1) How about a vocabulary lesson for those of you with teens?
Princess Dawdle: Hey, we should make up a rap.
Ladies Man: Want me to lay down some fat beats?
Say what? I was clueless, but Princess Dawdle knew exactly what he was talking about.
Princess Dawdle: No. I'll do it. You do the words.
Immediately she broke into beatboxing, the art of making sounds like percussion equipment, that often involves a lot of saliva spraying (just my observation . . .) and gets old fast to mature ears. So "fat beats" are a teenager's efforts to sound cool while spitting on their neighbors.
To be fair, however, I must add that my kids aren't too bad at it. Ladies Man is especially good, although I'm not sure I'm a trustworthy judge as I often retreat to my office while he's practicing. Mature ears, you know.
2) Last Friday night our girls basketball team played in the state tournament and the student body was to dress western. Ladies Man takes on any challenge to be creative and decided to try his hand at making some chaps. He found a pair of "ladies pants" at a thrift store, cut them apart, attached the sleeves from an old long-sleeved t-shirt, and cut the sleeves into strips for the fringe. I was impressed.
Ladies Man tends to be a detail kind of person so he created a belt buckle with their school logo as well.
Then he added a thrift store vest, shirt, hat, boots and bandana to get this finished product. Giddy up!
3) I spent a little one on one time with Drummer Boy this week. This rarely happens as our schedules never jive and when he's available we ALL like to see him. But I was thrilled for a little time to talk about life and to make sure he ate (A mother's urge to keep her offspring fed never goes away, no?).
Later he sent me a sweet text that zinged straight to my heart. No matter how old my kids get, my heart will be tugged by them. I know lots of people gripe about technological advances taking away from real connection, but I find it helps my communication with my kids. Mothers never get tired of hearing, "Love you" in any form.
4) I've been feeling like a very lame cook lately, tired of the same old things and wanting to shun the task altogether. I used to be a good cook, really I did, but lately . . . big, fat, fail. I decided some new recipes might get me going again. I don't have to stress about what's for dinner if I plan ahead, right? I pored, and I mean PORED through recipes online and found a few we really liked this week (I was 3 for 3. BONUS!). But my biggest discovery was a site called ZipList.com. There's a "clipper" you can add to your toolbar that automatically clips the recipe from any site and puts it in your recipe box. I can also generate a shopping list (organized into food categories for easy shopping) from whatever recipes I choose and alter it according to what ingredients I already have at home. Very cool. I love this site! It may be just the thing I need to bring new life into my cooking rut.
5) Princess Dawdle participated in National History Day. She spent MONTHS working on this display about the History of Film. She presented the information as if it were a silent movie--a picture, then the caption explaining it. Very creative.
She decided to add a little pop to the presentation and made her own "camera" and screen which displayed a picture of Harold Lloyd, a famous silent screen star who happens to be from our area. She installed a flashlight to make it look like it was projecting the image.
I was proud of her hard work and creativity. Nice job, babe!
6) Ladies Man took part in a barbershop chorus workshop and got hooked. Can you see how much fun he's having in this photo Drama Queen took "like a boss"?
Although Ladies Man was completely enamored, his sisters weren't quite as impressed.
Princess Dawdle: It was good, I guess, but why did I keep feeling like it was something I'd see in Napolean Dynamite?
7) We end today's takes with Kevin's Korner:
Someone shared something with me today that I found humorous but the more I think about it I wonder if it is something I should be concerned about. Our youth pastor was talking with one of our dads who told him when he goes out to the gun range to practice shooting he calls it "shooting the choir." There is a perfectly good explanation. The targets he shoots, which are in the shape of people, make different pitched noises as they are shot, so in essence I guess they "sing" when they are hit. My guess is they are made of metal and would create more like a sound an instrumentalist would make or better yet a percussion instrument. So my question . . . why doesn't he call it "shooting the drumline?" Okay Drummer Boy and Drama Queen don't jump down my back, it's just a thought. I have a feeling the drumline is much cooler than a choir so no one would dare shoot them or maybe it's just because they have that scary drumline face when they play. Any way you look at it, it can't be good. Hopefully my choir and orchestra don't play in a way that would cause anyone to shoot at us. I do think we are past that level of playing . . . yes, I am very confident we do more than simply make noise. So please remember the next time you go out. Don't shoot, I'm just the piano player!
Keep Kickin' It or should I say Shootin' it!
And that's it for this Friday, friends. Enjoy your weekend. Kick start it by reading more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.
No comments:
Post a Comment