The kids are taking piano...........be afraid, be very afriad.

The kids have begun piano lessons with Grandma and what a ruckus (literally) this has caused in this small house. Did I ever mention that we have 5 kiddos in a 600 square foot house??? Add a piano and those practicing it daily and I should be Queen of something..... just for not losing my mind!

We are not music aficionados by any stretch, tho my Hubby and I met while singing in a traveling College Ensemble, and we sing all the time as a family. Joel has picked up the trumpet again with much delight, and I myself have picked it up off of the floor to try to shield it from dents and have felt little to no joy myself in doing so. But to each his own. So, now that the home-students are well into reading, this was the year to begin piano. I must get over this weird picture of a guy from college playing the organ with his shoes off, to enjoy my son playing piano. Guys and piano never really mixed when I was growing up and those that did play were usually REALLY enthusiastic about it, and um truth be told, I think they are still unmarried. Just something else goin on there.... I digress.

So, now we have, sit-down-plunk-it-out-as-hard-as-all-get-out Isaac, and did-it-while-you-weren't-looking-tho-you-didn't-hear-me Abbs. Isaac gets down to business and the neighbors can even hear him hit a wrong note. Abby is easily distracted and has to be prodded to find each note. I am glad that Isaac enjoys it tho I do not enjoy hearing him at this stage, and for the record I am going to start making him wear shoes while playing.... just because. Abby is going to get a large sign that she will be made to wear while playing that says, "Boredom is a state of mind." And tho she will have no clue as to its meaning, it sure will give me some comic relief every time I head over to her and get her to keep playing.

And I am just waiting for the day to arrive when they play the song that my piano career ended with. Yes I did attempt to play some myself, and also attempted the clarinet for a year as well....... the secrets I have kept hidden... Well in college I did want to learn piano. I actually have always wanted to learn piano, AND my parents had, and still have, a Baby Grand piano who's sole purpose is to hold old embarrassing pictures of us kids on top of it. My parents did not want to be bothered with me learning, which I now can understand, and so I waited until college to try again. Several obstacles met me head on. One, to take piano at college you had to have One-hundred dollars up front before lessons even started. Now I was not a Pastor's kid, or had some benefactor from home, so there was no money to be found anywhere......not even to get my things out of lost and found! So that was hard and I still do not know between working in the library, and cleaning apartments HOW on earth I ever got money to begin, but begin I did. Obstacle number two was my teacher. She had almost a dark personality, enjoying your failure a little too much if I do say so myself. She also had no respect for that 2 inches in front of your nose that I like to call my "personal space." I remember she kept the record for the amount of girls she could bring to tears after each lesson. I did find great comfort in discovering that I could imitate her to the "T" and would use impressions of her to get other piano students out of their doldrums.....wha ha ha...

So I left off on a dinky child's song, which, when my kiddos reach I will be somewhere either impersonating my old piano teacher or cringing.....or both perhaps.

I do find great pleasure in hearing my children sing, during devotion time especially, when we all pick a part of a hymn and try to see if we can make it to the end without all the kids singing the same note! Recently we learned the hymn, "Ready," and Nathan will walk the house singing, "Ready my suffer grief or pain...!" Now this is what he is wanting to say, tho it sounds more to me like, "Ready my suffer re-fer-tame." Kind of like some derivative of aspartame. And then this morning Isaac was getting his chores done singing, "There is a BUM in Gilead...." NEVER a dull moment.

So in conclusion, I have come to recognize that the Bible does indeed say "joyful noise," I believe meaning, that the one creating the NOISE for you will most likely be a little too JOYFUL for your taste, but if it is indeed towards the Lord then reach for the headphones and your favorite cd and smile at them when they look your direction for affirmation.