Weekend recaplet and music to clean up by.

We spent Saturday getting things done around the house, up to (and including) a monthly trip to Sam’s for various and sundry things. Sunday was an all-day Catholic scouting retreat at the local BSA mega-complex. I think we were one of only 2 families from our parish/pack, but the boys (and girls) all seemed to have a great time and the weather was gorgeous.

I’ve now popped twice off the stack and am reading the latest issue of The Atlantic, which is their 150th anniversary issue. Lots of interesting little bite-sized essays from all over the place on The American Idea. When this is done, I’ll go back to First Things. When that’s done, I’ll go back to Mansfield Park. Unless…

We saw Children of Men over the weekend, and are now keen to read the book as we’re reliably informed by reviews and such that the original book was considerably different. One of the chief complaints was that much of the religion had been stripped from the story. Our opinion was somewhat different – the religions symbolism seemed pretty heavy to us, but then again we’re seeing it without the benefit of the original . Elements of Luke’s infancy narratives were pretty overt to us. We may have to revisit our opinions after reading the book.

I don’t have any nifty food stories for you, so I’ll share a parenting tip that works really well for us: a soundtrack for clean-up time. We have a playlist set up in iTunes (though you could just as easily do this with WMP) called ‘clean-up’. Lots of fast, catchy songs that get their little feet moving with a quickness. It’s gotten to where simply getting to hear the tunes is motivation enough to start picking up. It helps that the PC is in our family room, where we can quickly fire it off when things get too cluttered. I used it last night with the oldest kids and we folded a mountain of laundry in no time at all. Downsides: the smaller ones will only want to dance. Which is sort of funny.
In any case, here’s a partial playlist. Feel to copy, use and alter at will. Nearly all of these should be available from iTunes, or watch them free below. The links go to youtube videos.

1. “Numa numa (Dragostea din tei)” by O-Zone
2. “Africa” by Toto
3. “Jive Talkin’” by The Bee Gees
4. “Stayin’ Alive” by The Bee Gees
5. “The William Tell Overture” by Rossini
6. “Around The World” by Daft Punk
7. “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” by Daft Punk
8. “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash
9. “I Walk The Line” by Johnny Cash
10. “Get a Move On” by Mister Scruff
11. “Don’t Bring Me Down” by ELO
12. “Ballroom Blitz” by The Sweet

The list is actually considerably longer, but I should really pare it down to the tracks above – they’re all the kids ever want to hear while we’re tidying rooms or folding clothes. Shuffle and go!

Updated with numbers 11 and 12. Can’t believe I left those off.