A Young Musician In Action

As I mentioned last month, Matthew is having a love affair with the soundtrack to "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." We've had my parents' video of the production for several months because Matthew watches it almost every day. I'm pretty sure they're not missing it, it is a much higher caliber performance than "Bob the Builder" or "Jane and the Dragon" and is only about an hour long so I don't feel like his time is terribly wasted if I let him indulge.

Matthew has always been a singer (He started humming in sacrament meeting when he was three months old and by the time he hit one year the bishopric was hard pressed to keep from bursting out into gales of laughter at his exuberance.) and lately most of his singing had been either "I Love to See the Temple" or "Joseph." One day when he was supposedly napping I walked by his bedroom door and heard him belting out "Go Go Go Joseph!" And later on when he tried to convince me that he had actually slept, he wondered why I didn't believe him. I've been trying to get him to sing for the camera, but he is also going through a stage where I absolutely cannot take his picture unless he is completely unaware. He will seriously put his hand in between his face and the camera and tell me he can't do that right now. All he needs to do is learn to say "Talk to the hand!" and he will have his teenage attitude down pat. But last week I managed to sneak up on him in one of his very serious "Joseph" singing moods and capture some of the performance. He did catch on partway through and I had to quickly duck behind the cabinet so he would continue, but I managed to squeeze in a bit of on-screen time:



He got smart before too long (notice him eye balling me as he hums the introduction) but I was lucky enough to catch a bit of an encore as well:




(FYI: The book he is flipping through as he sings is the hymnbook. He would watch the music and sing for awhile, then flip the page and keep going.)

I Thought Hobbies Were Supposed To Be Relaxing!

I just finished reading a book that left more unanswered questions than answered ones. When I realized I was at the end of the book, I thought, “Huh. That was a pretty stupid ending.” About two seconds later, while reading the author’s information on the back flap, I discovered that there were no answers because this book was the first in a series. Blast!! I hate it when I inadvertently read the first book in a series of which none of the other books are written. And it happens way more often than I want it to. I know that the authors and publishers do it on purpose to make your emotional well being dependent on reading (and buying) all the other books, but I think they take it a bit too far. I mean, Robert Jordan stretched his Wheel of Time series for so long that he died before he finished it. I can just imagine him on the other side laughing at all the folks who actually made it through first 11 books as they blanched when they realized he had passed on without giving them any answers whatsoever. Luckily for them, the publishers knew an opportunity when they saw it and employed another writer to write the conclusion. I’ll bet they’ve been laughing all the way to the bank for the past 20 years. They really should put a warning label on these books. Seriously, just slap a big old sticker on them: “WARNING!! This book is the first in a series and unless you want to be seriously put out when you realize that the other seventeen books in the series have not been written yet, you should put this book back where you found it and walk away as quickly as possible. I mean you!! Step away from the book!!!”

Highly irritating. I need a new book to read. One that actually ends.

Do I Really Want To Educate My Children?

I have no idea what they were talking about, but I overheard Nathan tell Daniel the following: "The Scientist way to say butt is rectum."

{sigh}

The Next Generation of Model Makers

Kev and the two older boys have been working on airplane models lately. They all enjoy it and it is something they can all do together. With Dad, Daniel and Nathan all working on models, Matthew was bound to want in on the action. So Kev bought him a snap-tite model and let him go for it. To say that he enjoyed himself would be a bit of an understatement.

The Right To Bear "Fire" Arms

The Pyromaniac:

The Fire Dancer:

The Air Traffic Controller:

Mother Nature Getting In On The Action:

O Beautiful For Spacious Skies

One side of our neighborhood is bordered by farmland and as I was driving past the fields today, the grain (I have no idea what kind, but I know it is grain of some sort. Yes, I am a city girl.) was beginning to turn from green to a beautiful golden color. The wind was blowing fairly vigorously and I just have to say that it did in fact look just like "amber waves of grain." Made me feel all patriotic. And grateful for the fact that I live in this country because even with its flaws, there is no place better.

It’s A Bird! It’s A Plane! It’s A . . . Rubber Band?

In our pack, the cub scout leaders have a tradition of rotating through each of the scout derbies (pinewood derby, space derby, rain gutter regatta) so that each boy will have a chance to do all of them during his time in cub scouts. This year was the space derby and since this is a derby I had never seen before, I had no idea what to expect. Neither did Kevin or Daniel. But let me tell you this: space derby is tons of fun!

As with all derbies I've witnessed, there are some rockets that definitely have a lot more parental work than cub scout work but Daniel's is not one of those. He did it all (with instructions and supervision, of course) and was mightily proud of his creation.


The rockets have propellers that send them flying across the room on fishing line and the goal is not to go the farthest, but to get the most points. Each section of line is given a point value and the boys try to figure out exactly how much to wind their propeller to get their rockets to stop in the highest point areas.

(Daniel's rocket in action)

Instead of doing elimination rounds like in the other derbies, each boy gets two practice runs and four real runs and points are totaled up at the end to find the winners. I loved this since I know it can be discouraging to spend weeks working on a vehicle only to be eliminated after one run. Broken rubber bands are common and a hazard we were well warned about. In between his third and fourth runs Daniel replaced his rubber band five times. He was a bit bummed but it all turned out okay. There were three winners from each den rather than just three winners from the entire pack and Daniel took first place in his den! He was very surprised . . . and pleased, of course.

Rewriting the Lyrics

Lately Matthew's favorite music has been the soundtrack to "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." He listens to it multiple times every day. Now, I don't mind this too much since it is about fifty billion times better than listening to the Wiggles or Thomas the Tank Engine songs over and over and over. It doesn't make make me crazy, make my head ache, or cause me to bleed from the ears as some tunes can. He has listened to is so often that he can (and does) sing almost the entire thing. It is pretty entertaining. As he was singing along this morning, I heard him belt out the following line from "Joseph's Coat": "I look handsome, I look smart, I am a walking Walmart." Apparently he has no frame of reference for a "work of art."