Joyful Noise

With both Daniel and Nathan away at school, the house has been quieter than it has been in years. Yes, Matthew and Malia make their share of noise, but with just two of them bouncing around the house, the noise level is automatically diminished. Factor in the piano and the saxophone, and the decibel level around here has been markedly lower. I appreciate having a quiet house on a regular basis as the quiet gives me a chance to gather my thoughts and mentally rejuvenate but having all the big bodies and the accompanying big voices and big noises around has been nice. Malia has been looking forward to a joint Chicken Invaders game like they played last year and that was most definitely not a quiet way to spend an afternoon. There was much laughter and conversation involved and I believe the quote of the hour was uttered by Daniel: “Matthew, I can’t see past your bacon!”

It makes me smile to hear my four kiddos laughing and joking together. While they all have their moments when they need a break from each other, they do actually get along pretty well nowadays. Having Daniel and Nathan staying here only periodically means the opportunities to get on each other’s nerves are greatly diminished. Add to that the fact that it takes a lot to ruffle Daniel’s feathers and his personality is naturally non-confrontational, and the presence of the college kids has been really nice. It has created a buffer zone of sorts between Matthew and Malia so that they get a bit of a break from each other. Like all siblings, the times when they get along are peppered with moments of conflict and adding the two older boys back into the mix changes the dynamic. There has been a remarkably small amount of bickering today.

There is also music. Oh, how I have missed the music! Matthew plays his trumpet and Malia is just starting to pick at the piano, but the days when I was bombarded with a cacophony of sax from one room, piano from another, and the trumpet interspersed are mostly gone. Daniel practiced for a couple of hours yesterday and it made me smile. Even the scales. Nathan sat at the piano and sight read through a bunch of music this morning and that was wonderful as well. The three boys all got out their instruments after lunch today to arrange some joint music numbers for our gathering with Kevin’s family on Saturday and it made me so happy to hear them all playing together. Malia has been learning to play the ukulele at school this year and Nathan got out his ukulele for her so she could add to the music as well.

As I ponder today on how thankful I am for the multitude of blessings that are mine, the joyful noise created by my children is a concrete reminder that of all the things that fill my heart with gratitude, my family is right up at the top.

Turkey for Breakfast

I’ve never made Thanksgiving themed pancakes. I don’t know why since pancakes are one of my fun food staples, but it just never occurred to me. For some reason Thanksgiving has been overlooked in all my themed food endeavors. Maybe it’s because I’m so laser focused on pie that I don’t think about anything else. Of maybe it’s because food is such a huge part of the holiday that I never thought to branch out from the traditional offerings. But whatever the reason, Thanksgiving has been sadly overlooked where fun food is concerned. This morning was flex Friday which meant Matthew and Malia didn’t have to go to the actual school building, so it seemed like an opportune time to rectify my oversight with some fantastic turkey pancakes. No, they did not have any actual turkey in them. That would be…weird. And a fine way to ruin a perfectly good pancake. Unless it was a potato pancake or a crepe and then maybe…but I digress. Turkey pancakes. Good times. Gotta love fun food. 😊

Honor in the Honor Band

 The return to a more normal school years means the return of a variety of opportunities for the kids. For Matthew, the latest opportunity was the chance to play in the district honor band. The most skilled students from each middle school in the district were invited to participate. Most of the music was learned on their own and after just a handful of rehearsals, they kids were able to perform for a live audience of their families and friends. Matthew was super excited to be invited to participate and had a fantastic time. He neglected to tell us that he was give the honor of being first seat in the first trumpet section, but I’m so pleased with the work he has put in to be able to earn such a position. It was a great concert as well. The kids did a super job!

An Old Favorite

In the last little bit, Kevin and I have realized that as our youngest child, there are a lot of things we haven’t done with Malia. Activities, outings, disciplinary tactics, etc. that were commonplace when the boys were all young were left by the wayside as they grew up. As the youngest by a pretty big span (there are nearly eleven years between Daniel and Malia), Malia has missed out in some ways due to that mental “moving on to a new stage.” Once we made that realization, Kev and I have been working to fill in some of those gaps.

When the boys were young, the zoo was one of our favorite places for an outing. Malia has been to the zoo on multiple occasions, but it has been a while, two and a half years in fact. I like to blame a pandemic for part of that, but the other part was the waning interest of the boys. When family outings occur, Malia has gotten outnumbered, and we have ended up going other places. The last time she got voted down we ended up in a trilobite quarry, which she enjoyed, but she was really sad about not getting to go to the zoo. Knowing Malia didn’t have school today, I put a trip to the zoo on the calendar. Matthew still had school and Kev had work, so it was a girls’ day out.

Going to the zoo with a ten-year-old Malia was calmer than our trips were of old. I didn’t have to run to keep up with a pack of little ones with miniscule attention spans, tell anyone to stay with the group, or prevent anyone from climbing into the bear habit. We shunned our traditional route through the zoo and wandered wherever Malia’s interest took us. We saw all the animals, but we did it in a different order. She still got to ride the carousel, which she has always loved. We saw the rhinos closer than we ever have in all our myriad of previous visits. We also caught a glimpse of a one-month-old Colombus monkey and got to see another young monkey lose its balance and fall off a branch which was super cute. We wandered past the sea lions just at training time. As we’ve discovered in the past, the animals are more active in the cooler weather than in the heat of the summer which made for a fun morning.

Taking a step back to have these adventures with Malia is good for her, but it’s also good for me. Sometimes I get too caught up in the whirlwind that is life and taking time to smell the roses (or the rhinos, which is not nearly as pleasant from an olfactory standpoint) is a blessing. Having adult children comes with its own set of challenges and being able to take a morning returning to an old favorite gave me a much-needed bit of calm. Malia loved it too. And we got to stop at Crown Burger for lunch on the way home which we could never do when Matthew was with us.

I think we had better plan more of these outings because as I well know, before long she’ll be too old to spend a morning with her mom talking to the animals.

First Pie of the Season

Last year we ate pie for FHE throughout the month of November rather than only eating pie on Thanksgiving. Our reasoning was that we could enjoy all the flavors of pie we like the most without feeling like we needed to eat our way through a dozen pies in one weekend. We enjoyed that change in routine so much that we are repeating the experience again this year and I suspect it is here to stay. Malia had the honor of choosing the first flavor of pie which means that the top of our apple pie was adorned with dragons. It looks lovely. FYI-cookie stamps work great on pie crust!