My Grommets.

Yesterday Will:

Took a hammer to one of Daddy's paint cans, hammered a few gaping holes in it to opened it up and then painted a few landscaping stones.

Decided to build a car using one of our decorative shelves (an antique given to us by Grandma Voss) that was in the garage, waiting to be fixed. Its is now and forever will be a car.

Was pretending to be a hairdresser and cut Jack's hair (I caught this in time for little damage to be done).

Since I took the scissors away, he then moved to duck tape. He was about to duck tape construction paper to Jack's head. Jack was so happy to oblige and was just sitting there.

Gathered up all the cereal boxes in his Aunt's house and, along with his partner-cousin in crime, hid in the closet and had a Food Festival.

And can I just add the night before he got into my tie dye stuff and "was making the driveway all pretty."

I"m sure there's more....but Jack is hollering for me and I am curious to what is happening downstairs.... Jack's list to come....

Back now. No problems downstairs.

Yesterday Jack:

Smeared yogurt all over the kitchen table.

Tracked in sand and I swear had a cup of sand still in his diaper when I changed him.

Plays this game where he takes a drink and then pushes his cheeks so it squirts out his mouth. He thinks this is hilarious and I've at least convinced him to only do it outside.

His FAVORITE words are "Dammit" and "Poopy Butt."

Puked four times in bed last night.

There's probably more.

The only word for these kids is Grommets. : )

And tonight:

more family.

Tomorrow morning: more family.

This weekend: more family. But.... that family is Mark's side and so less stressful for me. Well, at least this particular group of family.

Geesh. The ones you love the most....

Work a day Work a day

Today was a productive day. I cleaned out the garage, swept, mopped and scrubbed the dirty concrete floor. Its cleaner but really doesn't *look* much better. Mopped the kitchen floor, swept and dusted the living room (wow it was bad) and continued in my de-cluttering efforts. I also dealt with having my mother AND my grandma here for a couple hours. I love them but damn the women in my family are hard headed.

We had a GREAT violin "session." tonight There has been an ongoing issue that I have struggled with that seemed to get corrected today. Will, of course, wants to actually PLAY the violin. But there are steps to be taken and its been overly stressed to me the importance of NOT allowing him to put the violin to his shoulder and actually play. All kinds of problems arise with this. Improper holding of the violin, improper holding of the bow. Incorrect stances. Once such habits are formed they are extremely detrimental and hard to break. MYLINEATION as I have been reading in Enki... Or those little peptide things as in What The Bleep Do You Know. It was all coming together to me how important it was not to let him do this (which I had been allowing, struggling with how to get him not to do it). See, I'm kind of slow going at things. All things it seems. But once it all clicks for me I really see the path to take and go with it. Tonight was like that and I got thru to Will about how we do not want that cool violin of his to learn the wrong way to sit on his shoulder or it will never learn to play beautiful music. I can't describe it. It just came together and we did our routine. I was determined to break the cycle, and really knew it to be true that we continue forth in correct Suzuki fashion...

Bow as we say HIPPOPATAMUS!
Stance - Sing "Feet together, zip, and step!"
MOMMY places violin on shoulder ("Its coming in for a landing!")
He holds it with his chin for a bit...

We listen to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (Suzuki Violin 1) while bouncing on our excercise ball.

He plays the violin - like a cello, resting in on the floor. Not on his shoulder!

Bow hold:
I do this, he's not so into it but imitation is everything.
I hold my bow and sing:
UP like a rocket
DOWN like the rain
BACK AND FORTH like a choo choo train
ROUND AND ROUND like the great big sun
ROUND AND ROUND like a kettle drum
IN TO the station
Check your pinky, BUMP your thumb!

Last week we made a violin using foam core, tape, and cardboard. He worked the whole afternoon on it and really enjoyed doing it. He drew the strings on it, painted it and everything. Sometimes the boys turn it into a guitar and rock out. lol.

I made the promise to our violin teacher to simply make sure *I* place the violin on Will's shoulder four times each day. Well... we didn't do it over the weekend but today went so well I'm inspired to make sure to do it the rest of the week.

Other than that, the boys literally played outside all day. I love these kind of days.

We are all back to well!

We didn't quite have the weekend we expected but it turned out good nonetheless. In fact, I'm feeling really good. Sickness vanished.

I've been thinking about The Secret again lately and its got me all pumped up again. Its a good thing.

And now a little Steiner....


Calendar of the Soul

[March 10, 2007 - March 17, 2007]

Forty-eighth Week
(March 2-8)

Within the light that out of world-wide heights
Would stream with power toward the soul,
May certainty of cosmic thinking
Arise to solve the soul's enigmas --
And focusing its mighty rays,
Awaken love in human hearts.

weird rough day.

today has been hard. Violin lessons did not go well - it was just OFF. I puked on the way home from there, went to mom's to pick up Jack and rested for awhile. On the way home my car mileage dial thing turned to 666. I'm sorry, its just weird. Will puked this afternoon. Jack has diahharia AGAIN and Mark is out of town for four more days. Wah!

Well that post did me no good!

Spring. Ah.

I am in a major Spring cleaning mode. Declutter. Its all I can think about right now. Not that you could tell by looking at my house.

But yesterday I went thru our file cabinet and cleared out all old paperwork. Relief! The rest is organized and labeled in file folders.

Today I am packing away all glasses except for four. Seriously. Well, and a coffee cup for me. I am so done with collecting glasses around this house. So we are going to do an experiment.

Mark is off to California for a conference. We actually have a busy weekend ahead so that will be good.

Off to clean my Stuff. Sigh.

Worm Memories

Sometimes I miss my little garbage eating worms. I relinquished them to the garden late last Spring after having too much stink and mess in the indoor compost bin (a rubbermaid container). They did well for about 6 months, until I overloaded them with too much food, and there got to be too much moisture in the bin. I could have used them this winter as I quit saving scraps for the bin - too cold and I was too lazy to go outside.

Anyway I was just reading a tip that probably would have saved the worms (though I am sure they are loving our garden soil right now too!). Next time (cause someday there will be a next time) I will poke holes not only on the lid and sides of the containter, but on the bottom as well. This will let the moisture seep thru, making a yummy compost tea for my plants and also keep the container more dry. I'll capture the tea by placing another rubber maid lid under the container, and prop it up with rocks or bricks or something. Such a simple thing that probablly would have saved our project.

This will also help when it becomes time to separate the worms from the compost.... last time it was a glumpy mess and not a whole lot of fun. It wasn't as easy as THE BOOK SAID IT WOULD BE. : )

Suzuki Love

Shinichi Suzuki, famed violin teacher that brought the love of music to millions of preschoolers, was preparing to enter a class full of his young students. Upon entering, he meditated.... another teacher asked what he was doing. He said...

“I am mentally preparing myself for the five-year-old mind. I want to come down to their physical limitations and up to their sense of wonder and awe."

It is this belief that pulls together my interest of Waldorf/Enki method and Suzuki.

A great parenting book that everyone should read:

Nurtured By Love


More Suzuki quotes here.