Finding our Rhythms as a Family

As in most families I’m seeing ours where we’ve established some unplanned but definitely a pattern of rhythms, or traditions you might say.

Our family is not necessarily “musical” like you might think a pastor’s family would be. That’s pretty much my fault all the way around because Randy, the hubs, has a great voice and can follow music well. Me on the other hand? Not so much. My worst nightmare was having to sing a scale for my teaching music teacher in college. She looked at me and said, “Let’s try that again.” We did. And we did it again. And again. Until she felt bad for me and simply checked it off as having completed it. I won’t remind you of the fact that I lip syncing my way through teen choir for four years in a row just so I could see that cute pastor’s kid that I was falling in love with.

So as you can see I bring nada to the music table. But now Sophie and Mitch can sing well and they enjoy music, each having their own style of music they prefer.

Over the last 7 years we have found out that our home has the perfect dance floor in the foyer. It’s wide and has room for tumbling and breakdancing (cue 80’s playlist…and another broken leg)

Some Friday nights we put on play list and go crazy breaking it down in the foyer. Nobody can take the dance out of me when the bass drops. I’m not saying it’s a pretty site or anything but I can’t help but move. What I didn’t realize until recently is that apparently when our front door is open at night with the front porch railing lights on and lights inside the house you can see everything from the street. We were at a recent community event and a lady came up to us and said, “Yeah, I saw your daughter just dancing away the other night as I drove by your house.” For reasons clearly stated we now make sure the front door is closed when spontaneous dance sessions break out in the foyer.

In the last few months our kids have faced some pretty basic but real nonetheless heart breaks: break ups, mean kid comments, making poor choices, etc. And there’s nothing better to lighten the mood after a listening ear and affirmation of the pain than to play some appropriate songs that speak a message. And even though we know sarcasm is not becoming I will admit we use it sometimes in our household. So when Mitchell’s girlfriend broke up with him the night we were decorating the Christmas tree we all had a good rallying together and expressing our sympathy. Just being there ya know. Then all of a sudden we eerily hear from the other room “Hello” by Adele start playing. Because you know it just seemed perfect. Sophie secretly decided it would be an appropriate song for the night. We all started laughing hysterically. Even Mitchell.

Fast forward to a rough day at school this week where some careless comments were slung around and aimed directly at the heart. Adding to the crummy day were injuries and dropping things and spilling stuff. Over dinner said victim shares what went on. Not much advice was shared in that moment just listening and validating, “yeah, that stinks.” Big brother and Dad may or may not have devised a hypothetical torture plan. And then suddenly out of nowhere we hear “Bad Day” start to blare. Randy snuck that one in on us. It was time for comic relief. We all laughed and then it led to more songs. In fact Randy dedicated one song he sang in his head. No words came out of his mouth but he head-sang the entire “Fight Song”. It was an epic, you-just-had-to-be-there, moment that had us cracking up and quite alarmed all at the same time.

We’ve been married for 24 years and my man still won’t dance with me. I try about twice a year to get him to but still he won’t do it. Last night I tried again. He wouldn’t do it so what did Sophie decide to play? Well of course “Shut up and dance” It brought the roof down – on all four of us at the kitchen table.

So yeah, I’m seeing the rhythm of music playing out in our household on tough days and even good days where you just need to “C-e-l-e-b-r-a-t-e Good Times….” Come on!