.)

So the long and short of it is that our piano is currently on the road somewhere between New York and Kentucky, where it will change trucks and then sit for a week (or more) while everyone eats a lot of turkey and takes a lot of naps (what else do people do on Thanksgiving? Oh yes – watch football….) and then, when they are good and ready, and sure I’m going to be appropriately thankful for my shiny new black baby grand Yamaha-knock-off piano, they’ll call me and set up an appointment to bring my piano over. And when they do, I’ll play a song on it and take a picture and post them both here on my blog. Because until you actually see it and hear it play, you, like me, will have a hard time believing there actually IS such a thing as an actual piano from the Piano Superstore.

One of the things I have missed the most since we moved is playing my piano. We sold our old piano a few months before moving, after deciding that it would cost just as much to pay to have it moved as it would to sell it and buy a new one in the color and style I actually wanted in the first place. So we sold it, and spent months looking for a new piano. We had a budget, and really didn’t want to go over that budget if at all possible. We’re also averse to putting things on credit or making payments unless it is absolutely necessary. So all in all, we knew how much money we could spend and we set out to find a piano that would fit our wants and needs as well as be under budget. This has not been an easy task (though we did manage to find one, but that’s another story). There have been several pianos we have looked at that I was happy enough with to buy. But Kimball has a sound he is looking for, and we’ve had a hard time finding a piano in our price range that makes him happy. He grew up in a house with a grand piano, while I grew up in a house with an upright piano. So the smaller sound doesn’t bother me like it bothers him. Sure, I like the grand piano sound, but honestly, I just want a piano to play on. I like the look of a grand, and for that reason I want to have a baby grand (black – I love the leg style on the black ones) but the sound isn’t nearly as much of an issue to me as having something – ANYTHING – to play on. You see, the piano is a release to me. It is a hobby – one of the few hobbies I actually have. And while I remember hating lessons as a child and a teenager, I’m glad my parents made me stick with them long enough to be able to actually play something interesting.

In addition to being something I enjoy doing, playing the piano is also something I’ve been asked to do for church. I have been asked to play the piano for the church choir. And Christmas is coming up, and the choir needs their pianist to actually be able to play the songs they are singing – it makes it so much easier if the accompaniment is in key… You see, since it has been so long since we sold our piano, I’ve gotten a bit rusty. It is hard to find time to practice when practicing a piano means I’ve got to find someone with a piano who happens to have time for me to come to their house, and then I either have to take my kids with me and try to babysit them while I practice so they don’t destroy that person’s house (which Isaac and Cambria excel at) or find someone to take care of them while I go. Which really doesn’t happen terribly often. So I’m lucky if I manage to find an hour of practice time during the week, which really isn’t enough for me to be able to play the songs for the choir as well as I should.

Now I’m no master pianist – not by a long shot. I can play a song well if I practice a lot, but I’m not terribly great at just sitting down and playing something, especially if it is a little tricky. So it has been very interesting for me to be playing the piano for the choir. The choir director has chosen some very pretty and very interesting songs, which have unfortunately presented me with a bit more of a challenge than I have been able to overcome in an hour a week. An hour a day, maybe, but certainly not an hour a week.

Imagine this: Choir practice, roughly half-way through. The director announces which song we will begin practicing and immediately my palms are sweaty, my freezing cold hands begin to shake (I sometimes get nervous playing the piano and my hands are more like ice cubes than useful piano playing implements. Ever tried playing the piano with ten ice cubes? Not exactly something I’d recommend…), and my stomach starts churning. Of course he had to pick the ONE song I didn’t have time to practice. The ONE song I’ve been dreading because it has FOUR sharps. Ugh. I STINK at 4 sharps. And to top it all off, the song we just finished practicing was flats. 3 flats. Total brain shift, and when it is on a song I haven’t got down, well, let’s just say that I felt even my house burning to the ground would have been less of a disaster than this experience is going to be. And so the director brings me in. First of all, this song has a little unusual timing, and he is leading a little differently than I expect, so I can’t seem to ever come in when he wants me to. Relatively small problem, though, when compared with what proceeds to happen: As the choir sits and waits patiently for me to play their introduction, I hear myself playing about every other measure in the wrong key. Yes, I am playing half this song in the key of the previous song. And the half that I’m managing to play in the correct key (the one with 4 sharps) I’m also managing to miss about half the notes and play them off in never-never land. Yikes. And then the choir comes in. And of course they are all on the wrong notes because they’re trying to find their notes from me, and I’m not even looking for their notes while I’m under the piano bench hiding from the director. What started out as a bad instrumental piece quickly turns into a mumbling, bumbling, off-key and badly timed nightmare.

Needless to say, the next week my entire hour of practice was devoted to only one song. And while it isn’t ready to play for the Queen of England or anything, I think it’ll be good enough for choir practice. And maybe my new piano will come before the performance…  (that’s a story all of its own) Hey – stranger things have happened (none come to mind, but I’m a firm believer that anything is possible).

Little children are intelligent, more so than you may realize. It simply amazes me how much they learn and pick up simply by (seemingly) only being in the room while something is going on, whether they appear to be paying attention or not. They repeat everything they hear (sometimes not quite accurately, which can be a bit embarrassing at times) and want to know what everything means. Curiosity, in my opinion, is a sign of growing intelligence, and so I attempt to explain to them, the best I can, when they ask me questions.

Because of this, I have decided to be very careful about what we watch on TV as well as what kinds of music we listen to in the house or in the car. I do my best to be sure my kids aren’t learning things that are inappropriate for their ages, and I want to be sure they don’t repeat a swear word or crass phrase. In fact, we try hard to keep words such as "duh", "stupid", "dumb", and other such things out of our vocabulary, and attempt to teach the kids that there are better ways to express their feelings with words that are more intelligent and kind.

So we have, in our house and in our car, several CDs of children’s music. Things from ABCs to Fairy Tale songs to some children’s songs from our church. And of course the occasional instrumental CD, though the kids don’t enjoy those nearly as much as I do. After almost five years of listening to these songs over and over, I know them pretty much by heart. And I have to say I’ve grown rather tired of hearing most of them every single day. And so, to my great relief, I found some music that I honestly don‘t ever think I will get tired of that is geared towards children! You can check it out here: http://www.jimgill.com/new/hear.html Jim Gill is an absolutely wonderful children’s musician! He sings some of the funniest songs I have heard, and most of them (maybe all of them?) are interactive. My kids and I listen to these songs and dance along. Some of my favorites are: Toe, Leg, Knee; The Sneezing Song; The Gong Song; and MANY MANY more. Jim has a degree in child development, and I’m certain that this degree coupled with his personality is what makes his songs so entertaining and fun to listen to. So if you are like me and truly can’t STAND listening to some of the children’s music out there (or even if you just need a change of pace), go get yourself one of Jim Gill’s CDs and take it home to listen to with (or without!) your kids. You’re sure to enjoy it – I know we have!

As a side note, I don’t actually own any of Jim Gill’s CDs yet, but I’m hoping Santa will bring at least one for the kids for Christmas this year. In the meantime, we check them out regularly from the library.

So I’ve been hearing all about this thing called YouTube lately, mostly from conversations at my parents’ house (conversations I listened politely to as I had NO idea what they were talking about – yes, I live a sheltered life). However, I recently received a link in an email to a hilarious version of the William Tell Overture (if you don’t know the song you’ll recognize it when you hear it). Take a look here. It’s worth the few minutes of your time to get a good laugh. Funniest for sure for moms, but as we all have mothers I think everyone will enjoy it.

So, for my brief foray into the world of YouTube, I guess I’ll say it’s interesting, though I’m still not sure I see the purpose of it. But there are really a lot of things I don’t see the purpose of that the rest of the world seems to really enjoy. Chalk it up to me being a little strange. And I’m ok with that.