"My heart will be blessed with the sound of music..."

The Sound of Music is on, so I, of course, turned it on in Mommy's apartment for her. This was always her favorite musical, and she played the record of the sound track on the stereo all of the time. She sang the songs, and made them our lullabies.

One time as we were watching it and singing along, it came to the line in I Have Confidence: "A Captain with seven children, what's so fearsome about that?" and she turned to me.
"A Captain, and seven children... why didn't you kids ever learn to sing?"

She has trouble following the story, and says it's almost like the original (which it actually IS), but no matter how confused she is about it, she always remembers the songs.

We watch and sing along, and for a while, at least, it is a calming influence on her- taking her away from the nagging questions that plague her: "Where do I sleep? Do the kids have school tomorrow? Where am I going? Why is this dog in here? etc."

It is fascinating to me, yet not altogether surprising, that lyrics and music are one of the last things to remain familiar and comforting... like a lullaby... and your mama rocking you to sleep.

"What's for supper?"

Last night I made spaghetti for supper. This announcement is usually met with great enthusiasm, but I got the response that every mother dreads: "We had that for lunch." (Of course, the boys agreed that it was still good, because they love their momma's spaghetti - sweet boys!)

I remember helping Mommy, in the afternoon before the older kids came home from school, begin preparations for supper, usually baking a cake or stirring the Jello, for the night's dessert.

When everyone got home, someone would invariably ask, "What's for supper?" and, whether she had made meatloaf, goulash, tuna-noodle casserole, shrimp curry or chicken tetrazzini - whatever we were having, be it mundane or extraordinary - someone would say, "We had that for lunch!"

To which Mommy replied, "If I said we are having 'Pheasant-Under-Glass', one of you would say, 'We had that for lunch!'."