That would be Elder Son, more or less performing Silent Night on the cello before the assembled masses of parents at the School Awards ceremony this morning. Poor little bugger: he's got some kind of cold/throat lurgi, and he's mostly lost his voice. I promised him we could scarper immediately after he did his gig, but shortly after I arrived, one of the teachers quietly nixed that plan. Apparently they had an academic award to give him, so he had to stay.
Happily, he shared the award with his very best friend, so a happy ending came to all. Except me, of course. Because the full award ceremony went for two hours. Sigh.
Tonnes of laundry have been done, and I've officially farmed out the job in the future to the boys. Elder Son will gather laundry, load, operate and unload the machine. Younger Son will fold and sort clean, dry loads. They'll both score 50c for such operations, which should work out okay, since we've got a moderate-sized front-load machine, not a monstrous great toploader.
Of course, I'll still be dragged into the hanging up and taking down bit of the process, because the clothesline is a bit too high for the kids. But at least it throws some of the responsibility onto the little barstewards. Let's see how much dirty laundry they generate NOW, eh?
Dinner is almost prepped: twice-cooked baby taters, and chicken stuffed with sundried tomatoes, onions, and home-made meatballs (leftovers from a barbecue the other day), slathered with tomato paste and basil (stuffed in under the skin and all), wrapped in a big dough sheet and slow-baked; fresh garden salad. Of course, I won't be eating because as soon as Natalie or the babysitter gets here, I'll be off to sword training.
Never mind. We're getting closer to the end of the year every day.
Nice to see he's got the bow right so he didin't lose control of the cello.
ReplyDeleteAlso glad to see you're instilling a bit of the protestant work ethic into them!!
Sod the damned work ethic. I'm tired of doing all the bloody laundry, and I'm sure they can cope with it. But - yeah, I'd rather they put in some effort for their pocket money. They're old enough now to do a bit of personal spending; they might as well place a value on it.
ReplyDeleteWhat you need is a good Catholic work ethic. Play and play and play and when you feel guilty about it, confess.
ReplyDeleteOh how I look forward to the day I can farm out some of the household drudgery to the shorties.
ReplyDeletei think the evidence of success for s kids recital is if you can easily identify the song being played, and of course is was easily recognized - the cello is a little bit bass for playing that song solo so massive props to him for doing it and pulling it off.
ReplyDeleteUamada... you've had experience of kids' recitals, I see!
ReplyDeleteJen -- I'm trying to rediscover that particular work ethic, thanks. But my family has the inconvenient habit of starving if I don't handle meals, and they start to smell if I don't keep up with laundry and cleaning.
He's quite good!
ReplyDeleteAdam's right-sometimes the kids don't quite get the tune right-though they're better with musical instruments than I am. Your boy sounds good on the big fiddle!
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit surprised you haven't farmed out more of the chores to the kids. It's good for them, though.
Subzero (f) right now in northern Wisconsin. Now, aren't you sorry you left?
And smelly, starving doctors do not engender confidence.
ReplyDelete