The right kind of Suzuki mom

Today I told our violin teacher I was not being a good Suzuki mom. I've felt guilty about how fast time flies and that I don't ever get in the practice time every day. I mean, good grief, he's just asking us to spend 4 minutes a day playing games with the violin. He, as he always does, said just the right thing to get me back on track and let go of the guilt. After our lesson, I chatted a bit with the next mother, who has been taking lessons with her 12 year old son for a year and a half. I really want to get to know her better. She has great energy about her. I told her we really enjoyed her recital last week and found it very inspring (she has great stage presence and kind of reminds me of Natalie Merchant). After a bit more talk she told me her son had started Suzuki lessons at age 5 but dropped after 6 months and that the teacher they were with at the time just wasn't the right fit. She told me they are unschoolers and Mr. Cook has been really understanding and flexible with their style and that has made all the difference. I see that as our opportunity as well. I hope to get to know her better.

So I relaxed on myself because I know that I want Will to find his own love of the violin (or not) and for music. I want to expose him to it, not force it. I know that. So what if he doesn't want to practice every day. I will play the Twinkle CD, and practice myself. He will absorb it. He is.

Tonight he showed Grandma and Grandpa Voss his violin, and stood, rest position, bowed, zipped and stepped and placed the violin to jaw, with A PERFECT BOW HOLD (we were not seeing this) and played Mississipi Hot Dog on strings A and E. I could not believe it. He did not learn this because I had been telling him over and over how to hold the bow (he kept holding it wrong and it was a bit maddening to me). He just absorbs it. He's been feeling pressure from me, even though I jump to my defense and say I am not pressuring him (but there is that nagging in my head saying he NEEDS to learn the importance of practice and feels this I am sure.)

I am not doing this to teach my child violin.

"I just want to create loving, sensitive human beings with beautiful hearts." ----Shinichi Suzuki

Today I Shall..

Continue to get ready for the boys' birthday party tomorrow. We'll have 20 people here in the afternoon for dinner.
Get the house somewhat organized for Mark's parents arrival tonight.

Get turkey meat cooked for tacos tomorrow.
Cook mexican rice tonight.
Get tonight's dinner in oven.
Wash windows.
Fold a zillion loads of laundry.
Not stress over my unorganized house and the fact my super organized MIL will be here in 4 hours.
Not stress over the fact that Mark is sick as a dog.

Memories I'll never forget...

Watching Will ride his 2 wheel bike down the cul-de-sac with Daddy and Grandpa running behind him and cheering him on. Classic.

Watching Jack carry his own potty down the sidewalk and to the car after spending the day at Grandma's house.

Watching my naked little boys in the backyard chase their new big Bluey dog at evening twilight.

Watching Will perform his VERY FIRST violin recital and seeing the huge smile on his face. He is not actually playing yet, but performed his bow hold excercise and his violin hold excercise. (Up Like A Rocket, and then holding the violin to his jaw for the entire Twinkle Twinkle song. He said he sang really loud "in his head" but the people couldn't hear him.

Watching Will announce that Tonight he is sleeping with his cousins (who stayed the night) in the guest room and that He Doesn't Even Need To Touch Daddy's Back to get to sleep. He did it!

Watching Will be so brave while in the ER room getting two stitches in his chin.

Hearing Jack say he wants to Wear His Tighty Whiteys!

So many milestones lately.

A Quote for Now, For Me

Calendar of the Soul

[May 13, 2007 - May 19, 2007]

Sixth Week

There has arisen from its narrow limits
My self and finds itself
As revelation of all worlds
Within the sway of time and space;
The world, as archetype divine,
Displays to me at every turn
The truth of my own likeness.

...and tomorrow I will work on....

keeping this quote in mind:

"FORGIVE THE NEGATIVITY FROM THE PAINS OF YOUR PAST"


For me this means the negativity I felt minutes ago over whatever or negativity I feel when thinking years back over painful memories.

Family Milestones

This weekend we brought home a dog from Wayside Waifs. Her name is Bluey and she is a lab/pointer/cattle dog mix something something. She is black with white hari peppered throughout and is between 1 and 2 years old and is BIG! She fits us and already feels like family. The kids are thrilled.

In addition, earlier this week Will's training wheels broke on his bike and he decided he wanted to try riding with only 2 whieels. With a lot of help from Daddy he did fantastic and I bet sometime this summer he'll be officially a 2-wheel bike rider.

Will is telling everybody, "We got a dog this weekend and I am riding on 2 wheels now!"

Now that is good stuff.

Food.

This year:

We are growing a few veggies in our garden this year, including:

Carrots
Lettuce
Radishes
Onions
Beets (lots of them so I can make my friend's most amazing Beet Soup).
Tomatoes (a small crop as we're trying to keep tomatoe eating at a rational level around here).
Basil
Potatoes
Pole Beans
Zuchinni

More stuff too.
A new herb/flower garden is in the process:
Chives
Echinacea
Calendula
Lots of sunflowers
A butterfly graden mix!

We have 2 raspberry bushes, not looking so great. I need to learn about these.

I think that is it. Half is planted.


We are signing up again for the CSA - organic local produce delivered 2 minutes from our house. I will also pick up our eggs at the same placee (the chiropractors office), and I've ordered 5 chickens.

Goat milk. I was really looking forward to getting this but we visited the farm last week and learned the farmer had a rough year and lost a couple goats and will have less milk than anticipated. We are on a waiting list.

Food co-op. Bulk food purchases here, but will probably mainly get my dairy from here - cheese, yogurt. Darn, I was gung ho on making all that with my goat milk!

I grocery shop mostly at Nature's Pantry and take advantage of my member discount and the fact that they have really excellent coupons/specials. Also, I can often buy some stuff organic there (like potatoes, or carrots) that are actually cheaper than regular Price Chopper stuff!

Occassional trips to WHole Foods for their produce or ground turkey, and their 365 Rice Milk. I buy it in a case and love having it always on hand. We drink everything at this point - rice, cow or goat milk. We are not picky. Its used mainly for baking, smoothies or occassional cold cereal. However, I have to say ice cold rice milk and a brownie make me happy.

THIS MONTH"S GOAL FOR BLOGGER:
Track my grocery spending. This will include non-food grocery items. This could be scary.

May 5: $278, Nature's Pantry.

I have a problem.

I love books. I want them all. All those beautiful covers. And the peace and comfort I get from STOPPING the busyness and just reading a good book. Or seeing how it calms or excites the boys.

I want all of these books:

http://www.threesisterstoys.com/c-12-books-music.aspx

And I want that Come Follow Me CD. Want, want, want.

Honey Brownies

We've enjoyed this recipe. We're makig it tonight for Na-na's birthday. And as my mom can always do with any recipe, she made this even more decadent by topping with some chocolate chips after the brownies came out of the oven. The chocolate chips melted and then we were able to spread it like frosting over the brownies. Notice that gone are the days of sugar free cooking this home? I hide under the fact that I'm using honey instead of sugar.... whatever.

http://www.beemaid.com/BeeMaid/Recipes/Brownies.htm

BROWNIES
INGREDIENTS

¼ cup butter
¾ cup honey
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
½ cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
4 tbsp. Cocoa
½ cup chopped nuts
INSTRUCTIONS

Cream together butter and honey. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt. Stir in nuts. Pour batter into greased 9"x9" pan. Bake at 325 F for 20-25 minutes.

Bizzy, bizzy.

We're finally getting all the ($*&%($& done around this house that has been put off for years. Re-hab "master" bath (a closet), kitchen update - new pain on cabinets, new counters, can lights. Drywall basement walls that were knocked out. Landscape. Can you say home equity line? Sucks!

We all got our hair cut last night. Jack's first cut. Will wanted his SHORT. I am traumatized but he absolutely loves it. Now he looks like every other kid on the block. lol.

Leaving this morning for Michigan - 11 hour drive - and will be back late Monday night, we thinks. I'll come back to a new kitchen! Now that is a good deal! Thank goodness for Mom's who marry contractors....

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.

An Eternal Perspective

By Edgar Allan Poe.


Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea:
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me -
Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud one night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we -
Of many far wiser than we -
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling -my darling -my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea -
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Clutter out, Clutter in.

We went to the thrift store today in search of rain boots for Will. I found no rain boots but we did find:

A skirt for me $3.00
A Winnie the Pooh game for Will: $2.00 (after much negotiation away from plastic crap and beanie babies).
A backpack for Will. $1.50
A wooden iron, to replace the toy metal one in the play room. This was a score, its so cute! .50 cents.
Two awesomeist books for me which of course now I can't even remember the titles: .30 cents each.

We also dropped off a couple bags at the donation box.

But I came home with all this stuff but didn't get the boots! Every time I come home with stuff I get *stressed* (that's kind of a strong word really) because I keep trying to keep things simple.

So tomorrow its time to go thru closets again. I am so wanting to simplify. More, more, more every day!

Oh, and to add to the bill for the day: $8.00 in library fines! Ouch! I've probably had $50 in fines in the past year. Kids will do that to ya.