It's The Music That Does It

As soon as I heard the music, I knew what was happening. Blaring from the upstairs speakers was something from (I think) Pandora, while the voices of small children piped down from the landing.

"Grandma!! Grandpa!! You're back!" (we had been gone two hours - but time stretches out when you are little!).

Down the stairs they streamed, the 4 year old girl in a pink and purple princess dress. "What have you been doing?" Grandma asked.

"Mommy has the music up LOUD and we are PACKING!" they shouted.

"Some moves are especially sweet":

First Home Buyers    

Up LOUD, huh? Well, that sounds familiar. I was taken quickly back to the years their mother and uncle were growing up. It was Spring Break, which meant five days of - who-knew-what? It was lovely to be off school for a week, but not so lovely to figure out what to do with two energetic kids who weren't old enough yet to drift off alone. So what to do?

Early on I had come to my own conclusions that five days of a loose-end was not all it was cracked up to be. Nope, too much of that kind of 'vacation' often created mischief. I needed something that would help them have fun but also some satisfaction.

I came upon the perfect solution: SPRING CLEANING. The house certainly needed it. What an inspiration! But instead of all day every day, I decided on this plan:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/clevercupcakes/3041280560/

• four hours of daily work from 8am to 12noon
• they could choose the music and turn it up as loud as they wanted, with no complaints from mom.
• they would report for 'work' at 8:00 sharp, and look at their job list
• fights or complaints would add time to the workday
• they would be fed sumptuously at 12:00 sharp
• they could do ANYTHING THEY WANTED UNTIL DINNER! (within reason, of course)

They reported. They set up the music. They read their lists. And then at 8:00 on the button, the music suddenly blared, and the scrubbing began. Four hours of work? That's quite a bit to get out of a kid every morning. Apart from a short break at 10, nobody stopped. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tgilheany/9153849022/

Every evening I adjusted the lists, and things got pretty seriously clean around there. You know how dirty windowsills can get? The trough the window rests in that gets grimy and is hard to extract? They got all the windows and troughs clean! The floors vacuumed! The cars spotless! Toilets gleaming! THE SILVER POLISHED!!

All the things I don't really like doing, they did. And it was fun - at least for me it was fun. And they seemed to be having fun, too. I think it was the music. There's something inspiring about LOUD.

And that is what was happening today. They are moving to a new house, so a lot of packing and organizing is in the cards. And kids are all part of the agenda. As a wise man once said, there must be something to gain, something to lose, and an element of fun.

But it sure helps if they like the same music you like. Otherwise? EARPLUGS.

See you along the way!

the SconeLady

photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tgilheany/9153849022/">Terence Gilheany</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>

photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/clevercupcakes/3041280560/">clevercupcakes</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>