Spider Webs/Song of the Week #4

Click on the image to see it big enough to read.

Dream Catcher Lullaby is a common camp song. I first learned it from a fellow missionary when I was 21. She taught me the chorus and the descant and we had a good time singing it together. Many years later I found the song again and discovered that it had verses. Except for the first verse I didn't like them very much. (They were all about a guy who was going to be executed for his crimes.) So I wrote my own. There is a reason I don't have a career as a poet, but it's still fun to sing and it works well on the guitar.

My friend Pam and I performed it for a Relief Society activity once. I strummed the chords and she did some fancy picking. We are both altos, so if your voice won't go down to an A you'll want to get out the capo.

Special thanks to Melea for reminding me about this song (her kids are still singing it), and suggesting that I use it. I even got my guitar out today.

Little Bunny Purple Pants/Song of the Week #3

Little Bunny Purple Pants joined our family last year. Chesson was getting her third set of ear tubes plus having her adenoids removed. The surgical center had a pile of stuffed animals for the kids to choose from and Chesson was irresistibly drawn to the fluffy white bunny in the beautiful dress (with purple pants).

Surgery is a difficult business even if you don't include the illness or surgery itself. You have to arrive early in the morning and you can't eat breakfast so the child is tired and hungry and feeling a little worried by all the excitement. Parents are tired and tense. You have to wait in an unfamiliar place with nothing to do.

Then surgery.

Then you have to hold your terrified child as they come out of the anesthesia. Then wait a while until they are ready to go home.

In an attempt to keep Chesson calm through all of this Keith came up with a song that has become part of the family repertoire.

(Sung to the tune of "If your happy and you know it.")

If I stand on my head you can see my purple pants.

If I stand on my head you can see my purple pants.

But if I sit up tall and put my dress down low

I can wear purple pants and no one ever knows.

The dancing bunny is the best part. Chessy was still a little loopy when they got home from the hospital and showed us the song. The hysterical giggling was about the funniest thing I've ever seen.

Song of the Week II/Oh Henry!

Thomas and Estella performed in their school talent show today. So choosing the song of the week was a no brainer.

Unfortunately I can't load the video onto my blog, so you can't see how cute and funny my kids are. However, it saves you the discomfort of watching my wobbly, blurry video. (The autofocus was having a hard time.)

The song is "There's a Hole in the Bucket."

This song is a conversation between "Henry" and "Liza" over how to fix a hole in a bucket in order to haul water. It is also a circular song, meaning that the end meets back up with the beginning and if you wanted to you could just keep on singing all night long.

Click here for a link to the words. http://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/theresaholeinthebucket.htm

And here's a great recording of the song by Henry Belafonte and Odetta

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlICWoBb5Ik&feature=related

We picked this song for several reasons

• It had two parts and there were two kids involved
• The verses flow logically from one to the next so it's easy to remember the words
• There is good comedic potential
• It isn't by Taylor Swift (Ok, we like Taylor as much as anybody, but she is pretty popular in elementary school talent shows.)

If anyone really wants to see the video, let me know and I'll email it to you.

Song of the Week

Several weeks ago my good friend and her family were visiting. We talked about all the wonderful things she has accomplished while staying home with her nearly nine children. Most days I'm glad if everyone has food to eat and clean clothes to wear. There must be a place for me to participate in the rest of the world, to have a part of my life that is independent of my offspring, to maintain my skills, to have something to look forward to and work towards. It's a lofty goal. I'm not such a lofty person. So Keith suggested the song of the day on the blog. I'm not really sure how that works out yet, but I know that everyday is a bit much, so here it is: the very first song of the week.

I was thumbing through a very old song book I picked up at the thrift store for a quarter called "The New Blue Book of Favorite Songs" published in 1941. It's not very PC. Some of those Steven Foster songs have different words than I remember. You certainly wouldn't want to try to perform many of them now.

Eventually I came across a song that I had always sung like this: da da da da da da da da all through the night. Da da da da da da da da all through the night. etc

Not very interesting lyrics really, but it was all I knew. So I was glad to read the whole song and now I will share it with you. The title of the song is (surprise, surprise) All Through the Night by Harold Boulton and the melody is an Old Welsh Air

Sleep my child and peace attend thee All through the night;

Guardian angels God will send thee, All through the night,

Soft the drowsy hours are creeping, Hill and vale in slumber steeping,

I my loving vigil keeping All through the night.

While the moon her watch is keeping All through the night;

While the weary world is sleeping All through the night.

O'er thy spirit gently stealing, Visions of delight revealing,

Breathes a pure and holy feeling, All through the night.

For anyone who still happens to be reading here are some ideas for using this song with your family.

• Ask children to hold, or pretend to hold, a baby doll and rock it gently to sleep as you sing.
• Discuss whether the song should be sung loud or soft, fast or slow. (It is my experience that some smartalec will want to sing it loud and fast. Go ahead, it's kind of funny and illustrates the difference really well. After that you will have to sing the baby back to sleep again.)
• The ending phrase "All through the night," is repeated three times in each stanza with the same melodic line. Children will catch onto that section very quickly. Invite them to sing it with you each time it comes around. (Then they can sing the song just like I did for the last 30 years.)
• The first, second and last lines of each stanza have the exact same melody, but the third is different. To help children recognize which phrase is different create a long flowing movement for each phrase. Use the same movement for phrases that are the same and a contrasting movement for the one that is different.

So sing your baby a lullaby tonight and stay tuned for more fun songs to share with your family.

Happy Mother's Day

I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat:

I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me:

I was sick, and ye visited me:

I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,

ye have done it unto me.

Matt. 25:35-36, 40

Love and gratitude to all you moms out there.

Thirsty?

I came into the kitchen this morning and there was Chauncey standing by the fridge, cup in hand, trying to figure out the water dispenser. He looked up at me as if to say, "See how smart I am?" (The water dispenser on our fridge is considerably lower than most. Just right for the ambitious preschooler.) The camera wasn't handy, but boy was he cute. I helped him get some water, then pushed the child lock button.

Ah Michigan

This morning we went outside to take Chesson to preschool.

The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the snow was falling and the thermometer read 10 degrees.

The kids sure enjoyed the foot and a half of snow and the two days off school last week.

Alicia spent one afternoon creating an Aztec temple out of cake. It took three boxes of cake mix, a few graham crackers and a lot of icing. It was delicious. Notice the snake decorations along the sides. This is very authentic. However, we decided not to try to make the gargoyles that go with them.