if someone snuck into my house under the cover of darkness and absconded with my kitchen cd player, i would never cook again. as i see it, kitchen music has a twofold purpose:

1. to focus children’s boundless energy on hilarious and frenetic dance moves so that parents can get dinner on the table…

2. and to drown out endless screeching requests for dora gummies and other persistent high-pitched pleas.

without further introduction, i present to you dancing in the kitchen volume II. may your evenings be full of music and meatballs, wine and the weepies. bon appetit!

for those of you who missed dancing in the kitchen volume I last march, it is available here.

so sorry for the infrequent posting lately. i am spending the month of july in the mountains with my family.

besides the fact that it takes longer to connect to the internet here than it does to put a hyped-up almost-four-year-old to bed, i keep getting lured away from the computer by scenes like this:

i will return to my regular posting in august, but until then, please nominate yourselves and others for my “mothers of invention” feature. the questionnaire and my email address can be found in the sidebar to your right.

also, we’ll kick off the upcoming school year with a second volume of the “dancing in the kitchen mix.” if you have music suggestions that are upbeat, kid-friendly, and do *NOT* lend themselves to saccharine and mind-numbing hand motions, please send them my way!

i’ll be using this blog break to brainstorm about future post topics and other creative ideas for this space. please feel free to make suggestions regarding future content.

hope to hear from you soon!

check out the MakeShift revolution’s dancing in the kitchen mix, volume 1, designed to make the pre-dinner scramble just a little less difficult. just add wine (for the adults) and bad dancing (for all) to your cooking/ordering out process, and you’ll be well on your way to putting a meal on the table with a smile!

by way of a testimonial, i tried this last night and both of my kids gave me five whole minutes of tail-feather-shaking peace. i was able to chop a red pepper AND an onion while my children swayed to the not-so-subliminal message from di anne price that spinach really does taste good if you allow it to “grow on you.” then, when the whining started (sparked by the bird’s komikaze pantry-emptying techniques), i simply turned up the volume and enjoyed a little old time bluegrass.

if you contributed suggestions for this masterpiece via facebook, thanks so much for your ideas. if your suggested song did not make the cd, that’s because

 a)      i have embarrassing memories of making out to it when I was in seventh grade

b)      my dad played it over and over again in the car on family vacations*

c)      an annoying boy I knew in high school ruined it for me with his constant disco moves

d)      your suggestion sent me down the i-tunes rabbit hole, and I emerged with a different but related song…or…

e)      i stayed up too late memorizing all the words to your suggested song at a slumber party that became really un-fun once I learned that window-unit air conditioner had leaked on my sleeping bag.

bring on the suggestions for volume 2!

*yes, i know i am perpetuating this cycle. when my children are 33 and wasting their time on itunes, they will probably avoid my carefully selected kitchen music!