To say that music is an important part of life at the Gudahl house would be an understatement. I was raised in a home that was perpetually full of music from parents who valued music both for entertainment and for education. Every last memory I have is tied to a song, an artist, a genre, a feeling.
I will never complain about a house full of music. When the kids were very young I introduced "Dance Party Cleanup" into our evening routine. I would blast loud music in the house and everyone had to pick up an item one at a time and dance it over to where it belonged. The kids were so silly, moving and grooving their toys to the toybox, and as long as I was participating, cleaning up our small messes was never much of a chore. Eventually we bought Just Dance for the Wii and learned some actual moves so we could hone our dance party skills. Some of my favorite memories are doing the four-person choreographed moves to Taio Cruz's 'Dynamite' and One Direction's 'You Don't Know You're Beautiful.' Emma, Carys, and Cooper threw their whole selves into learning those songs and we often danced it out when one or more of us was having a particularly bad day. (In case you're wondering, Aaron was not a participant in any of the dance parties, though he often clapped at the end of a particularly graceful performance.)
When they got older and were given the opportunity to take choir, they jumped at the chance. And when they were invited to learn instruments, they went all in, as my kids seem to do. Emma picked up the french horn, the trumpet, the mellophone and the cello. Carys chose the flute and the cello. I was feeling a little like our plates were pretty full already when she announced that she wanted both piano and percussion lessons as well. We got the piano lessons going...still contemplating percussion. (I don't have room for a drum set!)
Cooper has rather grudgingly attended a multitude of concerts and recitals declaring he would "NEVER" play an instrument because concerts were "BORING." He usually brought a book and read quietly in the auditorium during his sisters' performances. But a little nudge from the one and only Judy Berkeland sent him home bright and shiny this week declaring he too would be a cello player. I tried not to say 'I told you so' but I may have smiled a little smugly as he skipped away. (By the way, if I have 3 cellos in my house, do I get a discount, or what?!) He hasn't gone to the Intro to Band night yet, but I would bet dollars that he comes home with an instrument preference there as well. It is hard not to get on the bandwagon. The music programs here in Fairmont are thriving, and it is certainly due to the powerful and talented women who run them.
In the midst of it all, we play vintage vinyls on the record player, jam in the kitchen to whatever pop music has caught Emma's attention this week, and sing along loudly in the car every morning to whatever we can find on the radio.
This morning an April snowstorm began brewing in the early morning hours. I was up early, listening to the Indigo Girls in the kitchen maybe a little too loudly while I unloaded the dishwasher. I heard one of the kids padding downstairs, picking up the chorus line almost instinctively. And later when they were knocking out the weekend chore list, it warmed my heart to see Carys choosing a playlist from my phone. Then I was thoroughly entertained by Cooper who was belting out every word of Imagine Dragon's 'Believer' while he folded laundry. Complete with awesome dance moves .
