Tuesday 4 The Music of Home

 The Music of Home

Hello again! You are very welcome here at Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.
From the play Greenwillow comes the song The Music of Home:

Tis the music of home
The music of home
Full of wonder as angel song
All the music of home
Thе music of home
Singing, "Home is wherе I
Belong"

There is a music to home.. let's talk about the music in your home.

1. Was home always your safe place? Or did it leave a lot to be desired? What would improve the music in your home today?

Yes, the home I grew up in was a safe place. I am very thankful for the home and parents God gave me.  

What would improve the music in my home today?  Hmmm, well, I am not really sure how to answer this...my hubby and I are both very musical in our minds and hearts. We don't play instruments, but we love to sing.  My hubby tends to always be humming some kind of tune, many of which he actually creates.  I wish that I had kept a tape recorder going throughout our life together, because he often comes up to me and says, "Listen to this song that I just made up".  Sometimes he gets me in on it by teaching me the harmony while he hums the melody that he just created.  Sadly, they've never been recorded or written down, and so they are all long gone by the next day, or even the next hour.  But to have music constantly flowing in one's heart and mind is a lovely thing, don't you think?  I am not creative like he is, but I do get a lot of music "stuck in my head" throughout the day and often find myself singing tunes we are practicing in the choir at church, or something I might have heard on the TV or radio.  However, we really don't listen to the radio much anymore. I find it too distracting to the real music that is all around us.  I don't think I answered the question about what would improve the music in my home today...

2.Do you like coming home at the end of a day? How about when you were a kid?

Oh, yes, "there's no place like home."   When I was still working I couldn't wait to get home every day, even if it did mean I would have to get to work cooking and/or cleaning and taking care of the house and family, but still, it was home and there's no other place I'd rather be.  When I was a child I also loved coming home. After school I could be free for a while to run outside and play or stay inside and play...however, of course there were always "chores" and homework to take care of, but still, I was at home and happy to be there.

3. What is the music of your home? How would you describe life in your home growing up.. in the middle of your life and right now? Is there a song that might fit your home?

Picture above: At my family home with my family. If you notice the clock on the mantel behind me (in the middle), that clock was the backdrop of "music" every hour in our home.  No, it didn't play the Westminster Chimes or anything else so melodic. It basically just sounded out the number of hours in a most loud and awakening way...especially during the night, but it was a sound of home.  I miss that old clock today, but thankfully my niece Sandy in North Carolina has it at her home and she treasures it. Some time ago she sent me this video of the clock chiming at 3:00!  I'm glad I found this to share with you today.

To describe my home growing up, I would have to say that it was a pleasant place to live. Even though we didn't play musical instruments, well, I take that back...my parents bought an electronic organ when they retired and they enjoyed playing it...as did all of the grandkids:

Our son Scott playing the organ at Grandma and Grandpa's house

And playing it again later, when we were packed up and moving, hence all the boxes in the background...he still plays it today. It is in his bedroom here, and that is the first place he goes when he comes home to play music that he makes up as he plays. It's actually very good, and again, I wish it was recorded.

Back to my original home, our family did love to sing...well, at least my parents and my sister and I did. My brothers weren't really into singing, except on Christmas morning when we lined up by age, (me as the youngest got to go first!)  in the hallway and had to sing Jingle Bells before we could enter the living room to open gifts...but anyway, my parents both sang in the church choir and my daddy also sang in a Barbershop Quartet and chorus.  My sister and I both sing in our church choirs to this day.  At our home it was a requirement to watch "Lawrence Welk" on Saturday nights. LOL.  Oh, and my mother did take violin lessons and really wanted to be a violinist, but she never really progressed very far in that desire, except for a recital or two. My dad loved music and had quite a large record collection, which he enjoyed playing until he was too old to manage it by himself.  Then we watched a lot of "Gaither Homecoming" programs together up until his very last days.  He loved gospel music.  So yes, music was a big part of my home growing up.  

As I said earlier, my hubby and I both enjoy singing and used to do a lot of solos and duets in church during our younger days. Now I still sing in the choir, and hubby and I still do an occasional duet.  I wrote about the first day we met HERE a few years ago, when we sang the song "Getting to Know You" to each other. We discovered then that we both loved music and it seemed to set the tone for our whole life together.

A song that might fit our home is "Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine"...Most people know the chorus as "This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, all the day long."    This little magnet on our refrigerator reminds me of that song every day:

My favorite t-shirt speaks to this theme:  "The earth has music for those who listen"

4. Like a symphony, home has it's ups and downs as the picture to the side illustrates. What are your homes best ups and worst downs?( stories of happy times, busted water heaters, goofy things that have happened, etc)    

I loved that picture at the beginning of the woman locked outside her front door in her nightgown, with the newspaper and milk, calling to someone to come and open the door for her!  I can well imagine such a crazy thing happening.  As far as stories of goofy things, happy times, etc., gosh, where do I begin?  I may not be able to answer this in one post, there's been so many.  Instead of trying to answer this, I will just post a link to one funny story that I wrote about many years ago HERE, entitled "alarms-sirens-whistles-bells-and-things that go bump in the night."     That's the best I can do without writing another whole book! LOL.    

Yes, all homes do have their ups and downs, and I can attest to the fact that we have had our share of them, some funny and many not so funny. But through it all God has been with us, walking beside us, before us, and often times carrying us.    Since this is about music, here is a great song to sum it all up: Through it All, by Andre Crouch, sung here by CeCe Wynans and Andre Crouch.  

You can join in with Tuesday 4 HERE