Friday, April 22, 2011

Band practice on 3 hours sleep

This was not a good idea. I had to stay up late last night - into the morning to finish working on some photos for a client. Meeting this morning was at 7:30am. Kids woke me at 6:45 anyway though.  Spent the morning (after the meeting) creating logo designs for the Ghost Monkeys. Then Took a run with Elaina as she rode her bike. It was the fastest 3 miles I know that I have ever run in my life. Chasing your daughter on her bike is great motivation to run faster! I'm never quite sure she has the wherewithal to stop in time at the intersections, or slow herself down going down the hills. So I like to stay close. Today, that meant running super fast and getting super muddy because it had rained, and if you have ever run behind a bike as it rolled right through the puddles, you can imagine what I looked like at the end of this exercise.  After the run/bike I crashed on the sofa watching 2 shows totaling 45 minutes.  Then I headed to the music store to acquire the band microphones and all that goes with microphones for a 10 yr old's band. Heads up to anyone considering this - it will not cost under $140.  But we needed microphones. So, I headed to my neighbor's with all the band equipment and began the challenge of setting it all up, connecting to all the amplifiers, tuning all the guitars. Try to imagine tuning an instrument of a child who has not practiced his guitar enough to know it is out of tune while someone is "tuning" his drums, someone else is "tuning up" on his bass, and a 3rd person is also messing around on his out of tune bass guitar. Oh, and imagine trying to keep patience while doing this after having had 3.5 hours of sleep. Ya, it wasn't happening. I threatened both of my sons during band practice today. I write this not to dwell on something negative, for as I said, I want to keep my blog while real, not whiny. But I think it should be noted that things which are important to us, cause us the most grief at times. We care about them, so we stress about them, want them to be the best they can be...and yes I am talking about the Ghost Monkeys! I think these Ghost Monkeys have potential. Potential for good music, potential for real learning, potential for real friendships, and also potential for some real fun. It is for this reason, because I care, that I get frustrated when it now and then gets a little off. And also for the reason that I had no sleep. The good news is this; all are excited about the logo and t-shirt design, and in the end the boys were playing music together, in rhythm, and pretty much in tune ; ) 

There was a study done that's findings were apparently that couples without children are "happier" than couples with children. If this study was done with the idea that to be happy means less stress, less work, less tiredness...then yup, I guess they are  happier. But if happiness means to have someone in your life so important to you that they are worth the stress, work and exhaustion, than I strongly disagree with the study. When we work for something it means so much more to us, brings us so much more happiness than when it comes easily. Yes children are work - and worth working for.

2 comments:

  1. I've done that exact same thing with Jacob and his bike...and yes, I always end up running faster than I would otherwise. He can ride fine, just can't stop his bike without falling or jumping off. Today we worked on stopping and putting a foot down. I don't quite get why this part is so hard, but we're working on it until he gets it down so we can ride our bikes TOGETHER (and I don't end up having a coronary chasing him!)

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  2. A similar study found grandparents to be the most happy. I guess God makes us go through the stress and "unhappiness" to get to the really good stuff : )

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