May 19th, 2009
I heard that.
Yep, you just did it.
I caught you.
Don’t try to deny it.
What? You don’t know what I’m talking about? You didn’t even notice?
That’s where I was just last week. And last month, and so many other times that I can’t even keep track. Every time it happened, I didn’t even realizing what I was doing.
I can tell by your blank stare that I’m going to have to clue you in. Are you ready for the big revelation?
You were singing “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” Not just singing. Jammin’ to the music while you were driving down the road. Making every single noise like you were channeling your inner farm animal.
I must say, you are a pretty convincing pig.
Please don’t take that personally!
I can’t make fun of you too much, because I myself have rocked out to kid music only to arrive at my destination and realize that I had a rare moment of driving–get this–sans kids! And I had just wasted it. I could have listened to anything I chose, and now the opportunity has passed.
It doesn’t happen very often. Most of the time I let the kiddos choose the music. Some of it I enjoy, others not so much. I have my favorites. So do the kids.
Luckily a few CDs are on both lists. Praise Baby is one of them. We all love the music that is on the Praise Baby CD. It is so calming and geared for the kiddos. But there’s a secret.
It’s also perfect for the parents.
Some days the only praise and worship time I get is while listening to a Praise Baby CD, or watching a Praise Baby DVD. It is so refreshing to my spirit to spend that time renewing my mind and soul, even with kids in the car, or while doing the dishes. I can tell a big difference in my day and my attitude when I have had that time to spend in praise to my God.
Even if it’s while listening to or watching a “kids” product.
Do my kids love it? You better believe it! And I can rest in the knowledge that they are filling their minds and souls with lyrics and music that edifies them. That teaches them truth. That shows them they are special, fearfully and wonderfully made, and that there’s a God that loves them and has a plan for their lives.
And I don’t mind filling my mind and soul with the same goodness.
Even if I’m belting it out while at a stoplight with no kids in the car.
Even if the lady next to me is watching!
You can read more posts by this author at http://savoringthemoments.blogspot.com.
May 6th, 2009
Here are the ten winners of our real-live, grown-up music giveaway - as determined by our trusty friend random.org.
9 - melanie
10 - Aubrey Ash
12 - Jenn Hughes
13 - Sherilyn
16 - Trish
19 - Amanda
35 - Kayla
36 - Amy
47 - Julie Davis
92 - sara l.
Winners, you’ll have an email from me shortly - and thanks, everybody, for your participation!
April 26th, 2009
Yesterday my husband, little boy and I were driving home from a soccer game, and somehow the subject of music came up. After we talked for a few minutes about some of our favorite songs, my husband and my son started singing a song that they listen to on their way to school in the mornings.
I had never heard the song before in my life. Needless to say I felt terribly left out of their musical fun.
Oh, I kid.
Anyway, once they finished their impromptu medley, my husband asked me what A. and I had been listening to on the way home from school in the afternoons. I rattled off the names of five or six of our favorite Christian artists, and then we launched into medleys once again.
You may have picked up on the fact that in our house, we like to sing.
This morning I’ve been adding some new music to my iTunes, updating my iPod and basically indulging in some serious musical geekiness, but I was struck just a second ago by how GRATEFUL I am for the abundance of Christian music that’s available to us. When I was growing up the options were a smidge limited - but now those options are wide open. There is edifying music for every age and stage of life, and I am so, so thankful that there’s a six year-old in this house who has learned countless hymns and praise & worship songs just from riding around in the car with his mama and daddy.
That can’t be a bad thing.
I have ten real-live, “grown-up” CDs to give away - music from some of the greatest contemporary Christian musicians out there (Casting Crowns, Third Day, etc.). This is music you can listen to with your kids in the car, but it’s also music you’ll love listening to when your kids aren’t in the car. And if you’d like to win one, just leave me a comment and tell me the name of your all-time favorite band. So simple.
This giveaway will be open until Sunday, May 2nd, at which point I’ll select 10 winners randomly.
Thanks for participating, everybody!
April 22nd, 2009
In this home, we like to dance.
My twin sons are two years old, and they have an uncanny grasp of rhythm. Therefore, they dance. They dance to fast music. They dance to slow music. They dance to commercial jingles. They dance to the thumping bass of a passing car. They dance to the hokey farm-themed twang of their Old McDonald See ‘n Say.
They dance to anything.
You’d think my husband and I would be long past our delight at this phenomenon. You’d think we would be immune to the cuteness that is a chubby, stumbly toddler bending ever so slightly at the knees, sticking out his booty, and quickly bobbing up and down to the beat of whatever song is filling his brain. But we aren’t, and after nearly a year of seeing this sight repeated time and time again every day, we still laugh, point, and take pictures.
So, needless to say, music is pretty important to us. Thanks to the beauty of downloadable digital music files and radio station podcasts, we have just about any and every song imaginable at our fingertips, and we do our best to put together playlists of songs that especially appeal to our boys. We even have a special playlist titled “Jack’s Dance Mix” for those particular times when music is the only thing that will soothe the savage beasts.
We also rely on old school technology, namely vinyl record albums. We buy musicals (chief favorite: Fiddler on the Roof), fast Irish reels, visions of pop from yesteryear (more favorites: Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson), roaring cathedral hymns, and old kid-themed albums. Baylor and Jack already, at their tender age, know how to lift the lid off of the player, insert an album oh-so-gently, close the lid, and press the “start” button.
And as soon as that needle hits the grooves, they’re off, swaying to the rhythm.
Rarely a moment goes by that the soundtrack of our life isn’t playing in the background. If the playlist stops, the boys rush over to the docking station, reaching as high as they can to fiddle with the resting iPod. If the record runs its course, they risk raising their mom’s ire by deftly lifting the lid of the player, seeing if they can’t flip Thriller over themselves.
Why music has manifested itself as such a continual, necessary presence is beyond me. I didn’t really think we were a constant music-listening sort of family. Sure, I’m musical. I’ve been playing the piano for nearly 20 years, so naturally I am sensitive to good music. And their dad intentionally seeks out new, indie labels to support, so we have always listened to offbeat bands. But now that we have children, music is ever-present, a constant companion, a vital component and vivid thread in the tapestry of our days. We are learning to be sensitive about what we choose, to expose them to only the best, and to instill in them a love of what they are hearing.
And if our eternal reward for such careful choosing is the presence of two grooving boys in our midst, then we have done a good thing. A very good thing.
You can read more posts by this author at www.keepingupwiththecases.com.
April 14th, 2009
I was over 30 when we discovered we were expecting our first child. With eight years as children’s pastor, countless hours of babysitting, and an elementary education degree under my belt, I was convinced that I knew what to expect when it came to having kids. Sleepless nights? Check. More cluttered house? Check. Tighter budget? Check.
I discovered early on that all my experiences had not prepared me for at least one mainstay of motherhood: guilt. It set in almost immediately: Did I have enough folic acid in the early weeks, before conception? And continued each week: Too much sugar. Not enough vegetables? Month after month: Too much weight gain? Not enough? Then in the third trimester, I had high blood pressure, followed by preeclampsia and induction. The questions gnawed at my mind: What could I have done differently? Was it my fault? Results from the newborn screen revealed a rare metabolic disorder that required us to feed our son soy formula, so I was thrust into the emotional debate of bottle feeding versus nursing but with no choice in the matter…just more guilt.
I struggled over so many decisions as a new mother. So imagine my relief in finding an area of mothering that was completely guilt-free: Praise Baby. What a blessing! A friend loaned us our first Praise Baby DVD, and I was in awe: beautiful worship music with pictures of God’s creation. There was nothing to feel guilty about!
We have played Praise Baby music and videos now for all three of our children: through sleepless nights, in the van, throughout the day. I listen as the older two (and sometimes even my husband) sing the songs and our baby calms and goes to sleep. I know I am reinforcing godly principles and instilling a musical and theological heritage. And I have never felt guilty about it — not once.
April 8th, 2009
This post is about indescribable grace, both the song and the concept, but it is also about the saving grace of music.
This post is about indescribable grace, both the song and the concept, but it is also about the saving grace of music.
April 17 will mark the one-year anniversary of our son’s arrival. His crazy, serendipitous, and unexpected crash- landing. Luckily everyone survived, although there have been moments (that sometimes lasted days) when I wondered if I would make it. Garrett was just past two when he skidded into our lives, a physically beautiful child – angelic beauty – but his soul was deeply buried beneath five different foster homes and two re-tries with the birth mother in the previous eight months.
When 2008 began my husband and I launched into our what we thought was our journey to adopt an infant from Ethiopia. We hired an adoption practitioner, started filling out the endless reams of paper work and we were one visit away from finishing our home study – thinking that approximately 12 months later (March of 2009) we would be in Ethiopia picking up our child!! - when our adoption practitioner sent us a note she received from a private adoption agency about a 27 month old bi-racial little boy who had just come into their care. That was March 5. On April 17 we signed the adoption papers, and Garrett was now our son. We had high expectations, unrealistically high expectations.
We really didn’t understand how wounded he was from those eight months. We didn’t expect the days of tantrums, irrational behaviour, the lashing out at us, the fear. But you know what the saving grace was………music. He came to us with literally dozens of CD’s that his birth mother played for him. Without fail, regardless of how horrible the day might have been, at naptime and bedtime we would put on his music, crawl into bed beside him and he would snuggle up and fall asleep in our arms.
Now the Praise Baby Sleepy Time Lullabies is our favourite. Indescribable is my favourite song because the joy, the grace, the happiness of our family is as Indescribable our Father in Heaven.
You can read more posts by this author at www.daklife.blogspot.com.
April 6th, 2009
Last week was our Spring Break, and I was bound and determined to get out of town for a few days. My parents have a condo in Florida that they graciously offered us for the week, and I immediately told the kids that we had plans for a few days in the sun and sand. We think of their place as our “home away from home,” and we started planning all the things we wanted to do while we were there. It was going to be a blast. What I wasn’t counting on? Going it alone! My husband is a wonderful man…an awesome friend, partner, father, spiritual leader, and provider. It turns out he had too much going on with work to take any time off (I’m considering that a blessing in these hard economic times)! At first I considered bagging the whole thing, but I couldn’t bear telling my 3 kids that it wasn’t going to happen. I prayed about it, and had a peace that going it alone was better than not going at all. Hey, at least it would be a change of scenery and a great excuse to not have to cook or do laundry! There was no turning back!
As I was packing, my greatest fear became the long ride down. I had never taken such a journey all by myself, and I was anxious about driving such a distance (not to mention the inevitable squabbles, frequent pitstops, and tears). I filled my front seat with loveys, snacks, movies, and various other “toss-able” entertainment items, and off we went. We did pretty well on the first leg of the trip, and after a brief stop for dinner, we slipped into PJs and fastened our seatbelts clutching our blankets and pillows (well, everyone but me!). The kids were sleepy and I decided to slip in my new Praise Baby CD to set the tone. Let me tell you, that turned our simple car ride into one of the greatest bedtime devotions we have ever had.
We are new to Praise Baby. I never knew about the music when my older two were little, but my baby girl and I have been listening to it together over the past couple of months. She adores any music, and is especially drawn to the sweet Praise Baby melodies. I thought the older kids would find it “too babyish”, but I was amazed when they immediately started singing along. They recognized the familiar songs from our own worship experiences and the “adult” versions they had heard on my iPod. They started asking questions and asking me to “play that one again, Mommy!” We talked about the wonders of God, and Lucy even made up a few motions to go along with her favorite parts. She made me promise to choreograph an entire song once we got home! On the dark, windy roads of south Alabama, we talked and said our prayers and just listened. Before long they were all fast asleep. It was then that I had my own nightly devotion and I praised my Father in Heaven for giving me these precious souls. I thanked Him for the opportunity to teach my babies about all the wonderful things He has done for us and I was so thankful to have beautiful music to help illustrate His love for them. I look forward to having a “captive audience” again soon…with the sound of Praise Baby filling the air.
You can read more posts by this author at http://holdituptothelight.com.
April 2nd, 2009
When I found out I was pregnant, of course I just assumed there was one baby. Because, really, who just has two babies on her own, with no medical assistance. So at 10 weeks, my OB performed an ultrasound. I’ve seen pictures of other girlfriends’ ultrasounds before, and I knew that the “black hole” was the baby. Looking at my ultrasound, I saw two black holes, but really, I didn’t think anything of it, until my doctor said I was having twins.
Two babies.
You must be joking, I thought. Actually I did ask her if she was sure. Then I asked her to look around and see if she found anything ELSE!
So as the days and weeks went along, the shock wore off. At 19 weeks I had another ultrasound and we found out we were having two boys. This was quite amusing to me, as I’m a girly girl. I took ballet for 13 years, I don’t play sports, and I like pink. Boys, what was I going to do with them? God was showing me His sense of humor here, I was certain.
In two months, those little boys will be three years old. I can’t believe I just typed that. THREE!!! God has blessed me with two sweet, very loving boys. He has also given me much grace to get me through the hairy times that come from two children the same age. One of the great things about this age, is they have very good memories. My boys pick up a song or can memorize a story very quickly. It just fills my heart with joy to hear them walking around the house singing “Jesus Loves Me” or “Go Go Joshua,” or “The B-I-B-L-E”, or any of the other praise songs they have learned. They LOVE music! We have a CD player in their room, and instead of playing “Wheels on the Bus” or “Ba Ba Black Sheep” (which they really do love), they usually request “their” music, which is just fun children’s praise music.
I didn’t have the Praise Baby CD when my boys were infants, so I don’t know how an infant reacts to it. But I can tell you that when I am at my wits end, and facing a dirty house that needs to be whipped into shape, I pop that into the CD player as I scrub the kitchen floor, and instantly I’m in a better mood.
You can read more posts by this author at http://2arebetterthan1.blogspot.com.
April 1st, 2009
Music is such an important part of our family’s life. I’ve been a singer for many years and my husband is our church organist. I always say that it’s awesome having a built-in accompanist!
From the time our daughter was born, we have sung to her and played music. When she was a tiny little thing, she could scream at the top of her lungs for a long time…we hope she was getting her lungs warmed up for being a singer later on! We would sing little made up songs to her and play lots of Christian radio and classical music to calm her down, and often it worked. (When it didn’t work, it gave us something to focus on while she screamed!)
Now that she’s a bit older, she is showing a definite love of music, something that thrills her father and me. She’s learned the sign for “music”, but even when she doesn’t do the sign, she makes her desire for music very clear – as she points emphatically to the CD player! And the dancing! Oh does she love to dance! She seems to have a sense of when to bounce to a quick song and when to sway to a slow song.
We still play a wide variety of music for her. (Classical seems to be best when she’s tired and fussy.) We picked up a Praise Baby CD on a whim at our local Christian bookstore a few months ago and were hooked. The quality of the music is great and the songs are some of our favorites from the radio and church.
There is nothing like watching our sweet little girl dance to praise and worship music like what is on the Praise Baby CDs. It is a true joy to see and to know that the words of these songs are being planted deep in her heart. Music is so powerful and its memory is so lasting. It is a special thing to be able to worship our Lord together as a family through Praise Baby music.
You can read more posts by this author at http://www.faithfamilyandfrugality.blogspot.com.
March 30th, 2009
I remember rocking my daughter in the NICU when she was three days old. We had just learned that she had a heart defect, and I was singing to her,
