Bits & Pieces

This weekend was just one of those weekends that I love. Pretty much it consisted of lounging around the house with the kids, playing, sleeping, relaxing, and just doing whatever. Over Winter break I got into a bad habit of staying up into the wee hours of the morning and then sleeping really late, and somehow I've managed to slip back into that. Tonight is Sunday, which means tomorrow will bring the start of our regular weekly routine. :( I really don't like getting up early.

Friday I went over to Sara's house with the kids and played Scrabble with her while the kids played around the house. Then we laid them all down and watched Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns. This the second movie of his I've seen, with the first being Why Did I Get Married. And they are all absolutely wonderful, I plan on just buying them all for my library. You will laugh, you will cry....they're great. Rent them. Watch them. It's worth it.

Saturday I slept way in, and of course when I finally got up my daughter was telling me it was okay, I should go back to sleep! Of course, she's only 8, but if she could run the house I think she would. The rest of the day consisted of me putting off my homework (mistake) and getting nothing accomplished--not even laundry (second mistake). That will mean that this week I'll be trying to squeeze it in with work and school. Shoot. Out of all the household chores I do, folding and putting away the laundry is my least favorite.

Later that evening the kids and I watched An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong before the kids went to bed. You'll want to check out the following post related specifically to this movie. After the kids go to bed is usually my time to do whatever I need to do in peace and quiet, whether it be read, study, do homework, mess around on the computer, whatever. It's really my quiet time. So Saturday night, although I'd intended to finish my homework, I sat down at the computer and checked what I normally check. MySpace. Email. My blog. Twitter. Some of these are time wasters, but the common thread they all have is connecting in some way to other people, which I never consider a waste of time.

Anyways, somehow I mosied over to YouTube and was listening to music when I happened upon a song that brought back very special memories from my childhood, so I figured I'd share it here. I was blessed with a mom that loved music, ever since I can remember. She sings, plays guitar, piano, congas, you name it. That must be where I got my love for music from. Although I don't play any instruments (yet) I do love to sing. Well anyways, there are certain songs that are very special to me because they are songs that she used to sing to me and my sisters when we were little girls. I want to learn them on guitar so I can sing them to my children, too.

The first I want to mention is called Would You Lay With Me, which I believe was originally sung by Tanya Tucker. You can listen to Johnny Cash sing it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laBTtJJxCnw Although my mom of course sounded more like Tanya than Johnny, it's closer to how she sang it and played it. There's a few other video clips for the song as well, one with Tanya Tucker singing the song set to a clip from the hit TV show Lost. I don't watch Lost, but included the link just for kicks. You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJCL-YMPza8 Watching the clip makes me want to watch the show.

The second song that I found was by sheer chance. I wasn't looking for it this time, although I had before on the Internet to no avail. The song is called Sentimental Ol' You, a country music song from the 70's or 80's that was originally sung by Charly McClain. I found two clips. One is of this random guy singing it and playing it on his guitar, and the other is a hilarious clip of a bunch of New Zealand people line dancing to the song. It's pretty gosh darn funny, here's the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2_H1yNGyCY According to my mom, I was only four when I had all the words along with my own motions down pat.

Another song that takes honorable mention on my list of memories is a song titled Mary Ann. I could only find two, count them, two, links on the net in reference to this song. One is just the lyrics through this folk song website: http://ingeb.org/songs/mary_ann.html The other is lyrics with a really funny calypso instrumental version of the song that you can listen to here: http://www.btinternet.com/~groeswenphil/Calypsos/calypso1.html Trust me, the song is a lot of fun when done just acoustically. One thing I noticed is that neither of the links had the verse that my mom taught us, which goes like this:

Oh Mary Ann, Oh Mary Ann, oh won't you marry me?
I'll build you a bamboo hut with brandy in your tea.
Keep your mean ol' momma home, she never will say yes.
If my ma don't know now, she can guess.
If my ma don't know now, she can guess.
All day all night Mary Ann, down by the seaside siftin' sand.
Even little children love Mary Ann, down by the seaside siftin' sand.

Sunday went much like Saturday. I ended up sleeping in, only this time on accident. Missed church. Then spent literally the rest of the day doing homework while the kids did activities around the house. But, it was a very productive day. The only bummer was I had to miss the run I had planned with Sara since I'd put my homework off the day before. Darn it. I will make it my goal to not do that again. All in all, though, it was a great weekend at home. There is no time more well spent than time spent with family and friends.